Wanoma Izakaya

Wanoma Izakaya
867 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Nobody can deny the fact there has been a plethora of izakaya in Vancouver. Ever since that “explosion” in the West End, it is almost guaranteed you will see one open each year. The “new kid on the block” is Wanoma Izakaya which, in a really strange move, opened next to last year’s “new kid”, Kingyo. I admit I haven’t been to izakaya in a long while (Guu in Gastown last year, blogged here), I have been there for lunches (Guu with Garlic). While I know the lunch experience and the afterwork-”snack” experience is like day and night, at least such visit can give me a glimpse of what they can offer. With that in mind, I went to Wanoma Izakaya for lunch.

In an un-typical way compared to visits to other Japanese establishments, my colleague OP and I arrived slightly after noon and we were standing at the entrance for a while. There were two other customers in a table (which I will put as a question mark, as the chef was sitting with them while we were eating our meals) and nobody noticed us for around one minute or so. I mean, more often than not, the hospitality is more noticeable as soon as you walk in. Hmmmmm….

Anyway, after we sat down, things started to improve (though, I will wonder if me snapping pictures have something to do…). Now, in another “strange” fashion when the waitress was taking our order, she kneel down, the same way a lot of waiters/waitresses do at TGIF. Hmmmmm….. Anyway, to the food, starting with…

Now, I know, this might be your “usual” miso soup… Wait, actually it wasn’t as “usual”. Notice the colour? Yes, it is more orange-y than your usual one, not to mention there were chunks of pumpkin! Well, that should tell me I shouldn’t take things totally for granted with this dish and once in a while there will be variations. In this case, it didn’t have that strong salty/savoury taste, rather a pleasant slight sweetness.

Here, OP’s dish: Akegatsu Mori: deep fried pork, shrimp and seasonal vegetables in panko crusted (sic) served with green salad, miso soup and rice. No, please do not ask what is that dark dressing on top, I was a but “busy” chatting with OP to ask. Sorry! Not included in the pictures, there was a small jar with a brown-ish sauce which I assume it would be a miso dressing, but, again, I did not ask. However, when asked about the food itself, OP mentioned it was quite tasty and, in a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being *really* good), OP gave a 7. And, I will admit, I wish I had ordered that!

And here is my dish: Chirashi Sushi Bowl: Salmon, Tuna and fresh vegetables on sushi rice with wasabi soy sauce or spicy miso sauce, served with miso soup. OK, at first, I thought: WTH?! OK, let’s take that back. My perception and understanding of chirashi is that of slices of seafood, similar to that of sashimi, on top of sushi rice. But, here, it looked like a hybrid between a “modern” dish, tartare and a Korean bibimbap. Yes, saying I was confused would be an understatement! Another thing I must mention is that eating it was a bit difficult. In my case, when I am served rice, I would usually eat it by lifting the bowl – unless that is not possible, in which case I would use a spoon. Of course, in the case it is western style, I will use the appropriate utensils. However, I wasn’t sure how to proceed here with only chopsticks – fortunately, the waitress asked if I wanted a fork or spoon (I went for the later). But now, the taste itself. The rice was a bit subpar for sushi rice. Well, it was sticky, yet it felt plain, as if there was something missing. It is possible that was “by design”, as there were the two before mentioned sauces to add at my own discretion. I must mention they both worked quite well, as it provided enough saltiness on one side and “kick” on the other. That is quite important because both the tuna and salmon in this case did not provide much taste on its own; I felt they existed mostly because of their texture. The slaw, though, unfortunately, I did not do anything at all to the overall combination. Sure, it gave some crunchiness but, I don’t feel it worked the same way the vegetables work in bibimbap. And I wish it was topped with some more seaweed/nori.

Overall, it was a good lunch and an interesting viable option. It peaked my interest on coming back after work and check what they have to offer. But, then again, they face an uphill battle in the form of Kingyo next to it. And, as mentioned, this is lunch; that after work experience might be day and night…

Tagged under: Izakaya • Japanese • Lunch • Vancouver • West End