Shoku: Japanese kaiseki in Vancouver
Earlier this year, I was invited to try Tekkaba, a new Japanese restaurant in Gastown. They featured a $78 omakase and I found it to be a quite a reasonable price for 11 courses.
This month, I was invited to try their newly opened sister restaurant, Shoku, located on West Broadway in Vancouver. Similar to Tekkaba, Shoku is a Japanese restaurant but instead of omakase, they follow a kaiseki concept. Kaiseki is a multi-course meal featuring seasonal ingredients cooked in a variety of cooking methods.
$78 pp omakase in Gastown
The vibe
Compared to Tekkaba, Shoku’s interior is much more spacious and can seat a lot more tables.
One of the first things I noticed was the grand piano sitting in the main dining area. During our omakase at Tekkaba, they had a free mini piano concert played by a lady named Jiyun Kim, who is also a Director at a non-profit called Hope For The People Holdings. I presume the piano is here because on certain nights, she will also be coming here to perform.
Our table near the back was very comfortable, with plush booth seating on one side, and 2 wooden chairs on the other. The faux marble tabletops also have some sort of setting on the side but we were not sure if they can induce heat.
The décor of the restaurant was also really pretty, with lots of art on the walls and decorative items on display. My only gripe was that the lighting was kind of dark and dim 😖.
Food review
Shoku offers lunch and dinner kaiseki with 5 steps/courses. The lunch kaiseki is $42 pp and the dinner kaiseki is $58 pp or $78 pp for the premium option. For this review, we got to try the $58 pp regular dinner kaiseki.
If you are not interested in the kaiseki, Shoku also has a regular al le carte menu with sushi combos costing around $12-25.
During our experience, they did not have a drinks menu available yet (only tea, water and soda options).
Step 1: Salad, chawanmushi, tempura
The first step has 3 components: salad, chawanmushi, and tempura. They present it in this wooden box, which is pretty and similar to how they present food at Tekkaba as well.
I don’t have much to say about the salad because it is a pretty basic and simple Japanese-style salad 🙂 (a spring mix with apple dressing). The portion for the salad is a bit on the larger side, but I wish there was slightly a bit more dressing.
The chawanmushi is a steamed egg dish and it always makes me feel homey and cozy whenever I eat it. I liked this dish the most out of the 3, even though the spoon they gave us was very small 😂 and I think the top layer of the egg could have been smoother.
The little tempura basket actually has a decent amount of tempura in it. You get yam, green beans and prawn. They are fried well and of course I liked the tempura prawn the most!
Step 2: Sashimi, nigiri, atemaki, miso soup
The second step also has 4 components: miso soup, 3 pieces of sashimi, 3 pieces of sushi, and 3 pieces of atemaki.
The miso soup is similar to the salad in the sense that it is quite simple and basic. There is no tofu in the soup either.
For the sashimi, we have 1 piece of each: salmon, hamachi and madai. Out of the 3, I liked the hamachi the most but all 3 tasted pretty good and I have no complaints.
For sushi, we have 1 bluefin tuna, 1 aburi ika, and 1 jumbo prawn. I was very excited to see the ika (squid) nigiri because last time I had it at Tekkaba, I loved it! I usually don’t like squid nigiri as much because I find the wasabi always kinds of slides off and then I am attacked in the nose by the spiciness of the wasabi. However, the squid nigiri at Shoku has this really great chewy/sticky texture and it also had a really good sauce and sear on it. The cut on the squid is also beautiful 😍.
The bluefin tuna sushi is delicious, of course, since it is the most fatty of the 3 sushi, The jumbo prawn was just ok for me (I never really like prawn sushi unless it is raw spot prawn).
The 3 atemaki were interesting to me because although they are not large pieces, they seem to be jam packed with fillings, both in the roll and also a small mountain on top. On the menu, they just describe these 3 as “3 kinds of fish” so I assume it changes and is random depending on the day you go, but we think we got wild salmon, negitoro and some sort of red tuna one. All 3 were yummy and fun to pop into my mouth.
Step 3: BBQ
For step 3, we get a bbq course. This step is what I think differentiates Shoku from Tekkaba since Tekkaba does not have a bbq part in their omakase.
The platter in front of us has a lot of food and many different components. It essentially looks like it is set up for us to make our own wraps as if we are at Korean bbq – fun 😊!
At the top, we have 5 little bowls of sides and condiments – roasted or cooked garlic (really yummy in a wrap), green onions, radish, ssamjang, and katsu sauce.
For the meats, we have quite a variety!
First, I tried a piece of the tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet). With the katsu sauce, it had a crunchy texture and the hire meat inside wasn’t dry. I preferred to eat the katsu on its own and not in a wrap.
Next, I tried the grilled pork belly (you get around 4 pieces). This one I enjoyed putting into a lettuce wrap with some garlic, green onion, ssamjang, and cucumber.
I tried different variations of wraps with the meat options, including the king oyster mushrooms, butter prawns, grilled unagi and the grilled scallop. I didn’t like the king oyster mushrooms that much (too much butter), but I really liked the unagi (eel)!
I found not all components make sense for a wrap, like the baby carrots 😅 But it is fun to mix and match what you like.
Overall, this course was a lot of fun and a lot of food. I could barely finish everything in my tray.
Step 4: Udon soup
Again, at this point in time when step 4 comes out, I am already so full. I was hoping the udon soup would be small but it wasn’t 😅. I muster up what I can and try a bit of the udon soup.
The ichiban dashi base is quite yummy! The broth was light but still savoury and the thin slices of tofu skin on top soaked up all that umami. Udon noodles had good texture as well and was not overcooked.
Step 5: Ice cream
Finally, we made it to dessert, which is 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Simple, creamy and delicious!
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We were very full and happy after our kaiseki dinner at Shoku. Out of all the courses, I actually liked the sushi course the best but I think that’s just because I love sushi so much (that ika sushi omg).
In terms of best value, the bbq course had the most value because they give you so much meat and veggies! But overall, I find that in every course, Shoku is generous with their portions, hence why I was so full. So for $58 pp, I think this kaiseki is totally worth it and can even satiate your very hungry boyfriend who can eat more than you.
Service-wise, we only saw 1 server but she was very nice. There were some longer wait times between some courses, and we spent over an hour with the kaiseki experience.
If you are in the area, I recommend you to check Shoku out and try their regular kaiseki!
Sincerely, Loewe
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