Green Leaf Sushi l Burnaby — Restaurant in Burnaby

If you’re a fan of aburi oshi sushi in Vancouver, you’ve probably heard of Green Leaf Sushi, a popular location in the trendy Kitsilano area. Earlier in May, they opened up a second location… this time in Burnaby, behind Lougheed Town Centre at the corner of Cameron St and Erickson Dr.

They did a pretty good job of renovating this place… there’s plenty of room and it has an airy feeling with the light coming in from the glass pyramid cupola while still feeling grounded with the extensive use of warm wood elements.

On my first visit, I had to try their Aburi Salmon Oshi ($10) and Aburi Spicy BBQ Eel Oshi ($15). When it arrived at my table, the faint aroma from the searing process was still wafting in the air. The double-layer Atlantic salmon oshi sushi is well executed with a light and creamy oshi sauce and a sliver of jalapeño which imparted a delicate spiciness to the bite. Meanwhile, the buttery double-layer unagi was topped with crisp garlic chips that you encounter on your last bite and a sweet and spicy miso sauce which lingers in your mouth afterwards.

Their Tornado Omelette Rice ($14) is truly a beautiful omurice dish with the soft, fluffy eggs spiraled around a dome of rice with garlic flakes, tomato, and chili to resemble the shape of a tornado. Surrounding the omelette is a rich and flavourful demi glace sauce that perfectly completes the dish.

I returned the following week to try some more of their dishes… the Wild Sockeye Salmon Temari ($3 each), Albacore Tuna Toro Temari ($3 each), and Dungeness Crab Oshi ($15). They use real dungeness crab in this aburi oshi dish topped with creamy oshi sauce and a crispy caper. Inside, a layer of tiger prawn can be found in the middle which adds to the pop in your mouth.

On another revisit to this location, I ordered the Mango Scallop Oshi ($12) made with mango, scallops, avocado purée, wasabi aioli, and topped with a caper. I also wound up ordering their OMG Roll ($12) which is a type of Korean gimbap (similar to Japanese sushi roll). The OMG Roll is a deep-fried spicy roll with soy glaze, wasabi sauce, prawns, salmon, crab meat, and avocado. I was actually quite pleased with this “roll” and liked the mixture of crunchy and creamy textures along with the slightly spicy sauce.

On yet another visit, I decided to try their Yukke Tuna Oshi ($12), Mackerel Oshi ($12) and Green Tea ($3.5). The Mackerel Oshi is marinated in sweet vinegar and employs a house-made miso sauce and green onions. Meanwhile, the Yukke Tuna Oshi is made with soy marinated minced tuna, a house-made sweet onion sauce, and topped with pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, and sesame oil.

Determined to try some of their non-aburi dishes, I returned and ordered their Crispy Chicken ($6.50 for small) and the Hamachi Sashimi ($18). The 5-6 pieces of chicken were nice and crispy on the outside and moist and juicy on the inside. Meanwhile, the hamachi (yellowtail) was melt-in-your-mouth tender with a buttery essence which made it so satisfying to eat.

The following month, I tried their Deep-Fried Gyoza ($6.50). Served with a dipping sauce, these crispy dumplings had a pleasingly juicy and hot filling on the inside. I’ve been eyeing their Charcoal Grilled BBQ Eel on Rice ($15) on the menu for a while now and I’m glad I finally got to try it out.

Later in the month, we came back to try another slew of dishes… the Prawn Fritters ($6), Spinach Salad ($5), Mango Scallop Oshi ($12), Mentaiko Linguine ($12) with cod roe, Wild Sockeye Salmon Sashimi ($16), Beef Yaki Udon ($10.50), and Cha Shu Rice Bowl ($10.50) with half-boiled egg.

The Green Leaf Signature Aburi Platter ($63) is probably one of the most recognizable dishes here and it great if you’re sharing with friends (or just have a really healthy appetite) and consists of mackerel oshi, tuna yuuke oshi, tobiko roll, salmon oshi, basil prawn oshi and scallop oshi.

