Sound familiar? It should if you’re a fan of Japanese restaurants.

It means “welcome” in Japanese and it’s how businesses greet their customers.

Lucky us. Irashai Grill, located in Coal Harbour @ 1368 West Pender Street, was in a welcoming mood and graciously invited Dan and I to a Vancouver Bloggers meet-up dinner last week. We’ve never been to or even heard of Irashai Grill before so we jumped at the opportunity. They assured us that Irashai was armed with super tasty food and a chic decor. Frankly Irashai, you had us at free Japanese food.

It was a fun night. Dan and I were joined by friendly Vancouver bloggers Sherman, Joyce, Rebbecca, John,and Heather. Finally, a dinner where snapping pics of the dishes before digging in was not only tolerated but encouraged! We were also joined by Danielle, the event organizer and Irashai’s #1 fan.

We were treated with a wide range of meticulously plated items from their regular menu. Below are a few dishes that stood out for us, dishes that we would order again.

Hamachi Sashimi (served with daikon salad and Pommery mustard dressing).
ed: Yum! Super thin-sliced hamachi, crunchy daikons, and a tangy sauce. Really great summer dish. I don’t order things like this often so this was a nice change of pace for me. As you can see from the pics, all the dishes were gorgeous. Preferential treatment perhaps, but when I looked over at another table, their food looked just as good.

Summer Roll & (deepfried!) Alaska Crab Leg Roll
ed: I love fusion rolls that taste great. I hate fusion rolls that are funky simply for the sake of being funky *cough*. Thankfully, these rolls fall into the category of the former. They weren’t mindblowing, but the ingredients were fresh and the portions were generous. And you gotta give them courage points for deep-frying a roll.

Pearl Chicken Karaage
dan: Here’s something we’ve never seen, batter fried chicken rolled in crunchy rice cracker balls. The texture reminds me of the asian rice cracker snacks I like to buy at T&T. It lightens up the dish and makes an old favorite interesting again. These would make great street food come to think of it. I wouldn’t mind sitting down with a plate of these and an Asahi in the summer.

BC Spot Prawn Sashimi
ed: My favorite dish of the night by far. BC Spot Prawn season is from May 1 – July 1. These giant prawns were sweet! Literally. When I tried prawn sashimi at Happa last year, I hated it. It was bitter and slimy. I tried it again at Guu a few months ago: better, but still bitter. But these guys were great! They weren’t slimy, they were huge, and they were super sweet. After we ate the sashimi, the waitress took the heads back to the kitchen, deep fried them, and gave them back to us. They were like deepfried miniature lobsters – nice.

Yam Fries
dan: Another classic dish done in a new way. These are basically french fry cut yam tempura with a light batter, served with two tasty dipping sauces. (really wanted to double dip….) It’s dishes like these that show how Irashai can raise normally bland traditional dishes to a higher level.

dan: I like the open feeling of the interior, the high ceilings and half circle booths are spacious and intimate. There are TV’s scattered around the room, with every table in clear view of a few of them at once. I think it’d be fitting if they had Kill Bill playing on repeat, but that’s just me.

ed: Irashai’s decor is very Coal Harbour-ish to me. It’s shiny, modern, and peaceful. Personally, when I’m eating downtown on a weekend night, I’m usually in more of a Robson Street-ish kind of mood. I love the energetic ambiance of places like Guu and Gyoza King; they’re not as clean-cut as Irashai, but they have a bit more attitude.
But that’s okay. I don’t think Irashai is trying to compete head-on with the izakayas. Irashai is doing its own thing, and is worth checking out if you’re into tasty Japanese food that cautiously and successfully straddles the line between fusion and traditional. Obviously, we can’t comment on value based on this meal, but the prices/proportions looked fair. The service was top-notch as well.

Thanks again @Irashai!

But let’s get back on track.

Izakayas are all the rage in Vancouver. What’s not to love about delicious, fushion-y, shareable Japanese food? Add an emphasis on alcohol, pretty waitresses, trendy restaurant design, and loud chefs and you have a winning formula for the 20somethings.

As much as I love izakayas, I think Vancouver is reaching a saturation point. Alpha, Guu, Hapa, Ebisu, Shiru-Bay: these are some of the bigger izakaya names in Vancouver. I’ve had pretty great experiences with all of them. One izakaya that a lot of people don’t seem to know about is Toratatsu, on 735 Denman Street.

I first heard about Toratatsu from Chilco’s Good things in Vancouver blog. Toratatsu is owned by the Uno family, who also happen to own Shiru-Bay and about 20 other restaurants in Tokyo. Kodai Uno, the son, assumes the executive chef role at Toratatsu.

