I try out new Japanese restaurant, Shio

Last week my friend Dax and I decided to try out Chef Cheyne Morrisby’s newly opened 3rd restaurant, a new Japanese-style dining spot called Shio.

Having been to both his other restaurants, Cheyne’s in Hout Bay & Lucky Bao which right next door to Cheyne’s, and really enjoying both, I was very excited to test drive his 3rd restaurant project.

Shio is located on the ground floor of The Grey Hotel in Napier Street, De Waterkant:

But before digging in, we first decided to pop in at the hotel bar up on the rooftop for some sundowners… Which if you do have time to do, is recommended – not because of the cocktails (those were terrible), but because of the great views and the chilled vibe:

The walk back down is also super pretty…

Back at Shio, you’ll find that it’s a relatively small space, but that does make it feel nice & cosy without feeling stuffy in any way.   It’s a 50 seater space with both indoor & outdoor seating.  We opted for indoor because you never know what the wind’s going to do this time of the year and well, the indoor space is really freakin’ cool:

The menu is split into 4 sections:  UMI (ocean), TOCHI (land), CHIKYUU (earth) & AMAI (sweet) – which is very similar to the menu setup at Cheyne’s in Hout Bay.

I had read a couple of EatOut reviews before hand in preparation and most people recommended 6 dishes to share between 2 people.  We decided to do the same and then also share a dessert.

We opted for the following:

Of the 7 dishes we had in total, this was the verdict:

• Best dishes:  yellowfin sashimi, firecracker prawns & crispy duck.  Would happily go back for these again.
• Also an enjoyable dish:  pan fried shiitake – the pepper sauce does taste like something you’d get in a steak restaurant, which was kinda weird, but I enjoyed it.  Dax was on the fence though…
• Underwhelming dishes:  the ping pong salad just felt really boring and the mandarin BBQ pork loin ribs were waaaaay too salty.  I’d say rather try the beef short rib instead (we were torn between the two when ordering)
• Hated it:  tonka bean dark chocolate dessert – mainly because it was rock hard and you couldn’t even get a spoon in.  We struggled for a bit and then just left it.

So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag unfortunately, which was disappointing, particularly because Cheyne’s two other restaurants are so good.  For now I’m going to put it down as them still finding their feet.

I’d actually like to go back after a few weeks and try a few of the other things I had my eye on.  Particularly the scallops, crispy soft shell crab (which was out of stock on the night), the nori tuna taco, the beef tataki, the beef short rib, the pork belly and the duck fat fries.  Soooo pretty much the rest of the menu 😉

I’m going to give Shio a score of on my Miss K Kiss-o-Meter scale for this first visit… And then I’ll reassess if I do make it back for a follow up visit in the coming weeks.

To give them a try for yourselves, take note of the following:

Opening Hours:  Mon – Sat  12 Noon to 3 PM, 6 PM to 10 PM, Closed on Sundays

Address: The Grey Hotel, 49 Napier Street, De Waterkant, Cape Town

And for bookings you can call 064 661 7474.

xxx