Globefish sushi in Kensignton Calgary

Heya folks! Some of you will be happy to hear of another great classic town, Globefish Sushi 326 14th st NW in kensignton. I've been hearing great things about this place for a while and it came very close to living up to it. We visited this restaurant twice over two weeks and tried different items both times.

Arriving the first time we were seated right away. I noticed the mirrors on either open wall, it made it look much bigger than it was. It's a fairly cozy place but with enough shoulder room so that your comfortable. The kitchen and bar are also right there, giving you a plain view at the whole process. Very mild decor but it came off as very pleasant.

We did not eat much the first time. A few pieces of sushi, a bowl of vegetable tempura and salmon sashimi don and a bowl of their beef udon. The broth to the udon was a little weak but other than that everything was quite good. Sorry about the brevity but I took no pictures and wrote little down.

The second time how ever I took meticulous notes. We also had a large as to try out a fair bit of the sushi. In the rolls we had an Alaska Roll, Vancouver Roll and a Spider Roll. The Vancouver Roll tasted a little of mandarin oranges, sweet but not overly sweet. Although the Vancouver Roll was rolled with mangoes and not mandarin oranges. The Alaska roll which had the smoked salmon was good, but not to my liking. I'm not a particular fan of smoked fish. It was a little creamy and the smoked taste lingered a little, I still found it particularly appealing and would probably try another one else where. The spider roll, an interesting piece with a piece of tempura fried shrimp. Crunchy yet cool because of the cucumber. A odd but well done combo.

Next the pieces. They are as follows: Shake(salmon), hokkigai(Surf clam), tataki(seered beef aka gyu) and unagi(Eel). The shake was pretty much to taste although the wasabi was a little strong. The hokkigai was also a little strong with an above average fish taste. The best time of year to get hokkigai is in the winter and fall months. They tend to get bigger during those months. The tataki was simply amazing. The perfect crispness that they gave the garlic made the piece for me. Although, still, to this day, I do not know what kind of meat that piece that I ate was. It was good none the less. Heres the interesting part, their eel looked very white. It didn't even look like a regular bar-b-q sauced piece, but did it ever taste like it! Even though it wasn't drenched, or even look sauced, it was one of the deepest flavors I have taste in unagi.


To give a quick breakdown, the food was good even if a few pieces were overly spiced and that our gyozas didn't show up that night, we all had fun enjoying good food for average prices. The location is also fairly easy to find just down from sait/acad on 14th st. You can find them about half way down on the east side. All in all the service and food were good, decors were simple, the noise was fine, the line was a little long (15 min wait) the second time around,a few pieces were strong, the broth had little taste, the prices were ok and their menu was good. I'll give this a jolly 8,5 out of 10. I should have another post on Sushi Kai in dragon city mall next week.

Till then,
mata ne!
(having problems with uploading photos, I'll try again later.)

Sushi Ichiban 39th and Macloud TR Calgary

Just a short walk away from the 39th ave station you can find Number one sushi, which is the direct translation of "Sushi Ichiban". We were all quite curious to see if hype lived up to it's name. We were not dissapointed but at the same time neither were we wowed.

I was a little dissapointed to see that we had gone to another restaurants boasting it's all you can eat for 20 dollars deal, but we didin't let that sway us from going the regular root. Being the first time here we stuck with the sushi and just had at 'er. There was sashimi, rolls and regular nigiri to boot. The nigiri and sashimi list look something like this: gyu, hamashi, hotategai(S), inari, maguro(S), massago, sake(s), smoked sake, shittake, tamago, toro(S) and unagi.(S= sashimi).

All the pieces were very nice and up to standard, although It was a little odd bitting into a pices of still frozen toro. I ate it none the less and it gave a much diffrent feel than it normally would.

I should have posted this last week when it was still fresh in my mind, but I didin't so I will cut this a little short. All in all I would say this place is on par with most of the other places I had tried. The service was good, prices were resonable, location was very easy to get to. It will loose points how ever on the pink gari and frozen toro, and yet gains points on it's nice tamago and great gyu. The interior was pretty un original, same japanese look that every other place has. I guess it's time to start looking up crazy new places to eat. Still while keeping in mind to ask to add wasabi to the pieces, no one seems to understand the importance of this step.

For those interested in going, I would recommend it, although next time I go I will try ordering some food, since they have a great menu with lot's of options. I'll give this place a 7.5 out of 10 for the moment, hopefully in the future that number will go up with the trial of some of their other items.

Thats all for now folks, Mata ne!

Taketomi Village 36th ave NE Calgary

Right beside Marlborough station in Calgary is a little gem of a Japanese restaurant. Taketomi Village might not look like much from the street, but once inside you're pulled into a peaceful classic style Japanese sushi bar environment. Mani the sushi chef is very talkative and enjoys having the company. He even makes a special piece for us, but I'll get to that later.

After getting stuck in traffic and making many detours we see the Village. I had passed it a few time on my adventures but never stopped in. I am not disappointed that we ended up going here over any other place I even returned a few days later for a snack. Anyways on to the restaurant.

I ordered myself a piece of each of the following: ebi; tamago; inari; white maguro; toro; sake;unagi; hokekkai. Can you see a certain level of consistancy in the ordering? This has been a good time for tamago, the past few places I have tried have good tamago, this place was no diffrent. A little sweeter than the other places but it worked well on its own and with a bit of wasabi and soya.

The tuna, both the maguro and the toro were so succulent and soft, I didn't even feel the toro. When they say that toro is meant to melt in the mouth, they mean it, this was one of the best pieces of toro I've had in a while.

Before leaving Mani, the chef, gave us a little something special, what he called mamashita. There was a wide variety of meats on it, there was ebi, toro, scallop and sake with some roe on top, a little bit of avocado paste, topica. This piece was very interesting it offered a cool taste with many diffrent textures that mixed very well. Thank you!

We had a very pleasant time, the service was good, the restaurant itself was appealing and the food was great. All in all I give this restaurant a 8 out of 10. I expect that once I try some more of their food it will fluctuate, but just for their sushi they received this high mark. I docked a few marks for not adding wasabi on the pieces, which at this point is almost becoming my problem, I must start asking all the chefs to add their own to the pieces. It gets a bonus though because Mani grated some fresh ginger for me. I wanted to ask for grated wasabi but thats not how it worked out. Also gets an extra point for presentation. The Unagi and the Mamashita was very nicely presented and each got their own plate. "Very nice".

But thats it for now folks,


Thank you all, Mata ne!