japanese Archives - Page 5 of 5

Tomokazu (Late night AYCE)

April 18, 2014

My friends and I wanted late night AYCE one night, and decided to come here. I came here a few years back and it was decent as far as AYCE goes, so we decided to come back. Overall, our visit was pleasant. We found out from trial and error which AYCE foods to order, and which to stray away from. If you want to save you and your tastebuds the hassle, keep reading on!

The restaurant is not brightly lit at all, as you can see from this picture. We actually parked at the wrong restaurant initially, because there was a Korean/Japanese restaurant on the second level two blocks down Broadway. I thought that they had just changed the exterior and added Korean food to their offering, but nope.
We came for the late night AYCE. For those who don’t know, some AYCE restaurants offer a discounted rate if you go after a certain time. For Tomokazu, it was 9:30. Their late night AYCE menu isn’t as extensive as their regular menu, but it’s cheaper!
Here are the first four dishes that came, starting with the salmon and tuna sashimi. As expected, the sashimi pieces were pretty small and did not taste super fresh, but still passable. The tuna pieces in particular were really tiny, like tiny mini erasers.

There is also a limit of 6 pieces of EACH sashimi that you could order per round (max 12 per round). I forgot about the miso soup and it turned cold, when I drank it it tasted pretty watery. You could tell that the spinach gomae had been in the fridge the whole day, but it was still pretty tasty due to the rich peanut butter sauce. The spinach itself did not taste bad either, it was pretty juicy. I ended up ordering 2 more orders of this because I liked how juicy and refreshing the chilled spinach was.

I laughed when the salmon teriyaki came because it was so thin, but it was cooked well and decent.
Next came our rolls, which were pretty good! The salmon maki tasted like a regular roll you would order at a restaurant. The chopped scallop cone had a generous portion of scallop, we were all pretty impressed.

We ordered one seafood cone because we were curious, and it was pretty good as well! It came with cooked salmon and mayo. The beside it was the BC Roll , I’m not a fan of salmon skin but my friends liked it. Next was the Tomokazu special roll which we ordered because my friend is very adventurous and has a “why not” attitude when it comes to ordering. We were glad that we ordered it since it was very tasty!

We agreed that this plate alone was worth the money, because when you go to restaurants, cones are around $4 each!
All of these plates were so good! The agedashi tofu was very crispy, I’m pretty sure it was made fresh which is rare for AYCE! I didn’t try the seafood and oyster motoyakis, but my friends both loved it. It was very cheesy, and the seafood one came with a lot of salmon. I loved the chicken karage. It was crispy, well seasoned, and cooked well. We ordered a lot of them afterwards too. The korean BBQ pork was really good as well. It was seasoned and grilled perfectly and cut into small strips.
But wait, there’s more! The hokkigai tasted pretty chewy and rubbery to me, so I probably wouldn’t order this again. The beef teriyaki was very sweet, but towards the end, the remaining beef was very mushy and looked like stew. The BBQ chicken wing was good according to my friend, I was too busy eating the rest of the chicken karage to try this. Finally, the gyoza which my friend thought tasted pretty good (At this point, I was stuffed and wanted to save room for jello).
After drinking more tea and resting, we were ready to stuff ourselves with jello! My friend noted that some places keep their jello with the seafood, so it ends up tasting like fishy jello. He was happy when he found out this was not the case here. However, I noticed that some restaurants keep their jello out for so long that the edges of the jello become kinda hard and dry, but this was not the case either. It was pretty decent jello!

Overall, we had a great experience at AYCE. I personally came with low expectations because it’s AYCE, you can’t expect supreme quality when you’re getting as much food as you possibly can.

Service was average, the workers didn’t really come to top our tea or anything, but it was fine. We ended up staying for more than 1.5 hours (the maximum time limit), but they let us sit and digest our food until they closed.

-Carmen

Benkei Ramen – Broadway location

March 25, 2014

Benkei has a few locations in Vancouver, but we decided to go this one because we were in that area. It was hard for us to find parking, we ended up parking with the meter a few blocks down.

My visit was alright, but I was quite disappointed with their minimal meat portions (2 thinly cut pieces of chicken/cha shu), I don’t think the price of the ramen was justified when the bulk of it is just noodles and beansprouts.
When we first came in, the restaurant was probably 3/4 full. Their service here wasn’t as friendly as they used to be, they used to actually greet you when you walked in and smile.

They seemed very rushed and that they just wanted us to eat and leave right away. I noticed that their menu changed from the last time I came here, they added some different combo options depending on which ramen bowl you pick.
I decided on getting the shio ramen, $8.50. The broth was very flavourful and they gave a generous amount of onions and beansprouts. I thought this dish was alright except for the chicken, which I was disappointed with. Instead of having the cha-shu (type of pork) with your ramen, you can substitute it for chicken which is leaner and lower in fat.

