David of @pickydiner fame just completed his latest round-up of new restaurants and cafes opening in the greater Vancouver area. So, when looking for our latest meet up destination I referenced it. I went with Ajishou, considering it was in Burnaby, where I live, and I am in the midst of collecting a review of all the restaurants available to the quickly blooming Amazing Brentwood area.
The restaurant is hard to locate, assessable from the mall’s exterior courtyard via a door at the side and a staircase upwards. If you weren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t know where to go.
This is the second location of the restaurant. The first is in Richmond. I would not consider them authentic, but more as a grab bag of Japanese dishes made with modern aesthetics and fusion influences.
I liked the look of the restaurant with its second-floor corner view. It is all construction and road work now, but during warmer days it will be a great spot to linger in. They also had a robot on display at the door, it does not serve you, but serves as a nice conversation piece. Truthfully, the place looked better than its food tasted, and we felt lured in by that visual promise.
During the time of our visit, they had just opened on January first of the year, and were still waiting on their alcohol license. So, we contended with their Dobin-Misha, a seafood broth steamed in a tea pot and served as such for easy pouring instead. This was a full-bodied kombu with the essence of fermented fish. So richly satisfying without feeling heavy. I wanted a whole bowl of this as it ate like a meal with pieces of chicken, shrimp, calm, enoki mushroom and watercress in the mix.
The Tartare toro was an impressive looking serving with chopped toro, avocado, mango, and tobiko. The lemon on the side was just for show, as it was sliced far too thin to be able to squeeze juice from. The tartare tower had a great gummy texture thanks to the gooey egg yolk we would mix in. Taken in conjunction of a crispy sheet of nori, this dish had an enjoyable mouth-feel.
The Ajishou Seafood sampler box sounded good on paper, and we thought of it as an easy way to get to know their menu better. However, none one of the little compartmentalized bites were listed on the menu, and when the server dropped it off at our table, we had to call her back to ask what was what. I am not sure if she herself knew, as she stumbled through listing each. The following was what we could discern from it. For the most part, these are all very familiar Japanese Izakaya small bites and ingredients, all approachable and all together on the sweeter side. None of it worth $30.
The tako wasabi caught me off guard with all its wasabi. There was enough to cleared my sinuses.
The spicy sashimi was nothing more than chili sauce over smalls chunks of irregularly sliced salmon.
The tofu topped with ikura had a lovely presentation, but overall, nothing special as a salty block of omega threes.
The butter coated scallop was overcooked and hard. The shellfish did not appear all that fresh either.
We found the nugget of fried chicken to be lacking salt.
The ball of takoyaki was soggy and ate like mush. I did not taste of fele the would-be harder bit of octopus amid all the dough.
The slightly smoked salmon and egg loaf with ginger and real crab wrapped in a thin slice of daikon was interesting but lacked any real flavour or interest. It was simply boring.
The mix of sweet crab salad and dried tofu felt overly simple, even with the butterflied shrimp that topped it. This was nothing more than the ingredients listed assembled together.
Equally disappointing was the slice of salmon wrapping a leaf of lettuce like a bundle. All the flavour was in the sauce, and I had to lift the bowl and sip from it to find any flavour.
In conclusion, this was a disappointing meal, and I am glad we intentionally walked away still hungry. We acted apprehensively and did not order than the above, wanting to see what the appetizers were like before we committed to entrees. I did not feel like we got our monies worth from this. It felt like your neighbourhood sushi joint but with the facade of a fine dining establish. It did not live up to expectations and nothing was special enough or unique on to Ajishou to have me considering a return visit.
Ajishou Japanese Cuisine
4567 Lougheed Hw, Burnaby, BC
604.290.1343
ajishou.ca
