Japanese Restaurant

Fusion Restaurants in Vancouver: Kamei Baru / March 27, 2017 by Jenn Chan

Kamei Royale was the Kamei family's original foray into the Vancouver restaurant scene. For 40 years it was an institution in the neighbourhood that was once commonly called Lil Ginza; the stretch of Alberni Street between Burrard and Bute Streets. As a resident of Alberni Street I still call it Lil Ginza and hope desperately it catches back on! Kamei Baru, Japanese for bar, is a more casual atmosphere, but with the same quality that has helped the Kamei and Ebisu brands expand throughout the Lower Mainland.

Naomi, our very lovely server, assured me my Yuzu Margarita wasn't topped with caramelized onions as she placed it in front of me; "phew" I thought as I took a large sip. Deon explained it as a hybrid between an orange and a lemon and it's newly in my top five fruits! JC ordered the Lychee Ball: Lychee liqueur, peach liqueur, apple juice and garnished with, you guessed it, Lychee balls. "Sweet and fruity, the liqueurs are barely noticeable, a dangerous combo.

Raw fish isn't for everyone. The idea alone scares some people, but, luckily, Jenn and I aren't among those people. It would be a valid estimate to say that I have eaten my weight in salmon sashimi in my lifetime and I'm a big boy. Like 220 LBs of big. That's a lot of poor little fishies, but it's them or me. The sashimi platter at Kamei, Hamachi, Atlantic and Sockeye Salmons and Albacore Tuna, is world class. I've ordered sashimi at small mom and pop spots and 4 diamond eateries and Kamei Baru's offering holds its own in terms of quality of fish and freshness with anyone!

Sashimi Platter: Hamachi, Atlantic Salmon, Sockeye Salmon & Albacore Tuna

Up next on our adventure was the Lobster Miso Chowder Pot Pie. It's the first and only time I've ever, ever seen this on a menu or even heard of it, but it should be everywhere! A flaky, heavenly, pastry hiding a steaming bowl of Japanese inspired Miso seafood chowder. Big bites of delicious lobster throughout, corn, celery and tender potatoes round out his incredible dish. Right on the heels of the pot pie, which vanished at top speed in a whirl of duelling spoons, came the Baru wings, Salmon Motoyaki Battera and BBQ Cuttlefish. The chicken wings, bathed in a unique balsamic teriyaki sauce, stack jup against any in the city; very, very good!

The Salmon Motoyaki Battera is pressed Atlantic Salmon with Motoyaki sauce on sushi rice and blow torched. If you're thinking that sounds good you're right! Cuttlefish could look scary if you're not a big seafood person or if you're an old timey sailor with recurring nightmares of giant squid capsizing your ship, but there's nothing to be scared of! This squid's cousin is tender and delicious and, when dunked into the Japanese mayo, the world's best mayo, it is a flavour explosion!

Risking explosion we let Naomi talk us into desserts. You won't be able to tell her no either! Jenn went with the Anmitsu and I ordered the cheesecake. The presentation was lovely and the cheesecake, made in-house, was nice and light with a delicious crust! Served with whipped cream, fresh strawberries, blueberries and rich piece of milk chocolate it was an excellent cap to the meal! Jenn's dessert, of the traditional Japanese variety, consisted of green tea ice cream, mochi balls, fresh strawberries, red Sean and whipped cream. Very good mixture of flavours and she really enjoyed it!

This wasn't our first time at Kamei Baru and it won't be our last. Centrally located just off Burrard Street on Smithe and steps to the bustling Scotiabank Movie Theatre it is a very convenient location for downtowners and there wasn't an empty seat in the house on a drizzly Friday night. Awesome energy, great food and well above average service!

Fusion Restaurants in Vancouver: Ebisu / March 21, 2017 by Jenn Chan

When you walk into an Indian restaurant it's a good sign when there are tables upon tables of Indian families hunkering down over plates of simmering tika masala and ripping into fresh naan bread. It's no different in pho joints where Nguyen's and Ngo's slurp happily on big, steamy bowls or taquerias where most customers are obscured by large sombreros. Okay that last one not so much because Mexicans wouldn't be caught dead in gaudy tourist souvenirs, but you get what I mean. At Ebisu on Robson the Japanese have found their spot and staked their claim. It's a good sign, trust me!

Our night started off, as good nights do, with a couple of cocktails: the DragonBall and Summer Dream. The former being a sake, mango passion Alize, peach Schnapps, Calpis and soda creation that takes the subtle bubble from the soda and melds it with the sweetness of the Schnapps and tartness of the sake perfectly. The latter a mixture of watermelon liqueur, peach Schnapps, Citron Vodka and tropical fruit punch mix... Yes, as good as it sounds! Not out of place in an upscale Japanese fusion hot spot or a Hawaiian beach.

