Sushi California: New menu, poor execution

BigBlackBab00n was back in townnn! Time for long overdue lunch =D Joined by LittleWeed, we hit up our fav jap place in the area, Sushi California. They had a new menu and looks renovated, quite nice now!

Restaurant: Sushi California

Location: 501 North Road, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi
Price range: $10-15 per person



Date of visit: December 27, 2014
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 4/5

New to their menu was Hirame ($1.60). I found it a bit too fishy and "veiny". Tasted like a combination of Tai and Hamachi. Rice was cooked and seasoned well. Also got Kanpachi ($2.00), it was fresh and tasty. Flavors are light and the fish was flakey. Also a Chopped Scallop ($1.35) which was overflowing with scallop. It was a bit too saucy though. But fresh and delicious =D (all the nigiris were large size)

Also new to their menu were Fresh Oysters ($4.95). These were poorly executed. They were hit or miss. 2/4 were fresh, 2/4 were not parted from the shell, and one had a broken shell. Only one had no shell bits in the oyster.

They were slimey-- like they hadn't been cleaned at all. Flavors didn't go well with the oysters. Kinda sad, but what did I expect from a place like this? The other stuff was still great (rolls, noodles, etc).

Either way, I enjoyed my kanpachi and chopped scallop. Also ate some of LittleWeed's sushi =P Delish!

Sushi California: Sushi-comfort-food

Been feeling a bit mopey and stressed lately, glad Little Teemo and Eggtart pulled me out to dinner =) Great company and sushi therapy? Golden.

Restaurant: Sushi California

Location: 501 North Road, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi
Price range: $10-15





Date of visit: March 9, 2014
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 3.75/5
Buck worthy? 4.5/5

I forgot how LARGE their nigiris were so I went ahead and ordered a Salmon ($1.20), Ika ($1.25),  Hamachi ($2.00), and Chopped Scallop ($1.35) nigiri =/ Way too much food. Fish was fresh, the ika was meh though, too gummy and not enough crunch to it. Seafood to rice ratio was too low-- there was too much rice!

I also ordered a Crunch House Roll ($4.50), which was basically a deep-fried house roll! It was nice and crispy, didn't feel oily at all! The salmon and tuna became rather cooked after sitting for a while (residual head I presume), but otherwise it was delish!

Little Teemo ordered a Hot N Roll ($3.95). I didn't get a chance to try the Hot N Roll, but it looked really pretty and fancy for a roll of that price!

She also had a Spicy Tuna Tempura Roll ($3.95) and an Alaska Roll ($3.95), of which I tried the spicy tuna tempura roll. I felt it was a nice texture, not too oily but could use a bit more kick to it ^-^

Eggtart ordered a Crunch Cali ($3.95) aka a deep fried california roll, and a Bills Roll ($3.95), which contained yam tempura. So much rice he almost had a carb coma xD

I tried Eggtart's Sweet Mango roll ($6.95), it was light and fresh, but I wish it were sweeter with more mango flavor to it (he felt it wasn't sweet enough either).

I found their rice to be a bit tasteless, but the texture was good. It was actually quite full for such a late hour (for Coquitlam this is a BIG thing-- most places are closed early haha). I guess for the price paid, it's a great deal =)

Photo credits to Little Teemo

I was in the presence of amazing company. Always nice to know you have people around you supporting you regardless =) *forever grateful*

Sushi &: Hit or miss, glad I hit most of the time =D

Finally finished my finals, so I'm rewarding myself to sushi (of course)!! =D I really wanted to go to Sushi Elephant after my brother went and said it was "ok" (most things are ok to him). Turns out they already closed down and another restaurant had taken its place. Still a Japanese restaurant, so might as well try! The new name is odd to me though-- Sushi & . . . (what?!?!) haha

Restaurant: Sushi &

Location: 205- 403 North Road, Coquitlam
Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi
Price range: $10-20





Date of visit: December 12, 2013
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 4/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

