Burnaby eatery within the Nikkei Heritage Centre is worth the wait for daily specials
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Manager Miyuki Azuma shows off some of the great homestyle Japanese food from Hi Genki. Photograph by: Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
HI GENKI
6680 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby. 604-777-0533.
www.fujiya.ca. Public hours: 11:30 to 3 p.m.; and 6 to 8:30 p.m.
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Hi Genki is an oddity. But in a good way. For one, it’s in the nine-year-old Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre in Burnaby, which also provides housing for seniors.
The restaurant serves meals to the residents but is also open to the public — dining hours for the two groups are staggered so it’s not like you’ve stumbled into a seniors’ mess hall.
If you go on the weekend, prepare to wait. The allure of a home-style Japanese meal for under $10 is stronger than the impulse to depart.
My partner and I waited 25 minutes with my poor mom, who leaned on her walker as there aren’t enough chairs to accommodate those waiting. I can’t believe no one offered a little ol‘ lady like my mom a chair.
You won’t find the usual suspects of sushi or izakaya style dishes here — it’s hearty, homestyle food. The kitchen serves up a menu-load of specials every day, a lot of them donburi style (rice bowl). There’s a rotating roster of specials and on the day I called, the menu included salmon katsu (breaded); salmon with egg on rice; prawn with egg on rice; chikara udon (a rice cake in udon; the word means ‘strong’ for how you’ll feel after you eat it); oden is a spicy hot pot with fishcakes, vegetables and egg.
My mother happened to have lost her bottom dentures and they were nowhere to be found. At the restaurant, I cut up all her food into baby pieces but she got to some Japanese pickles before I could cut it up. She liked it and would not let go; I envisioned her swallowing the daikon pickle whole, requiring me to jump into Heimlich action. Taking my mom out is always an adventure.
She liked her ebi katsu don (breaded and deep-fried prawns) with egg and rice and I, my sukiyaki don (veggies and eggs with a sukiyaki sauce over rice).
My husband had a deluxe bento with tempura, salmon teriyaki, tuna and rice. On the side, we had agedashi nasu (deep-fried eggplant served in a ponzu-like sauce).
The restaurant is run by the same folks who run Fujiya, the Japanese store and takeout with locations in Vancouver, Richmond and Victoria.
The chef previously ran Haru restaurant on Thurlow Street.
Manager Miyuki Azuma says weekends are busy, especially at lunch and if you want to avoid a wait, you might aim for an 11:30 a.m. or 2 p.m. meal, since you can’t make reservations.
A good plan would be to take in an event at the centre and do lunch or dinner.
For example, on Nov. 28, there’s a sale of vintage kimonos and other clothing, jewelry, scarves, washi paper lamps, wall tapestries and other items. (Check www.nikkeiplace.org.)
When I was there, I just missed a Japanese Farmers’ Market where Japanese vegetables, cooked foods and crafts had sold out quickly.
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