My first taste of Kozu was as an Uber delivery. I was looking for something different that would satisfy, and sushi made in the form of pizza fit the bill. I only ordered one serving, thinking for the price I paid I would get a larger pie. Although, what came was an individual-size, miniature pizza for $14.99.
It was good, it tasted exactly as I expected: Deconstructed sushi formed into a round. The base is deep fried then topped as per its ingredient listing. On a later date I would visit their commissary kitchen, and order another two different sushi pizzas to try. All three are as follows.
The spicy shrimp sushi pizza is a deep fried sushi rice round spread over with Japanese mayo, topped with imitation crab and seasoned shrimp; and finished off with a good drizzling of their special spicy mayo. Then garnished with spun cucumber strands, masago, aonori, and black sesame seeds. Exactly as expected, this was a great introduction to their product, and probably my favourite out of the three varieties I have had to date.
The Salmon queen sushi pizza has a cream cheese spread, topped with imitation crab and spicy salmon. It ate like a flat and crispy California roll in its use of creamy and sweet crab. You don’t need soy sauce for flavour, but it is nice to have it and pickled ginger on the side, to help change the flavour mid meal.
The Takoyumi sushi pizza is meant to resemble a Takoyaki, except it has squid instead of octopus, and not enough of it to actually use the word in the title of the dish. Taste-wise it hit the mark. Japanese mayo spread topped with cabbage and squid, drizzled over with takoyaki and Japanese mayo; and garnished with dried seaweed strands, bonito flakes, and aonori.
These sushi pizzas may be their staples, but their new hand rolls will be what I am recommending. They call these “Nori Bombs”, despite their shape being a tube instead of a round, as their name suggests.
Like their other product, this is sushi constructed in a different way, or rather any way you want to. A set of ingredients packaged individually for you to bring together. A bowl of rice, rectangle seaweed sheets, two heaping scoops of raw seafood filling, and sauces stored in mini zip lock bags.
The goal to pick and choose, and craft your own your roll, your way; following the provided instructions as a guide. You are advised to place your rice on a sheet of seaweed, and are given the tools to do so. Next goes on the protein, followed by a drizzle of sauce, before being a rolled up for easy eating. The toppings and sauces are based on the type of roll you get
I liked the concept and the actual activity. I think it would make a great date night dinner, delivery option. However, I couldn’t help but to count all the excess waste. The need to individually package each element, whereas if all the rolls were premade for you, you would only have just one container to sort out. But nonetheless I had a good time with the kit and can and will recommend it.
To reduce to waste and time you can purchase individual handrolls, all laid out and waiting for you to fold and eat. Like everything else on their menu, the flavour is familiar, the application is what makes it interesting.
The following is what we had pictured here and with some variation. The Zesty salmon hand roll with salmon sashimi, a zesty carrot ginger dressing, Japanese mayonnaise, rice , and nori. Crab aburi hand roll with imitation crab, their house aburi sauce, a good torching, and aonori.
I like the idea, I enjoyed the food, and will probably crave them again. Can and will recommend.
KOZU Sushi Pizza
1370A E Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2A8
(778) 751-5861
kozusushipizza.com
