Yoko Sushi

Restaurant: Yoko Sushi

Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi

Last visited: October 22, 09
Area: Coquitlam, BC

1001 Austin ave

Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5

Service: 4

Ambiance: 3

Overall: 3.5

Additional comments:

• Owned and operated by Koreans
• Not really authentic - "Westerner's sushi"
• Clean, friendly, trendy for area
• Sashimi/Sushi/Donburi/Noodles/Meals
• Set meals/Bento boxes/Sushi platters
  
• Some specialty rolls
• Lunch specials 11am-4pm
• Can customize your own roll upon request
• Attracts locals within the area
• Dine in/Take-out
• Open everyday 11am-12am

**Recommendation: House Green Salad, Gomae, House roll, Yoko roll

Curious to try: Korean Chirashi "Donburi": sashimi, vegetables and rice mixed with spicy sauce $10.95

I've come here on several occasions and it's not really because the food is exceptional, but it's clean, comfortable, somewhat trendy, reasonably priced, and the food is good and well-prepared even though it's not "authentically" Japanese. The food tastes pretty good, but it's almost too perfect - kind of like ordering a Kung Pao Chicken bowl at an American chain restaurant - it's usually pretty good, but just not authentic.

It's only been around for about a year and it's owned and operated by a young group of Koreans. It attracts Westerners and Koreans around the area. The presentation is nice and the food is fresh so it's a good choice if you're around and craving sushi. It's decently busy during dinner, but you'll never be waiting in a line.

On the table:

• **House Green Salad 4/6
• Our signature house dressing $3.50

• Surprised? So was I! I never order house green salads at any restaurant. I've tried the Japanese green salad, but have never liked it until I tried this one.
• It's served with their signature house dressing, so it's homemade and really good.
• The dressing is made with a combination of apples and onions and it's nice and thick. It has the texture of pureed apples but and the flavour is sweet yet tangy at the same time. You also get that bite of finely grated onion. I would have liked more dressing though because there was a lot of salad.
• The green salad they use is really fresh and not that chopped ice berg lettuce most Japanese restaurants will serve. They used shredded romaine with some carrots and purple cabbage for colour - there wasn't one brown or wilted leaf.
• **Gomae 5/6
  
• Spinach with sesame dressing $3.95

• They make Gomae really good here. The sauce is homemade again and it's a mix of ground sesame and peanuts. Some places will only use sesame sauce, but I like it with peanuts because it's richer and gives it a deeper flavour.
• The picture looks like a lot of sauce, but it's actually the perfect amount and I love the sauce! More the merrier. It's just enough to perfectly coat each leaf after you mix it altogether.
• **House Roll 5/6
• Salmon, tuna, ebi, avocado, tamago & crab $6.95
• I really like the house roll here. They give you ebi (shrimp) and it's really rare to have this ingredient in it. Most people will use a cheaper ingredient even if they just wanted to make it bigger.
• At Yoko's they use really little rice in their house roll and give you tons of filling, which is great. However the rice is a little too wet and there' s not much flavour to it.
• Another thing they do differently is they wrap it in a soybean wrap (the yellow layer wrapped around it). The soybean wrap doesn't have much flavour, but it makes for nice presentation. It's almost like the texture of the seaweed wrapped on the inside. It kind of helps keep everything together and I really liked it.
• They drizzle it with this homemade mango sauce which was unexpected and creative. The mango was made with a mango syrup, almost like a coulis. It's sweet, but not overpowering because they didn't soak the roll with it. It wasn't really creamy and it wasn't made with mayo, but maybe evaporated milk or corn syrup, something of that sort. It was still nice and light and went well with the roll.
• It is a larger roll, as most house rolls are, but you get fresh ingredients and a lot of it. The portion of each ingredient was well balanced.
• 
• Kamikaze Roll 2/6
  
• Prawn tempura and crab with spicy tuna on top $8.95

• This was really whatever to me. The plating was nice, but that's about it. I actually expected more...especially at $8.95.
• The rice wasn't flavourful enough and the tuna wasn't spicy enough so it was kind of bland. The prawn tempura is pre-fried and they make batches at a time for the sushi chefs so we had one that had been sitting out for a bit. So it wasn't crispy and the batter was a bit soggy and not as fresh.
• The spicy tuna was pounded and got too mushy and they didn't give you enough for this roll. It was a bit inconsistent with each piece. The spicy marinade kind of tasted like Tabasco sauce and had that one dimensional flavour. This roll needed something crunchy - either green onions or cucumbers to give it that extra something. I wouldn't order it again.

• **Yoko Roll 4/6
  
• Salmon, avocado, and cream cheese then deep-fried $6.95

• I didn't order it on this occasion, but I've ordered it before and still think about it.
  
• Its a deep fried roll, and they do a good job with it. They do a great job with the deep frying and the whole thing is lightly battered and crispy when complete.
• The cream cheese gets all soft and warm and the roll literally melts in your mouth. The salmon doesn't cook so don't worry about it getting dry. The roll is creamy, rich and well-executed. A real treat, but you might want to share it because you may get sick of it if you just order that alone.
  
• 
• Vegetable Teriyaki Don 3/6
• Stir-fried mixed vegetables served over rice. Served with miso soup. $9.95

• They give you a decent amount of fresh veggies and it's a pretty big bowl.
• There's carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, cabbage and zucchini, but it was missing mushrooms and onions - there were maybe some onions, but not enough.
  
• The sauce is a standard Teriyaki sauce, so nothing exceptional there, but still good.