Sumu

One look on the outside, Sumu on Burrard appears to be some high-end, boogie restaurant.  Well, it certainly isn't low end, but in reality, it is only a moderately-priced place that dishes up a mix of cuisines.  Upon entering, you will be greeted with a more elevated "Big Way" setup where you can pick-your-own-ingredients and broth.  Then perusing the menu, the most prominent section is their large assortment of Yakitori and other grilled skewers.  Completing the menu, we have Mini-Donburis and also Japanese "Izakaya-like" dishes to share.  A little bit strange for sure, yet, I always have an open mind.

Starting with the Yakitori (different grilled chicken parts), we had several skewers including the Lemongrass Pork Shoulder (grilled skewer, not Yakitori), Red Date Glazed Chicken, Chicken Heart and House Tsukune.  The pork shoulder was tender and almost juicy with strong hits of lemongrass.   Really enjoyed the red date chicken as it really did capture the sweetness of the date.  Chicken was succulent.  Chicken hearts were a little overdone, but still had an appealing chewiness.  Could've used a bit more salt.  We found the chicken meatballs to be a bit crumbly, but chock full of white and green onion notes.

Next set of skewers consisted of Premium Grade Certified Angus Beef, Enoki wrapped in Beef Rolls and Honey Glazed Pork Jowl.  This was a really great selection of grilled meats where the Angus Beef was served in large pieces and turned out to be supremely tender.  They were well-seasoned with lots of natural beef flavour.  The enoki beef wraps were also good with juicy meat encasing just enough enoki.  Pork jowl had that unmistakeable bounciness that was also a bit smoky.

Our last set featured Garlic Butter Prawns, Miso-Glazed Sablefish and Citrus-Charred Chicken Wings.  Butterflied and topped with flavourful garlic butter, the prawns were sweet and meaty.  As expected, the sablefish was fatty and flaky being buttery soft.  The skin was crispy while the miso on top added some fermented saltiness.  With crispy and fairly rendered skin, the wings were slightly dry, but had some nice smokiness to go with the brightness of citrus.

We ended up trying 3 of the Mini-Dons including the Grilled Unagi & Mango, Grilled Scallop and Salmon Oyako.  Yes, these were not very big, however, there was much more topping than rice.  Hence, every spoonful had a considerable amount of impact from the components.  I particularly enjoyed the diced unagi as it was sauced just enough and buttery soft.  The mango offered up some sweet tang to brighten things up.  The grilled bay scallops could've been a bit more rare, but they were still soft and sweet.  I found the salmon to be texturally on point, but maybe a bit more seasoning would've helped.

Onto the pick-your-own-ingredients Hot Pot, we had roughly a pound each which cost around $25.00 ($4.19/100g).  For mine, I went for the Red Curry which was fragrant and a bit creamy.  It wasn't overly spicy, which would appeal to most people.  Jackie had the Tom Yum Broth and it was appealingly sour with lemongrass and galangal notes with just a touch of spice.  Of course there was a help-yourself sauce bar that included the usual components as well as some fruit and veggies.  Overall, our experience at Sumu was rather interesting as they combined 3 different restaurant concepts into one.  Usually, this is a recipe for disaster but in some strange sense, it worked.  It gives people options and the pricing is reasonable.  Worth a try.

The Good:
- Three restaurants in one and it isn't bad
- Nice dining space
- Reasonable pricing

The Bad:
- Menu can be a bit confusing for some