It’s hard to remember now the days that the City was a place that, after the bankers had gone home, was a desert. Now the area buzzes at night. The most recent addition – in fact, it’s so new, it’s still being built – is Broadgate Circle. Close by Liverpool Street Station, you walk through pedestrianised streets to a dramatic two-tier space with travertine marble columns in a 14m high colonnade. And it really does buzz – as I was making my way in, I could hear the noise from the open space on the lower level way before I got close.
I was heading instead for Shiro on the upper level – this, too, was buzzing, not least because it was Friday night and a quite new concept was underway – Shiro Nights. So the idea is disarmingly simple, if a little unusual for London. So, you book a table starting between 5 and 6pm on a Friday for 90 minutes and get to experience a free-flow three course dinner for what I can only describe as an absolute bargain price. So, with no drinks, it’s £29, with free-flowing white, rose, red wine, prosecco or beer, it’s £49 and, for £79 you get Champagne and sake. And when they say free-flowing, they really do mean it – our waiter was busy topping up the glasses long before they were empty.
It’s a cool, clean white interior (“Shiro” means “white” in Japanese) over two floors and there’s a good-sized outside terrace overlooking the rest of the Circle if you want to sit and people watch (very diverting round here). The upper floor is quieter and the ground floor has both tables and a counter round the bar.
There is an extensive a la carte menu that features “Crystal Sushi” (a Shiro invention that reimagines sushi with such dishes as Scallop and caviar with kimchi jelly) and a secret-recipe Ramen that takes 48 hours to prepare. The Japanese couple at the next table were having this and the smell was utterly divine.
For Shiro Nights, though, the menu is shorter (three choices for starter and main) and it’s topped and tailed with a pre-starter and dessert. So, the pre-starter was edamame and a bowl of miso soup. I love miso soup, so I was very happy with this and my friend Gemma declared it to be the best miso she’d ever tasted.
For the starters, I chose Teriyaki glazed chicken skewer and Gemma went for the Kabocha pumpkin gyoza but, in fact, they come on plates placed in the centre of the table so we just shared – always the best way, so you get to try everything. Both were delicious and the gyoza were particularly good, very moist and soft (though Gemma left one till the end of the meal having decided to have one that was crispy).
The main courses included grilled baby chicken and fried cauliflower (with Shiro’s own shiitake XO sauce and coconut miso yoghurt) and I was very tempted by the latter but in the end neither of us could resist the sushi platter (with Omakase edomae and maki). It was an excellent choice. But then, this is a truly authentic Japanese restaurant using quality ingredients and you probably couldn’t go wrong here.
And then, of course, it’s dessert. I hadn’t quite been able to finish my sushi and, as I always say (with ever-decreasing conviction), I never eat dessert. So we share the mochi (one, I think, strawberry, the other passion fruit) and they were just gorgeous, quite literally melting in the mouth.
What a great way to start the weekend. I’m definitely planning a return to sample the a la carte menu.
Shiro Broadgate Circle, 100 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 2QS. For more information, including details about Shiro Nights, and for bookings, please visit www.shirosushi.co.uk.
