For those of you who have never heard of Green Leaf Cafe, it is a very popular Japanese restaurant located in Kitsilano. The Japanese restaurant specializes in aburi sushi (flame seared pressed sushi), is known to be a cheaper alternative compared to Miku and Minami (creators of aburi sushi) and they recently opened a second location in Burnaby near Lougheed Mall.
The Burnaby location is a lot more spacious compared to the restaurant in the West End and has an inviting atmosphere. There are a few Japanese restaurants in this area and considering that Green Leaf is newly renovated, it is definitely the restaurant with the nicest decor as well as more modern dishes.
SCALLOP OSHI ($12.00).
Scallop, fish egg, oshi sauce, black pepper. Starting on the left is the scallop oshi sushi, which is a favourite of mine due to its creaminess and butteriness. And the addition of a tiny crunch from the masago. I also appreciate that Green Leaf diced large scallops rather than use baby scallops.
MACKEREL OSHI ($12.00).
Sweet vinegar seasoned mackerel, house made miso sauce, green onion. Up next is the saba oshi sushi, another favourite of mine! I loved the fattiness and richness from the saba itself, and the green onion to cut some of the grease.
SALMON OSHI ($10.00).
Double layered Atlantic salmon, oshi sauce, jalapeño. Last of the oshi sushi is the salmon. If compared to the Vancouver location, the salmon oshi tasted a lot greasier and less creamy. The salmon was fully cooked and was my least favourite out of the three. It was the least aburied too and could have used a touch more.
UNI SEA URCHIN BIBIMBAP RICE ($18.00).
Fresh local sea urchin, mushroom, house made seasoned seaweed sauce. I actually ordered the uni linguine, but received this instead. The bibimbap had a plentiful amount of sweet and full pieces of uni (no loose and small pieces here!), delicious mushrooms that provided some texture in this creamy bowl of yumminess and the rice was perfect. I am really picky with rice and this was spot on - soft, fluffy and chewy.
YUZU DUCK BREAST LINGUINE SOUP ($10.50).
Linguine, slow cooked sous vide duck breast slices in yuzu dashi broth. The soup exhibited a nice clear broth along with a hint of yuzu, and the al dente linguine tasted great although the duck was a touch on the chewier side.
CHARCOAL GRILLED BBQ EEL RICE ($15.00).
BBQ eel, greens, unagi sauce. This was the least favourite dish. The unagi was overcooked and chewy, and some portions of the rice were really hard as if it was scraped off the bottom of the rice cooker. However the sauce did not overwhelm and the rice bowl was not salty.
BEEF YAKI UDON ($10.50).
Stir pan fried beef udon. The yaki udon was well cooked and exhibited a nice chewiness, which paired well with the buttery and tender beef. It was overall on the saltier side though.
Green Leaf Cafe is a great addition to the Lougheed Mall neighbourhood in Burnaby because there are not many above average Japanese restaurants there in my opinion. Actually Hanamori is great, but most of the Japanese restaurants in the area focus on value such as Sushi Garden or Sushi & Roll. Plus Green Leaf has a variety of dishes!
POSITIVES
- Tasty aburi sushi
- More options that other Japanese restaurants especially in this area
NEGATIVES
- Those looking for quantity and value
Green Leaf Sushi: Burnaby Location
9604 Cameron Street Burnaby, BC V3J 1M2
Telephone (604) 444 9802
https://www.greenleafcafebc.ca
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