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Japanese

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Last time I went to the Grandvilla Casino, my parents and I went next door to Grand Dynasty for dim sum. Today M and I were thinking of a place to eat. After begging him to take me here, we decided to go to G-Be Izakaya rather than Fat Burger. Seriously, he would think by now that I have some decent suggestions for places to eat.

G-Be Izakaya is a new restaurant that opened up near Grandvilla casino in Burnaby. They are owned by the same people who run Gyoza King. You wouldn’t know it when you sit down, but when you look at their dishes, their logo is on all the dishes.

I was so amazed at their interior decor. It was hot! Communal tables in the middle, tables and booth on the side. There is also a large party room.

When we looked at the menu, the first page it really explained a lot about their restaurant and how they dont serve alcohol due to a pending liquor license, being patient with waitresses as well as it being their soft opening.

Tea isn’t free, so you have to pay for it. You pay per head for tea and you can choose from 7 specialty teas.

I got the genmaicha green tea ($1.50). You get refills of your pot so it’s not too too bad.

Ebi Nira Gyoza ($4.50) comes in 4 pieces and contains porks, prawns and chives. The prawn is not just a paste, you taste a whole shrimp in the gyoza. The gyoza was not super amazing and spectacular, just normal.

GomaMiso Chicken Karrage ($6) is flash fried rice crisp battered fresh chicken breast with sesame miso sauce. I actually love the crispy rice/ cereal batter since it make it super crunchy and the chicken breast is still very succulent and moist.

Fried Goat Cheese Stick ($6) is crispy fried goat cheese served with balsamic teriyaki sauce. Yet again it is covered in something like corn flakes.  The inner was very gooey and i think it had some bacon too. Yummy!

Uni Steamed sushi mini Hot Pot ($6.50), it has steamed 7 grained rice with egg, seaweed and fresh uni. It was really a mini pot, it tasted really good if you are a fan of Uni.

You can probably get 6 or 7 spoonfuls of this.

King California Roll ($7) is a roll with snow crab meat, avocado, sprouts wrapped with soy paper and topped with mango and more avocado. Tasted ok, but not awesome. One thing that does make it stand out is how they use healthy ingredients to put this together.

Triple salmon roll ($6) sockeye salmon tempura, avocado, and sprouts wrapped in smoked salmon topped with spicy salmon. Very creative roll but not super amazing. It did seem very healthy and have fresh ingredients.

M ordered the Mushi Choco Man ($3.50). It is a steamed chocolate lava bun. You have to wait a bit before you eat it, the chocolate on the inside was hot. Good thing the waitor warned us because M wanted to dig in.

You have to be careful about this bun because when you bite into it, the chocolate will squirt out. The chocolate on the inside was very nice, warm and rich.

I ordered the Creme Brulee ($4.95), it comes with 3 mini creme brulees – Jasmine, green tea, and earl grey.

This is probably the best creme brulee I have ever had, it was unique and you got to try a bit of everything. The jasmine creme brulee was very subtle. The earl grey creme brulee was very flavourful with a strong taste, so you could definitely tell it was earl grey. The green tea was amazing as well!

Words of wisdom:

  • Free Parking
  • Most dishes under $10
  • Unique dishes
  • Creme Brulee is a must!
  • No alcohol served yet (One day in the future they will!)

We Rate G-Be Izakaya :

Address:

4331 Dominion St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.g-beizakaya.ca


G-Be Izakaya on Urbanspoon

On my way to lunch, I could feel the showers beginning again, it was that weird day were there were “140km” winds (It totally wasn’t…darn those weather people). There were random periods of heavy rains and then BAM it was sunny and then it turned rainy again.

I was originally going to eat somewhere else, but I just decided to go to Fumiyoshi since it was a block away.

There is lots of room inside if you want to come in with a bunch of people. Most of the seating are booths and 4 people tables.

Since I was craving Fried chicken, I decided to get an order of Chicken Karrage ($3). I have to admit, this is the most failed chicken karrage I have ever seen and tasted. It was not a chicken wing or drumette. These pieces were the joints of chicken bones, so you don’t get a large amount of meat since most of it is just cartilage.

For my main, I ordered their bento boxes. It was $10.99. There was chicken teriyaki, yam rolls, green salad and vermicelli rice wrap.  Miso soup comes with it as well.

The miso soup tasted good and refreshing. The green salad was mostly iceberg lettuce and it did not seem very fresh at all. The yam roll was ok as well, the yam roll was more of a yam tempura roll. The vermicelli rice wrap was a bit soggy on the outside and affected the structure of the wrap. It started falling apart.

I really didn’t like Fumiyoshi even though it was at a decent price. There are tons of other sushi restaurants on the same block that I would rather go to.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Large menu
  • Most items under $15
  • Has Japanese and Vietnamese items on their menu

We rate Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi:

Address:

538 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Fumiyoshi Seafood & Sushi on Urbanspoon

Hukuya Sushi is this little Japanese Restaurant located beside Red Robins in the Lougheed Mall area. They offer all you can eat as well as reasonably priced Ala carte for lunch and dinner.

On the inside, it has a decent interior. It is never super full when I come here. The people who run Hukuya Sushi, like other sushi places are Korean. It’s not bad or anything, I just wanted to point that out. There are a lot of repeat customers that come to Hukuya…my friend told us that he would come here quite often when he was in High School.

Everyone got their tea and M as usual got a coke.

