Hello Vancouver.

Update 31-Aug-2009: Please note that this offer has lapsed and no longer available at Ebisu.

Read on because there is a summer treat for you … courtesy of Ebisu on Robson and Chowtimes.com.  It is going to be quite a treat, so you may want to pay a little bit more attention to this post!  🙂

Suanne and I dined at Ebisu about a month ago.  We had a great time and we blogged about it here.

A couple of Thursdays ago, Ebisu on Robson launched their new menu with the introduction of a few pretty interesting and new dishes.  At the same time, they had also prepared the Spring/Summer specials.

Suanne and I were back at Ebisu to sample the new items on the day of the launch.  More importantly, we were there to work on a three-way-win plan.  Ebisu gets to introduce their new menu on chowtimes … and at the same time Chowtimes gets to inject some fun (and value) to our readers.  Most important of all, chowtimes readers gets a free dessert.

Like these …

You may get any of these items above as a treat from Ebisu and Chowtimes.  Oh, wanted to be clear that this is available only in Ebisu on Robson and Ebisu on Broadway.  I’ll share with you the details further down this post because I wanted to show you what Suanne and I became a “guinea pig” for you Vancouverites.  He he he ….

Deon, Ebisu on Robsons General Manager, hosted us.  We started off one of their new sushi rolls.  The one we tried was the Ninja Kicker (above).  This roll is targeted for those sushi lovers who craves for a little bit more spiciness in their roll (hence the name).

Suanne and I loves this roll a lot.  It is certainly a departure from the normal sushi rolls and is perfect in many ways.  If you like a kick to your rolls, I am quite certain you will love this.

Suanne and I learned a lot from Deon.  It was interesting how they developed their new menu.  The Ninja Kicker has all the elements of a good creation.  It is pleasing to the eye with a good balance of colors.  It has a combination of contrasting texture. The prawn tempura adds crunch to the texture.

This one has an element of surprise in the taste department.

The secret to the Ninja Kicker is the sauce.  All Deon would say is that they started this from a base … the humble Thai-style Sriricha hot sauce.  The sauce is darker than Sriricha sauce, that much I know.  It has a level of sweetness and with a strong flavour.  The spiciness leaves a lingering heat in the mouth.

Tuna Tataki is one of the more popular Japanese dishes.  On the surface this looks kind of normal …

Well, in many respect, it is.  The quality is there.  Even though Suanne does not particularly likes raw fish, she did like this a lot.  He he he … I had wished that she’ll just try a piece and leave the rest to me like she normally does.  Oh no, not this time.  She made sure we both had EQUAL share.

The tuna was absolutely lovely and fresh … ooo … the cool tuna just melts in the mouth.  The radish (not shown, below the tuna) gives it an contrasting crunch.  Of course Ebisu had to make this with a difference …

… it is the ponzu sauce.  It is the sauce that defines this Tuna Tataki dish and what gives it the name Tuna Tataki Supreme.  Ponzu sauce by itself is tart and sourish.  Ebisu had concocted their own sweetish sauce based on the Ponzu sauce.  You gotta to try it to know what I mean.  Think tinge of sourness with sweetness.

Roast Butter Steak.  The name alone makes you want to go for this.  This is in essence a Asian style steak and is not meant to be differentiated with western steaks.  Ebisu uses AAA grade beef with a smaller cut.  This helps brings down the price of the dish but without sacrificing taste.  It is made almost medium rare.  The difference between this is that yellowish thingy at the top of the steak.  It is Garlic Butter.

They burn and melt the fresh garlic butter in front of you.  “Action food” is what I call this.

Again it is the sauce that makes the difference.  The freshly melted garlic butter makes this incredibly … well … buttery.  I like the fact that it’s all cut up and is eaten with a chopstick.  There is only one way to eat this.  Pick it up and swirl the sauce all over it.  Nice … with a difference.

