Irashai Grill (web site, map, 1368 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 604-688-8697) is a newly opened Japanese fusion restaurant in the Coal Harbour neighborhood of downtown Vancouver. Having attended their open house a few weeks ago (see Part 1), I was interested in trying out the restaurant for an actual meal. I was in for a real treat!
My friend and I first ordered the Dragon Roll Sushi ($13.50, pictured below), which looked and tasted amazing. The Dragon Roll was on their special rolls menu (not listed on their web site) and was a creation made with shrimp, tempura, avocado, barbecued eel (unagi), and of course the sushi rice and nori seaweed. It was quite sweet tasting (because of the sauce that the eel is marinated with), and was light and immensely satisfying. I commented to my friend that I could easily eat one of these every day. If only I could afford it!
The Tako Sunomono (a cold salad made with octopus, vermicelli noodles and a sweet and tangy vinegary broth) was $7.50 and was presented very nicely in a large cocktail glass (pictured below). It is one of my favorite appetizers at Japanese restaurants and the Irashai version did not disappoint! I would have liked it to be bigger, but that is just my wishful thinking because it was a decent size for an appetizer after all.
Now comes to the most interesting part of the meal. We were perusing the menu and discovered a very unusual sounding sushi roll item. Unusual I say? Yes! I’ll explain.
In general, for creative dishes that are designed by the chef using a culinary “artistic license”, the name of the dish, if it is somewhat abstract and not a simple description of the ingredients, will relate to the theme of the dish in some way. What this means is, I was curious to see exactly what a Poison Spider Volcano would taste like. No kidding! Would there be an actual spider involved in this sushi, and would this spider have some sort of deadly poison? Also it was very important for me to find out how a volcano would be represented in the form of rice and other sushi-like ingredients on a dinner plate.
The good old poison spider and its friendly volcano home ($16, pictured below) was made with asparagus, soft shell crab, cream cheese, and was sprinkled with cheese. It was baked before serving and then topped with a super spicy miso sauce. Super spicy is an understatement! The powerful spicy sauce reminded me of the Crazy Boy Roll at Mr. Sushi but the Poison Spider Volcano sushi had a much more complex and rich flavor (thanks to the cheese and cream cheese). It was very filling, which is a good thing in my books. My vote: thumbs up, but the sauce was too spicy for my friend.
For dessert we tried their Marscapone Tiramisu ($5.50, also pictured below) which was a generous amount of cool sweet marscapone cheese served in an interesting ceramic tray topped with a layer of dusted cocoa. The cocoa was very fine and powdery. This was a wonderful contrasting dish to calm things down after the spicy spider!
Dragon Roll Sushi from Irashai Grill Japanese Fusion Restaurant in Vancouver BC Canada ($13.50)
Tako Sunomono Salad ($7.50) from Irashai Grill in Vancouver BC Canada.
Poison Spider Volcano Sushi ($16.00) from Irashai Japanese Restaurant in Coal Harbor, downtown Vancouver BC Canada.
Marscarpone Tiramisu dessert ($5.50) from Irashai Grill Japanese fusion restaurant in downtown Vancouver BC Canada.
Irashai Grill (web site, map, 1368 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 604-688-8697) is a newly opened Japanese fusion restaurant in Vancouver’s upscale Coal Harbour neighborhood. A short walk from the beautiful waterfront seawall, Irashai is close to hotels such as the Westin Bayshore, and about a 15-20 minute walk from Vancouver’s cruise ship terminal and convention centre, Canada Place.
Irashai is currently the talk of the town, after hosting a big open house party last week for local residents, bloggers, and news media. Below are some photos that show off the restaurant’s upscale decor and delicious food. I’d really like to go back to try a full meal at Irashai. Their menu is available on their web site.
Daikon (Japanese radish) salad - a nice appetizer from Irashai Grill in Vancouver.
Plate of Assorted sushi (partially eaten!) from Irashai Grill in Vancouver.
A taste of Spicy Tuna from Irashai Grill.
Yam Tempura Fries (yummy!) from Irashai Grill in Vancouver
Asian ladies wearing fancy dresses, eating sushi at the standup reception at Irashai Grill.
An Ikea Restaurant is located in both Ikea stores in the Vancouver area: Richmond (map, 3200 Sweden Way, Richmond, British Columbia, phone: 604-273-2051) and Coquitlam (map, 1000 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam, British Columbia, phone: 604-636-1000).
IKEA is famous for the clean and modern design of their reasonably priced home furnishings and accessories. Their stores are “family friendly” which means there is a room filled with balls for kids to play in (one of my favorite places to go when I was a kid), and a bunch of kid-friendly items such as hotdogs and meatballs on the menu at their restaurant.
I went on a visit to Ikea on a Sunday afternoon, mainly to try their restaurant. The food at the restaurant is fairly inexpensive, because they know if people feel comforted by good food, they might be more inclined to spend hundreds of dollars on that new couch, table, or desk. It sure worked for me – I really only intended to visit the restaurant and then have a quick look around the store, and I ended up spending over $300 on various items. Yikes!
Being a Swedish company, Ikea features some Swedish items on their menu including the meatballs (pictured below) which cost around $7 for 15 meatballs with potatoes or fries (or $6.49 for 10 meatballs, potatoes, fries, and a soft drink). They also have some really tasty cold smoked salmon dishes such as the Gravlax with mustard and dill (also pictured below, around $5.00). For dessert they offer some nice pastries and cakes, such as the one pictured below (around $2.00).
If you like pasta, you can get a plate of Organic Pasta for $1.99. Their menu describes this dish as, “organic pasta with organic vegetarian tomato sauce” and says the pasta is available after 11am. But if you go before 11am you can get a $1.00 (yes, that’s one dollar) breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages, and home fries. Their hope is that you’ll spend much more on the home furnishings and accessories. After all, you are already there, so why not pick up a TV stand, lamp, and chaise lounge or two?
Ikea Swedish Meatballs from Ikea in Coquitlam (a suburb of Vancouver BC Canada). Around $7.00.
Ikea Swedish Gravlax with Mustard and Dill (smoked salmon, delicious!). Around $5.00. From Ikea in Coquitlam BC Canada, a suburb of Vancouver.
Swedish Dessert pastry from Ikea restaurant in Coquitlam BC Canada (a suburb of Vancouver). Around $2.00.