I personally prefer chicken so I opted for this, however the two slices of chicken was small and really thin. I felt like they should have been more generous with the amount of meat in their dishes.

The boyfriend ordered the miso ramen, $8.50. Again, we felt that the cha-shu portion was really small and that they could have given us more for the price we were paying. Other than that, everything tasted pretty good. He also sprinkled sesame on his noodles which gave it more flavour, I used chili paste instead.

In conclusion, we enjoyed the broth and noodles of our dishes. However, their meat portions were really small which was disappointing and I don’t feel like the price of the ramen were justified.

I would probably go to Kintaro or Santouka for ramen since they have bigger portions and friendlier service.

Hime Sushi

March 15, 2014

The boyfriend and I came here one evening during a break between my classes. We were looking for some fast, delicious, fresh tasting sushi and after wanting to try this place for a few months, we decided to actually go.

I’m glad we went because Hime Sushi serves up some really fresh and delicious sashimi, as well as other dishes. I think their sashimi was the star of the show, but their specialty rolls were delicious too.

Hime Sushi is really easy to miss when you’re driving by. The outside of the restaurant doesn’t really stand out, we were both surprised when we found out it was by Broadway and Main because we drive by this area multiple times a week, yet we’ve never noticed it until we street-viewed (is that even a verb?) it.

Trying to take a picture of the outside was also quite difficult to catch everything, but I tried my best.

It wasn’t too busy when we first arrived. The servers were polite, attentive, and friendly. Hime Sushi also starts you off with a small plate of chilled edamame beans. I looove edamame beans so we were off to a great start.
The first dish that came was our tuna and salmon sashimi. I’ve read on Urbanspoon that they have really fresh and juicy sashimi, so it was time to test that out.

And boy, was their sashimi ever delicious! It was really fresh, juicy, and sweet – all great components to delicious sashimi. Yum! I noticed their slices of sashimi were a bit smaller than usual, but the freshness of the sashimi made up for it.
Of course, you can’t go to a new restaurant without trying their specialty rolls. This was there ocean red roll which consists of spicy tuna and green onion in the inside, with wild sockeye salmon on top. It came drizzled with hot sauce.

Again, we really enjoyed this due to the quality and freshness of the sashimi. I found myself finishing off every little detail of this roll because it was so good!
Some standard rolls, starting with the salmon and avocado. This was really good due to the freshness of the salmon and avocado. Not only is their sashimi fresh, but avocado as well! The second one was the negitoro (tuna and onion) roll. We enjoyed this one too.
We ended up ordering a second time since I wasn’t completely full yet. I love tobiko. This was their tobiko roll, which I loved. Their sushi rice was really flavourful and sweet, with the right texture and the tobiko was also really crunchy.

All in all, we thoroughly loved our visit to Hime Sushi even though their portions were smaller than we were used to. Hime Sushi uses really fresh ingredients, and you can totally taste it in their dishes. I am in love with their sashimi and sushi rice. Their service was also really friendly and prompt too. We allocated one hour to eat since I had to go back to class, but we ended up finishing our meal in under 40 minutes.

-Carmen

Dream Sushi

March 6, 2014

Hi everyone,

The boyfriend, his little brother, and I were in the neighborhood last week and were craving some sushi, so we decided to check out Dream Sushi after reading some positive reviews on Urbanspoon.

I’ve been here once a few years ago, but I don’t remember anything from my visit. However, we had a pleasant and satisfying visit at Dream Sushi and would probably come back here again if we were in the area!
So, with all the crappy and rainy weather we had recently, I didn’t get a chance to take a decent picture. Here is one I found of Google with credit to Sherman’s Food Adventures (http://www.shermansfoodadventures.com/).

It is pretty small inside, even though it’s cozy. Their walls are filled with different comments from customers on brightly coloured paper, which I thought looked pretty cool since I’ve never seen a restaurant completely fill up their walls like that.

This place is also Chinese-owned, I’m assuming with all the Cantonese I heard from all the staff.
The first thing we ordered was the salmon sashimi ($9.50). It tasted really fresh and juicy. As you can tell from the picture, the slices were pretty thick and decent too.

It came under a bed of shredded daikon. I would definitely order this again, with how fresh it tasted!
This was the paparazzi roll ($8.95), which was comprised of spicy tuna, cucumber, avocado, fried yam crisps (? I think, not too sure but it was crispy) with seared tuna tataki, spicy mayo, onions, and sesame on top. This was AMAZING.

I loved how all the ingredients tasted so perfectly with each other. This roll was made with a lot of care, quality, and detail as you can tell with the garnishing on top. It also tasted really fresh, and there was a slight crunch inside. The sashimi in this dish was also very fresh tasting as well. I would highly recommend trying this dish! YUM!
Last but not least, we ordered some regular rolls. I’ll start with the california roll ($3.50). This tasted like a regular california roll, but the avocado was really fresh.