Everyone was given complementary miso soup. I find that with most customers, they usually give something complementary with the meal. I think once it was a basket of tempura.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered Nigiri to start, there was tako (octopus), unagi (eel)and ebi (Shrimp). She also had a toro (tuna belly), but the waitress accidentally gave her the ebi. Once TaiwaneseGirl told the waitress, she gave her another toro. I don’t think TaiwaneseGirl really minded about the mishap of the order, I think she was more happy she got more food.

I ordered one of their chef specials, Takoyaki ($3.99), it comes with 5 takoyaki balls. Takoyaki is a ball shapped Japanese dumpling…kinda like a savory pancake made out of batter. the takoyaki is filled with octopus, pickled ginger, green onions and topped off with bonito flakes, mayo and teriyaki sauce.

This is a very popular Japanese street food item.

I got the other chef special, which was the okonomikyaki ($8). It is essentially very similar to Takoyaki but without the tako and in a pancake form.  It was ok, but there was too much batter compared to the amount of ingredients inside. On top, therer is tobiko and the bonito flakes. They preslice this for you in the shape of a pizza, so you are killing it with your chopsticks.

I know if it wasn’t cut, I would try putting the whole thing in my mouth…or even just massacring the look of this dish.

I hold high regards for people who serve okonomiyaki because for Japanese class in high school, we were required to make this dish. My group did an ok job, but another group almost set the classroom on fire. I tried remaking it at home and wanted to die because I didn’t know how to flip it over.

Since I thought I would still be hungry, I ordered the california roll. Pretty simple, nothing too elaborate and cheap!

M and TaiwaneseGirl ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Don. Underneath the egg, chicken, broccoli and onion lies white rice.

It was a lot to eat since rice does fill you up. Neither of them could finish their own bowls, so they packed it.

InsecureGirl ordere the Chicken Yaki Udon. It is udon, vegetables and chicken served on a super hot black grill plate.

M ordered some shrimp tempura as well, I think it had 7 pieces. I really didn’t mind helping him eat this because as you know…I have an obsession for prawns ….no like actually! As a kid, I would eat shrimp even though I was allergic, I even developed hives but I still ate it. Many years of being scolded by my parents not to each shrimp…I still ate it any ways. If you see me at a buffet, my entire table will have remnants of shrimp shells pilled up on several plates ( true story).

The taste of this shrimp tempura is quite average, nothing special, but it the usual stuff you would expect from any other japanese restaurant.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking in front
  • Lots of specials
  • Specialty rolls
  • decent prices

We Rate Hukuya Sushi:

Address:

9626 Cameron Street
Burnaby, BC
Hukuya Sushi on Urbanspoon

My 5th visit at Kimura would have to be epic.

I know i’ve said great things about Kimura in the past, but reading all my posts will probably hype Kimura’s up a bit too much. So, your best best is to have a seat near the bar so you can actually talk to him and get to know him. I personally never sit at the bar so I’ve never had a deep deep conversation with him…nor does he really remember my face even though I’ve been there many times. FragileBoy and Insecuregirl always go there and take a conscious effort to talk to him every single time they go. I, on the other hand am super shy and awkward so … I am a ghost.

FragileBoy decided to have his birthday party at Kimura’s and talked to him a few days before so Kimura could set up a special Omakase set. There were 15 people, so he needed to prep before hand…plus we took up half the restaurant.

We started off with 5 big bottles of Kirin ($8.95 each), and a large sake ($12)  to share between everyone. I didn’t take a picture of the sake, but in my previous posts you can see what it looks like.

Since Kimura was very generous, he offered fragileboy a special Omakase set for his birthday and all the guests. Usually the Omakase is 7 dishes, but today…there was way more!

We started off the first course with Gomae which is just cooked spinach. As usual his appetizers are very clean and simple tasting.

The second dish was the Salmon Carpaccio, but it was a bit smaller than usual, but it was expected since Kimura increased the amount of dishes and provided a cheaper rate for the omakase set. This was delicious as usual! It’s one of my favorite dishes because of the sesame oil, salt, and pepper he adds to the ponzu sauce.

The third dish was yaki tori skewers. Each person had 2 each. The yakitori had chicken, onions and peppers. The chicken was very moist and was not dry. They have this on the regular menu as well.

The forth dish was Tonkatsu (Fried Pork Cutlet). There were 2 pieces drizzled with plum sauce. I found there was not enough sauce since some pieces did not have any sauce. You should also ask for a slice of lemon to go with it because it actually goes really well with it.

The fifth dish was tempura. You are probably thinking, “oh it’s normal, nothings great about it”. I thought the same thing until I ate the shrimp tempura. The batter on the outside was not crunchy, but really soft. When you bite into it, the shrimp is already seasoned with a bit of salt which really brings out the taste. I usually avoid tempura, but because of the taste of salt and the texture of the batter it did not taste oily.

The sixth dish has approached and it is the miso soup.  The reason why I like this miso soup compared to other places is because of the addition of the tofu skin. It adds texture and body to the soup. The rest is pretty much the same.

The seventh dish arrived, at this point we were like…how many dishes are there? All the girls were pretty much getting full.

There was 4 california rolls, 1 wild salmon nigiri, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, and one shrimp nigiri. It was nothing too fancy.

Hey, look it’s the 8th dish. >.<”  (Asian face emoticon thing indicating I was full). Each person got 1 of the Spicy tuna on crispy rice. Smaller than usual but it was alright because we were all getting full. Some people were a but scared of this dish because the tuna is spicy.

If you have a SUPER low tolerance for heat, you probably won’t like this. But, it’s a really cool concept for a dish. I can stand heat so it wasn’t a problem for me.

Dish number nine. Yes, NINE! This was the spicy toro cone. This was not very spicy, so if you are a spicy hater, you would actually like this. Melt in your mouth toro!

