I Love Sushi

Generally, convenience and good food are mutually-exclusive.  However, there are certain outliers such as a local gem like Victoria Sushi.  Located amongst residential high rises in New West, it serves as not only a neighbourhood sushi joint, but it is good enough to elicit customers from afar.  So when we were off to watch a movie at Silvercity Coquitlam, we were on the lookout for such a gem.  It brought us to I Love Sushi attached to the Zone Bowling across the street from the movie theatres.    Yah, with a restaurant name like that, it did worry us a tad.  Whatever the case, we went in with open minds and an eye on the time to get to our movie!

Doused in an obscene amount of sauce, the Volcano Roll looked very much like it erupted.  I'm not against sauces on sushi, but this was probably just a touch too much.  Hence, it ate a bit heavy in terms of sweetness and creaminess.  We did like the spiciness though, from the sauce and spicy salmon.  Inside, there was tuna and cucumber.  The sushi rice was decent being moist with a light chewiness.  I prefer my rice to be even chewier, but this was hardly mushy.  We also got the House Roll consisting of avocado, cucumber, salmon, tuna and tamago.  This was pretty solid with fresh ingredients that were roll up not too tight.  Hence, the roll wasn't dense, yet at the same time didn't fall apart either.  We liked how the sushi rice-to-ingredient ratio was just right. 

Since both kiddies love raw fish, we had to get both the Assorted Sashimi and a Salmon Don so we had enough for the table.  Consisting of sockeye salmon, Atlantic salmon, toro, albacore tuna and amaebi, the assorted sashimi was simple, yet ultimately good.  Of course it wasn't the best I've ever had, however, everything looked the way it should have looked and the textures were spot on.  The tuna was a bit mild-tasting (and roughly cut), but it was fine for the price and venue.  Interestingly, the Salmon Don (we got the small size) could be had in either Atlantic salmon or sockeye salmon for the same price.  In that case, we definitely ordered the sockeye.  They ended up serving us Atlantic...  I guess we could've complained, but we had a movie to get to.  Whatever the case, it was fine with buttery salmon and chewy sushi rice.

As per usual, my son went for his selection of Nigiri including tamago, chopped scallop with tobiko and unagi. As evidenced in the accompanying picture, the ingredient-to-rice ratio was in favour of the topping.  However, it wasn't to the point like Samurai Sushi where the ratio is completely out-of-whack.  Hence, each piece ate very well and not heavy.  Unlike the volcano roll, the unagi was only lightly sauced which meant it wasn't syrupy sweet like it can be at some places.  He loved the chopped scallop not only because of the buttery scallops, but the amount was just right so each bite was even.  For some reason or another, I decided to order the Salmon Kama (or cheek in the menu).  It was a huge portion that was nicely grilled where it was smoky and not overdone.  However, I could've done without the sauce as it was too sweet and got in the way of the natural salmon taste.

Since they didn't have the regular pan-fried version, we got the Deep Fried Gyoza instead.  Personally, I prefer the regular pan-fried version as there is more variation in texture and generally not as greasy.  However, this was not bad with a crunchy dumpling skin that was only lightly oily.  Inside, the pork and cabbage filling was balanced while retaining a meaty texture.  Staying with the fried theme, the Assorted Tempura was also decent.  It featured a relatively thin layer of batter that was fried up crispy and also not overly greasy.  This was pretty much textbook where the veggies were still firm, yet cooked all-the-way-through.  Although the food at I Love Sushi will never be confused for upper tier eats, it is more-than-acceptable considering its location and pricing.  Good for a quick bite before or after a movie/bowling.

The Good:
- Decent
- Okay pricing
- Nice people

The Bad:
- The specialty roll we had an obscene amount of sauce
- Seating isn't spacious