Best Sushi Place In Town?

[bomber317]

^^

That's just cruel.......

I was going to try out this bakery place tonight (urban baker) .... but I might need to switch it up to Zipang's.......

[Icon]

I'm really surprised nobody's mentioned Sushi Hiro. It's downtown. On 5th Ave between 6th & 7th Street SW. It's my fave that I've been to so far in Calgary.

On a side note - the only sushi place in Fernie BC is awesome if you're ever there. I forget the name, it's on the main blvd across from the Park Place hotel.

[dj_patm]

Ski bums making sushi?

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Tsukiji and Aji Sai are also supposed to be very good in Vancouver. What are some of your usual spots?

I pretty much go to the same place every time, because it's right by my house, cheep and amazing. It's called Hitoe Sushi, on West 4th.
Just a small hole in the wall place, but IMO those are often the best.

I've tried everything else around Kitsilano which has about 10 places, and don't rate any of the others very high, except for Hapa Izikaya, but that's iyikaya. The Eatery gets my vote for the most overated/overpriced sushi in Van.

Haven't tried the 2 you've mentioned, I'll look into them.

[Rerun]

My wife only eats sushi that doesn't have raw seafood in it.... go figure eh?
I'd like to try out, with my wife, one of these sushi places that have been mentioned, but whats the point? I think if you restrict yourself to non-seafood sushi you're kind of limiting your options.

[dubc80]

Originally Posted by Icon

I'm really surprised nobody's mentioned Sushi Hiro. It's downtown. On 5th Ave between 6th & 7th Street SW. It's my fave that I've been to so far in Calgary.

On a side note - the only sushi place in Fernie BC is awesome if you're ever there. I forget the name, it's on the main blvd across from the Park Place hotel.

The place in Fernie is called Yamagoya. I ate there over New Years. Good stuff!

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by Rerun

My wife only eats sushi that doesn't have raw seafood in it.... go figure eh?
I'd like to try out, with my wife, one of these sushi places that have been mentioned, but whats the point? I think if you restrict yourself to non-seafood sushi you're kind of limiting your options.

Maybe break her in slowly. Start with non-fish sushi like avacado rolls, move to cooked seafood like dynamite rolls, california rolls and eventually she'll try to raw stuff and love it.
Until about 3 years ago I didn't eat seafood at all, couldn't stand it one but. I first started with the non-raw stuff and would order things like vegi-tempuras, agedashi tofu and vegi rolls.
Eventually I acquired a taste for seafood and raw seafood and now I can't get enough the raw deliciousness of sushi and will pretty much try anything.

[malcolmk14]

I'd just like to clarify that my list on the previous page of top-tiered sushi places is relative to Calgary's standards only. Obviously none of the places on the list compare to what is available in other cities. Just in case there are any hardcore sushi people around that are about to rip me for thinking Misato is top-tier sushi.

[frege64]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

I'd just like to clarify that my list on the previous page of top-tiered sushi places is relative to Calgary's standards only. Obviously none of the places on the list compare to what is available in other cities. Just in case there are any hardcore sushi people around that are about to rip me for thinking Misato is top-tier sushi.

Actually, what's on that list is much better than what's available in other cities. Compared to Vancouver, Calgary is hard done by, but compared to most cities in North America, Calgary has great sushi and the value is not bad either. It's all about volume, and with more than 60 sushi places in a city of barely one million, you can do better in Calgary than many, many other cities.

To those who want traditional nigiri, please give O Shima on 17th ave SW (west of 14 St, space used to be Mt Everest's) a try. Please do not confuse it with Oishii, which is not terrible lately but in a different league from O Shima. O Shima has beautifully cut, elegant nigiri with perfectly formed rice, and their gunkan sushi is a treat too. Rolls are not bad, some are excellent, but their nigiri is as good as I've had anywhere.

For non-traditional sushi my fave, hands down, is El's Japanese Fusion. For value (including tonight's dinner, an excellent chicken teriyaki with side of sweet potato tempura), Uptown Sushi at 11/11 SW. I also like Tenshi, Sushi Club, Sukiyaki House, Blowfish, Globefish, and this TINY place in the DT West End called, I think, Sushi Time- it's on 10 St SW and seats maybe two people, but its rolls are every bit as good as Globefish but way cheaper.

[rage2]

Originally Posted by frege64

Actually, what's on that list is much better than what's available in other cities. Compared to Vancouver, Calgary is hard done by, but compared to most cities in North America, Calgary has great sushi and the value is not bad either. It's all about volume, and with more than 60 sushi places in a city of barely one million, you can do better in Calgary than many, many other cities.

I'm a sushi snob, and even tho we have tons of sushi joints here, the quality is just brutal. Could be because we're so far from the ocean and we get lesser quality fish. Our best sushi in town is about equivilent to the average places in Vancouver.

With that being said, my "best of" places in town would be Zipang for traditional style, and Sukiyaki House for fusion/non traditional (even though some of the items are traditional style).

The prob with Zipang is they won't take reservations over the phone, but when I get there they have empty tables reserved. Everytime I wait, I notice it's just Japanese people, so I figured I need to learn Japanese to get a reservation haha. It's still worth the wait though.

Sukiyaki house, you have to try the spicy tuna roll, the tuna just melts. And now that it's winter, I add an order or 2 of Sukiyaki w/AAA beef, which is amazing.

