Episode #222: The Grand UBC Sushi Crawl (Part Two)

After waking up from Vancity Noms' class and having an epic piano-off in the library (where we got a little too loud), the two of us were somewhat ready to resume our grand sushi crawl at UBC's Vancouver campus. I say "somewhat" because Vancity Noms was still somewhat full from eating way too much at the first stop of our crawl, and I felt like I had consumed way too much soy sauce. Whereas others would be burnt out from doing such a crawl, I was soy sauced out. However, the time was ticking, and if we didn't make our move, the sushi places would have started closing.

The Seven Sushi Places on UBC's Vancouver Campus

• Honour Roll
• Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant
• Mio Japan
• Bento Sushi
• Miyamae
• Togo Sushi
• One More Sushi

This post will cover the last three.

Miyamae

The whole time I had been exploring UBC, I never knew that there was an entire underground Asian food court at University Village. When I first saw it, I was quick to suggest to Vancity Noms that we should do a food crawl featuring all the stalls in the Asian food court, but quickly retracted the idea after realizing all the unfortunate things that would happen to my health if I did that. Not to mention that I would also be doomed if what happened during the Grand SFU Sushi Crawl were to happen again...

Miyamae serves a variety of bento boxes, which range from $6.95 to $11.95. I went for one of the higher-end ones since I had an unagi craving at the time.

Miso Soup - B-

The Miso Soup came with adequate miso paste, some seaweed, and some tofu. Although it was rich in miso flavour, it was also quite salty.

Dynamite Roll - C

If anyone were to make sushi that did not look appealing to me, this was about as close as one could get. The Dynamite Roll featured crunchy tempura prawn and a somewhat decent filling, but the sight of the rice made me go "Uh oh..." It was not only soggy and mushy, but there was also too much of it.

Slice of Orange - A

Salad - C+

Unagi Don - B

The one thing they did nail was the Slice of Orange. Although it wasn't exactly the prettiest slice of orange ever, it was one of the sweetest and juiciest slices of orange I have ever had. The Salad consisted mainly of lettuce, and I wasn't fond of the vinaigrette dressing, which tasted strangely like soy sauce. The Unagi Don came with very soft, but somewhat fatty unagi. The unagi sauce was sweet, and the don was sizable enough to be a good filler. 

Togo Sushi

After I'd finished the bento box, Vancity Noms suddenly had to leave, so I was left to make the long, perilous journey from University Village to Wesbrook Village in the dark all by myself. I decided to walk there in order to burn a few extra calories. I made my way through various hazards, which included trees with branches, students playing soccer, and eerily quiet residential areas, before arriving at Togo Sushi 15 minutes before they closed at 8 p.m. I was lucky enough to be the last customer whose order they took.

Togo Sushi is a small fast food chain with locations scattered across Metro Vancouver. I've always considered it to be the best of Metro Vancouver's fast food sushi joints, and I was hoping for no disappointment here. 

Seared Salmon Roll - B+

The Seared Salmon Roll was a new addition to the menu, and it was fairly well executed. It had a nice, smoked flavour that was accompanied by a good helping of spicy mayonnaise. The imitation crab meat was sweet, and the textures were on point. 

Inari Nigiri - B

Salmon Nigiri - B-

Toro Nigiri - C+

On the other side of the plate, the Inari Nigiri had a nice, sweet flavour and tasted somewhat eggy. The salmon in the Salmon Nigiri was creamy, but weak in flavour. The rice was a bit too tightly packed, but at least the fish-to-rice ratio was correct. Finally, the toro was soft, but tasted quite fishy. Throughout my visits to Togo Sushi, I've found that tuna is consistently one of their weaknesses. 

Nonetheless, what I had at Togo Sushi was good enough to be the highlight of my entire crawl. I'd originally planned to try the sushi at the nearby Save-On-Foods as well, but once I saw that they served exactly the same sushi as Nesters Market at SFU, I ran away as quickly as I could.

I had just one more sushi place left...

One More Sushi

By the time I walked all the way back to University Village, everything was dark and deserted, with signs of life few and far between. I walked into One More Sushi at 9:30 p.m., just half an hour before closing time, and I was their only customer.

If you are looking for something you can legitimately call a sushi restaurant at UBC, One More Sushi is the place. It was a large restaurant that resembled a Chinese diner more than a Japanese restaurant. The menu items were quite pricey, but the special that day allowed me to order a California Roll for half price. Even though I was stuffed, one simply does not say "no" to discounts on sushi.

