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It’s date night. And once again, we were craving for sushi, so we continued our journey in exploring sushi restaurants in Richmond. Tokyo Joe’s is always busy whenever we are in the area and take a peek inside, so on this day, we finally walked inside.

Food

We ordered a number of things, and unexpectedly, they all arrived on one big plate. The Salmon Sashimi tasted fresh, not too fatty and with firm texture. The slices were pretty big, too, and cost us $13.25. BanZai is still on top of our list for offering the best bang for the buck.

The Stamina Roll had unagi (BBQ eel), avocado, crab meat and smoked salmon. It was packed with lots of ingredients; with a good mix of sweetness from the BBQ eel sauce and saltiness in the smoked salmon. It reminded me of a dragon roll (crab meat, fake or not, with avocado, unagi and tobiko – but some dragon rolls may not have the crab meat part), which is what I usually order because I like unagi.

The Chopped Scallop Roll, my sushi staple, was quite good.

It didn’t have the fishy taste that some restaurants may have. It was slightly sweet and wasn’t overly dressed. I wish they would do away with the cucumber in the roll because there wasn’t very much chopped scallop in each piece.

The Negitoro Roll has recently become part of Mr.’s sushi staple. This was nicely seasoned, with plenty of tuna wrapped inside. $2.95 was a pretty good deal for a sushi roll.

Service

At Tokyo Joe’s, you get a free miso soup with purchase. I didn’t realize that until I read the sign on the wall. I actually declined the offer thinking they were trying to upsell something to us. Haha! It is also available at a self-serve station so in case you make the same mistake as I did, you can always go back for some after.

Also, their service was very quick. Food got to the table shortly after we placed an order. The trick? The server yelled out some of the items as we ordered, so the sushi chefs could prep some of the components even before we finished ordering.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought the quality of the sushi was quite high, considering they were not very expensive. The rice had a good balance of sweet and acidic vinegar flavour. My only critique would be that the reverse rolls weren’t wrapped tightly so some pieces kind of fell apart as I took a bite. We will definitely return for a quick sushi dinner.

Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory
#130-8211 Ackroyd Road, Richmond
604-273-3868
www.tokyojoesushifactory.com