Vivian H.
Yelp
I wanted to love this place SO BAD. I really did. It's literally 2 mins from my house and the District 121 area is SUCH a beautifully designed entertainment hub. We are so lucky for such a cool spot to be right down the road, so I'm always rooting for restaurants over there to do well. Also, I've heard nothing but rave reviews of Shoyo in Dallas and I read that Shun's exec chef and partner, is a former sushi chef at Shoyo, and previously worked at Tei Tei and Akira Back (HUGE fans of both), so I had very high expectations for Shun and was SO excited to go here for a date night.
But to say I was let down is a huge understatement. Womp womp womp.
I will say, the quality of the fish is OUTSTANDING but the dishes themselves all fell flat.
Atmosphere: gorgeous restaurant...10/10
Service: 7/10
Drinks: 6/10
Food: 6/10
- Japanese Black Manhattan (8/10) - good drink.
- Strawberry Basil (4/10) - too muddled, too sweet. Imagine trying to drink syrup from a slushy.
- Nigiri: salmon belly, yellowtail belly, amberjack, Uni (10/10) - the quality and freshness of the fish was impeccable
- Snowcrab nigiri (5/10) - would not order this again...was expecting something drizzled in butter like at Uchiko but it was plain and undressed and blah
- Salmon Yuzu mustard (7/10)- this dish was good enough...the salmon was fresh, the yuzu was tasty, but the truffle on top was completely unnecessary. It gave zero actual truffle flavor/essence so if you closed your eyes, it just felt like you were eating sashimi with a bit of dirt. Yum, right?
- Hamachi Crudo (7/10) - fish quality was great, texture of the crispy daikon and radish was a nice complement, but as a composed dish, it was lacking flavor so we added soy sauce and it was fine.
- Panseared scallop (5/10)- zero sear on the scallop. The accompaniments were good, if not a tad salty, but the scallop itself was just raw and warm. For me, the combo of raw and warm give me an immediate ick.
- Foie gras skewer (9/10) - hard to go wrong with Foie gras
- Wagyu & Uni sushi (6.5/10) - the Uni was creamy and fresh, but the wagyu added nothing. It wasn't torched/seared enough so none of the beautiful meat flavor came through...it just tasted like Uni nigiri with something chewy. For $25/ piece, this was such a massive letdown.
- Grilled salmon (9/10) - this dish was delicious. The salmon (although hardly "grilled") was buttery and falling apart and the pesto gave it a very Italian vibe. Unexpected at a Japanese restaurant, but still very good.
- Lobster Creamy Udon (0/10) - I can't tell you how unappetizing this was. The sauce was so watery that it was more like broth. It's as if someone added too much stock and did not let it reduce. I wish I could go back in the kitchen and fix it myself bc it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL, but lacked execution. Needed more seasoning and something to thicken the sauce...either a slurry or more reduction. We took one bite and couldn't eat any more. We gave the feedback to the kitchen and they offered to bring us something else but we refused bc at that point we just wanted to leave and they didn't even comp it. They had an opportunity to make it right and they failed to do so, making the entire experience all the more disappointing.
Overall, I would only recommend coming here if you just wanted nigiri and sashimi. For any dish that actually requires some thought or any kind of layering of flavors, they entirely miss the mark IMHO. We spent the entire evening wishing we had gone to Uchiko which is our usual date night spot.