As much as we enjoy Sushi Mori, Grayson and I have been looking for a new go-to Japanese restaurant in Coquitlam to visit. Not that the food was bad but it was more of a Korean restaurant than a Japanese one. This time, we decided to try Matoi Sushi.
This restaurant was Japanese owned which was surprising to me because you’d usually find Korean owned ones in Coquitlam. Although, I guess there is a Nao sushi here too.
Sashimi
Grayson said that sashimi is the thing to have here. He wasn’t wrong because you could tell how fresh the seafood was here from how the slices glistened.
Gyoza
We got the gyoza to start. These were homemade and filled with pork and vegetables. Each gyoza had a crispy golden exterior and a juicy filling in the middle. The dipping sauce had a hint of acidity to it which helped balance out the fattiness of the filling well.
Tamago yaki
Next, we decided to go with the tamago yaki, or grilled tamago. I had a bunch of these when I was in Japan so I wanted to see how these compared. Unfortunately, these weren’t cooked directly on the grill so they lacked the smoky char you’d otherwise find. With that being said, each piece was light, fluffy and lightly sweetened. They were delicious on their own but ever better with rice.
Chirashi don
Last but not least, we ordered the chirashi don. We don’t order these often but we had to because the seafood looked so fresh here. Our don was topped with octopus, squid, shrimp, salmon, tuna, ahi tuna, tamago, ikura, tobiko and red snapper. While the seafood was amazing, the rice was on the under-cooked side so it was hard in texture instead of being fluffy. We wished that it could of been seasoned more so that there would be sushi vinegar in it but that might of overpowered the lightness of the fish.
The two of us are equally glad about being able to find Matoi sushi. This was definitely an amazing find and we will be back soon!