Me and some friends decided to go to Richmond for some random izakaya.  Our first choice, Manzo on Alexandra was closed, we already been to Nan Chuu, so we kept driving down, and my friend spotted Koto Izakaya (Sushi & Robata). We went in, and looked at the menu, it wasn’t very izakaya-ish at least what I’m used to. It was more of a mix of sushi and robata as those sections were larger than the menu items I’d typically see in the more popular izakayas.

We ordered a bunch of food to share – chicken karaage, lamb chops, beef sashimi, avocado maki, pork toro, oyster motoyaki, takoyaki, assorted sashimi, and a don. Surprisingly, we didn’t get any beer.

The chicken karaage was an actual wing, and not the boneless pieces of chicken that I’m used to at an izakaya. That said, it was still fried really well. The batter was really crisp and light, and the meat was tender. It was lightly salted, and really good. My lamb chop was a little bit over cooked, as one side was pretty dark, and had a bit of a tough, solid texture. Most of the meat was fairly tender though. The beef sashimi was served with strands of daikon, and in a ponzu sauce. The beef was sliced thin, but I thought there was a bit too much bitterness that I didn’t really enjoy Did it come from the sauce or the daikon?. The avocado maki’s nori was a bit dry and thus it got chewy in your mouth. My friend said the same thing about the nori in his roll. I wish the avocade was a bit softer and buttery. The pork toro was sliced and had a nice bite to it, and a bit of fat. It was probably my second favourite of the dishes I could eat.

My friend really liked the oyster motoyaki. It was a bit different because there was a layer of spinach on the bottom which added nice flavour, and some different texture. My other friend really liked how they had little don’s for just $4. Obviously, not as filling as a full don, so it’s good to have when you are snacking on a bunch of things.

The staff was polite and came by frequently to fill up our tea cups and check if we wanted to order more. I got some tweets after eating there recommending some dishes. Too bad I checked in too late, and wasn’t able to try it out or tell my friends about it. There are so many other restaurants in the area that I have to try, it is food street after all, so I’m not sure when I’d be back, but I wouldn’t say no.

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Koto Izakaya Sushi & Robata
#101-8171 alexandra road
Richmond, BC

(604) 278-4601

I usually stay away from Richmond’s “food-street” aka Alexandra Road because all I remember is that it’s very busy and hard to find parking around that area. This past week I went, and there was actually no one there. Kind of shocked me, but maybe I was only used to going there on weekend nights. I’ll have to go during weekdays more often, because theres a bunch of places there that I want to eat at. I finally got my chance to try out Nan Chuu, which is owned by the same people that brought us Gyoza King and G-Men Ramen (both really good restaurants as well).

Nan Chuu is an izakaya restaurant with a bunch of two person tables, and a few larger ones. I ordered the tori karaage, cream korokke, gyu tataki, wagyu beef skewer, and agedashi tofu. Friend ordered ebi mayo, karubi, oyster motoyaki, lamb chop, and a bacon scallop skewer.

The tori karaage were the larger boneless chunks of chicken that I prefer. It was very crunchy and really moist inside, and came with a mayo. The cream korokke were deep fried balls of cream and chicken. When you bit into the crispy ball, the cream didn’t ooze out. It was fairly thick and had a few little pieces of chicken in there. The gyu tataki was thin slices of beef sashimi served on top of daikon and served with some grated pickled vegetables and a ponzu sauce. I totally recommend adding all components of the dish together before eating. The vegetables give it a really good kick and blast of flavour. Without it, the beef and ponzu sauce didn’t offer too much flavour. The wagyu beef skewer was quite disappointing to be honest. It was had a really firm texture, and not as tender and filled with fat as I’m used to. The one at Glowbal, was so tender and juicy. But this one had a very firm bite, similar to a pork neck skewer that I had. For some reason, I was picking up a slight liver-like flavour as well (which I don’t like). Finally I ordered an agedashi tofu because we had to kill a little bit more time before heading off to TBC go karting. My friend said that it was the best agedashi tofu that he’s ever had. I agree. It was very different because it was served with a mushroom gravy with lots of different mushrooms on top, it was very rich. The tofu was also really good as it was crispy, while still soft on the inside, and was a bit sweet.

