Episode #82: Kyo Korean BBQ & Sushi House

Vancouver (Northwest), $$$ (Higher Priced)
www.kyobbq.com/main.php

Normally, I am a night owl and I have a much better appetite at night than I do in the morning and early afternoon. However, when I went online to compare Kyo's all-you-can-eat lunch and dinner menus, I noticed that the lunch menu contained pretty much everything I wanted to try from the dinner menu. Furthermore, the lunch menu ($17.95) is $10 cheaper! If you pay me $10 to wake up early for once, I'd happily do it. Note the word "once".

Kyo is a Chinese-operated Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant that serves Korean BBQ as well. (Doesn't it seem like every Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant is Chinese-operated?) The restaurant is located on the second floor so you get to walk up these huge, majestic stairs in order to get to the dining area. Mmm, exercise... The dining area was quite grandiose and everything looked clean and modern, except for the fact that the leather seats had huge rips in them. Did someone accidentally let the cats loose or something?

Goma-ae - C+

One of my favourite Japanese dishes is Goma-ae, so I ordered it right off the bat. They got the temperature right, but it would be nice if the peanut butter sauce was mixed in more with the spinach, and if there was a bit more of the sauce. It was passable though.

Pork Gyoza - C+

Next came the Pork Gyoza, and as you can see above, the gyoza were beautifully arranged on one side of the plate. The filling was sufficiently juicy, and the amount of vinegar was about right. There were a few parts of the crust that were slightly hardened.

Chicken Wing - B

The Chicken Wing had a nice crispy exterior, and had a sufficient amount of moisture. I wouldn't mind ordering more of these if I had the appetite of a guy who actually exercises.

Spicy Tuna Sashimi - A-

Spicy Salmon Sashimi - B+

Tuna Sashimi - B+

Salmon Sashimi - A-

You are allowed to order up to 8 pieces of sashimi in the all-you-can-eat lunch menu. Unfortunately, the only word I can think of to describe the size of the pieces of sashimi is "adorable". To maximize the surprise, they also forgot one of the pieces of tuna. This was really a shame because the "mini sashimi" was actually quite good. I asked the server for my missing piece of tuna, and she apologized and quickly gave it to me.

Inari Nigiri - B

Chopped Scallop Nigiri - B+

Aburi Tuna Nigiri with Miso Sauce - A-

Aburi Salmon Nigiri with Miso Sauce - A-

The Inari Nigiri was sufficiently soft with a decent amount of sweetness. The Chopped Scallop Nigiri was a bit heavy on the mayonnaise, but had the right amount of rice underneath. The Aburi Tuna Nigiri with Miso Sauce had a delicious seared flavour and soft texture, and so did the Aburi Salmon Nigiri with Miso Sauce. The nigiri had by far the best fish-to-rice ratio out of any all-you-can-eat restaurant I have ever been to. Since the Aburi Salmon Nigiri was better than the ones in many other restaurants I've been to, I decided to order a few more pieces of it towards the end of the meal.

BBQ Beef - C+

BBQ Spicy Pork - B+

BBQ Chicken - A-

Whereas the sashimi came in miniscule portions, the BBQ meat came in huge portions - 5 pieces per order! I succumbed to my natural instinct of wanting to try everything, so I put a "1" beside every type of BBQ meat on the order form. Oops, I think that's like 20 servings of meat in one meal. Oh well, I'm not Dr. Oz, so I'm not legally required to follow the food guide, right?

As expected, the BBQ Beef wasn't very bulgogi-like, but you don't have to cook it for long. Two of the pieces were basically unchewable, but fortunately, they don't charge extra for two pieces of leftover chewed-up meat. (Don't try to picture that!) The BBQ Spicy Pork had a good level of spiciness, and the BBQ Chicken was the best, being both tender and juicy. The BBQ Chicken is also the hardest to cook correctly.

BC Roll - B-

Dynamite Roll - C+

Chicken Teriyaki Roll - C+

Alaska Roll - C+

California Roll - C

The BC Roll came with grilled salmon skin, lettuce, and a 1 cm. drip of teriyaki sauce off to the side. The crunchiness came from the lettuce rather than the grilled salmon skin, but at least they tried. In the Dynamite Roll, the crunchiness also came from the lettuce, but the prawn had a good snap to it. The Beef Teriyaki Roll that I ordered somehow turned into a Chicken Teriyaki Roll with some rather hard chunks of chicken inside. I guess it's possible that I ticked the wrong box, but I'm 70% sure that I didn't. The Alaska Roll had a nice but tiny piece of salmon on top, and like the California Roll, there was way too much mayonnaise with the crab meat inside.

