Sherman's Food Adventures: Asa Sushi

Asa Sushi

With very little time on our hands and the need to grab a quick bite, I had to find a place that was not reliant on a deep-fryer.  Oh, and since it was only my son and I, a salad bar was not in the cards since he would only eat the croutons and shredded cheese.  Because we were in and around the South Slope in Burnaby, there wasn't a huge cache of restaurants to choose from (and especially something I hadn't been to before).  But tucked in behind the 7-11 on Royal Oak at Rumble was our solution: Asa Sushi.

With interestingly shaped slices, the Appetizer Sashimi was extremely modest in portion size.  It was not a big deal to me since I'm not a huge fan of big fat slices of fish anyways.  Bigger is not better when it comes to sashimi because the texture is all wrong.  Imagine beef carpaccio in thicker slices and you'll get the idea.  This one was decent as the salmon was buttery and somewhat sweet.  The tuna was okay, but a little bland.  Next, I tried the Nigiri consisting of chopped scallop, tamago, toro and unagi.  I found the sushi rice to be somewhat dry, but plenty chewy.  It was mildly seasoned so it wasn't completely tasteless.  I wasn't a huge fan of the tamago as its was too soft and crumbly.  The toro was sliced very strangely as well.

For my obligatory roll, I tried the standard Dragon Roll which was essentially a California roll with unagi and avocado on top.  Although it was not particularly attractive nor constructed neatly, the huge pieces of unagi was a bonus.  I liked how there was minimal rice as opposed to the filling.  It could've benefited from more sauce though as there was a lack of flavour with the unagi.  Lastly, for my son, I got him the basic Udon with fish cake.  Naturally, being primarily a sushi joint, this would not be their specialty.  And really, it wasn't that great as the soup resembled more of a shoyu-based broth than a dashi.  Otherwise, it was a pretty typical udon found in Vancouver.  That would probably best describe Asa Sushi as well - pretty typical in a long list of Japanese joints in the city.  I am curious how it competes with nearby Makoto.

The Good:
- Nice enough people
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Not particularly neatly made sushi or sliced sashimi
- Average quality

Asa Sushi on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

LotusRapper said...

I've been to Asa a few times. It's a very humble place run by a quiet, humble older couple who are very nice. They get packed around lunch time by Bby South Secondary School students and many take-out patrons.

Food is 'typical' as such, but I like their homey small-scale ambiance. Price and value are key here.

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