japanese Archives - Page 19 of 25

Manzo Japanese Restaurant

February 19, 2016

Back during winter break, one of our friends came to visit from Calgary and had one specific dining request: somewhere with amazing takoyaki. Since all of us don’t really eat takoyaki except at the night market in the summer, we came to Manzo based on another friend’s coworker’s recommendation.
One thing I don’t like about this area of Richmond is how hard it is to find parking! Since there are so many restaurants, parking is hard to find and their lot is always full on weekends.
The restaurant is pretty cramped, dark, and not that comfortable to sit in. Since we had six people, they gave us a small extra table at a four person booth but we constantly had to try to skooch in while staff walked by.
Salmon salad, 8.95: Not sure why I was wanting a salmon salad that day, but I did. The salmon did not taste fresh at all. It had a strange, old taste to it. The greens were fresh and crunchy and went well with the vinagrette dressing.
Takoyaki, $6.95: Since there were six of us and everyone loves takoyaki, we ordered three plates of it. In retrospect, perhaps we should have only ordered one, plus more if it was good.

This was delicious and cooked perfectly! Nice and doughy inside, with the signature takoyaki sauce and bonito flakes generously topped. I would definitely come back here for some great takoyaki. Our friend from Calgary left very satisfied 🙂
Deep fried squid, $5.95: The squid tasted fresh and was really crunchy! I don’t remember what the mixture of spices were, but it was deliciously savoury.
Grilled chicken skewer, $5.95 for 3 skewers: Compared to Q Shi Q, the chicken skewers here at Manzo were a lot bigger. They had a nice, grilled and smoky taste to it and simple salt/pepper/soya sauce seasoning.
Mentaiko udon, $11.99: After effortlessly making mentaiko udon at home, I don’t think I would order it at a restaurant anymore. My friends ordered this and thought that it was okay, nothing too special.
Seafood pancake, $8.95: My friends ordered this and thought it was delicious. I mean, just look at how much sauce and flakes are on top – it has to be delicious! 🙂

—

All in all, Manzo would be a great place for late night snacks and to hang out with a small group of friends (under 4 people). The seating was pretty cramped and I don’t recall if they had any tables for larger party sizes.

Apart from the weird tasting salmon sashimi, all the other food was pretty decent and service was quick (although not really friendly, but that’s to be expected at an Asian restaurant haha).

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Zest Japanese Cuisine – Birthday dinner!

January 13, 2016

For my birthday this year, I didn’t feel like doing anything big, so the boyfriend just took me out for dinner. Originally, he had made reservations for Suika but the day before, we both decided we wanted to try a new upscale place.

We saw that Zest had tables left on OpenTable, and have heard good things about this place and made the reservation.
I used to frequent this neighbourhood a lot, but I actually never noticed Zest and was so surprised at where it was. It is tucked behind/beside the Starbucks on 16th & McDonald.

There was a really small parking lot but we found free street parking really close by.
The restaurant was pretty empty, but we had an early reservation. The restaurant slowly filled up near the end of our meal during regular dinner hours. The restaurant was very clean and the seating was very comfortable.
Wild Sockeye Salmon Sashimi, $15: Every time we go to a new Japanese restaurant, we order their sashimi and use it as a basis for comparison.

The sashimi tasted fresh and had a good salmon-y taste to it. It wasn’t anything that special and we weren’t too blown away with it, so probably wouldn’t order it again.
Assorted sashimi salad, $15: I’ve been having sashimi salads more lately wanted to see if Zest can make a stellar sashimi salad as well. It came with one thick piece of seaweed tempura, sashimi, fresh greens, seaweed, and grapefruit.

We thought the grapefruit was strange, but it actually went really well with the salad. We both devoured the salad within minutes because it was that delicious. It came with a soy onion dressing, which was delicious.

This is what it looked like on my plate, with the dressing on the side. The greens were very fresh and crisp, as was the seaweed. Everything about this dish was so refreshing and delicious. We would definitely order this again!
Miso Cured Grilled BC Wild Salmon, $16: This dish originally came with quinoa, but I substituted for rice as I was really wanting plain, warm white rice that day.

