B.C. Sushi

September 21, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

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.

Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory

September 9, 2012May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Salmon Maki, Chopped Scallop Roll

I wanted a quick snack after work, so off I went to Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory. They always have extremely friendly service, with all the employees greeting you with Japanese upon entering and leaving. It’s also extremely busy during lunch and dinner hours, and they are also known as a great place for take out. I got my usual favourite – Salmon Maki and Chopped Scallop Roll. They were both as usual, quite average, but not terrible. They are always consistent with their food, and although they are nothing fancy, they are the right quality for the price of the food. Overall, great place for a quick meal!

Takifugu Japanese Dining

July 30, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Salmon Tororo-Ae – Atlantic Salmon with Grated Japanese Yam Potato

Assorted Oshinko – Assorted Japanese Pickles

Kawahaki Mirin Boshi – Grilled Dry Kawahaki Fish

Teba Shio Yaki – Grilled Chicken Wing with Salt

Fresh Clams

Niku Tataki – Seared AAA Beef Sliced with Special Sauce

Nabayaki Udon – Tempura Prawns, Chicken and Egg with udon in soup served in a Hot Pot

Kani Uni Roll (Fresh Sea Urchin with Real Crab) and Chopped Scallop Tobiko Roll

Long overdue, but a few weeks ago, it was my birthday! I went to Takifugu which is hidden in the inner corner of the same mall that West Lake moved to. The interior is really nice, and looks almost like it is fine dining, but when you look at the prices, it isn’t as expensive as you would think. It was also pretty quiet, with just one or two tables, but maybe because it was a weekday, and also because the location is quite hidden.

We ordered the Salmon Tororo-Ae to begin. I was so confused what the outer white stuff was for the longest time, until I looked at the menu again now, and realized that it was grated yam potato! I wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to eat it before, since it kind of just slid off the sashimi when I picked it up. Not bad, but I would probably stick with the typical salmon sashimi, without the potato around it. Steph got the Assorted Oshinko since she is always crazy for oshinko. I swear everytime I eat at a Japanese restaurant with her, she orders something to do with oshinko… But anyways, I never tried it, since I’m not a big fan of oshinko, but she told me that they were some interesting oshinko, and that she probably would prefer the typical yellow ones we see in sushi normally. Next up was the Kawahaki Mirin Boshi, which was basically grilled fish. It reminded me of those grilled squid I used to always get when I was little. It was chewy, and was accompanied with a nice mayo sauce. I wanted the Teba Shio Yaki, which were basically grilled chicken wings. I thought they were grilled very nicely, with a thin crispy layer of skin. They were also having some seasonal items, and so we got tried the Fresh Clams. They were juicy, but I found them a little tough. Not tough to the point that I couldn’t chew, but I’ve had more tender clams.I really wanted something like beef tataki, so I ordered the Niku Tataki. It was presented really nicely on a bowl on ice, and they were tiny little strips of meat. I’m not sure if I ordered the right thing, but what I really wanted was something like Guu’s Beef Tataki. It was decent, but it could’ve been more juicy, and the sauce wasn’t any special.We also got the Nabayaki Udon, which had a very flavourful soup, and was actually very delicious. Lastly we got some sushi rolls, and we got the Kani Uni Roll, as well as theChopped Scallop Roll. I have to say, I was kind of disappointed in them, as they weren’t presented as nicely as the other dishes. They were also just alright, and weren’t too impressive. I’ve definitely had better chopped scallop rolls elsewhere.

Overall, Takifugu is a nice place to have dinner, with a variety of dishes to choose from. I like how they have a wide assortment of grilled items, similar to Zakkushi. I think their hidden location is the cause to their lack of customers.

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!

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.