Episode #136: Broadway Station Sushi

Vancouver (Northeast), $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.broadwaysushi.ca

Broadway Station Sushi is a restaurant I've often passed by on my way to my other sushi adventures. Being the adventurer that I am, I usually venture as far as I can considering the amount of free time I have. One day, during the festive season of cram sessions, free time became a scarce resource, so I ended up having lunch at Broadway Station Sushi. Nothing about the name suggests good or authentic sushi. The prices are not especially cheap either, so I felt like I was walking on eggshells with this adventure. I crossed my fingers, hoping that the eggshells would be sufficiently sturdy.

Broadway Station Sushi is Korean-operated, and things were off to a good start as the service was friendly. The interior actually looks quite nice and gives the restaurant a decent vibe. I quickly sifted through the menu, which contained a vast array of appetizers, special rolls, donburi and udon bowls. However, nothing caught my attention nearly as much as the big box in the middle titled "Aburi Nigiri Special Selections." As a food blogger, how could I possibly not order the "special selections"?

Aburi Saba Nigiri - B+

Aburi Toro Nigiri - B+

The Aburi Saba Nigiri was slightly too salty, but it had some of that sought-after smoky Aburi flavour. It was neither particularly soft nor particularly tough. The Aburi Toro Nigiri was very juicy and full of fish oils. I enjoyed its smooth, soft texture, but felt that it could have more of a seared flavour.

Sexy Roll - A-

Chopped Scallop Nigiri - B

Salmon Nigiri - A-

Of all the rolls, I decided to go with the Sexy Roll because after all, as the saying goes, you are what you eat. This roll consisted of spicy tuna, yam bits, avocado, cucumber, and BBQ unagi. The sweet unagi on top was well executed, and the spicy mayonnaise provided a moderately high level of spiciness to the roll. The yam fries were crispy and served conservatively, while the spicy tuna inside was soft and creamy. The only issue I had was that the seaweed wasn't cut all the way through for some of the pieces.

The Chopped Scallop Nigiri featured creamy, savoury chopped scallop bound by a tough piece of seaweed. The Salmon Nigiri, on the other hand, came with a generous piece of salmon that was deliciously buttery in flavour.

Tempura Udon - B

They put in about as much effort to make the Tempura Udon seem authentic as they did when coming up with the name of the restaurant. The piece of broccoli they included was not fresh, leaving a bitter aftertaste. However, other than that, the udon and its accompanying basket of tempura were decent. The tempura featured just the right amount of batter, and the frying oil was not overused at all. The tempura prawn was meaty and delicious, and the tempura zucchini, sweet potato, and kabocha were savoury and juicy. The udon noodles were quite thick and on the softer side. I found the udon broth to be light but well balanced.

I was quite pleased with the service throughout my lunch, and I suppose crossing my fingers worked. Although the food was not exactly top-notch, it was decent and worth the price. Many of the special rolls appear to be promising, and I wouldn't mind coming back for a quick sushi fix when I don't have time to travel to the land of very expensive sushi (ahem, Kitsilano). 

Episode #135: Ro Sushi

Vancouver (Northwest), $ (Budget)
www.rosushi.com

Carp Sushi is a small Japanese takeout-based restaurant that just opened up about a month ago, and I was all ready to try their expensive nigiri. However, things were not meant to be as they were closed for the day when I came by their door, so I hopped back on the 99 B-line and travelled one more stop to the west. All I saw at the Broadway-City Hall Station was a frantic whir of people, buses, trucks. If you ever want to experience what it feels like to live in an overcrowded country, this is it. Unable to spot any sushi restaurants with just my eyes, I stole some Wi-Fi from a nearby cafe to access Zomato, which pointed me to Ro Sushi.

If you zoom in on the circular sign, you can see that it says "Ro Sushi Japanese Bistro." Most of the interior decor is marginally fancy enough to give us a slight bistro-like feeling. However, when the server handed me the menu, I just had to do a facepalm. It was loosely encased in Saran wrap, which was wrinkled and curled at the edges. So much for professional image. Ahh, Chinese-operated restaurants...

Virtually everything on the menu looked super affordable judging from the listed prices. The most prominently displayed item was the All Day Special Box, which came with chicken or beef teriyaki, rice, salad, tempura, a California roll, and Miso Soup, all for just $7.95! However, in order to inflict maximum damage on my wallet, I did not order it.

 

Salmon Sashimi - C+

Toro Sashimi - C-

Right at the beginning of my meal, the Salmon and Toro Sashimi was a tragedy. The Salmon was very chewy and served too cold. It was fresh, but the texture did not make it the least bit enjoyable. The Toro Sashimi came in thin, moderately sized slices and was underthawed. It had a nice, creamy flavour, but the sensation of a block of ice in the center of each piece did not exactly match my criteria for good toro sashimi.

Drunken Monkey - B

West Coast Pocket Nigiri - B

There were a bunch of special rolls on the menu listed under the heading "Funky Creations," and some of these rolls included The Beautiful and Erotica Roll. However, I went with one that matched my mood a little better - the Drunken Monkey. The Drunken Monkey came with eel, crab, asparagus, smoked salmon, and tobiko. The unagi and eel provided a good amount of sweetness and worked together nicely. The asparagus was juicy but was a bit crunchy inside. There was only a thin layer of rice on the outside, which turned out to be a good thing as the rice was slightly mushy.

