Shibumi is a kappo-style Japanese restaurant that opened this week in DTLA. The chef, David Schlosser, has spent time in the kitchen at Urasawa and Arashiyama Kitcho in Kyoto. For the first month they’re doing a limited menu with plans to add 10 or so more dishes with an omakase option.
Chino farm’s vegetables
Sea bream
Cuttlefish sashimi
California Holstein Beef Strip
Grilled Heritage Pork
Cherry bark smoked salmon trout
Apricot seed tofu
Koji rice cream
Toto toilet
How this place is jgold’s #2 in LA and above places like raku and kinjiro is mind boggling. With the service, hipster servers, and extremely loud music it felt more like a hipster bar in silver lake than the best Japanese restaurant in LA. The chef being more interested in the table drinking the expensive wine didn’t help either. Highlight was once again the grilled heritage pork.
cucumbers stuffed with shiso leaf, seeds, umeboshi, and bonito
Tasted like… cucumbers.
local raw shrimp & lobster cured in sake and its innards
Not what i was expecting, this was pretty much a less intense Shiokara, fermented seafood innards meant to be eaten with sake.
chilled corn soup, yuba, puffed rice
Tasted like a bowl of corn pops
silky egg tofu, uni, fresh nori and wasabi
Not bad, a little too much nori, loved the fresh wasabi.
steamed shrimp dumplings and red shiso vinegar
This tasted like a less shrimpy har gow without the wrapper.
grilled heritage pork in koji, pickled daikon and leeks
Great dish, super tender porky and fatty pieces of pork that went great with the fresh leeks and sweet daikon pickles.
iron pot steamed rice with pickled shiitake and onions #shiitakehappens
mizu shingen mochi implants, left me wanting the real thing
Had one of my better meals at Shibumi the other night.
japanese caviar - karasumi, scallop cured in koji
This was delicious, it had a nice chewy texture and paired well with the sake. However, with only three paper thin slices of karasumi and maybe one scallop it was pricey at 16 bucks.
scallop cured in koji
karasumi
seki sabazushi - kyoto style sushi, cured mackerel topped with kombu on top of vinegared rice
This was an off-menu special and was the highlight of the night. I’ve never seen sabazushi on a menu in LA before so I would order this if it’s offered. The mackerel was soft and fatty and the rice was perfectly seasoned. It was served with aged soy sauce and pickled ginger.
iwagaki oyster, fresh yuzu, shiso flower, mountain caviar
This was yooge, definitely bigger than donald trump’s hand. The oyster was cut up into about six kumamoto sized pieces and tasted super fresh with some nice acid from the yuzu.
broiled sanma skinny mackerel, black vinegar
spines
They threw me a bone and gave me two orders of spines.
dengaku of japanese sweet potato, crusted with yuzu miso
This could have been a dessert
steamed iron pot rice with ikura and dungeness crab
I thought this would be a Kamameshi, crab and ikura mixed with rice, but instead i was served three separate bowls of rice, ikura and crab. This would have been better if the ingredients were actually mixed in the iron pot and then served.
japanese chizu-keki, quince
This japanese cheesecake was light and airy and went great with the sweet quince.
Had my best meal here the other night.
japanese sea bream, ginger bud, pickled plum irizake
5 year old miso
Persimmon, ginko nuts, whipped tofu
Not bad, the persimmon could have been sweeter.
Bonito
Steamed abalone, fresh mochi, ginger miso
Loved the super tender abalone paired with the even softer mochi.
Miyazaki Wagyu, nori, fresh wasabi
Meltingly soft wagyu with super crisp nori. Perfect.
Free range chicken, wild mushroom, egg yolk sauce
Sprouted “8” grain rice, house-made miso with mushroom
pork jowl
This was so good with the rice. Fatty, tender, smoky, crispy, porky.
yahata-maki - burdock wrapped with fresh unagi
This was an Omakase special and a Kyoto classic. Fresh unagi was firm yet tender and wrapped around crunchy, chewy burdock, topped with a slightly sweet unagi sauce. So damn good.
Japanese chizu-keki, pluot
Like Uncle Tetsu’s but better
Toto
After multiple visits to shibumi, i’m still torn on this place. The fish here is fantastic and I could just eat any of their proteins with a bowl of rice (or 5) and be happy. But their not so japanese (hamster) staff and (lack of) hospitality has stopped me from coming back more often.
karasumi, daikon
Soft and somewhat sticky, like a sweet and briny mullet roe fruit roll-up.
aji
Despite the sloppy knife work (sergio was not in the house) this was outstanding. Firm with a clean and buttery taste, the fresh wasabi and shoyu were excellent too.
iwagaki oyster, yuzu, shiso flower, mountain caviar
The oyster was so firm and sweet it reminded me of a scallop, delicious.
house made silken tofu, ikura
shiitake mushroom and dried persimmon tempura
Not bad, but the batter wasn’t as crispy as inaba’s and surprisingly not much umami.
