Restaurant: Luscious Creations
Cuisine: Cakes/Cupcakes/Desserts
Last visited: August 28, 2010
Location: Port Coquitlam, BC
Address: 2233 McAllister Avenue
Price Range: Cakes start at $5/slice

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

Food: n/a
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:

• Since 2006
• Specializes in any custom cakes
• Popular for provocative cakes
• Accepts ANY requests
• Ideal for bachelorette/bachelor parties
• Novelty cakes
• All occasion cakes – weddings/birthdays etc.
• Large variety of cake/icing flavours
• All peanut/nut-free cakes
• Gluten-free cakes available
• Sugar-free cakes available
• Vegan cakes available
• Egg free cakes available
• Mini/regular/monster cupcakes

**Recommendations: n/a

Luscious Creations started in late 2006 by owners and bakers Liam Grainger and Natalie Escudero. The store front is in Port Coquitlam, BC and although I’ve never actually been to it, I know that they classify themselves as a custom cake store. I think you can sample and order a small selection of cupcakes they have available day to day, but that’s about it. Although they specialize in all type of cakes, they are popularly known for their provocative cakes. They also address all type of dietary needs and cakes for all occasions, so Luscious Creations is really a do-it-all cake shop. They offer all the basic cake and icing flavours and also have some gourmet icings like raspberry, coconut, mocha and caramel cream.

I was lucky enough to try a Luscious Creations cake because a couple of girls ordered one for my friend’s bachelorette party. The custom design they requested was a penis and I think Luscious Creations came up with the words… I’m sure they make these all the time. I don’t know what else to call it. I wasn’t even going to post on this cake, but people on Twitter were curious (as I would be if I read my own tweet: Eating a penis cake). Seriously, kudos to them for making these naughty cakes! We were having dinner at Society and everyone in the restaurant was taking pictures of it. It’s hilarious, and an ideal cake for bachelorette parties. It reminded me of the provocative donuts from Voodoo Doughnut like the Cock-N-Balls donut. Luscious Creations is pricey, but they did a very good job with both presentation and taste and they really cater to any dietary needs.

On the table:

Chocolate Penis Cake with Vanilla Icing – 4.5/6

• Regular cakes : $5.00/slice
• Vegan cakes : $6.00/slice.
• Gluten Free cakes : $7.00/slice.
• Egg free cakes : $5.00/slice.
• This was a regular chocolate black out cake with vanilla icing. They use home made fondant and butter cream icing and they’re both actually good! Most of the time I find myself just peeling off the fondant because it’s always chewy, plaster like , overly sweet or too bland and more for decoration… however, the the fondant from Luscious Creations is actually good! It’s thin and not too sweet and nice and soft. I really liked it and was surprised how good it was.
• The butter cream tastes more like regular icing to me with not much butter flavour or greasy texture, which I also liked. But it’s not very fluffy or creamy and it’s a bit grainy and sugary in texture.  They don’t use a lot though and there’s a thin layer between the not as sweet chocolate cake so it’s well balanced.
• The chocolate cake was rich, dense and very moist. It had great chocolate flavour, yet it wasn’t that sweet at all and it was easy for everyone to finish a piece… even the non-dessert eaters.

Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi

1001 Austin ave

• Owned and operated by Koreans
• Not really authentic – “Westerner’s sushi”
• Clean, friendly, trendy for area
• Sashimi/Sushi/Donburi/Noodles/Meals
• Set meals/Bento boxes/Sushi platters
• Some specialty rolls
• Lunch specials 11am-4pm
• Can customize your own roll upon request
• Attracts locals within the area
• Dine in/Take-out
• Open everyday 11am-12am

**Recommendation: House Green Salad, Gomae, House roll, Yoko roll

Curious to try: Korean Chirashi “Donburi”: sashimi, vegetables and rice mixed with spicy sauce $10.95

I’ve come here on several occasions and it’s not really because the food is exceptional, but it’s clean, comfortable, somewhat trendy, reasonably priced, and the food is good and well-prepared even though it’s not “authentically” Japanese. The food tastes pretty good, but it’s almost too perfect – kind of like ordering a Kung Pao Chicken bowl at an American chain restaurant – it’s usually pretty good, but just not authentic.

