Growing up as a Canadian Japanese I would have to say that I was pretty friggin' ( I think I'm not allowed to swear in the restaurant reviews) lucky to develop a taste and understanding of both worlds. You see, I grew up with my father being away from home for months and with a mother who didn't enjoy cooking. For this reason, I was the one slaving in the kitchen after school for the family. I didn't know how to cook Japanese at the time so I tried to cook everything else. Italian, Mexican, Thai, Indian and whatever else was on the cooking show. But during the days that my father was home, we always ate Japanese. My mother had to cook whether she liked it or not or my father being a creative genius in the kitchen would always dish out some high quality yummy Japanese food. The results, the ultimate Western Japanese food critique in Shanghai. Let it be fusion, experimental, traditional or all out Japanese made for westerners. My palette is divine!

So as you can imagine, Vince and Diana from Haiku sitting across from me was now more than a little nervous about the dinner. Plus I walked into the restaurant all flustered and in a bad mood. But I underestimated them. As soon as I sat down, I got a serving of their signature hot sake Nenohi. The quality of it being good it had a slight sweetness to it and went down smoothly and chilled me out right away. Phew. I needed that. You know you need to chill out when your boyfriend is sending you "C-A-L-M-D-O-W-N" in Morse code under the table with every squeeze of his hand. Vince told us a little bit about himself and how Haiku came to Shanghai. I noticed that he had more than the average appreciation and understanding for Japanese food. He knew how things were made and how they should taste. He even knew every each fish name in Japanese. Now I understood why the owner of Hatsune (Beijing) trusted Vince to bring it down to Shanghai.

I wanted to put this guy and restaurant to the test. So I ordered the agedashi tofu to start with. I hate going to a Japanese restaurant, usually the all you can eats, and getting a bowl of agedashi tofu that's soggy and nasty. Haiku's agedashi tofu? Very crunchy but a different kind of crunchy. Try it out yourself and see if you can guess the special ingredient. Next, sashimi. Now a Japanese restaurant can't call itself a good Japanese restaurant if the sashimi (raw fish duh) smells and tastes like your girlfriend on a bad day or if its served still frozen. Haiku wow. The fresh fresh scallops, the very fresh uni (if this ain't fresh, it'll be slimy and nasty!), the slightly grilled tuna, and oh! The amaebi (sweet shrimp) is to die for!!! We call fresh shrimp, sweet shrimp in Japanese because if it's really fresh then it should have a sweet taste to it. It¡¯s been a while since I've had such sweet amaebi. Being a hairstylist I can¡¯t exactly afford very expensive high-end Japanese food where you'll find good amaebi. And this is the thing! Haiku is more than affordable. I was quite surprised with the pricing! Well you get more than you pay for, that's for sure. Anyways back to the food, the rolls. Yes, the rolls. Rumor has it that Hatsune in Beijing has over 50 styles of rolls. At Haiku they're trying a few of them out in Shanghai. The Moto-roll-ah?! Moto-licious, deep-fried spicy tuna, snow crab, maguro and Avocado, the 119?! Fire it up, with spicy tuna and hot sauce, and the Ultra Philly roll?! Cream cheese, salmon, unagi and sauces. Coming from Vancouver where Japanese restaurants compete to come up with the most interesting but delicious rolls, I was in heaven! Ok, I can keep talken' and talken' about the food but then this would be more than a page. Lets go through the rest of the dishes I also tried. Steak misoyaki - I swear you stole this recipe from my father, the Kara age ( fried boneless chicken and Saba shioyaki ( dry roasted mackerel)-quite surprised on how authentic it tasted. If you keep this up you'll definitely have both the Japanese and western market.

And I must thank Vince and Diana for this night because after the four bottles of wine plus the hot sake, I was so horny I had to stand on my hands and pee! But my bf and I had a very very nice night after! Thank you! And why did we drink four bottles? Awesome hosts but also the wine list was very nice. For all you boys out there who are looking to take a girl out on a nice date, Haiku is perfect, not only because of the food but the also the wine. For example, we had a bottle of Hugel Gewurtztraminer, definitely a ladies wine sweet, light and fruity. Also the desert wine, the Concha y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc, the ladies will love! And yes I know, the desert wine is usually where you end the dinner but my bf was having such a nice time, we decided to order a bottle of red the Bouchard Bourgogne Pinot. And all these wines, between 200 and 400 rmb. Not bad huh.

So since it was my first time doing a review on a Japanese restaurant I wanted to be quite a critique (being a bitch also helps too). But to be honest, I personally love this restaurant. The food, the people, and the drink list. Top notch for its price. Ok, ok I can't end this review with no critiques. Hawaiian shirts on the boys behind the bar, that's gotta go, they need hair cuts too (send them to me) the yellow hanging lights, too bright. But besides this, the decor's not bad! Very chill with floor to roof glass into the garden behind. So different from when it was Vision. Anyways, hope this review was ok. I had lots of fun writing it! And if anybody else wants to invite me to try out their restaurant, I'd be more than happy too! Just hope your food is good or I'll tear it apart! He he!!

Haiku is Japanese poem composed of three non-rhyming lines.

Haiku by hatsune
Address: 28B Taojiang Road, near Hengshan Road