Occasion: Sunday Night Dinner (and to train Paolo to eat asian food before he goes to America LOL )
Initial Impressions: The time has come. After 5 months into only Italian food, I was dying for Japanese. If you’ve been following this blog you know my caution with “Michelin guide” restaurants. Shiroya is on the Michelin guide. They do not have a star. Paolo made a last minute reservation while we were about twenty minutes away. From the outside the restaurant looks very small and I was skeptical. It was about 1/2 full when we arrived and 3/4 full when we left. Apparently there is an upstairs inside with more seating, but we were seated near the front. I would say it is a difficult restaurant to dine in as a handicapped person or wheelchair user unless you are ok with outside seating.
Once Seated: Its a very standard ambiance. I was actually very reminded of the authentic Japanese restaurants in the US. It’s modern and the tables were light colored wood with black plates and chopsticks (forks upon request). The lighting was bright and a perfect tone and intensity. The menu is available in Italian and English (but it also helps that there were Japanese names of things in English). For example karaage was called karaage and not fried chicken or pollo fritto etc. On a side note, there was like no data while we were sitting inside. There is a restroom available but I did. not use it. I will note that I did not appreciate so much the place we were sitting because it was against the wall in the corner and the way the wall was cut was at an angle, so when I sat only half of my back was leaning against the wall. Also the tables were very close together. Occasionally there would also be tiny flies/gnats attracted to the lighting against the wall and on the ceiling so it was a bit unappetizing if I thought about this for too long and annoying to swat away while eating. Hopefully they deal with this issue because they are on the Michelin guide.
The Food: I was really excited to try the food. I knew it was authentically Japanese, but I wanted to measure how it holds up compared to the Japanese food scene in Rome vs. the Japanese food scene in SoCal. Overall I would say for Rome, this hit the spot and was pretty authentic. For SoCal, the food was good but a bit overpriced compared to what I can get back home. Here’s what we ordered: Niku gyoza (Pork), Tori gyoza (chicken), Agedashi Tofu, Karaage, Tori Katsudon, Wake Udon with Tempura, Green Tea Gelato, and Nagasaki Castella.
4/5 Niku gyoza (Pork), Tori gyoza (chicken): I couldn’t really taste the difference between both lol. I think I prefer chicken (if I’m right about which was which) because it might have been the less heavier tasting one. Paolo ate this up hahaha. He loves gyoza and probably would’ve given this a five, but what can I say? I docked a star because firstly, its 9 euros for four pieces. I’m pretty sure back home I can have about double the amount of potstickers for the same price. Also the other part was it was served with soy sauce and I much would have preferred proper sauce for the gyoza or even ponzu.
5/5 Agedashi Tofu and Karaage: These were fire. I enjoyed the chicken and they served with a lemon slice and kewpie mayo. The chicken was fried perfectly. I wish there was a bit more for its price point, but I wasn’t so mad about it. The tofu was also really good, I might have preferred the dashi taste to be stronger, but I’m nitpicking. Very on par with back home. I would say these two dishes were more worth it than the gyoza. However, Paolo loves gyoza so we’ll always end up getting gyoza, karaage, and probably the tofu for myself.
3/5 Wake Udon with Tempura: Ehhh. I have to be honest with you all because it’s a food blog. This udon was good. I liked the noodles and the egg. I also liked that they gave me the chili powder thingy. However, it was too salty. Also the tempura was meh. The batter was a bit too thick and it didn’t come with tempura sauce which was disappointing. I suggest getting a different dish on the menu, or if you’d really like udon, perhaps ask for less sodium/salt etc.
4/5 Tori Katsudon: Himasei beats out Shiroya for their katsu, but this chicken one wasn’t bad. It is a tad expensive compared to back in SoCal, but Paolo ate it just fine and it was his first time eating Japanese that wasn’t the local sushi restaurant in his town owned by Chinese people or Italians. The rice was good. They were using Japanese rice. And speaking of rice, Paolo said the amount was alot and he wasn’t used to eating it, but in my opinion this was a solid dish and we ordered it via deliveroo on one occasion after initially trying it at the restaurant. And as you can see in the second photo, he finished everything anyways HAHAHA. (Don’t worry, once I post the himasei review, you’ll see Paolo learned how to use chopsticks basically).
4/5 Green Tea Gelato and Nagasaki Castela: The green tea here is a bit bitter. I actually am a die hard fan of the Rite Aid green tea and the Hagen Daaz green tea ice creams. In other words, I prefer my green tea icecream on the slightly sweeter side. I would still order this though. As for Paolo’s Castela cake, he liked it, but in my opinion it was not as spongey/bouncy or fluffy and delicate compared to the ones I can find back in the states. So yes, because the bitterness of the icecream/portion slightly and the slight denseness of the castela, I’ve docked a star.
Service: The service wasn’t bad. However, it was pretty obvious why they don’t have a star. I would also not really be surprised if they were to be removed from the Michelin guide either. The service was a bit slow towards when we were ordering desert. It took a while for our dessert order to be taken.
Payment: The total cost was 102.50. They accept American Express and Apple Pay. I think the price was decent for everything we ordered (and I did over order for us because normally we would eat only about 2/3 of everything you saw today). I really wanted to try a lot given that I’ve been dying for asian food but also because I don’t really know exactly when we will come back to update reviews given our long list of things to try. Hope this helps! I also included a photo of the delivery version of the tori katsudon!
Nicole in Rome 