Urban Sushi (web site, map, 562 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone 604-783-4889)

I made a visit to Urban Sushi on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver and enjoyed their Chirashi Don sushi (pictured in video below, $11.95) which their menu describes as “various raw fishes on top of sushi rice”. My friend Yang ordered the Oshinko Roll (Japanese pickle) and the Dynamite Roll ($3.95).

The Chirashi Don sushi was really delicious and I had fun making a video of the food (which you can see on Youtube by clicking here or by using the player below).

Urban Sushi is located in the downtown Vancouver business district and is a short walk from Vancouver’s cruise ship terminal (Canada Place), the new Vancouver Trade and Convention centre, and the Granville Skytrain station. The room is pleasant and efficient with long tables and big windows overlooking the Louis Vuitton store across the street.

The restaurant offers sushi delivery/catering service (for orders $50 and up), to nearby offices and apartments. Check out their web site for more details.

Urban Sushi in downtown Vancouver BC Canada (Business district). Chirashi Don bowl sushi $11.95.

Ridge Gardens Chinese Restaurant (map, previous review, 3113 Arbutus Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-736-7006, fax: 604-736-5231) offers Chinese food delivery in the Vancouver area, as well as excellent banquet meals for large groups choosing to dine at the restaurant.

My family always goes there for big get-togethers and it is always a marvellous feast that satisfies everyone. This time, I brought my video camera along and took a video of the dishes as they arrived (see player below, or click here to view on Youtube). Because of the low light the video is kind of grainy, but you can get the idea!

Prices are affordable, within the $15 to $25 per person for a large banquet (or slighly more depending on how many crabs and seafood items you order).

Below I’ve also included photos of the crab and chicken hot pot that I took in my previous visit (see Part 1 of my review).

Chinese style hot and spicy crab from Ridge Garden Restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Chicken and black fungus hot pot from Ridge Garden Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant (web site, map, 3302 Main Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-873-2220) is one of the few sushi restaurants on the east side of Vancouver that offers free sushi delivery within 5km. Check their web site for their menu and you can even order your sushi online. But how was the food, you might ask? Read on for more…

My friend and I are definite sushi aficionados, having tried many awesome sushi restaurants in Vancouver. We were originally in the area to try the Japanese food at Toshi’s at Main and 16th, which has a great reputation. Unfortunately due to its popularity there was a huge lineup outside Toshi’s. My friend’s friend (who lives in the neighborhood) gave us a hot tip that there is a sushi place near Toshi’s just a few blocks north on Main Street. We walked around and the only one we saw was Nikkyu, so that had to be the place. We were in for a real treat!

As a food photographer I always appreciate restaurants which put extra care and detail into their presentation of the food. Attractive and creative presentation is something I only expect at high-end restaurants, where the portions can be tiny and the food becomes more like edible art.

Many Japanese restaurants in town go for quantity over quality, and while I do enjoy all-you-can-eat and gigantic roll places, I don’t mind splurging for aesthetics once in a while.

But I was pleasantly surprised by Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant when the food arrived – the obviously very fresh sushi was presented in a simply beautiful fashion, with no grain of rice out of place, and the sprinkling of masago on the rolls put the finishing touch on some miniature masterpieces (pictured below).

Here’s what we ordered (all pictured below): 4 Saba Sushi ($4.60), Mango Smoked Salmon California Roll ($5.95), Chopped Scallop Roll ($3.85), House Roll ($4.75), Q.E. Park Roll ($7.50) and 6 pieces Salmon Sashimi ($7.95). Looking at these photos makes me hungry again!

Beautiful sushi from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Sushi rolls from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver.

Saba sushi (Mackerel) from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver.

Salmon sashimi from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant.

Chopped scallop sushi and saba sushi from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver.

More delicious sushi from Nikkyu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Indian Oven (web site, map, reviews, 2006 West 4th Avenue Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone 604-730-5069) is one of my friend’s favorite places to go for Indian food in the Vancouver area. It’s located on the second floor of a building at West 4th and Maple Avenue in Kitsilano, with a great view of the bustling shopping district and the mountains and downtown skyline in the distance.

I was really quite impressed by the quality of the food (we ordered vegetarian selections this time, but the menu has a good selection of non-vegetarian items as well). To start we enjoyed an appetizer of Onion Bhaji ($6.99, pictured below) which were deep fried and crispy, similar to Pekora but without the meat. Hub-uk (click here for their Onion Bhaji recipe) describes what makes up an Onion Bhaji:

The basic recipe consists of onions being chopped and then made into a sort of batter with chickpea or gram flour, spices, and sometimes with herbs, then fried until golden. They have a mild taste and are not hot.

For the main course, we tried the Bombay Aloo ($10.95, pictured below), a tasty dish of diced potatoes cooked with cumin seed & specialty spices, and the Vegetable Korma ($10.95, also pictured below), which is made with carrots, cauliflowers, and broccoli cooked in the restaurant’s own special cream sauce. We also had an order of Pulao Rice ($3.50), and Garlic Naan bread ($2.25), which their menu describes as “white flour leavened bread coated with garlic”. Yum!

nanashi, a reviewer on DineHere.ca (click here to read review) writes:

Being from West Bengal, and growing up on Indian food most of my life I’m always looking for a taste of home. I discovered the Indian Oven last year and have found my self routinely selecting it for take out, over other Indian restaurants in Vancouver. The Indian Oven specializes mostly in North Indian cuisine, which is quite common among Indian restaurants in North America… Tandoori/tikk/kebab specialties of this restaurant are far above most of the other restaurants in west part of Vancouver.

