Opened earlier this year, Sho-U is one of many Japanese restaurants in the maze of a shopping center The Central. It’s very hip inside—a narrow red hall leads to dining areas in all black or all white, and jazz numbers play softly in the background. The setting is the strongest draw—as the menu is the standard mix of sashimi, sushi, appetizers, mains and sets, and is nothing exceptional. While there are signature dishes, the overall menu is a bit of this and that, and could use a better focus. The food is decent enough—we had no complaints about our lunch set ($28.80) of sashimi, chawanmushi, tempura and beef sukiyaki—but on its own was not good enough to make us want to come back. We must say that the service was pretty good—you could tell the restaurant had made it a point to train their wait staff. But all in all, with popular Japanese restaurants surrounding Sho-U, this restaurant has to find a strong selling point in order to stand out among the competition.
