Tag: Japanese

Toyotomi 豐臣家

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It’s about time I finally tried Toyotomi for their all you can eat hot pot. Toyotomi is located in such a hidden location. There’s basically no other restaurants on Anderson Rd, and they are just offices around there. They used to be a sushi restaurant that was known for their competitive prices and combos at a great deal. However, last year, I was told that they now offer hot pot! What a strange transition. They still make sushi as well though, but hot pot seems to be their selling point.

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Once we sat down, we were immediately asked what kind of soup base we wanted. Honestly, we hadn’t even picked up on menu yet! How do you expect your customers to know what they want! We were then asked 3 more times within 10 minutes what we wanted for our soup base. I actually got kind of annoyed. I know there’s a time limit, but that’s my problem for wasting my time. You don’t need to ask 3 times when we clearly aren’t sure yet!

There are two prices for all you can eat hot pot. $14.99 gets you the normal menu, or if you want the deluxe menu, then it’s $20.99. This is on top of the soup base, which ranges from $7.68 to $9.48.

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Bonito Clear Soup Base

We finally decided to just go for the Bonito Clear Soup Base, and that waitress finally disappeared. I don’t think she came back to see how things were going again after that. Their soup bases are not what you would normally see at Chinese hot pot restaurants. They are Japanese style soup bases, and have ones such as Sukiyaki.

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Seaweed Salad

After handing in our menu list, we immediately got our Seaweed Salad. It was fresh and well seasoned and the portions were just perfect so you had enough of it.

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Mix Sashimi Crispy, Salmon Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi, Tai Sashimi, Baby Tako Sashimi

We decided to go for the deluxe menu, which basically comes with more assortment of meat as well as sashimi. The sashimi was really what got us to decide to add on that $6. The sashimi is presented nicely on ice and even comes with seashells! We kind of came to the conclusion that they reused the ice and seashells though, so we really hope they washed it… Anyways, the sashimi was surprisingly quite fresh. It’s weird how the Salmon Sashimi still comes with a thin layer of the silver skin, and at first I thought it would feel disgusting in the mouth, but I really didn’t feel it at all. The slices were also very large for an all you can eat restaurant. I also tried the Tako Sashimi, which were limited to 1 per person.

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Beef Sashimi

We were really impressed with the Beef Sashimi, that we ended up ordering 3 more dishes. The beef had great flavour and was seasoned extremely well. Full of flavour and was extremely juicy. This also didn’t have a limit, so we ordered tons!

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Snow Beef, Pork Cheek, Sliced Lamb

Then we got our orders of meat. I think we ordered like 30 slices of beef, and then 15 of pork and lamb. But wow, we did not expect the slices to be so large. We still finished it regardless, and we were extremely satisfied with the meat.

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Ice Tofu, Fish Tofu, Beef Tripe, Imitation Lobster Ball, Black Wood Ear, Gluten, Tofu Puff, Oyster Mushroom, Squid Ball, Shrimp Wonton, Shrimp Dumpling

They put most of the other items all together in one bowl. It looks pretty nice when presented though. I enjoyed the Squid Balls, as you could actually taste the squid in it. Everything was pretty average, and I didn’t hate any of it.

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Veggies

For our second round, we ordered some veggies. You basically get 3 columns to order, so it’s easy to pace yourself.

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Mussel, Tiger Prawn

I never tried the tiger prawns, but my parents said that they were large and had full of shrimp flavour to it. The mussels were also great.

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Curry Fish Ball, Deep Fried Oysters, Takoyaki, Chili Seafood Ball

Other than hot pot food and sashimi, they also had cooked food, which I found interesting. The Curry Fish Balls were surprisingly pretty good! Up to par with the ones at night markets. They also had Takoyakis, which is kind of strange. These were limited too! They actually had tako in it, so I was quite pleased. The Deep Fried Oysters were also not bad.

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Sesame Oil w/ Enoki Mushroom, Salmon Sashimi, Tuna Sashimi

Another order of sashimi! Tons of Salmon Sashimi because it was really good! I feel like we totally ate our money’s worth since we ordered so much sashimi! The Sesame Oil w/ Enoki Mushrooms were pretty weird though. They just tasted of sesame oil, and we didn’t like it.