Most restaurants either add cucumber OR avocado, but they included both in their roll. I also liked how there was sesame on top, it was a great addition to detail and made a somewhat-boring roll look more interesting. Look at those sesame seeds!
The other roll we ordered was the negitoro roll ($2.75). Nothing special about this roll, we all enjoyed it and didn’t really have any complaints. We also ordered a chopped scallop roll ($3.75). Again, nothing too special about this roll either. The last roll was the smoked salmon roll ($3.75). We were a bit disappointed with this roll because we thought it would taste better than it actually did, but maybe we had high expectations due to the other dishes.

In conclusion, we enjoyed our visit to Dream Sushi. All of their sashimi is extremely fresh, and they prepare all their rolls with detail and quality. Service was attentive as well. They weren’t overly friendly or anything, but they made our visit pleasant and were quick to come to our table, and refilled our drinks without asking.

Suika – Japanese izakaya & tapa bar

February 26, 2014

Hi everyone!

Hands down, Suika is my absolute favourite place to go in this city for Japanese tapas. I love that Suika is super authentic, has amazing quality & preparation, great service, and a lovely atmosphere. I have a positive dining experience every time I come here, and this time was no different.

Back in December, Suika was offering a 10 course (plus dessert, so eleven) set meal for $25 a person. When I saw this offer, I immediately jumped on it and asked three other friends to come with me, since they suggested a party of four.

Without the set course menu, we calculated that each person would have had to pay at least $50 each, so it was definitely an amazing opportunity to enjoy some authentic Japanese food without breaking the bank.

Each plate of food comes with inclusions that complement each other really well, I don’t know how they come up with these recipes but I am truly in awe with how everything is perfectly prepared here.
I love this sake bottle chandelier! It looms above the restaurant, making this restaurant so unique.Little details like this go noticed and appreciated.
3 kinds of appetizer – I believe it was taro, kimchi tofu, and vegetables. At first, we all thought the tomato was salmon which was disappointing, but oh well! Can’t really complain when you’re already getting a good deal. I enjoyed the taro root dish most, it was really flavourful and crunchy.
Beef tataki- super fresh, and well seasoned! The veggies on top, lemon, and horseradish really brought out the flavours and sauces of the dish.
Sashimi salad- This was SO GOOD. Everything was mixed perfectly and complemented each other so well. There were also some tobiko in it, to add some flair and crunch. We cleaned off every piece of green on this plate, that was how delicious it was.
Chicken karaage- This dish was too oily for me, so I avoided it. My friends thought that this dish was pretty oily too, so they used a napkin to dab some oil off. It came with a small bowl of dipping salt. (Pic taken by my friend)
This was some sort of salad, I can’t remember exactly the name of it. I just remember it was very delicious. (Pic taken by my friend)Ebi mayo- delicious! The mayo wasn’t too rich, from what I remember it was also a bit sweet. Lightly fried and well seasoned. We wished there was more because it was sooo good!
Salmon battera- Essentially their take on a regular salmon roll. From what I remember, the salmon was lightly flamed, giving it a smoky flavour. Salmon was also very juicy, the rice was soft, and the vegetables complemented the flavours perfectly.
Kimchi yaki udon – The noodles were cooked very well- very soft and chewy. Although I’m not a big fan of kimchi, I really enjoyed this dish due to the sauce they add on the noodles, plus the fresh onion they add on top.
Beef short rib- THIS WAS SO GOOD. It was marinated in some kind of BBQ sauce. Heaven in every bite. It was extremely soft, tender, and juicy. I’m pretty sure we had a hard time trying to share this dish as we all wanted it to ourselves 🙂
Kakuni bibimbap. We forgot to take a picture of this, so I got it off their website. We really enjoyed this rice dish cooked in a stone bowl, there was a lot of tender and juicy meat inside. There was a really rich and aromatic flavour to this.
Matcha creme brulee for dessert! Hands down, my favourite dessert ever. This even beats out cheesecake. It is a slice of matcha ice cream, but frozen enough so that you have to kind of cut into it with your spoon. The crunchy part is caramelized sugar, with a side of fresh whip and a slice of strawberry. (Pic taken by my friend)

Needless to say, we all left very full and satisfied, I was left with an extremely joyous feeling in my tummy. If you’re planning on coming to Suika on a weekend, you should make a reservation or you’re going to be waiting awhile. I’ve tried coming here without one, and they usually ask you to be done within a certain time because they need to prepare for a reservation.

Service here is really friendly and accommodating, servers are really knowledgeable about the dishes. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! Suika, if you’re reading this, sponsor me!!! (Joking… maybe #whynot )

Thanks for reading!