japanese Archives - Page 3 of 5

Hapa Beach- What happened to you?

January 26, 2015

Hi all!

Before I begin: I am doing a Cetaphil skincare set giveaway which is super simple to enter! Details and enter here!

Fun fact- The first restaurant post I ever did was on Hapa Izakaya last year at Dine Out Vancouver. We had an amazing time there, from the delicious food, ambiance, and friendly servers. With that said, we were really looking back to coming here again and I booked our reservation right away.

Hapa Beach, I’m not sure what happened to you. Change in ownership? We left very disappointed, the quality and preparation of the food comparable to all you can eat restaurants, minus the heaps and heaps of food. It was nothing like this the first time, I can’t believe that it is the same restaurant we went to a year ago.

When we first stepped in, we could tell that it was already busy. The hostess was on the phone for a few minutes before she was able to greet us, and we were sat quickly afterwards. We were also reminded a few times of the 1.5 hour dining limit.

For the first choice of appetizers, we ordered the taster appetizer (above) and bagna cauda fondue (below). The taster appetizer came with bok choy gomae, edamame beans, and tuna carpacccio. The bok choy was crunchy and fresh, with a generous amount of gomae sauce.

The tuna capaccio was very fresh and the ponzu sauce was good, but the portion was really small so just a heads up there (Yes, I understand that it’s an appetizer and also DOVF menu). The chilled edamame beans weren’t that great. It didn’t taste fresh and was over seasoned.

Ever since having amazing bagna cauda at Rajio , we wanted to try Hapa’s. The sauce was not mixed well, or it sat out for too long and separated. It was also bland in flavour, and one of the veggie pieces my boyfriend had was bitter.

The second course was the worst and this was when it reminded us of being at an all you can eat restaurant instead of at a nice izakaya. Let’s start with the aburi saba. It was mediocre, there was a slight grilled and smoky taste to it but it was not prepared well at all. Felt like they just slapped a bunch of pieces onto big chunks of rice, then put it on a plate to serve.

The agedashi tofu was drowned in the sauce and floating in oil. It did not look fresh at all, I’ve had better agedashi tofu at all you can eat actually. I’ll let this picture do the talking:

The outside batter of the tofu was slimy and sticky, and came right off the tofu when we tried to eat it. It lacked all flavour and just looked disgusting and pathetic in the bowl. We asked to exchange for the gyozas (the only thing left on the second course menu) instead because we are not eating or paying for this “tofu” . Where was the quality in this?

Although the servers were really attentive and nice, they seemed pretty new and said they had to ask the manager if they were able to switch for us. Fair enough. In the meantime, our main dishes were brought to us- more like being quickly thrown onto the table and having the servers dashing away before you could say thanks. Another point- shouldn’t a nicer establishment like Hapa have better service?

After all the disappointing starters (minus the few bok choy and quarter sized tuna carpaccio), our mains arrived. The spicy pork ishiyaki came with a decent amount of pork, and a raw egg that they stir in for you. The stone bowl is really hot and cooks it, and you’re also recommended to leave the rice for a few minutes so that it can become crispy due to the side of the bowl.

It also came with chives, which did not taste fresh either.

The boyfriend ordered the cho wagyu- four thinly sliced pieces of raw Kobe beef, which you cook yourself with the black stone and dip in ponzu sauce. Again, the portion was really small and thin although from the angle of the picture, it looks like a thick cut. He said it was pretty chewy, althought he made sure not to overcook it.

Again, he said it was pretty disappointing due to the size. I’m glad I ordered the rice bowl and we ended up sharing that.

When we were done our main course, our replacement appetizer came- pork gyozas. The server apologized for the ~~slimy tofu mess~~ agadashi tofu, and said since it was deep fried, that’s why it was oily. No, I know that deep fried food is oily…but the point was that the tofu batter was slimy and tasteless.

Anyways, the gyozas were not your usual gyozas. They came with minced pork, layered with lotus root and then deep fried. This was a LOT better than the slimy tofu mess. We weren’t sure if we actually enjoyed this dish a lot, or if everything else so far was so mediocre or abysmal that this was delicious.

Either way, the gyozas were cooked well and crispy. The lotus root made it really filling and there was a good amount of pork inside as well.

As for service, the entire time, we felt like we were being rushed. Our food was coming really fast and we had servers quickly taking away our dishes. They had told us 3 times about the 1.5 hour seating limit, we were there for a bit under a hour. It felt like the servers were there to just toss dishes on the table.

