Sushi Sho

The biting autumn wind ceases abruptly as we’re sucked into one of Stockholm’s most packed eateries. Sushi Sho: the tiny restaurant widely known for making next-level sushi in a setting as bare as it is intimate. The place is packed; we quickly stow our jackets and manoeuver into our seats at the bar, between chatty guests. There’s eighteen of us here: twelve around the bar counter, four elevated seats in the window bay and two people huddled by the beer fridge which is halfway into the kitchen. Let the sho(w) commence. This is an omakase, meaning that you put SEK 685 into Sho’s skilled hands and trust that the kitchen will only serve the best of what’s in season. Drinks are up to you, and even if the blackboard tempts us with ten-odd champagnes from nature-nurturing producers, sake seems a given – we begin with a cool junmai ginjo and thirst-quenching Japanese lager. The first course sets the standard delightfully high: velvety hamachi swaddled in soy mirin warms our autumn-chilled senses. Tepid Swedish octopus and French abalone with fresh wasabi are bouncingly fresh, just made, and have a delicious balance between sweet and salty. Monkfish liver (ankimo) poached in soy and spiced with yuzu is perfected with an unpasteurised sake, where fatty, acidic and spicy melt on your tongue. Pressed sushi (oshizushi) wrapped in crackling nori and served with mackerel, shiso and sesame is crisp, acidic, salty and stunningly good. Eating raw fish over rice has not always been a given in Japanese culture. Sushi, which means ‘sour’ in Japanese, was originally a way of preserving and fermenting fish. Eventually rice was added to the process, and soon vinegar too. It was in 18th-century Tokyo that raw fish then began being served over rice in the city’s edo taverns (edomae), which catered for people who were short of time and would drop in for a quick but filling meal. Sushi Sho presents itself as an Edomae bar, and if you’ve been to Tokyo you’ll recognise its nigiri servings. With a light touch, a ball of rice is squeezed to perfection, while skilled knife handlers slice Arctic char, Danish yellowtail, halibut and turbot and brush the pieces with soy before serving them on their rice across the counter. The crescendo is an extra course – raw tuna belly with caviar, as delicious as it is costly. Sushi Sho gives us a show full of craftsmanship, attitude, knowledge and passion. Elegant, warm, heartfelt and so good that eating yourself full almost seems a bad idea.

Published december 2019