Sushi Yen — Restaurant in British Columbia

It’s been quite a few years since I last ate at Sushi Yen so I figured it would be a good time to revisit this little eatery located in New West.

I had my eye set on trying their Donkatsu Curry Pork Cutlet ($10.90). While it’s far from the katsu curry that we’ve had in Japan, this basic dish is rather large and filling. The pork cutlet is thin and a bit dry but they’ve made up for this by providing a lot of curry sauce in the dish. I was a bit surprised that I actually wound up finishing all of the curry sauce here (so perhaps it was better than I initially thought). The sharp flavour of the ginger actually worked well in this dish given the mildness of the curry.

On a subsequent visit, I tried their Aji Fri ($5.50) which they described as yellow stripe scad which is a type of horse mackerel. Served breaded and deep-fried on top of a spring mix salad with a mayo sauce, I found the crisp coating to be pleasant and this almost had me thinking about fish and chips (sans chips).

The Salmon Tataki ($10.90) that i also ordered turned out really well. Served with a tart ponzu sauce, I really enjoyed how tender the salmon turned out in this dish.

On their special board, I noticed that they had a Salmon Poke Bowl ($12.50) so I had to give that a go. This bowl includes the salmon sashimi, ginger, spring mix salad, paprika, cucumbers, green onions, sweet onions, seaweed salad, crab meat, and shoyu sauce. I wouldn’t really say that I could detect the shoyu sauce as it was a bit overwhelmed by the overly sweet salad dressing but it was a nice try.

On my last visit, I tried their Spicy Salmon Sashimi ($10.90) which included 10 pieces of salmon with cucumbers, spring mix, sesame, and coated with a sweet and spicy sauce.

They have a small patio in front of the shop and I took advantage of the good summer weather we’ve been having to try out some of their sushi rolls: Unagi Roll ($5) and Alaska Roll ($6.50) with teriyaki sauce and wasabi mayo. The rolls were filling… mostly because they had a bit too much rice for my preferences. Not bad for the price.

Overall, some good items on the somewhat limited menu. I would like to see more types of...

This is one of my favourite places for dinner. I love almost everything I tried here, and the owner and staff are always so friendly.

My favourites are as follows: Green salad - the dressing is absolutely perfect for me. It's refreshing to me because it has a nice amount of sourness to it. I think it's housemade as I don't taste it anywhere else. There is a sashimi salad version of the salad that my friends love.

Garlic soy karaage - super soft and flavourful!! They have two other flavours too but I think this one's the best.

UPDATE Dec 29/18: Spicy sweet karaage - It tastes fine, but nowhere near as good as the garlic soy in my opinion,

Chicken udon - soup is very flavourful. It's not too heavy and I'm usually pickier with the soup for my soup noodles.

Seafood Udon - It's very flavourful! The only thing some people might not like is that the noodles were a bit softer, but it doesn't bother me much personally.

UPDATE Feb 2019: Teriyaki beef bento = $12.90 [beef, small green salad, 3 mini veggie spring rolls, 4 pcs cali roll, edamame, a small bowl of braised potato w/ beef, half a seasoned soft boied egg, and miso soup] This is a really good deal as the portion of beef is very generous and there is a wide variety in the set. The beef has a stronger sesame flavour. I normally don't order spring rolls but I liked these ones. It's crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The potato resembles the dish my mom used to mKe all the time. I would love to try the chicken version next!

Other decent choices: Takoyaki Dynamite roll - best dyno roll I've had so far in terms of flavour!

Didn't like much: Kabocha koroke appetizer - was disappointed with this one because I love kabocha 😭

I'd like to note that I don't eat raw food, but my friend who is also a regular customer enjoys their raw fish items!

Food can take a while during peak times, because there is only 1 chef and 1 staff. They usually tell you how long the wait will be if you call...

Went to their sushiyen website to look up the menu. Takes us to the skip the dishes site, which is fine, as we were gonna call and order for pick up. Ordered chicken karage, one pork bento and 1 red dragon roll. I asked if there's discount for pick up (as some restaurants have that) but they said no. So I asked for 1 free miso soup and they were happy to give. The food was well prepared. Salad was palatable and fresh. Dragon roll was well made. The shortfall is, the bento actually doesn't come with rice although the site indicated it is served with rice. I called them up when I realized there was no rice and the reason they said is, if I had ask for rice (instead of california roll), then they would do it. I explained I am a first time customer and I didn't know you needed to do that. Besides the lady who took my order didn't indicate there's such option. But the strong point I made is, their own website (which takes to skip the dishes) menu indicated it comes with rice. They then said that they didn't know what skip the dishes wrote and will review with the company. I was a bit dissatisfied with the reason as they should have reviewed with skip the dishes instead of blaming it on them. Anyway, they did offer to compensate for the rice, which I appreciate. I would still go back and try their other dishes and their sushi roll again as the dishes...