I always choose to go eat at places close to home (Rich­mond, BC) when I don’t want to cook or just want a fast meal nearby. This sushi restau­rant has never really caught my atten­tion, other than the fact that it used to be another sushi restau­rant that went by a dif­fer­ent name. That day, I went with my mom because we ini­tially wanted to have din­ner at Mas­ter Hung BBQ Restau­rant but they were closed because it was a Wednes­day. Con­sid­er­ing our options around that area, I sug­gested that we try Kiriri beside Mas­ter Hung, as they have high rat­ings. As we walked in, I was a lit­tle sur­prised at how ambi­ent the place was com­pared to their signage.

The soy sauce was taken out of the fridge just after we have placed our order.

I flipped through their menu, I was sure it is oper­ated by Japan­ese peo­ple. Besides their usual menu, they also have a sea­sonal menu right by the sushi bar, attended by two sushi chefs. We decided to try their live amaebi (sweet shrimp) sushi on the sea­sonal menu. One of the servers even took the whole menu (white board) to our table so we can read it.

Amaebi (live) Nigiri-Zushi — $3.75/piece
Great Negi­t­oro Maki — $12/4 pieces

The amaebi sushi was extremely fresh and had an incom­pa­ra­ble tex­ture with its non live coun­ter­part. It had a won­der­ful sweet flavour and a good bite. The por­tion of the shrimp and rice was also nicely bal­anced. I asked our server for some sug­ges­tions, and she sug­gested the Great Negi­t­oro in the rolls sec­tion. It was like a nor­mal negi­t­oro sushi except they have added diced takuwan (yel­low picked daikon), wrapped with pink soy paper, and two of the pieces were topped with more tuna fill­ing. I liked the com­bi­na­tion of the takuwan and the negi­t­oro as the tex­tures of soft and crunchy worked quite well. We also noticed that the rice was cooked well as we could still taste the indi­vid­ual grains and the tex­ture was just right.

Dyna­mite Roll — $5

I am going to be quite hon­est here, I think the items are very expen­sive con­sid­er­ing its loca­tion and por­tions. More­over, my mom and I were just too lazy to cook din­ner that day, so we weren’t look­ing for some­thing spec­tac­u­lar. Undoubt­edly, the qual­ity of the ingre­di­ents are very high. Look­ing at the prices, I decided to go for some­thing a lit­tle cheaper and more famil­iar, the dyna­mite roll. The shrimp tem­pura was crispy and had a fresh taste, it also had fresh let­tuce and cucum­ber. It was a deli­cious dyna­mite roll.

Fried Amaebi Shrimp Head

The nigiri sushi we ordered includes the same shrimp heads deep-fried. These were super crunchy, the whole thing includ­ing the shell and every­thing can be eaten because they were so dried and crisp. The insides were also very tasty — for those who like to suck on them, it’s a bonus.

Saikyo Yaki (Grilled Miso Mar­i­nated Black Cod) — $14

I wanted to try the Saikyo Yaki, it is a black cod fil­let, mar­i­nated with saikyo miso then grilled. Saikyo miso is a nat­u­rally sweet miso, tra­di­tion­ally made in the Kyoto or the Kan­sai area of Japan. When I lived in Kyoto for a short period, I learned a lit­tle bit of his­tory about this miso. Saikyo miso is a type of miso made with (white) rice instead of other grains, it is more expen­sive than reg­u­lar vari­eties. That is why Kyoto, once the cap­i­tal of Japan, where the nobles and rich lived is famous for Saikyo miso. I don’t know the whole piece of his­tory of this, but I learned from an elderly Japan­ese lady from Kyoto. I just thought it was an inter­est­ing story to share . Any­ways, back to the black cod. The fish was incred­i­bly ten­der and rich, and the miso taste was very mild, which didn’t over­power the taste of the fish. It was served with some daikon oroshi and a slice of pick­led lotus root. The por­tion, again wasn’t big. The fish was about three-quarters of my hand (and my hand, my friends, isn’t big).

Sum­ming up, I think Kiriri is a great Japan­ese restau­rant serv­ing up high qual­ity and excep­tional sushi. The servers were also very atten­tive. It was nice and quite inside. The prices are in the high range and its por­tions are a bit small. Kiriri is very close to home and I would love to visit more often but the prices are keep­ing me away. It would be a good place to spoil your­self once in a while.

Con­clu­sion:

Ambi­ence: 3/5
Food: 3.5/5
Ser­vice: 4/5
Value: 2.5/5