Q Q Sushi

Restaurant: Q Q Sushi
Cuisine: Sushi/Japanese/Sashimi
Last visited: August 17, 2011
Location: Vancouver, BC (Fairview)
Address: 1640 W Broadway
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3 (based on what I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Chinese owned/operated
• Quick/casual/
• Small/hidden sushi joint
• Specializes in creative rolls
• Large menu
• Sushi combos
• Sushi Special $5.95
• Hot items available
• Budget friendly/cheap eats
• Eat In/Take out
• Accepts Visa/MC/Interac
• Mon-Fri 11am-10pm
• Sat-Sun 12pm-10pm

**Recommendations: Maple Roll

I think it’s fair to call it a hidden hole in the wall. Well it’s nicer compared to say Kedai Makanan Seng Huat in Malaysia, but in the context of fancy Vancouver, it’s more or less a hole. But, the neighbourhood seems to love it!

It was a random choice for me, and I was actually on my way to Suika, but realized I just missed their lunch service. It was already quite late, but I was still craving sushi or Japanese. Being in Vancouver, BC sushi is almost like McDonald’s, it’s everywhere. I literally walked a few shops over knowing that I would find another sushi place.

I’ve never been to Q Q Sushi before and didn’t know anything about it except for the fact that I’ve driven by it. So with my fingers crossed, I walked in hoping for a lucky one!

Oh… what’s that I hear? Chinese music. Yes, it is Chinese owned and operated. Although this fact may turn some people off, I’m a bit indifferent. For all I know the owners could be trained by Japanese chefs, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

However it came across as Chinese people making sushi. It’s not necessarily a bad thing though. There are many that can butcher the cuisine, and many that can make it work, and Q Q Sushi actually didn’t do a bad job with the things that I ordered. It’s not traditional Japanese sushi or style, but it’s really cheap and the quality was okay for the price. I’d actually recommend it for cheap eats in the area. It does the job.

Their “famous rolls” are their specialty. I love how they always call them “famous”, but they’re creative fusion rolls presented nicely in larger portions (not nearly as massive as Samurai, and also better).

Since it was my late lunch, I was just in time for the staff lunch break. Usually I’m always curious about what they eat since you would assume they get the “best stuff”. But in this case, it was a heaping plate of baby bok choy, meat and steamed rice. Yes, it’s a Japanese restaurant serving cheap sushi and rolls, but it’s quite Chinese through and through. It even started off with Chinese tea instead of green tea.

Goma-ae – 2/6

• $3
• It wasn’t a traditional goma-ae (spinach salad) and it was sweeter than normal.
• The sauce was a bit watery and honey like in flavour and I think it was jarred goma-ae sauce.
• I just missed the nuttiness and freshly ground sesame seeds of a real goma-ae.

Q Q Roll – 3/6

• BBQ Salmon, smoked salmon, crab meat, avocado, cucumber, masago with QQ sauce $7.25
• I usually order the roll with the restaurant name in the title since it’s their signature.
• It’s a very large roll and well worth the price, but the roll itself was quite standard and nothing new.

• It was piled high with artificial crab and the flavours were reminiscent of a California roll meets a BC Roll with strong flavours of salmon, but no skin.
• It was supposed to be stuffed with BBQ salmon, but the salmon wasn’t barbequed.
• The salmon was actually tempura salmon, so that was kind of a downgrade. The batter was very thin though and you couldn’t tell unless you really looked into it.
• There was good texture because there were crispy tempura bits sprinkled on top.
• The smoked salmon wasn’t the greatest quality, and the QQ sauce tasted like sweeter and thinner Thousand Island dressing, which I’m not too crazy about.
• The sauce wasn’t enough alone and it required some salty soy sauce.
• It was a warm roll and quite fishy tasting and the rice was slightly bland, but not dry, and the seaweed is a bit chewy. It’s still a decent roll for the price though.

**Maple Roll – 4/6

• Salmon, spicy tuna, avocado, masago with spicy sauce $7.25
• It was another large roll and the presentation was impressive for the type of restaurant.
• It had a couple sauces going on that were very good and strong enough alone so that it didn’t require soy sauce.

• It was a sweeter roll and the sauce was reminiscent of sweet Thai chili sauce with Chinese style chili sauce.
• It’s not how Japanese people would execute a spicy sweet sauce for a fusion roll, but being that it’s fusion, anything really goes.
• I think there could have been some maple in it and it was noticeably sweet, but not noticeably maple in flavour.
• The spicy tuna was done tempura and it was crispy, creamy, sweet and spicy, and it actually had quite the spicy kick that lingered, but it wasn’t hot.
• The tuna seemed marinated in sweet soy sauce or teriyaki sauce and there was lots of flavours going on.
• Again the rice is slightly bland, but it doesn’t matter since the sauce makes up for it, but the seaweed is noticeably chewier due to the sauce making it wetter.
• Sure the salmon on top isn’t the best quality, but they didn’t skimp anywhere and the roll tasted very good and I’d order it again.

Spicy Tofu Roll – 3/6

• $2.95
• A basic vegetarian roll that’s dirt cheap and the size is pretty big. You could leave here spending $5 and be full.
• You don’t see a spicy tofu roll very often, so on the table it was.
• It was big cubes of firm tofu topped with a spicy sauce that reminded me of Chinese ma po tofu sauce. Considering the circumstances, it was no real surprise.
• I’m quite sure it was the same sauce used in their Maple Roll.
• It was sweet and spicy sauce that gave enough flavour to the tofu roll, but it didn’t mask the tofu either.
• The rice was a bit bland, but not dry and I could have had this with or without soy sauce.

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