Nagoya Sushi

With all the random sushi joints in Surrey, it is really hard to get excited about any of them. C'mon, there is only that much difference between them. Most, if not all are pretty average and only serve the neighbourhood they are situated in. *Yawn* Excuse me if I seem completely bored. That was my attitude going into my meal at Nagoya Sushi. Think of it. The place is small and it's located in a fairly non-descript strip mall away from most other services. I wasn't holding out for much really. By shear coincidence, the day (Wednesday) I chose to visit Nagoya was the day they feature all their sushi with brown, white and black rice.

To get a true sense of the menu here, I decided to go for their Dinner Combo which seemed to include quite a bit of food (which I was about to learn...). As a bonus, they served up some Salmon Belly as an appetizer first. It was a pretty large portion and incredibly moist. It literally melted in my mouth with a nice crispy skin. Despite the large amount of sauce, it was neither too salty nor sweet. After that, I was presented with a really large bowl of Ebi Sunomono. I found the dressing to be on the lighter side with only a mild vinegar taste and an equally mild sweetness. The noodles still had a bite while the cucumbers were fresh and crunchy. The ebi were a touch soft, but not fishy.

After the 2 smaller appies, the Appetizer Tempura arrived. Despite the appearance of too much batter on the prawns, it was actually quite crisp and not heavy. I found that the veggies were perfectly cooked and of good quality. At this point, I was getting worried because I hadn't even gotten my main items yet. This was a lot of food! I was already getting kinda full and then I was presented with a really impressive plate of food. It included a whole Dynamite Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll and Sashimi. I gave the Sashimi a try first and it was pretty good. The texture of the salmon was pleasant and it was quite sweet. The tuna was good too, but I found it sliced a bit too thick (which is not necessarily a bad thing if it were down to portion size). It was a bit dense to eat, but then again, it was good nonetheless. Due to the use of rice other than plain ol' white sushi rice, it was a bit difficult to make a proper assessment. Predictably, the sushi was more heavy and filling. The Dynamite Roll was packed with imitation crab, cucumber and a relatively crispy ebi tempura. I enjoyed eating it. I'm not sure what happened when I got to the Spicy Tuna Roll because I couldn't eat anymore. Really. I was too full to eat another bite. This is rare. A normal dinner combo defeated me. Not that a spicy tuna roll is ever that spicy, but this one was a bit bland and the tuna was in big chunks once again and was rather dense. Again, I'm not sure if the fact I was super full had anything to do with it.

I really couldn't believe it. A measly dinner combo kick my ass. Well, I guess it wasn't so small after all... I was not only impressed with the portion size here, I was equally happy with the quality as well. The food was prepared with care. Furthermore, the proprietors are super-friendly. Fine. I'll concede that this Japanese food foray in Surrey was better than I expected and in fact, a candidate for a return visit. Now excuse me while I... *YAWN* And it is not because of boredom. More like a food coma!

The Good:
- Good portions
- Decent quality
- Friendly owner/operator

The Bad:
- Not a whole lot of seats, don't bring a big group