Restaurant Shibumi

Interior

I recently wrote about what the Esperanto group of restaurants offer for summer dining and last night I dined at Shibumi, one of their restaurants, with a group of friends. Star-chef Sayan Isaksson runs the four restaurants, all located in the same building: Michelin starred Esperanto and Imouto, Råkultur and Shibumi. Sayan takes a lot of his inspiration from the Far East and Shibumi is his take on Izakaya (informal Japanese gastropubs).

Side entrance to Shibumi

The restaurants are located in the downtown area and Shibumi is in the building's cellar with its own side entrance. Shibumi is open all summer and check my earlier post to see how the other restaurants are open this summer. The layout of Shibumi is laid back with a variety of seating options... you have a food counter with views of the kitchen, tables, bar tables and more private booths (which we had). They even have a chef's table. There is also a nice cocktail bar in Shibumi where you can order some creative, delicious cocktails.

Sashimi Moriawase

Izakaya dining is very casual and is reminiscent of the Spanish concept of tapas. The dishes are smaller and are made to be shared by the table... though you can of course order your own if so desired. Certain dishes are a little larger while others are bite sized. They recommended approximately four dishes per person. The dishes come to the table as they are prepared. In other words, not all at the same time. The staff were fantastic at explaining the concept and bringing new dishes to the table at a steady pace.

Fish taco with mackerel, ramsons and apple

Some of the dishes we had/shared were a selection of sashimi, a fantastic Goma salad with kimchi crisp, broccolini "Karage" with miso and yuzu, grilled whole dorado, Okonomiyaki with crispy chicken skin and kewpie mayo, fish tacos, beef sliders and spicy chicken heart Yakitori. They were all delicious! For dessert they had mini ice cream cones with six different flavors to choose from. The flavors were very Japanese and interesting, like soya, pear & sake and ginger & apple.

Whole grilled dorado

An extra tip.. their sister restaurant Råkultur has a very nice outdoor area. We took a glass of bubbly there before dinner which was great.If you are going to be staying at the Rival Hotel, contact me directly for help in booking a table. The easiest way to get to Shibumi from the hotel is by subway (green line to the Rådmansgatan station) or a 10 minute taxi ride.Click here for more restaurant recommendations.

Beef sliders with 48 hour cooked short ribs and kimchi

Sharing dishes

Mini ice cream cones

The view out from our private booth