| Is there a sameness about the fish at Calgary's sushi restaurants? Clearly in North America, there are some places which are a cut above, like Vancouver's Tojo or New York's Nobu, where the fish is fabulously fresh and crazily expensive. But here, a thousand kilometres from the sea, tuna belly can taste the same no matter where you go.
As a result, it's everything else that distinguishes one sushi restaurant from another, be it the rice, the service, the other menu items or the ambience. I visited three sushi places in the last while, and while I found the sushi to be fresh, tender and tasty at every place, each was totally different from the other – one is particularly loud and boisterous, one is a family-run and family-friendly sort of joint, and one is a cellphone and suit sort of place. You choose.
SAKANA GRILL
I couldn't have been more surprised that the Sakana Grill (116 - 2 Ave S.W., phone 290-1118) is my mother's favourite sushi restaurant. There's a big teppan grill in the middle of the restaurant, where knives and seafood fly through the air and lots of harried staff scurry around frantically. The head chef is an ebullient fellow with a big laugh who offers classes on how to make sushi. And to top it off, the day we were there it was crammed with at least five going-away parties of 10 or more – the shtick at the Sakana Grill was that the entire staff sang "Leaving on a Jet Plane" to each of these tables, clapping like mad. (The whole song. Yeesh. You have to be in the mood for this sort of thing.)
But my mother comes here for the food, and the sushi was certainly good. The gyoza (dumplings, $8.25) were hot and tasty, and the sushi was perfectly prepared. I didn't think the salad dressing (one of the hallmarks of a great sushi place) was as zingy with ginger as it could have been, but for $15 per person, the Sakana Grill was inexpensive and quick.
ZEN 8
At the other end of the scale is Zen 8 (513 - 8 Ave. S.W., phone 237-8884), which is owned by the Penny Lane Entertainment Group, which is better known as the Cowboys and Ceili's people. But this isn't a big bar – it's a small place which caters to an upscale crowd, and there's invariably someone talking on a cell phone or tapping on a Palm Pilot during lunch.
The thing about Zen 8 is that it's expensive (about 50 to 75 per cent more per piece of sushi than the Sakana Grill), but the pieces of sushi are the biggest I have ever seen – what would be two pieces of sushi at other restaurants is one piece at Zen 8. The red tuna, for example, drapes over the side of the ball of rice and touches the plate. This size thing can freak some people out, but me, I love it.
At Zen 8 there's also a premium on attention to detail. Everyone gets a hot towel when they sit down, and the plates and cups for tea are dark stone-coloured crockery, the latest and hippest. The service is speedy, and the miso soup even has little Japanese mushrooms in it. The management of Zen 8 has concentrated on these little details to separate it from the other sushi restaurants. You should expect to pay $25 per person before booze, and more if you're a glutton like me.
SUSHI KAWA
For quieter diners, Sushi Kawa (2204 - 4 St S.W.) is a family operation. There's sumo wrestling on the television, and if you eat late on a weeknight, you can sit next to the owner's family enjoying their meal at an adjoining table. It may be demographics or the neighbourhood, but Sushi Kawa always seems to have kids in it, chowing on California rolls. The night we were there, besides good sushi we had katsu-don, a deep-fried pork chop that came with a hilariously retro macaroni salad, and a sweet chicken teriyaki.
Sushi Kawa is much more a neighbourhood sort of place, where you'll see someone you know and sit down. I liked the ambience, which was relaxed, pleasant and comfortable, and for $30 per person including a bunch of Asahi beer, it's good value. |
