Miku

A few days before Christmas, my co-workers and I went to a nearby Japanese restaurant on West Hastings called Miku. To those familiar with the area, the space previously housed The Spotted Prawn restaurant, but this new Japanese spot took over earlier in 2009. A few of my co-workers had paid Miku a visit prior to this, and they were very impressed. The restaurant's speciality is 'aburi' style sushi, which is lightly seared (with a blowtorch!) fish with light French sauces.

We had reservations for 12:30 and when we arrived, the place was entirely packed. The restaurant has a very open feel, with high black ceilings and amoeba-like light fixtures floating from it. Lots of light from its large windows, granite, curves, pristine dark stone tables, and sparkling dinnerware.

Three of us got the same thing: the Miku Zen ($20), which is a selection of 4 items from the kitchen, 4 items from the sushi bar, and miso soup. The food was impeccably presented, and oh so beautiful to look at, from the shapely lacquer miso bowl, to the wooden box that cradled the 4 kitchen dishes, to the white, leaf-shaped plate that held the sushi pieces. It was a little hard to dig in because it was so gorgeous.

The kitchen items consisted of: soba noodles in a sauce, Chicken Nanban, Aburi Tuna, and a wakame and green salad. I didn't care for the noodles, as they sat in a strange and bland cornstarch thickened sauce, and while the salad was okay, with nice textures of seaweed and fresh greens, the dressing severely lacked any acid. It was crying for lemon, or ponzu, or vinegar....

However, the Chicken Nanban, a kind of high-end chicken nugget topped with a tartar sauce, was amazing. The cubed chicken breast morsels were moist, tender and very well seasoned. The other highlight was the wonderful aburi tuna. The tuna was slightly warm, with a distinct lightly grilled taste. This was so good.

The sushi selection was equally impressive. This consisted of ebi, tuna, and two pieces of Aburi Salmon Oshi. What's great about each of the sushi pieces is that they came topped with its own sauce, so you don't have to fiddle with any soy sauce. This allows the fish to stand out, I think, instead of possibly being overpowered by soy. The ebi and tuna were both quite good, but the stand out was definitely the aburi salmon. Each piece was topped with a creamy sauce and a slice of jalapeno, and was still warm from the searing. This was delicious. The slight charring brought out the flavour of the fish, while the sauce complemented the salmon's fattiness, and the jalapeno slice cut through the fat and gave the bite a nice warm kick.

The miso soup had chunks of tofu and wavy pieces of seaweed, but it was pretty standard.

One of my co-workers ordered the sushi tart, which consisted of layers of rice (not described on the menu), salmon, avocado, ebi and tobiko. She seemed to enjoy this.

I definitely recommend Miku, for those looking for beautifully presented and tasty Japanese food. I was very impressed by their unique dishes, and would love to taste more aburi-style sushi. Delicious to look at as it is to eat!

Sushi California

Sushi California is one of our neighborhood joints, a place to go when you're hungry and looking for generous portions at a decent price. It sits in the same complex as Lu Lu Cafe, on the corner of North Road and Lougheed. As usual, the restaurant was very busy, but our service was efficient and brisk.

We ordered a few items, hot and cold. The first was the tako yaki ($3.75), which are five grilled balls of dough with octopus pieces in it. The dish arrived topped with fluttering flakes of bonito and drizzles of japanese mayo and katsu sauce. This was delicious; the tako yaki were soft and had a near custardy feel, and the octopus was pleasantly chewy and gave a nice, contrasting texture. We enjoyed this a lot.

Next was the assorted tempura ($7.95). The pieces were crunchy and piping hot, but it was pretty standard, like anything you would get at any Japanese restaurant.

We also had few pieces of salmon, unagi, and tako nigiri sushi. The salmon pieces were fresh, and so large that it overlapped over the rice; this was tender and pretty good. The unagi also were tasty, though not as melt in your mouth as those from Fuji Sushi's. The tako was tender enough, but lacked that sweet from-the-sea flavour that you would ideally get.

