Friday, March 20, 2015

Episode #72: Oysi Oysi Restaurant

Vancouver (West End), $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.oysioysi.ca

After completing the Urban Grind at Harbour Centre (it only takes 15 minutes to climb to the top!), I was in the mood for fusion sushi and had decided to visit Sushi Ame. Lo and behold, after snapping pictures of the front door, I found out that the restaurant was undergoing renovations. At this point, my memory recalled another fusion restaurant named Kishimoto, so I gave them a call to make a reservation as they are extremely busy. Oh of course, they're not actually open during spring break. Stranded on the street with no sushi restaurant to go to, I looked across the street to see a sign saying Hato Popo Japanese Restaurant. Well, you guessed it ... they were also closed! A million fits and a few stomach growls later, my random walking around finally found me a sushi restaurant - Oysi Oysi Restaurant.


Walking into the restaurant, the first thing that I saw was a nice king crab sitting in a tank waiting for my arrival. Right away, my gut instinct told me that the restaurant was Chinese-operated. However, I don't consider authenticity and I will enjoy any food that is good. The interior of the restaurant is quite large and they did a good job of making a restaurant that was mostly empty seem mostly full. The menu is quite large and most of the prices seemed reasonable at first glance. They also seem to love the word "moé", which means "cute" in Japanese slang.

Miso Soup - B+

I ordered the Moé Oysi Dinner Set Special and the first item to arrive from it was the Miso Soup. Or maybe I should say Miso Soups (with an "s" at the end), because while I was enjoying the first Miso Soup, the server presented me with another Miso Soup! What?! Oh well, getting two for the price of one is never a bad thing after all. The Miso Soup on the right side of the photo is untouched. Both of the Miso Soups were served very hot, but the balance of flavours was good. It would have been excellent if it had a slightly thicker consistency.

Unagi Tempura Roll - B

Having not had Unagi Tempura for a long time, I decided to order the Unagi Tempura Roll (not part of the dinner set). It came with unagi tempura on the top, and avocado and salmon on the inside. I really enjoyed the crispy battered unagi on the top, but I wasn't a fan of the roll itself because it was significantly colder than the unagi. Also, there was something in the roll that made the salmon taste fishy, even though it tasted perfectly fine when I picked apart the roll and ate the salmon by itself. 

Aburi Salmon Nigiri - A
Aburi Tuna Nigiri - B+

Next up, I had the Aburi Salmon Nigiri and the Aburi Tuna Nigiri (also not part of the dinner set). Overall, both were well-executed with a nice amount of juiciness. The vinaigrette on the Aburi Tuna Nigiri took a bit too much attention, but the wasabi mayonnaise on the Aburi Salmon Nigiri brought out the creamy, buttery flavour of the seared salmon quite well.


The rest of my Moé Oysi Dinner Set Special came with Chicken Teriyaki, Salmon and Tuna Sashimi, and Ebi Sunomono. Note that there are several options to choose from for each of the items in the set.

Salmon Sashimi - B
Tuna Sashimi - A-

The cutest thing about the Moé Oysi Dinner Set Special was that the sashimi was cut really small. Both the Salmon Sashimi and Tuna Sashimi came with good textures. The Salmon Sashimi could use a bit more flavour, but the Tuna Sashimi was close to melt-in-your-mouth and was quite enjoyable.

Ebi Sunomono - C+

I liked the softness of the baby shrimps in the Ebi Sunomono, but the vinegar was quite overpowering because not enough sweetness was added.

Chicken Teriyaki - B-

I found the Chicken Teriyaki to be alright. They used the white-meat part of the chicken, but it was just a tad overdone. The sauce seemed to be a bit watery.

The service wasn't a problem for me, but it was relatively sparse and below the standard for downtown restaurants. However, the prices are also on the lower side for a downtown restaurant, and there were some decent dishes, such as the seared nigiri. It isn't a restaurant I'll be dying to come back to, but it isn't bad either. At least they were open during a time when I really needed sushi!

Oysi Oysi Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The food is really looking delicious dear and I am happy that you had a great experience there. I have also tried sushi food of San Francisco restaurants and that was also wonderful and I will suggest you to try that too.

Raymond Zeng said...

Sure, I would love to try the sushi in San Francisco the next time I go there!

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