The new Green Leaf Cafe is a welcome addition to Burnaby. If you’re looking for a place that serves up solid Japanese/Korean dishes…...

My boyfriend and I came here for his birthday dinner and the both of us are allergic to peanuts, and I also have other allergies to tree nuts, and the both of us are also anaphylactic, meaning when we have an allergic reaction to peanuts, its a fatal reaction.

We ordered two aburis; the salmon and spicy tuna oshi and also the mentaiko cream linguine. Our waiter reassured us that there were no peanuts in those dishes at all so of course, we thought it's safe because we were reassured. The food came out fast, the first aburi that my boyfriend put in his mouth, he said his mouth and throat were getting attacked with itchiness and discomfort. Then I decided to go ahead and take a bite, my mouth started getting itchy and my I felt that my stomach was trying to reject it. We didn't want the food to go to waste and I handled the reaction better than my boyfriend, so I tried my best to eat most of it.

Then when our tea was getting refilled we told a waiter (different waiter from the first) about our incident, and what was baffling was that she immediately said "no, no, no cross contamination" and she didn't even let us finish explaining she just kept denying and scurried off, I understand customer service and the food industry is stressful but to brush off an allergic reaction is absolutely unacceptable.

We left our aburis unfinished, we called the waiter whom took our order from the start, we explained what happened, and we appreciate that he was being accountable, understanding, and making sure we were OK and seeing what he can do for us, unlike the other waiter. We strictly told him that there's a likely cross contamination happening in the kitchen, if they use any peanut oil, can training and procedures be reassessed because this matter shouldn't be taken lightly. He agreed, he said that he would talk with the kitchen, have them go over procedures and safety again and apologized and compensated with a $10 off discount on our bill.

We are very aware of our allergies, we are always careful and always double check, have our medicine, etc. and allergic reactions at restaurants are super rare. But, we don't appreciate how the second waiter handled this situation as well as the reassurance we received. We'd love to come back to try again but with how they handle allergies and cross contamination, it may be...

Mentaiko Creamy Linguine Tornado Omelette Rice Sea Urchin Aglio E Olio Kabocha Pudding Deep Fried Eggplant Egg gimbap (not photo'd)

My friend and I swapped our dishes because we disliked the food we ordered for ourselves 😂🤣. It worked out nicely!

My friend ended up having the Mentaiko. He said it was much better than the Tornado. I found the Mentaiko to be lacking in depth of flavour as I only tasted the milkiness. This was disappointing compared to the amazing Masaago de Creamy Spaghetti at Cafe de L'orangerie (my favourite Japanese style pasta). The shrimp was good though.

Tornado is just as the name suggests. The flavour changes as you eat it as if you are inside a tornado. I was pretty amazed at this dish because at first, it tasted like rice and gravy, but once you get into the tomatoes that were mixed in with the rice, it turns into a tomato sauce flavour. It's a pleasant experience to try! Though my friend really hated it with a passion and didn't understand what I liked about it.

My other friend was disappointed with the Sea urchin dish. He said it lacked uni flavour. I didn't give it a try since I don't eat raw food.

Kabocha pudding was a no for all three of us. My problem was the flavour, friend's problem was the texture. The texture I experienced was rough and not pudding-like. Consistency was dense. Other friend just didn't like it overall.

Eggplant was okay. It was a cold appetizer in tempura sauce and did not taste deep fried at all. Perhaps more like pan fried. It included raw white radish, okra, and some kind of bean sprout in it (alfalfa?). Not something we would order again.

Egg gimbap just has sweet tamago in it, nothing else. I thought there would be other normal gimbap ingredients in it. I liked the flavour, and there are a lot of places where that don't make good tasting tamago.

The interior was very aesthetic, very beautiful. However, the service was very slow and they didn't give us water for the longest time.

Overall, I had the chance to taste the two dishes I wanted to try, so I don't have a reason to come back again. Even though the Tornado was interesting, I don't have the desire to eat it again. All the other food items were not amazing overall. We haven't tried their sushi, so one of my friends would like to come...