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I can't deny it. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. Even when I used to mountain bike, I detested the splatters of mud and especially the whole body mud experience if I bit it. Hence, I do not have any interest in camping or getting in touch with nature. My idea of roughing it would be Motel 6. The horror! Yes, according to Choobee, I'm far too "tender". So when Viv suggested we go for a hike at Buntzen Lake, I did an excellent social fake with a crooked smile. Fine, if we were to do this, I was going to get food out of it. Hence, we stopped at the new location of Sushi & Roll prior to the hike.
Taking over for the now closed Fuji Sushi, Sushi & Roll offers up an experience not unlike Sushi Garden, Sushi Town, Sushi California and the sort (tempered expectations as a result). We kicked things off with the Deluxe Assorted Sashimi. By looking at the picture, everything appeared okay and in some sense, quite good. But that is where the "good value" sushi thing kicks in. For example, the hamachi exhibited a fresh sheen and smell. Yet, rather than being buttery, it was firm and a bit bland. So with reasonable expectations, the sashimi was decent. Next, the Chicken Karaage looked like it had been to the Caribbean due to its tanned appearance. Overlooking that, the skin was rendered and crispy while the meat underneath was juicy and well-seasoned.
Onto a Bento Box A that included green salad, Chicken Teriyaki, Tempura and Crab Cakes, we found that the crab cakes were actually fried imitation crab (not very good either). As for the chicken teriyaki, it was okay where the meat was relatively tender. Although the tempura was slightly over-battered, it was still crispy. However, these was a bit more oil retention as a result. For our first roll of 3, we got the House Roll which was pretty much stuffed with the usual ingredients. We liked how the layer of rice was thin, but at the same time thought it was slightly dry. The roll was packed tightly enough that generally held together until we bit into it.
Just because I love the Filet-o-Fish, I decided to order the roll with the same name (isn't that copyrighted or something, funny how McD's is just next door). Well, this wasn't anything like the burger as there was far too much rice. It hid the small piece of fried fish. On the other hand, the dressing was nicely tart while being only conservatively applied. For our specialty roll, we got the Fantastic Roll comprised of shrimp tempura, imitation crab, cucumber, avocado and mayo with spicy tuna and tempura bits on top. Interestingly, even with all of the wet ingredients, the roll ate a bit dry. This might possibly had something to do with the rice. In terms of taste, it was mildly spicy where I still needed some soy and wasabi to liven things up. Overall, the meal was okay given our expectations. Definitely serviceable for those who aren't overly picky.
The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Decent portions
- Spacious
The Bad:
- Could be better, but not at that price point
- Sushi rice was dry for us
Okay, I made it. The last 2 Brunch Crawls of 6 in the month of January (as part of the Dine Out Vancouver festival). Other than the change of location, there was something else that made things more interesting. Replacing Inner Fat Girl for this event was Brit (one her IFG's best friends), who gladly took her place. I think secretly inside, IFG was seething that she couldn't go! I got some angry texts when I mentioned that Brit could take IFG's place anytime...
Anyways, onto the crawl, we started at Xoxolat where we were presented with shots of Hot Chocolate. These were thick and rich with the bitterness of dark chocolate. I liked how there wasn't a whole lot of sugar replacing actual chocolate flavour. We also tried the spicy version and yes, that really had a kick. On the side, there was some Chocolate-Covered Goat Cheese which was tasty in my books. The chocolate was strong enough to stand up to the pungent cheese. Also, we had some crisps dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with cheese. From there, we took the stroll up Homer up to Small Victory for a Cappuccino and Spiced Hot Chocolate as well as a box of treats. It included a Savory Scone, Pain au Chocolat and an Apollini. By far, the apollini was my favourite. It was flaky, crunchy and the lamination was super apparent by the mess I made. Inside, the cream filling was light and semi-sweet.
Heading deep into Yaletown, we stopped in for some vegan eats Zend Conscious Lounge. On the plate from left-to-right was a Sweet Potato Pancake with spiced pear, Roasted Vegetable Quiche with red pepper cilantro sauce and "sausage" and a Matcha Crepe with seared fruit and white chocolate sauce. I'll have to admit that I'm pretty biased towards vegan eats, so it's no surprise that was highly indifferent with these 3 items. The 2 sweet items were just too sugary, but I didn't mind the cashew based quiche as it was hearty and was flavourful from the red pepper sauce. Over at Nice Vice Cream, we continued with the vegan theme with a scoop of Mango. We were given a choice of salts to sprinkle on top and I chose mango salt (seemed like a good choice). It did enhance the sweetness, but only slightly as the entire thing wasn't that sweet to begin with. Moreover, the natural mango flavour was all that was necessary anyways.
Continuing on with what seemed like a dessert crawl, we had 2 slices of pie at Lime and Moon. I will assume you can tell the difference between the Chocolate Crusted Walnut Pie and the Gluten-Free Meyer Lemon Tart in the picture to the right. Both were just sweet enough with somewhat crumbly crusts. I much preferred the lemon tart as it had an appealing tartness (and also I love lemon tarts!). Our last stop was at Bella Gelateria Yaletown. On the plate was a Brioche Bun with smoked salmon and Hollandaise, Napoletano Pizza with organic egg, pancetta, fresh basil and mild Italian sausage and a Mimosa (Prosecco with orange & vanilla sorbetto). Although both of the savoury items were fine, it was too bad they were served lukewarm-to-cold. The mimosa was rather refreshing with an appealing cold temperature due to the sorbetto. Interestingly, the brioche and pizza were 2 of 4 savoury items mixed in with 9 sweet items. Possibly too many sweets?
