Shinsen is one of those places I've been telling myself to try as I've passed it by so many times and that finally came to fruition a few days back.
Coming from a workout, I was thirsty and starving. After asking for water at least two times, it finally arrived. We ordered the Tuna Avocado Roll (which was unavailable and we didn't find out until after 10 minutes or so of placing our order) Dynamite Roll, Yasai Tempura, Salmon Sashimi and Tori Karaage.
You would think with the large staff they had working that evening, around 10+ employees, the food would've come out in a timely manner. However, after 10-15 minutes of waiting, we followed up and our food was finally served. Yet it was only the salmon sashimi, which was underwhelming. The salmon itself tasted good but with only 6 stringy, scrawny pieces and priced at 418 pesos, we expected more.
More time passed and after following up a few more times, another dish was served to us. However, it wasn't something we ordered and was immediately taken away. While waiting for the rest of our order, we noticed some of the staff weren't doing much and we even caught one of the staff members in the back staring at us, multiple times. We weren't really mad but we thought it was comical and surprising that he had time to just sit there and stare at customers while we were (and most likely other customers) hungrily waiting for the rest of our order.
After about another 10-15 minutes of waiting, more food finally came to our table. The yasai tempura, dynamite roll and after a few minutes more, the tori karaage. The dynamite roll was delicious, the tuna and salmon were marinated well and had a great spicy sesame flavor to it. However, the yasai tempura was a bit of a let down. The breading was so thick and I even had to spit out a full mouthful of breading once. The yori karaage also wasn't the best, a bit dry and not very flavorful and was cut into bite-size pieces, seemingly just to fill the plate. it also had a weird off taste that made us think the oil they used was rancid.
We then tried to end the night off with their Japanese Pannacotta, which was also unavailable, so we just got our bill and left. A bit frustrating since some of the food here is really good but some of it wasn't good at all and the service, or lack of, really didn't help the experience at all. After trying Shinsen, it just comes off as your average run of the mill Japanese place in my book.
Pros:
-Overall, food mostly tastes quite good.
Cons:
-Expect to wait a while for your food.
-Is pricey especially for the rolls and sashimi items. read more