All of a sudden out pops Yohei, our gracious host and Ebisu's manager, with the Supreme Sashimi Salad. Salmon, tuna, Ebi, hamachi and clam on a small mountain of organic greens with a rich, creamy dressing. Absolutely lovely. It was followed quickly by the Salmon Carpaccio which was a nice Atlantic salmon marinated in sou olive oil and topped with citrus white wine mayo and garlic chips. Top ten mayos of my life! The salmon was tender, like pudding tender, and it had a nice lemon kick from the mayo. All in all a very, very good Carpaccio!

A second course means a second cocktail and I went with the Angel: Blueberry Stoli, Cointreau, lemon lime mix and blueberry juice. The martini kick one would expect with very balanced flavours, very good! Just as I took a second sip out came the Hamachi Inferno and Cherry Blossom. The inferno, named for the at-table torching it receives I'd wager, is a Japanese Amberjack served aburi style on a brick of rice. The torching melts the mayo that covers it into a sticky, flavourful shellac. The Cherry Blossom is Red Ahi Bigeye Tuna layered with Japanese caviar, and has mango, avocado, sesame and poached prawns. The dish of the night! Topped off with wakame salad and ikura it is a a different taste per chew. The sweetness of the mango and avacado are tempered each time an ikura pops and the caviar compliments the elegant fish in a perfect way! Add to the mix Ebisu's famous Beef Short Ribs marinated in a "Korean influenced" BBQ with its cute, mini BBQ grill and the meal was a home run, a touchdown, a gooooaaaallll!

But we're not done! Out comes a Japanese crèpe that could have been a meal itself, football sized. A freshly made, near paper thing, light pastry enveloping a cache of fresh strawberries and delicious strawberry ice cream. Come on! Top it off with home made whipped cream on top and a drizzle of strawberry sauce and I will come back just for this dessert. I promise you that! Not knowing my choice could have fed a table of six Jenn ordered the Monkey Magic. Deep fried bananas, sweet red bean, a scoop of mango ice cream and a scoop of green tea ice cream drizzled with chocolate. Jenn was so enamoured with it that she went full Mary Poppins when describing the dish: "deep friend ban-o-na". She spat out a little bit of it in a fit of laughter, I laughed, other tables gawked. We win! In all the dining experience at Ebisu on Robson is near perfect. Excellent ambience, colourful, calm yet vibrant, and exceptional food. There will be something on the menu for everyone and you'll be glad you listened to us!

Monkey Magic with Matcha & Mango Ice cream

Top Japanese Restaurants in Vancouver: RawBar at Fairmont PacRim / February 2, 2017 by Jenn Chan

Have you ever woken up the day after a birthday party, with its accompanying revery and libations, only to realize you forgot you had a cocktail brunch to attend early the next day? I have and the beautiful Raw Bar at the Lobby Lounge in Fairmont's Pacific Rim did not disappoint! The old saying 'hair of the dog that bit you' or just 'hair of the dog' stems from the belief that if you drank a gallon, or ten, of a particular alcoholic beverage the night before a glass of it will help cure your hangover the next day. The Germans call it a 'counter-beer', Austrians a 'relief beer' while the Spanish and Italians believe 'a nail pulls out another nail.' There can be no other reason for a cocktail brunch and there need not be! This was the best, the absolute best, brunch I have ever had!

The first of our five courses, yes five, was the Red Tuna Tataki. It was served with a yuzu kosho vinaigrette, soy gelée, daikon and micro greens. The mouth watering tuna has a distinct soy taste and was melt in your mouth fresh. It was paired marvellously with their LIght-Zaiten cocktail. A mixture of gin, organic green tea, dry vermouth, rosemary, cucumber, lime. The subtle cucumber taste accented well by the rosemary and it washed the tuna down as though they'd been preordained from birth to do so! We also ordered the Torched Wagyu Beef Salad because not only do we need to be thorough in our culinary reviews, but also because we are gluttonous hedonists. No excuses. The wagyu beef was served with red onion, sake-beet purée, scallion-ginger emulsion, nori chips and miso crème fraîche. Wagyu beef is the best beef on earth, move over Kobe, so tender and flavourful! Miso crème fraîche is also one of my new favourite thing! If they made a flavoured toothpaste I'd buy it. Heck if they made a miso crème fraîche shampoo I'd use it. They paired the beef salad with an amazing Bloody Mary: vodka, lemon, tomato juice, sriracha, horseradish, salt and pepper. Americans don't believe clams and tomatoes belong together, they just don't. Call it forbidden love, but they don't see the correlation and I can't blame them. I can't even fathom who first thought they ought to be combined, but I ain't mad at cha, got nothing, but fo ya! Hence the Bloody Mary instead of the Canadian treasure, the Caesar. Add Sriracha to anything and I'm in, it was simply delicious. So much so I had to order another just to make sure their mixologists were being consistent. Ya, that's what it was.