I didn’t try any of the seafood items my friend ordered but he said they were pretty good. The karubi or beef shortribs had a nice sweet flavour, but not the tenderest I’ve ever had. The lamb chop was for sure the best thing we tried on the menu though. It was so tender, fatty, meaty, and flavourful. Perfect cut of meat, and was served with a sweet mustard sauce.

Their service was really good. We didn’t wait too long for the food, and they never over stuffed our little table. They refilled our tea often. I think they also have their own beer, which I unfortunately didn’t get to try. I personally prefer going to izakayas in larger groups where we can share, and drink a bunch, so I’m not sure how often I’d come back since most of the tables are just two seaters against the wall. I would still like to try the Manzo on Alexandra Road which is just a few doors away.

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Nan Chuu Japanese Izakaya
1160-8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

(604) 276-8391

I’ll admit that I’m not much of a ramen lover. I usually find it way to salty for my liking. I’ve only had ramen a couple times at a couple of the Benkei locations, and it was only okay. I don’t know if I’ve ever craved ramen. G-men Ramen is run by the people who also do Gyoza King on Robson (which I also really need to try). The tables were all busy at dinner time so we sat at the front counter.

I ordered the Miso Ramen ($8.50), and my friend ordered the Shoyu Ramen ($8.00) with corn.

I really liked my Miso Ramen. It wasn’t too salty, which is why I really liked it. The noodles were cooked perfectly, still having a bit of a bite to them. In the tonkatsu miso were some nice fatty but thin slices of BBQ pork, seaweed, black woodear mushrooms, and plenty of green onions. The really fatty BBQ pork is for sure the thing I love most about ramen, and this was no different. I love how tender it was. They had the standard minced garlic and I had to put a nice heaping table spoon of that for extra flavour.

My friend also enjoyed her Tonkotsu Shoyu ramen because it wasn’t as salty as other places too. They even gave her a special slotted spoon so she can get at her corn! She enjoyed it, but still not as good as the ramen she’s had in Hawaii.

I think the prices were a little bit more than Benkei or the same price, I can’t remember. The menu here is quite limited though, as I didn’t see much more than the few types of ramen, and some donburi bowls. However, it is still the best ramen that I’ve had.

Note: Cash Only!

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G-Men Ramen
#1101-3778 Sexsmith Road
Richmond, BC

(778) 296-3779

http://www.gmenramen.com

First we believed the address listed on urbanspoon, and drove to the middle of a business park parking lot. No luck, the address was totally wrong. Then, we googled Tenku Bakudanyaki (one of the truck’s name), and believed google maps. That led us to the empty parking lot across from Rona on Elmbridge way; the address was totally wrong, again. Not willing to give up,  we went to their website, just to double check the address, and that led us to a 3rd address to these trucks. Finally, we decided to try one more time, and 3rd time’s a charm, we found them.

Since there were 3 trucks and each truck really only sold one item, I broke them down into 3 little reviews.

Tenku Bakudanyaki

***~~ (3/5)

We started off with Tenku Bakudanyaki, this truck was selling Takoyaki bombs (bakudanyaki). You can get them in different sauce flavors, we got a Wasabi Mayo Bakudanyaki ($5).  This giant takoyaki had a more ingredients in it than I expected. It had shrimp, cabbage, whole quail egg, and it was topped with lots of bonito flakes. What was strange was, I don’t remember eating any tako (octopus) from the bakudanyaki. There was also a lot of sweet yaki sauce and wasabi mayo on top, really nice flavors. I’d eat it again but I probably wouldn’t pay 5 dollars for it.

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Fumisen!

***~~ (3/5)

Fumisen! was the next truck over, and it was selling sushi cones. There were a few specialty cones that they sell, but you can also make your own. We decided to just go with one of the specialties, and got the Spicy Salmon Cone with Soy Crepe ($4.75). The cone had spicy salmon, green onions, and tons of tobiko. The cone was held together by their yellow soy crepe, which I really had no clue what it was. The soy crepe didn’t have any taste to it, but it did make the cone looked prettier.

