sashimi Archives - Page 2 of 3

Rajio Japanese Public House

November 16, 2014

Rajio. Radio? Rajio. Japanese izakayas, or Japanese tapa bars, have become a common thing in Vancouver the past few years. Izakayas are a great place to wind down and relax, enjoy some drinks, and delicious food in a great and loud atmosphere. Emphasis on the loud, it is tradition for servers and kitchen staff to belt out greetings and thank you to every customer that walks in and out of the doors. I personally love izakayas, my favourite in Vancouver is Suika. But of course, I’m always up to try new izakayas, especially one that is a sister restaurant of Suika.
I apologize in advance for the grainy pictures, lighting was a bit dim inside. Walking in, we were greeted with loud welcomes in Japanese. At first glance, I loved the juxtaposition of cartoon characters and rustic, historic Japanese decor.

We were seated by the front in a small circular table, the type that you would see in a small coffee shop. From this table, we had a good view of the restaurant and the street. We went during a promotion last month, which came with four of their food items (the first four down below).

We started off with the Bagna Cauda ($6.80), an assortment of veggies with their in-house made dip consisting of garlic, anchovy, olive oil, and Japanese sweet mayo. Admittedly, I never eat enough veggies and I’m also not a big fan of them either. However, the sauce was what completed the meal for me. It was creamy and had a light garlic taste that went really well with the fresh and crunchy vegetables. Definitely not your average veggie dip, we were left wanting more and discussing how we could try to recreate the dip at home. It was a good starter and filled us up.

Up next was the sashimi salad ($8.80). Again, the greens in the salad were very fresh and crispy. The dressing was also very delicious, and the tobiko added a savoury and crunchy taste to the salad. The tuna sashimi was incredibly soft and melted in our mouth. Again, just like with the veggie dip, we were left wanting more… are you starting to see a reoccurring theme here? Hehe 🙂

One of Rajio’s specialties is their kushikatsu. Kushikatsu originated in Osaka, Japan, and is a very popular street food. It is basically either deep fried veggies or meat that comes on a skewer, with a special kushikatsu dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was very dark and opaque, and came in a mason jar. We were told to not double dip, I was also reading that in Japan, some of the restaurants reuse their sauce with other customers. I seriously hope this isn’t the case and it probably isn’t due to Vancouver’s high health standards. Anyways, we were given an assortment of veggies which I can’t recall, and a chicken skewer. The veggies still packed a lot of flavour despite being deep fried and dipped in sauce.

Our ebi ramen came next. I actually preferred the oxtail ramen at Suika, their sister restaurant, more. The noodles were bouncy and cooked well, and the pork was very moist and tender.

After all our food came from the voucher, we wanted to see what else Rajio had to offer. We ordered the peking wrap ($7~), which for some mysterious reason, I can’t find on their menu or anywhere on the internet!! The peking wrap tasted exactly like the traditional Chinese wraps, it came with the usual hoisin sauce, fresh white onion, and meat. The dough of the wrap was very soft. The only difference was that it wasn’t Peking duck and the chicken was deep fried, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Every time the boyfriend and I go out to eat Japanese food, it is not complete unless we order some sort of negitoro roll. But this time, we upgraded and got the negitoro battera ($9.80), pressed sushi with tuna belly, scallions, daikon, and sesame. Just like the sashimi salad, I enjoyed the freshness and taste of the tuna sashimi but I found the daikon taste a bit too overpowering. I let the boyfriend finish this plate off since he liked it more than I did.

Last but not least, squid karage ($6~)! Hm, just noticed that deep fried food seems to be an occurring theme in this visit.. oops. It was love at first bite. The squid was very crispy and crunchy, jam packed with flavour and I wished this plate would never ever end.

Our food was undeniably delicious, and with every dish, we we left wanting with more. Staff seemed a bit disorganized as our drinks were forgotten, only to have arrived twice at different intervals after we asked them. Our ramen came twice as well. We were told that our additional items after the set menu would take awhile since it was busy, fair enough. We ended up waiting 30 minutes in between, good thing we weren’t in a rush. I’m glad that we came a bit earlier and beat the rush. Rajio, you have stolen my heart much like your sister!

-Carmen

Mio Sushi, Seattle

November 9, 2014

A lazy Sunday calls for staying at home in cozy blankets, PJs, and watching Netflix while eating a disgusting amount of corn nuts. Oh, and catching up on blogging too of course. Apart from Toulouse, we also stopped by and tried Mio sushi on a whim. Our result to Mio was a result of indecisiveness, hunger, and convenience.

