Half Roll - Vancouver

Well it’s another Groupon deal here.  We’ve been quite obsessed with following Groupon to try out different restaurants these days.  Half Roll is right by Main and King Edward in a busy intersection with different restaurants and coffee shops. 

We learned that they are called Half Roll because their sushi's can be ordered in half orders if you are not a big eater or want to try variety without overdoing it.

We came on a Sunday night with reservations.  It appeared we didn’t need reservations as the restaurant was not very busy.

There was some confusion in the ordering process as apparently there were 2 different Groupon promos.  The first waitress thought we had the cheaper deal and commenced with taking our order.  As the food started coming, we realized our Groupon should not come with drinks nor salad, so we addressed it to another waitress who seemed more knowledgably and it was quickly corrected.

The Groupon comes with Miso Soup.  No pic but it tasted similar to what you can get at all you can eat places.

1. Ebi Sunomono salad.  It was quite a big size.  It was on the sour end but I like it sour more than sweet.

2. Salmon Oshi Sushi:  We’ve never tried rectangle shaped sushi's before.  It has a slightly grilled salmon on the top and in between the rice you can see sashimi too.  It was nicely presented but the rice was warm so there needs to be improvement there.

3. Grilled Salmon Belly. This was a rather small piece to be shared between 2 people.  It was OK

4. This was the main course. Chicken Yakisoba and assorted tempura.  We were unsure why they had to serve it together on the same plate. We saw another table where it was served separately.  The tempura batter was a bit too dark coloured and heavy.  We prefer a nice bright golden yellow tempura batter. 

The Chicken Yakisoba was prepared well and not too soggy and wet.

We also ordered  dynamite roll.  It was not part of the Groupon deal as we wanted to try and compare with other places.  It was not pleasant because again, the rice was warm.

Although there were hiccups at the beginning with the ordering, it was quickly fixed and they had no issues letting us keep our mistaken drinks and salad for free.

The sushi was presented nicely but warm rice for sushi is a nono.  I hope Half Roll can improve with rice preparation as that is important for a good sushi.