Dining at Ki Modern Japanese and Bar restaurant on rare sunny day, oddly clouded my tastebuds that night. Well another way put it is that we were so enamoured with our setting that it seemed to enhance the flavour of the food.
Ki is a sophisticated chic Japanese restaurant located on the same block as the Shangri-La Hotel. The restaurant started in Toronto and looks like it’s trying to grow its empire. For sure, it picked a prime well suited location in Vancouver. In the heart of financial district and coal harbour, the upstairs location gives you prime viewing spot of the surrounding well to-do buildings and shops. There is a restaurant and patio side or the lounge side and I highly recommend the patio.
The menu consists of items you might find at a izakaya: skewers, cooked dishes, sashimis, and sushi dishes. We started off with a simple assorted Seaweed Salad with sesame-ponzu dressing.
We were pleasantly surprise at the generous serving and variety of seaweed in the salad. It was fresh, crisp, tangy, and palette cleansing.
Of course we needed to try the fresh sushi on the menu
We picked the Ki Spidersoft which is shell crab, mango, perilla leaves, chives; Spicy Salmon Atlantic a roll of salmon, asparagus, endive, spicy raspberry sauce, ao noriko; and sushi pieces of Aji, Magura, Yellow Tail. I like the spice and texture of the Spidersoft, the freshness and crush of the Spicy Salmon, and the quality of the pieces.
To continue the nibbling and sharing, we also picked out a couple of the skewers. First came the surprisingly delicious Pancetta Wrapped Unagi
The Pancetta Wrapped Unagi is stuffed with grilled onion and pickled daikon, served with chilli ponzu sauce. I loved how the different flavours came together: the saltiness from the pancetta with the sweetnees of the unagi and balanced out with the tang from the ponzu sauce.
Then the interesting marinated Swordfish
The marinated Swordfish was served with shishito peppers and a charred tomato ginger salsa. I enjoyed the taste of something being grilled and charred but unfortunately I didn’t like how tough the swordfish came out.
Lastly, we ordered assorted seafood tempura.
There were pieces of prawn, halibut (I think), squid, and scallop. These are all quality seafood but I thought it was a waste that such quality seafood was all battered and deep fried. I think especially eating the tempura scallop turned me off and thought I rather have the scallop just simply grilled. The tempura was nicely done with a light batter but I don’t think I’d order this type of tempura again.
We were giddy over the food the whole time. But if we took the food out of the context of dining in an outdoor cabana under the sun, the dishes were good but not great. Also another lesson learned is to not pick the cheapest bottle of sake from the menu…the sake we picked did not pair well with our food at all.
Overall the service was very attentive and the menu was decent but pricier than what you find at Guu or Zakkushi. The winning point about this restaurant is the truly cool hidden gem of a patio. A perfect spot to sneak to bask under our rare summer sun if you’re willing to spend the extra cash.
Ki Japanese Modern Bar
310 – 1121 Alberni Street
The tomato kimchi combination was so perfect that I’m surprised that nobody else in town seem to do it. It’s kimchi marinated tomato with Chinese chives and cilantro oil. The kimchi was actually light and not overwhelming, and it was a pleasantly light and fresh dish.
The Amaebi Kimchi (I was so close in typing amoeba instead) is kimchi marinated sweet shrimp sashimi. It was certainly a little dish that was too easy to eat. The shrimp was flavourful and sweet from the kimchi marinate and I made sure every part of it. I slurped and sucked that little bugger (so inappropriate I know). The more PG-rated Lotus Root Kinpira is stir-fried lotus root seasoned with fresh shichimi spice. I grew up having lotus as a soup or in a Chinese stir fry so I welcome different takes to it. Even thought it was lightly stir-fried, it still had that nice crunch to it.
It’s a butter and soy battered corn tempura. It was a novel and fun dish but we both commented that it should have the usual tempura sauce to accompany it. The corn tempura seemed like a dish needed a dip to add more flavours to it.
The short rib fried and tossed with sweet balsamic sauce. And as mentioned one the menu, it’s like pork but not pork. It was really close to the softness of pork belly. When it arrived to the table, we were surprised at the generous portion of it. The meat just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. After each bite, we both exclaimed ‘oh my god, this is so good’.
The Negitoro Battera is pressed sushi with tuna belly, scallions, avocado, sesame topped with home made soy dressing and seaweed sauce. To be honest, the Negitoro sushi roll is one of the more boring rolls for me but Suika made it more interesting. The soy dressing and seaweed sauce definitely added more flavour and much needed to the dish.