California Roll - B-

The California Roll came with an abundance of sweet crab meat. However, there wasn't really enough mayonnaise inside, so things ended up a bit dry.

BBQ Black Cod - B

The BBQ Black Cod was served as a small filet along with some of the most teeth-exercising vegetables out there. There was some sweetness and some smokiness, but the cod could have been juicier.

Hotate Nigiri - B

Toro Nigiri - B

The hotate (scallop) was sweet and soft as expected, while the toro was fresh with a nice, melty texture. While the neta (the seafood on top) was above average, the sushi rice was mediocre as it was too tightly packed.

Mango Tuna Roll - B-

The Mango Tuna Roll came with fresh mango and some not-so-fresh tuna. The tuna was slightly fishy, and it was not very soft either. The roll was quite small, and at $8.50, it was very pricey for what it was.

After consuming 66 pieces of sushi (amidst other things) and getting both carbed out and soy sauced out (never again...), I can now present to you UBC's seven sushi vendors from best to worst:

• Togo Sushi
• Honour Roll
• One More Sushi
• Mio Japan
• Miyamae
• Bento Sushi
• Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant

Episode #221: The Grand UBC Sushi Crawl (Part One)

Since the Grand SFU Sushi Crawl was totally not a traumatizing experience, I thought it would be a great idea to do a Grand UBC Sushi Crawl as well. With seven places to visit instead of five, I knew this crawl would require that much more endurance and careful planning. Using my good judgment, I got Vancity Noms, who managed to finish exactly zero pieces of sushi last time, to help me on this adventure.

The Seven Sushi Places on UBC's Vancouver Campus

• Honour Roll
• Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant
• Mio Japan
• Bento Sushi
• Miyamae
• Togo Sushi
• One More Sushi

This post will cover the first four.

Honour Roll

Our meeting place was Honour Roll, located in the centre of the AMS Student Nest. My morning idiocy took no breaks, and I spent several minutes messaging Vancity Noms to ask her where the Nest was while I was standing right in front of it. An all caps explosion ensued...

Back in the days of the old Student Union Building (SUB), the sushi stall was originally named Honour Roll. The name changed to Peko Peko when the new SUB opened, but has now reverted back to Honour Roll. Featuring a good range of slightly pricey pre-made rolls, we hoped that the sushi was honour roll–worthy.

Miso Soup - B

Since I badly needed something to drink after all the energy expended on finding the Nest, I went for the Miso Soup. It came with green onion and tofu and had a well-balanced flavour. However, the pieces of tofu were awkwardly coarse, as if they had been accidentally left to dry for a few minutes.

Real Crab California Roll - B-

Coming in six generous pieces was the Real Crab California Roll. We found it slightly dry, and it could've done better with a little more mayonnaise.

Smoked Salmon Roll - B

One of the more decent rolls that we had was the Smoked Salmon Roll. The smoked salmon was strong and rich in flavour and went well with the avocado. However, there was a small bit of saltiness intrinsic to the roll, which meant that the roll did not pair well with soy sauce.

Salmon Roll - C+

Next, we had the Salmon Roll, which was a bit too tightly packed. The salmon also had little flavour.

Avocado Roll - B

One thing I thought I'd never eat in my life was the Avocado Roll. I used to hate avocado as a kid. I would pluck every piece of avocado out of my sushi and then stare evilly at the avocado mound I had just created, thinking of ways to destroy the mound. However, since Vancity Noms ordered this roll, I took the plunge and had one piece. It tasted surprisingly decent, and the level of creaminess was just right.

Our overall impressions of Honour Roll were quite positive. Although the sushi was pre-made, it was superior to pretty much everything available at SFU. I was unable to stop Vancity Noms from eating loads of the sushi at Honour Roll. After she had consumed about 20 pieces of sushi, I had legitimate reasons to be concerned about how we were going to get through the rest of our crawl.

Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant

Our next place to try was Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant. For years, I had been wanting to come to this place for their 5 items for $25 lunch special, a lunch special that sadly disappeared off the menu by the time I finally made it to the restaurant. Unfortunately, this also meant that I would not be able to convince Vancity Noms not to order her super filling Tuna Sashimi Don...

Meanwhile, since I had to eat at four different places for lunch, I tried to keep the food quantity reasonable by ordering only one plate of food.

Tuna Sashimi - C

Salmon Sashimi - B+

We were off to a great start with the highly questionable Tuna Sashimi. It was not too fishy, but it was also not soft at all and tasted slightly cooked. The Salmon Sashimi fared much better. It had a smooth texture and was creamy and reasonably fresh.

