Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe - First Visit

In Vancouver, we are truly blessed with Japanese tapa and Izakaya style restaurants. If you want quiet, intimate and fusion, go to Umami. If you want down home, cheap, cheerful, noisy and full of Japanese, go to Guu on Thurlow, our first Izakaya love. If you want upscale Guu, go to Hapa Izakaya. And if you want fusion but in the style of Hapa (more exuberant and youthful), go to Shiru-Bay (1193 Hamilton Street, 604 408-9315).

Barb and I went for our wedding anniversary dinner and as I wrote yesterday, we loved it. Our favourite dishes were in the order of our preference: 1. Beef Carpaccio ($10.80): truffle oil and ...? pure umami delight 2. Tarako Kimuchi Udon ($9.80): beautiful texture udon noodles with arugula and other tasty things! 3. Papaya Feta Salad ($8.80): feta with papaya and duck on the side, texture, and taste contrast delight 4. Kurobuta Riblet ($12.80) - Slow braised pork heaven!

We had seven dishes for $54.50 including An-Nin tofu which was an excellent tofu dessert (in particular I loved the sesame half of this dish) and two sake cocktails for $14 so the total after taxes before tip was $77.91.

Check out the photos below (unfortunately our photo of the papaya salad didn't turn out):