Shropshire Star

Food review: Umai, Shrewsbury

Craving a taste of Japan? Then head to Umai for freshly-prepared sushi and other traditional delicacies. Andy Richardson pays a visit. . .

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Crunchy coating – the panko-coated prawns were a hit with our diner Pictures by Russell Davies

It’s tucked away off the beaten path, in a small passage near the High Street. Umai would easily go unnoticed and unfound were it not for a quiet word-of-mouth that’s been doing the rounds on Shrewsbury’s dining scene.

The recently-opened Japanese restaurant is beside the town’s Golden Cross Inn, one of Shrewsbury’s favourite pub-restaurants, and located across two floors. A family affair with Japanese staff working the kitchen and serving on the floor, it feels decidedly authentic.

Unlike some places, it makes sushi fresh to order, rather than leaving it hanging around from the previous order. Sashimi is freshly sliced too – and, yes, you can taste the difference. Oxidisation gradually degrades the flavour and texture of food that’s left standing and Umai makes freshness a point of difference.

It’s part of a burgeoning Asian food scene in the town.

The brilliant Setonaikia, a food shop now located in Shrewsbury’s Parade, was ahead of the game. The pioneering family store, opened many years ago by Mark and Misako Fedorowicz, has for some years been the go-to location for fans of Japanese cuisine. An ingredient shop that offers great products as well as friendly advice, it’s foodie owners have built up a loyal clientele over the years.

More recently, Momo No Ki, in Abbey Foregate, catapulted Japanese cuisine to the forefront of the town’s culinary consciousness. With delicious bowls of ramen and plenty of Off The Cuff creations, it provided a true taste of the Far East.

Others have followed that trend and with House of the Rising Sun and 77 Wyle Cop satisfying the town’s lust for Japanese food, locals are well catered for.

Umai, however, is something different. There’s a sense of it being the real deal, of its staff having the sharpest knives, the best knowledge of a lifelong immersion in Japanese culture.

The dining room is simple. Light wooden table and chairs give it a refectory feel and tables are reasonably close to one another, so that diners are packed in and within earshot of one another.

My friend and I visited for a midweek dinner and were among a small group of diners – families out for a catch-up and professional ladies enjoying a good gossip. We took a window table, overlooking one of Shrewsbury’s most historic streets, and over a pot of green tea began to peruse the menu.

Umai is a no frills kinda place, where you can take your own booze providing you pay a corkage charge. And the menu is similarly unfussy, with a range of sushi, sashimi, salads and sides featuring tofu, vegetables, fish and meat. There are tempura courses, chicken and vegetable skewers, soups and – at lunchtime – bento boxes are served.

With a menu running to 117 dishes, it can feel like the choice is bewildering. And yet, beyond the apparent volume, it is anything but. Primarily, Umai offers small taster portions, with a very small selection of mains for those looking for something more robust. Customers graze their way around the menu, as they might at a Spanish tapas bar, selecting a small bowl of beans to go with a particular piece of sushi, or picking a taste of teriyaki to accompany a rice or noodle side.

So my friend and I ordered nine small courses, mixing and matching different flavours, textures and principal ingredients. The dishes were delivered in no particular order, as and when the chef had cooked, sliced or assembled them.

Chicken yakitori comprised two deliciously sticky and umami-rich skewers that seemed to melt in the mouth. Served with accompanying dips – a deep, rich savoury number and a sweet chilli sauce – they were mouth-watering and divine.

Chicken gyoza were similarly impressive. A plate of five or six light and tasty dumplings filled with a savoury chicken inner before being lightly fried on one side, each was two-bites-big. A small bowl of soy sauce provided adequate seasoning and they were gone before my friend could say: ‘Don’t-eat-all-the-dumplings-because-I’d-really-like-to-try . . . Ooooh. God I hate you’. In truth, they were so good I very nearly ordered another plate.

Ebi fry comprised four prawns longer than a basketball player’s finger that had been dipped in breadcrumbs and fried until golden. They were also served with savoury, sweet and gently warming dips and my friend crunched her way through them like a beaver demolishing saplings. Boom. Gone.

A bowl of miso soup was dreamy. Filling, as satisfying as an open fire on an autumn evening and brimful of delicious and intoxicating flavour, she purred her contentment as she slurped her way through it.

A side of edamame beans were delicious. The green soya beans had been salted and boiled. The outer, inedible husks revealed light, green beans that popped on to the palate with a frisson of freshness.

Maguro nigiri featured two delicious pieces of tuna sushi, with deep purple fish sitting atop sticky, vinegared rice. The usual whistles and bells – peppery wasabi, slightly-sweet ginger and savoury soy – soaked themselves into the rice to deliver flavourbomb after flavourbomb.

Three small slices of hamachi sashimi were similar enjoyable. It’s difficult to imagine a food that delivers more satisfaction than sashimi: clean, flavoursome and with delicious texture, it’s full marks food. Hamachi – or, yellowtail – is one of the most popular fish for sushi and sashimi and fish are frequently farmed in a stress-free environment, allowing them to gain a high fat content which results in a buttery texture and rich flavour.

Two further dishes finished the evening. A sashimi salad featured slices of tuna, salmon sashimi, tobikko caviar, exotic fruit dressing and salad leaves. My friend devoured it, though I wasn’t convinced that the dressing and salad added anything to the sashimi.

And a golden dragon comprised a sushi roll, sliced into eight, with scorched salmon, sweet-baked miso mayonnaise, cucumber, fried onion, with tobikko caviar atop. It was as heavenly as it sounds.

The avoidance of dairy and – rice aside – carbohydrates meant we’d been able to graze to our heart’s content while enjoying efficient service throughout. In a crowded market place, Umai appears to have all of the ingredients it needs to succeed. It’s nicely located in the centre of town – even if the front is difficult to find – and the menu is a dream. It’s got the best sashimi in town and helpful, charming staff. We left Umai wearing a smile: it had made mi-so happy.