Episode #146: Yokohama Japanese Restaurant

Steveston, Richmond, $$$ (Higher Priced)
www.yokohamabc.com

Having tried all of the other sushi restaurants participating in Dine Out Vancouver 2016, I made my way through rush hour traffic from SFU to Steveston to try out the Chinese-operated Yokohama Japanese Restaurant. Hidden at the end of an alley, Yokohama Japanese Restaurant features a few teppanyaki booths, and the chef at each booth would grill your food on the spot, which occasionally resulted in bursts of flames. However, the restaurant also serves many different types of Aburi sushi, and wanting to try some of this, I went for the sushi option of the Dine Out menu.

The main theme of the Dine Out menu was lobster, and the sushi option came with a Lobster Miso Soup and a Lobster King Roll among other things. Of course, I also had a look inside the menu to see which goodies I could add to my dinner. Unfortunately, the menu was an absolute eyesore. I appreciated the fact that they included pictures of many of the dishes, but the formatting was terrible and there were all kinds of different fonts and font sizes. The only thing they did well was emphasizing the big-ticket items, and I could easily find the Aburi Wagyu beef. However, I wasn't exactly planning on spending more than $100 for dinner...

Lobster Miso Soup - C

Starting off the meal was the Lobster Miso Soup, which came with green onion, tofu, and a bit of lobster shell. There was not even a tiny chewable piece of lobster meat, and the Miso Soup had less depth of flavour than the average regular miso soup. The lack of lobster or lobster flavour was rather disappointing.

Yokohama Green Salad - B

The Yokohama Green Salad was dressed with a tangy Caesar dressing that mimicked the tangy flavour of Japanese vinaigrette salad dressing. I enjoyed the slightly acidic flavour of the dressing, but the creaminess did not really work for me.

Next came the entree with an assortment of sushi and sashimi. They took every effort to present this dish as amazingly as they possibly could. The server came to my table to blowtorch the sushi in front of me. If you look closely, you can see that they even lit up the cocktail glass stands for the sashimi! The only disappointment here was that there wasn't actually any lobster meat in the lobster shell.

Aburi Tuna Hakozushi - C

Aburi Salmon Hakozushi - C-

Aburi Saba Hakozushi - C+

After taking pictures of everything on the platter, I dove right in to the Aburi hakozushi (box-shaped sushi). Now, if you ever want to have your aburi sushi dressed so that you can no longer taste the fish, this is it. The Aburi Tuna Hakozushi was dressed with teriyaki sauce, which completely overwhelmed the tuna (the same goes for the apple sauce on the salmon and the mango sauce on the saba). Adding to the dread factor, some of the teriyaki sauce got mixed in with the apple sauce on the salmon. However, what really drove it home was the perfectly bland sushi rice, which tasted as plain as water. Did they forget to add the rice vinegar?! WTF! If I wanted plain water, I could have gotten some for free.

Lobster King Roll - C

The Lobster King Roll is a torched roll consisting of lobster tempura, crab meat, ebi, caviar, mango sauce. I think this should have been renamed the Lobster Missing Roll due to the lack of lobster. The "lobster tempura" came with extremely minuscule pieces of lobster and tasted more like fried grease instead, which I found rather revolting. This clashed with the copious amounts of mango sauce on top, which drowned out the flavour of the crab meat. Furthermore, I could not taste any seared flavour, and the roll ended up being quite chewy due to the severely overdone tempura batter. 

Salmon Sashimi - C+

Tuna Sashimi - B

Hamachi Sashimi - B+

The best part of the platter was undeniably the sashimi. The Salmon Sashimi had a soft texture and a smooth sheen, but it was cut into very small pieces and tasted bland. The Tuna Sashimi was better, being only slightly fishy with an adequately soft texture. The Hamachi Sashimi had a nice smooth texture and a creamy, buttery taste. However, it was missing the mahogany part, and it had a slightly weaker flavour as a result.

Yakitori - B-

Seeing that so many people were crowded around the teppanyaki booths (yes, the restaurant was actually quite busy), I decided to give them a chance by separately ordering a Yakitori, and fortunately, this was less disastrous than the sushi. The chicken had a light charred flavour on the outside, and this time, they weren't skimpy with the meat. However, the chicken was a bit rubbery and flavourless on the inside.

Green Tea Ice Cream - C+

Finally, the dessert for my Dine Out disaster... I mean dinner... arrived, and this was a double facepalm moment. Although it had a pleasant green tea flavour, the ice cream was served too cold and actually contained a few crunchy ice crystals in the middle. WTF! How do you friggin' mess up ice cream?! I am so done with the food...

