Matsuyama

July 13, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Deep Fried Gyoza, Salmon Maki, Chicken Teriyaki, California Roll w/ Miso Soup

Salmon Maki, California Roll, Chopped Scallop Roll

Matsuyama Roll

I keep seeing people’s picture of Matsuyama all over my Facebook news feed, so I finally decided to go check it out. I think people usually go during their late night dinner since it’s supposed to be of very good value. However, I went for lunch instead, and they had a lot of sushi boxes and combos. I honestly don’t remember what the combo names were called since I didn’t take a picture of the menu. I had the second combo which had salmon maki, california roll, and chopped scallop roll. I didn’t think the fish were too fresh, and the chopped scallop roll had a weird fishy smell to it. It was a good price from what I remember, but the quality is definitely below average. The late night special would probably be of same quality but with a low price, it probably would attract a lot of customers. I would probably give the late night dinner a try, but most likely wouldn’t come back for their lunch or normal dinner.

Sushi House

July 12, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Half Order of Salmon Sashimi

Chopped Scallop Roll

Nabeyaki Udon

Crazy Boy Roll – Fried California Roll with Tobiko and Home Sauce

A few weeks ago, I finally met up with Natalie for lunch after saying this for probably half a year. Yes! I mentioned you Natalie 🙂 She treated me to lunch since my birthday was coming up soon and she suggested Sushi House. I didn’t really know of this place, but now I’ll probably come here again. It’s fairly small, with limited seats, but the food is pretty fresh at a decent price. We sat at the bar since we only had two people, and we were able to watch the sushi chefs do their thing.

We ordered a half order of Salmon Sashimi which was extremely fresh. We also ordered the Chopped Scallop Roll, which is one of my favourites. It wasn’t anything special, and was average like at any other restaurant. The Nabeyaki Udon was delicious and came with two prawn tempuras. I think my favourite item we ordered was the Crazy Boy Roll. It was something I had never tried before, and was really interesting. It almost looked like pizza when it was presented to us! It was basically california roll which was fried, and sliced up. It was then topped with tobiko, and a home made sauce, which was pretty spicy. The batter was like the tempura batter, and it wasn’t too thick. It gave a good crunch to it and was definitely the highlight of our meal.

I think Sushi House also does take out, since they have a great selection of party trays. Perhaps I’ll try that next time when I’m craving some sushi!

Benkei Ramen

July 5, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Shio Ramen

Miso Ramen

Shrimp Gyozas

I was craving some ramen the other day, and we were headed towards the downtown area so I quickly urbanspooned what was around, and of course the typical Kintaro and Santouka come up. I spotted Benkei Ramen, which had pretty good ratings, so I was down to try something new.

The exterior is really Japanese with the wooden decor and upon entering, we found ourselves with a bunch of Japanese customers. I always think that if you find lots of Japanese people in a Japanese restaurant, it must be good. Same goes to other cuisines. The employees were also all Japanese, and after looking at the website now, I learned that it is also owned by a Japanese man who has many restaurants in Japan.

I had the Miso Ramen, which came with bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, green onions, and Chashu. It had a seafood broth, pork base soup, and their special miso, which was very delicious. I didn’t think this was the best ramen I’ve had, but it’s honestly not bad. I also tried a Shrimp Gyoza, which was something different since I usually get pork. It definitely had a shrimp in it, but I thought it tasted quite simliar in taste to the pork ones.

Benkei is a great place to go for ramen if you’re in the downtown area, although it is quite far down the shopping area. It’s also surrounded by both Kintaro and Santouka, but those places always have huge line ups, so if you can’t wait, then Benkei is a great place to go.

