The guy’s at VANEATS.ca have come full circle and partnered up with the first restaurant they teamed up with to bring kick butt dining packages and experiences to the hungry foodies of the Lower Mainland.
This time the dining package created is called “EBISU FLAIR” and instead of offering a dining package that you would chowdown on with your bro’s over a Canucks game this time is all about the more finer things in life and it’s something perfect for Valentines day or any date night.
@MaryInVancity and I were given the opportunity to preview this dining package, they’ve put together a 5 course package for $20 and it was a great way to try some of the more finer things on the Ebisu menu and also try some things that we might not have chosen on our own~they have a pretty big menu at Ebisu and it’s easy to get side tracked with all the interesting items to choose from.
The 2 courses that we started with were the Salmon Capaccio and the Tiger Mayo
The Salmon Carpaccio consisted of Atlantic salmon marinated in soy based olive oil and topped with citrus white wine mayo & flavored garlic chips. It was melt in your mouth delicious and enjoyed by the both of us, the white wine mayo helped cut the richness of the Atlantic salmon beautifully and the pea shoots were a nice texture contrast and added that perfect crunch.
The Tiger Mayo is one of my favorite dishes at restaurants like this, it consisted of 2 huge tiger prawns nestled in a dollop of the house made spicy mayo. I could have eaten 10 of these bad boys and the mayo had a nice kick to it.
Our next course was the Crunch and Munch Roll, it’s one of their signature rolls that consisted of prawn tempura, cucumber, tobiko wrapped with unagi & avocado and served with unagi & wasabi cream sauce. Mary and myself really enjoyed this, it was the perfect balance of ingredients and the tempura prawn inside gave the roll that perfect crunch to roll and if you’ve never had unagi before this roll is a must try~I’ve never had it till I ate this roll and LOVED it.
To round out the meal and for our 4th course we had the Algamo Duck Salad. The ingredients in this salad are roasted duck and sautéed button mushrooms served on a bed of fresh spring greens and peppers with a citrus infused ginger dressing served on the side. I really loved this dish, the ingredients were fresh and bright tasting and the duck was cooked beautifully and was a prefect paring with the ginger dressing. I could have eaten this whole dish myself and will be back to order this again for sure.
For our 5th and final course we had the Mars Attack, it’s a Mars Bar that is frozen and then cut in half, it’s then tempura battered and fried to perfection then it’s pared with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. We both loved this~what can’t you love about a deep-fried Mars Bar!, the kicker here is that they include some cornflakes in the bottom of the martini glass that added some great crunch and texture to the dessert. This was a winner in our books and it was a great way to cap off a great meal. The dish did come with 2 pieces of Mars Bar but my camera angle just got one~the other is behind the ice cream.
At the end of the night we had a great meal and the EBISU FLAIR dining package from VANEATS.ca and Ebisu Robson is a great deal for $20, we both had some extra dishes from the menu to round out our experience. If you want to get your own EBISU FLAIR please visit guys at VANEATS.ca by clicking here . The dining packages are available for sale between February 9th 2012 at 3pm till April 5th 2012 or until they sell out before the end date so act fast and get yours soon~the last VANEATS.ca dining package for Ebisu sold out in a matter of a couple of hours after going on sale.
If you want to check out Mary’s take on our meal please click here.
**Disclosure~VANEATS.ca gave Mary and myself this dining package and our experience or review wasn’t influenced by this and is completely our own.**
These are the drinks we scored for following them on Twitter, the specials change daily and today it was any drink off the menu, I went with the Central City Raspberry Wheat Ale~Infused with raspberries from the Fraser Valley, this wheat ale is crisp and clean with a subtle fruitiness. The toasted crystal malt from England balances the natural acidity of the raspberries producing a beer that is refreshing and a delightful taste experience, Mary went with a glass of Gewürztraminer, at $11 for the wine and $6 for my beer it’s a no brainer to follow them on Twitter. They have a HUGE beer list and some killer cocktails and shots so if you’re looking to hit a bar and watch the game Rogue is the place for you.
Photo credit to Mary for this picture.
Lastly we have Kansai Steak Sliders, they consisted of sautéed sliced beef marinated in yakiniku sauce and topped with avocado, onions, mushrooms, mayo and a pickled jalapeno slice.
Prawn Gyoza $5.95, hand wrapped tiger prawn dumplings pan fried to perfection. I’ve never had prawn gyoza where the tail is sticking out before and it was a great touch and presentation, the wrapper was thin and tender.
Volcano rolls were lastly on the menu for us, for $6.97 you get a spicy salmon roll topped with tempura bits, tobiko, avocado and drizzled with a spicy sauce. I personally didn’t like this~too spicy for my taste but I will say that they make quality sushi here and I look forward to trying some of their other rolls.
