VIEW THIS PAGE The diminutive Shaburi Sushi stands like a display case on Breeze Center’s ground floor, surrounded by larger restaurants on three sides and the shopping center’s makeup floor just outside of its entrance. Despite the somewhat cramped surroundings, Shaburi Sushi is neatly decorated, with a large sushi bar in the front and several tables tucked into its back dining room.
Shaburi Sushi’s menu centers around three set menus which cost NT$399, NT$599 or NT$799 each. Diners select two types of seafood from the list for each price and how they want it prepared: as sashimi, sushi or donburi (rice topped with seafood and vegetables). The most expensive set looked promising, with a selection of delicacies including premium tuna belly, akagai or “bloody clam,” barracuda, abalone and Japanese sea urchin. We selected the tuna belly and sea urchin. Our sashimi arrived promptly, but it was missing the urchin, which our waiter quickly brought over in a separate bowl when we pointed out the error.
Each set’s entree is filled out with seafood selected by Shaburi Sushi. In our case, it was slices of amberjack sashimi. The portion of tuna belly was slender — three small slices — but reasonable, considering the price of the meal, and fresh and tasty. On the other hand, the large pieces of amberjack were lackluster. Our sashimi was served on a bowl of ice, which hardly seemed necessary considering the fact that the fish had been chilled to the point that my dining companion wondered if the slices were still thawing out. They weren’t frozen, but cold enough that it affected the taste and texture of the fish. The sea urchin, on the other hand, was delicious. Each ocher-colored strip was plump and firm, and had a wonderfully sweet flavor somewhat reminiscent of honeydew. To round out our meal, we ordered a carafe of hot sake (白鶴青酒, NT$160).
Each set comes with your choice of salad (fruit, yam noodle or tofu), miso soup, white rice and dessert. Our fruit salad had slices of dragon fruit and melon drizzled with a very tangy ginger dressing and served on top of iceberg lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The dessert was a sweet red bean and black rice soup that was comfortingly warm after our very cold slices of sashimi.
The selections of fish for the two less expensive sashimi sets still look invitingly luxe: options include sweet shrimp and cobia fish (for the NT$399 set) and salmon belly, mantis shrimp and Sakhalin surf clam (for the NT$599 set). Shaburi Sushi says its seafood is flown in daily, which may explain why it was out of seasonal items like akagai by 7:30pm on the Sunday we visited.
The restaurant also serves a modest selection of sushi rolls, including California, grilled tuna and rainbow rolls, which are available a la carte or in a set meal. We ordered a rainbow roll (彩虹細卷, NT$280). The slices of sashimi on top of the row were garnished with sparkling spheres of ikura, or salmon roe, and it was filled with cucumber and asparagus instead of the more usual avocado and imitation crabmeat. VIEW THIS PAGE
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