Sushimoto

Seeing how we've done almost all the local sushi restaurants near our house, we were reserved to the fact that we'd need to re-visit a place. Originally, we threw around some ideas such as Akira and Sushi Town; however, both did not elicit any enthusiasm from Viv and the kids. Well, the kids don't really care, so I guess that is a moot point. Then I suddenly remembered that there was a fairly new small sushi joint at the Holdom Skytrain station. I did an immediate left turn down Holdem and voila - a new restaurant to visit! Now, if you are familiar with this location, there is actually pay meters! Being Chinese, it is in my MO to find the free parking spots. It was pretty cold and Viv remarked that we should just pay for parking; but I remained stubborn and parked a block away in the dark. Hey, it's only one block!

Seated right next to the window, I noticed that the flash was rebounding, creating all kinds of bad lighting. Furthermore, with the high ceiling, it was not helping matters. The horror! Well, I did what I could and the pictures turned out alright. So we started with the Daily Assorted Sashimi. As you can see, it was neatly cut and plated. Not the biggest of pieces; but nothing was amiss with the fish. We thought the Tai was a bit chewy; however, it is usually like that, so a pretty good start. Next was the Beef Tataki. Thinly sliced and resting on a bed of spring mix, the only flavour that truly stood out was the onion. In fact, there was too much pungency from the onions. On a positive note, the beef was very tender and easy to eat. It was sliced thin and still rare in the middle.

Since the menu leans heavily into the sushi and little on the cooked food, we decided to get 3 orders of rolls starting with the Sunshine Roll. Consisting of 2 prawn tempura, cucumber, mayo and masago on the inside with smoked salmon and mango on the outside, it was a visually appealing roll. A slight drizzle of mango sauce finished the presentation. This was not bad. The prawn tempura was still crispy and it went well with the sweet mango and savouriness of the smoked salmon. I thought the sushi rice was acceptable while it could've had some more flavour. However, with a price tag of $12.00, I'm not really sure the portion size warranted the cost.

For our other 2 rolls, we went for some good ol' standbys - Dynamite Roll and Spicy Scallop. Now the Dynamite Roll was fairly large in size and a much better value than our special roll. It was uniformly made and didn't fall apart when I picked it up. As for the Spicy Scallop Roll, it wasn't all that spicy; but that was fine since I could still taste the scallop, which was good. I understand most special rolls are generally larger, have more expensive ingredients and look prettier; but honestly, more than double the price of a similar roll save the mango and smoked salmon? You be the judge of that. Near the end of the meal, our server presented us with a complimentary small dish of Tako Wasa. For me, I like tako. And it is especially interesting when it is not in the cooked form we usually find it in sashimi and nigiri. Slimy like Ika, while infinitely more crunchy and chewy, I liked this, especially with the heat from the wasabi and tang of the pickles. The food that we had here was generally quite decent and the service was very friendly. However, I could not get over the prices. They are quite high in relation to the portion sizes. But then again, it is in a convenient location at the skytrain station with a high rise attached to it.

The Good:
- Generally well-made food
- Enthusiastic service
- Pretty nice interior

The Bad:
- Expensive
- Limited cooked items