Shoya – Chef’s Omakase

5 Market Lane, Melbourne
Phone: 03 9650 0848

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Shoya (you can read about previous experiences here, here and here).  They have often taken my breath away with the quality of their ingredients and execution of their dishes, hence the reason I keep returning. At other times, well…I am just stumped at how wrong they can get it.

On this occassion we chose the $100 Chef’s Omakase – upsold from the $85 degustation at the promise of some delectable Hokkaido crab.

We started with the unagi canape, a stunning mouthful of flavours that must be taken in one singular and mouthwatering bite.  On the bottom, a caramalised slice of unagi (eel) marinated in miso, topped with sweet flakes of crab meat, some finely sliced chilli, salty poppy salmon roe and a dirty big slice of black truffle.  Oh yes…this one was bang on right.

Also a winner was the grilled miso sea perch (which is similar in style to Nobu’s black cod with miso). It was layered with a slice of foie gras, creamy tomato mousse, a slice of sweet and umami smoked perch roe and a singular edamame.  Once again a perfect creamy combination of flavours.

One thing they do *really* well at Shoya is the sashimi, and this assortment was a study in how sashimi should be done. Sitting in an iced dome, tiles of orangey-pink salmon, deep red tuna, opaque and perky swordfish, a rosette of kingfish (with tobiko roe in the centre) and some sea urchin roe spiked with gold leaf. If it was any fresher it would be swimming and blowing bubbles in water, and each piece elicited one of those eyes-closed-savour-the-moment type moments.

This canape was unusual and teetered on the “I’m not so sure” fence, possibly because it was lukewarm verging on cold.  A spinach pancake/sponge contained a farce (fine pressed mince) of beef, topped with a slice of grilled ox-tongue. The plate was decorated with jus, edamame and pine kernals.  All the flavours were there, but it was just not right; the plate and the food were cold.

Then to the dish we were waiting for – Hokkaido crab.  The long meaty legs (these things were 30cm long!) had been mostly shelled with only the tips remaining incased, and then tempura’d in crisp batter.  Wedges of lemon and a dish of green tea salt sat to the side, perfect for seasoning.  This really was the highlight of the night. The crab meat was succulent.

Almost toro-like tuna had been rolled in shreds of nori and grilled quickly to remain pink in the centre. Unfortunately (like the ox-tongue) this dish was tepid and served on a cold plate.  As the kitchen is downstairs, I’m wondering whether it sat on the pass for a wee while?  I don’t know if it’s just me, but sometimes you can taste when food is “alive”, when it’s just been seared or grilled or dressed or prepared.  This just felt a little on the “dead” side (no pun intended).

Next up was the wagyu, which *should* have been a highlight of the meal.  It was served on what I gather was a baked sliced potato torte, which was stale, overcooked and not at all pleasant. The wagyu, grilled rare to the point of raw, was submerged in a truffle sauce and garnished with even more slices of black truffle. The elements of this dish alone would have cost an arm and a leg, yet they f#@ked it up by serving it cold!  I just don’t get it! You can see it was hot at one stage as the black tuffle slice on top had gone limp (not like the perky slices on the unagi canape). So why serve up such premium ingredients so poorly?

Anyway, it was the end of our omakase and we were onto desserts.  We had their siganture sea urchin cheesecake, which is described as a “surprise mix of fresh sea urchin smothered and cooked to make perfect and surprising cheesecake”.  Surprise! It was indeed an interesting dessert – quite unexplainable actually.  To the side was the kurogoma panacotta, or black sesame pudding covered with soy bean and green tea powder. Despite the fact it looked like a blob, and was ever so disconcerting colourwise, it tasted a treat!

So, at the end of this experience, what were my thoughts?  Well, I thought the food was hit and miss, the biggest miss being the wagyu.  The first couple of canapes, the sashimi and the crab were absolutely awesome.  I also found the presentation, while it looked a stunning, to be difficult to manage.  There were five of us eating, and some of the canapes especially were hard to pick up without ruining the integrity of the presentation.  The service on the night was also good, which is a great improvement on some previous visits.