The last thing we shared was the spicy combo ($7.95), which came with spicy tuna maki, kappa maki, and marinated pieces of tuna and cucumber in a sweet chili sauce. The spicy tuna was great, with large tuna pieces and a generous addition of hot sauce. The marinated tuna was quite spicy, but was a little to sweet for my liking. Nevertheless, it went well with the cucumber maki, which cleansed and cooled the taste buds.

Sushi California is really about the portions and the generous slices of fish. The quality isn't the best, and the food is not made with tremendous care, but the restaurant is affordable and always popular with the locals.

Matsuzushi

In an earlier post, I'd mentioned that in the North Road - Lougheed Area, there were a couple of Japanese restauants run by Japanese people. One of them was Fuji Sushi, and the other one is Matsuzushi, which is in the same area as Insadong and Pho 99, on the corner of Lougheed and North Road. The restaurant is much more causual than other Japanese restaurants, and feels a lot more like a cafeteria than any thing else.

The interior of the restaurant is very simple--basic tables and chairs, a wall of photographs of menu items on the one side, and a self-serve station where you get your tea, chopsticks, and soy sauce bowls. The restuarant definitely needs renovation, but the feeling of the place is quite friendly and warm. Plus, right next to the eating area, there is a small store of Japanese grocery items.

We got the chicken karaage ($6.50), which turned out to be one of the better fried chicken I've had. There wasn't much of a crust, but the chicken pieces were seasoned wonderfully. The pieces were crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. So good. Almost as good as my mom's!

Next, we had assorted sushi and maki rolls: toro ($1.60), tako ($1.60), avacado roll ($3.50), spicy salmon roll ($3.50), and ume shiso roll ($2.75). Of course my favorite roll is the ume shisho roll, and I'm always happy when I get it. The sour and salty of the plum with the herby shisho leaf just go so well with the rice. The sushi pieces were just okay. The octopus (tako) could have been a lot more tender and flavourful, and the toro tuna was a little too soft. The other rolls were good; the spicy salmon had a real kick, and the avacado was nice.

One of the very special things about Matsuzushi is their special dessert, DEEP FRIED ice cream sundae ($3.00). This huge crusty ball of ice cream arrived in a cute little bowl. The hot outside batter was almost fritter like, with a panko (or cornflake?) crust, and the inside was a cool vanilla ice cream. All this is topped with chocolate sauce. It was a real taste experience: hot, cold, crunchy, soft. So good. Worth every calorie, we swear.

In terms of quality and price, Fuji sushi is better, but there is something extra special about Matsuzushi, like the ex-marathon runner owner (he has pictures of himself running on a small corner of a wall), like the karaage, and the fabulous deep fried sundae. The servers and the chefs are always really friendly. Plus, where else can you shop for Japanese grocery items right after you have your dinner?

From the store attached to the restaurant: umeboshi, tea, and Mario's green tea ice cream!

Fuji Sushi

There are a handful of Japanese places in the Lougheed/North Road area, a couple of them are of note because they are Japanese-run. One of them is Fuji Sushi, in Burquitlam Plaza, right next door to Paros Taverna, a Greek restaurant. We've been to Fuji numerous times and have never been disappointed by the the food. However, we hadn’t eaten at Fuji’s in quite a while, so we decided to pay a visit late last week. The restaurant was half full when we arrived, but soon after the place filled up. Customers were a Japanese, other Asians and Caucasians, a pretty good mix.

The restaurant is on the small side, with a front section of tables that seats around 20 people and a back section of small Japanese screened dining ‘rooms’, which are generally for larger groups. A sushi bar takes up about a quarter of the room, and you can sit at the bar and observe the chefs make your sushi if you are so inclined. The restaurant has the same cozy feel as a lot of other modest Japanese restaurants; the space is comfortable looking, with green walls, wood paneling, blown-up photographs from Japanese festivals, and black tables and chairs.

We sat down at a table and were promptly brought cups of green tea. It was a very good green tea, I might add. We decided on a few small dishes to share.

First was the Spinach Gomaae ($3.25), which arrived in a neat little pile in a small bowl. Fuji’s version is very simple, with minimal dressing and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. I liked this version, because you can actually taste the spinach. I’ve had many other versions where the sauce totally overwhelmed the spinach. It’s a matter of preference, I suppose.

