One of the biggest reasons why I love Vancouver is the food. There’s all sorts of top notch restaurants spanning many different cuisines. There’s no shortage of Japanese restaurants, to be sure.
Initially, I was turned off by the name of Sushiholic, a smaller place that just opened up a few months ago at 3311 East Broadway. They took over a Japanese restaurant that had previously occupied the same space. With a name like that, though, I figured it was going to be completely Westernized and not very good. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised to the contrary.
The restaurant is fairly small, but the decor looks good and the prices are fair. They do indulge in the “fancy maki” thing, but I don’t really mind that. Take the Dragon Roll shown above as an example. The presentation is quite nice, don’t you think? That’s prawn tempura, mayo, cucumber, avocado, crispy bits, and unagi (eel). There’s also a Fire Dragon Roll that replaces the unagi with spicy tuna for the same price.
Beyond the usual sushi and sashimi, you can order the usual assortment of items from the regular menu. Shown above is the soft shell crab. It was small, but reasonably crispy. The crab wasn’t particularly great, but it wasn’t bad either. Should you feel so inclined, they’ve also got gyoza, agedashi tofu, tuna tempura salad, beef teriyaki, yakisoba, chrashi don, and so on.
As far as the sushi itself goes, I appreciate how the fish is chilled, but not icy. Far too often, you go to places where the sashimi arrives at room temperature and it just tastes better when it has a slightly cooled freshness to it.
The rolls fell apart a little too easily, though. I don’t expect them to squish it, but there should be some integrity to the rolls when I pick them up.
Easily, the highlight of the dinner for me was the appropriately named Awesome Roll. It’s reasonably awesome in terms of size, but it’s pretty darn awesome in terms of flavor and originality.
I generally prefer sushi and sashmi to be the cooler side of things, so I was a little surprised that the Awesome Roll is served slightly warm. That’s because the crab meta, avocado, cucumber, and masago on the inside is topped by baked salmon and shoestring yam fries. Those crisp yam fries really make the difference. As with all of these designer rolls, it does cost a little more ($7.95 for 8 pieces), but it’s not at all unreasonable.
If I wasn’t taken to Sushiholic, I probably would have never given it a fair chance. I’m glad I went. The food is of good quality, it’s reasonably priced, but there are some creative rolls to try too. There is very little reason to indulge in the sub-par food at all you can eat places anymore when you have much better options at places like Sushiholic.
I too like my sushi with a chill on it. The flavor just seems better. I love my sushi place Ichiban, for the fresh made to order all you can eat, but Tony makes a great, special plate with 7 different chef choice pieces (roll and sashimi) and a nice portion of diced spicy tuna. He has over 60 choices for made to order rolls too.
The thing about the roll falling apart to me sounds like the sushi rice on being cooked correctly. While you can roll a roll tight, if the rice isn’t starchy enough then its not going to hold together.
Now that you made me hungry for sushi, I’m gonna have to go to Ichiban for lunch tomorrow and take some pictures for you.