japanese Archives - Page 4 of 25

Raisu

January 10, 2021

The fiance and I had plans to go out and celebrate my birthday, but we decided to get takeout instead due to the pandemic.

Raisu is in the same restaurant group as Suika, Rajio, and Kingyo. Suika has been one of my favourite restaurants ever but I haven’t gone in awhile. I also tried Rajio a few years ago and it was pretty good. With those experiences in mind, I had high expectations for Raisu!

Located in Kitsilano, Raisu was a bit hidden and hard to find at first. I didn’t realize that they were located on the second floor, so you will see an awning with the restaurant name on it. The stairs were pretty steep walking down so I would recommend being careful when going down the stairs.

Bluefin tuna deluxe seafood bowl: This was the reason why we ordered from here!

This seafood bowl was amazing, and did not disappoint at all. It was definitely a splurge but worth it on a special occasion. The bluefin tuna was incredibly fresh and melted in my mouth.

In addition, I tried uni a few years ago but did not like it because it was bitter and way too fishy so I stayed away from it until now. However, the uni here was so good and now I’m wondering if I had bad uni that first time. The uni was sweet and creamy.

Deluxe seafood bowl: The deluxe seafood bowl was amazing as well. All of the sashimi was very fresh and tasty. This was also a splurge but worth it.

Tuna tataki: At first glance, the tuna tataki looked underwhelming compared to the deluxe chirashi dons. However, we were pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was!

The fiance is a huge fan of tuna tataki and really enjoyed it. Instead of using ponzu sauce, they use a ponzu jelly as you can see in the photo. I haven’t seen ponzu sauce prepared like this before and it was pretty good. Coupled with the fried garlic flakes, it was the perfect combination.

Omakase aburi sushi: Lastly, we decided to try their aburi sushi. Since it was omakase, I’m not sure what each piece was and I’m pretty sure it differs daily.

There were 4 types of aburi sushi, each with 2 pieces. All 4 types of aburi sushi were delicious. The only complaint would be that it would have been nice to have a variety of seafood – all 4 types featured tuna, just with a different topping. We would have liked to try some salmon or prawn aburi as well.

Overall, our dinner was delicious and I’m glad we finally tried Raisu! It was a meal that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon, especially that amazing blue fin tuna bowl.

Tatsu Japanese Restaurant

November 21, 2020

Despite ordering delivery more often due to the pandemic instead of eating out, we have yet to find a go-to sushi place that we like. Well, I really like Samurai Sushi for casual, no frills sushi but unfortunately don’t see them on delivery apps often. We saw Tatsu Japanese Restaurant and it was pretty close, so we decided to try it out.

Tatsu Japanese Restaurant is located on Commercial Drive. There are a bunch of sushi restaurants on Commercial Drive. So far, the ones we’ve tried are Kishimoto (for more upscale sushi), Sushi Ville, Ginger Sushi, Naruto Sushi, and now, Tatsu for delivery.

California donburi: For myself, I was feeling like a donburi. I was going to get a salmon donburi, but last minute, I saw the California donburi and ordered that instead.

The donburi was densely packed with sushi rice and was quite filling. Essentially, it was all the ingredients of a California roll in a bowl setting with the addition of salmon sashimi and baby shrimp.

Although the donburi was densely packed with rice and a huge scoop of crab meat, there wasn’t much salmon sashimi. The pieces were chopped up like poke style, but I would guess that there was only about 2 pieces of salmon sashimi.

The wasabi mayo was delicious, although it may be too spicy for some people. The donburi was good with fresh ingredients and crunchy vegetables, but I didn’t feel like it was worth the price for how little salmon sashimi there was in the bowl.

BC Roll: The fiance likes to try BC rolls whenever we try a new place. The BC roll was alright. The salmon skin could have been a bit crispier, but that could also be due to getting the order as delivery.

Chopped scallop roll: The chopped scallop roll was delicious! The roll was jam packed with juicy, fresh pieces of scallop.

Tuna tataki roll: This was ordered off their specialty roll section, but it was a disappointment. It was basically a California roll with a thin piece of seared tuna on top and some spicy gochujang sauce. The tuna was quite dry too. For a specialty roll, I was expecting more and would not order this again!

Negitoro roll: The fiance has become a negitoro roll expert and can usually tell right away if it would be good or bad. He was happy to see that this was one of the good places.

The negitoro was fatty and soft. There was a lot of fresh green onions inside too.