It was quite sad that after arriving in Seattle for a mere 28 hours, I was already missing and craving Asian noodles. In particular, I was craving udon soup as well so we set out on what would be a thirty minute indecisiveness, constant scrolling on Urbanspoon until we found Mio. There were other places as well, but we didn’t want to drive and we also didn’t want to spend a lot of money in the downtown core.

We were pleasantly surprised at how fast of a walk Mio was from our hotel! I was a bit iffy on walking there because the streets were pretty dark and we had to pass a big dark, unlit park which has probably seen better days… but I was assured that it would be safe to walk, turns out it was a pretty nice day for a brief stroll.

This location of Mio was located right outside of the downtown core, in the South Lake Union neighbourhood. The area looked pretty new, nice, and trendy. Kind of reminded us a bit of Yaletown but more commercial. We were the only customers when we came in around 8:30 pm.
As mentioned, I knew what I was going to order before stepping in. They had a seafood and nabeyaki udon. I got the nabeyaki udon ($9 usd) since it was cheaper than the seafood udon, and all I really wanted was just udon. It came in a cute stone bowl with a handle, and I was warned the bowl was very hot. I would have liked the tempura on the side because it got really soggy, but it was good nonetheless.

There were also some pan fried string beans, but it got pretty soggy and didn’t taste super fresh. Apart from those two very minor hiccups, this bowl of udon was exactly what I wanted, and was delicious. The broth was very flavourful, and a tad salty. It came with perfectly cooked and a decent amount of udon noodles, and imitation crab meat. I liked how there was a lot of seafood as well, it was a good addition as well as the fresh green onion garnishes.
The boyfriend ordered the Gyu ramen. The ramen was really disappointing. It lacked flavour, depth, and was very plain. Perhaps we were just used to amazing ramen in Vancouver, but this bowl was not appetizing. He also mentioned that the ramen noodles tasted like instant noodles… yikes.

To split, we ordered the salmon and yellowtail roll. Yellowtail roll is the same as negitoro roll, it confused us at first. Both rolls were very fresh and flavourful, pretty decent. The price was a bit steeper than we were used to for a casual Japanese joint at $4.75 USD per roll, but we did enjoy the freshness of it so we didn’t mind.

The rolls and udon were satisfying and delicious, but I wish we could say the same about the ramen. Service was pretty attentive, fast, and nice (well then again, we were the only customers in the restaurant!). Mio looked very clean, new, and had hints of pink accents throughout the restaurant. This looked like a place that would be really busy during lunch hours on the weekdays, but it was very quiet that night and they closed early after we finished eating. It was a good and convenient place to grab a quite bite since we were in the neighbourhood.

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

Kishimoto Japanese Restaurant

September 19, 2014

I have heard amazing things about Kishimoto, both from my friends and also online. I’ve always wanted to try it, but know that it’s a sushi hotspot and I do not really want to wait ages in line.. 🙁

Finally, one day, timing worked out and my boyfriend took me there to try it! I was very eager, and had extremely high expectations before even walking in the front door.
As always, finding parking along Commercial Drive was a hassle but we did find free street parking that day! Yay! Kishimoto is a relatively small restaurant, and adding to the popularity= long, expected wait times. We went around 5:30pm right after I got off work, because I knew if we went around 6-7pm we would have to wait.

Walking in, you will see signs everywhere instructing guests to wait until they’re seated, no sitting down until all the guests have arrived, etc etc. Just shows how busy it gets! We waited around 5 minutes for the server to clear the table for us. Smooth sailing so far!
My boyfriend has been here before, and said that their tuna tataki ($11.95) is a must order. So, of course, being the curious food blogger I am, I had to give it a try. When the server put down the plate, I thought that she had mistaken our order cause all I saw were onions. The tuna tataki was actually under all the onions and roasted garlic. I was in love at first bite.

The tuna was incredibly soft, and melted in your mouth. It had a slightly grilled taste to it. Adding the onions, roasted dry garlic, and ponzu sauce, it was absolute perfection. My favourite dish of the night.
I knew that Kishimoto specialized in intricate plating techniques, so I was quite eager to see how our dishes would be plated! Here is the negitoro roll, chopped scallop roll ($4.95), and wild salmon nigiri ($3.00). I thought that the chopped scallop roll tasted pretty average. I really liked the negitoro roll since the tuna tasted very fresh, and had a lot of flavour.