Chopped Scallop Nigiri - C+

Toro Nigiri - C-

Next, I enjoyed some questionable nigiri. The Chopped Scallop Nigiri was not rolled properly (as evident in the photo) and was remarkably dry. There was also not much scallop inside. The Toro Nigiri came with way too much rice and way too little toro, making the whole thing taste bland like plain congee. Never again...

Una Q - C

The Una Q was a roll with a eel and cucumber. There was so little unagi that Sauce Q would've been a much more appropriate name for the roll. The cucumber inside was fresh and crunchy though, so I'll give them credit for that.

Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant seems to be a particularly bad case of being stingy on the pricier ingredients and then trying to make up for it by giving you more of the cheaper ingredients. I'm not big on portion sizes at all, but for me, this was unacceptable. It didn't help that our server was clearly unenthusiastic throughout our visit.

Mio Japan

Located just steps away from Suga Japanese & Korean Restaurant is Mio Japan, a popular teriyaki place that also serves nigiri, sushi rolls, and sashimi. Vancity Noms was done at this point, but she remained a good sport and watched me as I devoured unreasonable amounts of sushi while taking forever to write down my notes.

Knowing that Mio Japan's specialty was teriyaki, I wanted to go for both the teriyaki and the sushi, but without help, I could only choose one or the other. Since I had to stay true to the name of my blog, I went for the Dynamite Combo.

Sockeye Salmon Nigiri - C+

Dynamite Roll - B-

The Dynamite Combo came with three pieces of Sockeye Salmon Nigiri and a Dynamite Roll. The sockeye salmon was moderately fresh, and the rice was not too tightly packed, but WTF was up with those cuts? Did they just cut the salmon sashimi style and then placed it on top of the sushi rice?? No, just no...

Moving on, the Dynamite Roll, although it came with only one prawn, was savoury with a nice creaminess coming from the avocado. The sushi rice was just a touch dry.

Bento Sushi

Since Vancity Noms had class later in the day, we ventured back towards the middle of the campus and found ourselves at Bento Sushi, a part of the mini food court at the David Lam Management Research Centre (beside the Sauder School of Business). As we were still in prime lunch hours, the entire food court was very busy.

In the display refrigerator was an assortment of pre-made sushi combos, each costing about $10. Feeling like a samurai after having wolfed down two meals' worth of sushi, I went for the Cali-Samurai Combo.

Tuna Nigiri - C

Salmon Nigiri - C

Ebi Nigiri - B-

California Roll - C

Unfortunately, the sushi ended up being very expensive for the quality. The sushi rice in the nigiri was so tightly packed that it was actually somewhat hard to chew through. The tuna in the Tuna Nigiri was rather mushy and tasted like mashed wet paper. The Salmon Nigiri was not flavourful, though the Ebi Nigiri was at least noticeably sweet. The California Roll came with creamy avocado but was very rice heavy, and the imitation crab stick was either weak in flavour or simply got lost in the sea of rice (or both).

After finishing the Cali-Samurai Combo, Vancity Noms had class to go to, and I needed a break from all the soy sauce I was consuming. With nothing good to do in the meantime, I crashed one of Vancity Noms' classes and wished upon my lucky sushi stars that I wouldn't be called to participate. It worked. Perhaps the fact that I fell asleep in the middle of the class helped.

Click here for Part Two of the Grand UBC Sushi Crawl!

Episode #218: The Grand SFU Sushi Crawl

Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually very tolerant of crappy sushi. If you present to me a plate of sushi that is worth a C in one hand and a juicy, freshly smoked burger from a fancy restaurant in the other hand, I'd pick the sushi perhaps 8 out of 10 times. I often indulge in some delicious freezer burnt sushi on campus during my breaks and after my classes.

As an SFU student, one question that I often get asked is "What's the best place for sushi on campus?" For years, I never had a very good response to that question because I had not tried all the sushi places on campus. It was time to settle the matter once and for all. With five different places to go through on SFU's Burnaby campus, I enlisted the help of food blogger Vancity Noms because she can really eat... or so I thought.

The Five Sushi Places on SFU's Burnaby Campus

• SFU Dining Hall
• Nesters Market
• Spicy Stone
• Ichibankan Express
• Mackenzie Café

SFU Dining Hall

We chose to start our crawl at the Dining Hall to avoid having the good stuff run out. During lunch hours, it costs only $8.95 plus tax to enter the hall for an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is an excellent deal if quality is not your utmost concern. There is pizza, sushi, veggies, vegan food, chicken or beef (depending on the day), fried goodies, desserts, and more.

