The Denman Challenge: Black Tuna

Vancouver being plagued by wind storms, we didn't want to head out too far to eat. We chose to eat at Black Tuna because of it's proximity with home and because T was craving noodles.

When: Sunday, January 7, 2007. (7:30 pm)

We say: Black Tuna offers a very solid menu - diversified, it contains inventive and creative items and ingredients, especially in the sushi roll department. The restaurant positions itself as a Japanese Tapas establishment and this is reflected in the menu. There are a lot of small items to choose from, which makes it fun and easy to sample a wide range of menu items (and easy to go overboard, as we did).

The first dish to arrive was a complimentary dish from the kitchen - a glazed mackerel sashimi served on a hot plate. It was perfectly cooked, tender and juicy and quite tasty. The dish worked quite well with our tall and pricey Asahi beers ($8.95).

Then arrived our tempura selection. We chose Pumpkin ($1.95), Avocado ($1.95) and Squid ($3.95). The pumpkin was beautiful, simple and sweet, and the squid was perfectly cooked albeit a little flavourless. The avocado tempura was not quite as successful. While M enjoyed it, she did get the stub and T thought that it was too fatty and that the process caused the avocado to loose it's flavour.

Next came a beautiful plate of sushi rolls. We picked two rolls: the Salmon Skin Maki Roll ($4.25) and the Dragon Roll ($8.95). M likes to order the salmon roll everywhere to gage the restaurant. This one was not as usual - it does not use BBQ salmon skin and is more on the spicy side. It was still nice, but not as good as the original version. As they say, if it ain't broke... The dragon roll's presentation was incredible, with the roll decorated to resemble a dragon. We had heard that Black Tuna has their own roll creation, so we wanted to order a roll off chef Jacob's specials. The dragon roll comprises of crab meat, cucumber, carrot, unagi, avocado and a Thai peanut sauce. While very original in its concept and presentation, the flavours fell short. It had too much mayonnaise and the peanut sauce was completely lost amongst all of the fatty items.

To fix his udon craving, T ordered the Nebeyaki Udon Soup ($11.95). T felt that this was an excellent version of a classic Japanese udon soup. The presentation was again beautiful and the soup could easily make for an affordable complete meal. As an added bonus, the soup also comes with a Shrimp and Potato Tempura. While the potato was perfect, the shrimp was pretty tasteless.

The hit of the meal was truly the in-house, hand-made Watercress Gyoza ($5.95). Packed full of flavour, the taste of watercress was never lost amongst the pork. The matching dipping sauce was also quite good.

Lastly we had the Black Tuna Style Chicken Skewers With Teriyaki Sauce ($8.95 for 2). The teriyaki sauce was quite nice and not too sweet and you could still taste the chicken and the broiling through it. As well, the skewers had yellow pepper and shitaki mushrooms alternating with the chicken. This dish felt overpriced for what it is, but would work more as a main dish than as an appetiser.

Pro: The gyoza are incredible and are worth the trip on their own. The extensive menu is great and every plate is beautifully presented. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and we really enjoyed it.

A note on the service: it was attentive and good but it was the first time that we wondered why that was. Did we get the complimentary dish and the good service because we ordered a lot and that M was taking notes and taking pictures???

Con: The sushi rolls are clearly not their strong point. As well, a drink menu would have been appreciated. The restaurant could have use extra staff to ensure that the tables of departed guest were promptly cleaned up - some tables were had not been cleared when we arrived and were still not cleared when we left.

Verdict: T says yea, M says yea.