Archive for the 'Japanese' Category
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
A new sushi place opened up sometime last year along Kingsway and Boundary-ish. Lucky for me, it is quite close to where I work and even luckier for me, the sushi is tasty and reasonably priced. :) I have been here several times since I found out about it from Corbi. To reward me for my frequent visits, I even have a stamp card where I can collect small discounts (5-15% off) and free California rolls!
Mabel and I came here for lunch one day and also to take advantage of my free California rolls reward from my stamp card. :) I guess the owners recognize us and realized we were frequent visitors so we were also gifted with some octopus sashimi. It was fresh and quite tasty. I really enjoyed the slightly chewy texture of octopus.
That day, I decided to go with the tuna and salmon don. It’s one of my favourite dishes when I go for sushi because it’s almost like nigiri sushi but you assemble it yourself. ;) The salmon and tuna pieces were very large and tasty. I’m not sure what type of tuna they use here, but it tastes almost like toro and seems fattier than regular tuna in other restaurants. The tuna and salmon don here is great because they don’t put in very much rice, which assists me in not overeating. :) At $8.50, it’s really a good deal.
My tuna and salmon don also came with miso soup.
Mabel chose the chicken udon. The noodles were slightly chewy and had several chunks of chicken. Mabel enjoyed it quite a bit and she mentioned that it was a good size for lunch. If I recall correctly, this was $8.75.
The California rolls were very tasty and not just because it was free. :) It comes with a small drizzling of mayo on top but I usually ask them to hold the mayo so I can be slightly healthier. Even without the mayo, these rolls are very good.
Overall, it was another enjoyable meal at Sushi King. The next time I go back, I’ll order something different and try something new to blog about. :) Service can be slow at times though because there is basically one guy making all the sushi and it has become quite busy during the weekday lunch hour.
Details:
3520 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-431-6283
Summary:
Food: 
Service: 
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
During our one evening in Japan, we were all determined to try some sushi. 
Our travel agent recommended a good place to us in the Narita city centre, but we got our directions mixed up so we ended up eating at the Japanese restaurant in our hotel instead. We were prepared for some inflated hotel prices but hoped the dinner would still be good.
Once we were seated, we were given cute little paper cranes to rest our chopsticks on.
Jenkins and I both ordered the chirashi, which cost 3400 yen (approx. $34 Cdn). Of all the items in the chirashi, I enjoyed the tamago the most. It was not too sweet and had a slightly roasted taste to it. I also liked the tuna, which was moist and had a nice red colour (different from what we’re used to in Vancouver). All the seafood had a nice fresh taste and even though it was on the small side, we still filled up.
Jenkins noted that the wasabi was tastier than the usual green stuff we are accustomed to and was much more potent. I don’t think this was real wasabi though.
All our meals also came with miso soup, which came with clams on the bottom. I liked the light clam flavour of the soup but found the clams to be somewhat overcooked.
I enjoyed our meal here but wished we had the opportunity to check out the travel agent-recommended restaurant. I’ll have to add that to my list of things to go back and do the next time I’m in the area.
Summary:
Food:
Grick’s Food Rating:
Service:
Price: $$$
Posted in Narita, Other Cities, Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
(Hey all, it’s corbi here subbing in while gigi is away. Here’s my first post, hope you all like it!)
A couple of us from work headed off to one of our usual haunts the other day, located in the 2nd floor food court of H-Mart on the corner of Robson and Seymour. It always took a bit of navigation: go up the escalators, turn a sharp left, walk by the row of cashiers, make another right, then walk all the way down again to the back of the wall. The stand there is called Matoi Sushi and they have some of the best Japanese good I’ve eaten for a fast food stand.
In the past, I’ve tried quite a few dishes there but for the purpose of this article, I’ll review the particular ones that we often order –the katsu curry rice and the Nabeyaki udon.
The Katsu curry rice has always been one of the favourites among our coworkers, though many like to order as take-out, to ensure that the sauce is separated from the rice and breaded pork, so that the sauce doesn’t make everything too soggy too quickly. The pork is lightly breaded and very crispy, while the curry sauce, I’m told by two different people, is just the right flavour.
One of the dishes I favour is the Nabeyaki udon, a perfect bowl of hot soup and udon for a rainy day. Quite the comfort food. There were alot of different ingredients in mine, including the tempura prawn, mushrooms, veggies, chicken and the traditional fish-ball-slice-thingy that all real Japanese udon has. All served in a piping hot pot. In fact, I think there might be too much stuff and not enough actual udon.
