Shira Nui is the kind of place that is just a little out of the usual university student's awareness. I hear about Shyun, Jyu-jyu, and Waya frequently, but no one ever seems to mention Shira Nui. It's a little away from the hotspot in Glen Waverley, and it doesn't have the most appealing appearance from the outside looking in, but when I went with a few friends last year after Miss XS's recommendation, I learnt that you can't judge a restaurant by its cover either. I had the opportunity to go back to Shira Nui a few months ago with several other friends after a series of grueling Wednesday lectures (from 8am till noon), and their standard remains as good as ever.
I may have given the impression earlier on that Shira Nui is a hidden gem, but don't harbour any false impressions about its popularity. This place gets booked out on a regular basis, and fast. Don't anyhow just walk in and expect to find seats available, even if the restaurant opens at 12pm on a Wednesday and you reach at 12.02pm. Note to self: call ahead next time.
We walked in to find the restuarant already half-filled. When we told the Japanese hostess that we didn't have a reservation, her face visibly fell and she told us regretfully that they were all booked up. They take lunch reservations for 2 timings: the 12pm slot, and 1pm. After much cajoling, we managed to give her our number, and asked her to call us if someone left early before the table opened up for the 1pm reservation.
We managed to get seats around 1240 at the bar, where we watched the cooks strut their knife skills. We all ordered the Chirashi Don ($24) each, which is one of their most popular lunch sets.
The set came with Kobachi (appetizer - top picture, away) and Tsukemono ("pickled things" - top picture, foreground). I didn't really enjoy the Kobachi much, it tasted a little like a bite of spaghetti carbonara. The Tsukemono here, pickled radish was on the other hand really flavourful. Their Chawamushi was top-notch as well. It was so silky smooth, and I'll come back just for it.
The Chirashi Don came with an abundance of fish, prawns, tamago and vegs. Their Tamago was especially worth a mention, and it surprisingly flavourful even with all these meat. Where does Shira Nui get their eggs from? I need to know. There was several kinds of fish, from the delectable eel cuts, to slices of ocean trout, Kingfish and another kind of white fish*.
As we were eating, the Japanese cooks brought out a huge fish and started the process of slicing and de-boning. One of my friend enjoys fishing, and he identified the fish as an ocean trout, and not a salmon like I thought. (The meat of an ocean trout is indistinguishable from a salmon on sight, but on general appearance, ocean trouts are identifiable from a red streak running down their sides.) It seems that it wasn't salmon in the chirashi, but ocean trout - which according to him, accounted for the fattier texture and more flavourful taste.
*We asked the Japanese waitress what the other white fish is, but she wasn't sure and went to ask the chef about it. She came back and told us it was gama fish. My friend stared at her, and she repeated gama and sheepishly chuckled. Maybe she misheard? A search for gama online came up empty, but we did find saba fish, which is mackerel.
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