Episode #149: Black Rice Izakaya

Vancouver (Yaletown), $$$ (Higher Priced)
www.blackrice.ca 

The rain has come back once again, but nothing is a problem when there's sushi involved. I first found out about Black Rice Izakaya last summer in my search for Aburi sushi in Vancouver. However, being the forgetful person I have become (darn you, old age memory loss), I managed to forget about trying this place until now. Expecting high prices, fancy Aburi, and other creative items, I prepared myself to enjoy an expensive lunch with perhaps more dishes than I should order.

Black Rice Izakaya is Korean-operated and has a pleasing, semi-fancy appearance inside. I looked inside the menu and was ecstatic to find that there was a teishoku lunch combo that contained Aburi sushi and many other small dishes! I could now spend just $15.95 on what I had planned to spend $40 on, which meant that I could save the money to buy my sister heaps of potato chips. The only issue was that the lunch menu only contained four sushi rolls. Since the fanciest roll contained cream cheese (of which I am not a fan), I went for the second fanciest roll, which was the Volcano Dynamite Roll.

Volcano Dynamite Roll - A-

The Volcano Dynamite Roll consisted of crab meat, prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado, spicy tuna, and brown rice. I enjoyed the savoury prawn tempura and could feel the snap of the juicy prawn. The crab meat inside was soft and mildly creamy, while the avocado added some sweetness to the roll. The spicy tuna wasn't very spicy, but it had a nice zing, and the sprinkles on top contributed some crunch to the roll.

Next, the Teishoku A arrived on a marvelous wooden table tray. Note that the teishoku sets are available during lunch hours on weekdays only. 

Aburi Sockeye Salmon Nigiri - B

Aburi Salmon Nigiri - B+

Aburi Ebi Nigiri - A-

Aburi Sockeye Salmon Sashimi - B+

Aburi Salmon Sashimi - A

Aburi Tuna Sashimi - A-

The Chef's Selection Aburi Sushi and Sashimi in the teishoku set came with three pieces of Aburi nigiri and three pieces of Aburi sashimi. The nigiri exhibited solid rice formation. The sockeye salmon was slightly smoky, but it didn't have much of a salmon flavour. The Atlantic salmon was better in this regard and had a nice smooth texture. The mayonnaise on top of the Aburi Ebi Nigiri enhanced the flavour of the prawn. 

I thought the pairing of guacamole with sashimi was a clever idea. After all, we often mix the fish with avocado and salt (from soy sauce) when we eat sushi rolls. The sockeye salmon once again lacked a distinctive salmon flavour, but the Aburi Salmon Sashimi was buttery, soft, and smooth. It was enhanced further by the creamy guacamole. The Aburi Tuna Sashimi was also fresh, though it tasted more like tataki, with a nice hardening around the edges.

Aburi Spicy Salmon Hako - A-

 Sockeye Salmon Roll - B

Avocado Roll - A-

The Aburi Spicy Salmon Hako was indeed quite spicy due to the use of spicy mayonnaise rather than regular mayonnaise. The rice was packed a bit tightly, but the salmon on top was savoury. After finishing the salmon hako, I had to drink all of my tea, half of my miso soup, and some gomaae sauce in order to clear the spice from my taste buds. Moving on, the Sockeye Salmon Roll contained copious amounts of sockeye salmon, which was predictably weak in flavour. The Avocado Roll, on the other hand, featured fresh, creamy avocado, which was enhanced by the savoury house-made sushi shoyu (soy sauce). 

Miso Soup - A-

Here is the piping hot Miso Soup that I used to wash the spice out of my mouth. It was more effective than the tea, and at the end, I could tell that it had a rich miso flavour and was not too salty. It came with only some green onion, but it had a good consistency.