The service was rather unenthusiastic, lackluster, and rude at times. My server made a slight error while describing the Aburi sushi (which I could forgive), but when I asked him to repeat the description, he just walked away without a word. I only gave a proper tip because the other servers did their job somewhat more professionally. There were not that many bright moments during my visit, but I was most disappointed with the serious lack of lobster meat in what was advertised to seem like a lobster-themed dinner. They gave me the shell and everything, but there was probably about 5 grams of lobster meat in total (maybe even less). If they did not plan on serving me a single nice bite of lobster, they should not have emphasized lobster on the Dine Out menu. I felt like I was cheated, and I will not return to this establishment again.

Episode #145: Masa Japanese Restaurant

Vancouver (Northwest), $ (Budget)

Sometime last year, the old Kaneda Japanese Restaurant got replaced with the newer and fancier-looking Masa Japanese Restaurant. I once claimed that as soon as you cross Cambie St. heading west, restaurant prices immediately double, and for the most part, that has turned out to be the case. Seeing Masa Japanese Restaurant's modern wooden-brick-themed entrance and its very spacious second-floor dining space, I had always assumed it to be a pricey venue for sushi. I was quite surprised to see $2.95 California rolls and $1.25 salmon nigiri on the menu, but being the glutton that I am, I still managed to spend over $30 on lunch.

I wanted to try their Dine Out menu, but apparently, they only serve it for dinner. However, I need not have worried, as they had a variety of affordable, large lunch courses for me to choose from. Of course, I went for the biggest one, the Masa Course, which came with a beef steak, a deep-fried prawn, and too many other items for me to count. They provided each person with a serving tray, but I ordered too much food to fit on one tray, or even two, so I did my usual thing, which was to borrow the table beside me.

Miso Soup - C+

The Masa Course commenced with a Miso Soup, which was hot and rather substantial. However, it ranks among the saltiest miso soups I have ever had, and I could practically taste the salt dissolving in my mouth. Mmm...

Pickled Baby Onions - C+

Wakame - A-

Oshinko - B-

Next, a trio of appetizers arrived at my tabel. The Pickled Baby Onions were juicy, but had a very strong dill-like flavour, which I disliked. The Wakame (seaweed) was better with ample moisture and flavour. The Oshinko also had enough flavour, but it was overly dry and lacked the juicy crunch that I was looking for.

Masa Beef Steak - B-

Deep-Fried Prawn - A-

The Masa Beef Steak consisted of a thick, chunky cut of braised beef resting on a mashed potato salad. They provided me with a fork and knife, but did they really expect a clumsy guy like me to be able to cut that steak horizontally into three or more slices? Nope, I just took small bites out of it instead, and though it was not as tender as I had hoped, it was still more chewable than it looked. It was juicy in some parts, but the parts near the center were rather flavourless.

The Deep-Fried Prawn was reminiscent of Miku's Ebi Fritter, and it came with a large prawn. The batter was bread-like and appropriately adorned with spices. The prawn was flavourful with help from the sauces but also a bit chewy. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this item.

Sunomono - B+

The Sunomono was very colourful and graced with small strawberries, broccoli, a slice of lemon, a few mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, and some thinly sliced carrot. I could see the entire grocery store in there. It wasn't the most impactful Sunomono I have had, but there was a decent amount of citrusy tanginess to go along with the rice vermicelli underneath. 

Kale Gomae - B-

The Kale Gomae came with large pieces of kale dressed with sweet sesame sauce. The kale was somewhat hard to chew due to the size of the pieces. It was leagues away from Miku's version, and I wished the sesame dressing was spread more evenly throughout the kale.

The Salmon That Had a Bean Curd Umbrella - B+

Salmon Nigiri - B+

Tuna Nigiri - B

Sockeye Salmon Nigiri - A-

Ebi Nigiri - B

At last, we come to the final dish of the Masa Course, which came with a special roll. The waitress could not come up with a name for the roll, so I put my epic name-generating abilities to the task. The Salmon That Had a Bean Curd Umbrella came with inari (bean curd), crab meat, avocado, salmon, tobiko, and cream cheese. I liked how they used the cream cheese conservatively, and it produced a nice melty texture. The thin layer of bean curd added sufficient sweetness to the roll, which had a creamy, soft texture overall. 

Moving on to the nigiri, the Salmon Nigiri had a glossy texture and a creamy flavour, though it was cut a bit thin. The Tuna Nigiri was not exactly a highlight as the tuna was slightly mushy. The Sockeye Salmon Nigiri, on the other hand, tasted fresh and had a delightful sweetness. Finally, the Ebi Nigiri came with a thick and chewy prawn on some slightly dry sushi rice. This could be because it took me a while to get to the nigiri, but then again, I can't take the blame for the fact that they brought the dishes out way more quickly than I could finish them!

