The team behind Shiro’s Sushi, with a nearly 30-year legacy of serving Edomae-style sushi, is set to open ShoMon Kappo Sushi, a kappo style restaurant just blocks from the sushi restaurant in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, bordering South Lake Union. The 26-seat restaurant is slated to open Friday, September 6, offering an inspired, multi-course kappo and sushi menu, localized in its ingredients and chef’s expression.
The refined Japanese menu at ShoMon will blend tradition and innovation infused with the virtues of Japan’s formal and elegant kappo restaurants. ShoMon will integrate the rich flavor of golden, clear dashi (dried bonito flakes and kelp), the foundation of kappo cuisine, with nigiri sushi and sashimi, meat, and traditional Japanese cooking techniques passed down through the ages in a seasonal, coursed menu.
Traditionally, kappo style cuisine features ingredients that cover the landscape of Japan, from the mountains to the fields, valleys to the seas. ShoMon will localize this intent by using ingredients from Washington’s lands and waters, while enhancing the menu with premium, seasonal ingredients from Japan that are not replicated locally. The result is a menu that pushes the boundaries of traditional kappo and sushi cuisines with subtle and beautifully blended flavors and textures in a colorful, artful presentation.
The interior design is based on Japanese aesthetics that exude simple elegance with a modern inclination. The focal point of ShoMon is a 14-seat L-shaped chefs counter, traditional in kappo style dining. The tranquil side dining room will offer 12 additional seats in an equally immersive experience, with a commissioned, artisan craft Washi paper light installation adorning the wall. From the moment guests step into ShoMon they will be enveloped in the ambiance of a formal, yet subtle Japanese restaurant with features such as Sekishu tiles that create an atmosphere that evokes the feeling of authentic Japanese kappo restaurants.
As elaborate, detailed, and elegant as tea ceremony influenced Kaiseki, but far more deliberate than a casual Izakaya-style experience, the food will be prepared entirely counter side, an essential set up for kappo dining, giving guests an opportunity to indulge all their senses — sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste — and appreciate both the process and the artistry involved.
Depending on the night, guests might savor slow-cooked wagyu with lotus root, or a dish of Golden Eye snapper in dashi with yuzu and snow peas, or a course of soft cod roe tofu, sweet miso, and shredded ginger. The multi-course, set menu will be approximately $185 per person, noting a special evening of elegant artistry and premium ingredients in a refined and polished dining experience in downtown Seattle.
At the helm of the culinary team is executive chef Masaki Nishioka. Guests will enjoy a collaborative effort from the chef team, steeped in broad cooking styles and techniques, and showcasing years of training in kappo cuisine, including team member experience at a Michelin-starred kappo restaurant in Kyoto and Hiroshima. Most of the chef team has been at Shiro’s Sushi while developing the ShoMon menu for more than nine months.
To complement the cuisine, ShoMon will offer a carefully curated selection of sake, wine, and green tea, hand-selected to elevate the dining experience.