This was a pretty delicious cone. The spicy salmon was great and it got the right amount of heat from the spicy sauce. Every bite has got a nice contrast in texture from the salmon and the rice and the tobiko. This was a great item to get in the summer, no heavy flavors here.  I’d eat this again, however like the bakudanyaki, I didn’t think it was worth $4.75.

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Shoryumen

**~~~ (2/5)

Shoryumen was last truck we visited and it was a ramen noodle truck. We were there when they were in the middle of changing menus for the summer, so we basically made our own bowl ramen noodles with the help of the guy at the counter. We got a Shio Ramen and it included nori (seaweed sheets), cabbage, sprouts, and green onions. We were also asked to pick 3 additional toppings for our ramen, and we picked Chashu (pork), black mushroom and bamboo shoots. All that for $8.75 dollars.

The Shio Ramen was not what I’m usually used to. The soup base was really clear, and it tasted like just how it looks, nothing fancy. The pork were shredded instead of sliced. All of the toppings by the way, were cold. The soup was just lukewarm. I definitely didn’t get the comforting feeling that I’d expect from a bowl of ramen.

There was also nowhere to sit in this truck, there was a bar, but it was for standing only. The guy at the counter was pretty nice. He gave us an extra topping (young bamboo shoots) because we told him we went to all of their previous locations before finally finding them there.

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I think the concept of the trailers was interesting, however everything was slightly over priced in my opinion. The one bad thing about these trucks was that they are mobile and they move. The best way to find out where they are currently located is through their website, we found that out the hard way. Overall, I give these 3 food trucks 3/5 stars, for decent food, and it’s street food concepts.

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For store hours and location:
www.bakudanyaki.com

There are two Manzo Japanese Restaurants in Richmond. One on “Food Street” aka Alexandra Rd, and the other on Garden City and Capstan. Today, I went to the one on Capstan which Urban Spoon lists as an Itamae (the other is Izakaya). Can someone tell me what the difference is?

We got here at 4:30 PM only to find out that it opens at 5 PM. Went around and came back at 5 PM, and the door still was locked? Huh? We called in to see if they were open, and they were, and they quickly turned on the Open sign and unlocked the door. They apologized. We were the first ones at the restaurant and were immediately seated. The restaurant is very dark so I had to boost up my ISO to get proper shots. As we left the restaurant, it was so bright out outside, that it felt like we were just leaving a strip club at noon. The restaurant was pretty cool. They had a booth lined up with Asahi Big Boy bottles. They had a lot of red trim too, pretty trendy.

Their menu was pretty big, and they had daily specials. On the first go we ordered the lamb skewer ($5.95), enoki beef maki ($5.95), grilled miso chicken ($4.95), oyster motoyaki ($2.95), beef short ribs ($5.50) and chicken karaage ($5.95). The chicken karaage was boneless fried chicken, with some sort of aioli. I couldn’t make out what flavour it was though, as I mostly tasted mayo, I think they used a seasoning salt. It was good, crispy outside, tender inside. It was only seasoned a little bit, but it wasn’t nearly as good as what I had at Guu with Garlic. We also got the Beef Shortribs, which was only OK too. It was a bit tough to chew sometimes and wasn’t as tender as I liked. The marinade was good though, not too salty.  The Lamb skewer came next and this was awesome. It was tender and had a nice flavour to it. It also came with a bit of mustard that was pretty pungent, but good, just put a little though. The miso chicken wasn’t very good, it was just really salty, and maybe slightly undercooked, I wasn’t a big fan of this. The oyster motoyaki was only $2.95 and the scallop motoyaki was double the price. My friend got two and he said it was really good. The enoki beef maki was a bit weird. Since it said maki I thought it would be sushi, but it was another skewer. It was some beef rolled around enoki mushroom, skewered then grilled. It wasn’t very good either. Although the beef was pinkish, it was still kind of hard to chew.

