Irashai Grill (Coal Harbour)

I had heard about Irashai Grill before as they had been kind enough to invite me to a media launch a few weeks back. Unfortunately, that night I was also organizing the panel on social media etiquette for the Vancouver Bloggers Meetupand I was unable to make it. I’d been curious to know more about Irashai. So when Danielle told me that she had invited Matt (Vancouver Slop), Degan (Ethnic Eats) and myself for an intimate dinner and to get to know the cuisine of Irashai Grill, I was 100% delighted.

Credit: Degan Beley

I would have come to Irashai myself anyways because I have always had a soft spot for mom-and-pop owned small businesses, and I had heard about the history of Irashai, but Danielle’s invite was a great bonus. We started with some cocktails. I had a Mango Cosmo and Degan had a Litchi Whisky Sour. Our first dish, a Japanese sea scallop (hotate) carpaccio with citrus dressing, cracked black pepper and kiwi was delicate and fresh. We continued with some red tuna tataki with mayo and dark miso sauce. I am not crazy about lobster but when we were offered a platter of lobster tail, shiitake mushroom and shiso leaf tempura served with lime and smoked sea salt, I couldn’t stop myself. The smoked sea salt gave this dish a great flavor.

Credit: Degan Beley

I was wondering if I would be able to eat more, but when they brought the Alaska crab leg roll (Alaska King Crab, mango, and masago deep fried and served with lemon mayo) I couldn’t say no. I was quite impressed with the summer roll (prawn tempura, masago, and cucumber with a topping of spicy tuna and avocado and drizzled with spicy mayo and sweet soya sauce). We continued with a black eel roll, combining the flavors of mango, avocado and cucumber and topped with avocado and eel tempura.

Credit: Degan Beley

Finally, I thought we had closed with a White Slope Roll which has crab and avocado topped with chopped scallop and spicy sauce. But the staff at Irashai were so kind with us that they made a set of umeboshi maki (which you can see pictured) just because I *love* umeboshi. For those of you who may be wondering what the heck is ume or umeboshi, the Wikipedia entry is located here. For a Mexican, the translation would be “chamoy“. Pickled fruits like these are an absolute delicacy for those of us whose palates are trained to appreciate them. Dessert was a Macha Crème Brule that is to-die-for.

Overall, as I had mentioned to Danielle, I have no qualms recommending Irashai, not because they invited us for dinner, but because I think the sushi is fantastic. I don’t think the staff created specific dishes *just* for us, and everyone I have talked to, including my friends Rebecca Bollwitt and Jen Stoddart have absolutely loved Irashai. I would strongly recommend to swing by, particularly if you are actually downtown. Hopefully you’ll have the same good time as I did.