The restaurant also has free delivery within a 5km radius (click here for their take out and delivery menu), and 10% off for pick-up orders.

Indian food from Indian Oven restaurant in Vancouver: Garlic Naan bread ($2.25), Bombay Aloo ($10.95), Vegetable Korma ($10.95)

Onion Bhajis ($6.99, appetizer from Indian Oven restaurant in Vancouver).

Closeup of Vegetable Korma ($10.95) from Indian Oven restaurant in Vancouver.

Garlic Naan bread from Indian Oven restaurant in Vancouver ($2.25)

Sarpino’s Pizzeria (web site, map, menu, 1630 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone 604-734-5700) is a newly opened location of a BC based pizza restaurant chain which offers Italian style take-out and pizza delivery. They feature a selection of gourmet pizza, pastas, salads, wings, desserts, and more. The restaurant is located on West Broadway between Granville and Burrard, which is a convenient location to provide fresh pizza delivery to the downtown core as well as the many businesses and residents in the surrounding area.

Thanks to Norma for the yummy photos of the pizza below.

Please click here to view the restaurant’s menu.

Yummy pizza from Sarpino's pizza restaurant in Vancouver

Closeup of Pizza from Sarpino's pizza restaurant in Vancouver

Cheese Pizza from Sarpino's Pizza Delivery and Take Out in Vancouver

Ridge Gardens Chinese Restaurant (map, visitor reviews, 3113 Arbutus Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, phone: 604-736-7006, fax: 604-736-5231) offers above-par Chinese food in the affluent Arbutus Ridge neighborhood of Vancouver, which is close to Kitsilano to the north and Kerrisdale to the south. It’s in the same strip mall as the Ridge Theatre.

My family always chooses to dine at Ridge Garden for big get-togethers, where we order off the banquet menu and share many dishes.

Prices are reasonable: for a huge meal including soup, crab, and at least one dish per person, the total cost came out to around $20 each including tax. There were enough leftovers for a couple more meals at home too! The Ridge Garden restaurant also offers Chinese food delivery to the nearby Vancouver vicinity, as well as take-out.

Pictured below are the Hot and Spicy Crab (market price), the hot pot with chicken and black fungus (very tasty, believe me!), and the house soup (flavorful and savory). Ample free parking is available in the lot just north of the restaurant on Arbutus street, and the restaurant is also accessible by bus (view easy transit directions to the restaurant).

Hot and spicy crab, prepared Chinese style

Chicken and black fungus Chinese hot pot

Chinese soup (very flavorful)

Wing Kee Seafood Restaurant (web site, 120-8260 Granville Avenue, Richmond, BC, Canada, phone 604-270-1825) specializes in Hong Kong Style Fried Crab (pictured below) as well as other seafood, barbecue pork, and wonton soup. They offer Chinese food delivery to the Richmond area until 3am. We had a large group and we ordered one dish each plus three crabs, and the price came out to approximately $25 per person including tax and tip. There are many Chinese restaurants in the Richmond area, but Wing Kee is where my family usually ends up going. We agreed after our latest meal that everything on the table was delicious!!

Salt and pepper spicy fried crab

Steamed crab with ginger and green onion sauce

Sweet and sour pork

Ben.z Noodle Restaurant (536 Seymour Street, 604-688-8385) is a recently opened Vietnamese restaurant that is within walking distance of the Waterfront skytrain station, Canada Place convention center and cruise ship terminal downtown. The menu is very friendly even to newcomers to this delicious cuisine, with only a few main choices and lots of pictures.

The Vietnamese Salad Rolls ($5.25, pictured below) are one of my favorite items: prawns, vermicelli noodles, and vegetables are wrapped in a delicate rice wrapper, served cold with peanut dipping sauce. The beef pho soup (reasonably priced at $7.75, also pictured below) is a huge bowl filled with various kinds of meats and noodles in a steaming broth.

This is comfort food at its best and is perfect for a rainy Vancouver day. The soup is served with a side plate of bean sprouts, fresh herbs, hot peppers, and a couple slices of lime (also pictured below).

Yopo Cafe (web site, 1122 Homer Street, Vancouver, BC, phone: 604-609-9676) is a tiny, bright, well kept Chinese restaurant in the upscale Yaletown shopping/restaurant district in downtown Vancouver. Lunch specials such as the lemon chicken on rice with shredded pork chow mein (pictured below) are served with soup, and are a reasonable $7.00 (or $6.45 if you get just one of the items). This restaurant is very popular for take out, and the kitchen is quite fast. They also offer an extensive Chinese food menu with over 100 items, which is pretty amazing considering their tiny kitchen. And what’s more, they provide free Chinese Food delivery to the Vancouver area for orders $20 and up, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm.