1133 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC
It was W's birthday not so long ago and I wanted to take him to a nice place for dinner where we haven't been before. Since (a) he liked Japanese food, and (b) he mentioned before that he wanted to try the place where the California roll originated from, I made reservations for Tojo's!
I did not order their omakase menu because I was afraid they would put ingredients that W did not like to eat in their dishes. So, we just ordered a la carte off their menu.
Goma-ae
Blanched spinach with creamy sesame sauce
We started off with the goma-ae. It was a small portion of crisp, cool spinach just lightly tossed with the sesame sauce. There were some thin, black, crunchy things on top that we were unable to identify. I thought they were fried fishes shaved into strips. They were a little crispy and a little chewy as we munched on them.
Tojo's Tuna (small)
Chef's signature dish - Tuna sashimi with special sesame and wasabi sauce
We also had the small-sized order of Tojo's tuna as an appetizer. The tuna was fresh, albeit a little on the mushy side. The sauce was a mix of savoury and sweet with a little kick from the wasabi. I found the sauce overwhelmed the tuna a bit too much. It detracted from the natural flavour of the tuna since the sauce was quite strong. If it was just lightly tossed with no residual liquid at the bottom, it would have been better. Well, we did make good use of it since we dipped our rolls in the remaining sauce.
Tojo Roll (left & right) and Golden Roll (centre)
Tojo Roll - West Coast dungeness crab, avocado, spinach and egg rolled inside-out with sesame seeds on top
Golden Roll - Crab, scallop, wild Pacific salmon, and sweet shrimp rolled in an egg crepe with fish roe on top
Onto some more substantial items, we decided to try two different rolls.We could not find a roll on the menu that indicated "California roll" (we were there to try the original California roll but it was not to be seen!) so we settled on the Tojo Roll which we thought most closely resembled the California roll.
The ingredients were fresh and there was just the right amount of rice wrapped around the seaweed but, honestly, I thought the roll was quite bland (hence why we wanted to dip our rolls in the Tojo's tuna sauce).
The Golden Roll was unique and it definitely showcased the freshness and sweetness of the ingredients. The golden yellow tobiko provided a nice crunch to the roll. In lieu of seaweed, the thin egg crepe held the roll together. The flavour of this roll was also subtle but I liked it more than Tojo's Roll.
Canadian Sablefish
Baked sablefish with Tojo's secret marinade
Next, we shared the sablefish. The flavour of the fish was predominantly sweet so I thought the taste was kind of one dimensional. The fish was cooked perfectly where the meat flaked off easily but still retained its softness. Underneath the sablefish was a mound of veggies: julienned carrots, celery, snap peas, yellow peppers, and maitake(?) mushrooms. Unfortunately, this dish did not wow me at all.
After finishing the sablefish, we were still a little hungry so we ordered a few pieces of nigiri sushi to finish off the meal. We had the Tobiko (flying fish roe), Sake (wild Pacific salmon), and Hotate (scallop). Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the sushi so you'll have to take my comments as is. I thought the salmon was cut kind of haphazardly. There was still a bit of skin left on the salmon and it wasn't very pleasing to the eye. I expected more in terms of execution and plating at a fine dining restaurant like Tojo's. The scallop was good but just a little heavy-handed on the wasabi.
Overall, we sort of had high expections at Tojo's. Unfortunately, we left rather disappointed and I felt that my wallet suffered an unnecessary beating due to their inflated prices. It's a good experience but for us, once is enough at Tojo's.
