Izakaya Edokko
190 Smith Street
204-615-5556
Facebook: @edokkowpg
August, 2018
Best sushi in Winnipeg.
Bold statement considering the number of heavy hitters serving boffo
Japanese food in this city now (see my reviews on Greenish, Kai Sushi and
Yujiro).
When I first dove into the sushi world, Winnipeg only had three
restaurants. Masa was always our
favourite but it also demanded the most money.
As the sushi world grew, the number of options also grew
exponentially. Yujiro emerged as the top
table for sushi in this city, despite the sprouting of Japanese restaurants
like enoki mushrooms. Today, Izakaya
Edokko stands among the newest sushi restaurants downtown. What do the three have in common? Two very important factors among sushi
fans: they were/are the best in the city
for this cuisine; and Chef Masa Sugita.
In Japanese, “izakaya” stands for something similar to tapas in Spain,
where portions come small and you try a large variety of foods, paired with
exciting beverages. To me, that’s what
sushi already is, where you order a large variety of samplings, although I
mostly gravitate to my favourites.
Instead of just sushi, Sugita greatly expands the borders, incorporating
expansion and fusion to present a massive menu with more options than I could
possibly try. Of course, I do what I
normally do when presented with a tome-like menu—leave it to the chef (who
would know better?).
With “Omakase,” (loosely meaning “trust,” as in trust the chef), the
house presents a pre-determined meal for you, dusted with a large variety of
samplings. The lunch equivalent here,
the Tei, offers several different themes.
I opt for the Sashimi and Sushi Tei; although I love all sushi, I’m in
for the raw fish!
The meal starts with the house salad, full of brightly coloured and
fresh vegetables, topped with house dressing that’s slightly sweet and slightly
savoury. Next, we dive into the miso
soup, slightly salted with great flavour and big, firm chunks of tofu.
The chopped cucumber and seaweed salad comes with acidic dressing, just
enough to complement the greens. The
seaweed has a lovely crunch to it, providing a lot more texture than what the
image suggests. The plate comes with a
cut of shrimp, perfectly boiled and tender.
I’ve only tried monkfish liver a couple of times and this serving makes
me wish for more. I don’t see it on the
menu so I suppose that this is one of those bonuses of trusting the chef. The liver tastes rich and unctuous, melting
in your mouth. Don’t get scared off by either
monkfish (which people avoid because they think they’re ugly) or liver—this liver
doesn’t have the dry, powdery texture of land animals.
Now, into the “sushi” portion of the meal: you see by the bright red colour of the tuna
and the bright orange of the Atlantic salmon that they’re going to taste
marvelous—and they do. The nigiri comes
exactly as it should: with a
considerable size of fish and just a tiny marble of rice underneath (that you
can’t even see in this picture). Too
many sushi houses today give you a huge wad of rice with a tiny sliver of fish
that you can see through if you hold up to the light.
You can see the pieces of salmon poking out of the hand roll, and that’s
not even the majority of it. Big slabs
of salmon line the entire roll, giving each bite a generous taste of fish. Crab stuffs the other roll, equally generous
and plentiful from opening to tip, delicious through every bite.
Now look at the piece in between the salmon and the crab hand roll—in all
my years of sushi-eating, I have yet to see this fish. The server explains that it’s flounder’s
fin.
Retrieved August 22, 2018 from https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2371080480
The flounder is a flatfish (akin to the better-know halibut) where the
fish swims on the bottom of the sea so nature placed both eyes on the top of
the head. Unlike most fish, it’s the
fine that I enjoy here, velvety smooth, oily, and wonderfully delicious. I’ll be looking for this at future meals.
While the nigari features a slice of Atlantic salmon, it’s nice to see
pieces of Pacific salmon to compare and contrast. Personally, I prefer the Atlantic because it
has more fat (evidenced by the white stripes) but this Pacific salmon tastes
deliciously robust while remaining soft and tender. The tuna tastes rich and decadent, melting in
your mouth. I love scallops and these
sit among some of the best I’ve had. I
wondered they did not remove the attached ligament but after eating it, I
realised that there’s no need to remove it.
It tastes almost as tender as the meat itself. Finally, the surf clam is the best I’ve ever
tasted. It has more clam flavour that
usual but it’s also coupled with beautiful texture, crunching into every bite.
Like the traditional Chinese finisher, the “dessert” here comprises of
bites of orange. The orange too tastes
deliciously sweet but if there’s a weakness, it’s the presentation of the
orange, which looks a bit haphazard compared to everything else on the table.
This entire feast costs $22, which is an insane amount of goodness to
go into very little money. I’ll be here
a lot, as I plan my next meal already.
Izakaya Edokko simply serves some of the best food in Winnipeg.
Ray Yuen
Certified Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) Judge
KCBS Member
Canadian Barbecue Society Member
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