Shigure
“(9/10)
Shio-Koji Fried Chicken ($6.00) – Another dish that I am glad was on the happy hour menu.”
“I love small dishes like Pork Belly Kakuni, Shio-koji Fried Chicken, Charcoal Grilled Softshell Shrimp, and Homemade Smoked Salmon.”
“In a close tie, however, was the Gindara Kasu-Yaki, grilled black cod marinated with Dassai Dai Ginjo, a light, balanced sake.”
Shigure
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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A sake bar and Japanese tapas (not sure what the exact term is but izakaya comes up) restaurant, this location serves up a large menu of drinks (10 pages) and a small menu of food items (2 pages).
With seating in the space for around 40 people, they accommodated our group of 4 easily and a larger group of friends seated in the back space was about 20.
Dim lighting helped set their mood, and we decided to try a number of different items. First up… the home-made ginger ale was okay, but lacked the bite of fresh ginger; it was almost too filtered.
The dishes we tried:
– Grilled Edamame – nothing special here, came with little magazine pages folded into a trash box
– Tako-Su was an octopus sashimi (cooked) and had a delicious cucumber and seaweed (thick, not thin) salad below it.
– Goma-Saba was a cured mackerel with sesame sauce – my favorite dish of the night – I love the sour and fishy flavor.
– Shishito Yaki-Bitashi was grilled peppers..nothing exciting here, not spicy, not salty, just grilled
– Duck Cha-Shu was duck breast slow-cooked; an interesting take, but not much in the way of "Cha-Shu" … just "Shu"
– Charcoal Grilled Shrimp fileted nicely, and had edible skin which was soft but crispy at the right places, but little flavor otherwise
– Skio-Koji Fried Chicken was great – reminded me of a slightly less salty version of Salt-Pepper Chicken
– Gindara Kasu-Yaki was black cod with miso (really a sake / miso) – I've had better, the flavor here was more fishy than savory
– Pork Belly Kakuni was not bad, but we make it better at home
– Ojiya Soba is basically cold soba with the dipping soup; nothing special here, just a cold, refreshing dish to cleanse the mouth
Service was not bad, a bit slow, but attentive when present. They were always quick to ask about our drinks.
Overall – food was okay, but people are really here for the tremendous sake variety they have up on the wall and step-shelves as you come in.
What a fun night with friends here. Came planning on using the scoutmob deal but drank too much we forgot…
We got a bottle of shochu to split between three people and learned that diluting it with water is pretty normal. We just used ice though. We also ordered a bunch of tapas – all of which were delicious. The friend chicken, which is their most popular, was very memorable- crispy, hot, and fresh. The small came with 6 pieces which was perfect for the three of us. The shishito peppers were surprisingly fun to eat as well. It went really well with the shochu. The fried lotus was different compared to what our friend is used to since these came in sticks like fries rather than sliced.
Service was really good. Even though we sat out of sight, the waiter/owner kept checking up on us to make sure we had what we needed.
Can't wait to come back again!
Happy hour sake flight of three sakes for $16.
Sat at the bar and the bartenders were super busy and just running around. Not my favorite type of environment.
The food was all just ok. The fried renkon ($7) was too thick and starchy. The fried chicken ($6 during hh) was probably the best thing we ate. The firefly squid ($13) was sad and bland. The pork belly ($9) was chewy and tough. We also had a few other dishes, but they were completely not memorable.
I would say this is more of a neighborhood spot. Definitely do not make a special trip just to come here.
Shigure was quiet on Monday evening when I came with a friend from out of town. There were a few other people, mostly at the bar, but they kept their voices low out of respect for the space and the surroundings.
The space isn't huge, and dark shades of brown that cover the walls and booths make it seem even more quiet and small. It's a private cave where one can eat and drink in privacy.
As you might expect from an upscale sake bar in TriBeCa, the food and drink selection are well curated and generally excellent. Our sake, selected with the help of our server, was filled with the taste of fruit without being overly sweet.
