Grand Opening

SHIRO’S SUSHI OPENED SECOND RESTAURANT:

The team behind Shiro’s Sushi, with a nearly 30-year legacy of serving Edomae-style sushi, opened ShoMon Kappo Sushi, a kappo style restaurant just blocks away. The 26-seat new restaurant offers an inspired, multi-course kappo and sushi menu, localized in its ingredients and chef’s expression.

The refined Japanese menu at ShoMon blends tradition and innovation infused with the virtues of Japan’s formal and elegant kappo restaurants. ShoMon integrates the rich flavor of golden, clear dashi (dried bonito flakes and kelp), the foundation of kappo cuisine, with nigiri sushi and sashimi, meat, and traditional Japanese cooking techniques passed down through the ages in a seasonal, coursed menu.

Traditionally, kappo style cuisine features ingredients that cover the landscape of Japan, from the mountains to the fields, valleys to the seas. ShoMon localizes this intent by using ingredients from Washington’s lands and waters, while enhancing the menu with premium, seasonal ingredients from Japan that are not replicated locally. The result is a menu that pushes the boundaries of traditional kappo and sushi cuisines with subtle and beautifully blended flavors and textures in a colorful, artful presentation.

The interior design is based on Japanese aesthetics that exude simple elegance with a modern inclination. The focal point of ShoMon is a 14-seat L-shaped chefs counter, traditional in kappo style dining. The tranquil side dining room will offer 12 additional seats in an equally immersive experience, with a commissioned, artisan craft Washi paper light installation adorning the wall. From the moment guests step into ShoMon they will be enveloped in the ambiance of a formal, yet subtle Japanese restaurant with features such as Sekishu tiles that create an atmosphere that evokes the feeling of authentic Japanese kappo restaurants.

As elaborate, detailed, and elegant as tea ceremony influenced Kaiseki, but far more deliberate than a casual Izakaya-style experience, the food is prepared entirely counter side, an essential set up for kappo dining, giving guests an opportunity to indulge all their senses – sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste – and appreciate both the process and the artistry involved.

The multi-course, set menu is currently $185 per person, noting a special evening of elegant artistry and premium ingredients in a refined and polished dining experience in downtown Seattle.

At the helm of the culinary team is executive chef Masaki Nishioka. Guests will enjoy a collaborative effort from the chef team, steeped in broad cooking styles and techniques, and showcasing years of training in kappo cuisine, including team member experience at a Michelin-starred kappo restaurant in Kyoto and Hiroshima. Most of the chef team has been at Shiro’s Sushi while developing the ShoMon menu for more than nine months.

To complement the cuisine, ShoMon will offer a carefully curated selection of sake, wine, and green tea, hand-selected to elevate the dining experience. Reservations can be made online at resy.com. About Shiro’s Sushi Shiro’s Sushi originally opened nearly 30 years ago as the first Edomae sushi restaurant in Seattle. It presented some of the area’s first nigiri style sushi created with local seafood, such as geoduck, salmon, clams, oysters, and Pacific Albacore Tuna. In 2007, the original chef and owner, Shiro Kashiba, passed the torch to Yoshi Yokoyama, who opened the first Japanese restaurant, Shogun House, on Main Street in Bellevue in 1981 and later, in 1986, started I Love Sushi in Bellevue, the first sushi specialty restaurant in the area.

Chawanmushi Savory Pudding with Grilled Black Cod, Topped with Caviar