Kitsilano brazier grill more like old Japan than modern Tokyo, a rustic cocoon of cedar and worn rice paper
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Chef Seiji Sadaoka (left) offers skewers of chicken thighs, asparagus wrapped with bacon, chicken and leek, and marinated chicken meatballs while co-chef Amie Amamiya offers seared wild sockeye and ahi tuna. Photograph by : Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
ZAKKUSHI CHARCOAL GRILL DINER
Overall: 3 1/2
Food: 3 1/2
Ambience: 3 1/2
Service: 3 1/2
Price: $$
1833 West Fourth Ave., 604-730-9844. Open daily for dinner, www.zakkushi.com
Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.
– – –
I’ve been ignoring Zakkushi because the way things are going, I could write a column about Japanese izakayas every week. They’re the “it” restaurants of the day, luring us away from sushi love.
Menu-wise, Zakkushi Charcoal Grill Diner on West Fourth is a clone of another on Denman Street but this location has a different personality — more like old Japan than modern Tokyo.
“Some people say it looks like a sauna,” says Yuki Ikeda, a sometimes cook-sometimes waiter. And indeed, the small room is a rustic cocoon of cedar and worn rice paper.
“We want people to relax, feel comfortable. We want them to talk, about romance, about future. We don’t want it to be a place to come to drink and complain about work,” Ikeda says.
You almost expect to find the celebrated Japanese salarymen here, drinking an awful lot, eating, laughing, then staggering home.
The difference here is, well, for starters, there’s reggae music, which is nice and happy, but not very Japanese.
Next to us, a couple of young women drink modestly and take an interest in the food. They’re architects and note the wabi sabi quality of the room. They won’t be staggering off anywhere into the dark of night.
Yes, there’s a wabi sabi quality (it’s been described as a sad kind of Zen beauty) but I was cursing in a most un-Zen-like way clambering over the stretch bench seating with no opening allowing for graceful passage, especially challenging in a pencil skirt.
Zakkushi does offer a glimpse of the myriad of specialty restaurants in Japan.
The grill is like an elongated hibachi with charcoal heated to 1,000 F. Juggling the skewers of food requires a sure hand and impeccable timing because we want moist interiors, not coal.
One of the grillmeisters had a marathon night at the Denman Street location where orders came in for 1,400 items off the grill. He didn’t incinerate himself or the food and went home quite pleased with himself. “The timing is different for each skewer and he had to keep track of what’s on and when they come off. If he loses track, everything falls apart,” says Ikeda.
It’s been noted that Vancouverites consume shockingly more sushi than the Japanese and it appears we outdo the Japanese with brazier-grilled food, too.
At Zakkushi, dinner is the sum of many little parts and it’s nice and affordable. The skewers of food are less than $2 each.
I especially liked the tsukune items — minced chicken done up many ways. There’s rice, beef, cheese, vegetable and seafood skewered and grilled with different marinades and sauces. You can round out the meal with salad; do try the spinach and lotus root salad with sesame dressing — it’s gigantic and good for you. Sprinkles of deep-fried sliced lotus root looks like Martian food for your entertainment pleasure.
Tapas items (tuna sashimi, negitoro and avocado rice wrap, Japanese beef stew among other dishes) cost a very reasonable $4.50 to $8. The ebi mayo is something to sink your teeth into for a pleasant taste reward. The menu stretches to include rice bowl dishes, an oodle of noodles and dessert.
At both locations, I’ve resisted Pooh Bear’s Afternoon Snack: toast with vanilla ice cream and maple syrup. The green tea ice cream with red beans wasn’t bad; I’m on the fence with the black sesame seed ice cream — it’s unusual. Maybe I need to shake up my ice cream reality.
Wines are not impressive but there is a premium sake list as well as shochu (a distilled beverage with 25 per cent alcohol content), which actually goes well with the fattier grilled dishes and is consumed more vigorously than sake in Japan.
All in all, a nice place to do what salarymen do — meet, eat, have a good time.
Just hold the line on the liquor.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007