Overall, the quality of the good is quite high considering it being a small fast-food like stand. The lady working the cash register there is always friendly and the guys cook hard at the back. It being an open sushi bar and kitchen, gives you a sense of security and amusement at watching your food being made/cooked on the spot. It may be a little more expensive than your average food court lunch, (I usually end up spending about 10-13 bucks there) but it is at the heart of down town, the food is fresh and they do take cash, debit and credit. However, I would caution going right at noon for a meal as it is a popular place among all the Asian business folks. Even take out might take a while.
Details:
H-Mart Food Court 2F, 590 Robson St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-608-2887
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$$
Posted in Fast Food, Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
Another dinner at Ogenki, another new roll to try. This time, we tried the Mango California roll and another roll that I can’t remember the name of.
The Mango California roll (on the right below) is exactly what it is. It’s a California roll with some mango tucked inside. What I found strange about this roll was that the mango seemed canned and was kind of tangy and candy-like. I’ve had similar rolls before but with fresh mangos, which I prefer more than the candy-like mango here.
The second roll is another California roll-based item. The difference here is that it has slices of tuna on top with some spicy mayo sauce. I liked this roll a lot more than the mango although the spicy sauce is quite spicy and can be a bit overpowering if you’re not into spicy food. But then again, why would you order this if you’re not into spicy?
So far, I’ve tried quite a few “special” rolls at Ogenki now. It’s been a bit hit and miss but I’ve enjoyed trying out the new rolls nonetheless.
Details:
4342 Main St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-875-9975
Summary: (for the two rolls I tried only)
Food:
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | No Comments »
Monday, January 21st, 2008
Derek has been urging me to go visit King Yo, a new izakaya restaurant that has popped up on Denman St. According to him, it was recently rated as one of the top Canadian restaurants for 2007 in a food magazine. To tell you the truth, I rarely venture to Denman St because it’s always hard to find parking and all the good restaurants there normally require you to either make reservations or get there early. Jenkins and I just so happened to get off work early that day so decided to visit King Yo around 6pm.
King Yo is a pretty funky space inside and even though we were there early, it was already packed. We started off with a pot of Sencha green tea.
As with most izakayas, there was a regular menu and also a sheet of daily specials. We decided to start first with the ebi chilli mayo. There was not too much batter on this although the mayo did not have much chilli flavouring.
We also had the ahi tuna capaccio. The tuna was drizzled with a tangy marinade and a little bit of wasabi mayo. There was also a generous clump of thinly shaved fresh onions on top. The sharp onion taste went very well with the pieces of tuna.
Our server recommended that we try the cheese fondue with shrimp and bread chunks. The cheese fondue was a bit tangy and sweet at the same time. It was not too cheesy (which I like) and also had a strong tomato taste. I mentioned to Jenkins that it kind of tasted like warm antipasto dip. :) There were a few pieces of deep fried shrimp and chunks of bread to dip in the fondue, although I didn’t think there was enough to dip with. This dish was around $12.
Jenkins and I noticed by now that most of the dishes at King Yo are quite small, even when compared to other izakayas. We decided to order some noodle dishes for filler. First came the tan tan noodles. In King Yo’s menu, this is listed as “Our Famous Invincible and Undefeated Tan Tan Noodles”. With a proclamation like that, we had to try it! :) These noodles tasted nothing like regular Chinese tan tan noodles but were still very tasty. It had a light sesame and miso taste but also had some seaweed and ground pork on top. These noodles were $8.50.
We also had a cold ramen salad with some thinly sliced egg and pork on top. This salad was quite refreshing and also had some tang from some pickled ginger. I wasn’t sure if the flavours would go together but this was actually pretty good.
For dessert, Jenkins and I shared the matcha creme brulee. It had a very strong matcha taste, which I liked but the sugary topping was not thick enough and the texture was not very creamy. This was around $4.
I found the dishes at King Yo to be a bit hit and miss. The good dishes (tan tan noodles, cheese fondue, tuna avocado) were quite tasty but with its prices being higher than most izakayas and the portion sizes much smaller, you would expect that all their dishes would be hits. I’m not opposed to going back again although I will probably try some other izakaya places first.
Details:
871 Denman St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-608-1677
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 4 Comments »
Posts (RSS)