Our journey around Vancouver for good Japanese food continues!  This time we went to Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant.  We’ve passed it many times but have never thought of going in because the blinds were always closed and we couldn’t see what the inside was like (very mysterious looking).  Do you find that people are more hesitant to try a restaurant that they can’t see the inside of?  It’s psychology, I think.  The first time you visit a restaurant, you judge the food based on decor and if you can’t see the decor then you have no urge to try it.

We were surprised by a very busy restaurant the night we visited.  I noticed that most people had ordered the dinner bento box so I wanted to try it as well.  iPanda was feeling hungry and had the bento box A whereas Rockia had the Rock n’ Roll. Haha.  He ordered it just because of the name similarity.

The Rock n’ Roll was good but nothing special. It was $6.95 and was reasonably long.  It was basically a california roll wrapped in salmon and avocado.  Having visited so many Japanese restaurants lately, I realized that avocado is a favorite ingredient for many restaurants.  There is always avocado in whatever you eat in most Japanese places!  Good thing I love avocado though….or else…. :p

The prices are shown in the pictures above.  The bento box was a great value because there were lots of food!!!  For $12, there was a big bowl of chicken teriyaki rice, two pieces shrimp tempura, one egg plant tempura, one yam tempura, one zugini tempura.  As were, there were two fatty pieces of salmon and tuna as well as three california roll.  Oh!  There was also a nice green salad and miso soup!

All this food for $12.  It might not look big in these picutres but they were big pieces.  The food quality was ok.  The tuna sashimi wasn’t fully defrosted so we left that untouched.  I loved the salad dressing because it wasn’t the usual orange flavoured one.  This salad dressing was a mildly spicy asian style one.  It demonstrates how a small change in ingredients can improve a dish so much.  I was also impressed by the variety of vegetables in the tempura.  Most restaurants would only put one piece of shrimp tempura.

In terms of the service, it was pretty slow.  We had to wait a fairly long time between teh Rock n Roll and the bento box.  The decor of the restaurant reminds me of AYCE places.  I’m not sure if the chefs are autehntic Japanese but the food was good and everything was clean.

Overall impression:

Good:

• Portions were bigger than expected
• Prices were reasonable

Bad:

• Tuna sashimi was not fully defrosted
• Slow service

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