Sushi Garden

June 15, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Half Order of Salmon Sashimi

Bill’s Roll (Yam & Smoked Salmon) $3.95, Island Roll (Cooked Tuna, Fish Flake with Fresh Kiwi Sauce) $4.95

Filet-O-Fish Roll (breaded fish fillet, cheese) $3.95, Crab <3s Papaya (Deep Fried Crab Meat) $3.95

Steph and I had been seeing pictures of Sushi Garden all over our Facebook feed, and were determined to try this place out. Everyone was raving about how good it was, but it was all the way in Burnaby, so we set out to try it with a day of shopping at Metrotown after! It’s literally across Metropolis, where a bunch of other restaurants were located on Kingsway. When we entered, there were quite a lot of people waiting. We learned that we had to go to the cashier up in the front to let them know we wanted a seat. We waited for probably around 5 minutes, and quickly got a seat. Mind you, we went at around 1, so it’s probably much more packed earlier. We were seated in a tiny table, which was very cramped and close to the table next to us. All their tables were put together extremely close to cater for the line ups.

We decided to try a bunch of different rolls, especially the ones that sounded more interesting. For a starter, I decided to get the Salmon Sashimi. Steph doesn’t eat sashimi, so I ended up getting half an order for myself. It ended up being 5 fatty pieces of salmon that were extremely fresh. I could not resist not trying them since it seemed like every table ordered it, and it was only around $4 for half an order! What a deal. Next up, I tried the Bill’s Roll. It was basically yam and smoked salmon, and it was difficult to eat everything together since the roll was so big. When I did manage to get the two ingredients together in one bite, the yam’s flavour totally covered the smoked salmon. It was still a pretty interesting combination and I enjoyed the tobiko on the top. The Island Roll was fresh and appetizing. The kiwi gave the tuna a slight tang, but it somehow worked pretty well. Not bad! And then came the Filet-O-Fish Roll. It was very saucy and was such an interesting roll, but it worked. Who knew you could put fried filet-o-fish and cheese in a sushi roll! And lastly, we had the Crab <3s Papaya Roll. To my disappointment, it was just intimation crab, but what can I expect with that price. The papaya also didn’t quite taste like papaya. It wasn’t exactly ripe, so it was still pretty hard. It kind of reminded me of a mango roll actually. I also have to add that all the rolls did not need soy sauce, as they either had a sauce already or all the ingredients already worked well enough to prevent it from lacking flavour.

We definitely had ordered way too much food for the two of us, but it was still very satisfying and the prices were very reasonable for the portions. It kind of reminded us of Banzai in Richmond, with large portions and cheap price. Don’t expect amazing service and a good atmosphere or comfortable seating, but food came prompt and was of quality for the price you pay. Definitely would stop by again if I’m in Burnaby again.

Charcoal Sushi & BBQ (Revisit)

May 30, 2012May 17, 2014Leave a comment

Wakame Salad – marinated seaweed

Tokyo Roll – prawn tempura & cucumber topped with salmon & tobiko

Rainbow Roll – imitation crab, avacado, salmon, tuna, snapper, prawns, hokkigai

The Submarine – salmon, avocado & tobiko topped with seaweed salad

Lotus Roll – chopped scallop, imitation crab & avocado topped with tobiko, wrapped in cucumber

My parents were deciding where to have dinner on the long weekend, but realized many smaller sushi shops were closed that day. And so I ended up suggesting to go to Charcoal Sushi & BBQ since they always have some pretty unique rolls.

We waited for quite a while for our orders to appear on the table, and I guess the server/owner saw us getting a little impatient, so he gave us a Wakame Salad for free. Perfect – since we were actually thinking of ordering it before. Refreshing and had a little spice to it. Finally, we got our Tokyo Roll. It had prawn tempura inside, topped with salmon and tobiko and a sauce that was a little spicy, but gave the whole roll a great flavour. Next we had the Rainbow Roll, which consisted of salmon, tuna and hokkigai on the top of the roll. Looked really pretty! The third roll we got was the Submarine Roll. It had salmon inside and was topped with more seaweed salad. The seaweed gave it a great bite, as well as flavour to the whole roll. Lastly, we got the Lotus Roll, which I had already tried before. It was basically imitation crab wrapped with a very thin piece of cucumber. The menu description also claimed that there was chopped scallop inside, but it was the tiniest bit ever. Still, the Lotus Roll was extremely refreshing and had a great crunch with the cucumber slice.