Green Salad - A-

Oshinko - B-

The Green Salad came with mixed greens, which were dressed with a combination of tangy Japanese salad dressing and gomaae sesame sauce. I liked how the sauce was evenly spread throughout the salad, and the gomaae sauce provided a unique sweet flavour to the salad. The gomaae sauce also helped me clear some of the spiciness from earlier. The oshinko (pickled goods) consisted of one piece each of takuan (daikon), kyurizuke (cucumber), and shibazuke (description too long to put here). Each piece had a nice crunch, but the oshinko was a bit dry and tasted average.

Agedashi Tofu - A-

Beef Karaage - B-

The Agedashi Tofu had a nice crispy exterior and some smooth, soft tofu inside. I liked how it was enhanced by small bits of dried porked, those these were a bit chewy. My least favourite item was the Beef Karaage, which tasted like lightly fried meatballs. It was hard around the edges and weak in flavour. 

The service here was just average. They never noticed that my tea ran out, but they seemed very intent on taking my menu away while I was trying to discreetly copy the item descriptions down into my notebook. I tried to tuck the menu away on the far side of my table, but it slid through the crack between the table and the staircase and ended up crashing to the floor. The troubles I go through as a food blogger... Despite the average service, the food was above average and relatively affordable with the help of the teishoku sets. My bill only came to about $25, making this one of my cheaper sushi adventures!

Episode #148: Torarenbo Japanese Restaurant

Richmond, $$$ (Higher Priced)
www.torarenbo.com

After running some errands for my sister at Aberdeen Centre, I found myself stuck at the mall with no target restaurant for my sushi adventure. I had forgotten to do my research! I pulled out my phone and tried to do a search on Zomato for the nearest sushi restaurants, but after waiting a minute for the search results to load, my Wi-Fi disconnected. Thanks, Shaw Open. After a few more unsuccessful tries, I decided to pull out my hair instead. However, there was a silver lining. Just as I was about to exit the mall, I tried the search one more time and was able to find Torarenbo.

Like many other Japanese restaurants in Richmond, Torarenbo operates at the higher end of the price scale, but it is comfortable, cozy, and adequately spacious inside. This pleasant atmosphere was paired with some melancholy Japanese pop music. I am not sure what's up with the sadness in Japanese music. First, I had to endure the tragic koto music at Kuma, and now this. Directing my attention elsewhere, I opened the menu and found my beloved fancy nigiri, but surprisingly, there was no teriyaki on the menu despite this being a Chinese-operated restaurant. There were, however, some robata items.

Unagi Tempura Roll - B+

Not wanting the bill to explode, I went with the Unagi Tempura Roll, which came with unagi tempura, tamago, avocado, and cucumber. The unagi tempura was sweet and lightly crispy, and the thin layer of avocado, which surrounded most of the filling, enhanced the sweetness of the roll. They were quite conservative with the unagi sauce, so it tasted slightly underwhelming without copious amounts of soy sauce.

Unagi Nigiri - B-

Tai Belly Nigiri - A-

Toro Nigiri - A-

Saba Nigiri - A-

Sockeye Salmon Nigiri - B+

To get a sense of the prices here, this plate of nigiri cost me more than $12. I am not kidding. The unagi was not particularly soft and did not have much of a smoky flavour. Upon the waitress' recommendation, I decided to try the Tai Belly Nigiri (a daily special), and it fared much better. It had a soft, somewhat flaky texture and exhibited a delectable, well-rounded sweetness. The Toro Nigiri was also decent and featured a very smooth, melty texture. The Saba Nigiri had a well-balanced flavour and a soft texture. The sockeye salmon was not the most flavourful I have had, but at least it was soft. Each piece demonstrated a good fish-to-rice ratio and came with well-formed sushi rice.

Ebi Mayo - B-

The Ebi Mayo came with 6 prawns, which were not especially large. The batter was slightly overused, and the prawns were overdone, making them chewy. However, the bubbly mayonnaise (there were very tiny pearls in it) went well with the savoury flavour of the prawns. The Ebi Mayo also comes with a green salad, which was ironically better than the Ebi Mayo itself.

