Kimura Sushi & Japanese Cuisine

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Kimura Sushi & Japanese Cuisine
3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC

Some time ago, when I went to Chong Lee’s Market (in 22nd Avenue) for some banh mi, I noticed Kimura, a Japanese restaurant “to be open soon”. Of course, having such a restaurant almost in the middle of nowhere would catch some attention. To quote my post on Chong Lee’s:

1. Open a restaurant in a weird location/setting.
2. Make it ethnic (bonus if Japanese).
3. ???
4. Profit!

(This of course was inspired by an episode of South Park called Gnomes)

I mentioned this to Sherman and, as usual, our grand plans to get some others to tag along and go on one day never materialized. Until, that is, Sherman drops me a note saying Vandelay and family, as well as Sherman, Viv and family will be going one night and checked if I wanted to tag along. Well, I might be the odd one out on this one (not the first instance either!) but that has never stopped me, specially not for food!

As for the restaurant itself, there is some sort of aura behind it: The restaurant chef happens to be Japanese and spent quite some time in different countries. However, story goes, he decided to settle down in one location and, rather, opening a big restaurant, he chose a small one. One other feature seems to be his love for jazz because that is what was playing the whole time during dinner! (I don’t mind jazz but can anybody imagine reggae?).

See baby bottles on the back? Signs there are kids nearby!

Sherman made “reservations” as early as possible but it just happens I arrived first… Before opening time, that is. Oh, well, eventually everybody arrived and, at that point, reservations weren’t necessary yet. As dinner went, it got busier and busier so, in the end, it was actually a good idea (or just to be safe!).

Now, moving to the food, there was one main criteria: some of the dishes have to kids/toddlers friendly. Sure, while kids don’t eat that much, at least I saw some effort in trying to give them something outside of the usual dishes (in the end, they mainly shared one main dish). So our meal started off with…

This wasn’t a stand alone order; rather it is part of the sushi combo (more details below). Here we have udon and, interestingly enough, the broth was a clam based. It was quite mild but, at least a good way to start off the meal. The noodles still had a slight bite (tried only one strand as I didn’t want to take away too much from the toddler’s “safe” food) but, unfortunately, it was not that hot. I guess they thought it would be for the kids so they didn’t make it too hot either.

Some of the dishes came with a salad and, rather than take several shots, how about a single one? I wasn’t that excited about the cabbage side (well, it is just plain cabbage with some dressing on top!) but I did like the potato salad. It isn’t your chunky pieces of potato with heavy mayo; instead, I would say it is borderline a mash potato-like salad! Unlike a mash, there wasn’t that much butter but, instead, it had mayo. If you can imagine that, it pretty much describes it.

Dipping our toes on the sushi side, we had to make a decision on how to handle it: given that nigiri sushi isn’t that shareable, we decided to order two platters sushi combo and let it go by luck of the draw as to what pieces each one would end up having. (It also comes with the udon shown above). It started above with the California roll and unagi sushi. OK, I have ranted enough about rolls and what not and, unfortunately, I felt that the itamae was somewhat forced to include it in the menu rather than he wanting to make it. To me those pieces look mundane. Furthermore, there was something strange with the rice: it felt somewhat too mushy to the point it couldn’t hold its shape (or it was poorly rolled up), which wasn’t really helped by the fact it tasted almost… Bland? As for the unagi, actually it was quite pleasant (yes, I grabbed one piece!), not overly sweet and the meat wasn’t too dry.

The rest of the sushi combo (according to their menu, salmon, yellowtail, shrimp, octopus, squid, surf clam, mackerel, tuna, albacore, fresh water eel and a mysterious “something”. No kidding!). Again, given there were that many pieces, we randomly grabbed one. For the most part, I liked the texture of the fish, it didn’t have a cold/frozen taste/feeling to it. We didn’t really use any soy sauce either (or at least not me), as there was some spread on top. The rice issue showed up here as well; however, the itamae‘s intent might have been for us to eat it with our hands, not necessarily with chopsticks. If that had been the case, it would be my fault then. But, but… There was one thing that threw me off completely: there was something strange with the wasabi. Now, we know that most green coloured wasabi isn’t really made from the root; rather some chemical mix. Given the cost of the real thing, I guess it is something most of us are willing to accept, if it was good enough. The problem here is that, in some pieces, I thought the wasabi had an off taste that day (and not because there was too much). If it was me only, it might have been an isolated incident; however, Viv agreed with my statement. Yes, odd…

And here is their sashimi platter. Once again, we went for luck of the draw. Similar to my note on the nigiri sushi, it had a pleasant taste and feeling so, in a way, not much else to add! ^_^; The one detail I am not sure about is… Who took the oyster one? I guess we will have to wait if Sherman know.

Now moving out of the sushi field and to the more “daily” type food (alas, they didn’t have “macaroni au gratin” available that day), we order a plate of curry, in this case, beef curry. It was quite a generous portion and I will have to say it tasted quite good. Now, I won’t compare it to an Indian curry or a Thai curry; if you have had a Japanese curry, you will have a good idea of what to expect. However, unlike the Glico version found in supermarkets, the consistency of this one wasn’t as smooth, as if the roux used to prepare this one was a bit more rough. Regardless, if going by myself, I would certainly order this one.

Zaru soba, or cold soba served on a sieved bamboo “tray”, garnished with seaweed. This might have been for the kids but, we ended up having it ourselves! Well, it is just plain cold buckwheat noodles with a dipping sauce so there is only that much you can expect out of it! At least, the noodles weren’t really sticky and the touch of seaweed on top added some needed additional flavouring. Not something I would order by myself but, in a warm day, it could hit the spot as a meal.

Tempura. While we were having our meal, we noticed that other tables had a different “version” until we realized they order something differently. Oh, well. Still, I thought these were fried nicely, though the batter was slightly thick.

Tonkatsu. Yes, yet another something else wacky to share. In this case, these were nicely fried: crispy outside while the inside was still somewhat juicy. I know the last part might sound funny, i.e., “somewhat”? But, compared to other cutlets, this one was thicker, which means it should be cooked a bit longer. Still, it wasn’t overdone: the exterior was still crisp and not burned.

I must mention that, for the last couple of dishes, they weren’t served “plain”; some of them came with a miso soup and salad (like the one showed in an earlier picture). What I try to get at, is that, you can go by yourself and order them as a single meal. So, if you don’t want/like sushi, you can still go to Kimura and have a decent lunch/dinner.

Overall, I will have to say this is a good place to have a meal. From a price perspective, it won’t create a hole in your wallet and the food is still good (total bill post-tax, pre tips was ~$87). Furthermore, the fact there is that possibility of going by yourself and have a regular Japanese type meal serves as a further enticement for me to go back. However, that one odd experience with the sushi left me with some odd taste in the mouth (figuratively and literally) but I still want to give them a second chance.

Vandelay, Sherman, thanks for letting me join you for dinner!

Tagged under: Japanese • Sushi • Vancouver