Pizza Coming Soon

With a name like "Pizza Coming Soon", one would expect something like, I don't know... pizza?  Rather, think Japanese snacks and adult beverages into late night.  If the location seems a bit familiar, it was once a Bino's (which explains the decor) and then for the longest time, Mitzies (one of the OGs of HK-style cafes in the GVRD).  After a failed attempt to visit the place when it first opened, I returned on a Monday night with Maggi to check it out.

We started things off with the Fries tossed in ramen seasoning, aonori and wasabi mayo.  These were quite good where the the fries were crispy, even after sitting for awhile.  Although there was enough ramen powder for some effect, I personally would've liked to see more of the MSG goodness saturating each fry.  The side of mayo was indeed laced with enough wasabi for some spice.  At first, I thought $6.00 was steep, but that is what everyone charges for a side of unique fries anyways.

The best dish of the meal had to be the Katsu Sando featuring a fried pork cutlet, thicc (yes, thicc) milk bread, cabbage slaw, wasabi mayo and tonkatsu sauce.  That bread was fantastic - light and airy.  Although the pork cutlet was lean, it remained tender and moist with a crispy coating.  There was enough tonkatsu sauce to provide that salty and sweet tang.  I found the slaw a bit underdressed, but it did offer up a fresh crunch.

Now one thing that was way overseasoned was the Softshell Crab.  Nothing wrong with the crab itself as it was fried perfectly with a crispy exterior and soft custardy interior.  However, it was tossed with far too much togarashi.  It ate salty and frankly kinda killed any natural crab flavour that existed.  The mayo on side and the lemon did help, but the damage was already done.

On the same note, the Miso Eggplant Bowl was also far too salty.  Seemed like there was more miso than necessary.  Eggplant itself is rather delicate with some bitterness, however, we literally could tell what it was other than the texture.  On that note, it was prepared properly though with a soft texture that wasn't mushy.  The fried shallots on top added a nice crunch while the scallions on top did provide some relief from the salt.  Rice was nicely chewy underneath.

I thought the Okonomiyaki was decent with a fluffy texture and enough moisture while not being wet.  I wished there was more seafood though as I didn't notice it very much.  Maggi thought it was oversauced with wasabi mayo and tonkatsu sauce, but I thought it was only marginally too salty.  Possibly by this point, my expectations were lower? Overall, this was fine and probably would've went well with a beer.

Our last dish was the Periyaki Chicken which as you might've guess is a mashup of Peri Peri and Teriyaki chicken.  This was charred nicely with rendered skin.  I though the chicken was quite moist, even the white meat.  The charred lemon did add the necessary acidity for the dish as it also was bordering on salty.  We felt the Peri Peri sauce could've been significantly spicier to counteract the salt.  However there is one caveat to this though.  Most people would order cocktails or beers to go with the food here.  In that way, I could understand the aggressive seasoning in most of the dishes.  We opted not to drink for our meal and that may have been a contributing factor.  With that in mind, the food was decent at Pizza Coming Soon, but probably a better bet to have with drinks before or after a night on the town.

The Good:
- Eclectic place
- Good service
- Interesting menu

The Bad:
- A bit too salty for us
- Some items were priced too high