Again, this dish was delicious. The house blend miso was slightly sweet and thick. There was just the right amount of miso so that I could still taste the freshness of the salmon. Speaking of the salmon, it flaked off perfectly and had a nice, subtle smoky flavour to it.
Roasted Duck Breast Carpaccio, $14: This was the boyfriend’s entree, I don’t think we both expected it to be that small.

This dish was an explosion of delicious, crazy flavours that went together so well. It was an eclectic mix of savoury, zesty, sweet, and crunchy (due to the fresh veggies) that had us wanting more.
Zest Roll, $13: We were glad that we ordered this since the duck carpaccio was quite small, albeit delicious. The zest roll came with albacore tuna, grilled salmon skin, cucumber, and tobiko.

The grilled salmon skin was the highlight of the roll and saved the roll from being bland. Without the grilled salmon skin, it was underwhelming but the salmon skin gave it a nice smoky taste and crunch texture.

The only complaint I would give them was that service was slow, especially since it was quite empty when we were dining. The servers also weren’t that knowledgeable of the dishes.

Overall, we really enjoyed our meal here and glad that we tried it out. Our favourite dish would have to be the sashimi salad, followed by the entrees. Zest does an amazing job of combining different ingredients together, resulting in an explosion of fireworks for your tastebuds.

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Q Shi Q Japanese BBQ

December 12, 2015

When I first heard about Q Shi Q, I knew that I definitely had to try it. While trying to find a place to eat with a friend, I suddenly remembered this place and was so excited when he agreed to try it with me!
Q Shi Q opened its doors in late October, so it is still pretty new. It is located just on the border of Olympic Village, a walking distance from the pubs in OV and Earnest Ice Cream. Since this area is mostly industrial (for now), with an exception of new restaurants popping up here and there, it was really quiet in the evening and easy to find parking.

Q Shi Q was the only lit up building on the street, so I definitely knew I was at the right place. I’m predicting that over the coming years, this place will be populated with more restaurants and night life as Olympic Village continues to expand.
After finding parking effortlessly, I made my way into the restaurant. The exterior reminded me of a night club rather than a restaurant, as they had a small rope fence and waiting area.

I was greeted warmly by the owner, and this welcoming tone set the mood for the rest of the visit. Service was very friendly and welcoming, though our waitress was trying very hard to sell us certain items.
Pictured left is a cocktail made out of egg white, lemon peel, and ume (a type of delicious plum wine). The ume made it sweet and refreshing, but the lemon gave it a subtle sour taste as well.

Shouga soda, $2.50: It was very rich, strong and spicy, as ginger is supposed to be. At first sip, you are greeted with a strong blast of ginger that carries out throughout the drink. I drank this very slowly, and the potency of the ginger was lessened near the end of our meal as the ice cubes had melted.
Nana fries, $3: They have two types of fries, shio and nana fries. Shio fries are seasoned solely with sea salt, while nana fries are seasoned with 7 different spices. The fries arrived fresh and piping hot, and were absolutely delicious! I loved the seasonings, and there was a hint of spice as well.

These fries are a great alternative to your standard fries and I would recommend trying these! I would come back just for these fries. They start off salty, savoury, and spicy and end with a slight, well rounded hit of sweetness.
Lobster miso mayo skewer, $9.50: This was one of the daily specials that night, and came highly recommended by the server. The sauce tasted very well rounded and was slightly sweet and creamy, although there wasn’t any cream or dairy ingredients inside. I double checked because since I recently became lactose intolerant, so I have to be very careful and avoid dairy. =(

(Yes, I did a lab test which confirmed the intolerance, which can develop suddenly. Mine is bad so I have to be careful when I’m eating out now. Also, yes that means no more ice cream, cheesecake, cheese, etc unless I take pills but even those don’t help sometimes! Boo).
Skewers, any 5 for $11 (excluding specials): Q Shi Q has two standard flavours- oishii which is a blend of green onion, garlic, ginger, soy, lemon, and other things, and shio which is just sea salt. Pictured here are the oishii pork, oishii sirloin, kirashi sirlion, oishii chicken, and oishii tsukune.

