Grayson’s been wanting sushi for a while now but we haven’t gone for it recently because we’ve been sidetracked with a bunch of other restaurants we’ve been wanting to try out. We’re always looking for new sushi spots because we have yet to find one that we’re both set on calling our “go-to.” This time we visited Hanamori sushi in Burquitlam because it’s somewhere we haven’t been in a while and we never really tried the sushi in this area before.
Upon entering Hanamori sushi you can already smell the scent of the aburi sushi and the grill. Although this got the two of us salivating, it proved to be more of a negative thing later on because we both left smelling like the restaurant and I ended up having to throw my entire outfit in the wash when I got home to get rid of it. The interior of Hanamori sushi was quite small but it didn’t feel cramped or busy because they had a sushi bar area and booth seats instead of separated tables and chairs.
Sushi rolls
Since we were here for sushi, we had to get a few rolls of course! Grayson got a spicy salmon roll ($3.25) and I got the shiitake mushroom roll ($1.95). Grayson liked the roll a bunch and appreciated how the avocado helped mellow out the heat from the salmon. I thought the shiitake mushroom roll was pretty decent, nothing much to it since it was just plain mushroom wrapped in a rice and nori. I should note though that both rolls were NOT wrapped tightly so I wasn’t very impressed with their preparation.
We ordered the Asari miso udon but our server got our order wrong and gave us the Asari ramen instead. We ended up sending it back (I felt bad for doing so) but I took a photo of it anyway because it was there in front of me and I noticed that there was a lack of photos of the entrees served here on urbanspoon.
Asari clam miso udon
This is the Asari clam miso udon ($8.75) that we requested and it was absolutely amazing. We usually stick to getting sushi rolls at Japanese restaurants but it was a cold day so we wanted something to warm us up and I’m glad we ended up getting this! The broth was flavorful but had a bit of spice to it because they added jalapeno peppers (a little odd for a Japanese based dish). In addition to the clams and udon there was a good amount of onions, carrots, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, button mushrooms and green onion. For someone who isn’t easily impressed by udon soup (me) and someone who doesn’t even eat udon (Grayson), we were impressed with this one and would get it again in a heartbeat.
Tuna tataki roll
We decided to get the tuna tataki roll ($8.95) because we were intrigued by it’s description. This roll reminded us of Vietnamese summer rolls. The lemon marinated tuna and fresh greens were contained in a soybean wrapper. We both agreed that the roll was quite tasty and enjoyed the lemon-y pepper sauce that came with it. But we both felt that the roll was not worth the $9. It wasn’t very filling and we almost felt as though we should of used the money to get another bowl of udon to share.
Since our specialty roll wasn’t very filling, Grayson ended up ordering the salmon and avocado roll for himself. I didn’t take a photo of it because it’s essentially the same as the spicy salmon but mayo is used in the filling instead of hot sauce.