Soul Robata & Izakaya
I wasn't planning on eating out tonight, but... accidents happen BAHAHAHA~ Kish and I were looking for a place for the unexpected dinner, and we came across Soul Robata & Izakaya on Alexandra. There was a big banner across the front saying all food is 20% off during the month of August, so we decided to try it out. And it was a good thing there was a discount, because the bill still came to almost $100 for 3 people. The food was above average, but so were the prices.
Kish and I each ordered an Asahi Black ($6). It was surprisingly sweet, even sweeter than honey lager. I had expected a strong malty taste because it was a dark beer, but it was actually quite light and smooth.
We ordered some appetizers to start with, and the first dish to come was the shima aji sashimi ($25). Kish had wanted hamachi, but the waitress told us it was sold out and recommended the shima aji. She said they were very similar, as both fish belong to the same family. As usual, I got too excited when the food came and dug in right away. Kish and I each took a piece before I remembered to take a picture, so the picture below is missing 2 pieces. There were 7 pieces of sashimi in total for $25, which is waaaaay too expensive. I realize it's probably a rare fish, but almost $3.60 apiece is absurd. The shima aji did taste like hamachi, but with a slightly harder texture. To be honest, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary and definitely not worth the price.
The lamb sashimi was much better... and cheaper. I can't remember the exact price, but I think it was around $10. The lamb had no musty goat taste at all. In fact, it tasted just like beef carpaccio except it was even more tender and tasty.
Next we had enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef. My mom used to make this at home, so it was nothing special.
I only ate one, and moved on to the sashimi salad ($9.50). I ordered this in an attempt to balance my diet and get my daily greens. It came with salmon sashimi and what tasted like hamachi sashimi (thought they were sold out...). The salad was peppered with a generous amount of tobiko and drizzled with vinaigrette. It was very refreshing after all the meat I ate.
Then we ordered takoyaki and okonomiyaki. We wanted to see how the takoyaki here measures up to the bakudanyaki at Tenku. There is really no comparison. Maybe because I've gotten used to all the extra ingredients in the bakudanyaki, having just octopus inside a ball of batter simply wasn't satisfying enough anymore. And even by normal takoyaki standards, it wasn't that great either. There's better takoyaki at the night market.
The seafood okonomiyaki was quite pricey at $12.95. But to be fair, there were a lot of scallops and other seafood in the pancake. A bit too much perhaps. It was more like seafood with batter instead of a pancake with seafood. But it tasted really good.
At this point Kish and I were both kind of full, but his brother Pooh was still hungry. How I envy teenagers... to be able to eat their hearts out and still be hungry :D So we got a curry beef udon for him, and of course we tried a little. There was a nice curry flavour that was not too strong and not too weak, but the meat was a bit overcooked.
We also got a spider roll that took forever to come, and there were only 4 pieces. How strange... usually there are 6 pieces in an order of sushi. But it tasted good, and the crab was very crunchy and fresh.
And now the highlight of the meal (presentation-wise anyway): fried black sesame ice cream! It looked so pretty with the chocolate sauce drizzled all over the plate. The black sesame ice cream was very creamy and rich, and I loved the flavour. But they must be doing something wrong with the batter, because it did not taste good at all and the texture was all wrong. The ice cream made it very soggy and it was actually kind of gross... I ended up eating just the ice cream and leaving the crust.
Kish and I each ordered an Asahi Black ($6). It was surprisingly sweet, even sweeter than honey lager. I had expected a strong malty taste because it was a dark beer, but it was actually quite light and smooth.
We ordered some appetizers to start with, and the first dish to come was the shima aji sashimi ($25). Kish had wanted hamachi, but the waitress told us it was sold out and recommended the shima aji. She said they were very similar, as both fish belong to the same family. As usual, I got too excited when the food came and dug in right away. Kish and I each took a piece before I remembered to take a picture, so the picture below is missing 2 pieces. There were 7 pieces of sashimi in total for $25, which is waaaaay too expensive. I realize it's probably a rare fish, but almost $3.60 apiece is absurd. The shima aji did taste like hamachi, but with a slightly harder texture. To be honest, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary and definitely not worth the price.
The lamb sashimi was much better... and cheaper. I can't remember the exact price, but I think it was around $10. The lamb had no musty goat taste at all. In fact, it tasted just like beef carpaccio except it was even more tender and tasty.
Next we had enoki mushrooms wrapped in beef. My mom used to make this at home, so it was nothing special.
I only ate one, and moved on to the sashimi salad ($9.50). I ordered this in an attempt to balance my diet and get my daily greens. It came with salmon sashimi and what tasted like hamachi sashimi (thought they were sold out...). The salad was peppered with a generous amount of tobiko and drizzled with vinaigrette. It was very refreshing after all the meat I ate.
Then we ordered takoyaki and okonomiyaki. We wanted to see how the takoyaki here measures up to the bakudanyaki at Tenku. There is really no comparison. Maybe because I've gotten used to all the extra ingredients in the bakudanyaki, having just octopus inside a ball of batter simply wasn't satisfying enough anymore. And even by normal takoyaki standards, it wasn't that great either. There's better takoyaki at the night market.
The seafood okonomiyaki was quite pricey at $12.95. But to be fair, there were a lot of scallops and other seafood in the pancake. A bit too much perhaps. It was more like seafood with batter instead of a pancake with seafood. But it tasted really good.
At this point Kish and I were both kind of full, but his brother Pooh was still hungry. How I envy teenagers... to be able to eat their hearts out and still be hungry :D So we got a curry beef udon for him, and of course we tried a little. There was a nice curry flavour that was not too strong and not too weak, but the meat was a bit overcooked.
We also got a spider roll that took forever to come, and there were only 4 pieces. How strange... usually there are 6 pieces in an order of sushi. But it tasted good, and the crab was very crunchy and fresh.
And now the highlight of the meal (presentation-wise anyway): fried black sesame ice cream! It looked so pretty with the chocolate sauce drizzled all over the plate. The black sesame ice cream was very creamy and rich, and I loved the flavour. But they must be doing something wrong with the batter, because it did not taste good at all and the texture was all wrong. The ice cream made it very soggy and it was actually kind of gross... I ended up eating just the ice cream and leaving the crust.
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