It’s only been around for about a year and it’s owned and operated by a young group of Koreans. It attracts Westerners and Koreans around the area. The presentation is nice and the food is fresh so it’s a good choice if you’re around and craving sushi. It’s decently busy during dinner, but you’ll never be waiting in a line.

On the table:

• **House Green Salad 4/6
• Our signature house dressing $3.50

• Surprised? So was I! I never order house green salads at any restaurant. I’ve tried the Japanese green salad, but have never liked it until I tried this one.
• It’s served with their signature house dressing, so it’s homemade and really good.
• The dressing is made with a combination of apples and onions and it’s nice and thick. It has the texture of pureed apples but and the flavour is sweet yet tangy at the same time. You also get that bite of finely grated onion. I would have liked more dressing though because there was a lot of salad.
• The green salad they use is really fresh and not that chopped ice berg lettuce most Japanese restaurants will serve. They used shredded romaine with some carrots and purple cabbage for colour – there wasn’t one brown or wilted leaf.
• **Gomae 5/6
• Spinach with sesame dressing $3.95

• They make Gomae really good here. The sauce is homemade again and it’s a mix of ground sesame and peanuts. Some places will only use sesame sauce, but I like it with peanuts because it’s richer and gives it a deeper flavour.
• The picture looks like a lot of sauce, but it’s actually the perfect amount and I love the sauce! More the merrier. It’s just enough to perfectly coat each leaf after you mix it altogether.
• **House Roll 5/6
• Salmon, tuna, ebi, avocado, tamago & crab $6.95
• I really like the house roll here. They give you ebi (shrimp) and it’s really rare to have this ingredient in it. Most people will use a cheaper ingredient even if they just wanted to make it bigger.
• At Yoko’s they use really little rice in their house roll and give you tons of filling, which is great. However the rice is a little too wet and there’ s not much flavour to it.
• Another thing they do differently is they wrap it in a soybean wrap (the yellow layer wrapped around it). The soybean wrap doesn’t have much flavour, but it makes for nice presentation. It’s almost like the texture of the seaweed wrapped on the inside. It kind of helps keep everything together and I really liked it.
• They drizzle it with this homemade mango sauce which was unexpected and creative. The mango was made with a mango syrup, almost like a coulis. It’s sweet, but not overpowering because they didn’t soak the roll with it. It wasn’t really creamy and it wasn’t made with mayo, but maybe evaporated milk or corn syrup, something of that sort. It was still nice and light and went well with the roll.
• It is a larger roll, as most house rolls are, but you get fresh ingredients and a lot of it. The portion of each ingredient was well balanced.
• 
• Kamikaze Roll 2/6
• Prawn tempura and crab with spicy tuna on top $8.95

• This was really whatever to me. The plating was nice, but that’s about it. I actually expected more…especially at $8.95.
• The rice wasn’t flavourful enough and the tuna wasn’t spicy enough so it was kind of bland. The prawn tempura is pre-fried and they make batches at a time for the sushi chefs so we had one that had been sitting out for a bit. So it wasn’t crispy and the batter was a bit soggy and not as fresh.
• The spicy tuna was pounded and got too mushy and they didn’t give you enough for this roll. It was a bit inconsistent with each piece. The spicy marinade kind of tasted like Tabasco sauce and had that one dimensional flavour. This roll needed something crunchy – either green onions or cucumbers to give it that extra something. I wouldn’t order it again.

• **Yoko Roll 4/6
• Salmon, avocado, and cream cheese then deep-fried $6.95

• I didn’t order it on this occasion, but I’ve ordered it before and still think about it.
• Its a deep fried roll, and they do a good job with it. They do a great job with the deep frying and the whole thing is lightly battered and crispy when complete.
• The cream cheese gets all soft and warm and the roll literally melts in your mouth. The salmon doesn’t cook so don’t worry about it getting dry. The roll is creamy, rich and well-executed. A real treat, but you might want to share it because you may get sick of it if you just order that alone.
• 
• Vegetable Teriyaki Don 3/6
• Stir-fried mixed vegetables served over rice. Served with miso soup. $9.95

• They give you a decent amount of fresh veggies and it’s a pretty big bowl.
• There’s carrots, broccoli, bean sprouts, cabbage and zucchini, but it was missing mushrooms and onions – there were maybe some onions, but not enough.
• The sauce is a standard Teriyaki sauce, so nothing exceptional there, but still good.