Dream Sushi

where sushi fantasies come true...

Food:

Top: Dream Roll
Bottom: Ocean Dragon Roll

Similar to Kadoya on Denman and Sake Maki on Commercial Dr., the menu and pictures look awfully familiar (with a few name changes here and there).  I enjoy both Kadoya and Sake Maki for their innovative fusion rolls (though I enjoy Kadoya less so because they tend to use more rice in their rolls).  Regardless, we found ourselves at another fusion-roll sushi joint and was uber excited to see what was in store for us!

Crunch Roll

After perusing the menu for an unusually longer period of time, we finally decided on the Ocean Dragon Roll and the Peking Duck Roll (which were both listed on the white board as 'specials'), the Dream Roll, and the Crunch Roll.  All rolls were equally exceptional (seriously).  The ratio of the rice was perfect.  The coconut sprinkles on top of the Crunch Roll was a nice topper.  All the ingredients in the Ocean Dragon roll blended so well together.  The Peking Duck Roll was nicely executed - with a fine amount of duck, topped with a nice crispy duck skin (although ideally, I would've liked the fat underneath the skin removed).  The hoisin sauce and onions added nice touches to the overall taste.

Peking Duck Roll

For appies, we opted for the usual Spinach Gomae (which Scoe thought was only ok - spinach was a lil too overcooked), while the Wakame was more drenched (as we would like it to be).  The Spicy Tuna Sashimi was ok - Kadoya & Sake Maki's versions are more saucier, but same ingredients.  We also tried out the Hamachi Sashimi (which was supposedly "fresh from Japan").  It indeed, tasted very fresh.  I would order it again.



Service:

Ok - we had to ask a couple of times for more tea, extra sauce, etc.  But they were pretty friendly.

Value:

$8.95 per Chef's speciality roll, $12.95 for the hamachi sashimi (9 pieces or so)

Ambience:

Similar to Kadoya, here you'll find rectangular sheets of coloured paper with all sorts of comments and suggestions left by customers taped to the walls.  The blue walls created a sort-of kindergarten classroom environment; I felt comfortable here, lol.  The restaurant isn't very big - with approx. 10 tables.

Overall: 7.9/10

Yay: Yummy, creative, nicely-fused fusion rolls - where else could you find a Peking Duck Roll? They've also got great lunch specials

Nay: $8.95 may be a bit hefty of a price for some, limited seating, not authentically Japanese (nor do they claim to be) - not a nay for us per se, but it might be for others






Posted by: J

Sushi Town

My kinda town...(with "VALUE" written allllll over it!)

I frequent Sushi Town at least once every 2-3 weeks just to get my bi/tri-weekly Alaska/Awesome roll/Spicy Tuna Sashimi fix.  Their sashimi and sushi is amazingly fresh and so worth the value.  On this night, we visited the newest location in North Vancouver.  I like this location more for its spaciousness, less crowded/busy-ness and it also has more comfortable seating. 


Food:

Alaska Roll - Best Alaska Roll you'll ever have. No need to look further.  Avocadoes is the predominant ingredient in this roll, slab on a piece of salmon sashimi, with a miso sauce drizzled all over it and you got yourself the best tasting $3.95 roll you'll find anywhere.  Trust me.  I haven't met a single soul who does not like it!

Awesome Roll - The name says it all.  This roll is truly awesome.  Here you'll have a California roll with cooked salmon on top, adorned with bonito flakes and drizzled with a seemingly spicy-mayo sauce

Spicy Tuna Sashimi - Picture a heaping portion of nicely-cubed pieces of tuna sashimi, marinated in a korean spicy sauce, Sriracha, and sesame oil sauce mixture, and topped with finely cut fresh cucumbers and onions...and you got yourself the best spicy sashimi ever.  This is the most refreshing bang-for-your-buck sashimi dish ever!

Chicken Katsu - Generous amount of nicely-breaded chicken breast with a side of perfectly cooked rice, and a green salad with the accompaniment of a miso dressing...fantastic!

Service:

S...l...o...w. Not the friendliest either. Expect to have to wave the server down 3-4 times to ask for extra napkins/remind them about your order/etc...

Value:

Hands down, best value in Greater Vancouver when it comes to good, quality, FRESH sushi at a price that will definitely not break the bank.  $4.95 for a (heaping!) half-order of spicy tuna sashimi that is big enough to feed 3 people. $7.95 for a massive chicken katsu entree. $1.60 for a huge piece of unagi negiri....seriously, you cannot complain :)

Ambience:

No chefs/servers yelling to'and'fro.  No music playing.  No loud "Bonzai!" toasts here, either.  Just a room full of hungry, sushi-go'ers looking to get the best valued sushi & sashimi in town!

Overall: 9/10

Yay:  Come for the fresh and cheap sushi and sashimi! That's all you'll ever need in life :)

Nay:  Don't expect good, hospitable service here.

Mazuya Sushi

Maaad for Mazuya...

Location: Vancouver (Kitsilano)

Food:

This is one of our regular hole-in-the-wall sushi joints that offer, you guessed it, special rolls :)

We first started off with a Sashimi Salad.  This was perhaps the biggest let-down of the night as it came with only a handful of greens (you would expect at least 3 handfuls!) and a few pieces of sashimi.  At $7.95, we felt this wasn't worth it at all, and immediately made a mental note not to order it again.  We also had an order of Spicy Tuna and Spicy Sashimi to start.  Saucy, fresh and soothing to the palate, there were no complaints there.

