***½~ (3.5/5)

Sushi Garden is located on Kingsway near Metrotown, on a block that is embedded with probably 5 other sushi restaurants. For a Japanese restaurant with 5 other competitors competing right beside it, this restaurant was doing pretty well on its own.

I went there for lunch last week, and this restaurant was busy! I arrived just a little bit past noon, and all the tables were filled, and there was a big line up. What a popular place it seemed. I didn’t have enough lunch time to wait for a table, so my friends and I settled for take out instead.

The  menu had standard Japanese items, but the ones that stood out the most were their sushi rolls. They had very interesting names, and different ingredients than other regular sushi rolls. It kind of reminded me a little of The Eatery.  Ordering food there was not easy for me, because I wanted to try a lot of things. In the end, we ordered a Spicy Salmon Sashimi, a Island Roll, a Crab <3 Papaya Roll,  a House roll, a Tropical Dynamite Roll, and a Tako Yaki for appetizer.

The best dish I ordered out of the bunch was the Spicy Salmon Sashimi. It came with a mountain of salmon that was doused in their spicy sauce. I’ll give you a warning, the spicy sauce, was hot! It’s got a really nice after heat to it and it was so good. There were also chunks of diced cucumber and a bed of daikon at the bottom, they added a nice texture to the dish.

The Island Roll was cooked tuna with Kiwi Sauce. I was a little hesitant about the cooked tuna, but got sold on the Kiwi sauce. The roll overall was what I expected, very average. I didn’t really liked the cooked tuna, it felt it it was just canned tuna, and the Kiwi sauce on top was pretty mild. I probably won’t get it again.

My favorite roll of the meal was the Crab <3 Papaya roll. It had a nice big chuck of deep fried crab, and rolled with a big chuck of papaya (I love papaya). The crab meat and the sweetness papaya went really well together. It was very nice on its own, not much soy sauce needed.

The rest of the meal were pretty average. The Tropical Dynamite Roll had 2 prawn tempura, cucumber and cream cheese, rolled in rice and a very thin sheet of egg. I wasn’t too sure what was so tropical about it, the cream cheese certainly did not remind me of the tropical.

The House roll was pretty standard, on the menu it said it has ‘lots of stuff’ in it, but it was just salmon, imitated crab meat and eggs. Nothing really special.

I liked this restaurant in general. I had some pretty good food. I wish I didn’t have to order to take out, because I’m sure the food would taste even better when they’re freshly made. It was a Korean-owned Japanese restaurant, it was nice to see they put their own spin on their dishes like the Spicy Salmon Sashimi, I’ve never had it like that anywhere else.

Note: Parking on the street. Avoid lunch rush, arrive early or a little late for lunch.

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Sushi Garden
4635 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H
(604) 436-0104

****~ (4/5)

I never ever noticed Sushi Oyama, or even the building, even though it’s right by NCIX (for us geeks) on Kingsway. Well, I was kind of shocked seeing that it was a Japanese restaurant in a stone house. Their Grand Opening Sign is still up, but my friends had already been there 6 months ago. At the front was a nice water-fall wall thing (I had a picture but I underexposed). The restaurant had two separate rooms with two separate sushi bars. They also had an upstairs, but I wasn’t sure what was up there.

We looked at the menu which was,decent selection. First thing that hit me was wow, this place wasn’t that expesnive, and wow Sushi Tengoku is uber expensive! I found that they had some rolls here that I could eat too. They also had a Chicken Katsu roll, but for only $3.99! I had to order this to compare. I also just ordered a tamago maki. I ordered just a little bit because we were supposed to go running in the pouring rain shortly after. The chicken roll was crispy too, but it was better at Tengoku. They also kind of cut the roll a bit to thin, and the chicken would sometimes fall out, as I picked it up. It was decent, and cheaper, but I think it had a bit less meat. I don’t normally get the Tamago Maki, but I noticed that the seaweed was a bit tough to chew. The egg was better than what was at Sushi Tengoku. I guess I should have ordered the nigiri.

Wheel was on a protein only diet, so he just ordered some sashimi. My other friends totally underestimated the amount of food they were getting. They ordered 4 different rolls, and sashimi. The rolls were huge and really pretty. They ordered the Smoked Salmon and Cream cheese roll – which was basically smoked salmon on top of a cream cheese and crab roll. (I tried this and I’m also allergic to this kind of smoked salmon.. DAMN!).  They also had the Red Roll which had scallops and tobiko in a roll and topped with tuna, this one was kind of spicy. For their third roll they had  the Mango Dice Roll, which is basically a cali roll with mango inside, and a piece of shrimp on top. They also had the Oyama Roll which was salmon and avocado inside and topped with  black sesame or green roe (alternating), and some larger roe on top. These rolls are all very pretty and surprisingly not too expensive. These rolls were about $7 for most of them. I think all of the rolls were under $10, and the sashimi was $7 something.

My friends’ favourite roll was definitely the Oyama Roll (soooo good), then the Red Roll, then the Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Roll. The Mango Roll was not so good. They really liked this place because they had a nice variety of special rolls, and the price wasn’t too high. Very good value here. They couldn’t finish their food, and it was their first meal of the day.

The service was very friendly, and they refilled our tea many times.

You may end up driving past it, and not notice it, but you should definitely give it a try if you happen be close by. It’s just a minute or so from Metrotown (on the way totowards New Westminster).

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Sushi Oyama
5152 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

(604) 568-1012

****~ (4/5)

Nao Sushi is one of my frequent restaurants to visit for lunch. I’ve tried most of the items on their menu, and never had a disappointment.

Today I ordered a Chirashi Don ($12). This was a big lunch. The don came in 2 stacked bowls, one with all the sashimi and one with the rice. There was a lot of sashimi, there was salmon, tuna, shrimp, octopus, surf clam, eggs and scallop. The sashimi were in very big pieces too, but it was good for me because I was craving sashimi.

What makes this chirashi don different than others was that it had sweet shitaki mushrooms and dried shrimp seasoning on top of the sushi rice. They were really good together with the rice, and they opened up my appetite a lot.

I had another good lunch here, the only thing I was a little peeved was that my tuna sashimi were still a little bit frozen.

The waitresses were always really nice, and the atmosphere was modern and clean. There’s always a lunch rush here, it actually gets really busy during lunch, so make sure you make reservations or arrive before 12pm.

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Nao Sushi
7060 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5E
(604) 521-3131