On our second batch we ordered Pork Toro ($9.95), Takoyaki ($5.95), and Beef Sashimi ($11.95). Now these orders were all awesome. The beef sashimi came first. This was a bit different because the slices of beef were double the thickness of what it usually is, with onions, and the sauce was in a little bowl, so you just dip as you eat. This was amazing, the used really fresh beef here, and the sauce just added a little bit more flavour. This was my favorite dish of the meal. The pork toro was also pretty good. It kind of reminded us of lechon (Filipino roast pork). It had a salad on the side which we didn’t touch, and a sauce and green onions on top of the pork. The pork was cut thin, and there was some pieces with skin, and a layer of fat. Sometimes the fat would be a bit chewy, but other pieces were very tender. It had really good flavour. I can’t say anything about the takoyaki, but my friend said it was his favourite dish of the meal. The fried octopus ball had some bonito flakes on top which added a fishy saltiness, and the sauce on the bottom tied everything together perfectly.

In the end I guess it was a bit pricey. It came to $65.15 before tip for just two people. We didn’t even order any drinks. When I go back I’ll make sure to go with 4 or more people so you can try lots.

So overall there were more good dishes than bad. Also, the servers were all really friendly. Even the manager was helping out by serving us and refilling our tea whenever they came by to check up on us. One of the waitress’ was hot too =).

Manzo Japanese Restaurant
120-9020 Capstan Way
Richmond, BC

(604) 821-9834

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Torarenbo had been one of the couple places I go get sushi in Richmond for the past year or so. The food in there are pretty good, and you can find a couple items on their menu that are usually not available in other Japanese restaurants.

I was in Richmond one night looking for a small Japanese restaurant for dinner. I was really surprised by how early Japanese restaurants close in Richmond. I drove to 3 different places, and they were all closed either at 8:30 or 9. I was a kind of frustrated because those restaurants weren’t even in remote locations, they were near Richmond Center. Why was it so difficult for a girl to get some sushi rolls for dinner and review it?

Anyways, so after the 3rd restaurant denied me of ordering take out because they already had their last call at 9pm, I went to Torarenbo.

The staff was always nice in there. I ordered a Nigiri Sushi Combo, and a Spicy Tuna Roll. I was offered a seat and tea while waiting for my take out, and it was ready in 10 minutes.

The Nigiri Sushi Combo had 8 pieces of nigiri sushi, 2 kinds of salmon, tuna, shrimp, red snapper, tako, ika and hokki ($10.50). I asked them to substitute the ika with tuna because I never liked raw squid.

The sushi was delicious. The seafood was fresh, and the rice was nice, vinegary and not warm. The sizes were perfect, not too big so you can actually eat everything in one bite, and not have a difficult time chewing. The Spicy Tuna roll was great too, it had just the right amount of rice, tuna and spiciness. Overall, just one very refreshing meal.

One thing I didn’t like was them using a cheap version of the tako (octopus). It’s probably the only place that uses this kind of tako. It didn’t have much taste to it.

Torarnbo opens until 10pm, this is one of the places you can get quality sushi paste 9 in Richmond.

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Torarenbo
8191 Park Rd
Richmond, BC V6Y
(604) 214-1402

This place is an AYCE (All You Can Eat) restaurant so take this review with a grain of salt, but, in the world of restaurants (especially Japanese restaurants in Vancouver, the place where everyone can live the sushi restaurant dream) it only takes one bad experience for a diner to decide that the place is not worth the money.

I’ve been to Aji Taro before on a less than a handful of occasions and it’s always been a pleasant experience. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to gripe about either. I don’t expect much from AYCE places because the goal of the place is to serve a large amount of people with a larger amount of food. As long as the service is half decent, the food is passable and I don’t get sick, we’re all good.

Today, 7 other friends and I went there and the service was terrible. They were severely understaffed and the restaurant wasn’t exactly full either. We always brag that we can eat our money’s worth at AYCE because we’re all big eaters but we weren’t even given the chance to today. Our first order was only half fulfilled, and our second order was sadly aborted before it was able to be born. I was really looking forward to having a food baby tonight. We asked the staff serveral times to check our order for us, and the staff was apologetic and kind about checking. But the orders never came. 2 hours later, we were still waiting for our order to be fulfilled and the food that did come, came at a slow trickle at best.