While mid way through the pork skewer, I noticed that the pork was pretty pink in the middle so I stopped eating it. However, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. The lighting was pretty dark in there so maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me? But after the meal, I got a stomachache so it was probably from the under-cooked meat.

Other than that, the other skewers were pretty delicious and all had a nice hint of smokiness to them. My favourite was the oishii chicken, which was moist, juicy, and bursting with grilled and seasoned flavour. My least favourite was the oishii tsukune because it was a chicken ball skewer. It had a light and somewhat fluffy texture and did not have as much flavour as the oishii chicken.
Skewers, any 5 for $11 ( excluding specials): oishii salmon, two ponzu salmon, ebi fritter and broccoli

Just like the pork, I found the salmon to be undercooked. Some areas flaked off nicely and were a nice light pink but some parts in the middle did not look cooked. I ended up avoiding the areas that looked undercooked. Looking back, I’m not too sure why I didn’t just ask for them to grill it a bit more.

The ebi fritters were very small and had was composed of mostly batter instead of prawn. This was disappointing and I wouldn’t order this one again.

Considering the meat and two pieces of broccoli are the same price (any 5 skewers for $11), it is more worth it to get the meat. However, it is still important to eat veggies (says the girl who barely eats veggies) so we decided to order one broccoli skewer. It was fresh and crunchy, and tasted a lot better since it was grilled (can you tell I don’t like veggies?).

Matcha amasake parfait, $4: My friend ordered this for desert and was going to let me try some, but we were notified by our server that the rice pudding had cream and milk in it. However, my friend really enjoyed the dessert and said that the matcha was really strong and delicious!

All in all, we both enjoyed Q Shi Q except for that some meat might have been undercooked. The service was excellent, the atmosphere was great, and the food was very flavourful. It is a good place to hang out with friends and share some good skewers!
I took the boyfriend here the following week because I wanted him to try the nana fries! We ordered pretty much the same thing as my first visit.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Momo Sushi

November 9, 2015

Ah, how I miss working in downtown and having effortless access to a plethora of mouthwatering food. Fortunately, there are occasional days where I get to work in downtown so I take advantage of those days! This time around, I wanted to try something new for the sake of my blog yet close to our building.

Casual Japanese restaurants in downtown doesn’t really catch my eye since I find it a bit overpriced in that area, but we drove by Momo Sushi in the morning and my coworker heard good things about it. Plus, I really wanted a warm bowl of udon as it was really chilly that day. After a busy day of work, it was pretty much early evening and we decided to stop searching for places and go there as we were both hungry.
Momo Sushi is located right on the border of downtown and Gastown. Walking in, I actually had no idea how big the restaurant was because they have an entire lower level that you can’t see from the outside of the restaurant. The steps are pretty wide, with a booth on either side of the stairs, which was where we were seated.

The neon signage looked like a throwback to the 80s, but I thought that the 3D installation they had was pretty cute. The carpet, booths, and supplies looked pretty worn out and have probably seen better years, but they still served their purpose. The restaurant also had an old musky wooden building smell to it, but that’s because it is located in a historic building.
Salad, miso soup, complimentary rice bowl: Since my coworker ordered a bento box, it came with the standard salad and miso soup. The miso soup was your average miso soup, but didn’t have much seaweed in it. It was also served nice and warm.

I didn’t know that our order came with a complimentary rice bowl, topped with seaweed and tobiko. Since I was already having a bowl of carbs, I didn’t eat much of the rice but I enjoyed the seaweed and tobiko. It was a nice & small snack to munch on while waiting for the main dishes. Both seaweed and tobiko tasted fresh and had a good crunch to it.Beef udon, $7.50: I was craving a nice bowl of warm noodles since it was cold and my throat was a bit sore. The beef udon satisfied my craving but I found it to be very salty! I poured some hot water to dilute the soup and also found myself asking for multiple refills of water to quench my thirst.

