In a nutshell:
A cool eatery and bar with Asian theme, no distraction, a fantastic menu card that can keep u engaged with lots of stories of food, good service and very good food.
Address & other details:shizusan
Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards
Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian
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I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster
Short description- in case u r in a hurry
We read about this place on the social media and had added it to our wish list. And one sudden unplanned evening when we were hungry at high street Phoenix, we decided to try out this place.
It was 6 pm and we were the only customers. We were told that it’s an aberration and in peak hours there is waiting. People also book slots here 1 week in advance….
The interiors were made to look like the ‘shophouses’ that served food and alcohol at the turn of the previous century.
The bar area looked very attractive.
The light was dim and hence made the look and feel seem more like a shophouse
The menu card was a marvel – it narrated food and drink stories beautifully. I was floored. Good Photographs also made the food seem jump out of menu card.
Day 1 – The guy serving us was very good. He turned out to be the assistant manager. He helped us sail thru the long menu. Day 2- we had a few guys who were shaky till we landed up with a really confident and smart guy who had a point of view on items in the menu.
Loved the food on day 1. Went back to have lunch day 2.
Detailed description- in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
Day 1
Taipei aromatic miso milk with shrimp was a great start to the evening. The flavours of the soup were too good. Not Indianised thankfully, the soup reminded me of good during my frequent Asia trips of last decade. Shrimp, tofu and mushrooms were great to munch on. Flat noodles helped fill the stomach but did not add value otherwise. Rate it 4.5/5
Pulled pork and kimchi mandu came next. It was like a momo, pan fried. The filling was too good – tiny pieces of meat in an intense curried form. A bit hot and somewhat spicy , fully enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5
Lemongrass and coconut cream mussels was interesting- the white sauce had full blown flavours of coconut milk and mussels. The mussels had got a bit more over cooked and hence a bit rubbery. Taste was very good and so was the flavour.
The sauce was a bit too thick which I guess is where indianization happened.
Good I wud say. Rate it 3/5.
Shu zu you poached garoupa (fish) was superb. The gravy of the dish was thin but intense. It beautifully mixed the flavours of fish and spices. I remembered my meals from 10 years bk – felt pretty much the same as then. Super loved it. RAte the gravy 4.95/5
The fish was enjoyable. Rate it 3/5
We enjoyed this with jasmine rice. Rate the dish 4/5
5 spices creme brûlée was superb again. The top layer had all the spices and they made their presence felt. The inside was pretty much the same as a good creme brûlée. Rate it 4.25/5
Day 2
We started with two dimsums from the dimsum festival.
Activated charcoal crab dimsum was served in a spoon as there was liquid inside – kind of like soup dumpling but much thicker and intense liquid. Loved the smoky flavour and the overall taste and flavour of dumpling. The crab failed to make its dominant presence felt. Rate it 4/5
Steamed bun Duck was a super soft and fluffy. The duck filling was sweet hot and nice to taste. Rate it 4/5
Rainbow maki had tuna, salmon options with crab stick in the center. Some maki had tobiko (fish roe) on top. We r sashimi people (all protein , no carb). For some reason the picture on the menu looked attractive and ordered it. We were pleasantly surprised with the makis.
The first one I dipped in soy and added a bit of wasabi. Second one just with a bit of soy. Loved these so much that had the next one onwards just as it is!!!!
Great balance of taste , interplay of textures and flavours of raw fish…. rate it 4.5/5
We also ordered gochujang buri bop – see pic below for details. The person who wrote the copy is a genius. He / she sold us the dish just by the writing. We added tenderloin. Our server strongly recommended that we do not go for it but we were too impressed with the write up.
What arrived at our plate was a good Asian fried rice. It was not highly charred, not was it served in traditional Korean hot metal bowl (we were informed of the bowl). Flavours of fried chillies were not ‘distinctive’ and ‘miso styled paste’ did not add value.
It was however a very tasty fried rice with lovely pieces of meat. Rate it 3.5/5
We also had slow cooked Chilean sea bass with hoisin, red curry paste and bokchoy. As expected, the fish was marvellous. It was so juicy (as expected) that we almost drank the juice. The fish was super flaky and perfectly cooked. Flavours were bursting out.
Loved munching on the greens. Word of caution – the sauce is sweetish, in case u r not used to sweetness in main course. Rate it 4.75/5
Vietnamese banh chuoi nuong (candied banana, chocolate mousse top layer, banana cake at the base, sesame seed crumble) was a very good cake with an excellent (home like) , coarse , lumpy banana bread). The top layer was thick dark chocolate mousse – I wud prefer darker any day. A caramel layer on top made it crisp and visually interesting. The candied banana could have been more brittle. Also, the dessert cud hv been way better with a slight dash of salt. Rate it 3/5
For some reason day 1 was way better than day 2.