*All food and beverages excluding gratuities were complimentary*
The Good:
- Completely walkable
- Brings some lesser known places to our attention
The Bad:
- Should've been called the dessert crawl, too many sweet items
Average, but serviceable sushi... That probably describes most of the Japanese eats in the Lower Mainland. In fact, to some sushi aficionados, average is actually being kind. So for all the Japanese food available to us, only a small percentage is actually authentic and/or prepared properly. However, when one just wants to grab a bite at a reasonable price, there will always be the average Japanese joint nearby. That is what Chill and I settled on for eats one day. We settled on a place I visited a long time ago - Sushi Line out in Newton.
We began with the Assorted Sashimi which was neatly presented. It featured albacore tuna, Atlantic salmon, sockeye salmon, toro, tako, hokkagai and tai. I wasn't particularly impressed with the toro as it was lifeless and hopelessly bland. The rest appeared and tasted decent. The sockeye salmon was probably the best of the bunch being somewhat sweet and exhibiting a nice sheen (the picture was actually from our second visit).
After that, we shared 2 specialty rolls including the strangely named Mexican Roll. Consisting of avocado, scallop, imitation crab, spicy tuna with mayo and green onion on top. We were perplexed at the Mexican designation because there was nothing Mexican about it. Whatever the case, the crab in the middle was strangely dry which only further exacerbated the issue of the dry sushi rice (which was bland too). As for the Hot Night Roll, it was slightly better due to the ample topping of spicy tuna. Inside, there was ripe avocado and a slightly mealy shrimp tempura. The soft tuna was indeed spicy and provided some moisture for the dry rice, but the roll was pretty average at best.
As mentioned earlier, we made 2 visits, with the second including the Deluxe Combo consisting of a dynamite roll, 2 pieces of salmon and tuna, 2 pieces of toro nigiri and one each of chopped scallop and masago. I wasn't a huge fan of the roll as the rice was dry and overly chewy (and bland like the other rolls). Again, the toro was rather disappointing in appearance and taste, but the other items were okay. Unfortunately, it appears that the negatives are consistent at Sushi Line, which puts it into the below-average category of Japanese restaurants in my books.
The Good:
- Okay pricing
- Friendly enough people
The Bad:
- Sushi rice sucks
- Overall below-average
Posts
I can't deny it. I'm not much of an outdoorsy person. Even when I used to mountain bike, I detested the splatters of mud and especially the whole body mud experience if I bit it. Hence, I do not have any interest in camping or getting in touch with nature. My idea of roughing it would be Motel 6. The horror! Yes, according to Choobee, I'm far too "tender". So when Viv suggested we go for a hike at Buntzen Lake, I did an excellent social fake with a crooked smile. Fine, if we were to do this, I was going to get food out of it. Hence, we stopped at the new location of Sushi & Roll prior to the hike.
Taking over for the now closed Fuji Sushi, Sushi & Roll offers up an experience not unlike Sushi Garden, Sushi Town, Sushi California and the sort (tempered expectations as a result). We kicked things off with the Deluxe Assorted Sashimi. By looking at the picture, everything appeared okay and in some sense, quite good. But that is where the "good value" sushi thing kicks in. For example, the hamachi exhibited a fresh sheen and smell. Yet, rather than being buttery, it was firm and a bit bland. So with reasonable expectations, the sashimi was decent. Next, the Chicken Karaage looked like it had been to the Caribbean due to its tanned appearance. Overlooking that, the skin was rendered and crispy while the meat underneath was juicy and well-seasoned.
Onto a Bento Box A that included green salad, Chicken Teriyaki, Tempura and Crab Cakes, we found that the crab cakes were actually fried imitation crab (not very good either). As for the chicken teriyaki, it was okay where the meat was relatively tender. Although the tempura was slightly over-battered, it was still crispy. However, these was a bit more oil retention as a result. For our first roll of 3, we got the House Roll which was pretty much stuffed with the usual ingredients. We liked how the layer of rice was thin, but at the same time thought it was slightly dry. The roll was packed tightly enough that generally held together until we bit into it.
Just because I love the Filet-o-Fish, I decided to order the roll with the same name (isn't that copyrighted or something, funny how McD's is just next door). Well, this wasn't anything like the burger as there was far too much rice. It hid the small piece of fried fish. On the other hand, the dressing was nicely tart while being only conservatively applied. For our specialty roll, we got the Fantastic Roll comprised of shrimp tempura, imitation crab, cucumber, avocado and mayo with spicy tuna and tempura bits on top. Interestingly, even with all of the wet ingredients, the roll ate a bit dry. This might possibly had something to do with the rice. In terms of taste, it was mildly spicy where I still needed some soy and wasabi to liven things up. Overall, the meal was okay given our expectations. Definitely serviceable for those who aren't overly picky.