Those who know me well will know that my brain does not exactly function in the morning and early afternoon. It didn't take long for disaster to strike. After taking 15 minutes to figure out where the plates were even stored, I looked at a tub of strawberry jam, pointed at it, and exclaimed, "OMG they have ice cream here!" Unfortunately, Vancity Noms developed such a bad stomachache from laughing so hard that she became unable to consume anything other than tea. We were off to a great start—one of us was down before we even started.

Salmon and Avocado Roll - B

As soon as the clock struck 11:30 a.m., the chefs started rolling out the sushi, and the sushi of the day was the Salmon and Avocado Roll. It consisted of soft, flaky salmon accented by a dash of herby spiciness. The rice could have been more flavourful, but this was already much better than what I had expected. I have been told that the rolls are pre-made, but they do not taste like something that just came out of the fridge. 

Nesters Market

Our next stop was Nesters Market, which was all the way on the other side of campus. I would often come here after my late evening lectures for some of their pre-made dinner bowls, many of which are decent compared to the other available food choices in the area. However, I have never tried their sushi before.

California Roll Combo

Having downed two entrees and six pieces of sushi at the dining hall, I had to choose wisely to avoid stuffing myself and subsequently failing the crawl. I chose the California Roll Combo so I could sample three different types of sushi in one box. Meanwhile, Vancity Noms was still dying from her stomachache and could not eat anything. Who needs martial arts when you have your non-functioning brain to use as a lethal weapon?

California Roll - F

Vegetable Salad Roll - C-

Spicy California Roll - C-

The second disaster of the day struck when my mouth met with the horrors of this roll combo. The pudding-like texture of the rice made the California Roll the most disgusting sushi roll I have ever had. The sushi rice tasted like it had been tossed into a high-speed blender and pulverized for five minutes before being wrapped around the roll. The California Roll also came with some dainty portions of bland crab meat, while the Vegetable Salad Roll contained bits of bell pepper for a nice unauthentic touch. The spiciness of the Spicy California Roll helped mask the blandness of the crab meat just slightly.

Spicy Stone

Just steps away from Nesters Market lies Spicy Stone, a restaurant I used to visit almost exclusively while at SFU due to its low prices. I suppose not all good things last forever, because they eventually raised their prices significantly to more closely match what their neighbours were charging. With the new poke bar at SFU, I have been going to Spicy Stone much less than I used to, although the cashier-server still recognizes me and continues to give me great service.

California Roll - B-

Dynamite Roll - C+

Unless you order your sushi as part of a bento box, you will most likely be told to get your sushi from the display refrigerator. Such was the case with my California Roll and Dynamite Roll. However, these rolls still tasted decent. With the California Roll, the imitation crab meat was sweet, and you could actually discern the individual strands of crab meat, unlike with the California Roll from Nesters Market. The Dynamite Roll was larger and more filling, but Spicy Stone's weak tempura skills were evident here.

Ichibankan Express

Ichibankan Express is currently the only restaurant at SFU that focuses on sushi. However, like Spicy Stone, the rolls typically come from the display refrigerator. The sushi at Ichibankan is not cheap either, and despite the word "Express" in its name, the restaurant actually has one of the slowest kitchens on campus. Nonetheless, I'm still a frequent patron since I don't really have much of a choice when I'm on campus and am craving something more than a standard California or Dynamite roll.

Negitoro Roll - C+

The Negitoro contained slightly fishy tuna that was somewhat balanced out by the green onion. The rice was tightly packed, which made the roll quite chewy.

California Roll - C

I guess the moral of the story is that you can only expect so much from refrigerated pre-made sushi. The California Roll ended up strangely bland due to the lack of mayonnaise in the crab meat. The roll was also not very neatly constructed and fell apart very easily.

Mackenzie Café

Our final destination was Mackenzie Café, which operates much like a small-scale food court with choices ranging from Subway to poutine to Asian stir-fried rice. Once again, the sushi was stored in a display refrigerator, and once again, it was quite pricey. I opted for a 5-piece Dynamite roll because it looked the most colourful and appealing.

Dynamite Roll - C

At $6.19, this roll was very expensive for the quality, but at least they put two deep-fried prawns inside. The crab meat had a nice pleasant creaminess to it, while the sauces were thick and had an interesting gluey consistency.

