Episode #204: Sushi Heaven

New Westminster, $ (Budget)
www.sushiheaven.ca

Sometimes, university will force you to push your limits and reach new highs. That's what I experienced this past month. I always thought I needed at least 4 hours of sleep to survive a day of lectures, but it turns out that I could push this limit down to 2 hours. All I needed was a ridiculous amount of bubble teas and frappuccinos to help me reach enough sugar highs to get through the day. I didn't really have a choice due to the never-ending slew of difficult assignments, quizzes, and projects I had to complete. To give myself a break from my hellish schedule, I dragged xSupaD with me to visit Sushi Heaven in New Westminster.

Sushi Heaven is a moderately small, Korean-operated Japanese restaurant located near Ikoi Sushi in the north part of New Westminster. The variety of items on the menu was largely in line with other Korean-operated Japanese restaurants in the vicinity. There were special rolls, seared sushi, bento boxes... you name it. The restaurant had a nice bleach scent when I walked in, which meant that we got to enjoy the clean bathroom scent for the first half of our lunch.

Tuna & Salmon Don - B

First to make it to our table was the Tuna & Salmon Don. The salmon was fresh, creamy, buttery, and really soft. The tuna was not fishy, but not particularly soft either. Both of us found the sushi rice overly sticky, and it was slightly too warm as well.

Seared Toro Nigiri - B+

Seared Salmon Nigiri - A-

Of course, there is no seeing seared sushi on the menu and not ordering it. The Seared Toro Nigiri was soft, juicy, and quite full of fish oil. It was seared the right amount, and I also liked how it was seasoned for more flavour. The Seared Salmon Nigiri had a good amount of spicy mayonnaise to highlight the seared flavour of the salmon, but we found the teriyaki sauce quite heavy.

Unagi Nigiri - B

Arriving on a separate plate (darn the fact I had to take one more picture because of this), the Unagi Nigiri came with some crunchy seaweed. I would have liked a more smoky flavour on the unagi itself.

Appetizer Tempura - B

Next, the Appetizer Tempura came with four sizable pieces of tempura: carrot, sweet potato, prawn, and zucchini. Funny enough, even though I am totally a meat person, I ended up enjoying all the vegetables more than the prawn. The vegetables were all sliced to appropriate thicknesses and were pleasantly juicy, while the flavour of the prawn was obscured by the very thick layer of batter surrounding it. The batter itself was quite greasy and rather mediocre.

Chicken Teriyaki Roll - C+

Moving onto the sushi, the Chicken Teriyaki Roll was quite rice-heavy, and the sushi rice turned out rather mushy. There wasn't enough chicken to balance out the rice.

Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll - B-

Since xSupaD really enjoys crunchy tempura bits, we had the Spicy Tuna Crunch Roll, which consisted of spicy tuna, crunchy tempura bits, spicy mayonnaise, and teriyaki sauce. Well, the best part of this roll turned out to be the crunchy tempura bits. Unfortunately, I couldn't get over the mushy sushi rice, and the tempura bits felt randomly sprinkled on rather than integrated into the roll due to the contrast in texture between the rice and the tempura bits.

Spicy Salmon Roll - C+

Our final dish was the Spicy Salmon Roll. I felt apprehensive about this roll as soon as I saw the amount of rice in each of the pieces. I think we already know what I'm going to say...

We received decent service during our visit. Overall, the restaurant's most attractive features were the good prices and the wide selection of items on the menu. The food itself was a little hit-and-miss, and the sushi rice needed some work. In either case, the food did the work, and I enjoyed a nice four-hour-long food coma afterward. I guess food comas last longer when you only sleep 2 hours a day.