Posted in Afternoon tea, Cafe, Dessert, International Brand, Japanese, Joyce, Restaurants, Richmond, Sushi, Sweets, Tea, Tea House, tagged Dango, High tea, Hojicha, Kabusecha, matcha, Recommendation, Shirodashi, sushi, Tsujiri, unagi on January 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
High tea these days is so expensive! Most places are now charging at least $50 per person, and that’s considered “affordable.” I cringed when some afternoon tea menus are priced at $60 or more and that just feels like a lot of money to me. So when my friend CC told me about this $70 tea set at Tsujiri, I naturally assumed it’s $70 per person. But no, it’s $70 for two!! Can it be too good to be true?!
Posted in Dinner, Downtown Vancouver, Japanese, Joyce, Lunch, Restaurants, Seafood, Sushi, Vancouver, tagged Chopped Scallop Roll, Downtown Vancouver, Hand Roll Sushi, Hello Nori, Lobster Sushi, Negitoro Roll, Robson Street, sushi, Temaki, unagi on September 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Hello Nori opened its first location on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver earlier this year. They specialize in sushi hand rolls (temaki). It became popular very quickly, with line ups at the door. Since I’ve been almost a hermit during the pandemic, I haven’t ventured out downtown for a number of months. Finally last month with a nudge from my friend CC, we went to check it out.
Hello Nori has a rather small menu, which isn’t a bad thing, keeping it focused and making food prep easier. They have a few set menus or you can order a la carte. They may also have a couple of featured items on the “fresh sheet”, which were ikura and futomaki when I went. While their set menus offer decent selections and a great sample of their hand rolls, I opted for a la carte because I had my eyes on the unagi hand roll.
Toro – which is their version of a Negitoro (toro with green onion) – there’s nothing spectacular about it but it’s flavourful.
(more…)Posted in Delivery, Dinner, Japanese, Joyce, Lunch, Restaurants, Seafood, Sushi, Take-Out, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged Aburi sushi, bento box, Chirashi Don, Coho Commissary, Commissary Kitchen, Ghost Kitchen, Omakase, sushi on June 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »
For the last couple of years, the dynamics of Vancouver’s restaurant sector have shifted. More commissary kitchens have opened, some restaurateurs have closed their brick and mortar to switch to a ghost kitchen concept, some aspired restaurateurs and bakers are testing the water without a brick and mortar. It’s relatively lower-cost to run a restaurant operation without the investment of a physical location with equipment, tables & chairs, dishware and decorations, and everything else. It’s especially appealing during the COVID-19 crisis now when a majority of business comes from take-out or delivery orders.
Coho Commissary
Earlier in the year, Takenaka opened its door, figuratively speaking, by offering different types of Japanese bento boxes. It operates in one of the Coho Commissary locations in Vancouver. Their concept is inspired by the traditional bento boxes created by mom, while introducing a more artistic approach and bringing in fresh and interesting ingredients. The owner/chef Shogo Takenaka came from Kingyo Izakaya and its sister restaurant Raisu. Sous-chef Daiki Ishikawa was trained in Niigata prefecture, known for its finest quality in rice, sake and seafood. I was provided a few of their menu items for a tasting.
Among the items I received, right away my eyes were drawn to the Kaiseki Bento.
Posted in Casual, Japanese, Joyce, Lunch, Meat, Quick Service, Restaurants, Sushi, Vancouver, tagged Chanko Don, Chicken Karaage, Donburi, Downtown, Downtown Vancouver, Kita no Donburi, Spicy Tuna, Spicy Tuna Roll, sushi on February 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »
It’s been awhile since I’ve enrolled in a course. Even though it’s just a 3-day course, and it’s a course meant for working professionals. Still, the concept of carrying a backpack and dressing casually had been a distant memory. So when work sent me to a 3-day class downtown, I had to scout out my lunch spots. And then there was Kita no Donburi right across from the campus (I was at the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue).
Let me first start by saying, it’s weird to eat alone. I don’t like sitting by myself and all I have is my phone, emails and social media. Occasionally I like to chat with my dining companion too, you know. Not having made any friends in class just yet, I had to eat alone at Kita no Donburi.
On the first day, I ordered the Chanko Don. It caught my eyes right away on the menu because it just had everything – beef, chicken, prawn, tofu, enoki mushroom, shitake mushroom – all ingredients I love! And it came with a miso soup. It was a satisfying rice bowl. It had some nice umami flavours from the combination of tempura sauce and seafood dressing – it was sweet, it was salty, it had a hint of seafood/seaweed. The beef was the shabu shabu kind, so it was thinly sliced, which helped soak in the flavour from the sauces. It’s really fun to eat because every spoonful gave me different combination of ingredients (it would drive Mr. crazy though, as he likes having a little bit everything in one bite). What would make this even better would be a soft pouched egg, so I would stir in the runny egg yolk into the rice bowl. That would be soooo good!
I returned the next day, and tried something else. The Chicken Karaage (appetizer version) was a decent portion. (more…)
Posted in Coquitlam, Dinner, Japanese, Joyce, Restaurants, Seafood, Sushi, tagged Chicken Karaage, Chopped Scallop Roll, conch, Matoi Sashimi, sashimi, Sea Urchin, sushi, Tempura, unagi, Uni, Yaki Udon on April 8, 2015| 1 Comment »
My family and I used to frequent Nagano near Coquitlam Centre a lot, before it’s closed temporarily due to a fire. Since then, we have been going to Matoi at Sunwood Square by Lougheed Highway.
This time around, in addition to our usual staple, we also tried a few new things. First, Fresh Sea Urchin (uni). I mean, the whole thing! If you follow me on Instagram, then you would see the video of the live sea urchin as it arrived at our table. The flesh had some natural sweetness, not stringy, and didn’t have the unpleasant fishy taste that some may have. It was served with strips of nori (seaweed), and with a few drops of soy sauce, the taste of sea was accentuated. It’s not cheap but definitely an occasional treat that’s worth every nickel (as we phased out our pennies hehe).
Usually Japanese restaurants serve Beef Sashimi almost tataki style, with a quick sear on the outside. Not here. It was straight up slices of raw beef, and with a dip into the yuzu based sauce, you can actually taste the beefy flavour. Our order had some nice marbling, so the meat slices just melt in your mouth. I was hesitant about the 100% raw beef but it was actually really good.
We usually add conch to our soup, so Conch Shell Sashimi was a first for all of us. (more…)
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