Unlike Shiru-Bay and most other izakayas here, Toratatsu is a lot smaller. The other ones tend to pack all their customers into a large common area, creating a party like environment. Toratatsu, true to authentic Izakaya roots, is a lot cozier; the focus is on the bar. As Chilco said on her blog, “There are many Izakaya bars in Vancouver where you can go with lots of people but this place will be suitable when you want to have a relaxing time with your boyfriend or girlfriend.“

I couldn’t agree more.
The food rocks too.

First up, sukiyaki ($12.80). Fresh beef, veggies, organic eggs, and other goodies boiled in sukiyaki broth right in front of you. Really, really good. It might not be all-u-can-eat, but this miles ahead of Posh’s sukiyaki (which I enjoyed).

Second, ebi chili mayo ($8.00). 3 large prawns delicately deep fried and served with spicy chili mayonnaise sauce. Shiru-Bay is famous for this same dish. Guu and others have this dish too, but this is the best in town.

Third up, Gindara Saikyo Yaki ($9.80), or broiled miso-marinated black cod in laymen’s terms. This is one of the best dishes I’ve had all year. The buttery miso-flavored fish is complemented perfectly by the sweet creamy mash potatoes – and then the whole dish is turned upside down by the sharp and sour cherry tomatoes. Wicked.

I washed everything down with a large bottle of my favorite beer ($8.00).

Highly recommended.

Just try and get a table at a decent restaurant in Vancouver on Valentines day without reservations. The smart urban set probably would use Open Table and book ahead (note to self: try it), but if you’ve savoured every romantic moment leading up to Valentines so much that you’ve forgot about actually making it, you need to think about options, and quick. Since Asian food isn’t usually people’s first choice for candlelight dining, we got reservations for Guu at Aberdeen at 5pm for a 7pm dinner.

Yes, a loud Japanese Izakaya that has roots as refuge for to the tired Japanese salary man looking to get drunk on cheap beer and forget his equally woeful troubles at work and home doesn’t exactly say “You’re special, and I want to show you how much you mean to me by enjoying a delicious meal with you” to your little lady. I know. But I have a disdain for anything so over commercialized that its origins have been forgotten, and left in its place is the commercially manufactured urgency to show love for others through emptying your wallet on appointed day x…………but before I get carried away once again with a rant, lets get to the food…

Most of the menu were tapas, or dishes served in tapa portions, which means more pictures per meal :)

The names of the dishes were too long so I’ll just come up with my own interpretations.

We started with the BBQ Eel, which was similar in size to a crab cake, but doused in teriyaki style sauce and wrapped in what I assume is dried Eel meat. The bill later revealed that the dish is formally named Eel feuille, which means eel leaf. Enjoyable dish that shows the effort in preparation.

The spicy salmon sashimi.

Ebi Mayo. Usually this dish is more of a batter fried shrimp with tangy mayo sauce. Here we have it in baked potato salad form.

Okonomiyaki.

4 legged meat Sashimi. I say that because I’m not sure if its beef or pork. I like rare meat, and this is one tasty meat dish.

Roll it yourself. You get a few squares of seaweed along with a variety of sashimi and a sticky spinach pate. I like it for its novelty.

There was another order of Yakiudon for filler, but its not worth mentioning. Udon, boiled, fried, sprinkled with fish flakes and seaweed. Done. I make a killer Yakiudon myself, which I will blog one of these days.

I’m not sure if anyone can get full at this place without ordering the whole menu, but that’s not the point of these types of places anyway, and overall I have enjoyed the experience. A culinary opposite of AYCE.

The bill was reasonable and included a large beer (a size only found in Asia). The green grapes in place of candies remind me of one of my favourite movies Love and Pop. A poignant coming of age film that had one scene where the 4 main characters were each given a ripe muscat grape, and told to lightly bite into but not swallow. The otherwise seemingly ordinary salary man then took the saliva coated grapes and packaged them into plastic pouches and stashed them into his business brief case. It was the most surreal movie moment, and I will not explain my interpretation of that here, but eating the grape made me feel like one of the adolescent girls in the movie.

Here’s some screencaps. I promise to get a youtube clip of that scene posted.

We had to fill our stomachs before the night was over, so we headed to Gogo for some drinks and snacks. The takoyaki tastes strangely similar to the okonomiyaki we just had…

The Verdict:
Ambiance – 8/10
Food – 7/10
Value – 6/10

This Guu isn’t quite on par with the more upscale Izakayas in downtown, but is casual enough to wander in for a weekend lunch.

Time for another Eat, Snap, Repeat TRIVIA!
As mentioned earlier, Izakayas are the Japanese equivalent of a bar, traditionally hole-in-the-wall places to get yourself sh*t faced after work. The word Izakaya loosely translates to “Sake Shop”, and serve small platters that complement the consumption of alcohol well, such as BBQ meats. A bustling and spacious chain like Guu seems to almost go against that tradition, but has done a splendid job of bringing variety to Vancouver’s overpopulated sushi scene. You can find more pictures of Japanese Izakayas on flickr HERE