For those that travel in North America, Tojos in Vancouver and Sushi Ran in San Francisco is a must try. Sushi Ran is cheap too (especially with the exchange rate), and of all the places I've tried around the world, is by far my favorite. The sushi chef there has won several international sushi competitions, and his inventions are amazing.

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by frege64

Actually, what's on that list is much better than what's available in other cities. Compared to Vancouver, Calgary is hard done by, but compared to most cities in North America, Calgary has great sushi and the value is not bad either. It's all about volume, and with more than 60 sushi places in a city of barely one million, you can do better in Calgary than many, many other cities.

You're absolutely right, and by "other cities" i should have clarified as I meant places like San Francisco, Vancouver, LA, Seattle, New York.

Thanks for the O Shima rec, I would love to check it out.

[frege64]

I know that I must have just had bad luck, but I've never had decent sushi in SF that I didn't pay an arm and a leg for. Same with Seattle- Umi is fantastic, but I dropped $58 for myself there, with nothing but water to drink.

We aren't far from the ocean at all- it takes just as much time to transport tuna here as it does to get to Vancouver. Most of what you order in Van is from the exact same supply chain as here. And I'm going to say it: I don't find your typical sushi place in Calgary one bit worse than your typical place in Vancouver. The difference is price. Sushi places in Calgary often do huge business (and this is why the scene here has improved by at least 1000% since I moved here 10 years ago!), but we have nowhere near the market and volume they do in Van. Almost no city does.

So for your average sushi places I don't see Calgary as even a tiny bit weak- take somebody from Ottawa or Toronto to any of the places I list and see their astonishment considering the absolute crap they pass off as sushi in those cities (and Montreal, Halifax, etc). Where Van excels is that their BEST places blow everything else in NA out of the water (well maybe there are exceptions in California), and that they have this huge range of OTHER Japanese cuisines, like ramen shops and takoyaki vendors and of course Japadog. We may never get there, but please, don't keep on with this "quality is brutal" nonsense. You can do so, so much worse than Calgary.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by rage2

the quality is just brutal. Could be because we're so far from the ocean and we get lesser quality fish.

Why would this be? Fish is flown in to Calgary the same way it is to "elite sushi" cities, is it not?

[TheyCallMeBruce]

El's Japanese Fusion. Best Sushi in town

[Russic]

Thanks to you all my wife is now wondering why we have so many sushi places listed in our address book now.

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by frege64

So for your average sushi places I don't see Calgary as even a tiny bit weak- take somebody from Ottawa or Toronto to any of the places I list and see their astonishment considering the absolute crap they pass off as sushi in those cities (and Montreal, Halifax, etc). Where Van excels is that their BEST places blow everything else in NA out of the water (well maybe there are exceptions in California), and that they have this huge range of OTHER Japanese cuisines, like ramen shops and takoyaki vendors and of course Japadog. We may never get there, but please, don't keep on with this "quality is brutal" nonsense. You can do so, so much worse than Calgary.

These are my feelings exactly, I just couldn't quite put it as eloquently as you just did. While the sushi in Calgary is not brutal by any stretch, their top places still only qualify as average to good on the Vancouver or New York or Los Angeles scale.

You're not going to find a Sugiyama or Kurumazushi or Sushi Yasuda or Sushi Seki in Calgary any time soon, we just don't have the market for it.

PS: I enjoy your blog quite a bit, but would you mind putting up some new food reviews? I'm running out of places to try.

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by troutman

Why would this be? Fish is flown in to Calgary the same way it is to "elite sushi" cities, is it not?

I know that top-tier sushi restaurants in NY have exclusive deals with their suppliers and they get first crack at the fish. Fish are a limited resource. Top-quality fish goes to places like Japan, New York, Los Angeles. After that, restaurants in cities like Vancouver, San Francisco, Seattle get their crack at the fish.

The top quality fish in the world ends up in the "better" sushi cities. The quality in Calgary isn't bad, but it's not outstanding either.

[7uongo]

Originally Posted by troutman

Why would this be? Fish is flown in to Calgary the same way it is to "elite sushi" cities, is it not?

not to mention that Vancouver has a huge japanese community there whereas in Calgary, there is very few. you'll even get chinese or korean people running sushi places here

[troutman]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

I know that top-tier sushi restaurants in NY have exclusive deals with their suppliers and they get first crack at the fish. Fish are a limited resource. Top-quality fish goes to places like Japan, New York, Los Angeles. After that, restaurants in cities like Vancouver, San Francisco, Seattle get their crack at the fish.

The top quality fish in the world ends up in the "better" sushi cities. The quality in Calgary isn't bad, but it's not outstanding either.

Is there one central fish market where fish is auctioned?

I saw an amazing flower auction in Amsterdam, where flowers are bid for, and sent all around the world.

I imagine salmon is not hard to get, but tuna could be more scarce.

http://aquafind.com/seafoodprices.php

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by troutman

Is there one central fish market where fish is auctioned?

I saw an amazing flower auction in Amsterdam, where flowers are bid for, and sent all around the world.

I imagine salmon is not hard to get, but tuna could be more scarce.

http://aquafind.com/seafoodprices.php

The Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo is the most well-known for tuna auctions, I'm sure there are others for other types of fish, but I'm not 100% sure.