Tairyou Ichiba: Hits and Misses

Tairyou Ichiba is a fairly busy Japanese restaurant located on Kingsway in Burnaby. From the outside, the main identifying aspect is their large wooden door, which seems to be a hold over from the last Japanese restaurant that occupied this location (Kura Japanese). Like Kura before them, Tairyou Ichiba (Japanese for big fish market) has a fairly extensive menu to choose from.

On the inside, the unexpectantly tall ceilings gives the place an airy feel. I’m not much of a fan of the low-backed chairs, however, as it doesn’t give you anywhere to hang your jacket.

We started off with an order of Gomaae ($4). I found that the spinach was oddly crunchy – almost like it was kale instead of spinach.

The Assorted Sashimi ($18) included a chef’s selection of cuttlefish, seaweed, mackerel, tuna, clam, and salmon sashimi. I’m not usually a fan of cuttlefish or clam sashimi but these weren’t that bad. The rest of the sashimi was pretty good but not overly so. More or less average given the price point.

By far, I think the Agedashi Tofu ($4.50) was the best dish of our visit. I loved the dashi broth that it was served in and I wanted to just drink it all up.

The Chicken and Green Onion Yakitori ($4) was another good pick here. There’s something about how green onions/leeks pair with grilled chicken meat. Ever since we had it in Japan, I make sure to try this whenever I see it on a menu back home.

Tuna Kama ($5.80) is a grilled dish of the “collar” area of the tuna fish. We had some good fish collars in Japan and I’ve also had a pretty outstanding salmon kama at Sushi Modo on Edmonds. Unfortunately, the tuna collar here was a miss as the tuna was quite dry and seemed overcooked. Normally, you’d expect the meat here to be quite buttery and flavourful.

Last to arrive at our table was our order of Oyster Motoyaki ($6.50 each). I was surprised at how large of a dish these were served in but the price is a bit on the expensive side considering that most of the dish is filled with pieces of onions.

I came back the following week by accident (I was trying to go to another restaurant nearby but it was closed) and wound up ordering the Spicy Chicken Karaage Don ($8). I was surprised by the large, boneless, skin-on pieces of chicken… they were quite juicy and moist to the bite. The sauce was a bit sweet and a bit sour and slightly spicy. In addition to the generous serving of chicken, the bowl came with a pile of shredded cabbage on top of the rice. A fairly good value for the price but I found the sauce wound up being too sweet and sour for my liking towards the end of my meal.

Overall, there are some good and some bad here with prices that are relatively cheap for certain items. You get what you pay for.

4300 Kingsway Unit 2
Burnaby, BC