It has been a while since I visited Raisu, and even though I had just eaten dinner before, I wasn’t going to turn down a second one when my friend wanted to visit for his first. We had plans later in the evening and thought to kill them here.
We joined the late night crowd for last call, in their annex room. To catch up with the rowdiness of the rest of the room we started off with a sake flight and some cocktails.
I ordered the Salted Plum Sour cocktail thinking it would make a good digestive with plum wine, sake, salted plum, soda, and basil. However, I was not a fan, I found the flavour too sharp and the flavours jumbled, not complimentary to anything below. I would later pass it on to my guest to finish.
I then turned my attention to their premium sake flight. 5 pours with recommendations on what to order to pair them with. The flight was a nice way to whet our lips, but only made us want more, so we followed this with the next logical step, a full bottle of sake.
Here, our eyes were larger than our stomachs and we were unable to finish what we set out to do. We had the staff serve a quarter of the sake hot, a quarter of it cold to see what we preferred. We came to the conclusion that we liked it cold, so finished the hot version and then poured what we couldn’t finish cold, back into the bottle to have for later.
As for food, I let my guest take the lead considering that he was the one who hadn’t eaten since breakfast. All I wanted was uni.
We started with Tako Wasabi, which is bits of raw octopus, seasoned with wasabi and served with sheets of crispy seaweed as a base. This was nostalgic for me. I liked the rubbery-gummy chew of the octopus balanced out by the fragrant crisp of the roasted seaweed, all wrapped in the smokey nasal clearing essence of the wasabi. Eating it is an experience.
They have an “aburi of the day”, which we tried. This set is listed as 8 pieces, but were essentially 4 cut into 2. These were slightly larger than your typical aburi rectangles, but felt stingy at $2.80 per small square. Especially as today’s selection of lightly seared sushi was the commonplace salmon and tuna topped with mayo, unagi sauce, tobiko, and microgreens. You couldn’t taste the delicate nature of the fish past the drizzles of colour, and the sushi felt messy and not simple and clean as I know aburi to be. Flavour-wise it was all a jumble of everything in one bite, similar to fusion rolls that you can get at any generic Japanese sushi spot. Whereas I come to Raisu for the more refined.
I then got what I came in for, which was the Uni Shooter. Centred around sea urchin, this is a mouthful served in a shot glass with tobiko, mountain potato, quail egg, and a dashi ponzu truffle jelly. You take it like a shot, which in hindsight doesn’t really allow you to savour and enjoy each individual element and how they come together. Thankfully I got the umami flavour of the uni itself lingering. This is a good one to jump start the appetite with.
We then took another hit of uni with the Steamed Uni Chawan Mushi. This one is only available after 5pm and takes 20 minutes to prepare. Gently steamed egg with Raisu’s original broth, topped with sea urchin, ikura, and real crab. The uni was warmed by the layer of gelatine at the top, and fragranced by shisho for a distinct herbal character. Majority of the enjoyment is through the textures.
My guest then continued eating with the Tonkatsu Teishoku, which is a complete meal set that included traditional Japanese accoutrement. This is barley-fed “omugi” premium pork, crusted with coarse panko and deep-fried for a solid crunch. It is served with a bowl of steamed rice, miso soup with tofu and seaweed, shredded cabbage, and two kinds of dipping sauces. One of the dipping sauces is black and white sesame that you are taught how to grind up using a wooden pestle and the serrated dish it is served in as the mortar.
In conclusion, Raisu is one of the restaurants I will always be happy to visit. I like their unique interpretations on Japanese cuisine, their use of uni, and overall creative concept. I know I will be returning soon.
Raisu
2340 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6K 1P1
(604) 620-1564
raisu.ca