The wild salmon nigiri also had a great, fresh, and juicy flavour to it as well. I ordered one piece of salmon nigiri, turns out that one order is actually equal to three pieces! I really enjoyed the sushi rice, it was cooked perfectly and had that distinct delicious sushi rice taste to it. Definitely worth the $3 since you get three pieces of nigiri! The “flower” art at the bottom was composed of daikon (type of carrot) sheets, edamame beans, and ginger. The candle seen at the top picture was a real candle, wrapped around a daikon sheet. Pretty interesting concept! I wonder if anyone has accidentally lit their daikon on fire…. Knowing how clumsy I am, I’m surprised I didn’t knock it over…
Up next, was our salmon oshisushi ($12.95). Oshisushi is a type of sushi made by placing all the ingredients into a box and pressing it together, hence the rectangular shape. The salmon oshisushi came with creamy sauce, crushed black peper, jalapenos, and salmon sashimi. After it is pressed, it then gets lightly torched. I enjoyed the salmon oshisushi as well, but found that after a few pieces, it was a bit too heavy for me due to the creamy sauce. I ended up requesting for a lemon slice, where I then lightly squeezed the juice onto the remaining pieces. I found that cut a bit of the cream heaviness out. Oshisushi = oishi 😉 If you know some Japanese haha…
The second oshisushi we ordered was the ebi ($12.95). This one came with cooked prawn, basil, pesto, creamy sauce, and crushed black pepper. Just like the salmon oshisushi, I found that it was a bit heavy to eat though I did enjoy the pesto sauce. There was a slightly grilled taste to these as well. I ended up drizzling a bit of lemon juice to this one as well. For those who have tried Kishimoto’s oshisushi, did you find that it was a bit on the heavy side due to the cream?

I noticed that all their desserts were made in-restaurant, so I wanted to give it a try. We ordered the house-made strawberry sorbet, which came with condensed milk topping and served with a cute wooden spoon! Our waitress informed us that it was still frozen, and to wait a few minutes before digging in. There was a very strong strawberry flavour to the sorbet! Adding the condensed milk on top, the dessert was sooo gooood. There were also bits of strawberry seeds in the dessert as well!

All in all, I did enjoy my visit to Kishimoto and left satisfied. Service was a bit slow at some points, since they had a full house. I noticed that it got busy around 6pm so I’m glad we had an early dinner. I highly recommend trying the tuna tataki here! What were your favourites?

-Carmen

PS. Stay tuned for some delicious Seattle eats next week! 😉

Yo Sushi, Burnaby

May 25, 2014

The boyfriend and I were feeling like sushi a few weeks ago, and wanted to try a new place as opposed to our regular sushi joints. We decided on going here based on a recommendation from my friend, who said that they have really great quality there.

I remember a year or two ago, when this place first opened, I was told by a different group of friends who did not like their experience here. They said that it was overpriced, and wasn’t that good for what you pay for. But I decided to try it, since that was over a year ago, things probably would have improved, right?
The first thing I noticed after walking in was how spacious the place was. We were the second party there, so we were greeted and seated pretty fast. Service was pretty friendly throughout the night.
To start off, we received complimentary chips.
We ordered a plate of tuna and salmon sashimi , $11.95. The sashimi was pretty disappointing and we would not order it again. The salmon did not taste fresh or sweet, and was very thin. It was also folded, which I’m not too sure why… maybe to make it look like bigger pieces? As for the tuna, it was still frozen and not thawed properly. It also did not taste super sweet or fresh.
Moving onto the rolls, we ordered the chopped scallop roll and negitoro roll. Both rolls were pretty average, nothing too special or outstanding about them. We appreciated that there was a bunch of chopped scallop on top of the roll, making it a better deal.
For the specialty roll, we ordered the red dragon roll which came with spicy tuna sashimi, crunchy flakes, and spicy mayo. This was probably the only thing that we thoroughly enjoyed, but for $9.95, it is a bit overpriced. Other sushi joints by Yo Sushi (Sushi Nanaimo, Sushi Garden, Sushi Town) have their red dragon rolls for around $5-6.

After our quick meal, we received hi-chew candy! I love hi-chew candy so this made me feel a lot better about the visit. They also gave us a free coupon for gyoza salad. We paid $32.35 for our meal, not including tip.

I don’t think we will be back here again, because there are other sushi places in this area that have better quality dishes for cheaper prices and there was nothing special about this place.

-Carmen