Nemo Sushi

Not too long ago, we tried to visit out local Sushi Town on Hastings and to our shock, it was closed forever!  Okay, we realize that the sushi there isn't mind-blowing, but it was serviceable and relatively affordable.  We did notice that it was going downhill for awhile in terms of quantity for the price, so I guess we shouldn't have been that surprised it closed.  But now, there is a new spot in its place called Nemo Sushi (so they serve clownfish?).  They have completely renovated and the place looks quite snazzy looking more like a high-end dessert spot rather than a sushi joint.

We ordered a wide-range of items and the first to arrive was the Chicken Yakisoba.  Huh?  This was not what we expected as our first dish...  Anyways, it was rather saucy and hence quite sweet.  The noodles were not soggy though, retaining a chewiness.  There was a decent amount of chicken, but it was quite dry.  Veggies were not as crunchy as we would've liked.  Due to the amount of sauce, the dish was too wet and lacked some of the caramelization that we normally associate with a hot cast iron plate.

Next, we had the Chicken Karaage that came in a rather large portion.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that the chicken was in pretty small pieces.  Combined this to an aggressive deep-fry, the chicken turned out to be chewy and dry.  The good thing was that the skin was properly rendered while the exterior was super crunchy.  Maybe a bit too crunchy though.  It also could've been seasoned a bit more aggressively as it was quite bland-tasting.

Our next dish was the Beef Teriyaki Don and at this point, I figured that the kitchen was pumping out food faster than the sushi bar.  This featured a massive amount of thinly-sliced beef on top soft rice.  We quite liked the beef as it was tender and actually decently moist.  It was aggressively sauced, but there was lots of beef and also the rice underneath.  Hence, the salty sweetness was balanced by the components.  The rice could've been drier as it had to deal with the moisture from the veggies and sauce, so it became a bit soggy.

Paying homage to the previous tenants, we ordered the Awesome Roll.  I guess this was somewhat similar to the previous place, but in a sense, not really.  It was really a California-based roll topped with a mess of fried baby shrimp and too much sauce.  Hence, the saltiness of the teriyaki sauce (which tasted strangely like Maggi) and the creaminess of the chili mayo was the dominant texture and flavour of this roll.  Really wasn't a fan of this as it was not balanced.

We had the Assorted Tempura next and this was actually quite good.  The batter was relatively thin and hence was not cumbersome to eat.  It was crispy and light without much greasiness.  The components were cooked properly where the ebi was buttery soft and the sweet potato, squash and yam were tender, but still had texture.  Even the broccoli was still crunchy, yet still cooked through.  Tempura dip was a little saltier than other versions I've had.  It was far too concentrated.

We also ordered the House Roll and it was a little rough in its construction.  It didn't eat poorly though because they didn't skimp on the filling (tuna, salmon, tamago, imitation crab & avocado).  Rice was a little on the softer side though.  We got some Sockeye Salmon Sashimi and it was good.  The fish had a nice sheen and it smelled fresh.  Wasn't super flavourful but was not bland either.  Slices were a tad thick, but was tender enough to chew through.

Got our usual fix of Nigiri in the form of Toro, Chopped Scallop, Tamago and Atlantic Salmon.  The pieces of nigiri were fairly big with a good ingredient-to-rice ratio.  Toro was soft and buttery while the scallops were nicely dressed and soft.  Salmon was typical while the tamago was the usual run-of-the-mill non-layered variety.  Once again, the rice was a bit soft and also not particularly flavourful.  

Lastly, we had the Ebi Mayo that featured 6 fried shrimp with only a smattering of chili mayo.  This was serviceable with large meaty shrimp with a somewhat dense batter.  Hence it ate on the heavier side.  There wasn't enough chili mayo though and the dish ate rather dry and a little bland.  So in general, the food at Nemo Sushi is passable, but not really all that good in my opinion.  Considering the price point (when the grand opening 20% off special is over), I feel there are better options in the neighbourhood.

The Good:

- Large portions

- Nice decor

- Decent service

The Bad:

- Sushi rice (and the rice in the don) was too soft

- Food in general is very average