Archive for the 'Japanese' Category
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
Jenkins and I went to one of our favourite places for cheap eats last week…Ebi Ten at 388 Robson St. Ebi Ten is a fast food Japanese place with a small but delicious menu. They have about 10 different main dishes, including terikyaki chicken with rice and tempura udon as well as a selection of prepared sushi.
Jenkins and I both decided to have the teriyaki chicken rice bowls for dinner. The teriyaki chicken is served on rice with a bed of lettuce and a little bit of mayo on top. Pretty different from what teriyaki chicken looks like at most places!
For $5.95, you also get a free pop or miso soup with your combo…which is great. If you opt out, your combo is $0.75 cheaper. Normally, the chicken teriyaki rice bowl is more than enough for dinner but we were a bit hungry that night so we added a couple of extra items.
I selected a small dish of wakame (seaweed). It was marinated in a vinegar dressing and tossed with some sesame seeds. There was also a hint of spiciness, which was nice.
Jenkins opted for some California rolls. In terms of taste, the California rolls here really aren’t that great…but are acceptable, especially if you are hungry. Both the wakame and the California rolls were $1.89 each.
Jenkins and I have been going to Ebi Ten for a few years now and it’s always a great place to grab a quick bite to eat. Most menu items are familiar to most people but some dishes (like the teriyaki chicken) have an interesting twist to them. I have never been here for lunch before but Jenkins tells me that the line-ups can get pretty crazy.
Details:
388 Robson St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-689-9938
Summary:
Food: 
for the teriyaki chicken and 
for the sides 
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Derek, Peggy, and I went to Tomoya for sushi the other day. Located at 6285 Nelson Ave in Burnaby, it’s just around the corner from Lao Shan Dong beef noodle house and basically across the street from Metrotown. I had heard from a friend that this was pretty good so decided to give it a try.
Upon reading the menu at the restaurant, we found out that the chef was from New York and sought to bring an interesting spin to traditional Japanese food. We were intrigued by their special rolls, which were spins on regular rolls that you would find in most sushi places.
I have to admit that there is a gap of a few weeks between when we went to this restaurant and when I write this post so I can’t remember the names of all the rolls we tried though.
First off was the Flying Dragon roll. It is basically a dynamite roll with the added bonus of eel and both red and green tobiko on top. Let me just say now that the size of these rolls is bigger than most regular sushi rolls and you also get 8-10 pieces instead of the usual 5-6 pieces.
Then we had the Metro roll. It had tempura salmon, avocado, and crab inside. On top, there was sashimi salmon and tobiko. This roll was very crunchy, which was nice…but I found that the tempura salmon had more fried batter taste than salmon itself.
Then we had a sushi roll that had cooked shrimp and mango layered on top. I can’t remember what was inside the roll though. I was intrigued by the mango on top, but found the overall taste of this one pretty plain.
This next roll was my favourite of the four. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what it’s called! Inside, it was a regular California roll. But on top, there was chopped scallops, red & green tobiko, and green onions. It sounds like there is a lot going on, but the flavours all worked well with one another.
Overall, I think this is a great new addition to the regular sushi restaurants along Kingsway. Most places that I’ve been to that offer rolls like this are all on the west side of Vancouver. The servings were much bigger than I anticipated. The three of us ordered four rolls, but three rolls would have been more than enough. Each special roll costs around $7-9.
My biggest complaint about this place was that the tables weren’t wiped down very well, which resulted in an impression that the restaurant was a bit unkempt and sloppy.
Details:
6285 Nelson Ave, Burnaby
Tel: 604-437-8839
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Sunday, August 12th, 2007
Jenkins and I went to Torarenbo for lunch the other day. It is located at 8191 Park Rd in Richmond, which is a small street right by Richmond Centre mall. Jenkins found out about this place a few months ago and it has quickly become one of our favourite sushi places in Richmond.
We both ordered lunch boxes, which came with miso soup.
Jenkins had the chicken teriyaki lunch box, which was $7.95. It came with an appetizer-sized tempura, sushi, salad, and fresh fruit. The chicken tempura was crunchy on the outside and went really well with the rice. The tempura even came with 2 pieces of prawn tempura.
I had the tonkatsu lunch box. Let me just say that my tonkatsu pork chop was huge. It was very good…juicy on the inside and very crunchy outside. It also came with some tonkatsu sauce and mayo to dip the pork in. The side dishes were the same as the chicken teriyaki. I think this was around $8.50 or $8.95 and was more than enough for lunch. In my opinion, this was more of a dinner-sized portion.
Jenkins and I haven’t tried the other items available here since we are always drawn to the good value of the lunch boxes. The variety of items is pretty much the same as most sushi restaurants but everything is very fresh and tasty. The service is also quite good here. Each table is served their own pot of tea, which is always nice.
Summary:
Food: 4 stars/5
Service: 3 stars/5
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Jenkins and I decided to check out Japa Dog the other day. It is a Japanese-style hot dog stand at Burrard and Smithe just in front of the Sutton Place Hotel.
They have the same hot dogs you would typically find at any hot dog stand, but the real specialty here is the Japanese hot dogs.
I decided on the Terimayo hot dog, which is a beef hot dog with teriyaki sauce, fried onions, mayo, and seaweed. The only real difference between this and most hot dogs that I eat is the mayo and the seaweed. It was good, but a tiny bit too salty for me. Next time, I may ask for less sauce and that may help.
Jenkins had the Oroshi dog. This was a pork bratwurst with grated radish, green onions, and “special house sauce”. I found this to be more original than the terimayo dog. This was also a bit on the salty side, but other than that, was very good.
Japa Dog is definitely a place you have to try at least once..just for kicks. The hot dogs are unlike any that you have tried at a typical hot dog stand. They also had a turkey smokie, which came with some baby watercress and miso mayo.
