Shio Japanese Kitchen — Restaurant in Coquitlam

Shio Japanese Kitchen really impressed us when we decided on a whim to give it a try tonight! When we arrived just after 7:00 pm it was completely full and you could see the kitchen was in full swing! While we had to wait about 15 minutes to get a table, we were pleased to see how many people were dining there and how everyone left looking pleased and satisfied The restaurant itself looked clean and the employees were all polite and attentive to the customers.

We were excited to try a bunch of items so we ordered the korroke, combo B (beef bao bun, grilled avocado, crispy salmon, and spicy salmon oshi), the creamcheese steak roll, the crunch jalapeno roll, and the churros for dessert. Everything tasted so fresh and flavourful we were so impressed with it all!

Some highlights were: the korroke used sweet potato instead of just plain potato and it really enhanced the flavour! I had no idea what to expect from grilled avocado but it was absolutely delicious. The bun for the beef bao was so plush and fluffy it was lovely. Anytime there was any type of sauce (for the combo, on the sushi rolls, in the grilled avocado, etc.) they just hit it out of the park. Also anything deep fried was light crispy, and not heavy or greasy in anyway, so you can tell they use fresh oil for their deep frying.

The churros were really just an indulgent last minute addition, but they ended up being excellent too! We marveled at how the churros from this Japanese restaurant were some of the best we'd ever had, they were perfectly balanced (please note one churro had a bite taken out of it before I could snap a picture, they are both the same size!) Overall all the food was just delicious!

The combo provides a great way to try a little bit of many items and we definitely recommend checking those out if you're not sure what to try, but I don't think you could go wrong with any of the items we got. We are so happy to have experienced this place and we will...

Dined in on a Friday evening at 7:30pm. Ordered cheese katsu, chopped scallop roll, salmon oshi combo, spicy tuna garden roll.

Upon entry there were no customers waiting for a table. A server told us to put our name down on a wait list. We stood at the entrance and perused the menus taped along the front bar. Then one of the cooks told us that we weren't allowed to wait there because people need to walk in and out. We waited outside for about 30s before we saw a server dialing our phone number on the waitlist, so we walked back inside. They seated us at a wobbly table. Our party of 2 ordered food and they gave us 1 complementary miso soup.

Cheese katsu is literally a palm-sized hunk of mozza that is breaded and fried. Served with a bit of cabbage and some condensed milk (!). Surprising but the flavours worked. A very filling and heavy item.

Chopped scallop roll was fairly standard; scallops tasted fresh and wasn't too heavy on the mayo.

Spicy tuna garden roll is a yam tempura+avocado roll topped with a mound of chunky spicy tuna and a side of green salad. Presentation looked like a mess and it was very difficult to eat. The yam tempura was hard and dry.

Salmon oshi combo comes with 6pc spicy salmon oshi, 3pc creamy garlic salmon oshi, and 3pc basil salmon oshi (see photo). The basil one tasted like a meal at a western restaurant. I know restaurants sometimes use fish off-cuts for these types of rolls/sushi, but it was very noticeable here that the fish was not the freshest and contained some stringy bits. All the oshisushi was overly sauced with mayo and not torched enough. The flavor combinations were not great.

Overall unfortunately I will not be back. There are other sushi places with much better quality food at similar or lower prices, and better service. Maybe we didn't order the right things? A lot of the other tables seemed to order their 1-person combos...

Good food and great service. In total had aburi oshi, takoyaki and miso soup.

Their aburi options are affordable and well made. Ranging from $8.00+ with six pieces in each order. Had aburi salmon and saba oshi. Both had a nice char, salmon almost melted like butter and saba wasn't too fishy to taste and even after a while the structural integrity of the aburi held together when picked up with chopsticks.

Takoyaki was $5.00. Came with six to an order and it was nicely battered. I really like the small touch of a skewer of three cherry tomatoes fried up with takoyaki like coating. Nicely presented, crossed stacked pyramid formation.

The miso soup was flavorful with miso and not overly salty. I rather it was under salted then over salted. At least you can add more salt to your taste if needed.

Restaurant is well maintained and clean. Nothing had a sticky feeling to it. Dishes were well washed. Washroom was also clean. Well lit and nice wooden modernist decor. Waitress were on the game filling up tea and water when they saw we were running low.

Girlfriend had the dinner combo and seafood motoyaki. We were surprised how much food came on the board. All the items were well placed. The seafood motoyaki had a reasonable layer of sauce with broiled layer of cheese mix and underneath it substantial amounts of seafood.

A nice walk from the Lincoln Skytrain Station. About 8 to 10 minutes. Not sure about parking.

Overall definitely worth trying and coming back to. Affordable, good quality and quantity, great customer...