The tenth and final dish was mango ice cream. This ice cream is pretty good, not like the artificial mango ice cream.

Since it was FragileBoy’s birthday, Kimura was kind enough to make him a plate of Frog Legs. On the plate were 8 frog legs, which meant 4 frogs had to die for this dish, but as someone said at the table “they are over populated anyways, so might as well eat them”. So, we did just that… we ate them all! haha. It was my first time trying out frog legs, so I jumped at the chance of trying it. It has a very interesting taste, it was like a cross between chicken and fish.

I spent most the the time comparing the frog leg to an olympic speed skater.  The Frog legs are not on the usual menu, but you can call in ahead of time to order them.

When they were speaking on the phone prior to the dinner, FragileBoy insisted that Kimura should not go out of his way to get cake…but guess what happened? Kimura went to T&T to buy him 2 little cakes anyways. Really amazing chef that truly has a passion for food.

Words of Wisdom:

  • For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura (the best advice you will ever get!)
  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

I pass by Sushiholic quite often and at first I didn’t have high expectations for Sushiholic because they are in a location where there has been several failed restaurants. They did have a lot of reviews from anonymous users on Urbanspoon and some other website, good reviews too.

So, I went to see if it lived up to their reviews.

The exterior is quite an eye sore and looks quite ghetto.

When you enter through the door, it look every clean and modern inside. Nothing like the outside at all.

The Fire Dragon Roll ($9.95) looks super cool since they make it look somewhat like a “fire dragon”. The sushi was composed of spicy tuna, prawns and cucumber with mayo and spicy sauce.  This was really really delicious!

The Spider Roll ($7.95) is similar to the other spider rolls you find. It has soft-shell crab inside. It was still delicious and the sauce in the shape of a spider web is a nice touch.

Volcano Roll ($11.95) is a sushi with asparagus and shrimp. It is then deep fried and chopped up. Having the roll deep fried give it a very crunchy texture, the addition of spicy tuna in the middle is really ingenious because it’s supposed to be set up like a “volcano”. The spicy tuna is coated with a sauce that has a combination of sesame oil and spicy sauce.

Overall it was a great dish!

Las Vegas Roll ($9.95) was another deep fried roll. It is chopped up and laid on its side and topped up with more crab meat and tobiko. The best way to eat this is to smush the crab meat down so you can fit it into your mouth.

We also ordered the Sushiholic Tray ($21.95). For this price, you get 54 pieces of sushi. These rolls include California Roll (8pcs), Dynamite Roll (6pcs), BC Roll (6pcs), Tuna Roll (6pcs), Salmon Roll (6pcs), Spicy Tuna Roll (8pcs),Kappa Roll (6pcs), and Chopped Scallop Roll (8pcs). It’s really good for the price if you are hungry.

The rolls aren’t anything special but they were made well.

At the end of our meal, the chef made us a complementary salmon belly sashimi. It was my first time having salmon belly and I did not take too much of a liking. I think I prefer toro instead. The presentation of it was really nice, it was made into a rose shape.

Our bill came out to be $69.16 for 5 people. The price of the sushi tray was an incredible deal. The specialty rolls were alright, you are essentially paying for the presentation of the rolls. Some rolls are worth it and some other aren’t.

Overall, my friends and I had a great experience. Well made sushi roll with quality. One thing we did notice was that this restaurant was owned by Koreans, which seems to be a trend in most sushi places in Vancouver.  Either way, they know how to make sushi.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking on the right of the restaurant (small alley)
  • Decent prices
  • They have a ghetto exterior, but the interior is really nice
  • Amazing Specialty rolls
  • Volcano Roll is really really good!

We Rate SushiHolic:

Address:

3311 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Website:
sushiholic.ca
Sushiholic on Urbanspoon

I am running out of options to eat near the office, so when I asked for suggestions on twitter @nicolb suggested I try Sushi Zero One. Since she does know her food, I decided to check this place out.

I swear I walked around the block 2 times but it’s hard to spot since there at 3 sushi restaurants on the block. Since i really did not want to admit defeat, so I decided to look for the store address on the iphone.

Luckly I did find it, it was not as I expected the restaurant to look like. It is very small and has limited seating, most people take out instead of sit there. I was so glad I went by myself because there was only 1 seat left.

Sushi Zero One does have a vast menu of items, there were so many that I had no idea where to look since there was a few items on the board, other items on the wall, a normal menu and a board with daily specials.

I felt a bit overwhelmed by the choices, but I just stick to the daily special…it must be good since it’s on the special menu.

One of the specials were sashimi don ($9.50) with 3 types of fish – wild salmon, albacore tuna and saba.

The don consisted of rice, dried seaweed, pea sprouts, sashimi, and ginger + wasabi. If you dont’ like wasabi, you can take it out and put it in your sauce dish to mix it with soy sauce.

I liked how the don was simple and fresh, the only negative thing I can say about it is that I found that their cutting skills for the sashimi was quite poor, you can tell by the image that there is a bit of the grey skin still on the fish.

It also came with a miso soup.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Online ordering form
  • Limited seating
  • Free delivery
  • Large menu
  • Cheap and fresh

We Rate Sushi Zero One:

Address:

559 W Pender St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.sushizeroone.com


Zero One Sushi on Urbanspoon

Since I found out the other Guu location – Guu Garden offered lunch, I really had to try it out to see how it compared.

After walking aimlessly around the building, I stumbled upon this sign near some stairs in the rear. If I missed the sight of this sign, I’d probably have no idea where to find Guu. I thought Google maps tricked me into going to this deserted place. (Most of the building was under construction besides Guu Garden & Relish.

