Blowfish Sushi + Italia Bakery

Blowfish Sushi & Japanese Food
107- 2828 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Italia Bakery
104 – 2828 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

I have mentioned previously that I have some sort of Friday night activity in the Hastings area, near Pacific Coliseum. However, by the time I am done, most of the restaurants in the area are already closed and, as a result, I seldom have the chance to eat some of the offerings there. Except when that activity has additional sessions on weekends. This was one of those instances… I was tempted to go to Bao Chau but, that day, I was not into Vietnamese. Slocan Restaurant was also an option but did not want diner type food. Then I remembered a recently opened sushi spot (as earlier this year, if memory serves me right). That place is Blowfish Sushi.

Blowfish Sushi to the far left; to the right, Italia Bakery which I visited on the same trip!

Blowfish is located in the same strip mall as Tom & Jerry’s so I had a good idea about parking issues. However, I found I was “early enough” and did not run into any parking issues… Anyway, when I walked in, there was one other customers and was given the option to seat myself in any table. Of course, the closer to the window, meant more natural light, hehehehe.

The menu is quite straight forward, some sushi/sashimi options, noodles, and a couple of teriyaki dishes. None of the options made them distinctive from other sushi shops. But, then again, I seldom order rolls (I prefer nigiri sushi) so that would not be a problem.

To start, I usually go for goma ae and this visit was not going to be an exception. I think one of the reasons is because I love that sesame taste. In this case, they had a decent amount of it; however, there was a bit of earthy/salty overtone to it. In the case of the former, it might be because they did not wash the spinach enough before cooking it (I have made that error in the past myself…); for the later, well, probably because I added a bit too much salt or some other ingredient? In a way, I did not enjoy it as much as other goma ae…

Natural light does wonders when taking pictures…

For my main, I had one of their “6 + 1 combo”. In this case, it had (from left to right), a tuna maki, surf clam, salmon, ikura (salmon roe), unagi (grilled eel), ika (squid) and tuna sushi. The tuna roll was just the basic one. However, the skills were lacking. It is not really noticeable here but the seaweed did not complete wrapped around the rice. Odd, if you ask me… As for the different sushi, I liked the unagi the most (mainly due to the sweetness), followed by the surf clam and then the ikura. Actually, the ikura was interesting in its own way. Usually, it would be salty, but the cucumber mitigated that saltiness. One thing that I am not sure how noticeable would be from the pictures above is the size of the nigiri. Usually, I would expect something “long”. However, here, it is on the thick side. Hmmm…. Let’s try again. In other places, the sushi I have had would be something akin to the ring finger, here, it was shaped more on the lines of a thumb.

Here is the “odd” part of the meal.When I got the goma ae, I did not eat it right away, instead, I waited for the main. It was after I snapped about half a dozen of pictures that I started eating. Halfway, one of the waiters walk by and gives me the above miso soup, “on the house”. While the other table was also given one for “free”, it did not really help when he came back afterwards and asked me if I was journalist… In the end, when I paid the bill, in addition to the tip, I added $1.50 for the soup (something I usually do not do).

Overall, the nigiri sushi was quite interesting. The other parts, not that much. Despite this, if I was in the area, I think I would certainly come back. This is very important considering that there are not that many sushi spots (but, then again, that is a very bad statement as I am using Downtown Vancouver as a yardstick)… And, one thing that a lot of people asks: is that a Japanese run place? As far as I could tell, it is not (might be mistaken here). But the food spoke for itself…

And, now, part two (which, I could have easily made into a second post but, hey, everything for a good post!). Fellow blogger Jessica from Yum-O-Rama has been in a quest for the perfect cannoli. In one of her posts, she mentions Italia Bakery. Hey, I just had lunch in the restaurant next to it, why not have some sweets too? So, I walked in and looked around…

So many options, so little time…

After a somewhat long debate, I made my order, starting with…

A raspberry biscotti. What? All that talk about cannoli and I ended up ordering a biscotti?! Hehehehe. Actually, no, this was “for later” but I though I should include this anyway. It was, as expected, hard. There was only a hint of the berry, but that is expected from this type of cookie, right? It would have been good with a bitter drink, like black coffee.

And, the reason why I was in Italia Bakery…

Actually, I don’t remember the exact name of the cannoli. Creme cannoli maybe? In one side, there was chocolate/hazelnut, probably something similar to Nutella and the other side was cream. How come I don’t remember what was exactly? Probably because the experience was… divine? Nah, it was quite good and got distracted by it. I would have eaten more than one if it wasn’t because I just had lunch, hehehehe.

So, to quote Jessica, “Are you my cannoli?”. I have absolutely no idea about her cannoli, but I can say this one tasted damn good… ^_^

Tagged under: Bakery • Japanese • Sushi • Vancouver