The Beef Daikon Salad was a favourite of Deon.  It came with a generous serving of Sukiyaki Beef.  The main thing about the beef is that even though it is rare it is not chewy.  So this will mean that you will not end up continue to chew on the beef long after you down the rest of the items on the salad.  The daikon and soft tofu goes very well with beef.  Again the sauce is what makes this good … they call this the SPECIAL sweet plum sauce.  SPECIAL which means it is their own concoction again.

The sauce is light.  Suanne and I did not really taste it well.  Maybe it is because we had this out of sequence — the stronger tastes of the previous dish just overwhelms this lightness of this sauce.

For what it is worth … the dish above is the FIRST official serving of the dish by Ebisu.  Oh yeah … we were the first to order this on the day of the launch.  LOL!

Alright … now onto the drinks.  Deon recommended that I try their Yogo (Gin, Bitter Ripple, Cranberry Juice and Lime).  I declined … it has over 18% alcohol content!  I settled for the more sublimed Canucks (7.9% alcohol).  It came served in the colors of Canuck.  OK, I know … Canucks colors are green and blue but hey the old what-were-they-thinking awful jersey were yellow and red too.  This was OK.  I can’t really describe the taste except perhaps it has a potpourri of taste?

Suanne ordered from the Virgin section.  She had the Lychee Iceberg.  It was really nice.  We can’t help but notice how white it is.  Deon said that they are very particular with their ingredients.  They are willing to pay more for good fresh WHITE lychee.  If the lychee has a detectable tinge of yellowness, Ebisu turns it away.

So, the Lychee Iceberg is pure Lychee and Ice … blended.  What we like most is that it is all natural sweetness — Ebisu do not add sugar to this.  Delicious.  I wanted to exchange my drink with Suanne’s but it was never gonna happen.

This is what we had for dessert.  This is what you would have for FREE.  Yes Virginia, there is no such thing as a free lunch … but there is certainly such things as a free dessert.

What we had was called the Monkey Magic.  This is sweet but (again) all-natural sweetness, no sugar added.  I would describe this as banana fritter except that it is fried with crepes instead of batter.

See the darkish line across the banana split?  It is red bean.  Ebisu’s dessert plating is large and generally meant for sharing.  It was more than enough for Suanne and I.

There are a lot more new menu items at Ebisu.  All of them equally enticing from the description on their menu.  Here are the new menu (click to see a more readable image):

Oh … one more thing I want to share with you readers.  When Suanne and I first had the Shrimp Sizzler last month, we commented to Deon that the size was too big and that the Shrimp Sizzler broke apart upon the first bite.  It wasn’t a problem but it was clumsy eating it.  Guess what Deon did.  He actually improved on this on our comment and made it into six smaller more manageable pieces instead of the original three big pieces.  Oh gee … I was surprised that Ebisu actually acts on the feedback of the customer.

I like the way Ebisu makes every effort to be one up against their competitor for the customer.  In our conversation with Deon, we can detect how genuinely customer oriented he is and how he thinks outside the box to make Ebisu’s menu a difference.  I think Ebisu is generous in agreeing to do this promotion with Chowtimes.com.  So here are the details:

• Valid from now until end of August 2009.  Ebisu maintains the right to end or extend the promotion period.  If Ebisu so decides to alter the promotion period, it will be published as an update on chowtimes.com.
• For every $30 that the customer spends on a single receipt (before taxes and tips), the customer will get to enjoy a free dessert from the dessert menu.
• The dessert is redeemable only upon the presentation of the coupon below.  Click on the coupon below and print a copy of it … you don’t want to print this entire page!
• This promotion is redeemable only in Ebisu on Robson and Ebisu on Broadway.

Pass the word around.  Email the link of this page to a friend.  The short address to this page is http://chowtimes.com/ebisu … I hope you find this useful and enjoy this.

Oh … one last note.  It is important for Suanne and I to let you know we are NOT paid for this promotion by Ebisu.  We got free samplers but that is it.  This all for YOU, Chowtimes’ reader.