My mom was so impressed with our first trip to Sushi Park (review here) that she chose the restaurant again for her birthday lunch. Her birthday is now a good month and a half ago, but I'm slowly but surely getting through a backlog of posts.
We arrived around 12:30 on a Sunday with my aunt and cousin in tow, and the restaurant was pretty empty. It stayed empty for the entire duration of our meal, with the occasional customer coming in to pick up their take-out order. I guess sushi isn't people's first choice when deciding on what to eat for Sunday brunch.
Not much had changed since our last visit. We were sat at their largest table, on the opposite side of where we sat last time. Service was still as friendly and attentive as before, with the sushi chef even personally delivering some of the items to our table.
Like last time, the waitress dropped off bowls of complimentary miso soup (normally $2.50 each) and a large bowl of green salad (normally $4.50). Still standard stuff, but much appreciated.
Squid is always a must-get at any Japanese restaurant I go to, so we put in an order for their rendition of ika karaage ($6.00), or deep fried squid. It was served with a side of spicy mayo for dipping. The squid tentacles were good, but we were hoping for a lot more. The "cup" was tiny in itself and was filled mostly with a bed of shredded radish with the handful of tentacles on top. Eh, can't complain with the price.
Because we had a bigger group with us this time, we chose the deluxe sashimi (20 pieces for $32.00) which comes served on a wooden bridge. The assorted pieces are chef's choice, and came with salmon, sockeye salmon, tuna, tako (octopus), tai (red snapper), and amaebi (sweet shrimp). All of the pieces were thickly cut and decently fresh. The heads of the shrimp are also saved and deep fried, providing a crunchy little snack for you to suck on. My mom was all about it.
We also got an order of prawn tempura (6 pieces for $10.00) since we were quite impressed with the dish last time. It was still served hot and fresh out of the fryer, but there was almost too much batter this time. If you compare this picture to the last review, you can clearly see the difference.
As a filler dish, we got their chicken teriyaki don ($9.00). We had their unagi don last time, and this just cemented the fact that their rice bowls are definitely worth getting. The chicken was nice and juicy, and served over a bed of rice and bean sprouts. My brother hogged this dish after his first bite.
Onto the sushi rolls!
The tiger roll ($12.00), as seen in the first picture, was a dynamite roll (imitation crab meat and prawn tempura) topped with ebi and avocado. Pretty standard. It came drizzled with their favourite spicy mayo and eel sauce to use.
A repeat order of their Boston roll ($15.00), which is a dynamite roll (imitation crab meat and prawn tempura), topped with grilled salmon and drizzled again with eel sauce and spicy mayo. I much prefer the grilled salmon topping to the ebi and avocado in the tiger roll. It's just so much creamier and softer, and still as good as I remember!
We also got their spider roll ($7.50) which is synonymous with deep fried soft shell crab due to the tentacles resembling spider legs. The roll was also stuffed with imitation crab meat, which sort of overwhelmed any flavour of the soft shell crab. The end pieces are usually the best part of this roll at any restaurant, so fight for those if you can!
We also added an order of their chopped scallop roll ($7.00). The scallops were sweet and fresh, and they give you a decent amount without too much rice filler around the edges. Good stuff.
After we were finished, we threw our napkins onto our plates, signalling that we were full and done. To our surprise, one of the sushi chefs came over and presented us with deep fried salmon head/collar. Served over a bed of mixed greens, the gesture was incredibly nice of him.
Back in the day, my family frequented Furusato on Whyte Ave quite reguarly, and their salmon head was the best thing to order from there. This just brought back all those memories of eating at that restaurant. We haven't been back for quite some time now after hearing that the quality of the food has gone down with the change of owners, but who knows? Maybe it's time to do a re-visit.
Anyways, it takes some work to eat this dish since you have to basically scavenge the meat that is left on the collar, but it's definitely worth it. It's usually a piece of the fish that is discarded after all the sashimi is cut off, but the meat around the area is so succulent to go to waste. Thank you Sushi Park!
Overall, still a great place to grab sushi while in St. Albert! I haven't been to Yuzen or Ohana-Ya to properly make a comparison, but those are definitely on the list. Just give me some time.
Sushi Park
9 St Anne St.
St. Albert, AB
(780) 418-1335
- CT
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