Tucked away behind a metal gate in an old school lane complex, finding Aoki is something of a mission in itself. And when you do find it, the inside feels more like a friend’s house made up to look like a restaurant than a high grade sushi temple. But Aoki isn’t about the setting or even the location; if you’re a true fan of sushi, the focus will be on the food from start to finish.
With just 12 seats in the entire restaurant (six at the sushi bar and six in a private room), Aoki serves omakase sushi sets. That is, around 10 courses of individual sushi and other small dishes prepared in front of you and served by hand from chef Aoki-san. The pleasure of this style of dining is that you leave your brain and tedious choice making at the door, allowing the master chef to guide you along a culinary journey. His choice of ingredients, sequence and preparation – allowing for harmony, drama and flavor.
With ingredients flown over daily from the fish market auctions of Japan, reservations at Aoki and your choice of either the RMB1,280 or RMB1,580 sets (RMB680-980 for lunch) must be made one day in advance..
This is a considerable amount of money to be spent on a meal, but it’s worth noting that on our visit that Aoki had managed to win the same auction for uni (pictured below) as Sukiyabashi Jiro in Japan (widely regarded as the best sushi restaurant in the world).
From start to finish, the ingredients, preparation and flavor of each dish was virtually flawless, and – dare we say it – the best we’ve experienced in Shanghai. Served by the thoughtful Aoki-san, the courses of this meal are many and vary depending on that day’s catch.
Highlights from our RMB1,580 set were a creamy and firm ankimo (monkfish liver), a large bowlful of impeccably fresh and bouncy-textured ikura (salmon roe), perfect toro (fatty tuna, above); a portion of marbled Japanese beef with rosemary, truffle salt, soy sauce and daikon radish, and impossibly sweet crabmeat topped with winter melon, shrimp, uni, caviar and real gold leaf (below).
Another thing we enjoyed immensely was tamago (egg omelet) appetizer, split between yolk and white, topped with caviar and a homegrown micro zucchini.
Obviously, dropping up to RMB1,580 per person is not something most people can do often. But when sushi is this good quality, well thought out and prepared with the utmost care right in front of your eyes, wouldn’t you rather have that than a dozen inferior experiences? The answer is yes for us, and that places Aoki at the very top of our list of Shanghai’s sushi restaurants.
Price: RMB680-980 for lunch sets; RMB1,280-1,580 for dinner.
Who’s going: Local sushi aficionados
Good for: Impressing a (very hot) date; indulgence
> See a listing for Sushi Aoki.
See more Shanghai restaurant reviews.
0 User Comments