I can remember this place from years ago when it was serving up North American food with a 50′s twist so the place has undergone a complete change. It’s an odd space-when you walk in there are 2 small booth’s and a sushi bar you can’t sit at then you walk down some stairs and you’re in lower area of the building-the Guu is upstairs and the design of the building makes Momo like a sushi dungeon.
From the moment I walked in I was seated quickly and the place was busy with a few tourist groups, the one thing I did notice from the minute I walked in was how warm it was in the restaurant and how loud it was also and the picture above is the reason why-it’s a completely open kitchen area concealed by bamboo window shades and a couple framed posters-sushi restaurants aren’t supposed to be hot like a ramen joint.
The miso soup was ok, it was a bit on the salty side but I would say it was pretty standard.
green salad came with the lunch box. It had a soy vinaigrette on it but the “from bag to bowl” aspect of this made it a complete turn off.
Lunch Box A $7.95, chicken teriyaki, California rolls, sunomono salad, gyoza, tempura and a bowl of rice.
Sunomono salad-it was pretty standard and there is better out there.
California Rolls were up next. The imitation crab mix for these wasn’t very fresh. I asked when I ordered my lunch box if I could swap out the California rolls for something else like a yam tempura roll or a kappa maki roll but no substitutions were allowed.
In the box you get a gyoza filled with some kind of meat filling, it tasted good but from being placed in a pool of sauce it was soggy.
Mixed tempura was in the box and was actually my favorite thing in the box, the batter was a bit thick on the ebi but the other tempura veg made up for it.
Now this is where things went really wrong. When my spicy tuna came to my table I totally thought they used salmon from the color and more specifically the smell, I looked a bit closer and realized that it was very chunky fish rubbed with a chili paste that gave it that color but it still smelled like salmon so I ate a piece and immediately spit it out, it was the one of the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had.
With 2 locations in downtown Vancouver I visited the location on Denman Street by my place. This location features a small patio overlooking English Bay, a small sushi bar area and lots of table seating in the rest of the restaurant
I was seated right away-the place was empty and I’m happy I got in right before dinner because the place filled up pretty quick. I started out with the a small Sapporo for $5
I like my Japanese beers and Sapporo is the 1st Japanese beers I ever had and it still tastes the same as the first time I had it. As for my food, I ordered one of the dinner boxes, all dinner boxes come with miso soup and sunomono salad.
They have a really flavorful miso soup here and has pieces of kombu and a good amount of tofu. It’s one of the better miso’s I’ve had.
Sunomono Salad. This sunomono salad was nice and refreshing, I should have ordered a couple ebi to put inside it, they are also really generous with the noodles here.
Chicken Teriyiaki Dinner box $12.50, It usually comes with fried rice but I went with regular rice because I wasn’t having a fried rice day.
California Roll. This was a pretty standard California roll, the rice was cooked properly and imitation crab mix was fresh.
Mixed Tempura. Another standard Japanese dish done right, the batter was nice and crispy yet light. It was a mix of 2 ebi, pumpkin, zucchini and turnip I think. Everything was great except the zucchini-that got grease logged.
Vegetable Spring Rolls. Some of the better spring rolls I’ve had, the filling had lots of mushrooms so the flavor was actually meaty and the sauce that was drizzled on top was sweet like a type of ketchup.
Asahi Black $6, normally I don’t go for dark beer like this but after reading about it I was intrigued to try it. It’s a lager so the taste is crisp with a nutty tone and it’s definitely on my list of must drinks when I’m out for Japanese in the future.
Ebi Mayo $6.50. The ebi mayo here was pretty good here but the prawns were smaller than other places I’ve had this dish and the mayo was just on the outside of the prawn unlike at Guu where it seems to also be injected under the breading of the prawn so you get a chili mayo burst in your mouth when you take a bite.
But on the bright side the breading on these ebi mayo was nice and light and the prawns were nice and juicy yet not over cooked so in the end I’d order these again at Gyoza King.
Chicken Box $12, this came with chicken teriyaki
This came with chicken teriyaki, the chicken was nice and juicy and the sauce wasn’t to sweet~a good chicken teriyaki at the end of the day.
Spinach gomae, I’m not big on spinach gomae but I didn’t mind Gyoza King’s, the sauce was nutty and kind of sweet and went with the earthy taste of the spinach really good.
House salad was another item in the box, this salad was OK but I found the dressing to be a bit to light tasting but the veggies were nice and fresh.
There was fish also included in the box but I couldn’t figure out what it was and I have a thing about eating fish with the skin on so I didn’t touch it.
Lastly there was steamed rice with black sesame seeds on top included in the box, the rice was cooked perfectly and the sesame seeds were a great touch.
Pork and Chive Gyoza 6pc $6. These are some of the best gyoza I’ve ever had, the filling was nice and juicy without being tough and the spicing was perfect~just the right amount of meat and chives and the ponzu dipping sauce was nice and not to tart. I’ll be back for more of these bad boys and will report back with my findings!
