| Cutline: Mom and pop treasure – 8th St. Sushi Cafe owners Tsuyoshi and Joanne Tsukada with an a la carte selection of sushi
It's in the grand tradition of big cities that there are little delis, cafés or coffee shops on the main floor of high-rise apartment buildings. Rents for these family restaurants are low, as the space would otherwise be devoted to an expansive and useless lobby, so the fare is often inexpensive.
These are commonly mom-and-pop operations, with one running the till and the other slinging homemade food on the stove. These neighbourhood joints are often obscure, and the upstairs tenants are likely to keep these little secrets to themselves for fear that if Gus in the lobby gets discovered, there will be a lineup.
Here are two places serving authentic Japanese food, sometimes with a twist, as well as the occasional bagel egg-wich or cappuccino.
8th St. Sushi Café
On the walls of the 8th St. Sushi Café are testimonials written by various sports professionals about the chef, Tio, while he was toiling at Seika Sushi, a longstanding but now defunct Kensington sushi bar. He's resurfaced in a converted coffee shop (609 - 8 St. S.W.), which, in addition to serving inexpensive and yummy sushi, also has cappuccino and ice cream. It's not really fusion – rather, it's catering to a loyal maple walnut-chomping clientele.
The proliferation of sushi restaurants in Calgary has also brought higher prices, and one way of keeping costs low is by choosing a challenging location. While Seika was at the expensive end of the sushi market, the 8th St. Sushi Café is cheap. The house special bento box is $8.95 and comes with four pieces of fresh and firm nigiri sushi, a nice salad, some fresh and light tempura, and teriyaki chicken. It's a hell of a lot of food.
The house rolls ($4) were well made – they didn't fall apart and weren't too big and unwieldy – and the special scallop was spicy and tasty. Best of all, the yaki tofu– squares of fried firm tofu in a salty sauce ($3.50) – had a lovely soft texture.
The room also has a surprise – if you enter and turn the corner past the sushi bar, there are couches and tables where you can relax, have some tea and sushi, and maybe play a game of Go.
The one caveat about the 8th St. Sushi Café: don't go in too much of a hurry. There are only two people working in the whole place, so a couple of bento boxes might take 15 minutes to make. If the food's good, though, I'm happy to sip tea and wait.
Japanese Noodle House
I must have driven by the laconically named Japanese Noodle House (1120 - 13 St. S.W.) a thousand times before, but at the constant urging of the reliable manager of One Yellow Rabbit Theatre, Steve Schroeder, we stopped for a bowl of noodles instead of whizzing by. It's a great little place – the staff are kind and obliging to a fault, and there's tons of variety. When we were there, the specials included katsu-don (a deep-fried pork chop with rice), some raw beef with spicy sauce and several types of noodle soup.
We settled on udon, the soup with wide noodles. It was hot and nourishing, and although perhaps not as salty or spicy as I like, that can easily be fixed with some soy sauce and sriracha, the hot garlicky Korean sauce which sits on each table. The tempura udon ($8.95) came with perfect tempura shrimp and carrots, but next time I'd definitely order the lunch special.
Again, the special is heaps of food: chicken udon with a dynamite roll of sushi and a lovely piece of salmon for $8.95. The chef's salad ($4.95) was mostly iceberg lettuce – depressing in the winter, but a cooling crunch in the summer – with a zingy vinaigrette. |
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