We did some research on things to eat in Toyama city and Shiro ebi (white shrimp) was consistently rated as a must try food. We searched online and found that Shiroebi-tei in Toyama was mentioned a number of times. After looking it up, we were pleased to find it was conveniently located in Toyama Station.

It was around lunch time, so we stopped here after a visit to the Toyama Glass Art Museum. We were getting pretty hungry, so we parked in a Times parking structure and then made our way to the restaurant. We had a feeling it might be busy and we were right.

The shop itself was pretty small with only a handful of tables and bar seats. The line was very orderly and it snaked around the front of the entrance. There were probably around 30 to 40 people ahead of us. We also noticed that they had a takeout line that was completely empty. Since we were a bit short on time, we decided to do takeout.

Shiroebi-tei Menu

The two dishes that they were most known for was their white shrimp sashimi bowl (#6) (白えび刺身丼) and their tempura white shrimp bowl (#2) (白えび天丼). They had a couple other options as well including squid, yellowtail, salmon eggs, and firefly squid. We were going to go with one of each the sashimi and tempura bowls. However, we saw that they had a combination option (#1) with a little bit of tempura white shrimp, yellowtail, and the firefly squid. We decided to go with the combination bowl and the white shrimp sashimi bowl.

The shop had large glass windows that allowed customers to see the preparation process for the white shrimp.

We went to the front of the takeout line. It kind of felt like we were cutting everyone else, but the line was clearly labeled and separate from the main line. We got to the counter and ordered without any trouble. They gave us a number and told us it would be done in about five minutes. We looked around the surrounding shops for a bit. About five minutes later they called our number and we picked up our food. We asked for a parking validation and they took our parking ticket and gave us a small receipt.

There wasn’t any seating in the area, so we decided to head back to the car to eat. Retrospectively, we could have eaten in the mall next to the parking garage that had a number of small seating areas.

Shiroebi-tei Food Review

The white shrimp sashimi bowl was excellent. I’m personally a big fan of shrimp sashimi and just shrimp in general. The shrimp were very tender and delicious. The saltiness of the shoyu and the spiciness of the ginger balanced the natural taste of the white shrimp.

The tempura mix bowl was delicious as well. I think my favorite part was actually the firefly squid. It had a nice crispy outside and a tender non-chewy inside. The yellowtail was fried to perfection. It was nice and crispy on the outside and moist and flaky on the inside.

I personally am not used to eating shrimp with the shell still on. The white shrimp themselves are pretty small and I can understand that tempura frying something that small would give a wide range of distorted shapes. It was much more realistic to fry the whole shrimp and get a consistent and visually appealing shape. The shrimp tempura was good, it was just that second crunch from the shell that we were not used to.

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed the food at Shiroebi-tei in Toyama. It was a little pricey, however we were on vacation and wanted to try the best local foods. Highly recommend for its delicious food and convenient location in Toyama Station.

Here is the link to their website.

More to Come…