For the last round, we felt like our items weren’t coming, but they weren’t significant items. They were items we just wanted to try, so we didn’t really care. We did want to get those Iced Pineapples which were part of our deluxe menu though! They don’t have desserts, so that’s pretty much their dessert. They didn’t come until we told the girl who told us it was our last call. Then they immediately came…Like c’mon, we have to ask them for pineapples in order for them to come…

Overall, we were pretty satisfied with the food. For the price, you are getting average or above average food, and especially since it’s an all you can eat place. Don’t expect much from service though, because they just want you to eat and leave so they can get the next round in.

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To see the menus:

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Kitanoya Guu (Richmond) (revisit)

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I feel like I just recently went to Guu in Richmond, but come to think of it, it was actually a month ago. J and I wanted some Japanese food though, so off we went. It was a Thursday night and the place was pretty empty. The vibe and ambiance was totally missing, although they still screamed Japanese words at you when you enter and leave! Since there weren’t many customers, the service was especially tentative, and I feel like our tea cups were always full.

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Salmon Skin Salad (on the house)

Within minutes of taking down our order, we were given a complimentary appetizer. It was a Salmon Skin Salad, and although I usually don’t like to eat salmon skin, this one was not bad. The lemon gave it some zesty flavours, and worked well with the rest of the salad.

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Beef Tataki – thin sliced seared beef w/ ponzu sauce

I chose to get the Beef Tataki, since I love the way Guu flavours it. However, I was extremely disappointed with tonight’s! Beef tataki is supposed to be seared, but this one was overdone. It still looks red on the picture, but I should have taken a snapshot of the other side, because it was completely cooked and brown. J and I both agreed this was not up to their usual standards.

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Tuna Tataki – seared tuna w/ ponzu sauce

The Tuna Tataki was also a disappointment. It seemed like the chefs weren’t making their tatakis correctly tonight!! They are usually really delicious, so I’m not sure what went wrong, especially since they had plenty of time to perfect it since there were barely any customers.

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Steamed Mussels

Somehow, we ended up with Steamed Mussels too! We didn’t order them, but I took a picture of them before we told them to send them back. They looked delicious though, and we were tempted to eat them anyways…The mussels looked fatty!

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Unagi Moshi – BBQ eel & poached egg on rice in hot stone bowl w/ teriyaki sauce (without egg)

J wanted to get something like a unagi don, so the waitress recommended us the Unagi Moshi. It’s colourful and comes in a stone bowl. It totally reminded me of a bimbimbap!

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The waitress then helped us mix it all together. I’m not a big fan of eel, but I liked how the bits were all mixed into the rice, so you could still taste the eel, but the texture wasn’t as apparent. It was strong in ginger flavours, and the teriyaki sauce worked well with everything. At the bottom, the rice started to dry up, and you could get the crunchy rice texture just like in any stone bowls.

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Yakiudon – pan fried udon w/ beef, mushroom, green onion, & soy sauce + butter

I also love Guu’s Yakiudon, so I had to get that! But I was disappointed with it! When it was served, it just didn’t look appetizing. The udon was a bit soggy, and just wasn’t up to par! I felt like everything that I always enjoy at Guu were such a disappointment tonight!! What was wrong with the chefs 😦

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Beef Tongue – 3 styles (Daily Specials)

Finally, J wanted to try something interesting, so we got the Beef Tongue which was prepared in 3 different ways. I have to say I was hesistant to try it first, just because I get a little iffy when I try new organs, or weird body parts… Who doesn’t?! The first one on the right of the plate was cooked and chilled. We found that it was quite salty and reminded us of ham. The texture is definitely chewy though. The one in the middle confused us a little. It had a sunny-side-up egg on top and underneath was a meatball! It was a meatball with beef tongue in it. This is a good choice for starters who have not tried tongue before, since you wouldn’t even realize what’s in it. It’s literally like a meatball! The last one on the left was crispy on the outside, and wasn’t as salty as the first. It was flavourful and I liked it much more compared to the first.

Overall, I was quite disappointed with my visit at Guu this time. I remember a friend saying that the Guu in Richmond is always either a hit or miss. Their consistency is a problem, but this was the first time I experienced this. Weird how it was a weekday and the chefs had plenty of time to perfect their dishes since there were few customers, yet they did not.