Vancity Noms ended up fasting the entire 10 hours of the crawl (I'm not sure how she did it), but evidently, she didn't really miss out on much. Towards the end of the crawl, I was so stuffed and sick from consuming unreasonable quantities of soy sauce that I desperately advertised free sushi to my Snapchat friends. However, they either were not on campus or commented on how unappetizing my sushi looked. I sure have some wonderful, appreciative friends. 

And finally, after developing mild PTSD from campus sushi for a few days, I can now present to you SFU's five sushi vendors from best to worst:

• SFU Dining Hall
• Spicy Stone
• Ichibankan Express
• Mackenzie Café
• Nesters Market

Epsidoe #1560: Drunk Sushi

Vancouver (Suothwest), $$$$ (Luxury)

Okay, I was having a horrible day and got really drunk, so I apollogize if there are any typos or grammar errors in this post. When I woke up, I did my usual and got out a few gummy worms and a chocolate ice cream bar for breakfast. By some stroke of bad luck, my ice cream barf decided to drip down onto my gummy worms and basically ruin my entire breakfast by making it too sweet. As if that wasn't horrible engouh already, a freaking banana then fell from my fruit basket onto my phone, making me lose at Fruit Ninja. Are you seriously kidding me?? I was so irritated that I felt like I was on my apostrophe. I drank a whole bottle of vodka and went to visit this new restaurant called Drunk Sushi, which is located on this busy street in Vancouver with trees everywhere.

Drunk Sushi is a fine-dieing restaurant and what makes them special is the fact that the chefs and staffs show up to work drunk. It is said that this enhances the chefs' abilities to spontaneously create highly innovative fishes. In addition, anyone who enters the restaurant must have an alcohol level of 5 or above (if I remember correctly). It took me a lot of strength and cougar to try this place since I'm not even a drinker to begin with. I personally don't agree with the restaurant's main concept as drinking causes weird things to happen. As I entered the restaurant, a drunk waitress spilled an entire iced coffin onto this lady's shoulders, causing the lady to faceplant right into my nasty region. I think I lost something in the process. That was definitely a dull and weak start to my visit.

Sweet and Colourful Worms - A-

I was on the lookout for creative and delicious-sounding dishes, and when I came across the Sweet and Colourful Worms on the appetizer menu, I just had to order it. The dish consisted of a beautfiully arranged flower of gummy worms, and each of them were lucsious and sweat with an appealing amount of chewiness. Under the worms were a few bonus pieces of rainbow belt candy. This was a solid start to my meal, which sort of made up for what happened earlier.

Rehydratating Aquafina Water - A

For just $3.50, I had the option to supplement my special roll with a cup of Rehydratating Aquafina Water. Aquafina is my favourite type of bottled water, so this was practically a seal. It did an excellent job of getting me rehydratated. The water had an ample levle of moisture along with an enticing, delectable clear flavour. I could literally feel myself being purified by the addicting smooth texture of the water droplets. 

Sardine Nigiri - F

Unfortunatly, things took a dramatic turn for the worst when the Sardine Nigiri arrived. This was supposed to be one of their innovative dishes, but it turned out to be an innovative epic fail. WTH was going on with the rice formation?! This was by far the worst fish-to-wife ratio I have ever encountered. And most horendously of all, why was the friggin rice on top of the fish?! How does that even make any sense??? I'm pretty sure I can make better sushi myself using only my feet...

Money Roll - F

The Sardine Nigiri was ridiculous, but this was even ridiculouser. I paid a whole entire $15 for this roll and it only comes with 3 pieces?? What a total ripoff! And it wasn't even edible! I was chewing it for a whole minute and it wasn't breaking down at all. It tasted absolutely horrible and was as blandx as plastic. Are they trying to kill me or something??

As horrible as the main dishes were, the service was actualy decent for the most part. The drunk waitresses, although they couldn't walk porperly, still managed to get my order correct. However, they had the nerve to charge me for the inedible Money Roll! WTF? Seriously, I'd rather be pregnant than eat at this restaurant again. I then tried to go to the washdoom, but guess what? The one and only light bulb was already burnt out. What the seriously heck? All I could see was this:

Note: Drunk Sushi is not a real restaurant in Vancouver, and the events in this post are entirely fictional. Happy April Fools' Day! If you would like to take my brilliant business idea and actually open up a restaurant like this, feel free to do so, as long as you invite me to a private tasting.

Merry Christmas and ...?

Follow me at http://instagram.com/raymondssushiadventures because you know you want your news feed to be filled with pictures of sushi. Have a Merry Sushiful Christmas!