Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Tojo's in Vancouver

I am in Vancouver and visited Tojo's. I went into the restaurant without a reservation, and ended up sitting at the bar which was fine. The service was by the bartender and he was perhaps too busy serving drinks, so the service was perhaps not the best but I asked for it by going without a reservation. That's fine.

I ordered the $110 Omakase. I enjoyed the meal very much and would definitely go again if I had a chance. Now the food:



Tuna tataki: tuna lightly cooked on the outside, with a citrus sauce. It was quite nice and refreshing, although I prefer tuna completely raw.



Crab salad: a small stack of crab meat on top of julienne cucumber and mung bean noodles. The dressing has citrus in it. The crab meat was very fresh and the citrus dressing brought out the natural sweetness of the crab. Unfortunately my camera was out of focus.



Fried morel stuffed with fish/octopus (?): this is an interesting dish. The morels were stuffed with minced fish (or octopus?) and then deep fried. This was served on top of some leafy greens (looks like Chinese vegetables to me) and bean sprouts. The texture of the stuffing was a little chewy (typical of Japanese minced fish cakes) and gave a nice balance to the morels. Unfortunately, I didn't quite catch what the filling was made of because of the heavy accent of my server.



Deep fried whitefish: one of my favorites of the night. A piece of whitefish was "breaded" with a thin coating of rice and deep fried. The breading ("ricing"?) was more like puffed rice and was very light. This was served on top of sauteed vegetables and mushrooms, and a sauce that was made from dashi and soy sauce. The consistency of the sauce was strange, almost like a half-set jello. I wonder what was used to thicken it.




Smoked sablefish soup: another one of my favorites. The bowl of soup was covered in parchment paper and steamed. Inside was a pretty large piece of smoked sablefish, asparagus, matsutake mushrooms, and a flavorful broth. Sablefish continues to be one of my favorite fish: it has a very delicate texture and the smokiness added to the depth of the broth. This was the first time I have tasted matsutake: it has a woody taste and goes well with the smoked fish.



Lobster hand cone: a hand cone with tempura lobster, asparagus, avocado, and a spicy mayonnaise. It was a little too spicy for my taste, but it was still very good.



Sushi. From top left clockwise, as much as I can remember: scallop, crab, prawn, and salmon wrapped in a very thin egg crepe (Golden Roll), a crab and avocado roll with scallop and herring roes on top (Pacific Northwest Roll), lobster roll with smoked salmon on top (Great Canadian Roll), spicy tuna roll with tuna on top, hamachi nigiri, sweet shrimp nigiri, tuna tataki nigiri. Everything was fresh and tasted very good. My only complaint was the duplication of tuna tataki from the first course.



Dessert: vanilla ice cream and red bean sauce. Typical Japanese flavors, and the vanilla ice cream was very nice and smooth. There were some gold flakes on top but they do not really contribute much to the dish, in my opinion.

Overall, I think this was a very nice meal. The price is perhaps slightly less than other restaurants that offer a tasting menu. I think it's a good deal. I wonder what the $60 and $80 Omakase will get you.