Suika was one of the first blog posts I’ve ever written! Two and a half years later, I am back with an updated post on one of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver. For Valentine’s Day this year, the boyfriend and I decided to just go somewhere familiar and tasty. We’ve been here a few times already, since we both love it here.
Suika shirley temple, $4.80: I love the drinks at Suika, and decided to order this since it’s been awhile! The Suika shirley temple comes with calpico (Japanese yogurt drink), fresh watermelon puree, soda, and lime. This was deliciously sweet, with the watermelon tasting very fresh. Unfortunately, I found out that calpico may contain milk, so I decided not to chance it and ruin our dinner and ended up only drinking half of it. I know, how sad =( The boyfriend had the rest and he thought it was pretty good.
Sashimi salad, $11.80: I don’t even know why I like sashimi salad so much, when I don’t even like regular salad. It must be the sesame/miso/garlic style dressing that Japanese restaurants use that I like so much, coupled with fresh seafood! It’s such a clear and healthy, yet delicious dish. Everything in this salad was delectably fresh, including the sashimi and the greens!
Tuna tataki, $7.20: My must order recently is the sashimi salad, and the boyfriend’s is the tuna tataki! This was very delicious with the inclusion of the home made chili oil but it wasn’t extremely spicy.
Ebi mayo, $9.80: We liked this the last time we came here, so decided to order it again. Unfortunately, the batter was really bland and tasteless. The batter also did not taste that fresh as well, it was a bit soggy.
Kakuni bibimbap: After cracking an egg and stirring it around for you, it is recommended to let this sit for 3-5 minutes to let the stone bowl cook the rice, making it crispy! We’ve ordered this in the past and it was delicious this time as well. We found that this had a salty fish flavour even though we only saw beef. However, the boyfriend does not like the taste of salty fish so he didn’t eat that much of it.
We were actually getting pretty full at this point and ended up packing half of this back home.
Tokyo oxtail ramen, $9.80: I always get this when I come here because it’s so delicious! It is very flavourful and comes with a chunk of oxtail, that has a fair amount of tender and flavourful meat. The noodles were nice and bouncy as well!
We ended up packing some of this back too, as we were too stuffed by the end of our meal to fathom finishing it.
Aburi toro battera, $12.80. Lightly pressed fatty tuna with avocado, sesame seeds, and home made soy dressing. We haven’t ordered this before here, but man, was this DELICIOUS!
The lightly torched fatty tuna went really well with the creamy avocado and soy dressing. I let the boyfriend have most of this because he loves tuna, and wasn’t too satisfied with the bibimbap due to the salty fish.
We were looking forward to their frozen grapes, but they didn’t have it this time! =( We got candies instead. I forgot what flavour they were (I’m assuming watermelon?) but they were pretty good.
All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Suika and it never disappoints us. Most of their food is consistent (albeit the ebi mayo) and service is always quick and efficient. I would recommend trying Suika if you haven’t already! It’s a good place to go with a group of people and split the tapas over drinks.
Oh, another thing is that they’re usually fully booked with reservations on the weekend, so I would definitely recommend making a reservation before coming here.
Yay!
I had made reservations on Open Table for an early dinner, at 6 pm. When we arrived, the parking lot was completely full! We ended up parking on the hotel side, which was still a really quick walk. The outside of the restaurant looked pretty modern and posh.
We were quickly seated, and the restaurant was pretty empty, save for a few other tables. Other parties ended up coming in as well, but it was nowhere as busy as The Keg would be. I guess this place isn’t really located in a residential neighbourhood or an entertainment district either, which explains the quieter venue!
It was an special occasion, so of course drinks were ordered!
Tuna tataki, $14.95: As an appetizer, we decided to order the tuna tataki because the boyfriend looooves tuna tataki. Unfortunately, this dish was really disappointing. The tuna was pretty hard on the outside and tasted as though it had been prepared awhile ago and left in the fridge.
Bread, complimentary: The bread was served nice and warm, with no complaints!
Filet mignon, $39.95: On to the main course! I had my heart set on the prime rib, but changed my mind last minute and ordered the filet mignon, cooked medium rare. The filet mignon came with a red wine reduction, and I chose fries as my side.
Rib eye, $37.95: Unlike how I was set with the prime rib before changing my mind last minute, the boyfriend stuck to his original decision and ordered the rib eye. When we were looking up the menu a few nights prior, he knew immediately that he wanted the rib eye!
