Sushi: Splurge vs. Steal

If you are a sushi addict like me and are constantly satisfying your cravings than you know that it can be expensive. Being a little Chinese-Jewish girl, I am always looking for a good deal! And I'd like to share some with you. 

One of the appetizers below is the Creamy Spicy Tempura from Kimchi Sushi (14-998 Keewatin St.) and the other is the Spicy Mango Prawns from Wasabi on Broadway. They are essentially the same dish with prawn tempura and mango tossed in a creamy spicy sauce but one of them is $9.95 at Kimchi and the Wasabi version is $14. Can you spot the splurge vs. the steal? 

The top one is from Kimchi. As you can see, the portion sizes are very comparable (the Wasabi dish looks fairly small but I believe it's just the way it has been plated and is in fact a good size) and they are both delicious but the Kimchi version is almost 30% cheaper! Although you don't get the decorative carrots...

I love rolls with either tuna or salmon and avocado. One of the rolls below is the Wasabi House Roll for $12 and the other is from Sushi Delight (1 Keewatin St.) - a great little sushi place in a horrible location (right at the intersection where Notre Dame merges into Keewatin) that we just discovered today on our lunch break. It looks like an abandoned drive-thru ATM but it is a charming garden oasis on the inside. I had the Crazy Love Roll for $6.95. Both rolls have tuna, salmon and avocado plus a variety of other ingredients - but can you tell which is more expensive? 

The bottom roll is the Wasabi House Roll. Look at those big chunks of tuna and salmon! It also has tempura crumbs for a little crunch and nice big pieces of avocado. To be fair, the Wasabi House roll also has crab meat, scallops and salmon skin which is delicious and also adds a little bit of crunch. But in terms of bang for your buck the Crazy Love Roll wins because it is a full $5 cheaper for savings of over 40%! Do you know what you can buy with $5? You can take your co-worker to Tim's in the morning and buy two medium coffees and share a blueberry muffin (thanks, Jon).

I love Wasabi on Broadway even though it is a little pricier the food is always top quality and the service and ambiance are fantastic. But...sometimes I just want good, cheap sushi, you know? 

DG

Kyu Bistro

Kyu Bistro (kyubistro.com), a little ramen noodle house, just opened on Isabel St. last Monday and Aimee invited me to join her and some friends for lunch that Friday. Aimee has like a sixth sense or something for places to eat. She is a foodie like me and she's also Filipino so she always hears about these places from her friends, her cousins, her cousin's friends, her friend's cousin's friend, etc. I feel like ramen noodles don't get the respect they deserve because of their less-attractive younger sibling, instant noodles. Don't get me wrong, you can do great things with instant noodles and it is considered by some as one of the greatest Japanese inventions of the 20th century, but obviously it's not the real thing. Kyu does three different versions of ramen noodle soup: shio (light clear broth), shoyu (soy sauce based broth), and a spicy miso broth. I had the Shio Ramen which has pork shoulder, naruto (a thinly sliced fish cake), soft boiled egg, menma (bamboo shoots), nori and green onions. I really wanted to try the spicy miso broth so I substituted this for the shio broth. 

The spicy miso broth is amazing! It is so flavourful and a little bit thicker which makes it so satisfying and delicious. They also have really good appetizers that are priced between $4 to $6 so there's no reason why you should ever be leaving here hungry. Best agedashi tofu (bottom left corner below).

In case you can't tell...I loved this place. Being an Asian girl who loves a good noodle soup, I will definitely be coming back. 

DG