Mike Nakano, who ran the 29-seat Bistro Sakana in Yaletown, now has enough elbow room at Sai Z for 134 patrons
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Mike Nakano (front), owner/ chef of Sai Z Japanese Restaurant, and sushi chef Toshi Mizoguchi. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
This location on West Broadway has seen plenty of action over the years, especially during the hedonistic days as Orestes restaurant back in the ’70s and ’80s. Tenants have come and gone since then. The latest is Sai Z, one of a blizzard of Japanese restaurants opening fast and furiously in Vancouver.
This one’s worth noting. The owner/chef Mike Nakano previously ran Bistro Sakana in Yaletown, one of the better spots for sushi and nouveau Japanese food.
The move to the west side was for the much-needed space. His Yaletown location sat 39 diners with elbows tucked in. The Kits location seats 134 with room enough to tango should the mood strike. The bones of the old Orestes haven’t changed: There are two levels, a central area and a collection of meandering private areas. Kitchens face off from opposite sides of the room — a sushi bar on one side and an open kitchen for cooked dishes on the other.
Cooks and servers are dressed in black from top to bottom and Nakano hasn’t scrimped on staff — I counted nine cooks and chefs one weekday evening. The mainly female servers are sweet and attentive, although not fluent in English. On both visits, one of them saw us to the door as we left with many a thank you-thank you.
The Sai Z menu is similar to the menu at Bistro Sakano; if anything, it’s been trimmed. Customers took too long pondering their choices, apparently. He now offers variety and surprise by changing the menu every three months and offering daily specials.
Should you find yourself pondering, I would vigorously steer you toward the Japanese pizza if it’s on the menu. It isn’t okonomoyaki, the big pancake of vegetables and protein in an eggy batter. This is better. The “crust” is a piece of flat, grilled sushi (rice) and the topping is a loose layer of smoked salmon, shrimp and julienned vegetables. I loved it.
I’ve only eaten raw uni as sashimi and here there were two such dishes — uni (sea urchin) cooked in phyllo and in chawan mushi. I tried the one in phyllo and liked the transformed oyster-y taste of it. It was surrounded with the shredded phyllo (katafi), mimicking the spiny uni shell. I didn’t, however, taste the shaved truffles tucked inside. I’d have reserved truffles for a starring role in some other dish.
Locally caught, raw uni was on as a special one evening and it was sweet and so fresh. And freshness seems to be Nakano’s mantra. An appetizer-size sashimi plate with four types of seafood featured sparklingly clean tastes and buttery texture.
Many of the maki rolls feature tropical fruits matched with fish. He doesn’t go nutty with roll sushi like a lot of places seem to be doing now with rolls groaning with a mish-mash of fillings, barely holding together, and bestowed with a cute name.
Kobe beef tataki featured a lot of beautifully marbled meat served with ponzu sauce but I think it needed a refreshing contrast, like a bed of greens. Bechamel spring roll worried me, considering it contained bechamel sauce, mozzarella cheese and tiger prawns but it wasn’t flooded with sauce or dripping with cheese; it was saved by restraint. Seafood chawan mushi with prawns, scallops, yuzu slices, mushrooms and fishcake was as delicate as it should be.
He has a small offering of dependable wines (Mission Hill, Ravenswood, Fetzer, Lindeman, and a few others) as well as some premium sake, an unremarkable selection of beers and, should you feel celebratory, Veuve Clicquot.
SAI Z
Overall: 4
Food: 4
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
3116 West Broadway, 604-732-7249, www.saiz.ca. Open for lunch daily, noon to 2:30 p.m., but lunches may soon be discontinued. Open for dinner 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, and to 11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.