Updated on 12 April 2010: This restaurant has closed according to Urbanspoon.
Our boys wanted sushi. Suanne remembered coming across a new sushi place on the small strip mall on Blundell and Garden City when we had the awesome chicken wings in Saigon City. Not wanting to take a long drive, this was just perfect as it is just a few blocks from home.
ZuuShi Garden is on the same row as Master Hung BBQ Restaurant. Parking here is quite bad for some reason. I think it is because of the crowd that Master Hung draws during meal times. ZuuShi Garden has a few “ZuuShi only” parking lots so at least you stand a better chance getting a spot here.
ZuuShi Garden is brand new. They had just opened for five months. The decor is sparse and uncoordinated but otherwise it is very neat and clean. We were attended by a very sweet and helpful young waitress. We like it here.
ZuuShi Garden has a wide ranging menu with quite unique choices. This is certainly not just any run of the mill sushi joint. We did notice too that they have quite a number of vegetarian options on the menu.
Arkensen opted for the Sake Don (Salmon Sashimi). This is just $8 with the salmon sashimi served over warm rice and thinly sliced daikon. Arkensen likes it that way but I thought that combination kind of odd personally. Is such combination common in Japanese cuisine?
Suanne ordered the $8.50 Beef Ramen. This ramen looked somewhat “busy” with lots of stuff. The ingredients included thinly sliced beef, carrot, broccoli, corn and bean sprouts. The broth is not salty. As a matter of fact, she found it quite bland and could detect a lightly miso flavour. Serving is large and more than enough for one person.
I thought I go ahead and try the Seafood Shabu Shabu. It came with a hotpot burner exactly like those we had at Well Tea.
The Seafood Shabu Shabu ($10) does not come with rice. Rice was extra at $1.50. Not an expert in Japanese food, I have a question. Does the Japanese normally eat Shabu Shabu by itself, i.e. without rice? The broth here has a lot more flavour compared to Suanne’s Ramen.
While the Shabu Shabu had a lot of ingredients, the sizes did not quite wow us. In the hotpot was mushrooms, seaweed, suey choy, clam, prawns, salmon, white fish, broccoli and scallop. If only the prawns were fatter and scallop bigger, it would have been great.
The bill just came up to $26.40 before tips. They currently have a 10% off promotion for order above $20. I can’t tell if this is Japanese owned restaurant but at least they have Japanese words on the menu.
I think it was because your salmon dish had a ‘don’ after it that it was served with rice in a bowl. From my experience, ‘don’ usually means a rice bowl.
Actually, the rice in sushi is supposed to be still warm. So, the proper way to serve sushi is to have warm sushi rice with the the fresh seafood (or whatever ingredient).
This restaurant doesn’t look Japanese own. Judging from the food picture and the lack of Japanese on their website… and Chinese and English menu there, it’s most likely Chinese owned.
first time here as I just got email from my friend of your blog 🙂
I went to this restaurant for lunch when it first opened.
The restaurant was really clean which i appreciated but i was not impressed by their food.
I ordered chicken udon.
I’ve had udon at every other restaurant in richmond and it had never been like this.
First off they used ramen soup base which i cant stand, and they also put alot of wierd things in the soup and left the skin on the chicken.
This restaurant serves food similar to the taiwanese restaurant that was there before…and i didnt go there for that kind of food. I wont be returning!!