One of the best tamago I’ve ever had – Junzushi Vancouver

Vancouver has come a long way in sushi offerings. The city has gone from only having 99 cent sushi type places to funny roll sushi to having only one decent place for many years (Tetsu). However, these days it seems like there are high-level omakase options opening every month. One such place is Junzushi. It offers an omakase menu featuring one appetizer, 13 pieces of nigiri (though I only counted 12), one tamago and mochi for dessert. The dining room is Japanese minimalist and well done.

Since they don’t have a liquor license yet, they only offer complimentary green or horjicha tea, or some paid non-alcoholic options. They miss the opportunity for upselling water as the single server (there is only one server and the chef) did not ask what type of water we wanted, and we never got water throughout the meal. The dinner started with a cooked fish with ponzu sauce that was good, and made me and my wife want to drink the sauce up. The fish itself was ok.

I like the format of the menu as I like places that get right into the nigiri. When I feel like sushi, I only want sushi and minimal other stuff. The first few pieces was above average, but not amazing:

The rice was above average with a unique after taste. The chef told us at the end that he tends to use less seasoning on the rice, in order to let the fish shine. The next piece was chutoro from Eastern Japan:

At this point in the meal, I asked the chef for more wasabi on each nigiri. I think each piece was “under-wasabied”. The next piece had about double the amount of fresh wasabi (grated fresh), and it brought the sushi from above average, to near perfect.

After the otoro, the chef served a deep water fish I had never had before – Mehikari or Greeneye. It was very delicious with a meaty fatty texture.

Unfortunately, the increased wasabi didn’t seem to last and each subsequent piece went back to being “under-wasabied”. However, this was offset with and increase in deliciousness from the rice and ingredients. Starting with Japanese uni:

Marinated blue fin:

Shrimp with shrimp roe. Tons of umami.

Anago:

Very delicious gindara hand roll.

Then, something odd happened. Usually, tamago is served at the very end, but at Junzushi, it was served at this point in the meal. This was probably the best tamago I have ever had. It had a cake like texture and TONS of umami from the shrimp broth mixed into it. Amazing. I told the chef he should sell this on its own. I would buy bricks of it.

The tamago was followed by tuna maki with pickled veg. Delicious.

At the end, we had the option to add king madai for $9. I gladly took the offer and it was fatty and delicious.

The meal ended with some mochi.

Overall, this was a 9.5/10 meal. A couple of things could use improvement:

1. They were very frugal with the ginger and I had to ask for a refill a couple of times. I think more attention should be paid to the customer’s “ginger level” with auto refills.
2. The service was slightly slow but not Bar Maumi slow. It was just slow enough for me to want it to speed up, but not too slow that it became annoying.
3. The pieces need more wasabi

The first few pieces were good but things got more and more amazing as the meal progressed. Price wise, I think its good value. I would put it in my top three of must have omakase in Vancouver in no particular order: Tetsu, Junzushi, and Hyun Omakase.