The udon was cooked perfectly, while the beef was thinly sliced and there was an average amount. It also came with a couple pieces of fish ball. Can’t complain for the price, especially in the downtown area!

Bento box C, $10.25: When my coworker’s bento box arrived, we both admitted that the presentation didn’t look too appetizing. The box was too big for the food, making the portion look smaller than it actually is – the wasabi in the middle of an empty section just looks awkward.

Presentation aside, the tempura was fried in old oil judging from the colour of the batter. My coworker thought her dish was a bit disappointing but still ended up finishing it anyways.

Negitoro roll, $2.95: Again, the presentation of this was not the best but the taste itself was not bad! The tuna and onions tasted pretty fresh.

Dynamite roll, $4.50: Clearly, presentation is not their strong suit LOL, that uneven cutting doe. Although the prawn looked very fat at the end piece, there was none in the last two pieces.

While my coworker was eating this, I told her that I thought she ordered a dynamite roll instead of a california roll? She said she did order a dynamite roll, but the prawn was just very small. It ended up looking just like a california roll without the tempura.

—-

Their prices are pretty decent for the downtown area, I find that a lot of Japanese places in downtown are overpriced. The service was also very attentive and friendly. It’s not the best here, but it’s not the worst either. It’s a good place for a quick bite to eat, and I would come back if I was craving some quick Japanese food.

Sushiyama

July 3, 2015

Hiiiii everyone!

I’ve passed by Sushi Yama numerous times, but to be honest, I didn’t really find it too enticing and easy to miss. It wasn’t until I stumbled upon this place on Urbanspoon (Now Zomato) and read great reviews on it – I was quite surprised!!

I finally got the chance to come here as an impromptu hangout with some friends in April. We came here because most other Japanese restaurants were already closed at that time (yeah, we had a craving at 10pm) and it was somewhat of a halfway meeting spot.

I don’t remember the exact hours, but this place closes late compared to most casual Japanese restaurants that close around 9:30/10pm. We were here until 11:30pm that night, and I don’t remember seeing them beginning to clean or close the restaurant yet.

Although it was a bit late for dinner, the restaurant was still pretty busy. There were only a few tables remaining when we were seated. The restaurant could use a bit of a renovation as the floor tiles looked worn out and slightly greasy, with visible built up dirt. The tables had some built up sticky residue as well. Oh well, it still works!

Macaroni had already ate, so she just ordered a small snack – wild salmon nigiri. We saw another customer eating this sashimi, and judging from the colour of it, we thought it would be pretty tasty and fresh!

The sashimi tasted fresh and was decent. My favourite place to get affordable, wild salmon sashimi is Kazu and I have yet to find another cheap/casual Japanese restaurant that is on par with the taste and quality of sashimi at Kazu, but Sushi Yama’s wild salmon sashimi was not bad!

Cheese ordered the normal salmon nigiri and thought that the piece was small for the price. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture. =(
Continuing along, the boyfriend ordered the BC roll, chopped scallop roll, and hamachi roll. The BC roll was average, and he would have preferred the salmon skin to be slightly more crispy.

The chopped scallop roll was a winner that night, the boyfriend and my friend ordered it and they both loved it.

Lastly, the hamachi roll was alright but he said he would have liked it more if it was prepared like a negitoro roll, with the tuna mushed with the onion instead of chopped up pieces.

For myself, I had the tuna roll, salmon roll, dynamite roll, and yam tempura roll that I split with the boyfriend.

Overall, all of the rolls were pretty average and nothing really stood out. The prawn tempura did not taste fresh, we suspect that they use the leftover prawn tempura in the rolls as my friend ended up getting an order of tempura and it was perfectly fresh and crispy.

Sushi Yama is pretty average to me, but I wouldn’t mind coming back if I was in the area or wanted some late night sushi. The cleanliness of the restaurant could be improved, but overall we had a decent experience and I’m glad that I was able to check this place off my ‘to-eat’ list!

Have you been here before?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen