Overrated, overpriced, and under average food. After reading so many great reviews, how so many chefs call Shunka their favorite Japanese restaurant in Barcelona, and how the majority of the clientele were made up of Japanese, I came with high hopes of having a super satisfying meal. Instead…

Entrance:

Simple decor, lots of wood. A few months earlier, I had tried making a reservation for a Friday night but it was all booked! I thought, Shunka must really be that good! This time I called 3 days in advance and had to ask a few times before I got a table not right next to the bathroom.
As I walked in, I was greeted hesitantly by a waitress who whispered in Chinese to another waiter, trying to find my reservation. I didn’t want to judge too quickly, but based on my previous experiences, Chinese waiters at a Japanese restaurant were a bad sign for the food to come. Hopefully, the cooks were not inexperienced Chinese trying to make Japanese food…

Miso Shiru €2.70

Normal tasting miso soup with lots of scallions, a bit watery.

Ebi (shrimp) Tempura €12.00

3 small sized shrimp, crispy and oily. That’s 4 euros each!

Crab and Avocado Roll €9.00

Pretty much a California roll, mushy and soft, tasting mostly of mayonnaise.

Tempura Udon- udon with king prawn tempura €10.80

No udon left? These noodles were more like fettuccine, thin and flat, not at all the thick chewy round noodles that I had expected and hoped for. The soy sauce broth and shrimp tempura were ok.

Yaki Onigiri- 2 balls of barbecued rice €4.60

Sadly, this was the most enjoyable part of the meal, barbecued rice! Grilled with a crispy skin, light soy sauce flavors and tasty bonito fish flakes inside.

3 desserts, from top left clockwise:
Green Tea Ice Cream €3.00
Sake Truffles €2.80
Mirasame- special roll of anko (red bean paste) €1.80

The ice cream was normal and icy with that bitter green tea powder aftertaste, seated atop a Japanese frosted cracker (I love those, I always get those at Asian supermarkets!). I had read in a guide book that the sake truffles were “out of this world” and ordered them out of curiousity. They were just normal chilled chocolate truffles, with a bumpy nutty texture and a faint alcohol taste. The last dessert looked like mochi, but in fact were entirely beans. Sweet red bean paste wrapped in some similar tasting white bean paste.

For such glowing reviews, hard to get tables, and highish prices, the food was average, at best. I was mainly disappointed because of my high expectations, but the small and expensive portions left me depressed and dissatisfied. I almost feel guilty writing a negative review of Shunka. Why would this place get only positive reviews? Maybe I was just really unlucky that day, or, more likely, the restaurant was once great, word got out, and as the popularity rose, the quality declined. I don’t want to go back and try again though, I would much rather get Japanese food at Kibuka any day!

Receipt:
2 Agua sin gas 4.00
miso shiru 2.70
ebi tempura 12.00
tempura udon 10.80
yaki onigiri 4.60
ballantines 12 9.00
trufa 2.80
helado 3.00
murasame 1.80
total+tax= €54.25 (dinner for 2)

This entry was posted by chicken on Saturday, July 15th, 2006 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Barcelona, Barri Gòtic, Japanese. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.