Torafuku: 7-course Asian fusion omakase in Vancouver

Torafuku is an Asian fusion restaurant nestled in Chinatown, Vancouver. They won best new restaurant in 2015 and this year for their 4th anniversary, they launched a 7 or 10-course omakase to celebrate. Since then, their omakase has remained on the menu so we were able to check it out even after their anniversary event ended.

Omakase means “leave it up to the chef”. In sushi omakase, you may find yourself eating 10-13 different pieces of sushi, but in Torafuku’s omakase, you will find more than just sushi.

We order their 7-course omakase at $45 per person. The 10-course omakase is $55 per person. The difference is that it comes with 1 more entree (beef tataki) and 2 desserts. Since we do not want to be too full, we opt for the 7-course omakase.

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Interior

The interior of Torafuku is quite trendy and hipster. They have a large sharing table on the left, which means you may be seated with strangers if you do not have a reservation (or you can hold a really big dinner party!).

We are seated in the left corner of the restaurant that is more for 2 people. It is intimate and slightly hidden into a quieter corner. The ambiance is very nice and romantic.

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7-Course omakase

First course: Rabbit food

Our first course is a salad called “Rabbit food”. It is mostly a kale salad with anchovy buttermilk dressing. They add some cute tomatoes, lemon juice, grated parmasan and quinoa crunch.

The quinoa crunch is quite interesting as it gives it a crunchy texture. It almost makes me think of panko (I LOVE PANKO). As you continue reading, you will find that they like to sprinkle this quinoa crunch on a lot of their dishes.

The menu price of rabbit food is $9. Our portion is for 2 people so I am not sure how much bigger or smaller it is if you order this al le carte.

Second course: Get in my belly

The second course is a sushi roll they named “Get in my belly”. It is a spicy tuna belly roll with cucumber, avocado, and fuku hot sauce.

It is a pretty decent roll – the sauce is not too spicy for those of you who have really low spicy tolerance. I wouldn’t recommend licking the sauce by itself, but with all the other components, it tastes tangy and refreshing.

On the menu, this roll is listed at $15. I don’t think I would pay $15 for this roll considering how cheap some special rolls can be at sushi restaurants (Sushi California I am lookin’ at you).

Third course: Vegetable skewers

To our surprise, our next course are vegetable skewers. We are given 2 of each type: shiitake mushroom and mountain yam.

The shiitake mushroom comes with a little slice of pepper and actually this skewer is really yummy. It has a smoky flavour to it despite it’s quite average-looking appearance. The mushroom is big and juicy with lots of natural flavour.

The mountain yam is equally yummy. They add a little dash of that fuku hot sauce again in the center, but the yam is super sweet. Again, with a little of that smoky scent.

The menu lists each vegetable skewer at $3 each. This is something we would usually never order from the menu, but it was yummy and pleasantly surprisingly.

Fourth course: I love dumplings

Our fourth course is a bowl of dumplings. The dumplings are classic pork and chive dumplings with fuku vinaigrette and croutons.

I think my boyfriend and I are quite spoiled when it comes to dumplings because both of our moms make really good dumplings at home. Therefore, always feel stupid ordering dumplings when we go out because a lot of times, our moms’ dumplings are better.

Torafuku’s dumplings are yummy and I like the croutons that they add (gives it more crunch). Alas, we still feel as though we can eat just as yummy dumplings at home without paying $10.

Fifth course: Pork belly skewer

Similar to our veggie skewer course, our fifth course is a meat skewer. We both get 1 pork belly skewer.

The pork belly is soft and tender – easily comes off the skewer if you bite it with your teeth just a little bit. It doesn’t taste too fatty – something I love – and it is seasoned well. A scrumptious bite!

On the menu, meat skewers are slightly more expensive than veggie skewers. They are priced at $4 each.

Sixth course: General Tao’s chicken wings

Our sixth course is Torafuku’s famous G-Tao’s chix wings. Not that this is actually a dish in China, but basically it is fried chicken tossed in General Tao’s secret sauce. Menu lists it at $13.

The first time I ever ate at Torafuku, I ordered these and found the chicken wings loaded with too many things – too much sauce, too much toppings. It looks like they have toned it down a lot since their opening. The chicken wings taste much better without being overly salty.

The fried-ness (is this a word?) is excellent – crunchy even though it is coated with the sauce. All in all, a great fried chicken dish.

Seventh course: Crab risotto with octopus (!!!)

Our last course is our entree and they present with us a crab risotto with octopus. My boyfriend and my eyes pop because we love risotto and we love octopus and we love crab!!! AMAZING.

The risotto is cooked perfectly – not too watery and not too stiff. The risotto is full of crab meat and flavours. It is definitely not one of those rip-off risottos where there’s only a few pieces of scallops and nothing else inside.

The octopus is huge. After we cut it up, there are at least 6 pieces of big octopus meat to chew on. And it is chewy! It can get a little too chewy near the end, I suppose they didn’t massage it long enough but the texture is certainly still acceptable. The best part about the octopus is that they must have also grilled it or something because it had a smoky flavour separate from the risotto. Definitely alot of separate work was done to this octopus aside from the risotto.

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Final thoughts

If you add up all the dishes we tasted (assuming the risotto is the same price as their steak entree $40), then we ate around $107 worth of food. This means having the 7-course omakase ($45×2=$90) saves you around $17. Our total bill came to around $100 for 2 people after tax and tip.

Overall, I think the omakase is worth it for 2 reasons:

1. It is your first time at Torafuku and you want to taste a little bit of everything.
2. If you get this crab and octopus risotto omg. We would’ve paid $45 just for that 1 entree.

Definitely the star of the show for us is the risotto and perhaps the chicken wings. They made the meal seem certainly more worth it. The risotto is not on their regular menu.

If I have to choose again, I would not order the omakase unless they changed the rabbit food salad for their “everyday I’m brusselin'” dish, which is full of my favourite veggies – cauliflower, brussel sprouts and broccoli ($13). I also would like to switch out the sushi roll for something else more unique.

Overall, we enjoyed Torafuku’s 7-course omakase and it’s a great way to see what Torafuku has to offer. After tasting their omakase menu, you will have a much clearer idea of what dishes you will order al le carte.

Sincerely, Loewe