However, this was delicious, sweet and crispy. Kind of reminded me of sweet potato fries.
pumpkin ‘shira-ae’ whipped tofu, sesame
Okay
lobster miso soup
Good but a bit salty
salmon trout smoked in cherry bark
This has always been excellent since the day they opened. Smoky, moist, and juicy, great with a bowl a rice.
pickles
rockfish nitsuke, gobo, ginger
Wow, highlight of the fucking night and one of the best bites of the year. The fish was vermilion rockfish (anybody know the japanese name?) from santa barbara and was absolutely delicious. The firm, sweet, flesh just slid cleanly off the bone like the melting nazi’s face in raiders of the lost ark and was flakier than a head and shoulders commercial. And the crispy, bitter chrysanthemum greens paired perfectly with the savory sweet sauce. I can’t even imagine what this would taste like with a fattier fish like kinki.
Anybody have other leads on sakana no nitsuke (bonus points if they can source kinki) either here in la or sfba #willdriveforkinki
grilled red koji duck, daikon
this had the appearance of a char siu pork and was a bit chewy. It was good but can’t compete with the fish.
koji rice cream, buckwheat honey
another visit
nodoguro, aged shoyu
excellent
bonito, avocado, nori, negi
okay. too much going on
dengaku - fresh bamboo broiled with shiso miso
way too much sauce, overpowered the bamboo
pork jowl iron pot, pickled vegetable
so porky, an angry bird tried to dive bomb it.
salmon trout smoked in cherry bark
quince and chocolate
sayori (halfbeak, full body), shiso, wasabi, nori, fried bones
heads-up, now serving sayori roll-ups.
The sashimi was served with, what the chef called, a black bean soy sauce. can anybody translate?
grilled pork jerky
like biting into a slim jim, only softer. kind of tasted like a lap cheong. i liked it.
gobo and yamaimo tempura
gohei mochi, red miso
i never had these sandal-shaped mochis before. it was sweet, savory and stickier than a cinnabon left in a hot car.
aji kama nitsuke
not as good as the rockfish i had but still very good
salmon trout smoked in cherry bark
highlight, probably my favorite thing on the menu. this has consistently been great since they opened.
holstein, narazuke pickles, wasabi
could have been more tender, flavor was nice and beefy.
sakura mochi
new summer menu with new cdc sergio. one of the best menus i’ve had so far, not a single miss.
highlights
- the fatty, crunchy karei engawa was great, never had engawa that fatty
- chinmi
- chiayu tsukudani, like a candied ayu
- abalone with fresh mochi and saikyo miso
- the refreshing chilled somen noodles
- black cod tempura with dashi
- perfectly fried and crunchy menchi katsu with iwate rice
- shirasu with iwate rice
- yatsuhashi
stay tuned for a forthcoming kaiseki menu from new sergio. he’s super knowledgeable and with his seven years of apprenticeship at kikunoi in kyoto this should be right up his alley. I was looking forward to him going full kaiseki since he came to la.
shout-out to unverified max
sergio
chinmi - hokkaido cured scallop, 3 year cured oita shiitake mushroom
hassun
chiayu - young sweetfish tsukudani
cucumber stuffed with salted plum, smoked bonito and sesame
mozuku shot with green grapes
fresh yuba, shrimp, dashi joyu, shiso flowers
karei sashimi(hokkaido), smoked karasumi, yamaimo, nori
abalone, fresh mochi, white miso
octopus chimaki wrapped in bamboo leaves
chilled somen noodle, pearl tomato, japanese parsley, summer vegetables
tempura of black cod, warm dashi, grated radish
grilled sawara in junmai daiginjo sake lees, bettara zuke
grilled eel unagi stuffed with eggplant, young ginger pickle
menchi katsu - crispy minced wagyu cutlet, red miso, shaved cabbage
iron pot rice from iwate - ginga no shizuku variety
house miso in smoked dashi broth, tororo shaved konbu, shiitake
salted shirasu, sansho
koji custard, yatsuhashi
poached loquat in elderflower gelee
Shibumi
815 S Hill St
Los Angeles, CA 90014
