I was in a celebrating mood this one afternoon, and I thought “what better way to celebrate than a nice sushi place!?” so I found myself at Sho Sushi Bar & Kitchen as it looks super fancy, and high end from the outside. The parking lot is a little tricky as it’s not really marked one way – but it all works out at the end. This restaurant is in the deep south, on the East side of Macleod Trial.
We were first greeted by nobody for the longest time, and then the hostess came to stand at the podium at the front folding napkins. “It’s alright!” we thought to ourselves as we were in no hurry… until it got ridiculous, we had to go up and say hi first. When we finally got seated, it took forever for any sort of service. It actually was tough getting service throughout the dinner and we watched other customers suffer a bit. We were alright, as we kept the mentality of “we’ve got nothing better to do!” The menus come out on laminated copies and you mark what you want on it with a dry erase pen! It’s pretty neat! We started with some Gyozas as it’s always something I love. They were alright, nothing great, but not nasty – mediocre!
The other starter we had was their Miso Soup which again wasn’t anything special. So far, this celebration night just seemed like a normal night… so, we hoped the sushi was at least great! The miso soup was very bland with a few pieces of tofu in the bottle and one shredded piece of seaweed floating in the soup.
Then, we ordered some sashimi, and we ordered the Salmon Sashimi and the Tuna Sashimi which the tuna was kind of the “wrong” texture. The salmon was really good, but something was funny with the tuna. We ate it anyway without a word, and I must add, our bellies were fine the following day – so it’s all good! The portions were quite generous, and that kept us quite happy.
Then came our plate of sushi, we ordered Smoked Duck Sushi, Smoked Salmon Sushi and Spicy Tuna Roll, and these came out very good! We were very pleased with the duck sushi as it was a nice piece of tasty duck with some rice! The smoked salmon was one of my favourites all night and there wasn’t anything to complain about with this tuna roll. So, things took a turn – and we were satisfied!
The last thing we ordered was what they called Ocean Surprise and it was described as “spicy prawn with mayo and avocado topped with seaweed salad and gold tobiko” on the menu. It was an odd ball, but not gross! It had a good balance of flavours and textures making it unique and special. It was pretty good!
Since things turned out better at the end, we figured it’d be fine to order some dessert. We asked for the Creme Brulee Cheesecake and this cheesecake took forever – as I think it was thawing in the kitchen or something. The top of the cake wasn’t actually bruleed so it was cold and didn’t have the nice topping. The cheesecake itself tasted like the ones you could get from the frozen isle at the grocery stores… so, we wished we never ordered it – since it wasn’t made by them. It’s just not what we were expecting for some odd reason (they’re not a bakery!)
Overall, the dining experience was a decent one. It had it’s moments of ups and downs. It’s average food quality with a higher price tag. Service is kind of lacking, but not a place I would avoid… nor a place I would go to celebrate with again though… you decide whether or not you’d like to try. For their benefit of a doubt though, we went when they were just opened, so maybe it was wrinkles they needed to iron out at that time!
Sho Sushi Bar & Kitchen
7212 Macleod Trail S
Calgary, AB
(403) 252-5199
