Last year, I visited Mauna Sushi with Jacqueline to pickup some of their takeout aburi sushi platters. They weren't doing dine-in at the time, but we were invited to go back when they were back to normal operations. Since the chef/owner used to work at Minami, it wasn't much of a surprise that the aburi sushi was pretty on point. So all this time, I was anxious to try the food in-store because it would be freshly made and served at the optimal temperature. So we ventured out to Surrey as soon as we were able.
Now they are more than aburi sushi, so we decided to have the Assorted Tempura as an appetizer (a large one at that). Yes, the ebi and pieces of shiitake, yam and green bean were indicative of portion size. They still ate well though with a crunchy, yet not overly thick batter on the outside. I particularly enjoyed the shiitake as it was tender and was nicely contrasted by the tempura batter. The ebi was good too being buttery sweet with a light snap.
Onto some specialty rolls, we got the Explosion Roll (imitation crab, cucumber, spicy tuna with tobiko, torched oshi sauce & black pepper on the outside) and the Red Seal Roll (California roll topped with red tuna, house special nikiri, onion sauce and black pepper). If the first roll seems familiar, it is because of the Miku connection again. This was done well with the pop of torched tobiko on the outside lead to a pleasing mouth feel. The onion sauce on the red seal roll did the heavy lifting in adding a salty sharp sweetness.
Okay, we had one more specialty roll in the Spider Roll featuring the usual fried soft shell crab, avocado and deep fried green beans. This was a substantial offering in that it was cut up into 10 large pieces. It is best that you share this one, however, I can also see a scenario that one eats it all by themselves. This is due to the crispy soft shell crab (was crispy even when sitting around for awhile) encased in chewy seasoned sushi rice.
Okay onto the aburi sushi, we had the Salmon, Mackerel and Ebi first. If you take a close look, these will remind you of Miku. One taste and I would say that these were every bit as good as the ones from Miku (albeit at a lower price around $13.00). Now to be fair, the pricing at Miku is based not only on the food costs (there is higher operational expenses as well). My favourite of the bunch was the ebi as it had some appealing acidity and brightness.
We had one more aburi oshi in the Hotate and that was my absolute favourite of the selection we ordered. Interestingly enough, this was the one of the unique creations by the chef. Initially, I was a bit concerned with the spice added to the delicate scallop. But in the end, it as balanced whereby the scallop was definitely noticeable (in texture and taste), but the spicy-creaminess elevated the flavour profile as scallop alone is rather mild-tasting.
Another original creation by the sushi chef was the Hoki Poke Box consisting of real crab, red tuna and avocado. Now this was more about textures and subtle flavours unlike the hotate. The ample (and I mean a lot) amount of real crab meat was fluffy and had the unmistakable essence of crab. There was added creaminess from the avocado and a mild sweetness from the red tuna. This was one of the few I dipped into soy.
If you remember my post for the takeout platters on IG, I tried their beautiful Mauna's Aburi Tart. However, it was in a box and frankly, the picture I took didn't do it justice. This combination of sushi rice, avocado, tuna with sesame and sockeye salmon topped with aburi sauce, tempura crunch, scallop and ebi was a meal in itself. It was also delicious with a smoky creaminess combined with the sesame in the tuna and natural sweetness of the ingredients.
*All food was complimentary*
The Good:
- Carefully prepared dishes
- There are higher end sushi creations that are reasonably priced
- Well-portioned
The Bad:
- Not close for the Vancouver crowd, but I encourage you to try it. Good for us in the burbs.
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