Aburi Salmon Nigiri - A-

Aburi Toro Nigiri - B

After finishing the Masa Course, I tried their aburi (seared) nigiri, and they tasted better than they looked... well, sort of. The Aburi Salmon Nigiri came with soft salmon, which had a tasty smoky flavour. The honey mustard added a subtle sweetness to the salmon, while the formation of the rice was quite good. The Aburi Toro Nigiri also had a soft texture, but it was lacking in flavour.

Ex-Girlfriend Roll - B

While enjoying the Masa Course, I was also thinking about my future like any responsible student would. In particular, I was thinking about what I would treat my ex-girlfriend to for dinner if that situation ever came up. (Let's hope it doesn't.) This vegetarian roll came with avocado, yam tempura, red beets, mango, and daikon. It did taste like an Ex-Girlfriend Roll alright. The delicious juicy mango on top symbolizes all the previous love in the relationship, but once you get down to the yam tempura, the slightly overdone hard bits of batter represent the hard feelings that led to the breakup. I could feel my heartstrings being pulled...

I found the service to be quite friendly, and they did not rush me out of the restaurant even though I stayed until 3:15 p.m., at which point everyone else from the lunch crowd had already left. I didn't have any surprisingly good dishes, but this is a decent restaurant considering the price and the location. If you're looking for budget sushi in the wealthy people's corner of Vancouver, it hardly gets better than this!

Episode #144: Sushi Oyama (2nd Visit)

Coquitlam, $$ (Moderately Priced)
www.sushioyama.ca/coquitlam

One of my friends came to visit from Korea during his two-month-long winter break (now I want to study in Korea too), so I thought it would be fitting if we went to a Korean-operated sushi restaurant. Okay, it was more like many of our other choices in the vicinity were closed, so we just ended up going to Sushi Oyama. With a very large dining area and a dazzling water fountain, what could go wrong? Also, they must have tried to lure me in by adding a Nigiri Delight section to their menu. Needless to say, their strategy worked.

Chicken Teriyaki - B+

Surprisingly, my Chicken Teriyaki arrived first, and it was decent. The light sprinkle of sesame seeds added depth to the flavours, and the chicken was sufficiently tender. There was also a distinguishing sweetness, as if the chicken was coated with a thin layer of honey. The stir-fried bean sprouts were savoury, and they were served in a very generous portion.

Aburi Toro Nigiri - B

Aburi Salmon Nigiri - A-

Bacon Eye - B-

Next came my favourite food: the aburi nigiri from the Nigiri Delight section (for less than $2 a piece!). Served with more sauce than fish, the aburi nigiri actually tasted decent, though this was more due to the sauces than the fish itself. They are lucky that I award absolutely no points for authenticity. The Aburi Toro Nigiri was slightly overdone and not as juicy as I had expected. However, the Aburi Salmon Nigiri was soft with a slight smoky flavour that was accented by copious amounts of spicy mayonnaise. I let my friend have one of the Aburi Salmon Nigiri, and he liked it so much that he decided to order some aburi nigiri for himself.

At the far right is the Bacon Eye, which consisted of bacon, chopped scallop, cucumber, green onion, and mayonnaise. It may be hard to see, but there is actually a toothpick holding everything together. I almost had a prickly accident with it myself, so I think it should come with a sign that says "Warning - Choking Hazard: Not for children under 30 years." Aside from that, the Bacon Eye came with plentiful bacon and some soft, creamy scallop. The individual items were decent, but they didn't really work together (nor was it easy to eat all of the ingredients together). 

Awesome Roll - B+

I ordered the Awesome Roll to see how it would stack up to Sushi Town's Awesome Roll. This one was slightly more expensive, but also more massive and certainly spicier. Despite being large, the individual pieces retained a pleasant soft texture, and the lightly seared salmon on top was delectably smooth. As a former regular of Sushi Town, I can attest that on one of Sushi Town's good days, Sushi Town's version is better, but on one of their bad days, this would be the winner.

While I was busy eating and writing, my friend enjoyed two Spicy Tuna Rolls, and based on my previous visit, I can confirm that spicy tuna is one of Sushi Oyama's strengths. However, getting the bill correct is not one of their strengths. The service was quite friendly, but they kept mixing up the items on my friend's bill and my bill. They brought us about five different sets of wrong bills before they finally got it right. I'll admit that our various orders of nigiri sushi sort of exacerbated the problem. Is this why they charge so much for fancy nigiri at so many other restaurants?