Sanity… is for the Weak :: November

The wifey brought me out to Shibaken, a dinky little boutique French-Japanese fusion restaurant located at the Gallery Hotel. Offering two menus in a curious mix of Kaiseki (懐石) and French Haute cuisine style, we ordered one of each to experiment. Strangely enough, we were the only guests that day, so it felt like she had reserved the entire restaurant all to ourselves, resulting in extremely attentive staff and a very, very exquisite meal.

My course (Elegance - $138++) started with an Amuse-Bouche of steamed prawn shape yam from Kyoto with autumn truffle and sweet soy sauce. Light and very finicky, it gave a taste of what was to come. This was followed by the Hors d’œuvre of tuna tartare salad with poached egg, sea urchin with avocado mayo sauce, with the tuna served up in tiny chunks within the tartare instead of finely ground for that sashimi texture. Next was a Soupe Chaude or hot soup of beef consommé. Deuxième or French for the Second course was sauted langoustine or scampi with cauliflower and mixed herbs. The sauce made from the juice of the crustacean really did enhance the seafood texture of the dish. Interestingly, the Poisson or fish dish was not fish, but rather braised unagi in Côtes du Rhône red wine sauce and an absolutely delicious cream stewed porcini mushroom. What followed was another consommé of matsutake mushroom with lily bulb and chopped lotus root served in a little bamboo cup. Surprisingly, the soup has a smokey taste that went very well with the fungi, though I still can’t quite figure out how it was done. This was followed by a course of cold soba covered with grated dry mullet roe; this one came with a shot of sake that we sipped in between bites to bring out the flavor of the roe, and it was pretty good sake too! A meat dish came next, and I opted for the roasted wagyu with sauted foie gras with port wine sauce. Then, the course switched to something more traditionally Japanese, a small portion of rice cooked with snow crab meat and pickles, with akamiso. Finally, dessert was Paris-Brest with what could only be home-made coffee ice cream.

Surprisingly, the tea (a fine Ceylon, I think) served after the meal was excellent, and to their credit not the usual tea-bag and hot water combo that marred many a pleasant meal in other supposedly fine restaurants.

Highly recommended.