Overall, we found that the items were hit or miss. The usual go-to items we get like the chopped scallop roll and the tuna roll were delicious though, so we would order again. The ones we didn’t like as much, such as the tuna tataki roll and California don, are items that we don’t normally get.

I’d only recommend this place if you were in the area or they had delivery. It wouldn’t be a restaurant that I’d drive purposely to but we wouldn’t mind getting delivery from them again since it’s close and fast for us.

MILA

November 8, 2020

MILA is the newest addition to Vancouver’s vegan food scene that opened a couple months ago in early September. After hearing about it, Avocado and I knew that we had to check it out! I predict that this place will be very popular for vegans and non-vegans alike. Or should I say plant-based because that is the new trendy term for vegan these days? ?

MILA is located in Chinatown. The restaurant was easy to miss because there weren’t any signs except for a small one on their door. I recommend making a reservation because they are quite busy and have limited seating due to the pandemic. Despite it being busy inside, the tables were spaced out and we felt clean and safe in there.

While writing this review, I also found out that they are the sister restaurant to Virtuous Pie, a vegan pizza joint a few blocks away. Avocado and I also tried Virtuous Pie almost 3 years ago and we enjoyed it.

Walking in, we were greeted with loud music (not in an obnoxious way, they had some good lo-fi beats going on) and it was bumpin’ in there for a Sunday evening. It was not what we were both expecting with the dark lighting, music and all. We both thought it’d be a quiet, low-key place. To quote Avocado, it felt like a vegan Cactus Club!

The atmosphere could have easily been seen as hipster, pretentious and snobby (like our experience at Heirloom a few years ago).

If I sense that a place is pretentious, I likely won’t go back. However, that wasn’t the case with MILA. The staff were very friendly and there were no pretentious, hipster vibes detected which was a relief.

Aburi lox: This was one of the most popular items online, so we decided to give it a try. It ended up being our favourite of the evening! I wasn’t sure how I’d feel with carrot being a replacement of salmon, but this roll was delicious for a non-vegan like myself.

Admittedly, the carrot did not replace the texture of real salmon because it lacked the fleshiness of salmon meat (why does that sound morbid?). However, what it didn’t lack was taste. The aburi lox was an explosion of delicious flavour. The sauce on top was incredibly creamy and rich with a nice grilled flavour to it.

There was also more sauce in the middle with shiso leaf, which elevated the flavour even more. I didn’t even mind that this was carrot, that was easily forgotten because of how delicious everything else was.

Bao buns: The bao buns came with hoisin tempeh, pickled onion + cucumber, sambal aioli, cilantro, and crispy shallots. The buns themselves were warm, thick and puffy. I found that some of the bun stuck to the wooden bowl though, so I’d recommend removing the lid and letting it cool down before eating.

The bao buns were not bad either and we both enjoyed it. The sambal aioli and fresh veggies gave the bao buns a lot of flavour, but not enough for me to forget that it was vegan (unlike the aburi lox).

Mushroom and sausage tagliatelle: This dish was also highly recommended online, and I was super excited to try it! Avocado and I appreciated how they split the dish for us already when we told them that we’d be sharing everything.

The tagliatelle was cooked perfectly. The vegan sauce was made up of pistachio pesto cream. The flavours were great, and I also asked for some freshly cracked black pepper which elevated the dish more. My only complaint would be that they could have added more sauce because I didn’t find it creamy or saucy enough for a pasta.

All in all, we left really satisfied with Mila. The ingredients were high quality, and we enjoyed all of the dishes. Service was also friendly and attentive too.

I would definitely recommend this place for vegans! If you’re like Avocado and I who enjoy eating vegan food every so often, you’d probably enjoy it too.

If you’re a die-hard meat lover who refuses to eat vegan food, I would not recommend it because you could still tell that some dishes are vegan.

Seiza Japanese Restaurant

September 25, 2020

Seiza Japanese Restaurant is a relatively new Japanese restaurant that quietly opened in early 2019. Previously, this space was occupied by Zipang Provisions, also a Japanese restaurant, for 10+ years.

Maki and I were doing some bridal dress shopping and I found Seiza close by to one of the shops we were going to. Neither of us heard about Seiza but the atmosphere and food looked good, so we stopped by for lunch before our appointment.

This area of Main Street is quite busy, with many restaurants and shops. We were lucky to find street parking quite easy that day though.

Walking in, the restaurant was tastefully decorated with a modern but warm vibe. We immediately noticed these dolls that they had in certain tables. It was a very clever and fun way to show which tables were closed due to the pandemic!

Each open table also had it’s own large bottle of hand sanitizer which we appreciated as well.

