Green Leaf: Japanese aburi sushi in Burnaby
Green Leaf is a modern Asian eatery featuring Japanese-Korean fusion fare and sushi with sake shots & full bar. They have a location in Kitsilano and Burnaby/Lougheed area and it is one of my favourite Japanese restaurants.
I have tried almost every single item on their menu so this review is going to summarize several of my experiences at both locations.
Interiors
Kitsilano
The Kits location is quite small and tables are squished together. They have a bar by the window where you can awkwardly stare at all the other people waiting in line outside for a table. The ambience and environment of the Kits location is below average and perhaps the lines have died down now that they have opened a second location.
Burnaby
The Burnaby location is a much bigger space and more renovated. They have cute wooden walls and shelves with little plants for decoration. Tables are larger and they have a full bar in the middle.
Drinks
Beer + Soju
A new addition to their drinks menu are pitchers of beer. $15 for a pitcher of Sapporo, Sleeman or Okanagan Spring.
They also have a wide selection of flavoured soju – my favourite is the yogurt, green apple, strawberry or peach.
Food
“Aburi” platter ($63)
If this is your first time at Green Leaf and you have 2-4 people at your table, order this platter. It is amazing.
The platter features 6 signature aburi sushi rolls. All of them come in 6 pieces except for the aburi tobiko. Aburi means seared and oshi means pressed. These 6 rolls include:
- Salmon oshi
- Basil prawn oshi
- Yukke tuna oshi
- Mackerel oshi
- Scallop oshi
- Aburi tobiko (fish egg)
My two favourite rolls from this platter is the salmon oshi and the scallop oshi. My two least favourite is the yukke tuna (tastes kind of sour) and the mackerel oshi (can taste a bit too fishy). But everything on the platter is still delicious and presented beautifully.
This platter does take awhile to make so if you plan on ordering it, make sure you order right when you sit down.
Tornado omelette rice ($14)
If you like omurice, you need to try this dish! The eggs are whipped into a tornado that covers a tomato rice and then surrounded by your choice of a sweet & savoury dashi broth or a white jalapeno cream sauce.
AAA+ tenderloin beef tataki ($14)
This is a really great dish to order if you’re not sharing family style and want your own entree.
The beef tataki is tender and I love all the garlic chips they top it with. They can be heavy-handed on the mayo so if you don’t like mayo, don’t order this. Rice portion size goes well with the amount of meat you get.
Spicy seafood salad ($13)
This is a pretty big salad so I’ll give it that much at least. Aside from that, it’s a normal green salad without a lot of dressing. The sauce that comes with it is the standard spicy sauce you get when you order spicy sashimi.
The seafood in this salad consists of cubes of different sashimi – mostly salmon and tuna.
BC sea urchin aglio e olio ($15)
If you like uni, you’ll want to try this pasta dish. It is a linguine pasta with uni, garlic and mushroom. The sauce for this is very light so they are really focusing on the taste of the uni.
Crispy chicken ($6-15)
Our go-to appetizer is their chicken kaarage, which is deep fried and presented in a cute little fryer. The chicken is usually still juicy and each piece is quite large.
“Mentaiko” creamy linguine ($12)
This is a pasta dish with linguine and shrimp, covered in a creamy fish roe sauce. If you are looking for something more fusion, this is the dish to choose.
“Souffle” mushroom risotto ($15)
This is a very unique dish and drew a lot of attention when we ordered it. The egg souffle sitting on top of the bed of mushroom risotto is huge! It is higher than a mug (which doesn’t sound very high but have you ever seen eggs be that fluffy???). It jiggles too when you move the plate. Not sure how many eggs were used to make this but wow!
Taste-wise though, it tastes like you are eating air. It’s a very strange texture and feeling. There also isn’t a lot of risotto underneath the egg so I would say order once to try it but not a staple favourite.
Chicken + egg rice bowl ($10.50)
We tried this dish because we’ve almost tried everything else on the menu lol. I would say this is a pretty average dish – the bowl has chicken and egg in it. The chicken is not deep fried. It is hearty and good as one entree for a single person.
OMG
So this is the one dish I plead you not to order because it’s really not that good. The OMG is listed under Gimbab, which is kind of like a korean-style sushi roll with sesame sauce flavoured rice. But the roll that came to our table was just a giant sushi roll with unseasoned rice and deep fried. It had this strange wasabi sauce on top which hurt my nose.
The OMG is featured on both the combo for 2 and the combo for 3 sharing plates and because of this one item I avoid ordering either of those. It really isn’t yummy.
Final thoughts
Green leaf is definitely a family favourite. For my family members who don’t like raw sushi, Green leaf offers a variety of seared oshi for a reasonable price, unlike its top end competitors like Miku. There really is something for everyone, whether that be a pasta dish, rice dish, or sushi.
Prices are reasonable. Even the $60 platter is reasonable if you share it among a table of 4 (roughly $15 a person, or $10 a roll). My boyfriend and I are fatties so we can finish the platter on our own (but we feel veryyyyy fullll after this).
The Burnaby location can get very busy so for any tables larger than 4, I suggest you to make a reservation. They do not take day-of resos. Parking is almost always available within the mall complex, but for the Kits location you will need to find residential street parking.