Ok. I may have ordered too much in my excitement, but packed it up to feed le parents after hehe ^-^ Ordered a Nigiri Sushi Combo B ($11.95). I felt it was a pretty good deal, there were 2 Hokkigai, 2 Tai, 2 Ebi, 3 Tuna, and 3 Salmon nigiri. The tai was very chewy and springy. Besides the difficulty biting the piece in half, it was very fresh. Hokkigai was nothing special, lots of rice for the little pieces of sashimi =/ Fresh though! Now the tuna was the only thing disappointing me a bit, it was still frozen when I bit into it. Little bits of frozen as I chomped down. The tuna was as fresh as flash-frozen could be I suppose. Not too mush and didn't have the odd sour taste I get with some tuna. I packed the salmon home, mom thought the fish was great and the rice was well-cooked.

Also ordered a Sakura Roll ($6.95) because I wanted chopped scallop in some form. Scallops were fresh but the roll itself threatened to fall apart upon picking up. Tuna was nothing special, just chopped up tuna. Liked the spicy though, added some kick to the roll and overall went super well with the creamy chopped scallops ^w^

Volibear got quite a few items, the first was the Chicken Yakisoba ($8.95)-- twas GIANT!! He was surprised by the sheer amount of food on the sizzling hot plate. It smelled pretty good, and he liked it. Not a lot of chicken I saw though.

And a Sushi Pizza ($5.95). The owner(?) was so cute, she offered to clear stuff so I could get a good picture of the dish haha xD Anyways, it was very simple and for the price, fair. Deep fried rice patty topped with smoked salmon, avocado, and copious amounts of imitation crab and some tobiko. Together it was pretty amazing.

Here's me trying to take a bite of this giant! It was really thick so it was difficult to take a bite without disassembling it (I somehow did it though!). The deep fried rice patty with that salmon had me. I loved the combo.

His last item. . . a Dragon Roll ($7.95) which he eventually had to partially pack home because there was just too much food. It looked packed with ingredients though =D

And a rather late RL arrived to order a Volcano Roll ($7.95) and only that. Made me feel like... a super-excited-to-be-done-finals-glutton soIdon'tcaretoomuch. hehe. This was spicy, but not too overwhelming. It was like an awesome roll without the bonito. And spicy. Not a fan of warm/hot rolls, especially if it's Cali-roll-based. The "miss" of the meal.

Attentive servers, the restaurant started to fill up a bit after we sat down (had me worried a little when it was empty). Definitely going to bring le parents here to try more stuff and satisfy cravings on my days of hunger... otherwise back to smaller sushi portion sizes hehe =)

Happy Holidays everyone! Eat awayyyy (that's what my excuse if for the next month or so)

Sushi California, Coquitlam: Brings back fond memories...

Last dinner before RL goes away on vacation! Haven't been here in a long time, and many things have changed--- for the better =)

Restaurant: Sushi California

Location: 501 North Road, Burnaby
Cuisine: Japanese, Sushi
Price range: $10+




Date of visit: August 5, 2013
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 5/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 4.5/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

Noticed a few items I've never tried before, so I was adventurous (as always). RL was here just last night, so he ordered something he enjoyed, which was the Tuna Gomae ($4.50). It was very average, nothing super special about it besides the tuna sashimi in it, which was fresh. Interesting combo.

He also ordered a Smoked Salmon Garlic Roll ($4.50), which I considered ordering too =D So happy I got to try. Garlic was deep fried and placed on top of the roll, crunchy and very garlic-y. I didn't taste much of the shrimp, but the avocado was delicious.

Of course, I ordered Takoyaki ($3.95), which was quite fresh and very crispy. I loved it, wished there was a bit more tako in it and bonito shavings on it.

Also got nigiri, Salmon ($1.20) and Chopped Scallop ($1.35). Both were fairly fresh, but I found the chopped scallop too chopped up. Portion size was large, typical for a restaurant like this.

I also ordered a Yellow Town Roll ($3.95) because of its name. I think this roll is really good for the summer because it was so refreshing. The topping was a mixture of onions, smoked salmon, mayo, and something else that was crunchy (coudn't figure it out). Either way, it was cold and complimented the whole roll well. Lots of avocado in the actual roll.

Satisfied with my experience, I will be back soon to try out more of their stuff! =)