Taka’s Take-Out Sushi

Restaurant: Taka’s Take-Out Sushi
Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi/Fusion
Last visited: March 23, 2010
Location: White Rock , BC
Address: 15214 Pacific Ave
Price Range:

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

Food: 3.5
Service: 4
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 3
Additional comments:

• Popular to locals
• Chinese chef/staff
• Quick/friendly/affordable
• Seats 10
• Popular for sushi rolls
• Creative/fusion rolls
• California style Japanese sushi
• Sashimi/some appetizers
• Good sushi rice/seaweed
• All rolls available in cones
• Lunch specials until 3pm ($9.25-$13.25)
• Popular for party trays
• Free green tea
• Eat in/Take-out
• Accepts MC, Visa, Interac, AMEX

Recommendations: Peppered Tuna Tataki. It’s hard to say – everything was good, but nothing amazing.

Taka’s Take-Out Sushi is located in White Rock, BC. It’s a small little Japanese place that focuses on creative sushi rolls. It’s very popular to locals and it’s obvious that 99% of the clinetele are regulars… especially when they sit down and the chef says “the usual”?

The chef and staff are actually Chinese but the head chef has trained and worked internationally in Japan and California. The style of his recipes are very Californian and West Coast. The menu is actually quite limited with an extensive list and focus on sushi and rolls.

Friends of mine actually recommended Taka’s Sushi to me a while ago and I heard about it from locals in the area so I was very excited to try it. Me and my best friend are notorious for trying Japanese restaurants serving creative and funky fusion rolls so our expectations are very high. Taka’s Take-Out Sushi is great for what’s in the area (and that’s why I think locals rave about it) but places that do the same sort of thing like Sushi World, Sushi Maki, Yuji’s, Kadoya Sushi and other places in Vancouver blow it out of the water.

I can’t say it disappointed me, but I wasn’t that impressed either. It’s good, but there’s better. I find that everything was rather heavy on the mayo and they kept reusing the same spicy mayo sauce on everything so I got bored quickly.

On the table:

**Peppered Tuna Tataki – 5/6

• Pan seared tuna, rubbed with peppercorn topped with spicy sauce, green onions and crunchy garlic $11.00 (6 pcs) / $5.50 (3 pcs)
• The also offer $7.37 (4 pcs) and since there were 2 of us he suggested 4 pcs.

• It was served chilled. The tuna pieces were nice and thick, firm, perfectly seared and heavily crusted with a black pepper spice rub.
• It was actually not that spicy although it looks spicy. The black pepper was much more aromatic than anything else.
• The spicy sauce is a chili mayo (that they use on everything ‘spicy’) but it’s not even spicy – it’s more sweet than spicy to me.
• I loved the crunchiness of the deep fried crispy garlic bits they topped it with. It gave it a salty and nutter flavour.
• I missed the Ponzu vinaigrette I expect from a Tuna Tataki so it was missing that tangy note. This was very good overall, but I’ve also had better.

• Unfortunately the tuna was also pre-seared and pre-made ready to go. With that being said it was still good – so I can’t really ding them for that. However I can only imagine how cook it would have been if it was made upon order.

Poached Salmon Roll – 2.5/6

• Poached salmon savoured with finely chopped pickled dills, onions, baby dills, and avocado, topped with spicy sauce and sesame seeds $4.75

• This tasted exactly what it sounds like. It reminded me of an egg salad or tuna sandwich.
• It was very creamy especially with the added avocado and it was also heavy on the mayo. I would have liked some cucumber in there to break it up a bit.
• I could definitely taste the dill in it and again it wasn’t spicy because their chili mayo or ‘spicy sauce’ isn’t really spicy.
• The sushi rice is nice and flavorful here though.

Spicy Salmon Cone – 4/6

• Spicy salmon, masago, green onions, sesame seeds and spicy sauce
• Cone: $4.28 Roll: $4.75
• All their rolls are available in cones for a little bit less.
• My friend recommended this to me and most people there were eating the spicy salmon roll so I had to check it out.
• I think I would have enjoyed it more as the first thing that came out because by now I was a bit tired of seeing that chili mayo on everything.

• The best thing about their cones is that they’re pretty big, packed and filled to the top.
• It’s loaded with chopped salmon sashimi mixed with that chili mayo ‘spicy’ sauce. It wasn’t that spicy compared to the spicy tuna/salmon rolls I’m used to.

• That’s what I liked to see! The salmon is filled all the way to the very bottom.
• They don’t just use the rice as filler although they have good sushi rice here. It’s sticky and flavorful.
• The seaweed is really good here too. It’s nice and fresh and not chewy and you can actually bite into it without pulling at it.

Cajun Roll – 3.5/6

• Crawfish tail, salmon, avocado, jalapeño, topped with spicy sauce, cayenne pepper, sesame seeds and masago habanero $6.50
• This was recommended by my best friend’s brother. He loves it.
• For here it was a 4/6 but compared to other places it was a 3/6.
• The crawfish tasted like baby shrimp so I think it might have been a mix… ??
• It was pretty creamy again and the salmon was flaked salmon. The texture was better than the poached salmon roll we had.
• It should have been quite spicy – but it wasn’t. It was the spiciest thing we ordered, but it was still not that spicy. It has no excuse to not be spicy – I wouldn’t order it if I didn’t like spicy so c’mon Taka’s… CAJUN roll… bring it on already!

Mango Roll – 4/6

• Mango, lettuce, salmon, avocado, and masago, rolled in soybean sheet and topped with crunchy pistachio bits $8.50
• The pistachio was the enticing part… and with mango… oh god – yum!

• The mango was the highlight which is good. It was ripe, fresh, and a pretty big piece so it was the dominant flavour – which it should if it’s in the title.
• The pistachio was so fresh and nicely toasted however it was totally overpowered and I couldn’t taste it. They needed more. I think they should make a pistachio sauce – like a pesto and put that on top.
• They kind of used the rice to make the roll look bigger and that really bothers me.
• The soybean wrap was almost like a thin omelette crepe – but not in flavour. It recall reminded me of the House Roll from Yoko Sushi which is better I think.

• This is the pail of candy they give you at the end with your bill. So Asian lol. Felt like a kid again! Cute.

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