Mini birthday dessert bite, complementary: I had called in requesting a birthday dessert for the boyfriend. After confirming with our server, they brought over the mini birthday surprise! She was nice enough to give us the option of a complementary full dessert due to her dairy mistake above, but the boyfriend was already too full at this point and I am unable to help him eat this =(
Takoyaki, $3.75: Since it was our first time here and wanted to try more of the menu, the four of us decided to split a couple of appetizers. We ordered the four piece takoyaki and this was simply delicious! It was drenched in delicious sauce and the takoyaki were a pretty decent size.
Potato fries ($4.50): These fries were amazing! They were incredibly crispy and seasoned with such a delicious combination of herbs. We ended up ordering another plate because we all couldn’t stop eating this. In retrospect, that was a bad idea because we didn’t end up finishing the second order of fries and ended up packing it home. But seriously, this is a must try here!
Shio ramen ($8.95): Shio broth is made with chicken broth, and is my go to flavour for ramen! Macaroni and I both ordered the shio ramen. The shio ramen definitely did NOT disappoint. This was amazing. The broth was so well rounded – incredibly flavourful and thick. Meanwhile, the meat was melt in your mouth soft.
Tan tan men ($10.25): The boyfriend ordered this because he loves spicy peanut sauce. Again, the broth here was rich and thick, and full of spicy peanut flavour. Although I don’t love spicy peanut sauce as much as he does, I found this to be delicious as well!
Shoyu ramen ($8.95): Cheese ordered the shoyu ramen. Again, this was just as delicious as the rest of our meal. Rich, flavourful, and a very generous quality. No complaints.
We went to Shanghai Elan, a restaurant inside Crystal Mall. You can also either enter the restaurant through Crystal Mall or outside along Kingsway. It is located at the end of the Crystal Mall section known as ‘Computer Alley’ – city famous for cell phone & computer repairs!
Chicken w/ spicy sauce ($8.50): Our appetizer chicken came chilled in a spicy peanut chili sauce. It was pretty delicious and had a nice kick to it, meanwhile the sesame and onion garnish topped it off nicely.
Shanghai rice cake w/ meat & veggies: Sorry, couldn’t find the price of this online. The rice cake was chewy and moist. This dish could have had a bit more flavour to it, but it wasn’t bad.
Shanghai fried thick noodle w/ shredded pork and soy sauce ($10.50): Mmm, how I love Shanghai fried thick noodle!
Sweet and sour spareribs with vinegar ($14.50): I’m not a fan of spareribs, so I didn’t really like it much. The sauce wasn’t that memorable and I found the meat itself to be very bland.
Hot & sour soup ($10.50): I was very excited to try this as I love hot & sour soup. However, the soup was very bland and wasn’t that spicy. It should have been called a sour soup instead of hot and sour. On the upside, the soup had a generous amount of ingredients inside.
Shanghai style juicy pork bun w/ crab meat ($9.50): This dish was underwhelming as well. Nothing special, it tasted like the frozen ones that you can buy at the grocery market. The inside had a bit of crab meat inside, but the crab meat had a slightly frozen taste and did not taste fresh.
Marinated beef w/ pancake ($6.50): Perhaps the only dish that I didn’t find ‘meh’. This was delicious! The outside ‘pancake’ was thick, but the outside was flaky and crunchy. On the inside, the marinated beef came with cucumber, other veggies, and hoisin sauce. We liked this dish so much that we ended up ordering another.
Green tea float, $6.99: Essentially a green tea ice cream smoothie. Yes, it was as good as it sounded, judging from how Cheese was raving about it. I would have tried it too, but that’s just asking for death when you are extremely lactose intolerant.
Rice cake with bean flour & apple sauce: I wanted something sweet that day, which is usual for me because I would take savoury over sweets usually. Sadly, my options were limited seeing that I can’t have dairy, so I settled for the rice cake from the recommendation of the server.
Strawberry sorbet, $4.99: I wanted to order this, but was afraid there was dairy. Luckily, Macaroni ordered this and confirmed that there wasn’t any dairy, so I was able to try it. It was so delicious that I ended up ordering one myself (especially since i was in a sweets mode and my rice cake ended up being surprisingly salty). It reminded me of the strawberry slush at Milk and Sugar. I found it to be a bit chunky and not blended enough, but it was still full of fresh, delicious strawberry flavour.