When I made my way to the restaurant I was greeted with a welcoming “irrashaimase”, which means Welcome in Japanese.

Since it was me, myself and I…I just decided to sit on the bar. Ya… the awesomeness of being a loner! Woot.

Their menu definitely had more choices than Guu on Thurlow. From bento boxes to the favorite izakaya dishes!

I first ordered the Tuna Tataki ($6.50). For lunch they served it with 4 pieces of tuna. It is lightly seared on the outside and garnishes with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The quality of the tuna was delicious and had a good texture.

It was a tad expensive for lunch compared to what I had next…

Guu Garden has some amazing bento boxes for lunch! $10 Rice Burger bento Box!

The bento box came with a choice of 3 burger – Kobe Beef, tuna fillet, and pork tenderloin. Each bento box comes with miso soup and 4 sides to accompany the dish.

I got my combo with the Tuna Fillet Cutlet with tartar sauce. It is a good take on the traditional burger. The fillet was nice and golden brown on the outside. Once you take a bite of the sandwich, you can hear the *crunch* when you bit into the fillet.

I wasn’t particularly fond of this, after I saw this, I really wish I ordered the Kobe Beef version on the sandwich. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a good burger but it didn’t suit my taste. I’m not a big fan of deep fried items.

The miso soup was delicious like most places, but it was a different since they added puff tofu into the miso soup. It added texture into the soup.

This was a cold potato type of thing. I usually dont like potatoes but this was not too starchy tasting.

Next side dish were tempura green beans. It was not too oily and seasoned with salt and pepper.

This shrimp salad was very very good. It had greens, avocado, shrimp, and a few other ingredients. The sauce that they had on it was very interesting and tasted like wasabi but it was not too overwhelming. It did not give you the weird nose stingy sensation

Almond tofu pudding with lychee was by far the best part of the meal and the perfect ending. I love tofu dessert so, I am really biased towards it because I could eat a whole tub full of this.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Amazing $10 bento lunch
  • Hard to locate the restaurant

We Rate Guu Garden:

Address:

M101-888 Nelson Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.guu-izakaya.com
Guu Garden on Urbanspoon

Kingsway Sushi is an all you can eat sushi joint on Kingsway and Boundary. They are owned by Top Gun Group who also own Richmond Sushi, Top Gun J&C, Top Gun Hot Pot, and Garden City Hot Pot.

They have all you can eat for Lunch, Dinner and Late Night. They have special types of menus for lunch and Dinner depending it you want a wider selection of  items to choose from.

They do have an ala carte menu but it is not worth the price since your meal would end up pretty close to what you would be paying for all you can eat. A week day normal dinner cost us $21.95 per person.

On a Thursday night, all the tables were full! Surprising since it was a weekday. This place is one of the better All You Can Eat restaurants in Burnaby. All the other ones at Metrotown can’t compare.

They have lots of different items on their regular menu, I didn’t take a picture of all the food we ordered but here are just a few.

Edamame beans

Beef Tataki / Beef Sashimi

If you eat a lot of this, you will probably get your moneys worth since on the Ala Carte menu the tataki is 8 pieces for $8.95…

Miso Soup

Different types of rolls

Wild Salmon Sushi

Mango Pudding

The service is pretty good, since everything is electronic there is no delay. As we finished giving the waitress our list of items for the first round of ordering, our food came right away! The hot items take a bit longer to arrive compared to already prepared items like the mango pudding and beef tataki.

The food is so – so, but most all you can eats in Vancouver aren’t spectacular .

Words of Wisdom:

  • Very fast service
  • Large variety in menu
  • There is usually a line up if you don’t have reservations
  • Closed on Tuesdays
  • 2 hour limit
  • Free Parking underground

We Rate Kingsway Sushi:

Address:

3665 Kingsway
VancouverBC

Website:

www.topgungroup.com/KS.html
Kingsway Sushi on Urbanspoon

Guu on Thurlow is open for lunch. I heard from PinappleBun that they have great deals under $10. Since I’ve been to Guu for dinner and loved it, I thought lunch would be exciting too.

There are a good amount of tables for lunch and there’s a bar..if you are eating alone. I sat at the bar because it was just me. Don’t be afraid if you suddenly hear your waitress yelling to the chefs, it’s totally normal! They are just communicating your order in a fun way!

The menu on the walls, are dinner specials, so you can’t order them till dinner time. I was eyeing the Beef Carpaccio but I couldn’t get it.

Their menu is quite small, so you only have the main options of Bento box, Don, and curry. They have a few specials too

I ordered the assorted fry Bento Box ($8). I wanted a little bit of everything, so that was the best option.

There was chicken karrage, pork tenderloin cutlet, creamy croquette, bamboo shoots, daikon and a bit of noodles. This bento box also came with Miso soup and rice.

The chicken karrage and the pork tender loin was ok, but I really loved the creamy croquette! Nicely fried on the outside and rich/ creamy on the inside. Yum!

Words of Wisdom:

  • No waits during lunch
  • Under $10
  • Creamy Croquettes!
  • Small menu selection
  • No sushi

We rate Guu:  

Address:

838 Thurlow St
Vancouver, BC

Website: www.guu-izakaya.com

Guu on Urbanspoon

Visit #1 Visit #2 Visit #3

As you probably know now, I am a huge fan of Kimura’s and is kinda my “go to” place to have some great food with friends.

Since it was Vday, I made reservations ahead of time just in case they became very busy. Indeed they were, but I was smart to make they a week in advance. You should be ok, if you make it a day ahead of time.

