Shiro (white, in Japanese) opened last summer on boulevard Saint-Germain near our hotels, and their tasting menu intrigued us, partly because of its price – 79€ for six dishes. 😳

We went down to see whether such extravagance is worth it…

Shiro has taken the place of a burger restaurant (Big Fernand, but don’t be too sad – it’s a franchise chain and there are six others in Paris), and going from burgers to upmarket Japanese fusion food is quite a difference.

The restaurant’s main room (there’s a second, smaller space upstairs) is long and thin, decorated in shades of grey with touches of wood and marble. It has a certain amount of character, while still remaining pretty neutral. A choice calculated to fit with their desired clientele, no doubt.

The décor and prices give the place an upmarket feel, but some details gave the opposite impression.

For example, the plants above the bar and flowers in the main room are all fake and covered with dust (the only real plants are visibly close to death for lack of light, or water, or both). At your table, the napkins are paper rather than cloth – not super chic for a restaurant with a menu costing 80€.

Regardless of the above, our waitress was genuinely lovely with us, and knew the composition of each dish by heart, something that merits respect as you will soon understand.

We decided to go for the rather dear six-dish Omakasé menu (one of which made vegetarian, an option the restaurant proposes). In Japanese, omakase means ‘I’ll leave it up to you’, i.e. the chef decides what to serve you. We were looking forward to being surprised and hopefully amazed.

The presentation of each dish is as important as the elements used and how they are married together, but we are not going to attempt to put into words the tasting experience (it would be devilishly complicated to make a success of). However, we will be giving you details of the ingredients in each dish, and showing you what each one looked like when served.

Our first dish was razor shell (broccoli for the vegetarian version) with mozzarella and yuzu foam, ‘grapefruit suprême’, shiso (Japanes basil) jelly and sprouts. A miniature work of art – very precisely created, but miniature nonetheless.

Just as a reminder (although perhaps one shouldn’t think of cost when at an expensive restaurant) that when averaged out, each dish in a 6-course 79€ tasting menu costs 13€…

Next up, we receive:

— blowtorch-singed tuna with three different sauces – a yuzu vinaigrette, lamb’s lettuce mayonnaise and creamed yellow pepper – served with vegetable pickles, beetroot wafer slices and baby tomatoes, and

— a vegetable tartare with avocado, tomato and a yuzu vinaigrette.

Again, both are impeccably presented, but does a tiny circle of avocado count as a dish? We start to realise that although meat eaters and vegetarians pay the same for their tasting menus, the food is not on the same level for both.

Dish three arrives promptly:

— duck cooked at a low temperature, cream of foie gras, with caramelised apple and mango and blackcurrant pulp vinaigrette, and for the vegetarian…

— cauliflower soup with sliced almonds

The presentation of the duck is spectacular, but cauliflower soup seems a little ordinary for a “franco-japanese fusion” dish 😕

Also, the waiter got the two dishes mixed up, placing the meat in front of the vegetarian, and when we told him he looked slightly annoyed and said “You could have swapped them over afterwards!”. This remark did not please us at all.

With only a handful of tables occupied in the restaurant, and only two people at our table, a restaurant that believes itself to be of a certain standard should know who is to be served what, and understand that vegetarians don’t particularly enjoy having meat placed in front of them. 😡

We are now halfway through our meal. It’s been gorgeous to look at, but the vegetarian options have left us a little bewildered.

The penultimate savoury dishes arrive:

— A bass filet, with a miso and oyster sauce. Turnip, Brussels sprouts, nasturtium and two-coloured shiso leaves, and

— for the vegetarian version, in place of the fish, slices of king oyster mushroom with a Japanses sauce (?) and the same accompaniments.

This time, the vegetarian dish did not disappoint at all – both the size of the serving and the taste were perfect. The mushroom could even have fooled some into thinking that it was meat – the texture was divine 😃

And for the last dish before dessert, we were served:

— Angus beef steak, veal sauce, port and butter sauce. Jerusalem artichoke served finely mashed and as crisps, shiitake mushroom, porcini powder, mangetout and pea sprouts, and

— another steak, but made of tofu(!), with the same accompaniments.

It could be argued that tofu should be valued as much as Angus steak, but also that it’s slightly galling to pay as much for slices of mushroom as for fish. What do you think?

The time has come to taste our dessert, the same for both (no need for a veggie option here!). It’s two-vanilla ice cream (bourbon & Madagascar), with poached pear, pear crisp and cheesecake-style biscuit.

Another beautiful creation, both graphic and extravagant.

And to finish our meal we order an espresso coffee each, which arrives with complimentary cakes!

— Mandarine fruit jelly squares,

— a white chocolate and coffee macaron, and

— raspberry marshmallow.

Everything is made on-site, of course.

And so our meal and experience at Shiro – and it really was an experience – come to an end, and we are left a little perplexed.

We appreciated that a vegetarian menu was offered, but for us it wasn’t at the same level as the meat menu, despite being priced equally.

It’s also a restaurant for those who want unashamedly to splash out – our two menus, two coffees and a bottle of sparkling water came to an eye-watering 170€. You may be better off booking through The Fork, which offers 20% off the à la carte menu (but not the fixed menus, or drinks).

After less than a year of being open, it’s still early days for the restaurant, and we’ll see if they find their fans in this admittedly wealthy area. If you want to splurge and be served tiny, beautifully-presented dishes, then it may be for you. If you’re a vegetarian with less than 150€ to spend on lunch, there may well be better options.

---

Shiro (here) is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner

Tel. +33 1 56 81 91 62

Website / Facebook / Instagram

What3Words ///orchestra.pumps.cucumber

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par Restaurant Shiro (@shiro.paris)