Hastings Sushi, Burnaby Heights

Within the span of just a few blocks along Hastings Street in North Burnaby, you’ll find an abundance of Japanese restaurants. You’ve got Kazu Japanese and Osaka Sushi, as well as Sushi UOmo, all of which are pretty decent options that are affordably priced. Now we can add another restaurant to that list: the appropriately-named Hastings Sushi.

Hastings Sushi takes over the location previously occupied by Ting Sushi. The big appeal for us, on a rather dreary looking weekday afternoon, was the fact that Hastings Sushi offers free delivery with a minimum $25 order. What’s more, you can not only place your order online through Skip the Dishes, but you can also complete your payment (including tipping the driver) through the website as well. That’s pretty convenient.

As much as it pains me as a professional writer to do so, we’ll ignore the fact that the takeout menu (above) boasts “big portion” of “freshy” and “healty” eats. We hope it’s not a chipped coffee cup… so, how was the food?

Crispy Tuna Delight: Spicy tuna, tempura flour inside, avocado – $6.25

In the last several years, I’ve come to really enjoy sushi rolls that have a crunchy element to them. There are places with deep fried rolls, for instance. The Crispy Tuna Delight aims to provide this desired crunch with tempura flour. Sadly, it isn’t quite enough and we end up with an otherwise rather generic roll.

Saba and Toro Nigiri Sushi: Mackerel and tuna belly – $1.40/$1.60 each

On the plus side (depending on your perspective), the nigiri at Hastings Sushi appears to be generously sized and tastes fresh(y). On the down side, the quality of the fish may be a little suspect. Toro should be smooth and this was on the stringy side. We also asked for the saba to be torched, but they neglected to do that.

Unagi Bento Box: BBQ eel, salad, tempura, and B.C. roll – $11.75

A standard sort of lunch thing to do is to order a bento box. There’s plenty of tempura here, including two pieces of prawn tempura, though the unagi wasn’t as large as I had hoped. While there was not too much that was wrong about this box, there was nothing particularly noteworthy either.

Chopped Scallop Roll: Spicy sauce on the side – $4.70

Chopped scallop is one of my favorite things to order at just about any sushi restaurant and, not unlike the bento above, there was nothing noteworthy about these rolls here.

And that’s really the story of Hastings Sushi as a whole. It’s perfectly fine, for the most part, with portions and prices falling within the reasonable range. Aside from the convenience of online ordering and free delivery, I have little reason to choose Hastings Sushi over the alternatives in the neighborhood. I enjoyed the food at places like Kazu, UOmo and Osaka more than I did here.

The total bill, including taxes and a small tip for the delivery driver, would have come to just over $30. We had a Groupon to net a few dollars in savings off that.