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Misato Sushi & Grill – Calgary, Alberta

We had a delightful little sushi lunch at a place not far from my place, called Misato and this little place is truly little! There’s ample of parking, and the owners were very friendly!

We ordered a little sushi boat which had an assortment of sushi. The selection was delicious and the sushi was fresh.

They had a fun lunch special with a Bento Box and that was filled with a fun selection of a typical assortment. I has a bento box with teriyaki chicken, sashimi and tempura!

With the bento box, it came with a little bowl of miso soup

Overall, it’s a great little spot to go for lunch. It’s quiet and the food’s good! It’s a decent place!

Misato Sushi & Grill

1851 Sirocco Dr SW #420
Calgary, AB
403-217-3000

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Sushi Boat – Calgary, Alberta

Recently, I decided to go back to Sushi Boat as I was in the area, and love this place! I use to come here a LOT when I lived in the NW. It was a Friday night and the place was full, but you didn’t need to wait long for a table either at any section.

Once we were seated, we looked onto the boats and they were actually quite empty. We waited for all the boats to go around a few times thinking they will replenish the boats – but they remained the same or even got eaten. We grabbed a few items that are standard and watched/waited as we ate. We started with their Salmon Roll and they were decent. It wasn’t the same as it use to be, but I was just thinking I got the “older” plate.

Then, we grabbed what we thought was Chicken Karaage, but it turned out to be Fish Karaage and we were really disappointed with that. It was cold, and not very good at all. The fish was dry while the batter was soggy. It wasn’t the sushi boat quality I remembered it to be.

Then, I saw one of my “go-to” sushi’s, the Spicy Tuna Roll and this has always been something that was pretty much fail proof, and it was! This plate was excellent, the spicy mayo was excellent as well.

Then, we decided to order off the menu and put in our orders as we haven’t been that pleased so far. We got a bowl of their Miso Soup and that was a nice salty treat! It did taste good but I thought it was a little too salty.

We got a plate of their Spicy Tempura Sushi which was really good! I think I just enjoy their spicy sauce, but the tempura was really crispy and not overly greasy! It was fresh and nice!

We had their 2 piece Pacific Roll, and that just came out as a giant modified California Roll stuffed with tons of imitation crab meat – which was fine as I love imitation crab meat! I definitely couldn’t put the entire piece in my mouth – although I did not try.

We got 2 orders of my favourite, the Hokkigai, as I’ve always loved surf clams. They were fine here, nothing bad yet nothing special.

We got an order of Inari as I like to call them pillow cases. My sister first called them that – and that name stuck! These are always delightful although I will never call it “sushi”. I just like the sweetness of the bean curd with rice packed in them! It was delicious!

And finally the last thing we decided to order, again as it’s more fail proof was their Crab Stick as I just buy packs of crab sticks eat eat on a daily basis. I love this stuff! It’s good as a sushi here as well!

Overall, Sushi Boat seems to have dropped in their quality a bit. Although the food is still good, it’s nothing like how it use to be. It seems like an average place with actual boats that go around for you to get your sushi! It’s still decent, but not what I was expecting.

Sushi Boat on Urbanspoon

Sushi Boat

806 Crowfoot Crescent NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 239-1818

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Sushi Bar Miki – Calgary, Alberta

After awhile without sushi, we figured we’d go try a new experience and this time we found ourselves at Sushi Bar Miki which wasn’t hard to find but it was out of our way for sure! They’re located off 16th Ave in the NW in a strip plaza, kind of near a grocery store!

We ordered a few things to try and something we don’t normally get – but decided to have from here was their Ika Geso Karaage which was their deep fried squid legs. It’s one of my favourite things to order at dim sum, but I’m glad we got them here! Tender and delicious, soft yet chewy – I loved it!

We then got an order of their Large Sushi which had 10 pieces of assorted sushi and a tuna roll! The sushi was quite delicious and you do see a sushi chef in the front making the orders! It was a large plate of sushi and it came in around $25. The quality was there so that’s always a treat!

Then, we got our order of udon. We felt like something soup so we got their Sansai Udon which we ordered as we had no idea what it was (which we could have looked it up…) but it was vegetarian option! It wasn’t bad though and it’s got the vegetables you’d find in a Chinese market – not your usual vegetarian cuisine! The udon and broth was quite tasty so we’re glad we just picked something and went with it!

As though we didn’t eat enough, somehow we saved room for dessert (or we just figured it’d be fun to over stuff ourselves!) and we got their Mochi Ice Cream which is something I’ve loved for years! This platter had 3 flavours, the sesame, green tea and vanilla. All 3 flavours were so tasty we loved it!

Overall, fantastic dining experience and we’d have no problem coming back and just picking anything off their menu! Great staff and food! Not much more that we need!

Sushi Bar Miki

5032 16 Ave NW
Calgary, AB
(403) 286-2860

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Oka Sushi – Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

We’ve been fortunately enough to experience Oka Sushi without a reservation or without much wait while staying at Jasper Park Lodge during our weekend trip up! It was still a very packed small restaurant, but it was the tail end of their service when we showed up to wait.

We were very patient and excited to try creations made by Mr Oka himself as we sat and enjoyed the show! He is quite a sushi artist and it’s been our favourite sushi experience to date!

We ordered their Assorted Sushi which was nice as there really wasn’t a standard platter. It came with their tuna rolls and 8 assorted sushi! Everything was really high quality and perfectly prepared – absolutely delicious and quite a beauty to look at!

Just as we were about done our sushi, we thought it would be fun to put in another order as we enjoyed our experience so much! We ordered their Jasper Roll which had crab meat and shrimp in the sushi! It was divine and we inhaled it!

This experience has set the bar very high for us for all future sushi experience! Although it’s a small place, it’s wonderful to see a master in action, and the food is worth the wait!

Oka Sushi Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge

1 Old Lodge Rd
Jasper, AB
(780) 852-1114

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Shimizu – Oakland, California

We arrived into San Franciso one evening and by the time we got out of rush hour, 2 hours had gone by and we were starving. We heard about a decent place in Piedmont that wasn’t bad called Shimizu so we went there. The place was still very busy on a late weeknight!

We started with miso soup. As weird as this sounds, I’m not sure if we ordered it. It arrived on to our table and we drank it! It was really quite flavourful and the pieces of tofu was really silky and kind of sweet.

We got an order of Hamachi Kama which is grilled yellowtail fish, but just it’s collar. They did a wonderful job grilling it here and there was actually a lot of meat on our portion! We were pleasantly surprised and we all ate a good piece of it!

Of course when it comes to my favourite, the Hokkigai, once I see it on a menu – I get it! We got 4 pieces and it was wonderful! Usually I’m use to a portion of just half a hokkigai and the restaurant would call it “one piece”. Here, they actually use 1 surf clam for each piece of sushi! I was blown away and I ate it all up (pretty much!) It was sweet and the texture was really nice – plus they cleaned it well!

We then ordered a plate of Assorted Sashimi which was 18 pieces of chef selected sashimi. The pieces were large and fresh and they all tasted great! The selection was pretty good as well.

The last thing we ordered was their Double Salmon Roll which was a salmon and avocado roll, topped with salmon! This roll was spectacular and the salmon was really tasty! Everything was really fresh and the flavours complimented each other with nice taste and textures – and salmon was definitely the highlight of this roll!

Overall, the prices were really good, especially for this area. The atmosphere was really nice and the service was really friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the freshness of the food and the portion sizes. What a great experience!

Shimizu on Urbanspoon

Shimizu

4290 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA
(510) 653-7622