Details:
Corner of Burrard St and Smithe St, Vancouver
This stand appears to be seasonal…I haven’t been able to find it there once the weather turned cold!
Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a - there was no real “service” per se but the people who cooked our hot dogs were very friendly.
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | No Comments »
Friday, August 3rd, 2007
A new sushi restaurant opened near my work last Thursday. Kingsway Sushi is an all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant located at the corner of Boundary and Kingsway on the Vancouver side of the street. If you decide to eat in, it looks like the only thing available is the all-you-can-eat. They offer two menu options, an $8.95 “best value” menu and a $10.95 “deluxe lunch” menu. The main difference between the two is that the $10.95 option has nigiri sushi and some additional seafood items like deep fried shrimp balls and oyster motoyaki.
There were five of us at lunch so we were able to get a good selection of items. We ordered some assorted rolls, including California rolls, Dynamite rolls, and Alaska rolls.
The edamame looked like it was pre-made and then refrigerated. The serving was also smaller than I expected but since this was all-you-can-eat, it was ok.
We also had teriyaki chicken. The portion was small..which is perfect for all-you-can-eat and crispy on the outside.
We also ordered gyoza and seafood fried rice. The gyoza was good but the skins of the gyoza were sticking to one another and fell apart a bit when we picked them up.
There are three kinds of nigiri sushi you can order for lunch: salmon, tuna, and saba (mackerel). My favourite of these three was the saba.
The oyster motoyaki was quite good. As usual, it was quite rich so it was hard to eat more than two at lunch.
The salmon belly was a bit dry but because it was so fatty, it still tasted ok.
We also tried the stuffed egg plant. Basically, this was eggplant tempura with some fish cake inside. This was something new for me and tasted quite good.
Some other things that we tried included the deep fried shrimp balls and the mango pudding. There was nothing special about the shrimp balls but they were very tasty nonetheless. The mango pudding had a great mango flavour and was very creamy.
This place just opened recently. In fact, we went on the day of its grand opening! The food itself is good for an all-you-can-eat, but it would have been nice if there was more variety. You also have to tell your server what you want to order…but I prefer filling out my own order sheet, like the set-up at Tomakazu. This place is a nice new addition to the area.
Details:
110-3665 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-433-6388
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Sunday, July 29th, 2007
My family went to Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe in Yaletown last week to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Shiru-Bay is a Japanese izakaya restaurant that serves interesting twists to many Japanese-inspired dishes. The environment is funky and you are greeted as soon as you walk through the door by a chorus of friendly staff.
First, we ordered the ebi chili mayo (shrimp with chili mayonnaise). It came with some deep fried wonton wrappers that added to the crunch of the shrimp. The chili mayo was the right amount of spiciness for me but there was some extra chili sauce on the side for those who needed it.
Next came the negitoro & avocado tartare, which was served with some pieces of garlic toast. The creamy tartare went great with the crunchy pieces of toast.
One of the specialties at Shiru-Bay is the Hiaburi Shime Saba, which is fresh mackerel that is seared by the server right at your table. The saba is then brought back to the kitchen, where half of it is turned into a salad and the other half is served as sashimi. The buttery saba went great with the crunchy veggies in the salad and was just as good on its own in the sashimi.
The last time I was here, my grandpa really liked the duck, which was served with some black olive mashed potatoes and a tangy cranberry balsamic miso sauce. The tender duck went great with the tangy sauce.
We had to eat some salad to balance out our meal so we had the crab & avocado salad, which was served with some wasabi mayo. The vegetable content in this dish was a bit lacking though and there was a little too much mayo for my taste. It seemed like it would be better served as a spread with some crackers.
The edamame also added to the veggie content for the evening.
The KaraAgeJyan also sounded interesting. It was deep fried chicken served with grilled veggies and spiced ponzu sauce. The chicken was light and crispy but to tell you the truth, my favourite part of this dish was the veggies. They had a nice grilled flavour and the ponzu sauce went very well with it.
I don’t remember the name of this dish but it was one of the daily specials. The reason we got this dish was because it sounded very healthy and we needed a reprieve from the fried dishes we were eating. There was a daikon radish, tomato, egg, and fish cakes served in a clear broth. The fish cakes were very tasty.
Another favourite of ours from the last time we were here was the crab croquette. An empty crab shell is filled with a creamy crab spread and then baked in the oven. This dish was very rich and would have been better if there was more bread for us to put the crab spread on.
We also tried the fresh scallop and spinach salad. The scallops were lightly seared on the outside and then tossed into the salad, which also had slices of strawberries and toasted pecans. The serving of salad was very generous and came in a nice big bowl.
We also ordered the Keihan, which was steamed rice, chicken, and shitake mushroom with dashi broth. The broth came in a teapot and we poured that over the bowl of rice. This dish was nice and light and I would imagine the perfect thing to have on a cold and rainy day.
The kimchi udon was also a hit the last time we came so we ordered this again. The udon was bouncy and chewy, just the way I like it. The kimchi added a tangy and spicy hit to the dish.
For dessert, we shared the natto ice cream. Natto is fermented soy beans and although this sounded like an odd combination to go with ice cream, it is actually very good. The natto and ice cream is mixed in front of you and it gives the ice cream an elastic consistency, similar to salt water taffy.
Overall, it was a terrific meal. I like izakayas because they give you a different variety of Japanese foods from what you typically experience in a sushi restaurant. Because the dishes are tapas-sized, you can order several dishes and try a little of everything. The service is normally quite good here but this time, it was a bit lacking…perhaps due to the Saturday evening busy hour.
Details:
1193 Hamilton St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-408-9315
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$ and a half
Posted in Vancouver, Lower Mainland Cities, Japanese, Asian, Reviews | 6 Comments »
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