Restaurant Review: Oka-San Japanese Kitchen

By Sherman Chan,
Special to The Post

The creamy sriracha Poke Bowl is the way to go. Instead of the aromatic sesame oil, it had a mildly spicy creamy dressing that was just enough to coat each piece of buttery fish. The rice was chewy and lightly dusted with togarashi. Added into the mix was wakame, crispy seaweed, lettuce, avocado, crab meat, cucumber, tobiko, mac potato salad, red onion, radish and pickled ginger. Everything seemed to work well with each other except there was a bit too much red onion.

The Hawaiian dish in the Loco Moco featured a hand-made beef patty atop rice and smothered in a mushroom and onion gravy. It was served with potato wedges and potato mac salad. The large beef patty was meaty and lean with bits of sweet onion strewn throughout. It was nicely seared with caramelized flavours while the gravy on top was flavourful and rich. Also had too many onions, throwing the flavours out-of-balance.  I would've liked a classic mac salad on the side rather than it being mixed with potato.  The Chicken Teriyaki with Ebi Mayo and Tuna Tataki was tender with only a touch of sweet sauce.

The Butter Mochi Cake was semi-sweet and aromatic. The crispy exterior textures gave way to the soft and slightly chewy interior.

The food at Oka-San is generally good. Prices are on the higher side, but the quality makes up for up it.

Oka-San Japanese Kitchen

3578 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC

The Good:

• Unique food as not many places serve Hawaiian cuisine in Vancity

• Food is generally carefully made

• Super-friendly people

The Bad:

• Pricey

• Food takes a long time to come out

Sherman Chan is the #1 ranked food blogger on the Vancouver portal of Urbanspoon.com. Read more of his reviews at www.shermansfoodadventures.com.