Ottawa Foodies

Been here a few times but last week, I ordered the Spider Roll (crispy soft shell crab) and it was delicious! It was tad expensive considering the amount (4 for $9) - I ordered 8 along with some good old spicy california roll and some Inari (tofu). And I washed it all down with green tea (a little weak but fine). Hubby had the Takara Platter (I think), it was very fresh and good.

Takara has been around a long time as one of the favourites in the market area... I have been there countless times…but it is run by chinese... not japs, and the sushi is ....well so so ... (their eel, unagi, is terrible…!!!)

I think it is more the market rah-rah and atmosphere that spills over from Kinki's... which you guys seem not to like... you know Vardy worked at Kinki's....

For really good sushi... one must have a jap chef (not only the knife action…, but also the purchasing function…) ... and Suisha Gardens and Festival Japan are the only two traditional places... (latter being run by an east indian who stole the chefs from Suisha's) There was one in the Tunney's Pasture area, run by jap women, but they have seen turned viet....

Ichiban is the other one that I can think of ... and I have not tried Totoya yet....

Have tried Genji... but they are also chinese....

I am chinese by the way, in most parts... so it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the food....

We were craving sushi and wanted to introduce a friend to sushi because she had never tried it before. I heard from someone that Takara was THE place to go in Ottawa for sushi since it was run by a Japanese family. I commented separately on the food below (or above).
The service here was OK, not really good, and not totally bad either. We ordered a bottle of wine to share with water....water didn't get refilled the whole time. The decor was pretty plain with some Japanese items hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. I found the dishes (don't know what they're called, the ones they serve the sushi on, see picture) a little beat up...time to get some new ones maybe? Pretty casual place for just OK sushi. Our one friend who had never tried sushi ended up ordering the terriyaki chicken which she said was OK. I didn't get a pic of it but it looked really good.
All in all, the bill came to just over $90 before tip...bottle of wine, 1 appie, 3 orders of sushi, 1 chicken terriyaki, and 2 green tea ice creams for dessert.

We had the vegetable tempura as shown here. Not too bad, the veg was fresh but the tempura batter I didn't find too flavourful. I've had better tempura elsewhere.

I like the shrimp tempura here because the shrimp have good flavour. Also, the mixed tempura comes with really nice whitefish tidbits.

3 of us went out for sushi here, one being a total newbie for sushi. So we played it safe with some of the rolls....cucumber, spicy salmon, and avocado and crab I believe. The two of us who've had sushi before, both said that we've had better. The rice we found was a little overcooked and the ingredients in the sushi not all that tasty, or as tasty as it could've been. The cucumber rolls though were really nice.