I read up on Okonomi in New Westminster and thought I’d venture out there to give it a try. Since Meryl works in New West, she joined me at the restaurant. We were a bit unsure if the place was still open or not, or where the entrance was.. y’see, it’s actually located up a flight of stairs that say ‘Laff Lines’. Too confusing for me..
Okonomi Sushi
26 4th Street, New Westminster
Tel#: (778) 397-0567
After walking in through the strange entrance way, I was surprised to see how many people were actually inside! I’ll be completely honest here, I was expecting there to be no one here. There was an odd stench when you walk in, the carpets looked as if it hasn’t been changed or even cleaned in decades. I wanted to turn around and leave, but a server approached us with a warm greeting and led us to our couch.
I’m more accustomed to booths rather than couches, but this place has couches. Not even the firm kind that you could enjoy your meal in. I found that I had to sit up straight the entire meal without any back support…otherwise I would’ve had to slouch completely into the couch and not be able to eat or even converse with my dining companion.
Meryl decided to start with their Gomae. The pile of spinach was drench with sesame sauce
Next came the Crazy Roll. This had cream cheese, cucumber wrapped with unagi with tempura bits on top. Don’t let your eyes fool you, the rice on the rolls are a tinge of purple. This roll turned out to be pretty tasty. They didn’t put a thick layer of rice on the roll which we liked.
Meryl went with their Vancouver Island Roll. This had prawn tempura, unagi and cucumber topped with tempura bits.
Next up was Meryls Stanley Park Roll. This was on special for the day. Again this was topped with tempura bits and drenched in sauce. We’re beginning to notice a pattern here…I’ll admit, the rolls are pretty large, Meryl found their special rolls selection to be quite vast, however the differences between them were disappointing. It seems as though each one contained the same filler ingredients with only 1 item switched.
And I also ordered a Bento Box, which allowed you a choice/substitution for almost every item listed in the box! I’ve never been asked so many questions when I’m trying to order a meal. This was supposed to also come with miso soup and sunomono, but it never came to our table. The box was pretty filling, it had a dynamite roll, deep fried gyoza, chicken yakitori, prawn/veg tempura, chicken teriyaki on noodles, chicken karage, green salad and even deep fried ice cream for dessert.
Overall, I found the food here to be just average. I have to admit, the portions here are pretty generous and the price is pretty cheap. I do have some things to vent out though. The service was pretty sparse. We had a hard time communicating with them..even trying to ask if they served ‘raw oysters’ turned out to be a 5 minute challenge of getting the message across, and even finding out if Meryls leftover box was coming back to our table took some time before they understood what we meant. Or even trying to get the bill, which took a long time before we could flag any servers down. I guess I had more to complain about than I thought, and writing this post made me realize I won’t be revisiting this restaurant again.
Post by Colleen
