Tekkaba

It seems to me that there are places that offer Premium Omakase experiences in Vancouver more than ever.  Maybe our palates and experience has levelled up to the point where we can appreciate these meals for what they are (which is a combination of the freshest ingredients, prepared expertly and artfully).  However, these meals come at a price and usually $250+ per person.  That is not really an affordable option considering the economy as it stands.  Yet, there is one place that charges only $118.00 a person and it's located in Downtown.  Sure, Tekkaba will never be confused with Okeya Kyujiro, but at 1/3rd the price and reasonable expectations, it is truly a steal.

In fact, you can even go with the $78.00 Dinner Omakase that has just as many courses, but just with different items.  Now that is an even bigger steal.  For our Omakase, we started with the Chawanmushi with some ground pistachio & pumpkin seeds and Ichiban sauce.  This was purely just egg without other components hidden within.  As you can see, the steamed egg was not watery nor bubbly.  Hence, it was silky and smooth with some background sweetness.

For our next course, we had the Beef Tartar Salad made with AAA beef tenderloin.  On the side, there was a organic spring mix tossed with a Japanese fruit dressing (made with 12 types of fruit) and drizzled with balsamic.  As you can imagine, the dressing was naturally sweet and needed the balsamic to balance it out.  As for the beef tartar, it was buttery soft with a definite spiciness.  There was a cracker and chip to use as a vessel for the tartar.  Good crunch on both.

We had the Sweet Prawn Tempura for our next course and it came with dendashi sauce.  It came in two pieces with one being the tail (without shell, except the very tip of the tail) and the other being the head.  Since the head was fried with a tempura batter, the shell wasn't able to fully cook until it was crunchy.  Hence, I couldn't actually eat it.  Rather, I ate the antenna and the insides.  For the tail, it was buttery and sweet.  The batter was super crispy and light.

From the tempura, we moved onto Traditional Japanese-Style Clam Soup with garlic and green onion.  Although this looked pretty simple, the broth itself was both subtle and impactful at the same time.  The brininess and sweetness of the clam really came through in the broth.  It wasn't a strong flavour, but enough to create impact in our minds (if that makes sense).  The green onion added some brightness to the soup.  As for the clams, they were plump and buttery.

Onto the Sashimi course, we were presented with one piece each of the Madai, Hamachi and Bluefin.  To compliment this, we had matcha salt, ginger and real wasabi.  We were encouraged to use the matcha salt with the madai.  The bitter-saltiness really did compliment the sweetness of the firm fish.  The hamachi was aged for 7 days and it showed in terms of its rich fishiness and the buttery texture.  As for the bluefin, it was aged 5 days and it had its umistakable strong sweet fishiness.  Being the akami, the bluefin was meatier, but still buttery soft.

We had two hand rolls next consisting of Uni and Fuagra (Foie Gras).  Well, it was suffice to say that these were a treat.  Sweet and creamy the uni was lightly torched where it heightened the sweetness while still imparting a smokiness.  The warm rice was still appealingly chewy.  As for the foie gras, it was also torched and topped with some tobiko caviar.  Also fatty and buttery, this was a bit smoky and slightly sweet. As part of the same course as the hand rolls, we were also served two pieces of Atemaki.  From what I can gather, one was chopped hamachi and the other was some type of whitefish, maybe hirame?  Whatever the case, these were nice little bites.

For those keeping track, we moved onto Step 7 of our meal with three nigiri including Hirame, Kinmedai and Saba.  Topped with shiso pesto aged for 3 months, there was definite sweetness.  The hirmae had a halibut-like texture being firm.  As for the kinmedai, it was beautiful and was subtle in flavour with a clear taste of the sea.  With the saba, it came with so lemon juice and it was at its mackerel best with an appealing fishiness.  It was nicely torched on the top.

Our next course consisted of Aburi Nigiri.  The Hotate was served in a shell while doused in lemon butter.  The rice was actually served on the side with some tobiko caviar.  The trick here was to sandwich the rice in betwen the split hotate.  This was absolutely delicious with buttery soft and sweet scallop with chewy rice in the middle.  The other nigiri was more traditional with Baby Squid topped with yuzu and lemon rind.  The squid was lightly torched being smoky while the texture was crunchy and not chewy.  Nice sweetness tempered by the tanginess.

From the aburi, we had another trio of Nigiri including Bluefin with caviar, Hamachi with black truffle sauce and Shima-Aji.  The bluefin akami was still buttery and sweet even though it wasn't the toro.  It was definitely meatier and less melty.  I found the hamachi sweet and pleasantly fishy with black truffle sauce really coming through.  Lots of woodsiness and some tangy-saltiness from the olives.  Lastly, the shima-aji was fishy (in a good way) and had a slight snap before being buttery tender.

The heaviest and last course was the Caviar Truffle Uni Pasta.  Yes, put all of the most luxurious items and put it in a heavy cream pasta right?  Well, it was not just that, the execution was good!  The pasta was al dente but not hard.  There was enough heavy cream to coat each strand without drowning it.  There was just enough truffle for effect and the uni and caviar provided sweetness and umaminess. Some grated parm added even more flavour to the mix.

We ended off the Omakase with some cake and we all had something different.  For me, it was a square of Oreo Cheesecake.  Pretty standard and pleasant enough.  Maybe not very creative, but it did the job.  Next to it, we had some Yuzu Tea that was clean, refreshing (despite being hot) and helped end everything by cleaning my palate.  Overall, this premium omakase is a fabulous deal.  For what you get, the pricing is a steal.  Sure, the meal isn't perfect (but nothing ever is), but the majority of the items are prepared well and are ultimately delicious.  Really, that is all that matters right?

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Fabulous deal
- In general, it was tasty
- Super nice people

The Bad:
- I would prefer they do not pre-cut their sashimi
- Maybe a more creative dessert?