Shinjuku Station a new take on Japanese Fare

A little store in downtown Fort Worth's medical district, modernly decorated, by a mixture of black and white and colorful Japanese urban photography. The ambiance has a casual and trendy feel.  The wait staff was knowledgable, attentive, and polite while providing fresh plates with every course.  Shinjuku Station is not your normal sushi bar.  Don't expect to go in there and get away with just a normal california roll.  Go in with a open mind to indulge in cooked and uncooked Japanese small plates.

Our meal started with brown butter sautéd Chinese broccoli (forgot to take a picture).  The brown butter really came through but we think the flavor would have been better if we ordered the baked mushrooms with brown butter.  But it was enjoyable all the same.

Our a la carte tempura choices for the night were red snapper and tiger prawn at $.89 a piece.  They were delightfully light, crisp, and the seafood was fresh.  It came with the usual tempura sauce and ground daikon (Which should be a more common thing in all Japanese restaurants except the normal clientele doesn't seem to appreciate).

 Our next course was their Hokkaido scallops and tuna tartar on top of a crispy fried lotus root chip and topped with rice pearls.  The presentation was a nice change from the usual tartar tower with avocado.  The  texture was a mixture of smooth tartar, tender raw scallops, crispy rice pearls and lotus root.  A refreshing take on a overdone classic. We have never had a tartar like this before and we've had LOTS of tartars. 

Ceviche roll and Kobe nigiri (forgot to take picture)  was our sushi course and their specials for the night.  We appreciated the freshness and components of the ceviche but the red cabbage disrupted the texture if the roll.  The Kobe Nigiri on the other hand, melted in your mouth like Kobe is suppose to.  The fattiness of the Kobe melted into the rice and combined into one delicious bite.

Then came our highlights of the night with the king crab tempura with Masago aioli and our extra pork belly okonomiyaki "Japanese style pizza".  The king crab tempura out shined our a la carte tempuras as it is suppose to.  You are given four portions of bite sized crab leg meat and one gigantic pre-cracked crab claw. Be prepared to grunt after you dip that crab claw into the aioli...it was an awesome burst of real fresh crab flavor vs. imitation or frozen crab.  Our okonomiyaki was fatty in a good way.  Other than the pork belly, the texture of the napa cabbage and the freshness of the pickled ginger melted well together.  The pizza was also topped with bonito and nori flakes, and drizzled with Japanese mayo.  We recommend requesting extra pork belly so you have more than one piece of porky goodness with every bite.

After this monstrous meal we did not leave ourselves any room for dessert but definitely left with sweet smiles and desire to explore more on the menu. Out of 10 this place gets a solid 7.

Shinjuku Station
711 W Magnolia Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX, 76104