M and I had a big bottle of Kirin ($8.95). It was a Large size and it could fill up about 8 small cups.

M and I love their Spicy tuna on Crispy rice ($4.50). It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces. Eat with your hands because eating with chopsticks are a bit hard. Plus, it is meant to be eaten with hands.

M wasn’t so keen on the Omakase set this time, so when he heard there was kobe beef steak for $25, he jumped at the chance to order it. You don’t only get the steak, but you get miso soup, rice, and a salad.

The kobe beef was made medium rare and it was very nice and juicy. Did you know kobe beef is quite sought after due to their distinct rich flavour? Because of the really nice marbling of the fat,  it gives this steak it’s great flavour.

The salad was quite simple and had no dressing. It is made mostly out of cabbage, radish, carrots, cucumber and a tomato. Still quite refreshing.

I couldn’t help but order Kimura’s Omakase set ($30). This is the only place I find that I can’t get bored of their food, plus the set always changes up a little bit. It’s a good way to range the skills and strengths of the restaurant.

The first dish the came was the appetizer and it contained pieces of chicken, tarogelatin, fried sardines and kabocha Japanese squash.

I like their appetizer because they are simple and not heavy.

I always feel awesome when the salmon carpaccio arrives with the omakase! Thinly sliced salmon in sesame oil, citrus sauce,  peppercorn, salt, and garnished with sprouts and onions. This is my favorite dish! Never gets old!

Second dish was the baked oyster with a miso may sauce. This was a bit different than the ones they had before. They added mayo into it so it tasted more like a motoyaki. Still pretty good.

The third dish was another Spicy tuna on Crispy rice. I totally didn’t know this would came as well….so as you can imagine the rice get me a bit too full.

The fourth dish was the miso soup.This is always good to drink because it is refreshing and is not like the usual miso soups. It tastes a bit cleaner and has tofu skin in it!

The fifth dish was the shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

They changed this up a bit, this time the noodles were a bit more uniform like fettucini.

The sixth dish was nigiri.  Shrimp, tuna and salmon. The tops of a few of the sushi already has a thin layer of soy sauce, so you may not need to add more. Personal preference perhaps.

The seventh and final dish was green tea ice cream! It was really good green tea ice cream! You can choose from a whole bunch of ice cream options – mango, black sesame, and red bean…but this can change due to what they have available.

Words of Wisdom:

  • For best experience sit at the bar and talk to Kimura
  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

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Previous Posts about Gohan : Visit #1 Visit #2 Visit #3

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M and I decided to go here since we really do love this place. It’s not a chain restaurant and the quality is always good.

As per usual we ordered the Toro Sashimi ($9.95). It’s really thin and just melts in your mouth! There is about 8 or 9 pieces.

Next we ordered a full order of Spicy Tuna ($9.95). There was about 8 or 9 pieces as well. Very nice tuna with an amazing spicy sauce on top. The sauce is probably a mix of mayo and spicy sauce? I’m actually not 100% sure but it’s different from other places.

Next we ordered the Garlic Chicken Karaage ($5.95). They are deep fried breaded chicken meat served with a light honey cream sauce.

This was a pretty average dish.

Next is the Spicy Garlic Calimari ($7.50). The calimari was pretty bland. Not as flavourful as the Chicken Karaage. Even though it was stated it was spicy garlic, I did not taste any hint of garlic at all. It should have been seasoned with a bit more salt and pepper.

It’s probably because I am so use to the calimari at other places and its a bit different.

Next I had the Deep Fried Ice Cream. This was the size of a baseball. I was very surprised the that Deep Fried Ice Cream was covered in so much breading and left with not too too much ice cream. I guess it’s a bit unique. It still tasted really good, the breading tasted more like tapioca pudding or some types of sweet bread. Worked really well together!

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC

Gohan Japanese on Urbanspoon

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Continuation of :

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It was NotFauna’s goodbye dinner, so she decided that we go to Gohan Japanese

Since I am still on my no rice diet, I got the Age Chicken ($6.95). there are 4 chicken strips and a side of salad. The strips were deep fried and drizzled with teriyaki sause. The side salad had a citrus orange sauce.

Overall, it was pretty good, not too oily tasting. I would probably get this again.

Next I ordered half an order of spicy tuna sashimi ($5) and half an order of toro sashimi ($5). The spicy tuna had a really nice spicy sauce to it, it wasn’t like the other japanese restaurant where they just have korean hot sauce over it. They take time to make their own spicy sauce.

The toro sashimi was nicely cut and really fresh.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great fast service
  • Food came very fast
  • High quality ingredients
  • The best toro you will ever eat!
  • Reasonably priced.
  • Closed on Sundays

We really enjoyed Gohan and it has become our favorite place to go to in Burnaby to get sushi!

We rate Gohan:

They are located at:

Burnaby
1815 Rosser Ave S
Burnaby, BC V5C

Gohan Japanese on Urbanspoon

I work close to Yume Japanese Restaurant, so I decided to give it a try for lunch. It was one of the better looking Japanese Restaurants on the block.

The interior had lots of tables and a very high ceiling which made the restaurant look big. Most the of the tables are in 2’s and 4’s. So it’s best to go in groups no larger than 4 during peak hours. I was just by myself during lunch and finding a seat for 1 was super easy.

They have lots of specials that are under $10, so it’s quite affordable.

They even have little pots of tea too. Since I drink a lot of tea, it’s perfect. Did you know this pot is from Daiso? Now you know!

I started off with the Negitoro and Tofu Salad ($4.99). I love Negitoro rolls, so I thought this would not be bad at all.

