I have passed Saki Maki NUMEROUSSS times on the drive. That sign they have out front always caught my eye.. Because I love sushi rolls so much. I finally got a chance to try. The room is rather dark (what's with dark sushi restaurants?) so I sat by the window. The menu has everything.. But I was here for the rolls and that's what I got. We got the gomae roll and a sushi roll which the name escapes me.. The gomae roll had yam tempura on top stuffed with gomae inside. The other sushi roll was mango/avocado on top with purple yam in the middle. I recall rolls not being the cheapest but they were really good. I think one of the biggest factors is the sauce. Whether or not it goes with the roll and how much they put on. Most of my past encounters, sushi restaurants would always go crazy with the sauce so much that the sushi roll is basically drenched in it. Yuck. I liked this place because they didn't go overboard with it. As you can see with the purple yam sushi roll, there is only a dollop of japanese mayo on each! I really liked both of the rolls because they also didn't skimp out on ingredients. The service was really nice as well.. he even instructed me how long I should wait to eat my leftovers haha. Try this place if you're on the drive!
A friend of mine suggested me to go try out Samurai Sushi on Davie and that I did. It is a very tiny tiny sushi restaurant serving inexpensive combos, lunches, etc. I found the restaurant to be quite dark especially during lunch time. My friend wasn't hungry so he just watched me eat (happens quite often hah) . Although we were occupying a 4 person table, the waitress didn't get mad or anything that I was the only one eating . Upon looking at the sushi chef, he didn't look of asian descent. Which is rare. My friend turned around and said puerto rican. Ummmm.. Lol maybe it is the lighting and he is just really dark. But who am I to say who can do what. A cacausian sushi chef from london once emailed me to ask where he should apply to work in vancouver. So if you can roll up a mean sushi, more power to ya. There also seems to be quite a few workers too. It's interesting to see restaurants that are basically the same sizes yet one has only one waitress (post below) and another has like 4
The dish was alright. It came out really fast and it was satisfying for a lunch. The rolls were quite big and beef teriyaki wasn't so bad. It's good for a quick cheap lunch.. but I prefer kadoya up the block more.
I tried out Bentei Sushi even with its disastrous review just because it is so close to me and I walk past this place every day and night and see people inside. Only one lady is working up front (owner?) and she is really efficient. She is non stop running around and able to tend to everyones needs. Props. I wanted to try some different things so we ordered the baked roll, the lion king roll, and gyozas. The Gyozas were alright.. Except the oil had that taste that it was oil used from last day.. Yuck.. The baked roll.. Was very different. I really didn't know what to expect.. Baked? In the oven?? Sushi?? It was weird.. There were too much sauce and the salmon on top was obviously not raw anymore, it was cooked.. I don't know.. This was just weird. I don't even know how they thought of this.. but points for creativity. The lion king roll was a sushi roll with a piece of yam tempura on top. Once again, the tempura had the bad oil taste but the roll itself was okay. Although I didn't try a box, everyone around me was getting them and they finished every scrap of it. So maybe it is alright.. just skip the fried stuff here.
