Lime Japanese Cuisine

Lime Japanese Cuisine
1130 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

Feel free to call it alignment of the stars of just because an atom happened to be in a place at the exact time: This post had to do with two very strange topics: perception of sushi and omakase. The first topic is related to a post written by Foodosophy team regarding sushi – you can find it here. It is a really worthwhile read; it might even change your thoughts about sushi. Go ahead, this post will still be here… The second topic is that of omakase, a concept not that different of a tasting menu; here, you “entrust” to the chef to prepare a meal for you. So what Lime Japanese Cuisine has to do with both? It just happened that due to the comments regarding Lime, I was ready to dismiss it but, based on Foodosophy’s team, I was encouraged to give it a second chance. I went there one late night for regular sushi or for soba; however, when I arrived, I noticed they made mention of their omakase menu, at a base price of $35. It was a leap of faith but I knew I had to do it…

As mentioned above, I arrived late night. OK, it wasn’t THAT late, it was around 10:30 p.m.; in Vancouver standards, that is late. Yes, you will find spots still open; but, let’s face it, they aren’t that many. When I walked in, there were a couple of occupied tables. Come to think about it, most of the places in the area were starting to wind down, with probably the exception of Latin Quarter where it seems an-all night party was taking place. I was given the option to sit anywhere and, originally, I was thinking on a table. However, when I was told I could sit at the sushi bar, everything changed. I inquired about the omakase and was given different price ranges, again, the basic one being $35. I decided to go for the “next” price range: $50… Afterwards, some questions were asked to try to “tailor” that meal for me: Any allergies? Nope. Anything I do not like? Nope. In a way, I was in an Anton-Ego-like mode: basically, surprise me. And the adventure began…

Of course, being seated in front of the chef and having a “bulky” dSLR, it would be impossible for anybody not to notice I was taking pictures. So, rather than asking forgiveness than permission, I checked with the chefs/itamae if they were good with me doing it. Actually, they were more than happy.

I must apologize for the quality of the pictures of this post. Going to Lime that night wasn’t completely planned and, as a result, I did not have all the tools of the “trade” with me. In this case, I did not bring my external flash. But, come to think about it, that would have generated a problem of its own: the only other customers at that moment were seated on tables nearby and given the “dark” ambiance, that would have been a bit annoying to them. So, for these pictures, call it “best effort”. And now, now, to the food:

The first dish, albacore tuna. Well, at least, this is a sustainable tuna dish so I won’t complain on that. Since this is my first time having this, I asked the itamae what I should do. His answer?, mix the quail egg into the tuna and eat it “as is”. I will admit, that was the best approach because, when I tried a piece on its own, it wasn’t that tasty. However, when mixed, the sauce at the bottom plus the yolk started to do wonders. Now, it is not a melt-in-you-mouth affair but still very tasty.

Before moving to the second dish, a big caveat emptor. When I was taking pictures of the first dish, the itamae mention something on the lines of I should take good pictures for “the review”. Whether that is reflected on how I was treated the rest of the meal, I can’t say. But, what I did tell them is that I was a “photography student” and it was suggested I take pictures of everything for “practice”. They sounded slightly disappointed but, in the end, I was asked if I could send them a copy of the pictures…

Second dish of the night smelt on salad. If there was a disappointing dish that night, it would be this one. Now, it is not that the execution was bad. My (personal) problem with this dish is that the fish was fried too lightly and, as a result, the skin was barely crispy. Some people might say “But you shouldn’t overfry the smelt!”. Sorry, guys, but that is not my concept of “fried”. If you fry something, you go for broke. Other than that, it felt just like a regular salad…

The next dish a tempura dish. Here, zucchini flower filled with a shrimp paste and a slice of pumpkin tempura. Another fried dish? Hmmmmm… It was good and not so good at the same time. It was good because, well, fried food it is almost always good! The batter was light as expected and, to a certain extent, the broth (not pictured) was unnecessary. However, the not-so-good part of this dish was the shrimp. Call it a personal preference, I would have preferred it wasn’t “mashed” down to a paste. Had it retain some “chunks” so it has that springy “bite” of the shrimp, it would have been a winner.

Pork with mushroom and mashed potato. The mashed potato was really smooth and, in an interesting note, had a dab of wasabi in it. The mushrooms, if memory serves me right on this one, included shiitake, matsutake and enoki. I won’t say I really tasted all the potential of the mushrooms but, nevertheless, it had a good savoury taste and bite to it. And, ah, the pork, soft pieces of pork belly/brisket… (There is no point on trying to describe it, heck, it is pork!)

Finally, the last two “dishes”: a lobster cone and an ahi tuna cone. Both had its highs and lows. From the lobster side, If found the lobster a bit over cooked in the sense that from my first bite of the cone, I had to “drag” all the piece of lobster with it. Other components from that dish complemented the lobster, though. As for the ahi tuna, it was a bit more flavourful due to a combination of soy sauce used to lightly marinate it before it was wrapped into the seaweed/nori. On that note, the nori was slightly “toasted” before it was wrapped. One snag shared by both cones was the the sushi rice could have been a bit more flavourful, as the rice in this case was slightly bland.

At this point, if I were to draw a conclusion, you might assume there were one too many “buts” in my comments. I will agree that is the case. But, (ha!) there are some parts that can’t really be described. For example, the interaction with the itamae. Also, I must mention that some of the dishes might be “partially” my own fault. Remember, unless you let them know what you like/dislike, they won’t know what you want to be served. In this case, because it was my first visit, I can’t blame them for it. Still, it was that interaction that won me and, as a result, I tipped way above my usual range.

So, it now goes down to these two questions:

1) How was the sushi? As mentioned above, it had its highs and lows. Still, I would say it was way better than a lot of low range sushi spots and worth the $$$ I had to fork for it. To make a really wacky analogy, Lime would be Burger Heaven or any other high-end burger shop; Oyama Sushi would be Save on Meats Burgers/Burger Burger and most other sushi spots would be MickeyD’s.
2) How was the omakase? It is not cheap and until they gets familiarized with my likes/dislikes, things might have ups and downs. However, this is not the type of dinners I would be able to afford on a frequent basis (maybe once or twice a year?) so it is unlikely it will work for me. Still, from the adventure perspective, it was good.

Despite all the sideways, convoluted comments, in the end, would I go back for just sushi? I think I will… And, finally, to O-toro, Foodosopher, Shokutsu, thanks for that great insightful post!

Tagged under: Commercial Drive • Japanese • Sushi • Vancouver