Red Tuna Tataki & Torched Wagyu Beef Salad

Red Tuna Tataki + Light-Zaiten - Yuzu Kosho vinaigrette, soy gelée, daikon, micro greens

Torched Wagyu Beef Salad + Bloody Mary - wagyu beef, red onion, sake-beet purée, scallion-ginger emulsion, nori chips, miso crème fraîche

Starting to feel human again I salivated as the next course, a steaming bowl of their Signature Bacon and Sable Miso soup, was laid in front of me. Hands down the best miso soup I have ever had!! Two exclamation points. Bacon dashi, house-cured sable, ginger and scallion in a magnificent miso broth. Bacon, bacon, bacon! As an aside, In 2013 65% of Americans polled would gladly have named bacon as their national food. I started with the broth and, wow, it is amazing. Miso with a touch of sweetness. The bacon dashi may have been the best bacon I've ever tasted! Even the tofu, renowned as the world's blandest food, was delicious as it took in the flavour of the divine broth. They served it with their Beer Makes Miso Happy: Grand Marnier, wheat beer, ginger, lemon. I chortled when I first read the name. Apparently I'm not the only one who tries to let their personality shine through their writing, hats off! It was tangy, well balanced and refreshing! Again, for consistency's sake, I had to order another and the second was even better than the first.

Signature Bacon and Sable Miso + Beer Makes Miso Happy - bacon dashi, house-cured sablefish, ginger, scallion

The next course came and I was excited; this was what I'd been waiting for! The Wild Salmon Motoyaki “Benny”. I love eggs Benedict and I always have. I still think back, at least once a month, fondly to one time when I ordered a king crab Benny and my date had a lobster Benny and we each traded one... And it's been 3-4 years... Raw Bar's offering featured a poached egg, sweet milk bread, ikura, miso hollandaise and avocado. I frequently judge a Benny by its muffin. Fresh and airy English muffin and you've got yourself a good Benny. Deliciously fluffy sweet milk bread as the base is my new gold standard, excellent! Farmed versus wild salmon really makes a difference. Google all the health benefits, and they are myriad, but the taste benefit cannot be overlooked. Adding a touch of miso into the hollandaise is a stroke of genius and the ikura was fresh and flavourful. It paired well with the Pepe Le Pew, a meeting of Lillet rosé, sherry and sparkling brut. The sherry really mutes the sweetness of the brut and balances the cocktail perfectly, but the name of the cocktail had me in stitches. Chris Rock brilliantly satirizes Pepe in one of his standup acts. Give it a Google!

Wild Salmon Motoyaki "Benny" + Pepe Le Pew - poached egg, sweet milk bread, ikura, miso hollandaise, avocado

Jenn ordered the Kurobuta Pork Kakuni, a braised pork belly, 62°c egg, sweet soy broth, daikon, carrot, potato with tamanishiki rice. The pork belly was very tender and breaks apart easily, no knife necessary! They perfectly made the 62 degree egg, very gooey. Bite size potato, carrot and daikon. Dip the rice in the sweet soy broth and include a mouthful of pork and it's worth the trip on its own. It came with the Pork ‘N’ Cider which consists of Lonetree cider, sweet vermouth and sherry. It was sweet and tasty and Jenn liked it the most of all the selections to that point.

Kurobuta Pork Kakuni + Pork 'n' Cider - Braised Pork belly, 62*c egg, sweet soy broth, daikon, carrot, potato, tamanishiki rice

Now for what Raw Bar is famous for, sushi! The Sushi Omakase featured maki, nigiri, hako and temari and was paired with a delicious Sparkling Junmai Sake. That's right champagne sake and it is good as it sounds! The rolls were as close to perfection as one can get: incredibly fresh sashimi, you'd expect nothing less in the lobby of Vancouver's premiere hotel, inventive flavours and even the sardine sushi was really good. These aren't those pickled, smelly sardines from a can, you could tell immediately this guy (or girl) was swimming only days or weeks earlier!

Sushi Omakase + Sparkling Junmai Sake - maki, nigiri, hako, temari

The dessert was equally as inventive. The Yakult Shooter came out on an actual oyster shell, cleaned of course, and featured plum gelée, pear, matcha green tea, black sesame powder and yuzu pearl. It disappeared in an instant and was sweet and delicious. Just the right size for a fifth course. You wouldn't want to try and dig through a 1,000 calorie piece of cake after all that! It came with the Wakayama Beach: gin, yuzu, basil, coconut water and ginger. The yuzu flavours really shined through from each and they went together like peas in a pod, very, very good! Leaning back in our chairs and enjoying the soulful pianist tickle the ivories we couldn't help, but wonder what else the menu might have in store for us. We requested one from our lovely server and oooo'ed and awed over Raw Bar's regular selection and vowed to be back with a fortnight. And we will!