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Ebisu (Richmond)

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For New Year’s Eve, my parents didn’t feel like doing much celebrating, so I decided to go out and eat with K instead. I had just gotten off work, and since it was really last minute, most of the places were booked up. I was really hungry too, so I wanted to go eat right away! Finally, we found reservations for Ebisu in Richmond, but they said they would be bar seats. It was just the two of us, so we could care less! When we got there, I was surprised that Ebisu has renovated and the interior was much more stylish. The servers also all spoke Japanese giving the restaurant a feel of authenticity. And surprisingly, the bar tables were nothing like what we had thought. They were comfy booth seats that basically only seated two customers. It was extremely comfortable and we still had tons of room to move around.

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Thunder Fries – Freshly cut deep fried sweet potato sticks served with a tangy house cajun dip

K decided to try the Thunder Fries and they were basically yam tempuras shaped like fries. At first, I thought it would be more like the Western style yam fries, but they were definitely softer in the inside and the outer batter was crisp and flaky like tempura. The cajun dip gave them some flavour and hint of spice.

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Healthy Veggie Roll – Red & green pepper, avocado, cucumber, carrot, Kaiware with rice & salsa sauce on top wrapped in color soy been paper

K also got the Healthy Veggie Roll. Sounded super healthy and it came in soy bean paper. I didn’t try it out so I can’t comment on it, but it looked pretty!

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Miso Soup

I got the Chicken Teriyaki Boat since I was starving! It came with a Miso Soup, which was nothing special.

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Ebi Sunomono

The Boat also came with the Ebi Sunomono which I thought was better than what I had expected. Usually complementary sunomonos are quite sour and the appearance is usually not that appealing. However, they presented theirs nicely and it had shrimp and nicely sliced cucumbers. It wasn’t too sour too which I liked.

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Chicken Teriyaki Boat (includes the Miso Soup & Ebi Sunomono) – Chicken Teriyaki, Dynamite & California Roll, Salmon & Tuna Sushi, Assorted Tempura

And here is the Chicken Teriyaki Boat. At the end of my meal, I realized I had eaten a lot! I found the sushi to just be average. The salmon wasn’t anything spectacular either. It wasn’t amazingly fresh or anything, but it was decent. The tempuras really filled me up with all the fried oil. Food was average, but it was a pretty good deal. I think it was around $14 for the whole set.

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Kyo

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I’ve gone to Kyo before, but the last time I went I was an hour late to dinner and everyone had pretty much finished eating. I ended up devouring a few pieces of sushi and sashimi and that was about it. When my family suggested Kyo, I was super excited to go try it out again. For $23.99 for all you can eat dinner, it’s a pretty good deal with the quality of food you get! It’s not only all you can eat sushi, but also Korean BBQ, which is always a plus!

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They have a grill in the center and the service was actually extremely good. They changed our grill once after it got dirty, which you seldom get at other Korean BBQ places. That’s one reason why I normally dislike going to Korean BBQ since many places do not change the grill and you end up with just black coal on your food.

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Miso Soup

First up were some appetizers.

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Ebi Sunomono

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Gomae

I had the Gomae, which was actually pretty good for all you can eat. You got to mix the peanut sauce yourself, and it was just enough for a tasty and refreshing dish.

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Lamb

Next, our BBQ dishes arrived. For meat, we only chose to get Lamb, Chicken, and the Black Pepper Beef Short Ribs. Each dish was supposed to be a serving of 4, but we found that they gave much more chicken than the rest. I guess chicken is supposed to be cheaper… The lamb was quite good. It was tender and the marinade wasn’t too strong or bland. It was just right.

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Chicken

The Chicken wasn’t as good as the other two meat. It wasn’t tough or anything, but I found that the marinade was a little too salty for my liking. The first piece was good, and then after that, it was too salty.

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Black Pepper Beef Short Ribs

The Black Pepper Beef Short Ribs were my favourite. The meat fell off the bones easily, and we weren’t given a bunch of ribs with no meat on it, like what most all you can eat places do. The marinade was also just right for the short ribs.

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Prawn

We also got a few rounds of the prawns for the BBQ. They were small, but fresh and were perfect for the grill. For BBQ, there were also a variety of other meat such as beef and pork, seafood, such as salmon, mussels, and squid, and also vegetables, such as corn, eggplant and mushrooms.

