HIP SUSHI: Japanese Cuisine

This restaurant was my favourite Japanese restaurant, and it still is sorta... They use to have a good deals for afternoon tea (which can serve as a dinner because of it's big portion!) and good eel rice bowl.... until they cancel the afternoon tea deal and shrink the eel in the eel rice bowl. (Note: it is still way bigger than Mikado's eel rice bowl.) But it doesn't fill the whole bowl anymore.  But it still have $9 dollar sushi and the food isn't too bad either. So overall, it's still a nice place :)

The seating might be a little crowded, but they have very comfy chairs. It is an open area where there's only a short fence separating the restaurant and the mall. It is at a quieter part of the mall so the noise level isn't that high :) Still a pretty decent place. 

Cute Menu

These are the 9 dollar sushi I was talking about. I think they have other kinds as well, but these three are the best deal. Squid and torch salmon sushi (What is the official name for this?) are usually more expensive on average, um... around.... $ 15-20? but it is only $9.00 for a plate (two sushi) here. Although are egg sushi

Torch salmon sushi:

This sushi uses a torch/ lighter to grill the top of the fish yet leaving it mostly raw. It leave the fish with more fragrance compare to normal salmon sushi. This method allows the fish oil to drip onto the rice, making the sushi more flavorful. It is used commonly with other fish as well.

If you're interested in HOW torch sushi are made, here are some videos:

Click for Video of torch rolls, but the concept is the same.

Click for A clearer version of how the torch is used, but with beef this time (however the beef is fully cooked and torched salmon and most of other fish aren't)

Egg & Torch Salmon Sushi: 4.5/5

Squid: 3.5/5 (for the price, it's pretty good)

Soft shell crab tempura!!! (You can eat the shell ;))

One of my favourite dishes! A MUST for crablovers!

Rating: 5/5

I feel that this Bento is average. The side dishes aren't very attractive and there aren't that many fish either. The taste is good, but the choice of food I receive doesn't seem that good. There are lots of cucumber on rice so that they won't have to give me that much sashimi. It is OK, but I probably won't order it again.

Rating: 3/5

This is a also a side dish. The steam egg is very good, and the mushroom is good too.

Rating (Egg): 4.5/5
(Mushroom): 4/5

Overall I still love this restaurant for the 9 dollar sushi. If you know what to order, this restaurant can provide a wonderful dinning experience for you and your peers =)

MAKI MAKI: Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine

My friends and I arrived a bit later than lunch hour. Maki maki is a restaurant near the university with Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant has a Japanese name with a Japanese interior, which fooled me that they serve Japanese food as their main dishes. But apparently, my friend told me that they are better at making Vietnamese food, AFTER I ordered.... ==" And sure enough, their Japanese cuisine aren't that good.  

 

Bento Box 1

This is a bento box 1 they have for their lunch special. As you can see they have very cheap quality sushi: cooked scrimp, tofu wrappings. It doesn't look appealing to me at all.

Price: $10.75

My friend's Rating: 2.5/5

Eel Bowl

This is the dish I ordered. And i regret ordering it before I even ate it. There is alot of rice... but VERY LITTLE EEL. The side vegetables aren't attractive either, it's just cucumber that is slightly dried up, and badly preserved ginger. Since I like to eel with the rice, I had to eat very little eel each time i put a mouthful of rice in my mouth. The texture of the eel is horrible, it is too soft and obviously not fresh. They put alot of sauce on the eel to try to make it "taste better" but the sauce doesn't taste that good compare to the average eel sauce. I would never order it again.

Price: $12.95

 Rating: 2/5

Bento Box 2

 Again I don't find this very attractive. My friend let me try one of the tempura. It is edible but below average. The tempura sauce is quite weird... different from ordinary sauce, and doesn't taste as good. I would not order this. 

