I'm Only Here for the Food!

Irashai Grill
1368 W Pender Street
Vancouver, BC

When I officially started food blogging, among one of my earliest posts was that of Irashai Grill. Armed with high expectations, I went there for lunch and I was disappointed. Fast forward a couple of months later to May 2009. During a food bloggers gathering, Sherman (of Sherman’s Food Adventures) asks me if I will be going to an open house Irashai Grill was organizing, including a separate food bloggers lunch. I told him a categorical no, which shocked him in a way. After all, it was free food! As for what happened afterwards, I will just suggest you read this post (will open in a new window). It has a long story of its own.

Once again, fast forward to the end of 2009. I became aware of a photography workshop (by Jackie Connelly) specific to taking pictures of food. I have had my share of issues taking food pictures and, I thought, hey, why not! I forwarded that email to Sherman and Anita (of La Petite Foodie) and they were good to go as well. And, in sort of a coming to a full circle type post, the place where this workshop would take place was Irashai Grill. I guess, that gave Sherman and I the chance to do a revisit and make a better assessment of their food…

Ah, the old picture taken back in 2008… How time changes!

In one of the strangest things that have happened to me so far while food blogging, I met Danielle who is in charge of Irashai’s PR. She has an idea of who I am; so it is my first instance where I visit a restaurant where they full know that and what I do. In fact, she was counting on me to stay to eat afterwards (of course, on our own pocket). The question this time was instead: would I change my mind? Before I go with what Sherman, Anita and I ordered, I will start with what Victoria (of Victoria’s Food Secrets) ordered. We did not share our dishes not because we did not want; rather it was because we sat together after we ordered.

While I did not taste the food, based on observations only, there are a couple of things I think I can comment/criticize. The first one would be the salmon: Unless I am partially colour blind, that seems to be farmed salmon. I think they could do better… The goma-ae looked funny as well. Did they need to add so much dressing? The grilled fish, though, looked really nice. The one part that falls in the “huh?!” category would be the rolls. It does not look that different from that of a cheapo place. C’mon, I am sure they can do way better than that. As for how actually it was, I will defer it to Victoria. As for what Sherman, Anita and I shared…

We started with the Beef Tataki Carpaccio – Thinly sliced seared beef with herb olive oil and citrus ponzu sauce. The idea was good, the execution was… Subpar. While there are no written rules as to what cut of meat should be used, at $12, I would expect a cut that might be tender to an extent. However, it had some chewiness, which I did not really appreciate, specially when it did not have a strong beef taste to it. Furthermore, the dressing worked against the meat. I did not really taste any citrus overtone to contrast the meaty taste of the beef. Instead, it was completely overpowered by the oil. Just to be safe it wasn’t my thought only, we asked Victoria as a fourth impartial taster: she thought something similar as well…

Since it would be partially unfair not to ask for sushi/maki, we went for one. Here, is the summer roll – prawn tempura, cucumber, mayo, masago with marinated tuna and avocado on top with sweet soya dipping. I was partially against it due to the tempura but, in the end, since we couldn’t really decide, I yielded. To some, visuals is a great deal so, I guess, this is to satisfy those who care about visuals. But, if I had to gauge on that aspect, I will have to say it was disappointing. Had they plated it in a long plate, that would have worked better. Putting that aside, when I put it in my mouth and started chewing, I did not taste much until almost at the end, when the the red hot sauce (Thai sriracha sauce?) hit. As for texture, I was thinking “where are the fried tempura bits” I thought should be there because of the prawn tempura. No, there wasn’t that much, except, of course, the tail. There was some creaminess from the avocado but not much from the tuna. I had to think a little bit and, even go for a second piece, to make sure I did not miss anything. I did not miss much.

I am a simple person so I thought my suggestion for this meal would be a simple dish as well. In this case, oyako don – chicken and egg on rice with miso soup (the later I did take a picture it is not included. Why? To paraphrase Anita, you can’t make a bowl of miso soup look sexy). There reason behind the second picture is the reason why I considered it to be a fail. No liquid manage to flow down to the rice and, as a result, the rice was just that, almost plain rice. Being born and raised Chinese meant I ate a lot of rice while growing up. Having some liquid/sauce along with it can really make it. Here, it did not. While the chicken/egg was OK, the rest wasn’t.

Grilled Sablefish – grilled and served with yuzu miso sauce. I won’t say much about this other than it was good. The meat was still flaky and the skin was crispy. But, to paraphrase Victoria, you can’t mess sablefish.

Aigamo duck – grilled tataki style duck breast with chef’s secret sauce. We were asked how we would like it, i.e., doneness. At first, we were completely confused as to what to say but, eventually, we said “medium”. Now, I will admit we left this dish for last, despite it wasn’t the last one served. That was because timing on some dishes, namely the sablefish, was more time critical than that of the duck. When it was its turn, I took the piece at the end. After chewing and swallowing it, I waited for Sherman’s opinion before saying mine (to avoid influencing his thoughts). The end result? After I went for a second piece, this time from the middle, it confirm my thoughts: it had some weird crispiness, almost overgrilled on the meat side, while it was fatty and mushy on the skin side. As a result, none of us liked it. We were shuffling around reasons as to why. Was it the cooking method? Or were we comparing it against a Peking duck? I threw the idea it is possible it is the duck specie and, after searching around, that seemed to be the case.

At this point, I am not sure if it is necessary to point out I did not like the food. This is specially taking into consideration the fact they were aware of who we are so they had the chance they could put more attention/better prepare the dishes (in an attempt to impress us). In the end, I thought that it was expensive for what was offered and the intent of mixing cuisines did not work. So, there you go, second visit after over a year, it still does not wow me. Pass for me…

One more thing…

Anita’s post is pending.
Sherman’s post is here.
Victoria’s post is here.