The small plates are small but satisfying. We split some of the charcoal grilled shrimp, while I also had shio-koji fried chicken and duck cha-shu after my friend went off for other dinner plans. The duck cha shu was a particular revelation, as I'm not sure to the fattiness of the duck being prepared in the style of roast pork.
There may not be much buzz in this restaurant, either in or outside of the establishment, but it is very much worth getting excited about.
Upon entering Shigure, you know you are in a legit sake bar when the bar wall is lined with sake and wine up to the ceiling. I love the dim, mellow atmosphere. Music isn't too loud as well so you can actually have a chat accompanied by sake and tapas.
I used the $40 Groupon for this visit and the staff happily accepted it along with saying it covered even the happy hour as well.
Sake Flight (3 for $15.00) – Part of their happy hour from 5:00 to 7:00. You get to choose from 9 varieties of sake. Great way to sample their selection.
Shishito Yaki-Bitashi ($4.00) – Ordered this during the happy hour special. This dish of shishito peppers looks simple but it was one of my favorites of the meal. The peppers were mildly spicy and smoky but it was the dashi broth that made this super tasty. The best part is biting into a pepper and getting a squirt of dashi broth. (9/10)
Shio-Koji Fried Chicken ($6.00) – Another dish that I am glad was on the happy hour menu. You get 5 pieces of juicy fried chicken. The chicken wasn't heavily salted which was a good thing. (8/10)
Duck Cha-Shu ($9.00) – The duck breast was very tender and full of flavor with hints of wasabi. Even though it looks kind of raw, the taste is worth the appearance. (8.5/10)
Kuro Subuta ($8.00) – This was a dish of fried pork in a syrupy sweet and sour vinegar sauce. It tasted and looked like it belonged in a Chinese fast food restaurant. The meat wasn't crispy and the sauce was too sour. (6/10)
I was going to give Shigure 4 stars until I saw that they have the toilets that washes your behind. There is a front rinse, a back rinse, and a dryer function. First time I ever saw these toilets in a restaurant. Warning: Not to be used if you are ticklish.
I've now been back to Shigure a good dozen times and every time I visit I like it more and more. Other places I get tired of over time, but with Shigure it just gets better and better. In NYC, it may be the perfect combination of decor, atmosphere, food, drinks, and staff. It just all works so amazingly well together.
Atypical for an izakaya, the really high ceilings give it a light airy space and make it feel larger than it is. There really aren't all that many seats, but the spacing of the tables and the high ceilings gives it a much larger feeling. Bonus points for the his/hers toilets complete with Toyo Washlets. The huge map of Japan with all of the prefectures numbered is a nice touch as well, though it's a mystery why the list starts at 10.
Booze wise, they don't have the biggest shochu selection in NYC, but they definitely have a very thoughtful and well curated list. Highlights include Kawabe (rice), Nakanaka (barley), and Yachiyoden (sweet potato). Lots of Japanese craft beers are fun to explore as well. Japanese whisky and sake are available too, of course. And nice selections of both.
Foodwise, the daily specials are always worth exploring, particularly their sashimi specials, often flown in direct from Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo! The fried chicken is amazing. One dish I have to order every single time is the Kuro Subuta, which is the Japanese version of sweet and sour pork. And it eclipses that basic Chinese dish amazingly well. One other food tip. There are housemade pickles for order on the chalkboard above the bar, but they don't appear in your food menu. These are a strange assortment of pickling experiments including tomato and avocado. As you can imagine, some are better than others, but all are worth trying if only for the novelty. Other menu items are solid to fantastic.
I'd echo what I wrote previously. People need to find this place. Seriously. It's criminal that it's not busy every single night. While it's definitely busier than it was when they opened, it's still too easy to get a table any night of the week. Maybe now that the weather is nice again, people will start heading out to these hard to reach locations for some amazing food.
