Update: This restaurant is now closed.
The bunch of us congregated in Downtown again to attend M’s convocation at the new Vancouver Convention Centre. Afterwards, we had to decide where to go for dinner and I suggested Toratatsu since we all like Izakayas.
As usual we’re all supposed to pick something. We ordered a bunch of stuff, some I’ve already blogged about, some new.
I started out with one of their cocktails- Drunk Melon ($7.50). It has sake, melon and orange into it. Fannypack and I both agreed that we didn’t taste any orange in it. It was alright though.
3 others ordered Green Tea ($2.50). It was interesting to see the tea leaves.
It was really flavorful and fragrant. Even after 3 refills, the tea was still very aromatic.
Spot Prawn is in season so I chose the Spot Prawn Sashimi ($9.80). It only came with 4 pieces but luckily C wasn’t a big prawn sashimi person so she didn’t have one.
I really liked it. It was sweet and succulent. They were pretty big too. It was just a bit creepy with the heads attached (I asked Fannypack “Do you think that a few minutes ago these were still moving around?”). When we ‘pulled’ the flesh out there were gross stuff inside the heads haha.
However the waiter didn’t tell us that they were gonna deep-fry the head afterwards (we did wonder about that though) so we put all the heads and the tails back onto the plate. So when the waiter came to take them away some of us were worried that we didn’t know which belongs to who. Personally I didn’t care and there was nothing we could do about it anyways.
So the head came back out all deep-fried and seasoned. As they were all stuffed into a cocktail cup, the legs and some antennae broke off as they were removed one by one.
Honestly I thought they weren’t deep-fried enough as they weren’t crispy enough and was a bit hard actually. Soul’s version was much better (and cheaper).
Another prawn dish I picked in place of Fannypack (since we all know she never picks anything) was the Ebi Chili Mayo ($8). This time there were only 3 so Fannypack and I shared one.
It was pretty good. The mayo was sufficiently chili’ed. The prawns were actually quite large. The batter was nice and crispy, even after having mayo sitting on top of it for a while.
The Musashi Roll was W’s choice. I think they torch all their sushi rolls, as the last time I came here they torched my roll, and this time they torched the Musashi Roll ($9.80) also. It was funny, even though I’ve warned my party that it’s quite loud when they torch the tobiko, W and C were startled by the bang.
My assumptions with the sushi roll were affirmed- 1)the torching was just for effect, it adds nothing to taste, and 2)the sushi rolls were nothing unique so it’s no loss to not order them ever again. Even though it’s supposed to have Dungeness Crab and Mango in it, I couldn’t really taste the crab, just the mango.
C picked this Ishiyaki Risotto ($8.30). It came in a hot stone bowl so it was fizzing and crackling. There were scallops, mushrooms and iwanori seaweed in this. Big scallops.
It was very cheesy, but not so much risotto-y. Nonetheless it was satisfying.
The server mixed it all up right away after placing in on the table, so I didn’t get to take a picture of it pre-mixed.
Last but not least was O’s Gindara Saikyo Yaki ($9.80) which in English is saikyo miso marinated sablefish. It’s served with the creamiest and smoothest sweet potato puree ever. It was seriously like eating ice cream to me.
The sablefish part however I found a bit too sweet, due to the marinade. The slice was also a bit small so it was a bit dry for me (although Fannypack commented that it was really smooth), so I guess it was better for her. I always liked my sablefish more moist.
We also ordered the Cheese Tofu (reviewed previously). When we were about to ask for the bill, the waitress asked if we wanted dessert. We told her that we’ve already had the Cheese Tofu but then she told us that that wasn’t the dessert (even though on their website it’s listed under the “Dessert” section), it was just a sweeter dish.
So she handed us the dessert menu. C, being the dessert fiend that she is, wanted to try one of their offerings.
So we ordered the White Chocolate Cheesecake.
It wasn’t spectacular. There were no hints of white chocolate to speak of, just lemony. It was like any old regular original cheesecake. Trust me and just have the Cheese Tofu and be satisfied next time.
