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| - You know you're hooked on Yelp when you make a date with a friend just to earn a badge. But that's exactly what I did with a fellow Yelper as we set out on a quest to earn the Sushi Sensei badge!
Not only did we want to earn the badge, but we also wanted to be able to compare the restaurants like for like. We decided that an order of California rolls would be our staple in every restaurant and we would supplement that with an order of the restaurant's feature rolls. Now, you're probably thinking "that's a LOT of mayonnaise and fake crab". Well reader, read on, because although we risked OD-ing on mayonnaise and getting mercury poisoning, we came out with some great tips for anyone seeking sushi in Calgary's downtown area!
Sushi Stop #1: Sakana Grill
Our sushi crawl started at Sakana Grill in Chinatown. On arrival, we were seated in a cozy booth and welcomed with a complimentary spicy salmon roll. It was delicious, so these guys were already in my good books. Everyone loves a little something for free, even if it just wets your appetite for more!
We settled on an order of California rolls and an order of Geisha rolls (mango, avocado over sun dried tomato, finished with mango sauce & sweet spicy sauce). The mango rolls were to die for. In fact, of all the restaurants we visited on the sushi crawl, these were my favourite rolls. They had a great combination of sweet and spicy and the presentation was beautiful.
California rolls leave little room for creativity, but these ones were good. Not great, not bad, but good. I wish I had more to say about them, but they absolutely met my expectations for how a California roll should look and taste.
We also ordered a glass of their house sake, which turned out to be the best tasting sake of the evening.
Price wise, Sakana Grill is as you would expect. It's not a fancy sushi joint. It is a nice, comfortable restaurant with average priced sushi. Our tab came out to about $30 for our 5oz glass of sake and two rolls.
I'm giving these guys a 4 because they went the extra mile... a complimentary taster on arrival, the best tasting house sake of all the sushi restaurants we visited, speedy and friendly service and a box of Pocky sticks to finish up. All that, and the sushi was good quality and tasty, especially those mango rolls.
Sakana Grill - I'll be back!
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