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Pork Gyoza

The Pork Gyozas were quite delicious for an all you can eat restaurant. They weren’t burnt and didn’t seem to be strong in MSG like some places.

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Dynamite Roll & Alaska Roll

The Dynamite Roll and Alaska Roll were quite typical and average. They were quite well made and the salmon was fresh.

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Chopped Scallop and Hokigai Nigiri

The Chopped Scallop was one of my favourite sushis of the night. Well, they are basically my all time favourite choice of sushi. The Sushi was actually filled with chopped scallop and they tasted fresh. The Hokigai Nigiri was also fresh.

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Tuna Tataki & Beef Sashimi

The Tuna Tataki was quite good. My dad really enjoyed it, but I found that the thin layer of skin that was still attached to be a little disturbing. It was still good, but I would prefer the ones at Guu. But of course, with the price I’m paying for unlimited tuna tataki, it was pretty good. Not to forget, the pieces were also quite large. I probably had more than what I would get at Guu. The Beef Sashimi however, was a disappointment. It was quite tough and didn’t seem to be too fresh. They seemed to be frozen when they were served.

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Salmon Sashimi & Tuna Sashimi

The Salmon Sashimi was excellent. The pieces weren’t exteremely large in size, but they were definitely larger than pieces I’ve had at many all you can eat places. The sashimi was extremely fresh as well, which is an important part of sashimi. I didn’t get a chance to try the Tuna, but I was told it was great as well. I do want to mention that upon placing our second order of sashimi, the sashimi basically never arrived until we asked for it. The server wasn’t rude or anything and quickly told us she would look into it. We still had to wait for quite some time, but in the end, our sashimi came, and it was still fresh. Not sure if they sincerely forgot to place the order, or if they were playing tricks, like many all you can eat places do. The great thing is that they do not have a limit on sashimi, but that’s also when they may choose to play tricks.

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Chicken Wings

Lastly, we also had some chicken wings just for the heck of it. They were lightly battered and well seasoned. Not bad!

We also had some other items that I forgot to take pictures of because it’s so difficult to capture pictures of every item at an all you can eat place. Everyone just wants to dig in! The Zaru Soba, which was another item I ordered was excellent and I liked how it came in a small portion so you wouldn’t get all filled up just by ordering that. For desserts, they also had mango pudding and jello. Jello was typical and came in a large plate and the mango pudding was light and refreshing.

Overall, Kyo is a great all you can eat place for the price you pay. It’s almost impossible to find all around good quality food at all you can eat places, but I think Kyo is pretty good for the most part. If you’re looking for some decent sashimi, sushi, and BBQ food, Kyo would be worth the visit.

Kyo Korean BBQ & Sushi House 月見 on Urbanspoon

Kitanoya Guu (Richmond)

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Tuna Tataki – seared tuna w/ ponzu sauce

Guu is always such a fun place to go for some izakaya food. The ambiance is awesome with the servers and cooks greeting you as you enter and leave. First up, we got some Tuna Tataki which is always delicious at Guu! Fresh and tasty with the ponzu sauce. Their beef tataki is always one of my favourites.

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Oden

We also got some oden, but I only tried the Chikuwa. Typical stuff but I was just really craving it.

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Chikuwa Cheese – deep fried breaded fish cake & mozzarella cheese w/ tonkatsu sauce & mayo

More Chikuwa! But this one is Chikuwa Cheese, so it was basically Chikuwa which had cheese oozing out of it. The chikuwa was also lightly breaded and fried and then topped with a tonkatsu sauce and mayo. I found that this was just decent. It was a little on the hard side because it was fried.

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Kabocha Korokke – pumpkin & boiled egg croquette

The Kabocha Korokke was delicious! It was a pumpkin croquette with a boiled egg in the center. It was also topped with what I believe were pumpkin chips.

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Agedashi Mochi

We decided to be a little adventurous and try out some of the items on their special menu. We got the Agedashi Mochi, which was literally mochi that was fried! I love mochi, but usually as a dessert. This was more of a savoury dish. You really had to dip the mochi into the sauce or else it was pretty bland. It was also a lot more sticky than mochi in desserts. It was interesting!

