Kiriri Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar

My friend asked me a while back whether I've been to Kiriri Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar in Richmond.  Frankly, I never heard of it.  It's a Japanese restaurant in the very small strip mall across from IGA on Garden City -- where I basically never venture to.  Since we wanted Japanese, I suggested we give this a try for lunch.

Since we are pretty indecisive people, we chose two combos to share.  The first one was a very intricate combo with assorted sashimi and tempura, plain udon, a piece of inarizushi and futomaki, grilled salmon, and sansai soup (~$12).

There was one piece of salmon, one red snapper, and two pieces of tuna sashimi.  The salmon was quite thinly sliced, but I didn't have that piece.  I tried the snapper which was quite sweet to taste and the tuna was alright -- not mushy at all.

They were quite generous with the tempura, with two pieces of shrimp, one pumpkin, one carrot, and one yam.  The actual shrimp itself was quite crunchy, especially with the tempura batter.  The wheat flour for the tempura was quite fine and this resulted in a finer crispy outer layer.

The inarizushi was alright.  I was expecting something a bit more after watching cookwithdog's video on it -- they make it really complicated, with the rice being cooked in dashi stock with mushrooms and carrots first.  Unfortunately, the one here was just with plain rice.  Still, I appreciate the effort put into making the tofu pouch, since it was quite flavourful after being cooked in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin.  I didn't try the futomaki.

The sansai soup was very refreshing as it is a cold soup.  Sansai is a general term for "mountain vegetables" and it had a mix of mushrooms, fungi, warabi, and lotus root.  In the photo it looks to be a bit shiny and oily, but actually that was because I picked at it with my chopsticks that were a bit greasy.  It was very light and I loved it.

The grilled salmon wasn't that special, but it was solid.  I liked it but there really isn't much to say, except for that it was quite a small piece.

The other combo we ordered was the teriyaki beef combo, which came with two pieces of tempura, a house salad, rice, and a bowl of canned fruits (~$9). 

The teriyaki beef was not that amazing.  It was not soft and slightly overcooked.  I liked that it wasn't overly salty and drowning in sauce though.  I find that happens a lot.

The fruits were super sweet and swimming (I wouldn't say drowning) in the syrup.  So sweet.  I hate wasting food, but I had to leave it.

Rating: ★★★★
Overall, Kiriri has some of the most intricate Japanese cuisine that I've had in Richmond.  That being said, it is a bit more expensive that other places like Torarenbo.  The sushi combo was pretty good, but I would probably skip on the teriyaki beef one next time -- or perhaps try chicken if I really feel like it.

Kiriri Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar
8780 Blundell Rd
Richmond, BC
(778) 297-4330