Since the tofu is hot and the negitoro was directly on top, I really didn’t enjoy the hot temperate of it since it is raw toro. The salad dressing was just a citrus sauce but it didn’t really do much for this dish.

Since I wanted some meat in my meal, I got the Salmon and tuna sashimi ($9.99). It had 3 pieces of salmon and 3 pieces of tuna. I thought the salmon sashimi was really good, but I found the tuna sashimi to be more disappointing. The tuna was a little bit icy, so it didn’t thaw all the was through, also there was strange connective tissue inside.

This was the damage to my wallet. Totally shouldn’t have gotten sashimi. Specials should have been the way to go.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Steps away from Granville Skytrain
  • Street Pay Parking
  • Most items under $10

We Rate Yume Japanese Restaurant:

Website: www.yumejp.com

Address:

602 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC

Yume Japanese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Clearly I go to the restaurant a bit too often.

Check out our past posts : Visit #1 & Visit #2.

This time I brought PinappleBun and ConsultingGirl to visit Kimura Japanese Restaurant.

PinappleBun ordered the saba and amaebi nigiri. They don’t like to waste any ingredients, so they also give you the rest of the amaebi shell fired. It may seem not edible, but be rest-assured, it is.  Add a bit of the lemon and it’s quite delicious.

Next was the Miso Eggplant, it is grilled eggplant topped with miso sauce.

No visit to Kimura can go without the Crispy Rice with Spicy tuna ($4.50 / order). We got 2 orders  of this for 3 people. It has pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces.

I really recommend this dish and remember, eat with your hands!

I always order the omakase set ($30) since it gives you a variety of what Kimura has to offer, and it always changes because they don’t follow a recipe. I like to share one order of the set with the whole table because it’s way too but for 1 person.

The first dish of the Omakase is the pig ear appetizer. It comes with kabocha Japanese squash, fried sardines, and 3 pieces of pig ear in gelatin with peanut sauce.

Our second dish of the Omakase set is Salmon Carpaccio. It has thinly slices salmon in sesame sauce and citrus sauce. On top, there are a variety of garnishes.

Our third dish of the Omakase set is the baked oyster with miso sauce. Comes with 3 pieces.

Our forth dish of the Omakase set is shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

Our fifth dish of the Omakase set is sushi . There is a variety of nigiri to this dish and it’s not the usual ones you see.

We also got a miso soup but I drank it all before taking a picture.

Lastly, we go mango ice cream as our last dish. Very good mango ice cream!

The omakase set is almost the same as when I had my previous visit because I went the day after. (I am just that crazy to go 2 days in a row…but hey it’s good food).

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Websitehttp://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

Back at KImura’s again one week after the first post. I know the timelines of the posts don’t match up, but I’m behind on posting since I eat so much and school/work gets in the way sometimes.

I fell in love with Kimura Japanese restaurant, so please check out the previous post. This time M and I took Fabo to eat here.

Like usual M likes to start off his meals here with a beer and sake. They are the 2 things that make him relax…without throwing up.
He first got a small sapporo ($5) and the Small hot sake ($6.50).

Like last time, we got the dango skewers ($2) again. Really delicious, most and flavourful.

We also got the Tofu Steak III ($5). FYI, there is no steak in this dish. The tofu steak is a layer of eggs and tofu topped with sauce, bonito flakes and green onions. It’s a very simple dish, but I found it was a bit bland sometimes.

Next we ordered 3 plates of the Spicy Tuna with Crispy rice ($4.50 per 2). This was everyones favorite dish. Crunchy on the outside and so delicious on the inside. This is like a Japanese taco!

No meal is complete without ordering the omakase set ($30).

Our first dish of the Omakase set is the pig ear appetizer. On the left we have Japanese squash – Kabocha. The middle there is gomae and a prawn. On the right is the pig ear in gelatin. This pig ear is a it different that what I usually see in Chinese restaurants. Kimura San makes the pig ear gelatin himself and he seemed very proud of it. It was different and I liked it.

Our second dish of the Omakase set is the miso soup. This is always good to drink because it is refreshing and is not like the usual miso soups. It tastes a bit cleaner and has tofu skin in it!

Our third dish of the Omakase set is the baked oyster with miso sauce. Comes with 3 pieces. I did not particularly like this dish because since it was baked, i didnt get to taste the full flavour of the oyster,

Our fourth dish of the Omakase set is sushi – ebi, tuna, saba, uni, scallop, and ikura. The tops of a few of the sushi already has a thin layer of soy sauce, so you may not need to add more. Personal preference perhaps.

Our fifth dish of the Omakase set is Salmon Carpaccio. SO happy it came in the combo this time. YUMMMM! This is THE place to get this. No where else compares!

Our sixth dish of the Omakase set is shrimp pasta salad. There’s actually not pasta in this, he makes the noodles out of shrimp. You can see the shrimp in the noodles. Good light and refreshing dish and yummy sauce.

Our last dish of the Omakase set is mango ice cream with whipped cream and corn flakes. Delicious mango ice cream, I really wonder who his supplier is…

Our bill came out to be $70.56 for 3 people. Not bad considering we ate too much and splurged again.

I also gave them my new business card. It’s square!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant: 

Website: http://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

InsecureGirl and FragileBoy visited this place before and told M and I we must try it. So, one day after class, they dragged us here. I think this was the best idea yet. M and I were kinda skeptical about a Japanese Restuarant on Rupert street. It’s located across the street from Golden Oscars.

The interior is really nice and modern and has a lot of jazz elements on the walls.