Overall, Charcoal Sushi & BBQ was quite good with a large assortment of interesting rolls, and I would love to try the BBQ next time.

Izumi-Tei at Izumi-Ya Japanese Marketplace

May 25, 2012April 25, 2013Leave a comment

After hearing about the crazy buzz about Izumi-Ya’s new all you can eat, I decided to go give it a try. It’s called Izumi-Tei and this was probably just two weeks after it had opened, but it was packed already! I arrived at the marketplace to see that they had sectioned an area off for the buffet. There were already crowds of people waiting for a seat, but luckily we only waited for maybe a short 15 minutes and we were given a seat. The interior was very small, with most tables only fitting probably 4 people max. The workers were also not quite organized, probably because it had just opened.

For dinner or lunch, it was only $9.99 for adults! I heard rumours that they have increased the price now though. My friends who had just went recently were giving me such good reviews about it, so I guess I went in having some high expectations, which was a bad idea. It ended up to be a buffet style all you can eat, but the selection wasn’t too large. Food wasn’t prepared quick enough, so a lot of times, there wasn’t much food left when I went up to get food. And most of the food were just greasy, fried items, which I’m not a huge fan of. They did have an oden section, which was quite different from other Japanese all you can eat places. Sushi selection was limited to dynamite, california, salmon, tamago, and cucumber rolls. There wasn’t sashimi either, but what can I expect with the price I paid. Another interesting item they served were takoyakis! You also got to add the toppings yourself, which was pretty fun. Lastly, they served soft-serve ice cream, which wasn’t anything special again.

They only let you eat for an hour as well, and they stick a little tag on your table with the time you must leave when you’re brought to your table. Overall, was the food anything amazing? I don’t think so, and I would probably choose to pay a few more bucks to eat better all you can eat. But with this price, it is definitely a place to go to if you want to fill up your stomach.

Seto Japanese Restaurant

May 21, 2012May 3, 20132 Comments

Miso Soup, Takoyaki, Seaweed Salad

Katsu Don

Chopped Scallop Roll, Yam Tempura Roll

Seto is always one of my favourite go to Japanese restaurants in Richmond. This is where you can get authentic Japanese food at an affordable price. It’s always packed on weekends, and without reservations, you pretty much can’t get a seat. But we went on a weekday, and it was pretty empty. Kitty came back from Toronto and desperately wanted Seto, and so off we went along with Jack. I had just gone downtown with Kitty for some Japadogs, so we were both still pretty full. I ended up getting the Takoyaki and Chopped Scallop Roll. Both were as always up to standards. Definitely would recommend Seto if you are looking for authentic Japanese food in Richmond.

Manzo Itamae

May 11, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Sukiyaki Beef Hotpot

Deep Fried Mango Ice Cream

I’ve been to Manzo Itamae a few times now, but this time we came for the Deep Fried Mango Ice Cream my friend was talking about. I started myself off with a Sukiyaki Beef Hotpot just cause I hadn’t tried it before and wanted something that wasn’t sushi. I got the small size, but it was enough for one person. It came with these clear noodles and lots of beef, tofu, and veggies. Not bad! And lastly, for dessert, we got what we came for. The Deep Fried Mango Ice Cream! The server poured the alcohol over the ice cream and lit it on fire. You can still see the flame in the picture. Pretty cool! As for taste, I wouldn’t say it was anything special. It was just mango ice cream that was encrusted. I also found that the alcohol was way too strong, which didn’t work too well with the dessert. I believe it was something like Soho, which has a lychee flavour to it, but the alcohol bitterness was still too strong for me.