Seafood Motoyaki - A

The Seafood Motoyaki was the highlight of the evening. It arrived very hot and came with a good amount of seafood, which included baby shrimps, oyster, mushrooms, and what tasted like lots of salmon. The soft custard was graced with crispy edges and some garlic sprinkles on top to enhance flavour. It was slightly heavy on the oil, but all the flavours worked together very nicely.

Black Sesame Ice Cream - A-

After finishing all the food above, I was presented with a Black Sesame Ice Cream on the house! It was sweet and had a nice ground sesame texture. Furthermore, it was served at the right temperature (ahem, Yokohama).

The service was some of the friendliest I have ever received at any Chinese-operated restaurant. Although the prices were high, the quality of food was decent, and higher prices are the norm for the area. I wouldn't say that the food was amazing, but if you must have sushi in Richmond, Torarenbo is one of the better places to dine at.

Episode #147: Kadoya Japanese Restaurant

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

I love taking public transit during my sushi adventures, except when I am in a hurry. For some odd reason, whenever I am in a rush, I end up missing each of my connections by a minute or two. Such was the case when I tried to go to Yohachi Sushi (in North Vancouver), which features decent sushi and a beautiful body of water to the south. I missed the 1:31 p.m. SeaBus sailing by just two minutes and could not make it in time for lunch! Clearly, the force is not with me. Not wanting to forgo my beautiful body of water to the south, I decided to head over to Kadoya Japanese Restaurant.

Kadoya Japanese Restaurant has two locations in West End, and after a few minutes of wandering around trying to find either one of them, I ended up at their second-floor location near the south end of Denman St. The interior decor is Japanese-themed, but the restaurant is Korean-operated and has a bit of a funky touch to it. When I tried to flip through the menu, I was startled by how dirty the menus looked, but upon closer inspection, I realized that some of the random specks were actually part of the design. The menus were either an epic design fail or "modern art." I know, it's hard to distinguish the two.

Kadoya Flower - A

Davie Flower - A-

During my search for fancy nigiri on the menu, my heart found its true love when my eyes met with the $3 nigiri flowers at the end of the list. The Kadoya Flower came with scallop, avocado, and two pieces of tuna surrounding some sushi rice. The fresh taste and melty texture of the tuna went perfectly with the light sweetness of the scallop. The Davie Flower consisted of scallop, ikura, two pieces of salmon, and sushi rice. The juicy ikura provided some extra depth of flavour to the buttery, creamy flavour of the salmon. The only issue with the nigiri flowers was that due to their size, they were hard to pick up and impossible to eat in one bite (unless you are part pelican). 

King's Roll - B

Wanting to experience what it would feel like to be a king, I decided to order the King's Roll, which consisted of prawn tempura, wild salmon, green onion, garlic, honey mustard, avocado, and cucumber. My plan sort of failed because I could not imagine any king eating sushi with honey mustard and garlic in it. I must say that this roll is filled with funkiness and will only appeal to those who are fans of both honey mustard and garlic. I liked the crunchiness of the garlic crumbs, but I found the tempura batter on the prawns a bit thick. The wild salmon had a nice smooth texture but was sort of drowned out by the small dabs of honey mustard on top. 

Chicken Teriyaki with Fried Rice - B+

Wanting to end my meal with something that tasted more normal, I decided to go for the Chicken Teriyaki with Fried Rice. I chose the fried rice version over the regular steamed rice version because it was cheaper for some reason. The fried rice was delectable and infused with tiny bits of egg and some sesame seeds. The chicken was mostly tender, and the chicken skin was mostly crispy. However, there was this one unfortunate piece of chicken that was full of tendons and came with a smooth, rubbery layer of skin on top. Oops!

The service was decent and the prices were reasonable for the quality of food. The portion sizes tend not to be very big, but fortunately, the fillers are not expensive. I would not consider this restaurant a must-try, but it does the job fairly well for a modest price. Furthermore, it is quite close to a beautiful body of water, if that helps.