The West Coast Pocket consisted of inari, crab meat, avocado and salmon. It exhibited a soft texture and burst of sweetness coming from the inari. The flavour of the salmon could have been brought out more, and things got slightly mushy inside.

Seared Tai Nigiri - C+

The Seared Tai Nigiri had a slight smoky flavour, but the tai was very chewy and tasted slightly fishy. On the upside, the fish-to-rice ratio was more or less correct.

Appetizer Tempura - C

The Appetizer Tempura came in huge proportions and consisted of two prawns as well as one piece each of kabocha, sweet potato, and zucchini. Unfortunately, the method they used to make the tempura bigger was to put about 500% the necessary amount of batter. As an added bonus, the batter was also hard. I literally spent more time peeling the batter off than actually eating the tempura. The saving grace was that each of the pieces actually tasted quite good without any batter at all. The prawns were juicy, and each of the vegetables had just the right amount of moisture.

Yakitori - B

The Yakitori came with tender, juicy chicken with a thin, appealing layer of crispy skin on top. I was about to write my first above-average letter grade for this restaurant when all of a sudden, I took a bite into the second skewer and found that it was significantly overdone. As a result, some of the pieces of chicken became very tough to chew. 

The service was remarkably friendly for a Chinese-operated restaurant. It could have been a bit more attentive though as my tea was never refilled. The most unfortunate part of my experience was the food itself. The food was quite cheap, but there were major mistakes with pretty much every item I ordered. Ro Sushi has a significant number of positive reviews online, but my experience was hardly indicative of that. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing the chef must have been having a very bad day.

Episode #134: Sushi Paradise

New Westminster, $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.sushiparadise.ca

After surviving the deathly combination of midterms, assignments, and group projects for the semester, I finally had a few moments of spare time. I really wanted to have a vacation to reward myself for my hard work, but because I still had classes to attend and finals to prepare for, I decided to "vacation" at Sushi Paradise. The restaurant donned ocean-themed decorations and played exotic ukulele music. What more could I ask for?

Sushi Paradise is Japanese-operated and focuses on takeout, though they do have a few tables inside. You order and pay at the front, but there is a server who brings the food to your table. One unique feature of their menu is that you can order mini versions of their Teriyaki Donburi and Udon dishes, which is perfect for people like me who like try as many dishes as possible.

All of my food came out almost simultaneously. I wasn't especially hungry, so I didn't order a lot of food this time.

Paradise Roll - B+

The Paradise Roll, at $6.98, was the most expensive roll on the menu, and going by the logic that expensive things should be better, I decided to order it. It consisted of tuna, salmon, unagi, tamago, inari, fish roe, and vegetables. The individual ingredients were well-executed. In particular, the tamago was soft and fluffy, while the unagi had a tasty smoky flavour. I found it interesting how the inari had rice inside it - it was like having a piece of nigiri inside a sushi roll! Some of the ingredients got lost in the mix, but as a whole, the roll tasted decent.

Hamachi Nigiri - B

Toro Nigiri - C+

Amaebi Nigiri - A

Chop² Nigiri - B+

The Hamachi Nigiri had a light flavour and a smooth texture. It was not outstanding, and I thought that the sushi rice could have more flavour. The Toro Nigiri was sliced too thin, so it was lacking in flavour and did not exhibit a melty texture. However, the Amaebi Nigiri was excellent. The sushi rice was packed correctly, and the amaebi tasted like fresh spot prawns melting in my mouth. The Chop² Nigiri, which was essentially Chopped Scallop Nigiri, came with fresh, creamy scallop and was wrapped with a slightly crispy piece of seaweed.

Mini Tempura Udon - C+

Next, I had the Mini Tempura Udon, and for $4.98, it was a fair deal. The udon noodles were on the softer side, and the broth was quite standard fare. Unfortunately, the tempura prawn that came with the udon was poorly executed, as the batter was hard on one side and soft and soggy on the other. Did they accidentally drop it into the udon broth and then pull it back out? After one bite, I just dunked the rest of the tempura into the broth so that it would at least be consistently soggy.

Mini Chicken Don - B

I found the Mini Chicken Don ($4.28) to be more filling than the udon. It was also executed better and came with fresh, tender chicken and well-cooked rice. The colourful assortment of green beans, bell pepper, daikon, and ginger made the donburi more visually appealing. The only issue I had was that the thick consistency of the teriyaki sauce made the chicken and the rice taste mushy (even though they were not in fact mushy). 

The staff at Sushi Paradise were quite friendly, and most of the sushi items were decent. After all, it's Sushi Paradise and not Udon and Donburi Paradise. The restaurant's location behind Royal City Centre in New Westminster makes it hard to find, and this is further complicated by New Westminster's insanely confusing street-naming system. I managed to get off at the right bus stop, but it took me almost fifteen minutes to locate the restaurant because I kept mixing the diagonal streets and avenues up. At the very least, I got my exercise for the week.