By Drunken Noms
Special to the Post

The newly opened Raisu restaurant belongs to the same group as Kingyo, Suika, and Rajio.

The Oceans Offerings featured 12 varieties of pressed sushi. It was a good thing we reserved two sets of this dish as the restaurant only prepares 10 sets of this box for both lunch and dinner as they were sold out by the time we all arrived at the restaurant.

The 12 pressed sushi included hamachi, saba, salmon/ikura, snapper, sayori, snow crab, tuna tataki, tamago, unagi, amaebi, hotategai, and botan ebi. The sushi rice was well made and the fish was fresh tasting. This was the highlight of the meal.

The Ebi Mayo which featured tiger prawns fried with a cilantro tempura batter and dipped in chili mayo. This was a solid rendition of the classic izakaya dish. The large tiger prawns were plump with a good snap, and the crunchy breading adhered to the meat without getting soggy from the chili mayo. I couldn’t taste the cilantro in the tempura batter.

The Sizzling Stone Beef Steak Hitsumabushi featured Canadian AAA tenderloin beef steak with Raisu original sauce, served on top of garlic butter fried rice in a sizzling hot stone bowl. This came with a dashi broth on the side that could be added to the rice, which I preferred. Overall, the dish was a little bland.

The Deluxe Seafood Bowl contained tamago, salmon, ahi tuna, yellowtail, snow crab, tai, and amaebi on. Although the sashimi was all fresh and of good quality, there were not enough pieces and the pieces were too small to justify the price.

I’d love to return for the Ocean’s Offering, and maybe one or two other items. But a few items on the menu that need some improvement and/or price adjustments. Compared to the other restaurants in the group, I’ve had overall better experiences with the food at both Suika and Kingyo. It really depends what you’re looking for.

Raisu

2340 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC

Drunken Noms is composed of two bloggers 'Drunken Master' and 'Food Wench'.  – www.drunkennoms.com