Nishino has been on my radar ever since the Zagat Guide to America’s Top Restaurants 2007 came out. According to the Zagat survey, five restaurants tied for the top spot in Seattle in 2006 - The Herbfarm, Nishino, Lampreia, Rover’s and Mistral . We have been to three, and been planning to go to Herbfarm for our anniversary this year, but had never thought of Nishino. So when the 25 for $25 announcement came out, I was really excited to find Nishino in the list and we finally went there Thursday night.
The restaurant is pretty big, but was still crowded, must be really popular. We didn’t have reservations, and were lucky to find two seats at the Sushi bar within 15 minutes of reaching there. The sushi bar was hustling and bustling with regulars, there were about six chefs preparing sushi, socializing with the customers while churning out custom made pieces of sushi one after the other. It was so cool to just sit and watch the masters in action. I am not a Sushi fan, I can occasionally have a California roll, but could never make it a meal. But after watching the variety they had, I’ve decided to give sushi another chance during our next visit.
We went there to try the 25 for $25 deal, but after looking at the menu decided to skip the prix fix deal and order out of the daily special menu and share the dishes. More often than not the $25 menu is not on par with the regular menu in most of the places we’ve been to. I think we made the right decision, since the food was just amazing, except for one dish! Here is the line-up:
Seared foie gras, maguro and shitake mushrooms with red wine soy reduction:
This was just amazing! The foie gras and the mushrooms were both buttery and smooth with slightly different textures, and there were tiny pieces of peppercorns in the sauce, the flavors just blend together so well! My only complaint is that the portions were small. I wish I could lick the sauce of the plate.
Fried Oyster with lemon chili garlic sauce:
Another mouth watering dish. The oysters were just dipped in tempura batter and deep fried, but along with the lemon chili garlic sauce, it was awesome.
Curry seared halibut cheeks on sauteed Swiss chard and mushrooms with cilantro aioli
My favorite dish of the night, yumm….take each bite with a little bit of halibut, chard and mushrooms and dip in the cilantro aioli, it is a burst of flavors in your mouth. Just the halibut pieces alone were so flavorful, I guess because of the curry searing. This is a recipe I’m going to try to recreate in my kitchen.
Spicy chicken and mushrooms in garlic sauce:
I didn’t care for this dish at all… It was spicy and had a lot of veggies in it, but it didn’t feel like all the flavors really went all that well together. Moreover it is chicken, and it is pretty hard to get chicken to taste great in a dish like this. The sauce was okay, may be with rice it would have gone well, but we didn’t get any this time. I would stay away from this dish and stick to seafood.
Tapioca in Coconut Milk:
This dessert was the special of the night, and was very nice, the coconut milk tasted so fresh and was not too sweet. The tiny fruit salad with mangoes, kiwi and strawberries gave such a contrasting sour flavor to the light sweet taste of the coconut milk. A definite winner.
All in all, we loved the place. If I can talk myself into trying Sushi, this will be the place that I’d choose to try it, looked so fresh! Nishino is the latest addition to our favorites list.
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5 Responses to “Nishino”
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the dessert looks so good, like pearls floating in the coco milk!!
I make red bellpepper aioli, is very tasty, let me know if you need the recipe.
cheers!
Richa, definitely, red bellpepper aioli sounds great, plesae post the recipe. Thanks!
hi sig,
here is the recipe for aioli. It’s Giada’s recipe, I saw it on her show and have been hooked since.
Aioli:
2 garlic cloves
1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers, drained, patted dry
1/3 cup mayonnaise (I use miracle whip)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Finely chop the garlic in the food processor. Add the peppers and blend until almost smooth. Blend in the mayonnaise. Blend in the oil. Season the aioli, to taste, with salt and pepper. Transfer the aioli to a small bowl. (The aioli can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
Tastes great on bread etc.
ENJOY!!
Richa, thank you so much! Sounds delicious, thanks girl…
looks like you are having a blast in spain.. i just wanted to comment that I went to nishino’s this weekend and tried the chef’s extensive omakase meal. It was incredible. You should try it.