I’m not sure if I’ll come back but I kind of want to give them one last chance since we had a great time here last year. I feel like there might have been a change in management as the name of the place changed from Hapa Izakaya to Hapa Beach, but I think they’re still under the Hapa Izakaya family. All the more current reviews at Hapa are pretty negative as well.

Read a happier, more positive, and YUMMIER post on our original visit here.

Did you come here for Dine Out or just recently? I’m really curious to see if we just came on a bad day…

-Carmen

Sushi UOmo

December 9, 2014

Update 11/2018: Since writing this post, it seems that Uomo has changed ownership and things have gone downhill. The prices increase each time, while the quality and quantity decreased. We have stopped going here now.

Sushi UOmo has been around for awhile now, I’d like to say at least a year? Maybe two? Correct me if I’m wrong. In case you are wondering…no, it is not a typo, it is capital UO and small mo = UOmo. I’ve been meaning to try this place, since all my friends have been raving about it. “CARMEN! You have to try this place! It’s so good!” So finally, I went to try it.

In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have gone when I was battling a cold… I think my taste buds were a bit off that day (stuffy nose) and I was feeling very groggy. I need to come back when I don’t have a cold so I can actually taste the full flavours of all the food LOL. Lesson learned, don’t try new places when sick. =( So, take this review with a grain of salt please.

We were pleasantly surprised when we received miso soup at our table. We told the server that we didn’t order miso soup, but she told us it was a complimentary starter, how nice!

Restaurants usually don’t offer free miso soup anymore. It tasted pretty standard, a bit saltier than normal and had a healthy amount of green onions, seaweed and tofu on the bottom. Considering it was free, it was still full of flavour and served hot.
Up next, was our tuna and salmon sashimi. The pieces of sashimi were absolutely HUGE. I don’t think I’ve seen such giant chunks of sashimi before ever, and it weirded me out in a way. But of course, quality over quantity, and was that the case? Despite my sickness, I still tasted the fresh and juicy flavour of both the tuna and salmon sashimi. Look at that glisten! I was already starting to feel a bit full since the sashimi was so big!

Then, our plate of rolls came! Starting off with the negitoro roll, it was my favourite out of all the dishes that night. Just like the tuna sashimi, the negitoro roll was packed full of fresh flavour, and there was a strong green onion taste which is what I’m looking for in a negitoro roll! The boyfriend and I almost always order negitoro roll every single time we eat Japanese food, we both agreed this was one of, if not the best, negitoro roll that we had so far.

Following that, was the BC roll. I didn’t have any because I’m not a fan of salmon skin, but the boyfriend said that it was very crunchy and had a lot of cooked salmon meat inside.

Here is where I regret trying new restaurants when I’m sick. I thought that the chopped scallop roll tasted a bit bland and rubbery, which surprised the boyfriend because he thought it was absolutely delicious! Well, more chopped scallop rolls for him then! I need to re-order this dish next time because I’m sure it tasted fine.

Moving on, I felt like trying something new so I ordered the smoked salmon roll. I loooove smoked salmon, so I thought that it would taste great in a roll. I didn’t really like this roll though, I think I prefer my smoked salmon alone. It was a bit warm which was off putting, and I didn’t like how the roll was so salty. There was nothing wrong with the sushi rice or smoked salmon, but I personally don’t like the taste of it together and will probably stick with salmon sashimi rolls.

I really wanted to try their tobiko, so I had a one piece of nigiri. The tobiko was very fresh, and extremely crunchy. In fact, it was so crunchy that as I was chewing on the tobiko, my boyfriend heard the crunch from the other side of the table LOL… which made him want to try some of it too.

Everything went well with our visit to Sushi UOmo, I think we will be back (I am feeling better now, and have fully regained taste yay!). It is a lot better than the place next door, Yo Sushi . I’m sorry, it had be said but I would pick UOmo any day over Yo Sushi. For the price you pay there, the quality is NOT worth it. Okay, I don’t want to rant about Yo Sushi so just read my review on it *~~~positive vibes~~~*