Oh, and after dinner, pop downstairs for some live jazz at b-flat, purported to have the best ice in NYC. No idea if that rumor is true.
Kampai!
It might be considered blasphemy to some to enter a sake bar and not order anything to drink… but Shigure was nonetheless an easy choice for dinner. It's one of the only sake bars and izakayas to be found in TriBeCa, and on a weekday evening, was at a dull murmur thanks to a handful of other groups present. Don't mistakenly head down the stairs to its sister speakeasy, B Flat, although it might make for a good post-dinner venue. The interior is composed of dark oak, high ceilings, and a plethora of seating options, from seats at the bar (perhaps better for those going in solo), booths for larger groups, and a handful of two-tops towards the back.
Once my friend arrived, we started going through the extensive menu, attempting to narrow down our choices for dinner. The options are tempting, to say the least, covering a sampling of chilled and cold plates to heavier grilled and braised dishes, and daily specials will only increase the difficulty of making a final decision.
Our first plate to arrive was one of the specials: Ebi Shinjo Hasami Age. We'd been warned beforehand about the temperature of the dish, but still managed to burn the roofs of our mouths after taking our first bite. Each piece consists of two slices of lightly battered and fried eggplant sandwiching a few pieces of fried shrimp. The seasoning was light and spot on, complemented only by a simple dashi broth at the bottom of the bowl. The following dish, the Avocado Potato Salad, was probably the one disappointment of the evening. The salad was too monotonous in texture and flavor, composed of creamy avocado and potatoes, and was already rich enough without the addition of a poached egg. It definitely need a crisp carbohydrate to counter, but the appearance of only two Yuba chips left much to be desired.
The following Duck Cha-Shu was far more satisfactory and is probably one of my favorite presentations of this protein to date. Several slices of duck breast are marinated and slow-cooked, and complemented by the chives, curled watercress, and wasabi. A very simple dish, yes, but executed to perfection with just the right seasoning, it made for one of the more memorable bites of the evening. In a close tie, however, was the Gindara Kasu-Yaki, grilled black cod marinated with Dassai Dai Ginjo, a light, balanced sake. The cod was tender and supple, and each section of the protein easily gave way at the prodding of our chopsticks. There was a deep caramelization at the edges of skin, which offered a delightful crispness and sweetness to each bite.
To finish our meal, the Kobe Beef Sukiyaki. We had to ask for bowls of rice to go with this dish, as it's traditionally served with udon or soba, and there would have been a fair amount of leftover sauce otherwise. The beef was thinly sliced and well-marinated and the shimeji mushrooms and celery root slices were appreciated additions. We made sure to cut into the poached egg on top and mix before eating, however, as it added an element of richness to the plate.
I've found at a lot of venues that tout the strength of their liquors and drinks that the food often gets put on the wayside. Thankfully, Shigure is not one of these places, and I'd be more than happy to return to try out a few more items on their menu.
A really cool sake bar and a hidden gem in Tribeca. This place has a quiet, understated but groovy and retro vibe with antique Japanese shochu & beer posters on the brick walls.
The sake list is fabulous. I enjoy asking questions and learning about different, unusual sake. Their ring folder menu consists not only a long sake list, but also lists of beer, shochu, whiskey, wine, and cocktails (w sake or shochu and other japanese ingredients). ($9~$13/per on average.)
Food is very good. Some are simple but taste very much like good homemade food in Japan. Yes, shio-koji karaage is great, so juicy. (I like shio-koji everything :)) Wagyu tataki is fabulous. Food is not cheap, but each dish is a good portion (tapas dish) to be shared w/ 3 people. The special soup for 2 is so big and hearty w/ salmon that it was too much for me and my husband.
The people are really friendly but never pushy. They leave you alone, which can be translated to slow service. But this is a place you come to relax, linger, and to have conversations over good food and drinks like so many bars in Japan. The background music is also groovy but dim and soft.