Cuisine: Japanese
Address: 188-190 2nd Avenue (@ 12th St), Manhattan
Phone: 212.260.6303
Average entrée price: $16
Best bets: Age tofu, spider roll, sushi, almost any appetizer
For the last seven years, I have eaten at Shima more than any other Japanese restaurant, without exactly realizing it. Whenever a dining companion suggests eating south of 23rd St. and north of Houston on the East Side, I often suggest Shima. If I’m downtown and don’t know where to go, I usually end up at Shima. Considering the dearth of very good Japanese restaurants in the East Village, it’s striking that about every third Japanese meal I have in New York is at Shima.
I have grown to love Shima for several reasons, most of all for the consistently tasty and simple food that emerges from the kitchen. Never fancy, the dishes are always fresh and meet expectations. The regular menu is full of traditional comforts – sukiyaki, lighter-than-usual tempura, flavorful soups with udon or soba noodles. If salmon is your thing, the sake oyako don (literally, “salmon mother and child”) is a simple, rich and savory dish of salmon sashimi and salmon roe over a bed of subtly vinegary and sweet sushi rice. The creamy-pink slices of fish are always clean-tasting and silky.
While I enjoy Shima’s entrees, I prefer to order several appetizers for the table so I can savor as many tastes as possible. The daily specials usually include at least a half dozen starters, both traditional and experimental.
Shima also has one of the best seaweed salads I’ve tasted. Two of the three kinds of seaweed come lightly dressed with sesame oil, sesame seeds and a little rice vinegar. The third is undressed with a gingery, not-too-sweet dressing on the side. The dish can easily be split or serve as a substantial starter for one diner.
Deep fried age tofu (pronounced “ah-geh-DO-fu”) is a staple appetizer at many Japanese restaurants; however it often disappoints outside of Japan. The outer shell’s intended lightness tends to get lost in translation, rendering a delectable fried tofu dish greasy and rubbery. Shima uses lovely smooth and firm tofu in a very light tempura webbing through which the white squares are allowed to peek. The whole delicious business rests in a rich and uncluttered soy-based broth. If you like tofu (and even if you think you don’t), Shima’s version is heaven in a bowl.
The crunchy spicy tuna tartare is presented as a small mound of freshly minced and spiced tuna with bits of fried tempura batter (panko) folded in to yield the crunch. Topped with a little soy sauce, the result is a simple yet textured mouthful of tuna that is impossible to eat slowly.
All of the sushi at Shima is above average, fresh and the right size. It is still trendy at some restaurants to carve pieces of sushi that resemble small steaks. Shima adheres to the Japanese custom of using pieces of fish that can be devoured in a single bite, eliminating awkward bites and ugly blobs of half-eaten rice and fish resting on one’s plate.
The servers at Shima are solicitous and helpful. When I inquire about the seasonal uni (sea urchin), I always get a straightforward “good” or “not so good.” The primarily Japanese staff smartly realizes that if a customer knows enough to ask how the uni is, he knows enough to know when it’s bad.
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See the Add Your Own users' review of Shima.
Posted by at September 22, 2004 02:59 PM