Okini: My dog Tofu’s birthday dinner in Kerrisdale
If you’re a millennial dog mom like me, you may know the frustrations of trying to plan something for your dog’s birthday. My 11lb white fluff screaming rat 🙂 is turning 4 this year and over the years, we’ve done birthday “pawties” for him. This was often challenging because his birthday is in January and nobody wants to be outside for too long because it’s winter and cold or the weather happens to suck that day. There are also basically no indoor options unless you are with a doggy daycare or boarding place and they offer that service.
Anyways, for this year, we did want to treat Tofu to something special and we decided to make a dinner reservation to Okini, an Asian fusion restaurant located in Kerrisdale. They were previously called Land & Sea and we actually dined here before for Valentine’s Day.
Recommended: Read my past review of Valentine’s Day at Land & Sea in Kerrisdale.
We chose to eat at Okini for Tofu’s birthday because back in the summer, I saw they launched a special dog menu that your dog can enjoy on their patio. I wasn’t sure if this was a seasonal promotion (i.e. summer only), but when I contacted them, they said it is still available in their undercover and heated atrium. So I made the reservation, brought my parents because they are obsessed with my dog and the 4 of us dined here for Tofu’s 4th birthday!
Okini
1864 W 57th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6P 1T7
The vibe
I wasn’t really sure what an atrium is to be honest with you. We were never inside the restaurant during our experience, and was immediately seated to essentially their patio on the side of the restaurant. The main difference between the side patio and the front patio is that they had this black detachable screening that kept the heat inside. Inside, there are patio heaters above the heads and it was indeed undercover.
My mom felt the heater was too hot above her head so we turned it off and we ate most of our meal with the heater above us turned off, but with the heater beside us still turned on. I did feel cold near the end of our meal, but we could have easily turned it on/off throughout our time there.
Table and chairs were patio furniture – wooden with metallic arms so not the most comfortable but it is regular patio furniture. Tofu was allowed to be at the table if we hold him in our laps or if we bring a dog bed to place on top of the patio chair (we just took our dog car seat).
Tofu is actually not the best when it comes to patio dining – he often cries and wants to be held in our lap. But once his food started arriving… he was happy 😅!
Food review
Here is everything we ordered for Tofu + all the dishes we shared as 4 adults. Prices are listed in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Pawtini ($3)
The dog menu is very adorable and has around 4 items on it 😚. The first thing we ordered for Tofu that arrived was the pawtini – whipped cream and beef liver dust with some dog treats/cookies. This item resembles a birthday cake or dessert the most for dogs.
Tofu loved this and he was able to lick all the cream off quite easily by himself. For $3, I think this is a pretty decent item because Tofu is not a big dog so this cup of cream is actually quite a lot for him and how fancy is beef liver dust 😳?!
I was a little worried he may get diarrhea or something later that night, but he was totally fine.
Beef & brocolli ($12)
There are 2 main dishes to choose from the dog menu – beef & broccoli or salmon soba (both are $12). We opted for the beef & broccoli and it was a very nicely plated dish! The beef is 2oz of AAA Canadian natural beef and underneath is a bed of chopped up broccolini. Fancy 😳!
Unlike the pawtini where Tofu took a few minutes to lick up all of the content, Tofu devoured this dish in about 4 seconds 😂. He would snatch a piece of the beef and hide/eat it in his dog bed. After he ate all the meat, he licked the plate clean and swallowed all the broccolini.
This concludes the 2 items we ordered for Tofu. Now he has to sit and watch us eat our dinner!
Salmon soba ($32)
The first human dish that arrived was the appetizer salmon soba. We ordered this last time and we really enjoyed it, although it is quite pricey for the portion size.
An intricately twirled serving of chilled green tea soba is at the bottom, coated in a creamy sesame ponzu dressing. On top, we have a small piece of big glory bay salmon flame torched and then decorated with yuzu tobiko and ikura.
This is a refreshing and light appetizer and I really do think the king salmon is delicious and full of juicy flavour. Sharing it between 4 people made it a 2-biter.
Kani risotto ($36)
My husband loves crab so I knew we would order the crab risotto. It features tempura soft shell crab (2 pieces), ikura, edamame, sun dried tomatoes and a sansho tare on creamy mentaiko risotto.
I was quite impressed by the appearance of this dish and I thought the tempura soft shell crab was delicious with the ikura.
The risotto was a bit on the salty side and I found it to be very thick with almost a porridge or overnight oats kinda texture. The flavour of the risotto was just alright with me.
Gindara saikyoyaki ($45)
I was excited to try the gindara saikyoyaki, which is miso marinated wild local sablefish on pan seared egg tofu, broccolini, wasabi tobiko and a tomato dashi.