Seafood udon: The seafood udon came with a decent portion of shrimp, salmon, scallop, and other seafood that I forgot. The star of the show was definitely the broth though.

The broth had a robust umami flavour to it, but there was also a well rounded sweetness to it too. It was a combination of savoury with a hint of sweetness. I enjoyed it and couldn’t stop sipping on it. It was a satisfying bowl of udon with a delicious and unique broth.

Salmon roll: The salmon roll was pretty meh. I found the salmon to be on the dry side, but I think that’s because they use wild salmon which tends to be leaner. The roll came apart easily too. I would skip this roll next time.

Negitoro roll: While perusing the menu prior to coming here, my eyeballs were shocked to see that their negitoro roll was almost $8! (Pricing as of 2020). Normally, negitoro rolls go for about $4-$8 so it was double the price here.

Maki was curious as to why the negitoro roll here was so much pricier, so she decided to order it. It turned out to be a disappointing choice because there was nothing special in the roll. The negitoro roll wasn’t extra fatty or melted in our mouth either so the price was not justified. We’ve both had way better elsewhere.

Toro nigiri: On the other hand, the toro nigiri was delicious! The toro tasted fresh, was very fatty and melted in our mouth.

Scallop nigiri: Maki enjoyed her scallop nigiri as well. She said it was fresh and delicious.

Sexy salmon roll: The sexy salmon roll description on the menu does not match what we ordered, but I remembered Maki ordering a sexy salmon because I joked about it being “sexy” haha. So, I’m not sure if they updated it or what.

The sexy salmon roll was delicious! Essentially, the roll was a salmon nigiri but with some real crab meat underneath, a delicious citrus sauce, and tobiko.

The sweet citrus sauce and the salty tobiko added more dimension to the roll. Meanwhile, the soft crab meat and the crunchy tobiko elevated the textural element too. The salmon was also fresh and delicious. Overall, a really good roll with a mix of different flavours and textures complementing each other well.

Our visit to Seiza was enjoyable and I wouldn’t mind coming back. I just wouldn’t recommend getting their simple rolls because our salmon roll and negitoro roll were disappointing.

Instead, I would recommend getting their nigiri or special rolls. Seiza is pretty quiet, I don’t hear or see much about it on social media and there was only 1 other table during our visit on a weekend during prime lunch hours. But, it’s worth visiting among our huge selection of Japanese restaurants in Vancouver!

iSushi

September 18, 2020

iSushi is a new sushi restaurant that opened recently on Rupert and 22nd by Lucky Plus Chinese Restaurant, across from the old Oscar Cafe (RIP Oscar Cafe, you are so missed!).

This restaurant used to Kimura Japanese restaurant, which I visited many years ago, and then was briefly replaced with the brunch spot Ham and Eggman’s for a year.

While looking for a place to eat (and a new place to review), the fiance suggested iSushi so we went to get pickup.

From my brief visit of picking up takeout, the staff was very friendly and nice. In addition, they had relaxing classical music playing. It was really soothing and relaxing, I almost wanted to stand in there a bit just to listen to it, haha.

Salmon roll: The salmon roll was disappointing. The rice was packed very tightly and was very dense and wet. The salmon sashimi itself inside was good, but the rice ruined the roll for me.

Negitoro roll: Same thing was above with the salmon roll.

California roll: California roll is one of the main staples in a Japanese restaurant, and you can’t really go wrong with it right? Well clearly I did because this was also disappointing. The imitation crab meat was chopped up into very small pieces and it had a crumbly, dry texture to it.

Chopped scallop roll: Finally, a roll that I liked! The chopped scallop roll was decent, with plump and fresh scallops.

House roll: The house roll came with imitation crab meat, salmon, tuna, tamago, avocado, and tobiko. Again, it would have been a tasty roll if it wasn’t for the imitation crab meat (which was half the roll) being chopped up into tiny pieces and being crumbly and dry.

Dynamite roll: The dynamite roll was tasty with no complaints. The tempura inside still had a bit of crunch to it.

BC Roll: Over the years, we’ve found that BC roll can be hard to master and varies greatly among restaurants. The salmon skin has to be grilled enough and be fresh so that it is delicious, otherwise you’re just eating soggy salmon skin. Fortunately, the BC roll here was good and the salmon skin was crispy with an enjoyable grilled flavor to it.

Overall, there were some hit or misses here. With a plethora of Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, ISushi would not be high on my list.

However, I realize they have only recently opened and possibly figuring out their groove still so maybe they will improve their techniques. There is definitely room for improvement.