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Diced Beef Tenderloin Steak and Mushroom w/ Garlic Onion Sauce – Special*

The Diced Beef Tenderloin Steak and Mushroom w/ Garlic Onion Sauce was on their Today’s Special item. The beef tenderloin was extremely tender and the dish came sizzling hot. Full of flavour and would definitely recommend if you love meat.

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Yakiudon (beef on side) – pan fried udon w/ beef, mushroom, green onion, soy sauce & butter

Lastly, we got the Yakiudon because Guu makes one of my favourite yakiudons! The picture doesn’t have the meat in it since we had it on the side. The meat was still extremely flavourful and tender. I love the fish flakes on the top, and it’s always fun to watch them move when the dish is served hot.

Overall, Guu always lives up to expectations. Great place to grab lunch or have a night out with friends. The service is always cheerful and the quality of food is great!

Guu Richmond on Urbanspoon

Sushi Bang

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Sushi Bang was sort of a random discovery. M and I had just gotten off the bus at Cambie and Broadway from school since we had a meeting at Starbucks there with the rest of our team. M was sort of hungry and decided we still had some time to grab some food. He debated on just grabbing a slice of pizza but when we continued to walk along Broadway, I came across this sign. It said 18 pieces of sushi for $5.95! I pointed that out to M and he stared in awe and the next thing I knew, we were inside Sushi Bang.

It’s a tiny little shop with limited seating, but still pretty much half filled. We sat down, thinking that it wouldn’t take too long, but when the food arrived, it was already pretty much time to go for our meeting. Service was quick up into waiting for the food to come. It took probably 15 minutes, but we thought it would be quicker than that for such a convenient looking shop. Anyways, we ended up getting our sushi to go, but I should mention that the sushi was actually presented quite nicely when it had come. Much better than what I had expected.

Sushi Special – 6 pc California Roll, 6 pc Yam Tempura Roll, 6 pc Tuna Roll, Miso Soup ($5.95)

Well this is what attracted M into the restaurant. Clearly their marketing seem to work since many other customers ordered this as well. This is actually quite a lot of sushi for $6. M said that quality-wise, you can’t say it’s anything amazing, but there’s worse sushi out there. You really pay for what you get.

Calamari Tempura Roll & Dynamite Roll

M also decided to get something sort of funky. The Calamari Tempura Roll was surprisingly really delicious. It had a nice chew to it, and although it reminded me of a dynamite roll in some ways, the chewiness of the squid made it really unique. Really delicious! For myself, I wasn’t too hungry, so I just got the boring old Dynamite Roll. Nothing special and just pretty average.

Sushi Bang is a place to get affordable sushi, but the quality is definitely not up to par. You can’t expect much when you’re paying that price!

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B.C. Sushi

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Yam Tempura

Horenso Gomaae

Ebi Sunomono

Massago Cone, Dynamite Roll, Yam Tempura Roll, Kappa Maki, BC Roll, Chopped Scallop Roll

Yakitori

Salmon Sashimi

Agedashi Tofu

Deep Fried Chicken Knee

BBQ Chicken Wings

Tonkatsu

Lemon Chicken

Salmon Sushi, Hokkigai Sushi, Albacore Tuna Sushi, Tamago Sushi

Beef Teriyaki

Gyoza

Chicken Teriyaki

I was craving some late night sushi, so it was either get some cheap late night at Matsuyama, or get all you can eat. I hadn’t had all you can eat for a while, since I never seem to eat my money’s worth. Plus the quality of food is never up to par, so I usually rather pay more for good quality food. And eating all you can eat food with two people is definitely a bad idea. But…we ended up going to try B.C Sushi, since J said that it was pretty good. B.C. Sushi has two all you can eat menus for late night. You can either choose option A, which is $12.95 or choose option A+B which is $17.95. Option B basically includes sashimi and a few other options. We decided to choose option A+B since we wanted sashimi, but we later read that option A also had sashimi if we were to add $1.50 for 6 pieces. We definitely should’ve just gotten option A and added on the sashimi, since the other items in option B weren’t even anything extremely special. We wanted to try so many items but we couldn’t even finish it since we had ordered way too much food! Food quality wasn’t anything amazing, but I would say it’s much better than some of the other all you can eat places I’ve had. The dishes are huge too…which I totally did not expect. I was thinking they would be cheap and give us tiny dishes each time, but not at B.C. Sushi! So much food that we only ordered one round and we were already screaming for help.

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