Once again, my dad and I ended up with a free afternoon, so he asked me what I would like to do to pass the time. Since the correct answer to that question is always sushi, we ended up travelling to one of our favourite places: the land of the inexpensive and sometimes decent sushi (a.k.a. Maple Ridge). It turns out that Maple Ridge is also the land of unending traffic jams, especially during the daytime, so we stopped our car as soon as we encountered the gorgeous backlog of cars radiating from Haney Place Mall.
Right ahead of us was Maple Sushi, and we were lured in after seeing the "20% off everything" sign in front of the door. The restaurant is Korean-operated, and the menu is rather extensive. As there were virtually no other diners, the food arrived astonishingly quickly. My dad, feeling extra nice, decided to take care of the bill and let me use his point-and-shoot camera. However, after witnessing my extreme clumsiness, he became worried that I would drop the camera into the food or cover the lens with steam, so he decided to take over the duty of photographing the food. If only cameras came with accident-proof cases...
Miso Soup - B
We received a Miso Soup along with our order of Chicken Teriyaki, and the soup came with green onion and tofu. It was steaming hot and had a thick, almost milky consistency. There was a rich miso flavour, but there was also a rich salt flavour.
Tuna Sashimi - A
Salmon Sashimi - A-
The Appetizer Sashimi came with three pieces of tuna and two pieces of salmon. I had absolutely no complaints about the freshness of either type of fish. The three pieces of tuna displayed neat knife skills and had an excellent soft texture. The two pieces of salmon were cut to just the right thickness and exhibited a delicious creamy, buttery flavour.
Chicken Teriyaki - B
Next, the Chicken Teriyaki came with a generous portion of tender chicken. The skin generally had a nice crispiness, but was a bit hard in some places. They attempted to create a smoky flavour, but they slightly overdid it, so the chicken came dangerously close to tasting burnt. The steamed rice, however, was above average in quality.
Tempura Udon - A-
The Tempura Udon came with a large bowl of udon noodles and two tempura prawns and one piece each of yam, sweet potato, and zucchini tempura on the side. The prawn tempura was excellent as the prawns were very fresh and the batter had an appealing crispy texture. The vegetable tempura was well executed with adequate moisture in each piece, though the zucchini was cut a little too thick. The udon noodles were on the softer side but tasty enough that my dad could not stop eating them even though he was full, which is a very rare occurrence.
Dragon Roll - A-
The Dragon Roll came with two tempura prawns, avocado, cucumber, crab meat, seared eel, tobiko, green onion, and unagi sauce. Once again, the prawns were fresh and had a good snap. The roll had a soft texture overall, and there was a good harmony of flavours. The appropriately thin layer of rice allowed for a better projection of the flavours of the eel, the avocado, and the prawns.
The service was especially friendly, and the waitress constantly made sure that our tea was refilled. Overall, the food was consistently better than what my dad and I had expected, and even though we could not finish all of the food, our bill came to less than $30 (before tips). This is quite remarkable considering that I often exceed $30 on my solo sushi adventures (thanks to fancy nigiri), but then again, my dad only ate about $5 worth of food, like usual.
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