Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Shino Sushi + Kappo is a true sleeper

Fine dining hidden in Little Italy without glitz or glamor

Special combo, much finer than its name suggests
Special combo, much finer than its name suggests
Place

Shino Sushi + Kappo

838 W. Ash Street, San Diego

Rumors of Shino Sushi + Kappo have percolated up through the usual channels. People say that chef Robert Nakamura —brother of Hane Sushi’s Roger Nakamura — produces elegant and indulgent sushi, having learned a trick or two working at Sushi Ota. And much like Ota, Shino is a true sleeper, without a proper website or any of the glitz and glamor that often accompanies fine restaurants. After dark, it’s easy to pass Shino by on its desolate block in Little Italy, with only train tracks and high rises for company.

Inside, the spartan concrete furnishings reveal little, but diners gush as they make their way to the exit.

“Oh my god, that was the best sushi!”

Et cetera.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The rumors proof. Shino is exceptional. Even a plate of seaweed salad tells the whole truth. Instead of the dyed-green strings of jellied kombu sold everywhere else, Shino's salad is this little, perfect composition of rainbow seaweeds. Each piece distinct, briny, and dressed lightly with fine rice vinegar and some goma (sesame seeds), served in the thickly glazed ceramics for which the restaurant is named.

A perfect seaweed salad

Plates of sushi present gorgeous jewels of fish and rice. Asking for the $32 “sushi combo special” sounds crass, as if it were copied form the menu at Sushi Deli, but the platter includes marbled chu-toro, uni, spear squid that dissolves into a rush of briny freshness, buttery yellowtail, and chopped toro rolls, to name a few.

Special combo, much finer than its name suggests

But go beyond the special combo, and there is Japanese amberjack, almost impossibly tender and succulent.

Raw octopus, simply refreshing.

Zuke (marinated) tuna, which looks like a polished gemstone and finishes with the perfect zing of yuzokoshō chili paste.

There is o-toro, richer than the best lardo and laced with the taste of the salty blue water where the tuna hunt.

Of course, sushi is rice, and Shino’s rice exceeds expectations. Without too much sugar or vinegar, it’s an exercise in pointed understatement. Where some chefs play with rice to give it character, Nakamura’s kitchen makes rice that acts like a gessoed canvas for the masterstroke of exceptional fish. Teased into form by the chefs’ experienced hands, each bite seems tightly compacted and solid until it crumbles into perfect grains.

A smaller version of Shino's omakase meal

Shino lacks real flaws. Imperfections are slight enough that their mention constitutes little more than quibbling. Putting soy sauce, and even extra wasabi, on the table invites diners to question the chef’s judgment, which proves 99% impeccable. Nakamura might go a hair too heavy on the wasabi, but only in very rare instances and in a manner that comes down to personal taste. It’s only worth mentioning because the fact that noticing such a small thing, really the merest shadow of doubt, somehow highlights excellence.

It calls to mind a minor character from a William Gibson novel, an old man who lives in a cardboard box at a Tokyo subway station. He paints Gunndam model robot figures with fervent obsession, “perhaps leaving each one with a single minute and somehow perfect flaw, at once his signature and a recognition of the nature of the universe. How nothing is perfect, really. Nothing ever finished. Everything is process.”

And the process of dining at Shino approaches the sublime.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Special combo, much finer than its name suggests
Special combo, much finer than its name suggests
Place

Shino Sushi + Kappo

838 W. Ash Street, San Diego

Rumors of Shino Sushi + Kappo have percolated up through the usual channels. People say that chef Robert Nakamura —brother of Hane Sushi’s Roger Nakamura — produces elegant and indulgent sushi, having learned a trick or two working at Sushi Ota. And much like Ota, Shino is a true sleeper, without a proper website or any of the glitz and glamor that often accompanies fine restaurants. After dark, it’s easy to pass Shino by on its desolate block in Little Italy, with only train tracks and high rises for company.

Inside, the spartan concrete furnishings reveal little, but diners gush as they make their way to the exit.

“Oh my god, that was the best sushi!”

Et cetera.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The rumors proof. Shino is exceptional. Even a plate of seaweed salad tells the whole truth. Instead of the dyed-green strings of jellied kombu sold everywhere else, Shino's salad is this little, perfect composition of rainbow seaweeds. Each piece distinct, briny, and dressed lightly with fine rice vinegar and some goma (sesame seeds), served in the thickly glazed ceramics for which the restaurant is named.

A perfect seaweed salad

Plates of sushi present gorgeous jewels of fish and rice. Asking for the $32 “sushi combo special” sounds crass, as if it were copied form the menu at Sushi Deli, but the platter includes marbled chu-toro, uni, spear squid that dissolves into a rush of briny freshness, buttery yellowtail, and chopped toro rolls, to name a few.

Special combo, much finer than its name suggests

But go beyond the special combo, and there is Japanese amberjack, almost impossibly tender and succulent.

Raw octopus, simply refreshing.

Zuke (marinated) tuna, which looks like a polished gemstone and finishes with the perfect zing of yuzokoshō chili paste.

There is o-toro, richer than the best lardo and laced with the taste of the salty blue water where the tuna hunt.

Of course, sushi is rice, and Shino’s rice exceeds expectations. Without too much sugar or vinegar, it’s an exercise in pointed understatement. Where some chefs play with rice to give it character, Nakamura’s kitchen makes rice that acts like a gessoed canvas for the masterstroke of exceptional fish. Teased into form by the chefs’ experienced hands, each bite seems tightly compacted and solid until it crumbles into perfect grains.

A smaller version of Shino's omakase meal

Shino lacks real flaws. Imperfections are slight enough that their mention constitutes little more than quibbling. Putting soy sauce, and even extra wasabi, on the table invites diners to question the chef’s judgment, which proves 99% impeccable. Nakamura might go a hair too heavy on the wasabi, but only in very rare instances and in a manner that comes down to personal taste. It’s only worth mentioning because the fact that noticing such a small thing, really the merest shadow of doubt, somehow highlights excellence.

It calls to mind a minor character from a William Gibson novel, an old man who lives in a cardboard box at a Tokyo subway station. He paints Gunndam model robot figures with fervent obsession, “perhaps leaving each one with a single minute and somehow perfect flaw, at once his signature and a recognition of the nature of the universe. How nothing is perfect, really. Nothing ever finished. Everything is process.”

And the process of dining at Shino approaches the sublime.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader 1st place writing contest winner gets kudos

2nd place winner not so much
Next Article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.