Shuraku

Hubbs & I are on a quest to find our favourite sushi joint in Van.  We may have inadvertently discovered it on a recent visit to Shuraku.  

We made a reso online a few days ahead of time, and showed up to a lovely hostess/server who knew my name as soon as I mentioned my reso.  The menu was extensive in terms of their sake collection, but because Hubbs & I are both on meds for our coughs, we had to stick with their tea options (there were 3).  We stuck with the genmai green tea, the standard, and it was one of the least watered-down genmai that we've had in a while.  

Because we weren't 100%, we opted to eat light.  This meant we only ordered 3 rolls (the Roulette, the Rainbow, and the Red Torch), 2 Monkfish Liver nigiri, and an order of gomae because I wanted some "greens" in my diet.  The gomae proved to be the most flavourful gomae ever; just thinking about it makes me want more!  Their servings for some of this stuff are izakaya sized, so the gomae wasn't huge (though you know they probably had to go through a lot of raw spinach just to make one little bowl of cooked spinach).  Hubbs ended up having half of my gomae because it was just that tasty!  

Our nigiri came next.  I liked the monkfish liver though of course it was cooked so it had a pate-like consistency to it, which was an interesting combination to pair with rice.  I might want to try it as an appie next time, just to see what it's like on its own.  

Our rolls came out altogether.  The favourite for us was the Roulette Roll; the negitoro's green onion flavours came out very well although the chopped scallop was far more subdued in flavour.  I liked the crispy lotus root chip on the top, too.  We really loved the taste of this roll, given our partiality to negitoro.

The rainbow roll was (according to Hubbs) the best rainbow roll he has ever had.  It was also fresh and tasty.  The red torch roll was unique and had a bit of kick from the kimchee on top.  It wasn't overly spicy though, and the texture of the BBQ salmon skin offered an interesting contrast to the soft rice, the crunchy cucumber, and the fatty roe. 

Generally, the rolls were not particularly wide in girth, but because of that we could really taste the filling of each roll and weren't overwhelmed by rice (which many places tend to do with their specialty rolls).  I liked their sizing although I know some might balk at the rolls being diminuitive relative to other places.  The pricing was also moderate; I wouldn't say it was cheap since the rolls averaged about $12 each, but our total bill (given we didn't have sake and we didn't try the dessert) was only $50, tax-in.

I totally will be coming back.  The server was super sweet and very efficient, and Hubbs and I both enjoyed the rolls.  The decor is very clean and a bit more upscale than the traditional-looking sushi houses in the city, and I appreciated the more contemporary feel of the place.  It wasn't overwhelmingly noisy and Shuraku had a warm and lively vibe to it.  It's a great date night sort of place.

Service: 4.5 out of 5

Food: 5 out of 5