-Carmen

Sushiholic Japanese Restaurant

November 20, 2014

The boyfriend and I have been meaning to try Sushiholic for many months now, but we never actually went until last month. He ordered take out for us probably a year or so ago, when I worked late hours as a barista. That time, we chomped on it like there was no tomorrow in his car during my break. After that, we wanted to try Sushiholic in restaurant, since our take out rolls were pretty fresh and delicious. I’m not sure if the quality went down in the time that has passed or any other reason, but we weren’t too impressed with the food that night. Pictures are definitely deceiving!
To start, we had an order of salmon sashimi ($10). The salmon tasted pretty bland, there wasn’t that juicy or fresh taste to it. We appreciated the generous portion and thick slices, but sadly, there wasn’t much taste and it fell flat.
The special rolls sounded pretty appetizing, so we decided to order the fire dragon roll ($12). Unfortunately, this tasted really flat as well and had no vibrant or special flavour that we expected for someting with the words fire and dragon in it. Not including those words, the roll was definitely NOT worth $12. It came with prawn tempura, spicy tuna, mayo, cucumber, and avocado. The prawn tempura was very soggy and tasted like it had been left overnight… maybe leftovers? I know that tempura can lose a bit of the crispiness in a roll, especially if there are other wet ingredients in it but it shouldn’t taste that disappointing. Didn’t really taste any of the prawns either. I’ve had other rolls similar to this at other restaurants which have tasted better, with crunchy tempura.
The negitoro roll was pretty decent, tasted average and the tuna actually had flavour compared to the salmon sashimi and fire dragon roll. Onions inside the negitoro roll tasted fresh and were crunchy too. Then came the chopped scallop roll, which was probably the worst dish that had arrived at this point LOL. Thinking back and writing this, it’s pretty funny. It was very bland, warm, and had the scallop had a rubbery texture to it. As well, it definitely did not taste fresh. At this point I was really hoping that I wouldn’t get a stomachache after eating all their sashimi. (Well, minus the tuna!)
The boyfriend ordered the BC Roll, I didn’t try it but he said that the cooked salmon meat and skin was very dry. Our meal prospects were getting worse and worse…
Okay, so our rolls were pretty disappointing so far…but maybe their cooked food would taste better?!? We ordered the tempura udon, and I was relieved that it had the taste I was accustomed to. The broth was flavourful and had the standard udon soup broth, while the udon noodles were cooked perfectly.
The tempura that came with the udon was drastically different than the tempura in the roll, what a great relief and surprise. The tempura here was very crispy, crunchy, and flaky compared to the soggy, abysmal mess before. Do they use their leftover tempura from the day before in their rolls? It sure tasted like that to us….

Needless to say, our visit to Sushiholic was pretty disappointing and unfortunately I don’t think we will be back. It makes me a bit sad to say that because I had good thoughts about this place, which slowly disappeared. In a city like Vancouver where fresh, yummy sushi is easily accessible, there are many places that do it a lot better, and for cheaper too. Although the prices were pretty decent for the sizes we received, the quality of the food just wasn’t there (with the exception of the negitoro roll and udon tempura, not the tempura in our special roll). I had high hopes for this restaurant, I’m not too sure what happened between our take out order about a year ago and now.

-Carmen

Kazu Japanese Restaurant

October 19, 2014

Kazu opened up last month, and replaced Kokoro (which was pretty bad to me, to be honest). Kazu is owned and operated by Japanese staff, hence the authenticity and detailed preparation of their dishes.

I came here with some friends, and couldn’t stop thinking about how damn good their sashimi was and ended up coming for dinner again the next day. This post is a combination of my last two visits (with more to definitely come in the future).

The restaurant itself isn’t that big, but the seating is comfortable and not cramped. The past two times I came here, they had two very friendly staff working. Their English isn’t perfect, but they worked really hard and were really friendly.
As I mentioned earlier, their wild sockeye salmon sashimi was amazing. I was in love at first bite, and I know I say that relatively often, but it absolutely melted in my mouth. The salmon was very fresh, flavourful juicy, and had a slight smoky flavour to it. Look at how rich in colour their wild sockeye salmon is!