 Prawn Tempura Cone - C+

I enjoyed the prawn tempura in the Prawn Tempura Cone, which was garnished with a small amount of mayonnaise. The seaweed was a bit hard in places, but I think the real struggle for them was trying to not make the cone turn into a cylinder. Alternatively, they could just call it a "Prawn Tempura Cylinder" on the menu. I'm sure people will try it out of curiosity.

Tonkatsu - C+

The Tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork cutlet) had some very crunchy panko batter on it, and was dressed with a tangy Worcestershire sauce. Although the batter was a little hard in places, the pork was sufficiently tender.

Deep Fried Mochi - C

If you want a nice teeth workout, you can try the Deep Fried Mochi. It has a sticky interior and a sweet flavour. It is interesting how the whole thing looks like batter once you take a bite out of it because the mochi and the batter are pretty much the same colour.

Chicken Teriyaki - B

Since the BBQ Chicken tasted quite decent, I decided to try out the Chicken Teriyaki. The chicken was tender and the skin had some crispiness. The teriyaki sauce somehow absorbed the flavour of the sesame seeds.

 Fruit Jello - B+

I was way too full from eating 20 servings of meat, so I asked the server for half an order of Fruit Jello since I don't like to waste food. I liked the variety of flavours in the jello and I enjoyed the jello itself even though it was just standard jello. I really should have asked the servers if I could also have half orders of the BBQ meats, or if I could have half a California Roll.

There wasn't really much in terms of service, and most of the dishes were simply placed on my table without a word. However, the servers fulfilled all of my requests in a timely matter, so I'll give them that. Most of the food was average for an all-you-can-eat, but a few items stood out to me, such as the sashimi, the BBQ Chicken, and the Aburi nigiri. I did get a sore throat from the overdose of BBQ meat, but I wouldn't mind coming back for some all-you-can-eat Aburi nigiri sushi!

Episode #81: Ikoi Sushi

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

Ikoi Sushi is a new authentic Japanese restaurant in New Westminster that was first brought to my attention when it earned the status of "hidden gem" on Sherman's Food Adventures. It wasn't located in the most convenient of places for someone who travels mainly by bus, so I had been putting it off for a while. However, when food connoisseur LotusRapper recommended Ikoi Sushi to me, I decided to try the restaurant as soon as I could despite the transportation issues.

Indeed, transportation issues abounded that day. The bus that I needed to take to get to Braid Station never arrived, and I ended up just walking to the restaurant from Braid Station since my timings were already messed up. When I opened the door to the restaurant, I was hit with the exquisite fragrance of a fish market. The fragrance became unnoticeable as soon as I sat down at my table, and instead, I quickly noticed that all of the other diners at that time were Japanese, which made for a more authentic experience.

Fire Dragon Roll - A

Ikoi Sushi takes their time preparing the dishes, and after 15 minutes, the first item to arrive was the Fire Dragon Roll. It was a spicy tuna roll topped with BBQ eel and special sauce. The tuna was soft and not overwhelmed by the small amount of chili powder that was used to make it mildly spicy. The unagi was deliciously seared and the sesame seeds added additional flavour to the roll.

Next came everything from the Lunch Special D that I ordered. Well, everything except for the Miso Soup. I assumed that they were complying with the Japanese tradition that Miso Soup should be served at the end of the meal, so I didn't ask about it at first.

Tuna Sashimi - A

Salmon Sashimi - A

Hokkigai Sashimi - A-

The sashimi was a delightful start to the lunch special. All of the pieces were presented neatly and tasted fresh. The tuna was soft just like in the Fire Dragon Roll and the salmon had a delicious buttery sweetness to it. The hokkigai was thinly sliced so that it would not be overly chewy. 

Green Salad - B-

The Green Salad was served in a rather large portion for a lunch set. The lettuce leaves were dressed in a rather tangy Japanese salad dressing. There was too little of the dressing to provide flavour to the whole salad.

Chicken Teriyaki - A-

The tender chicken in the Chicken Teriyaki had a nice smoky flavour. Underneath the chicken was a thin bed of soba noodles that was very lightly stir fried. I enjoyed the softness of the noodles, but I would have preferred a bit more sauce for the noodles.

Miso Soup - A-

After observing other diners, it became apparent that they had simply forgotten to serve me the Miso Soup at the beginning. I asked the server for the Miso Soup (she was really apologetic about it) and it was quickly brought to me. The Miso Soup was served at a nice hot temperature with green onion and tofu and it had a well-balanced mixture of dashi broth and miso paste. 

