good eats: omakase - shiro sushi

Omakase (Japanese: お任せ Hepburn: o-makase) is a Japanese phrase that means "I'll leave it up to you" (from Japanese "to entrust" (任せる makaseru))

inspired by watching jiro dreams of sushi on netflix, andy and i decided to commit to a chef omakase experience at the counter/bar at local sushi restaurants in seattle. we hope to make it out to japan someday, but until then, this will have to do! our first experience was at sushi kashiba, but unfortunately i didn't get pictures :( however, we loved it so much, we'll definitely be going to back. so photos (hopefully) to follow.

the photos below are from our experience at shiro's. we've been to here a few times before and had the tasting menu in the dining area. tonight was our first time a the sushi counter and it was incredible. totally worth all the hype. tomo was our sushi chef. he's been in seattle since '95 and put together an excellent selection of sushi for us. i got a picture of everything we had, except the squid head. i was too excited to eat it (it was absolutely delicious) and forgot. if you're in the seattle area, i highly recommend checking out shiro's. they don't take reservations at the sushi bar, so get there early if you can. they open at 5:30, we arrived at 4:43 on saturday and were the first in line. the next group came 5 minutes after we did. by 5:15 the line was wrapped around the building. there are only 11 seats at the sushi counter / bar.

what we had (doesn’t follow the photos and in no particular order): albacore tuna, flounder, geoduck, king mackerel, negi toro, salmon, salmon roe, scallop, sea bream, sea urchin, sockeye salmon, spanish mackerel, sweet shrimp, tuna, zuke tuna, medium fatty tuna, fatty tuna, akamutsu, hotaruika, japan uni, isaki, namatako, katsuo, kinmedai, shima aji, sayori.