By Sherman Chan,
Special to The Post

We sampled the whole menu including The World is Your Oyster featuring oyster motoyaki with shallot & ginger salsa, crispy tempura bits, bonito flakes and served in a jar filled with smoke which had a light smokiness to the buttery and briny oyster. The smokiness from the char helped balance the sweetness.

In the Get in my Belly, there was a lot going on inside the nori cone including the chewiness of the sushi rice, crunch from the cracklings, the light salty crunch from the pork floss and the fresh snap of the cucumber.

The Lucky Tiger Ramen had the firm chewy Korean-style ramen mixed with cucumbers, bean sprouts and mustard infused radish with Yong Yong’s special watermelon sauce. It was refreshing. In the poke bowl aka Dr. Octopus & Mr. Tuna, we found octopus and albacore poke salad, pickled veggies, pine nuts, sesame, house made spicy sauce and torched miso mayo atop flavoured rice. The star of the show were the sweet and salty pickles.

Veggie Tales had a combination of house made pappardelle pasta, wild kale, foraged mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, toasted hazelnuts, grated parm and yuzu butter and was one of my favourites. There was an Earthiness accented by the tart tomatoes and crunchy nuts.

For dessert, we were served a platter consisting of Count Chocula,Good Morning Vietnam and Last Samurai along with Sesame Street. These were not very sweet. My favourite was the Count Chocula.

Overall, this visit to Torafuku was good. Proteins were on point while any carbs were prepared properly too. I still think their overall seasoning is a little aggressive, but then again, the rest of the diners at the place didn't seem to mind.

Torafuku

958 Main Street, Vancouver, BC

The Good:

• Bold flavours

• Creative

• Ok pricing

The Bad:

• I found it a bit over-seasoned

Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.