The owner and chef of Kimura is named Itsuroku Kimura. He has had an impressive legacy in the restaurant business. He has open up places in Mexico City, Shanghai, and various place in Los Angeles. For his retirement, he settled down in Vancouver and opened Kimura to keep his passion of food alive. He always experiments with his food and can make custom items for his customers.

His love of jazz can be heard through out the room as he only play relaxing jazz music.

He is always seem at the counter preparing all the sushi items. If you want an amazing experience, sit by the bar and talk to him.

M started our with have a large Kirin beer ($8.95). You can’t go to a Japanese restaurant and not have Japanese Beer.

M and Fragile Boy then had a large hot sake ($12). What is great about Kimura is how they arn’t trying to cheat you! You can see they fill the container all the way to the top unlike other restaurants. M and Fragile Boy dubbed this the “never ending sake” because there is so much.

They have a variety of different skewers that you can order. We started off with the 2 orders of Quali Egg Skewer ($3 each)and 2 orders of Dango skewer ($3 each).

The quail egg skewers are just boiled quail eggs, if you love eggs this is for you. I personally wasn’t a big fan because i dont like yolk.

The dango skewer was pretty damn good. I think it was just seasoned pork on skewers. Nothing like what a dango is supposed to be.

We ordered the Deep Fried Oysters ($7.95). You get a lot for that price. They are crispy golden on the outside and has a nice deep oyster flavour on the inside. The oysters were big as well and not small little dinky ones.

I still find the deep fried oysters at Rodneys better, but for the price of $7.95 its’ not bad at all.

Since we heard their Fresh Uni ($15)was the best in town, we tried it. Uni is sea urchin. You can was Kimura prepare the uni. Some pieces can still be seen moving if you look carefully.

I’ve had some pretty bad defrosted uni at other sushi restaurants..at Kimura, you can’t get any better if it’s straight from the shell.

The uni had a very interesting texture and you are basically eating the uni’s ovaries. It is best if you squeeze the lemon on top and add a bit of salt.

We ordered 2 orderes of Crispy Rice with Spicy tuna ($4.50 each). The pureed spicy tuna sit on top of a piece of lettuce and on a circle of fried crunchy flavoured rice. It is garnished with jalapenos, and various sauces.

The correct was to eat this is by using your hands to eat them … kinda like a taco. This is probably THE BEST dish on their menu. It’s unique and the flavours work so well with each other.

FragileBoy and InsecureGirl also ordered baked mussels.

They also ordered the Salmon Carpaccio , which M and I accidentally ate. Best mistake ever! This has thin slice of salmon sashimi in sesame oil and ponzu sauce, It is the best salmon carpaccio ever. It’s probably due to the sauce.

Insecure and FragileBoy also ordered the Take Combo ($15.95), which comes with Assorted Tempura, Sushi 6pcsSashimi or Ginger PorkMiso Soup and dessert.

This is the Assorted Tempura.

This is the 6 piece sushi .

This is the sashimi.

This is the miso soup.

M and I got the special Omakase Set ($30). This is what you need to order to get a full feel of the restaurant. The items change on it everyday depending on what they have fresh at the restaurant. You may luck out and have a super fantastic set. Even though it says $30 per person, not everyone at your table needs to get one. It’s a lot of food, so i would suggest 1 per 3 people and add a dish or 2 extra.

The first dish of the Omakase was the appetizer, it has braised beef with radishes, cold shrimp, and marinated lotus root.

2nd dish of the Omakase is the Agedashi tofu.  Various tofu are in this pot with varying sizes in the traditional sauce you would normally have in agedashi tofu.

3rd dish of the Omakase set was fried soft shell crab. At this point, we were tripping out because this is a WHOLE soft shell crab. Very delicious and I’ve never had it outside the “spider roll” before.

The third dish of the Omakase was Chawan mushi. It is an egg custard with dashi broth, mushroom, and seafood. Delicious!!!

The forth dish in the Omakase Set was the Braised Kobe beef with curry. M and FragileBoy was shocked to find out this was Kobe Beef. This made the entire $30 worth it! The curry was spot on and the braised kobe beef was very tender and fell apart nicely.

The fifth dish of the Omakase Set was some unknown dish, I will just call it sashimi. When it arrived, this looked so nice, it had fried shrimp heads (Totally edible and delicious), amaebi with tomato, lime and ikura, geoduck, and scallops. This was heavenly!!!!!

Since 2/4 of us ordered different set menus…in additon to the other items we ordered, Kimura was kind enough to give us all dessert. Plus, we did rack up a large bill.

We chose to have red bean mochi with mango ice cream for our dessert. At this point, we were stuffed but the dessert still tasted amazing.

This was our bill.  $127.51 / 4 = $31.88 per person. It was a bit expensive, but we did eat A LOT.

After this experience, I fell in love with this restaurant. I even went again two more times. I will post those up a bit later. I love Kimura Japanese Restaurant because getting the Omakase set is like a grab bag, you don’t really know what to expect when you go there.

Even if you don’t get any set, most dishes are under $10. It can be quite affordable, but this time we just decided to splurge.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in front or in residential areas
  • Most items under $10
  • Lots of combos and specials
  • Customizable dishes
  • Amazing service! (Like actually!)
  • Fresh Ingredients
  • Be adventurous and don’t try the usual japanese items, thats how you will love this place
  • Omakase set and Spicy tuna with crispy rice and items you need to order!!

We rate Kimura Japanese Restaurant:

Website: http://www.sushikimura.com/

Address:

3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Kimura on Urbanspoon

ConsultingGirl was craving for some Japanese food, so I suggested we try this place out. PinappleBun is always talking about it too, raving how amazing this little Japanese Restaurant.

