Fusion food is always interesting and chefs Aaron Israel and Sawako Okochi succeeded in proposing a creative menu inspired by Jewish and Japanese cuisine at Shalom Japan. The epitome of this is their matzo ball ramen that is when a matzo ball soup meets Japanese ramen (by the way, they even offer a kit to make it yourself). Made with chicken broth and bits of chicken, scallion, wood ear mushrooms and nori, it has mandels, that are crunchy croutons that you can add to any soup. And like ramen, you can add a soy marinated egg that they forgot at first and brought me afterwards. I also asked for an additional matzo ball from the get go and did not regret it. They were nicely made, being dense but not too much. The broth was also very good, tasty, comforting and not too salty, marrying perfectly with the other ingredients, with still that feeling that you were eating matzo ball soup and at the same time a ramen.

But if you prefer something else, they have plenty of alternatives like the Chilled sesame temomi mazemen, that is a cold noodle dish made with shiitake mushrooms, shishito peppers, cucumber and Shiso. This vegetarian dish was quite refreshing and packed with flavors.

I should mention their non-alcoholic beverages: they have a bunch of Japanese soda like the Moshi sparkling Uju matcha with white strawberry or the Moshi sparkling red Shiso and apple that was my favorite.

We finished our meal with their chocolate banana challah bread pudding that was good, but could have had more chocolate in it…

So, definitely, Shalom Japan is original and the creativity of the Chefs just make you want to go back.

Enjoy (I did)!

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Shalom Japan - 310 S 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Shalom Japan in Brooklyn, NY

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