This main dish had a pretty big serving of sablefish and it was soft, sweet and savoury 👍! The egg tofu was kind of funny because it reminds me of my mom’s home-cooking, but that with the veggies and tomato broth were all tasty and well balanced.
Wagyu bolognese ($32)
The second pasta dish we ordered was this wagyu bolognese. It uses Brant Lake wagyu beef ragu and blistered cherry tomatoes to make an Asian styled spaghetti dish. There was a generous shaving of parmigiano reggiano on top, making it look quite scrumptious.
Overall, this dish was good and I think my parents liked it for its familiar taste. If you have Asian parents, you will know it is hella hard to impress them at any sort of upscale or fine-dining establishment. They just hate it 💀! They think everything is too salty or too sweet or too small or too expensive and they can make it better at home.
Anyways, my only gripe with this dish is one that I have often whenever I see wagyu on a menu but it’s in bolognese form. I think it’s a waste of wagyu! It can be a less expensive cut of meat ragu and I would taste little difference.
Hayashi beef + mushroom rice ($36 + $4)
I actually forgot to take a photo of this dish because I was busy watching my dad feed Tofu a spaghetti with no sauce on it 🤭. But it’s ok because I liked this dish the least anyways.
The hayashi beef is a small skillet of 16 hour red wine braised cheek. The actual chunk of meat is small but it was really tender and flavourful so that was good. Around it there are carrots, mushrooms and confit baby potatoes that were really crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside.
We added the kamameshi-style mushroom rice for an additional $4 and it came in a very small bowl/cup. Like the portion is smaller than anything Tofu ate today so I didn’t really think it was worth it even though it was kind of like a sticky or glutinous rice, so more filling.
Pork tomahawk ($42)
Our last main dish for the night was the pork tomahawk. It is grilled bone-in Fraser Valley pork, served with karashi-grainy mustard, peperonata and peppercorn sauce.
Again, I liked the presentation of this dish and they care the took in still including the bone, but separating and slicing all of the pork meat into edible portions. I really liked the grainy mustard and the peperonata, which offered a slightly spicy taste. The pork was cooked well and not tough, but sometimes with to much peppercorn sauce and mustard it can get overpowering.
Strawberry lemon panna cotta ($14)
We ended our meal with 2 desserts to share and we started with the less sweet strawberry lemon panna cotta. It is topped with white chocolate namelaka, strawberry shiso compote and salted lemon crumble.
This dish was yummy with a fruity and jello-like texture. I liked the strawberry compote and white chocolate namelaka combo.
Sticky toffee pudding ($14)
The second dessert is a sticky toffee pudding dressed with hibiki whisky caramel, banana custard and caramel corn. This dessert is much sweeter than the panna cotta but still yummy although I am not a big fan of banana. The texture of the toffee pudding was excellent – bouncy and sponge-like and it soaked up that caramel.
I think my dad really liked it because my mom doesn’t allow him to eat too much sweets nowadays.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tofu’s rating: 🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾
We had a very fun and special dinner at Okini with my parents and Tofu 🥰. I think the best part of this experience was how unique it was ✨ – I cannot think of another restaurant in Vancouver who does this even during winter!
Needless to say, Tofu loved his food but he lives his life on kibble so any real food would have been amazing for him. I will say the dog menu is really well thought out and they actually put some love into it and didn’t just put scraps in a bowl – they actually plated it like they would for our dishes 👍. My mom would even joke that every time the server comes, we don’t know if the dish is for us or for Tofu 😂.
In terms our dishes for the night, my favourite items was the sablefish, salmon soba (although I still question if it is worth $32), and the 2 desserts. Both the pastas I thought were also decently worth the price. I wouldn’t order the hayashi beef (not worth imo) or likely the pork tomahawk (just didn’t stand out to me) again. But all the dishes were fun, plated beautifully and had an interesting twist to them.
Service was really good 👍. I was worried we would be neglected because we were the only table dining in the atrium outside, but our server was very attentive and had good recommendations on how many dishes we should order to share. Even when we first sat down, the waitress brought us all warm water and even a little bowl for Tofu. I really appreciated that because on my reservation, I had noted we were here for a dog’s birthday and I felt like they really treated Tofu as an actual person/part of our table ☺️. Even as we left, our server came back outside to say goodbye to us and wish him a happy birthday.
We spent around $320 after tax and tip. This was not a cheap dinner but I think given the special dog menu, the great service, and the decent food, I think it is worth it to celebrate your doggo’s special day!
Please note that this dining experience on the atrium with your dog is only available if your dog is under 25lbs!
Sincerely, Loewe