Finally, we asked if we could have another order form and just to have whatever we ordered previously ignored. That food came rather quickly but it was too little too late. We didn’t leave until nearly 3 hours later and I left full, but incredibly unsatisfied. The food itself was good when it did come, a few items didn’t taste very fresh but that’s forgivable because of my low bar for AYCE, but if I have a choice of AYCE restaurants to eat at in the future I wont be choosing this one.

Again, sorry, no photos… because we rarely had food on our table.

Aji Taro Japense Bistro
101-4940 No. 3 Road
Richmond, BC

http://www.ajitaro.com

(604) 273-3838

I actually just found out recently that the Guu in Richmond was at Aberdeen Mall. No wonder I never knew it was here. It was tucked away in a little corner of the mall.  I went this week on Monday the 21st. Wow, was I disappointed. Beipas warned me that the Guu in Aberdeen sucks compared to Guu with Garlic downtown. I should have listened.

We didn’t make any reservations and arrived there at 7PM. There weren’t any free tables for 6, so we just grabbed the bar. That was a pretty bad choice as we were in the direct line of fire (Japanese yelling) between the waiters and the cooks. Damn, do they have to yell like that? The girl is even more annoying because its a high pitched yell. If you decide to eat there, do not eat at the bar if it’s busy unless you want to have your ear drums verbally raped.

That leads to my next complaint, and pretty much why I hated Guu. They seem to have the dumbest ordering system ever. They just yell the orders to the cooks. There wasn’t much of a paper trail for the orders. Each one of the 6 people we were with had at least one order of food not come unless we asked again. For me it was two of my three dishes.I ordered the Pumpkin Croquette, Yaki Udon, and Aigamo. All I heard was my waiter yell “Yaki Udon” over me to the cooks.

So, I wait. Parts of my friends’ orders came in occasionally, somewhat randomly. I eventually got to watch one of the cooks prepare the Yaki Udon infront of me. He made one big wok of Udon and separated it into 4 dishes. Yay for me, I see bonito flakes on top of my meat dish! I had to pick it off, and I was OK. The udon was really good, and I would definitely order it again. For $7-8 it wasn’t that much food, but it was very good. The texture of the udon was just right, and the sauce and meat tasted very good. If there is a next time I’ll tell them not to put bonito flakes on mine.

So now the long wait, and I mean long. I waited 30 minutes, and the rest of my order did not come. My friends got their remaining dishes, some after asking twice to check up on it. My duck and pumpkin ball which was supposed to be really good never came. I finally decided to ask my waiter to see if it was coming, he said OK. Well, after another 20 minutes my duck finally comes as I was saying, “I hope my food doesn’t come anymore, I don’t want to pay for it.” I ate it anyways. The duck was served on a plate with some vegetables and mushrooms, cold, but I guess it was meant to be. The description said that the Aigamo was grilled and boiled duck with some sort of sauce. Either way it wasn’t bad, but probably wouldn’t order it again.

In the end the Pumpkin Croquette never came. Which is OK I guess. I get to save my money, and one of my friends said it wasn’t that good anyway. It was basically a hard boiled egg wrapped in some sort of Pumpkin breading and fried.

Well I was getting really annoyed, and grumpy so I wanted to go. I asked for the bill, and guess what, the Pumpkin Croquette is on my bill! I was about to explode, but it turns out they just put the croquette on the wrong receipt. So by the end of all this crappy service, I gave my lowest tip ever. My meal came out to about $16.70, I gave a twenty and took $3 back. Eat that 30 cent tip!

One of the crappiest services I have ever had. But the food was decent. Also, the menu was stacked with seafood, but that didn’t bother me too much and the price wasn’t too expensive. The service definitely killed it for me.

Guu in Aberdeen
4151 Hazelbridge Way, #2790
Richmond, BC V6X3R8