New fish in town - Japonais Bistro

There is a new Japanese restaurant in town! I heard about this restaurant months before they had their grand opening on March 8th, 2013. The reason being, this restaurant is all about social media. They are extremely active on Facebook, with many posts informing us of their specials for the day. They are open to feedback and enjoy conversing with customers, making this restaurant very special! Many of my Facebook friends, liked this restaurant and it was constantly on my news feed. So on a Tuesday, my friends and I decided to head out for a very overdue birthday dinner for a friend. The location is a bit strange, and parking is very limited! They do have a parking lot, but they are connected with other businesses. The restaurant's interior is very nice, a nicely sized sushi bar in the front with the sushi chefs working furiously at completing orders. The menu had a very nice variety with many beautiful, tasty sounding, original rolls, wide sashimi selection, various appetizers and hot plate dishes.


After browsing through the diversified menu for well over 30 minutes, we decided to choose 1 main dish each. First of all, we all agreed to get the toro (tuna belly) and the hamachi (yellow tail) sashimi, and half a dozen of fresh oysters. Secondly, we ordered the chicken teriyaki. Finally, we decided to get 4 sushi rolls, which included the tnt (heard many good things about this one), house, cherry blossom, and mango fry.

The first dish to come out was the chicken teriyaki with bok choy, shitake mushroom, and red peppers. Everything about this dish was fantastic! The teriyaki flavor was distinct but not overpowering. The chicken breast was tender and not dry at all. The vegetables made a nice addition to the dish, everything was cooked to perfection. The peppers and boy choy were not overly cooked - both had a nice crunch to them. My only complaint is that I wish the portion size was bigger!!! Next time I will definitely not share this dish between 5 people! More for me! Price = $14.95

 The second dish to come out was the half a dozen of fresh oysters. Luckily for us, we went on their oyster nights! All the fresh oysters were priced at only $1 each! What a deal! The oysters were raw and comes in half a dozen or dozen orders. All of us are not big on raw oysters but wanted to try them, so we decided to stick with half a dozen. They were indeed fresh! There was no bad fishy smell or taste for that matter and the shell was full of meat! Normally, the oysters are $3.45/each, so catching them on their oysters night is a great deal!

 The third dish to come out was the toro and hamachi sashimi. In Edmonton, it is rare to see such a wide variety of sashimi offered besides the usual tuna or salmon. I have tried toro before in Vancouver, but I have never tried hamachi (yellow tail) sashimi. I have had yellow tail fish before but not in the form of a sashimi. Surprisingly, they were both somewhat fresh, but not entirely. Both of the sashimi was firm, however, the hamachi sashimi has a little bit of a fishy aftertaste. The fishy aftertaste of the hamachi was predicted, it would be very difficult to serve very fresh fish here in Edmonton. In Vancouver however...different story since it is by the port. For the price we were paying for the sashimi, I was disappointed at the size of the sashimi slices. They were cut very thin and small (this will be a recurring theme for the night...). Price: 6 pcs tuna belly $12.95, 6 pcs hamachi $12.95

Next in line, the rolls all appeared one by one. The presentation was amazing! Everything looked professional and appetizing, except none of them amazed my taste buds. Starting with the house roll, it was not bad. It consisted of a lot of ingredients - tuna, salmon, salmon skin, crab meat, scallops etc... but when everything came together in one bite, everything blended together and there was no distinct taste. As the saying goes..."less is more". For this roll, I would agree with that statement 100%. Price: $12.95

Mango fry! I love mango rolls so much which was one of the reason why I chose this one. The roll was covered in tempura batter and deep fried. In addition, it was drizzled with a spicy soy sauce and a creamy sesame sauce. The roll was small and thin! Super super thin I might add. The roll was average again. Don't be fooled by the name! There was no mango to be seen whatsoever. I thought the sauce must be consisted of mango puree at least..but nope! Nothing! Zip! What I found was that the menu promises a lot, but the actual food does not deliver. The sauce was nothing special, more so for presentation than it is to enhance flavors. Price = $13.95

Cherry blossom roll was another nice presentation, but flavorless roll (sorry for the blurry picture). This roll was pricier than the others at $17.95, containing chopped scallops, tobiko (where?) and super thin slices of salmon or tuna. Unfortunately, all I tasted was mayo.... What a big disappointment for the price it was assigned! I will definitely not be ordering this again.

Lastly, the TNT roll (that everyone has been raving about). My verdict on this roll is that it does live up to the hype! My favorite roll of the night! Extremely creative presentation with the shrimp tempura on top, making the entire thing look like it is indeed a tnt block. Everything came together well, and I could very much taste the shrimp tempura. Like I mentioned earlier...less is more!! This roll only consisted of shrimp tempura, artificial crab meat and avocado. And what a surprise! The sauce complemented the roll very well. The spicy sriracha or tabasco sauce drizzled around the edges of the roll made a good punch of flavor in the mouth. Price = $13.95

Overall, the food was not bad, some items are a hit and others are miss. Japonais Bistro is similar to Mikado in terms of quality and price (after gst + tips it was $30/person - for 5 of us, not including alcohol), but the selection and creativity that Japonais Bistro has sets them apart from the competition. I would visit this place again to try the other specialty rolls they offer such as, beef tataki and their lunch specials.