Review: Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya Wins With Family-Friendly Fare

Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya is a Japanese restaurant in EPCOT’s Japan Pavilion. The restaurant features both sushi (which we did not try on this visit) and small-plate izakaya-style dishes. (See the menu) The shareable izakaya plates start at $7, but the more common range is $18-25. Some plates are only a bite two each when split 3 ways; others are more substantial.

With shared plates your price tag will vary a lot, and if you add in pricy sushi then your bill will be “even more personalized”. If you keep your choices limited it’s possible to dine for $35-45 per person, not including drinks and gratuities. But if you embark on a tasting adventure or add sushi into the mix, all bets are off.

For those on the Disney Dining Plan, Shiki-Sai is a 1-credit meal. The menu offers two prix-fixe “Omakase” menus, based on “choose one from each” sections that were a subset of the main menu. We were told that either Omakase was available with the Disney Dining Plan. Needing to use the Dining Plan is the only reason we could see for choosing the Omakase, as it appeared to us that in most cases the a la carte combination would be cheaper than the $65 price tag.

You’ll find Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya above the Mitsukoshi Department store; head up the (fairly) steep stairs or find the elevator nearby. Shiki-Sai shares an entrance with Teppan Edo; the hibachi is to the left and the izakaya is to the right. The restaurant concept featured the seasonal festivals of Japan, and many early visitors reported being shown around artwork and highlights by cultural representatives.

The artwork is still there, the restaurant is still lovely with a calm vibe and an impressive-looking sushi bar, and there are still seasonal touches throughout the space. But we were simply shown to our table and seated like any other restaurant. The guidance given us by our server was about the menu and how shared small plates work, and not about the decor. All that said, if you are seated anywhere with a sightline to a window, the view of World Showcase and the lagoon is beautiful.

Shiki-Sai is open for lunch and dinner, and if you have a larger party or need a specific date, you’ll want to take note of your 60-day reservation window. But if you can’t, don’t fret – reservations are available on less than 3 days’ notice about half the time or more, and you’ll often find it on the Walk-Up Waitlist. Keep in mind that you’ll need park admission in order to make it to your table.

Zero-Proof Cocktails

Violet Yuzu Lemonade – $12.00
Yuzu juice, lemonade, blue butterfly pea flower

Calpis Dragon – $12.00
Pink ombre-colored mocktail with dragon fruit and Calpico

We are mocktail fans, so we tried two of the three that we found on Shiki-Sai’s menu. We expected the yuzu to give the lemonade a more complex flavor, but the glass was just single-note sour, even after we mixed it. Our server did tell us in advance that it was much less sweet than American lemonade, but it didn’t feel sweetened at all and we didn’t finish it.

The Calpis Dragon was much nicer, with the dragonfruit adding balance to the Calpico in a way that we had thought the yuzu would do with the lemon. If you like Fresca you might give this one a try – it’s nowhere near as sweet, but it has that same “I’m refreshing on my own and make a great mixer” vibe. Unlike the lemonade, we’d get this one again.

Shareables

We found a wide range of sizes in the menu items that we thought were shareable – items that were easy to portion out on a plate or pass around. Some items were easily an appetizer for one, or could be shared as a dish for 3-4 people to have a bite or two. Others were more substantial. And while a low price always seemed to mean a small dish, a high price didn’t guarantee a larger one.

Kara-age Chicken – $12.00
Japanese-style fried chicken flavored with garlic and ginger and served with lemon

I wanted to love these, because mostly I love anything fried and crunchy. And they were good. They were fried, they were crunchy, the chicken was tender … the textures were great but somehow, they just lacked flavor oomph. We could taste the garlic and ginger, but we needed to be trying. Don’t get me wrong, these will be well received by any youthful, picky, chicken-tender eaters in your family unless they are so picky that they have a shortlist of acceptable nugget brands. But as grownups, we felt they could have used a little sauce.

Rock Shrimp Tempura – $24.00
Crispy shrimp tossed in creamy yuzu sauce

The tempura fry on these shrimp was done well, and the citrusy yuzu-based sauce made a nice change from the more common “bang-bang” variations that are popular on a lot of menus. The downside for us is that we felt the dish was oversauced, and the crisp, textured fry quickly became a bit soggy. If you value the crunch, pass and eat these as a priority after they arrive at your table.