On the first visit with our friends, the boyfriend ordered the chopped scallop and negitoro roll. I had a bite of the negitoro roll, and just like the salmon sashimi, I was in love and impressed with how delicious and fresh it was. The tuna was incredibly soft, and melted in your mouth. As for the chopped scallop roll, it was pretty average but there was nothing bad about it. The sashimi really takes the spotlight at Kazu.
We ordered this on a whim after seeing it advertised on the wall. This was the squid karage, it was very crunchy and the lemon juice that we squeezed on top really enhanced the flavours of the squid. We would have liked it better if the tentacles were cut up into smaller pieces instead of two big pieces. It was a bit hard to eat that way, this way was messier and harder to eat without burning your mouth.
For our entree on the first visit, we ordered the tonkatsu, which came with miso soup, salad, and a bowl of rice. The tonkatsu was very juicy and crunchy, tasting exactly like how my Japanese grandma in law (I realized that made me sound like I was married… I meant that my uncle married my aunt, who was from Tokyo oops LOL) would make it in Tokyo. I’m not sure what the salad dressing was, but I’m pretty sure it was made fresh in the restaurant daily, as I noticed that the paste began to separate after 25~ minutes. The salad was very fresh too, and the miso soup was average.
For the second visit with just the boyfriend, we wanted something warm since it was pouring rain that day. We decided to get the tempura udon. Again, this was pretty good. You can tell how clear the broth is, since you can see the noodles at the bottom. It came with chopped onions and different veggies. The broth was a bit salty, but we didn’t find ourselves thirsty after having it. As for the tempura, I was happy that it came with two pieces of shrimp. A unique thing about Kazu was that they served green pepper and string bean tempura, which we haven’t seen before. So the tempura came with shrimp, string bean, green pepper, squash, and yam.
Up next for our second visit was the BC Roll. I didn’t try this since I’m not too big of a BC roll fan, and I had my salmon sashimi (first picture above) already. He really enjoyed the BC Roll and was impressed with how much juicy salmon meat was inside. They definitely did not cheap out on the salmon.

It is quite small and hidden, but the quality and taste of their sashimi is undeniable and top notch for what you pay for. If you’re not a big fan of sashimi, then I wouldn’t recommend that you come here as their cooked dishes are pretty standard. But if you’re a sashimi lover like me, do yourself the favour and check this place out.

-Carmen

Kita No Donburi = Kita No Food

October 1, 2014

I’ve been wanting to try Kita No Donburi for a couple of years now, but never had the chance to. I’m a big fan of Japanese “fast food” type restaurants, such as Ebi Ten by the downtown main library (Which reminds me, I went there a few months ago and never ended up writing a review on it….). Kita No Donburi is at a pretty convenient location for me, which is why I was really looking forward to going. I finally got a chance to try it out today on my lunch break, and I’m sad to say that I was a bit disappointed with my dish. Kita No Donburi = Kita No Food instead?
Originally, I was going to order take out but decided last minute that I rather sit down and eat there. My coworker and I arrived around 12:30, and a lineup had just started to form out the door.

One thing I really liked about this place, and Japanese fast food restaurants in general, was their efficiency and friendliness. We were given take out menus and our orders were taken while in line, so that there was a shorter wait time for when the food came out. Since we came right during the lunch rush, seating was almost at capacity. Luckily, we managed to get the last available table! YAY! It looked a bit cramped since there were so many people inside, but it was actually pretty comfortable to sit.

My coworker already had lunch packed, so she decided to just get a small snack. She ordered the takoyaki ($4.75), which came with eight pieces. Not a bad price for the portion and taste! It was very flavourful, loved the mayo and flakes on top! If you want delicious takoyaki in downtown Vancouver, this is the place to go 🙂
I decided on getting the katsu curry ($8.25). This plate doesn’t look that big here, but it was as wide as the table! The curry was well spiced, flavourful, and had little chunks of potato in it. The katsu was delicious as well, it had a satisfying crunch and the pork was very juicy. Even though it was good, I felt that it was very overpriced. As you can tell from the picture, more than half of the plate is deceivingly just the curry sauce itself. The most expensive portion of a dish is usually the meat, but the portion of katsu was also very small for $8.25. Look at the amount of curry and katsu ratio! I would have hoped for more meat, or rice even, if I’m paying $8.25!

To be fair, they did have a picture of their curry dishes on the menu, but I didn’t expect the katsu portion to be so small. Overall, just definitely not worth the price compared to what was received. =( But I guess when it is in such a centralized location, building space is going to be insanely pricey which means sacrifices on food size.
On the menu, it also said that donburi dishes come with miso soup. I know that this is not a donburi (rice bowl), but they shouldn’t include this item under the donburi menu if it’s not a donburi OR doesn’t include soup as well.

Would I return? Not sure. I definitely won’t be ordering the same dish again though.. Disappointing, because I was hoping I had found a decent and convenient lunch spot. Don’t get me wrong, the dish I had was good and the service was excellent, but I can’t afford to pay that much for what I (don’t) get! It’s definitely not worth it, imo.

-Carmen