We also ordered the Ika Geso ($3.00), or grilled squid legs. The legs/tentacles are my favourite parts of the squid, and this dish made me happy. The slightly charred legs were carefully arranged on a small blue and white rectangular plate, piled one on top of another in a puddle of sauce. This was delicious—the tentacles were chewy yet still tender enough to bite, and there was a distinct grilled taste. This was so good that we had to savour this, one little bite at a time to prolong the texture pleasure.

Another little appetizer we got was the Chicken Karaage ($4.25), which were actually four pieces of boneless, battered, deep fried chicken thigh (one piece actually looked like it had been accidentally half-coated in tempura batter as well). It came with, puzzlingly, a little side of Chinese style hot and sour sauce, which actually tasted pretty good with the chicken. The chicken pieces were delicious: the batter was brown, crispy and very well seasoned, and the dark meat was moist and tender.

For Nigiri sushi, we got 2 pieces each of Tuna ($1.25 each), Tako (octopus, $1.75 each), and Anago (sea eel, $2.50 each). These arrived on a traditional sushi geta, or a wooden ‘platform’. The tuna was fresh tasting and the rice was well seasoned and cooked well, but the highlights were the Tako and Anago. I love tako, and so many sushi restaurants don’t prepare it well—the tako is either too tough and/or has lost all its flavour. I’ve had moments where it’s all chew, chew, chew. Fuji does octopus well: first of all it’s so nicely presented, with a thin maki ribbon around the ‘waist’ of the sushi like a tiny black belt. The slices of tako were thick, generous, and so very tender with still some octopus (chewy) texture. Best of all was the flavour of the slices: each piece had a sweetness to it, but also that characteristic saltiness which comes from the creature living in the sea. The other thing we were impressed with was the Anago, or grilled eel. The fish was nicely seasoned with a kind of sweet soy, and it was cooked perfectly: the flesh of the eel was soft and fluffy and just melted in the mouth. I barely had to chew.

We also had a few rolls, California B (with real crab, $3.95), Spicy Tuna ($3.00) and Ume Shiso ($1.99), which sat on a beautiful curved wooden plate. I’m not a big fan of the standard California roll, because it's a boring taste, but this one with real crab was especially good. This didn’t need to be dipped in soy, because the natural saltiness and taste of the crab does it all. Amazing, you can taste the ingredient! So good.

The spicy tuna roll was also great--large chunk of tuna with straight up chili (Sriracha) sauce, with barely a hint of (if any) mayo. This left a nice heat in our mouths. Really enjoyed it.

One of the reasons I like Fuji is that they have the Ume Shiso roll, which contains umeboshi (Japanese pickled plum) and shiso (a slightly pungent, minty Japanese leaf). The pickled plum is extremely salty and sour, but in this roll it gives the rice a good kick (the chef puts in just the right amount, this is very important). The shiso leaf gives the roll an stringent herbal quality, and giving the umeboshi a nice, strong back bone. The sour, saltiness, rice, and herbal taste of the roll wakes up your all the tiny little papillae of your tongue. Most Japanese restaurants don’t have this roll for some reason. I suppose it’s because most people don’t like it (for the record, my DH hates this roll; he says it tastes like a “dirty sock”), so it’s for people with sour/salty tooth, if there is such a thing. But personally, this roll is one of my favourite things to eat.

This is a bit of a side note, but the pickled ginger here is extremely good. It’s not (dyed) pink like a lot of places, but the ginger is a fresh light yellow, and it is tasty and strong. Stronger than the usual ginger you get at most places, I must say. It twinkles your toes, shivers your timbers, pulls up your boots…etc.

Fuji is a rare find--always reliable and consistent, and is a great place to go if you’re looking for an authentic Japanese restaurant in the area. The fish is always fresh, the ingredients are top notch, and you’ll find dishes that you wouldn’t necessary find in other Japanese restaurants. The service is kind and polite, the prices are affordable and most important of all, the food is delicious.