Yakult Shooter + Wakayama Beach - plum gelée, pear, matcha green tea, black sesame powder, yuzu pearl

Top Japanese Restaurants in Vancouver Series: Gyoza Bar / January 2, 2017 by Jenn Chan

Chef Wooj tried to kill me! The Head Chef at the Gyoza Bar, one affable Japanese import named Woo Jin Kim, attempted to snuff my light by gorging me with plate after plate of Gyoza Bar's best!

The meal started, as all great meals do, with a couple beverages. I started with the Postmark dark IPA, an IPA and porter-like hybrid, which was very good. Jenn tried their signature Mango Mule and loved it, it seemed to disappear pretty quickly. Chef Wooj came out and was gracious enough to introduce himself and chat for a bit. "Leave it to me" he said, "you don't need a menu": exhibit A in my murder trial had he been successful! As we waited Jenn got into a Pender Collins, a cocktail of elderflower centric deliciousness, and I tried the Blood and Beauty. "Scotch, scotch, scotch. I love scotch" well Ron Burgundy I don't mind it either - 8/10. We also had an Aburi ginjo sake which I found tart and refreshing with a hint of vanilla. All engines go!

The first salvo in the food war was a very nice Roasted Beet Salad. It had an amazing dressing, made in-house, and the beet gyoza was very soft and flavourful. I wholeheartedly, 100% endorse the use of fruits and nuts in salads and the orange and roasted almonds make this salad an adventure. He also brought their Prawn Ceviche and Pork Gyoza. See I told you and this is just the iceberg's tip! The Pork gyoza is, bold statement coming, the best gyoza I've ever had! Pork shank and minced pork belly mixed together with few other ingredients distracting from the main oinky feature, served in a heated skillet, and served with an umami and spicy miso sauce. Absolutely incredible! Chef told us how important it was to him that gyoza be served hot and consumer hot and it makes all the difference! The ceviche was excellent, fresh and tasty! Make yourself a sandwich with the gyoza skin cracker, guacamole and prawn and thank me after.

Roasted Beet Gyoza + Market Salad - feta cheese, pickled beets, fresh orange, toasted almonds

Pork Teppan Gyoza - served with spicy miso _ umami soy

And then it came. The Bao Board... The pork ribs, cooked for 36 hours, were smoky and sweet and the meat was high quality. I put some in a bao bun with sriracha aioli and a couple apple slices and had a foodgasm! Also on the massive Bao Board was a succulent tenderloin, so tender and supple. I combined it in a bao bun with spicy miso and Asian slaw and it was excellent! The Chicken skewer was soft and fresh, maple garlic goodness. Toss some into a bao with butter lettuce, Asian slaw and spicy miso sauce, you'll thank me! But the plate is not finished! The Shrimp Gyoza consisted of fresh-out-of-the-water shrimp with a tangy cilantro-garlic vinegar. The restaurant should be called Gyoza King!

Head Chef Woo Jin  Kim working on our Family Style Bao Board — Head Chef Woo Jin Kim working on our Family Style Bao Board

Family Style Bao Board - Maple Garlic Soy Chicken Skewers, Soy Garlic Tenderloin Skewers, Korean Spiced Pork Rib, Asian Slaw, Kimchee & Pickled Cucumber

Family Style Bao Board with Bao Buns & Butter Lettuce

Chili Shrimp Teppan Gyoza - with Cilantro-Garlic Vinegar + Umami Soy

So there you have it. If you'd like to sign my petition to have Mr. Woo Jin Kim charged with attempted murder please contact me at Scott@JennChanPhotography.com. BUT WAIT... Out comes a big bowl of Chicken Miso Ramen. "Don't worry about trying to finish it all" Chef Wooj exclaims "I just wanted you guys to try!" The free range chicken makes all the difference and the al dente ramen noodles, made in-house daily, with a heavenly miso broth.

Panting heavily after having made a valiant attempt on the ramen a smiling Chef Wooj saunters out with a Japanese Green Tea Cheesecake. A subtle matcha flavour in a decadently soft, whipped cheesecake. All 3 bites I was able to muster were light, fluffy and flavourful and I don't generally care for matcha and yet thoroughly enjoyed it.

Japanese Green Tea Cheesecake - Strawberry compote, Vanille Icecream, Azuki Beans

If you like gyoza or ramen or Bao or delicious cocktails or desserts I would highly recommend you head to the Gyoza Bar! Say hi to Chef Wooj for me!

Words: Scott Allan
Photos: Jenn Chan