Well, Dine Originals Week is over and I only made it to one restaurant. I am absolutely ashamed of myself! But it just wasn’t happening. And I’m pretty sure you’ll forgive me. Especially when I tell you about the one that I did go to! It was my first time ever to Shoku ... and it rocked my world!
I was pretty certain that I was only going to make it to one place this round, so I wanted it to be somewhere I hadn’t been to before. My dining buddy Jane, and I checked out the lunch offerings and decided upon Shoku. They were offering 3 different lunches for $10 each. So off we went.
I have seen Shoku often when Bob and I go to Stauff’s (in Grandview) for coffee. And I have to tell you that while I knew where it was, I hadn’t really heard much about it. I am smitten! We walked in and I immediately loved the ambiance. It is modern but had a real “home” feel to it. We sat down and right away we were offered beverages. We both ordered hot tea. The green tea arrived piping hot and was absolutely delicious!
While we were perusing our lunch choices, I placed an order of the Tempura Green Beans for us to share. They were so good! I’ve had fried green beans before, but these were on a whole different level. The tempura batter was so light and crispy. The dipping sauce was just perfect. Yeah, these little guys were addicting. We finished off that platter before we knew it. We were left wanting more. However, our lunch was on its way and we were excited about that.
Jane chose the Tempura Shrimp Wrap. This was described as “Shrimp tempura rolled with rice and vegetables in spinach tortilla served with candied sweet potatoes and mixed vegetables”. It was gorgeous. The presentation was just beautiful. The candied sweet potato cubes were wonderful. There was a crunchy outside with a lovely sweetness, and inside was the creamy goodness of a good sweet potato. The vegetables consisted of broccoli and carrot strips and were topped with a few of the tempura green beans. The wrap was really good, too. The tempura shrimp was crunchy and it was accompanied by rice and strips of carrots and others veggies. The dipping sauce finished with just enough heat. This was a great dish.
However, the show stopper was my Shoku Salad. The description was, “A mixture of iceberg lettuce and spring mix; comes with a vegetable eggroll, Japanese noodles and an egg with choice of beef skewer, chicken skewer or grilled shrimp skewer. Served with carrot miso dressing”. The plate was stunning. It was magnificent. The riot of color on the plate just made me smile. The salad had the promised mix of iceberg and spring greens topped with strips of carrot, and white and purple cabbage. It was accompanied by a hardboiled egg. The eggroll had a sweet chili sauce for dipping and it was very tasty. I chose to go with the beef skewer because it seems I usually gravitate to shrimp and I wanted something different. Boy, am I glad I did. The beef was so tender and so moist and so yummy! I love noodles of any kind, and the little dish of noodles was no exception. What made this salad such a standout was the carrot and miso dressing. I am generally so-so about miso. But this dressing? Well, this dressing I could just drink, it was so good! I ended up pouring it on the noodles and dipping my beef into it. The gal serving us told me, “Mama makes it herself”. She inclined her head to a woman sitting at a back table wearing an apron and having her own lunch. I was just blown away by this dressing!
What a great experience! I can’t wait to return to Shoku. I saw quite a few other items on the menu that I’d really like to try. Needless to say, Jane and I commented that we think we’ve found yet another “favorite restaurant”!
Shoku
1312 Grandview Ave
Grandview, OH
614-485-9490
http://www.daeoh.com/
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