The specialty rolls that we opted on this day were the: Mazuya Roll (unagi, avocado, cucumber, seaweed salad), Temptation Roll (mango, avocado, yam tempura, coconut shaving), Burrard Roll (prawn tempura, avocado, cucumber and spicy tuna) and Mango Roll (real crab meat, avocado, mango).  All were outstanding as usual, and filled with ample, fresh and tasty ingredients.

Service:

Friendly, although this seems to be a mom & pop operated joint.  Our food arrived in a timely manner, but, then again we were the only ones there at the time.  If you're expecting to come with a larger group, be prepared to wait a big longer for your food.

Value: 

At about $8-$10 (on average) for each special roll, I can't say it's too much of a steal, but it is on par with the price of other special rolls, that you would find elsewhere.

Ambience:

It's a little hole-in-the-wall, so don't expect much.  They do, however, offer cute, colourful pieces of paper as a means for customers to express their thoughts and opinions - you can list your favourite item, offer suggestions and even draw a cute picture of yourself! You can then clip them onto the string that's mounted to the mall.

Overall: 8/10

Yay: A wonderful little sushi joint that offers creative, innovative sushi rolls.  It doesn't seem to be too busy (during the times that we've gone), making it a great go-to spot if you're definitely wanting alone time and away from a noisy ambience.

Nay: You won't find "authentic" fare here and as stated above, it is probably not ideal for large groups.




Posted by: J

Akari Japanese Restaurant

Location: Coquitlam

Food:

We started off with a Spinach Gomae. It held its own, however, it did not have the same great peanut-y texture as many other Japanese restaurants such as Kiku (Burnaby). Next came the Spicy Tuna Sashimi. This was great – although not “to die for” (as I’ve read from other reviews.) However it was easily the best dish of the night - loaded with a tasty dressing and sprinkled with sesame seeds – this was definitely a knight in shining armour since it saved this restaurant’s review (you will see why as you continue reading). It is also important to note that most sashimi dishes from other restaurants do not include a salad, whereas this restaurant did. In fact, it came atop a nice spinach salad. (You can’t go wrong with extra greens!)
Next in line was the Marinated Beef Salad. Now let me tell you, there was definitely no hurry for this dish to budge the line. The beef was the best part of this dish as it was nicely marinated and tender. The salad was mediocre. What kind of restaurant uses iceberg lettuce for a salad? There is absolutely no elegance in using iceberg lettuce. The dressing for this salad had a slight zing to it and almost tantalized my taste buds… almost! The Salmon Sashimi was fresh, which is always a plus!

Then came the rolls. These rolls were the biggest rolls I’ve ever seen in my life. They were HUGE! I guess this Korean-run, Japanese restaurant had watched too many Godzilla movies and decided to make their rolls specific for Godzilla himself. (Please see J’s p.o.v below for our thoughts on Godzilla type-sized rolls!) If you like gigantic rolls, then this is your place. If you are like me and prefer bite-size rolls then this is not a place for you. The first roll we had was the Green Field Roll. This was basically a California roll with cream cheese, topped with kiwi and showered with yogurt sauce. Sounds appealing but there was so much cream cheese that I had to remove some. The Pizza Roll was the best since it was bite-sized, very tasty, and baked like a pizza! It came dressed in mozzarella cheese with little cubelets of red pepper. This was the best roll and along with the spicy tuna sashimi, it may have saved this restaurant from a verbal massacre. The Butterfly Roll we had was just too big. Overall, the flavours were there , but they were just too big for my liking. Had the rolls been smaller, I’m sure the rolls would’ve been dynamite!

Service:
Nice and efficient!

Value:
$10 - $20 price range. The rolls are relatively cheap considering their ginormous size (but that’s only if you prefer huge rolls.)

Ambience:
Awesome! Authentic-like even though it is Korean-run. I love the Japanese atmosphere. From the private rooms to the fountain with the bridge (see picture), it was a nice ambience indeed. Plus, it was clean!

Overall: 7.5/10
All in all, this is a very solid Japanese restaurant. Due to my low tolerance level for gigantic sushi rolls, 7.5/10 would’ve been way too high of a rating if it weren’t for my 2 knights in shining armour ie., the Spicy Tuna Sashimi & Pizza Roll. Thank you to my knights :)


Posted by: Scoe


*J's perspective: I agree with the 7.5 rating Scoe gave to Akari. Akari was pretty much overall, a solid restaurant taking all things into consideration - food, service, ambience, etc...EXCEPT for certain rolls that were just too darn big (and unappetizing!) We are avid "special rolls" (atypical sushi rolls) hunters and have tried lots of different special rolls at various Jap. restaurants. We love the fusion between ingredients-that-you-would-never-think-of inserted into a maki roll (e.g cream cheese, kiwi, mango, papaya) or even different types of sauces drizzled on (black sesame sauce, chili mayo), but there are certain ones that just go overboard with the size and amount of ingredients they put in! (e.g the Butterfly Roll here at Akari.)