Vancouver Good

A couple weeks ago, I checked out Irashai Grill with some friends. I’d been meaning to check out the restaurant and Irashai also mailed me a 15% off coupon after reading this blog, which was a nice bonus!

Overall, Irashai’s strengths are in their fresh seafood and unique rolls. The room is large with high ceilings, a big bar, and huge booths. The restaurant feels very open, which makes it great for hosting large parties and social gatherings.  I just booked a holiday party at Irashai for about 90 people.

Danielle from Irashai came by after we were seated and recommended several items for us . I found our dinner at Irashai was very good, with some ups and downs. Highlights:

• Red Tuna Carpaccio – generous slices of fresh red tuna with a miso and mayo sauce drizzled on top. The fish was fresh, but the sauce was quite strong and over-powered the fish.
• The best stuff at Irashai are their feature rolls (called “wrap corner” on the menu) – all have fresh fish, beautiful colours, and big portions. We liked the Wild Fish Roll with salmon, tuna, hamachi, and green onion. The Summer Roll with prawn tempura, cucumber, mayo, masago with marinated tuna and avocado was a nice balance of flavours, and the Alaska Crab Leg Roll featuring crab leg meat and mango, lightly deep friend with a lemon mayo sauce was different, but good.  Having been to Japan and eaten a lot of Japanese food, the picky part of me would say the sushi rice was a little too mushy, but I’m probably the only person that noticed.
• Kari Kari Chicken, small pieces of deep fried chicken with a honey mustard sauce – these little bites would be good bar eats, but my dining companions weren’t big on this dish.
• Yam french fries – a specialty of the restaurant, these are crisp and crunch tempura style fries with a tasty asian dipping sauce
• Grilled sable fish – beautifully cooked with great flavour
• Service overall was good, but we didn’t seem to have a designated waiter. One person took our order and then we never saw them again. So, attentive but not personalized.

I look forward to having lunches and group gatherings at Irashai Restaurant. Overall the food is high quality and the menu is interesting, though not traditional Japanese. It’s a fun approach to the cuisine though, so if you’re looking for something different give it ago.

Irashai Grill
1368 W. Pender Ave (@ Broughton)
604-688-8697