 Price: $11.75

My Friend's Rating: 3/5

Dragon Roll

Out of the Japanese food we ordered, this is the only decent one. It has eel on top of a sushi roll with varies fillings. I would consider eating this again if I go to maki maki. But I still find it a bit on the pricey for the quality. But it's worth a try =)

Price: $ 16-17

Rating: 4/5

Bun bo hue (Spicy Lemongrass Beef Noodle)

Being a mainly Vietnamese restaurant, their noodles are way more appealing than their Japanese food. This bowl of noodles is HUGE. I think most girls would find it hard to finish it up. There are noodles AND BEEF in that bowl so if you're hungry, this would be perfect =) 

My Friend's Rating: 4/5

Pho tai nam, sach (Rare steak, well done flank and soft tendon with rice noodle soup)

Again, the bowl of noodles has great quantity. This soup is non-spicy. If you're not use to Asian food and wants to try something new and Asian, I would recommend this noodle. 

Flanks have an attractive texture. How should I describe it... um... it's almost crispy? but not crispy in a sense like potato chips... haha. In Cantonese, there's a particular word "song" for it, but I'm not sure if there is in English. Flanks are almost tasteless but with sauce or in soup, they taste awesome =)

Soft Tendons, they may sound not that appealing if you're not use to it, but if you are the type of people that like to try new things, they are actually not that bad =) (it is a great way to enhance your experience from your ordinary routines, if it is not your routine already haha). They are tasty as it absorbs the flavor in the soup. Did you know that whenever we move our limbs, our bones rub at our joints? Did you know that this will damage and joints and without enough collagen to protect them, your joints can be severely damaged? Tendons are filled with collagen and helps restore your joints =) Of course, it is good for your skin too ^^

Rare Steak: By "rare" they are not serving you raw steak XD The chef will cut the steak in extremely thin pieces and put it last on top of the noodles before pouring boiling water in the bowl. This way, the steak will be cooked by the boiling water.

Price: $9.95

 My Friend's Rating: 3.5/5

Overall, I wouldn't order Japanese food in this restaurant anymore. Don't be fooled by the name of the restaurant like me! >< 

MIKADO: Japanese Cuisine

After driving a friend to the airport yesterday, my friend decided to take to me to a Japanese restaurant: Mikado.

  We arrive a bit after noon, the store isn't busy at all. The high ceilings of the store provide an open and fresh impression of the general enviornment. Large paper lights, interior roofs, individual tatami rooms (not all seats are like that), and waitresses dress in Kimono enhance the oriental atmosphere of the store. It's a very comfortable and relaxing place to enjoy a meal =)

When you sit down, they will give you these small hand towels to wipe your hands. These remind me of when I was young, I go "yum cha" with my family back in Hong Kong and they always provide these hand towels. They don't do that anymore now. It's interesting to see them again here. haha.

 

The restaurant claims to be fully owned and operated by a Japanese chef and have fresh fish flown weekly from the world's largest fish market in Tokyo.  

Dishes

The Beef Tataki is pretty good. The sides and sauce enhance the beef. However I don't really like the seaweed that much with the beef. To me, they don't really match >< but that's just my taste. The other 3 sides tastes good with the beef. 

Price: $ 9.95

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Beef Tataki

  

 I didn't try it myself but this is what my friend says: 

"The uni sushi is as good as other places. Uni is expensive but not many places have them regularly. $3-4 is the standard price. Uni Lovers will be willing to pay for it." 

I love uni too, but i still find it quite expensive >< lol. But I also know that it is impossible to find cheap uni in Edmonton :(

Price: $3-4.00

My Friend's Rating:  4.5 / 5

Uni Sushi

Both my friend and I ordered Chirashi. Why I like to order Chirashi when I don't know what to order is because 1) I love ALL types of sashimi. ALL. 2) It has a bit of everything so I can taste everything, 3) it's usually a better deal than ordering sushi or sashimi separately. I especially like the Saba this time, it has alot of fish oil in it! Yum! The quality of the other fish are also pretty decent =) But the egg wasn't that nice : ( But that's only one of them. Overall, it's a really good bowl of Chirashi :D (Edmonton standards). It is a bit more expensive than other places though, but there seems to be more pieces of sashimi with better quality. However, the quality of the sashimi may fluctuate due to the selection that was shipped to the store; depending on your luck! ^.^ 

Price: $ 22.95

Rating: 4/5 (Ed standards)

Chirashi

Mikado has three locations in Edmonton. I went to the southside one.

Downtown: 10350-109st. 

Westside: 9942-170st.

Southside: 1903-98st.