Kai Japanese Restaurant: Casual Japanese food in Port Coquitlam
Kai is a Japanese restaurant located in Port Coquitlam. They offer your basic sushi, as well as fusion-styled Japanese food and Vancouver’s favourite “special rolls” (i.e. things Japanese people in Japan would never do to sushi).
We came here as part of a large family dinner that was all paid for (after fighting of course #chinesethings), so unlike most of my food reviews, this one will not include a total spent because I have no idea how much the total added up to be (lol). I will include the individual prices in case you are wondering how much each thing costs. Just keep in mind that we basically went ham and ordered everything we wanted to.
Drinks
Mio ($19.50)
I don’t usually like sake because I think it tastes like horse urine on fire, but Mio is a cold sparkling sake and it is delicious! With a fizzy/carbonated feeling, it tastes strangely like a watered down yogurt soju.
Food
AAA Top sirloin beef tataki ($13.90)
Beef tataki is thinly sliced raw beef. Kai’s beef tataki is served with a grilled pineapple, garlic mayo and ponzu sauce.
The grilled pineapple is a bit confusing to be honest (? why is it here) but everything else tastes fine. A little side comment is that they may have been too generous with the mayo and ponzu sauce.
Oyster motoyaki ($10 each)
Motoyaki is cooking that involves baked food topped with a mayonnaise-based sauce served in an oyster shell.
The oyster motoyaki is quite large and has lots of oyster goodness for you to spoon out amidst all the mayo. If you’re not a fan of mayo then you probably won’t like this dish.
Assorted sashimi + salmon ($22.90+?)
The assorted sashimi platter comes with 3 piece salmon, 3 piece tuna, 2 piece sockeye salmon, 3 piece tako (octopus) and 2 piece ebi (prawn). We add additional salmon sashimi, which is why our picture is mostly salmon and way bigger than their usual assorted sashimi platter.
Not much to rave about on this platter. Vancouver has the best salmon in Canada so you can hardly mess it up.
Salmon aburi and saba nigiri ($2.1 + $2.7 each)
The salmon aburi nigiri are seared, giving it a pinky colour instead of the orange you would normally see with salmon. I never asked what sauce they put on top. Generally, I have tasted better aburi nigiri at other places.
Tamago and ikura nigiri ($1.70 + $3 each)
My boyfriend likes to add quail eggs to his ikura nigiri (large fish eggs) so there’s an additional cost there. If you like quail eggs, I recommend you to try adding it to your nigiri sushi – gives it an extra kick. The tamago is sweet but I would usually not order it.
Giant bomb ($14)
This platter is called the “giant bomb” and everything is deep fried. It has 10 pieces in total, which means we must have added another deep fried roll because the picture definitely has more than 10 pieces.
Anyways, the original giant bomb platter comes with deep fried avacado and crab roll, 2 piece prawn tempura. Everything is spicy and crunchy.
Salmon oshi sushi ($13)
I still remember when I had to go all the way to Miku for salmon oshi, but now many local Japanese restaurants offer oshi sushi for a more reasonable price with almost the same flavours.
The salmon oshi sushi here had a good rice to fish ratio with the inside salmon filling. Seared right and delicious!
Amaebi nigiri ($3.70 each)
Amaebi means “sweet prawn”. This is one of my favourite raw things to eat but I never order it unless it’s a special occasion (because it’s expensive duh). Sweet prawn season is only for a certain amount of time and I actually prefer to eat the sweet prawn without the rice.
As traditional sweet prawn dishes, Kai also serves us the shrimp heads back deep-fried.
Dessert
Ice cream ($?)
Matcha ice cream with sprinkles and cream – basic and yummy.
Creme brulee ($?)
Not sure what they were trying to do with the sauce on the plate (did they want me to lick that?). The creme brulee tasted ok but it wasn’t as smooth and soft underneath the hardened sugar. Good portion size and amount of sweetness.
Final thoughts
We definitely ordered a lot of food. Knowing that we could order whatever we want at this dinner, we tried a lot of things we wouldn’t normally get at a restaurant. These include the sweet prawn nigiri, oyster motoyaki, sake etc. Other things we ordered that are not in this review (because I couldn’t take a photo of it in time) include takoyaki, tempura platter, basic rolls and other nigiri.
Out of everything we ordered, I enjoyed the salmon oshi the most. I can see myself ordering that again if I am to come again.
Portion size for rolls are generally large and worth it. Appetizers are not – for example, the takoyaki was $5 for 4 pieces.
Everything in general tastes average and Kai offers average prices. For a Port Coquitlam restaurant, this can be a local family favourite but for your picky sushi friends, it’s not worth the trek if you live in downtown Vancouver. If you are ever in the area, I recommend you to check Kai out.
Sincerely, Loewe