Grilled Wagyu Gyoza 3 pc – $20.00
Pan-fried dumplings filled with smoky A5 Japanese wagyu beef

We love wagyu, but we were not fans. The dumpling wrappers were nice, and nicely fried, but we found the wagyu filling very greasy. Wagyu is not a lean cut; the marbling that it’s famous for helps bring the flavor, with the fat enriching the taste. On its own, just the right amount of fat clings to the meat as it heads to your tongue. As dumplings, the fat seemed trapped. We’ve had this same experience with wagyu dumplings elsewhere and this seems to us like not a great dish for this stellar ingredient. But it’s worth noting that tastes vary, if you’ve had wagyu dumplings elsewhere and loved what is often described as the “buttery flavor and texture” then you will probably have a better opinion of these than we did.

Kushi Assorted – $30.00
Six of our signature skewers featuring two each of beef, chicken, and shrimp

The kushi – a shish kebab by any other name – are $7-8 individually, so the assortment of 6 is a good value if your table wants to try and share around. These were very solid contenders in the “will not offend anyone” category; none of the meats were heavily spiced. The flavoring was mainly from a light, slightly sweet miso glaze that did a good job letting the flavor of the proteins shine through. Our favorite was the shrimp, but on a different day we could have chosen any of the three.

Vegetable Okonomiyaki – $25.00
Veggie-filled okonomiyaki

This okonomiyaki was huge, and we still finished every bite. The shredded vegetables were tender but not overcooked, with just the barest whisper of their original crunchy textures. Scallions or some onion ingredient are common in vegetarian okonomiyaki and the pancake had a very slight peppery kick in addition to sweeter flavors from the cabbage, but nothing that sounded an alarm for the spice wimps in our group. And the tangy sauce was what made this dish, binding all the flavors together. We admit, sometimes the sauce took over individual mouthfuls, but everyone thought that was just fine.

Better For One

These “just-for-one” dishes were harder to share, but if you don’t mind passing the whole bowl around the table you can still spread them around. Like the other izakaya offerings, these are best viewed as small plates that you combine to make a meal, rather than something that you’re going to pick one and that is your meal.

Unagi Don – $20.00
Grilled freshwater eel served over tamagoyaki on a bed of steamed rice, drizzled with a savory sauce

This is a good dish for picky eaters who are willing to be a bit adventurous. The eel was tender with a bit of umami and no “fishy” flavor. The tamagoyaki – a thin omelet that has been rolled into a block – was soft and velvety. And the sauce was an Asian-style sweet/salty/savory sauce that anyone who has eaten teriyaki or beef with broccoli will be familiar with, but applied here with a light enough hand to accent the flavors of the eel and the rice without overwhelming them.

Ishiyaki-Sukiyaki Rice – $28.00
Grill strips of beef in a hot stone bowl at your tableside along with spinach and rice in a sweet garlic sauce

If you read “grilled strips of beef” and started thinking fajitas, you’re on the wrong track; the cut here is smaller strips, similar to what you’d find in a standard Chinese fried rice. Despite similar flavors, that standard Chinese fried rice has nothing on this dish; we thought it was the winner of the night. A single person at the table ordered this for her dinner and gave the rest of us a series of increasingly stern glares as we kept reaching over for “just one more bite”, especially of the crunchy rice at the bottom.

What was so perfect about it? It’s hard to say. The tableside presentation was fun, but I’m going to go with every element being just right. The beef was tender, the spinach wilted but not done for, the sauce right on point, and I’ve already mentioned the crunchy rice that formed against the smoking hot stone bowl. Put it all together in a complete bite and you get something that you want to savor for a minute before you swallow.

Wrapping Up

Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya strikes a lot of the right notes. The food is tasty (always a win!) and many items are friendly to less adventurous palates. While we didn’t venture away from the “safer” non-sushi items, we expect those would also be well worth your time. The question you need to ask is whether they would be well worth your money; the sticking point here is going to be sticker shock. Sushi is always a pretty penny, so if you’re looking to round out a meal for those who shy away from the raw fish you might not find the price off-putting. And if that’s the case then Shiki-Sai is an excellent choice, with far more variety than you’ll often see when a restaurant has the word “sushi” in its name. But if you have access to quality Japanese food in your hometown, you might question whether the izakaya-style dining is adding enough to the experience to be worth the money on its own.

Have you dined at Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya? What did you think? Let us know in the comments!