Vintage Japanese Izakaya - Tairyou Ichiba Burnaby (大魚市場)

This restaurant's been here for quite a while and it's definitely one of the more authentic Japanese restaurants around. The owners are Japanese and the way it's setup is very similar to some places in Japan (like Izakayas) where you drink some beer/ alcohol and then eat at the same time. I came here with my family on the weekend for dinner and it was quite busy. Here's my impression:

Service (I would give them 3/5)
I think they are under staffed, so it seemed like between the three waitresses, they were stretched thin. When we arrived, it took us around 15 minutes because a waitress came by to take our order and then another half an hour before we got our food. So it was a bit on the slower end. That said.. given that it's supposed to be Izakaya style.. I think we were supposed to order drinks (which we didn't do) and then wait for the food to come, but instead we only ordered food. The order the food came was also a bit strange. We ordered the chawanmushi (which is an appetizer I think) that came after the sushi came. The noodles we ordered also came after the sushi. At the end, everyone ate at a different time because the time spacing between the food was longer than usual.

Selection of Food (I would give them 4.5/5)
I do have to admit that when I first looked at the menu, my head hurt a bit on how many items were on there. It reminded me a bit of my university days when I was trying to look through my computer code to see where error was and then having a hard time doing so because of how much text I had to look through. The menu here was like that and there were quite a few items. There were some Japanese dishes like the Chawanmushi that I saw here and that I'm a big fan of.


Value (4/5)
Overall, this is one of the more authentic Japanese around restaurants around. The price of the food is priced pretty fairly in my opinion for the most part. There were a few things that I thought was a bit overpriced like the Chawanmushi (for $5+ when it's nothing more than some vegetables and steamed egg with a small piece of scallop). That said, the rolls of sushi were pretty fairly priced and all tasted pretty average. If it wasn't for the long wait to get the food, I would definitely given this place a higher score. 

You better eat fast - A sushi restaurant that feels like a sauna (Sushi Garden High Gate)

Sushi Garden has got to be one of the most popular sushi restaurants around and they have opened up many locations. When I got here, it was around 7:30 at night and the place was about 90% full.  I usually come to Sushi Garden for take out because there is a deal (I believe 5% off if you pay with cash and order in advance). However, this time I decided to eat in. There wasn't a line up (like there usually is when I drive by), so I decided to come in with my +1. Our first impression was that the restaurant was warm and smoggy (the windows were all fogged up) and felt like a mini sauna. The restaurant was also pretty tightly packed, and there wasn't much free space to move around.
   Once we sat down, the waiter brought us the menu. I've seen many menus in the past, but this menu was super worn out and it looked like someone just spent 10 minutes on Microsoft Word to copy and paste things and then it was printed. The lamination were all frayed and the colours of the menu was all faded. I'm not an art critic, but this is just an observation. Who knows, the vintage and minimalism style could be a thing. The other thing I noticed from the last time I was here was that the price for sushi have gone up. As a benchmark, their Alaska Roll (one of my favourite rolls from them) used to be $3.95 but now it's $4.50. However, given the current economy and inflation, costs going up is understandable. It's interesting to note that the utensils that they were using like cups seemed worn out. The one that my +1 had was chipped.
    I decided to order an Alaska Roll, 2 spicy tuna rolls and a wild salmon roll. I tend to avoid salmon because of PCB (farmed salmon tend to have higher concentrations of PCBs). Once we finished ordering, the food came pretty fast. I have to say, I still love their Alaska Rolls, that thin slice of Salmon on top of a roll that has avocados and then some miso paste really does it for me. The spicy tuna rolls was average, there is really nothing much to say about that. Overall I liked the rolls, and felt they were pretty decent.
   The interesting part was that I felt the waiters/ waitresses were watching us like hawks. The moment we are finished with a plate, they came right away to take the plate away. They did that for all of our plates and then when we finally finished the last plate, they came with the bill. It was very swift and I'm not going to lie, it made me feel a bit anxious and pressured to hurry up and leave. Definitely this is not a place to take a family (I live with old people who eat slow), I can imagine how pressured one will feel to eat as it seems like they want you out the door fast.
   Overall, I like their sushi, but it is not a place I will go out of my way to go eat it as the eating environment is pretty uncomfortable.

Forget about bite sized for sushi, the sushi here are jumbo sized (Asakusa Sushi Kingsway/Metrotown)

I am so used to eating sushi that is (somewhat) bite-sized. I've only ever seen a handful of places that makes really big sushi and this place is one of them. The location is convenient as it is just literally across the street from Metrotown. It was dinner time and my friend and I just went swimming and he was driving back to the Metrotown area. I am not too sure if there were any parking, so we parked outside at the curb. It was about a dollar for an hour (Make sure you double check what the hours are when you put your coins in. The free-parking times are a bit strange). Public transit would probably be the most accessible.
   When we walked in, we were greeted by one of the waitresses who quickly seated us down. She brought us the menu and the dinner special. I must say their dinner special portions looked big and most were under $10. The one that caught my eye was the chicken teriyaki dinner. It has the chicken teriyaki on a skillet and some vegetables with some rice underneath. Also, it has a side dish of miso soup and 6 rolls of California rolls that come with it. All for $10! It is a pretty sweet deal, and the portions are big too,
   Because I had another portion of dinner waiting for me at home, I decided to only get two rolls of sushi. I got a chicken teriyaki roll and an Alaska roll. When the rolls came, I was surprised. They were about $3.70 each and the rolls were huge. They are at least twice the size of conventional sushis. The taste was mediocre as the filling of the sushi was just conventional things (like for the Chicken terikyaki roll, chicken and cucumber) and salmon sashimi and imitation crab meat for the California roll.
   I am not too sure if it was because I read an article on farmed salmon and the fact that it contains 5x the amount of PCB's or the sashimi was put in rice, the sashmi felt a bit on the not fresh tasting side. That said, there was not too much sashimi in the California roll as it was mostly full of the imitation crab.
   Overall, the service of this restaurant is pretty average, but the sushi rolls and their size relative to their price makes me want to come back again.