Izu Gourmet Guide: Tim and Karen's report Shimazu -Kaiseki@Numazu-

I am an Australian who has been lucky enough to live in Mishima and Numazu for nearly 4 years.
I was given the chance to sample some of the areas first restaurants and would like to share my experiences with you.　I went to only Japanese style restaurants in the hope to introduce this unique, traditional and delicious style of restaurant to people from all over the world.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
‘Shimazu’ is situated near Senbon (one thousand tree) beach, about 10 minutes by car from the South side of Numazu station. It commands spectacular views of Suruga Bay and offers a dining experience that will surely be memorable for all the right reasons.

Upon our arrival on a rainy Sunday evening we were warmly welcomed and ushered into an extremely private room with seating for 6, overlooking a rather stormy but intriguing Suruga Bay just about to plunge into darkness. The waitress asked for our drink orders and also kindly checked to see if we had any allergies or couldn’t eat anything in particular as we had pre-ordered the 6,000 yen sushi kaiseki course.

Soon after our drinks arrived so did the first dish which was seared tuna (cooked like a rare steak) with yamaimo- which is a type of yam, and grated wasabi. Yamaimo can be a little confronting to foreigners as it is a gooey, stringy white substance, but it has a nice mild vegetable taste and it complemented the tuna well.

Next was shirasu (baby sardines) topped with ginger and spring onion, served in a bowl made from a whole piece of bamboo.

The fish looked like they should still be swimming – they were so fresh it made me comment that they almost allowed you to ‘taste the view’ due to their delicate salty and deliciously fresh flavour. It is worth noting that the waitress could not have been more helpful, and while she didn’t use English, she explained things very clearly in slow, simple and easily understood Japanese.

We were also served by a waiter who took this helpfulness to an even higher level by actually having a piece of paper with the English translations of the fish in our next dish, which was sensational sashimi.

Overall, the service had the perfect balance of politeness and friendliness. The sashimi was presented like a piece of art, and consisted of shrimp, tuna, scallop, herring roe, flounder and yellowtail. The tuna was as good as any I have ever tried, being soft and succulent. The scallop was also superb. I found the flounder to be a little too chewy for my liking, but it too was extremely fresh and delicious. The herring roe had an interesting crunchiness to it and went well with the shiso leaf it was layered with. The shrimp were also excellent, being sweet and creamy rather than gooey as they can sometimes be.

The next dish was a somewhat unusual cold soup-type offering with more yamaimo and sea urchin. It was served on ice and was actually quite pleasant with a mild fishy flavour, but my companion said that the dish took her ‘out of her comfort zone’, which could mean that it would be a little strange for Western tastes.

The plates that the dishes were so artistically presented on were a mixture of very traditional Japanese and more modern Western style, giving the impression of an interesting fusion of East and West cultures.

Our next dish was again beautifully presented, with tachiwo (knife fish) served in jelly, grilled Suzuki (sea bass) and green peas.

The jelly had a surprisingly strong but delicious flavour and the sea bass was excellent. I am not sure if it was just because it was cooked, but it was so moist, succulent and delicious that I could have eaten a lot more of it. The green peas were crunchy with a slightly nutty flavour that went well with the slightly sweet sea bass and knife fish jelly.

This was followed by what is known as ‘hiyashite mono’, or chilled food, and it consisted of a boiled prawn/shrimp, pumpkin, green bean and Satsuma imo which is a slightly sweet potato. It was served with a mild fish stock and soy in a thick soup-like sauce which complemented the other flavours and was the perfect follow-up to the previous dish.

Unlike other kaiseki restaurants we have been to, the timing between courses was perfect and we never had to wait too long for our next dish, while at no stage did we feel rushed to finish the dish we were eating. Tempura arrived next and was excellent, the carrot, corn, eggplant and sweet potato were perfectly cooked – not oily, and served with a delicious salt mixture that brought out the flavour of each vegetable. It was the first time I tried corn tempura, and I would certainly like to eat it again.

At this stage our hand towels were changed prior to the next course which was sushi. As with all the other dishes, the sushi was superbly presented. It came on an unusual rectangular tray-like plate, and held yellow tail, sea bream, cooked shrimp, salmon, and tuna sushi rolls all carefully and artistically arranged on it. The yellow tail melted in your mouth, as did the sea bream. The salmon had a mild flavour and was deliciously tender and not too oily, and the salmon eggs were also not too strong in flavour or too salty. The cooked shrimp was very large and succulent. In summary, the sushi was excellent and we appreciated the relatively small size of the rice balls that the fish topped as we were both getting full by this stage.

To finish the meal we had a delicious miso soup with a seafood flavour that came from the cooked shrimp head floating in it. Finally, dessert was a tropical fruit flavoured sherbet and a blueberry mousse, both of which were light and refreshing, and an ideal way to finish a truly memorable meal.

We departed feeling full and satisfied. Shimazu has the perfect combination of excellent food, great location, good value and friendly, efficient and helpful staff, so you really should go and experience it yourself!

Shimazu
Address:1907-155, Senbon-gorin, Numazu
Tel:+81-55-963-6760
http://www.sushishimazu.com/
Budget:Lunch 3,000 yen Dinner 6,000 yen
Open:Weekday:11:30am～2:00pm,4:30pm～10:00pm
Closed:Mon.