Aburi Toro Nigiri - B+

Aburi Saba Nigiri - A-

At Ikoi Sushi, Aburi (seared) nigiri is available for an extra $0.25. The Aburi Toro Nigiri was very juicy and came with quite a thick, generous cut. One corner of the toro was over-seared and ended up being a bit hard, but otherwise, it was decent. The saba was delightfully soft and successfully seared, while the sushi rice was well-made for both pieces of nigiri.

The servers were quite friendly throughout my entire visit, though it got a little hard to get their attention once the restaurant became packed. Needless to say, when I tried to pay my bill at the counter, there happened to be 10 people in line trying to do the same thing! Ikoi Sushi is a nice example of how location isn't everything when operating a business. Affordable prices and well-prepared (as well as authentically prepared) food can work just as well. The food was definitely worth the transportation issues!

Episode #80: Ki Isu Japanese Restaurant

West Vancouver, $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.kiisujapanese.com

A long time ago, I visited Ki Isu in Yaletown with a friend and we both ended up enjoying the food there. That was way before I started writing this blog, so now, in order to include Ki Isu, I had to choose one of their two locations to visit - Yaletown or West Vancouver. The decision wasn't that hard to make because the West Vancouver location is rated 2% higher on Urbanspoon. So here I was, napping on buses for nearly two hours just to get to that 2%-better sushi. At least I was using that time wisely.

Ki Isu is a Korean-operated Japanese restaurant and is one of the more affordable sushi places in West Vancouver with a large assortment of fusion items on the menu. The atmosphere of the restaurant was quite lively even at half past five, and by 6, there were people waiting for seats and the waitresses were running around the restaurant at an almost-comical speed. The restaurant wasn't even that large, so I'm not sure how much running around actually helped. I'll give credit to the waitresses for not dropping any of the dishes and for only making me raise my hand for 5 minutes to place my order.

Tuna Goma-ae - A-

The Tuna Goma-ae came with five rather large pieces of Albacore tuna with scallions draped on top. There was no spinach, but there was more than enough tuna to justify the $4.95 price tag. The tuna was a bit on the colder side, but maintained a soft texture and went well with the well-balanced sesame dressing.

Spicy Salmon Nuggets - A

I've never seen Salmon Nuggets before, so my expectations were quite low - I would be satisfied as long as they were better than McNuggets. When they first arrived, they looked like a bad case of messed-up gyoza, but it didn't take me long to get addicted to them. The salmon was deliciously juicy and the batter was crispy and not hard at all. The level of spiciness was just right and did not overwhelm the flavour of the salmon.

Crunch Crunch Roll (B's Roll) - A-

The Crunch Crunch Roll (B's Roll) (half order pictured above) consisted of tempura bits, masago, and tuna dressed in mayonnaise. Don't ask me what B stands for - all I can tell you is that it's better than a B. Inside the roll, the seaweed-mayonnaise combo was tasty and the tuna was sufficiently soft. The tempura bits were a bit large, but overall, the flavours worked nicely together in this neatly constructed roll.

Unagi Nigiri - A-

While most of the items on the menu are moderately priced, the nigiri sushi is curiously luxury-priced. The one piece of Unagi Nigiri in the picture above cost me $3.95. I originally wanted to get a piece of Anago Nigiri too (because two pieces of nigiri on a plate makes for a more attractive photo), but unfortunately, they were sold out of anago. The unagi was decent with a nice smoked flavour, but it wasn't tantalizing enough to be worth $3.95.

Brown Rice Salmon Cake - B

For the last item of my dinner, I got the Brown Rice Salmon Cake, which consisted of brown rice stacked with crunch, avocado salad, tangy jalapeño salmon, and kizami nori (seaweed). The server told me that they ran out of brown rice, so technically, I got the "Black Rice Salmon Cake" instead. I enjoyed the sweet, creamy flavour of the avocado and the salmon, but the black rice underneath made everything too sweet. It would be nice if they held back on the amount of black rice to put under each piece (or if they bought more brown rice so they wouldn't run out before prime dinner time).

The quality of service was acceptable, but was limited by how busy the servers were. Some of the diners around me began to feel sorry for the two servers, seeing how overworked they were. Other than that, it was a pleasant visit with plenty of well-crafted food that exceeded my expectations. The decent food and reasonable prices are what brings so many locals to Ki Isu. It looks like Urbanspoon made the correct choice for me!