Hukuya

Back in the day (and I mean really back in the day), I would frequent Red Robin. Hey, despite what you think, their burgers are actually not bad. Furthermore, their fries with a side of tartar sauce really rocked. In addition to the Metrotown location, we'd hit up the Lougheed Mall spot every now and then (since we went to SFU). Each time we went, there was this Japanese restaurant right next to it that I didn't pay much attention to. In fact, even more recent visits to Red Robin (it's for the kids I swear!) have yielded as much attention to that Japanese restaurant as a handicap sign in a Richmond parking lot. Vaguely, I think Viv has actually tried the place out on her own and it wasn't very memorable. Then that begs the question: why was I wanting to try the place out anyways? Well, one was due to location because Rich Guy was in the neighbourhood and the second was plain curiosity. Let's just hope it doesn't kill the cat.

We started with Tuna & Salmon Sashimi which was not bad. The slices were large with the salmon having a buttery consistency with some resistance. The tuna was not mushy while still being soft. It was pretty fresh as much as frozen fish can get. Next up was the Appetizer Tempura which were in big pieces served in a cool basket. They were crispy and not oily. The batter was thin and each item was not overcooked. This was not bad. We got a couple of specialty rolls with the Volcano arriving first. It was large and presented on a long narrow plate. It consisted of a dynamite roll inside (imitation crab and ebi tempura) with tuna on top. The spicy sweet sauce had a good hit of srirracha. The sushi rice was on the gummier side, yet did have okay flavour with some sweetness and rice wine vinegar.

As a filler of sorts, we got the Katsu Don which was not very good. There was far too much in the way of wet ingredients such as onions and veggies. This made the rice mushy and soggy. In fact, there were more ingredients than rice (may seem like a great idea, but in the end, did not work). The fried pork cutlet was super thin and the batter merely slid off, not being crispy at all. The sauce (there was too much of it) was predominantly sweet and only further made the rice more soggy. Lastly, we go our second specialty roll in the Baked Scallop. There was a mess of small scallops on top of the roll. And when I say mess, I mean literally. This was probably one of the few times where I will say there was too much scallop. Yes, it was a good value, but the considerable amount of scallops (which were a touch fishy) only served to degrade the eating enjoyment.

In the end, we were pretty full since we had ordered quite a bit of food for 2 people. At the same time, we were feeling "meh" about the eats. Nothing particularly inedible, but nothing was memorable. The food could be classified as serviceable for a decent price. The Korean lady that served us was very friendly and accommodating. I would say Hukuya fits into the group of the many Japanese (non-Japanese run, just FYI) restaurants that are acceptable in the GVRD.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Good portions
- Nice people

The Bad:
- Food is average