The interior is really cozy. Not the best place for big groups, unless you call ahead of time.

Tea in cool cup!

We started off with the Spicy Agedashi Tofu ($3.95). It has 4 pieces of deep fried tofu with green onions and spicy sauce.

Next we ordered the Assorted Deep Panko Fry ($7.95).  This is essentially tempura, but instead of tempura batter, it has japanese bread crumbs coating the items to give them a crunchier texture. In the assorted dish were 2 prawns, 2 oysters and one croquette.

As in most our Japanese restaurant reviews, we always order the Ebi Mayo ($5.95). When it arrived at our table, we really had no idea what we were looking at. It was greens with mayo slop. Presentation quite horrible. When you stick your chop sticks and pull and ebi out, the delicious fried ebi is revealed. The ebi was quite average and it was not extraordinary but still well made despite it’s appearance.

In the future, you can ask for the mayo to be on the side to avoid mass amounts of mayo.

Up next in our food adventures was Beef tataki ($7.95). It has a sweet citrus soy sauce with green onions, and other little items to eat the tataki with. The beef tataki was a little bit thick for what we usually enjoyed eating, so it didn’t really hold too much of the sauce.

We also ordered the Zipang Roll ($5.95). Rolls that are named after the restaurant is usually really good and popular. In the cause with the Zipang Roll, yet it was! The zipang roll has scallop, salmon, radish sprouts and has tofu skin around the rice.

We also ordered the negitoro roll ($2.95).  It is a mixture of tuna belly and green onions. Pretty standard amongst Japanese restaurants. it was good, but who doesn’t like tuna belly right? Delicious!

ConsultantGirl ordered the scallop nigiri ($1.25) and I had the Toro Nigiri ($2).

We next ordered the six piece sockeye salmon sashimi ($8.50). This was a different than the usual orange salmon you get at other places. If you want the orange ones, you won’t find it here.

The flavour of the sockeye salmon tasted fresh and yummy. I never usually eat this with soy sauce. I find that the soy sauce over powers the natural taste of the salmon. Personal preference I suppose.

The second to last item we got was Spider Roll ($7.25). No spiders were harmed in the making of the roll, but I can tell you a soft shell crab did die.

Man, we ordered a lot of food! This is the Kairan Roll ($6.25). It is a scallop roll with avacado and salmon on the top. Very enjoyable!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking near residential areas
  • Low prices, great quality
  • Large Variety in menu

We Rate Zipang:

Address:

3710 Main St
Vancouver, BC
Zipang Sushi on Urbanspoon

Since I go to Bubble Word often at Night, I always pass by Kura and it is always closed. Their ornate Japanese doors have always made me curious about this place. This curiosity made me look up every single Urbanspoon review about Kura – Chow Times, Parker Pages, The Friday Lunch, and Deeeelish.

This place seemed legit and has a long history. They have this location in Burnaby for about 14 years and another one in Japan for 25 years. They even have specials to celebrate their long legacies with both locations.

M and I decided to head over here after class for a night afternoon lunch.

The interior had very high ceilings and tables that are sectioned off with high walls. You and your friends really reel like you have lots of privacy. They also have a bar were you can sit and watch the chefs prepare your dishes.

They really emphasize their dedication to fresh daily sashimi by having a Chef feature on all their special sashimi for the day. Certain types of sashimi sell really fast.

At first glace of this picture, is this kimchi?

This is certainly not! This is Spicy Tuna Sashimi ($6.95). No kimchi ever made its way to this dish, even though it does look like kimchi.

You get a lot of sashimi for the price. The special Kura spicy sauce they have in this dish is sesame oil and hot sauce I think. It was really well made and we would get this again.

The next dish we ordered was a Small Beef Sashimi ($5.95). It came with ponzu sauce, green onions and radish. The biggest problem we had with this dish was that it was still frozen. They didn’t give it enough time to defrost, so the first piece we had were crunchy and icy.

We did wait till we finished the rest of our dishes to finish off this dish. Once the beef fully defrosted, it was really good.

M didn’t have a big stomach for the day, so he ordered Unagi ($7.95). You get 2 slabs of unagi. It came in a nice sweet glaze to flavour the eel.

M and I are still on the search for the best Ebi Mayo, so we always have to order it at a Japanese Restaurant. Kura’s Ebi Mayo ($7.95), was nicely prepared and perfectly butterflied to remove the “vein” and it made enough surface area for the mayo to adhere to the ebi.

Nothing was wrong with this dish, but Toratatsu’s Ebi Mayo is still superior.

I generally like to try a bit of everything, so I ordered the Combo D ($8.95).

This combo included:

  • Assorted sushi
  • Salad
  • Udon
  • Tempura

The assorted sushi was quite average. I really did not like how the california roll had so much rice surrounding the ingredients.

The salad had citrus sauce on top of the salad which gave it a really nice bite to the salad. I find that most japanese people like to either add ponzu sauce or citrus sauce over salad.

The tempura that came with the combo was very crisp on the outside and still remained quite firm when dipped in the tempura sauce. The vegetables are sweet potato, yam and zucchini. You get a prawn too.

The last part of the Combo D was the udon. I’m not a fan of udon, but the udon was quite normal and nothing was bad about it.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Meter parking on street or free parking near residential area close to Waves.
  • Large assortment of sashimi
  • Large menu (really! The menu was like a book)
  • Great prices, most items under $10

We rate Kura Japanese Restaurant:

Address:

4300 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Kura Japanese on Urbanspoon