Update: This restaurant is now closed.
Pretty Sis read a review of Barefoot Kitchen in the Georgia Straight a while ago and had asked me to go with her. I happily obliged, as it was from the same people of Ichiro Japanese Restaurant, previously blogged about here and here.
As forewarned by a coworker, if you aren’t actually looking for the place, you might miss it, as it’s sort of located ‘underground’. But it’s actually not bad finding it. Now with the picture above you know what store it’s under!
It was pretty bright in there despite it being below sidewalk level. The waitresses were very friendly. The place got busier as the night went on.
I started with a virgin cocktail, the Grenadine Apple ($3.95) which consists of grenadine, apple juice, and shaved ice. It was big and refreshing on a warm evening. I enjoyed it.
It seems like their specialty is the Hamburg steak. It was available on their set menus ($11.95) so we both opted for that. Included is a soup (miso or corn), a carb (rice or garlic bread), and a side (sunomono salad, potato salad, kabocha squash, or kimchi).
We both picked the corn soup, and she had the potato salad, while I had the squash..
The soup and potato were just average, not especially “Japanese-y”. The squash was really good though. It was very sweet and soft. But again, nothing out of the ordinary.
Pretty Sis chose the Teriyaki Cheese Hamburg steak set with garlic bread. Basically, the Hamburg steak is like the patty in a hamburger. That’s what it tastes like. Since I’ve always liked the patty in any hamburger. I was satisfied with this meal. However, for PS, she didn’t really enjoy it and said she’ll not order it next time we’re here because it just wasn’t anything special to her.
She also said that her choice was too sweet, due to the teriyaki sauce. She liked mine better.
Mine was what they call the Wafu Hamburg steak. “Wafu” just meant Japanese-style, and by that they mean with a citrus-soy sauce. It had grated daikon and shiso leaf on top of the steak. I enjoyed it because the sauce was light and fresh. The grated daikon, along with the citrus-soy sauce, cut down on the greasiness of the steak. I was very happy with my choice.
I added $1 to change my rice to Mushroom Chicken rice. The rice was very chewy and it had lots of sliced mushrooms in it. I couldn’t taste any chicken though.
After all that, I still ordered dessert, because that was one of the reasons why I was excited to come here.
We ordered the Green Tea Shaved Ice ($5.50) to share. Good thing we decided to share because the thing was BIG!
It was topped with very very good Vanilla ice cream, shiratama mochi, and red bean paste.
It was REALLY REALLY REALLY good. They did not skimp on the Green Tea syrup AT ALL. It was drowning in it. The Green Tea syrup was extremely tasty, very true to the Matcha Green Tea taste. I was however disappointed with the mochi because they weren’t sweetened, so they were bland. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the red bean paste a lot. Overall I just liked this very very much. I’ll probably go back just for this. This is definitely the better choice than going around the corner to Qoola since it’s cheaper and bigger than their small yogurt with one topping.
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Oh that shaved ice does look delish and big…
oh! I loved their meat sauce pasta, a little greasy tho but very tasty 🙂
I went to the Barefoot Kitchen and was overjoyed to finally find my version of “Lunch Queen”, a japanese drama all about yoshoku food,
I had the Hamburg fry set with demi-glace sauce and I must say, if I could sing, I would. It was as close as I could come to the tv version in my mind.
I was so happy with my new discovery, that I also ordered a creme brulee for dessert. Oh my god, talk about an “Amelie ” experience. The sugar topping was nice and crackly and what was underneath was absolutely creamy and delicious.
Now, if only they had omurice on the menu. Then I think I’ll have gone to heaven.