Shio is chef Cheyne Morrisby’s third restaurant and he continues to excel at putting a Western twist on Asian flavours and ingredients.
Modern Japanese cuisine with Cheyne Morrisby’s magic touch The Grey boutique hotel on Napier Street is home to the latest Asian-inspired hot spot to capture the hearts of Cape Town foodies. Billed as a modern Japanese izakaya (Japan’s answer to the gastropub), Shio is chef Cheyne Morrisby’s third restaurant, together with Cheyne’s and Lucky Bao in Hout Bay.
Cheyne’s style is thoughtfully creative, putting a Western twist on Asian flavours and ingredients. “We go through different traditional dishes,” says Cheyne, “Look at say tonkatsu (a dish that consists of breaded pork chop); see how they are doing it. We’ll take that ingredient, that method, and reinterpret it in my own style, always keeping true to the ingredient itself.”
Cheyne’s creative traditional dishes served at Shio
Shio is small and intimate, with dark midnight walls lit by bright pops of colour from a larger-than-life mural in one room and a neon sake sign in the other. The menu is easy to read, with tantalising specials making it difficult to decide. Even with the tapas, tasting plate format, we’ll need more than one visit to do it justice. We fall immediately for the spicy pork katsu, can’t miss out on the chilli salt squid with lime aioli and green chili caramel dipping sauces, or the yellowtail sashimi with mango pickle and yuzu grape gel.
The special tapas tasting plate format
Unexpected but just as delicious are the Chalmar sirloin in a shimeji pepper cream and the shitake mushrooms in a rich creamy sauce with manchego cheese, but Cheyne isn’t alone in this seeming culture clash. “Some of the top spots in Japan now are starting to use cream and butter in their cooking,” he says, “exploring different ingredients themselves to move away from the more traditional vibe.” The light spinach ohitashi dressed in a citrussy sesame sauce is the perfect foil to the richness of the cream.
With all the will in the world to taste few more dishes, those six have left us replete. However, dessert here is not to be missed. The tonka bean chocolate with miso butterscotch and coffee gel is a chocoholic’s dream, and the deconstructed pear tarte tatin with a togarashi and black sesame ice cream blows our minds, with the pop of chilli offsetting the rich caramelly pears.
A taste of some of the decadent desserts on offer
Experience for yourself:
- Shio | 021 721 1106 | facebook.com/shiogreenpoint
This article originally appeared in Neighbourhood, Sunday Times.