Location: 13200 Macleod Trail SE
Website: https://www.ryuko.ca/
I first heard of this place through my sister, who absolutely loves sushi. Given the distance from my home, I didn’t think that I would be trying it as soon as I did. It so happened to be in the same area as the movie theatre I was going to see a movie at with a friend, so we decided to stop in here.
In typical preparedness fashion, my friend Alex and I looked at the menu ahead of time and decided on what we wanted…at 10am in the morning…and then thought about it all day.
Everything we ordered, we ordered to share. We got 7 dishes in total: Chicken Karaage, Broccolini Tempura, Nasu Yaki, Aburi Miso Salmon Oshi, Ikageso Crunch Roll, Tamago Nigiri, and Unagi Nigiri. The unagi was for me only as Alex isn’t really a fan of it.
We also chose to order some cocktails. Mine was, of course, non-alcoholic. I got the Yuzu Mocktail which consisted of yuzu puree, calpis, soda, topped with a citrus smoke bubble. The first sip was incredible with the smoke! Alex got the Momoyoi, which was Sanuki Cloudy, St. Germain elderflower, MGSR soju, Stella peach, Dr. McGillicuddy’s peach, and bitters. I had a sip of that and it was incredible! I really do love peach flavoured things haha.
Of the food, the Chicken Karaage was the first to hit the table. It was fairly well sized with visibly crunchy batter. It was served with a wasabi mayo. I had mixed feelings because I am not generally a fan of wasabi in Canada because it’s not really wasabi, but horseradish with food colouring most of the time. The mayo didn’t really have a strong taste of wasabi so I didn’t even notice it was there except for the slight green tinge. Speaking of wasabi, this is one of the first places in Calgary that I’ve had actual real wasabi. I tried real wasabi for the first time in Japan and I actualy really like it. Anyways, getting back to the karaage was perfectly cooked with the crunchy batter enveloping a tender, juicy piece of chicken. This was the first dish and I was already pretty impressed. However, I didn’t want to get my hopes up as I was worried that it might end up being the same situation as when we went to Mister M.
The karaage was followed up with the nigiri. The unagi was the best I have ever had. It was slightly torched which gave it a wonderfully smoky and deep flavour. It paired nicely with the shiso leaf it was presented on. The tamago was also fantastic though it did not particularly stand out as being better than other tamagos I’ve had. It was clean, sweet, and uncomplicated. Both nigiri came with a reasonable amount of rice – a small ball not meant to just fill me up right away.
Next came the Broccolini Tempura. This dish is probably the most surprising in that it was a lot bigger than I expected, making it feel more worth the $10 it cost. The dashi was very lightly flavoured, not like the sweet soy sauce I’m used to being served with tempura. Having chosen the dishes at 10am that morning, I had forgotten that this came with a second dip, a yogurt dip. It seemed strange to me that a dish like this would come with two different dips, but our waiter suggested that we dip into the dashi and then into the yogurt dip. The slight salinity of the dashi with the creamy, coolness of the yogurt dip was a lovely combination. I was pretty hungry and ready to dig into the amazing looking food and wanted to take my pictures quickly so I didn’t manage to get the best picture of this dish.
While everything was extremely delicious, I think the star of the evening had to be the Nasu Yaki. Very similar to the eggplant dish at Orchard, but at the same time not at all similar, the Nasu Yaki was a miso eggplant topped with ricotta, quinoa, ponzu tomato, edamame, picked onion, cilantro, and chili oil. The quinoa appeared to be slightly deep fried and we actually had what appeared and tasted like a pickled/candied lemon rind. Everything worked so well in this dish: the saltiness of the miso, the creaminess of the ricotta, the crunch of the quinoa, the tart-savouriness of the ponzu tomato, the pop of the edamame, the tartness of the onion, and the “heat” of the chili oil.
We had debated between the Aburi Miso Salmon Oshi and the Aburi Spicy Salmon Roll, but given we always went with spicy salmon, we decided to try the miso salmon and, my gosh, was that a good choice. Aburi means flame seared, so, of course, we expected the smokiness, but what I didn’t expect was how well the smokiness would complement the shiro miso and salmon. Again, it didn’t feel like there was too much rice. The cucumber gave it a freshness and the jalapeno some heat, though I couldn’t really taste the latter.
The Ikageso Crunch Roll was the most visually stunning. A 10-piece roll containing squid legs, avocado, cucumber, and drizzled with mayo, topped with house made potato chips. This was a very delicious roll too. The squid legs were crunch, the avocado was nice and creamy, and the cucumber provided that crunch of freshness. My only “complaint” was the texture of the nori as it was very chewy and I had a hard time biting through which ended up with it sometimes getting caught weird in my throat as half would go down and the other half was still attached to the rest of the roll.
If you thought that was a lot of food, you would be right. We managed to finish most of it, but we weren’t able to finish the broccolini, so we packed that away so we’d have room to have dessert (duh!).
I had wanted the Japanese Purin, but they were unfortunately sold out. My second choice was the Matcha Terrine, but since Alex was already getting that, I decided to go with the other dessert, the Yuzu Pavlova. I was not disappointed. I don’t know if it would’ve been better than the Purin, but it was a better choice than the terrine, in my opinion. The dessert was bright and creamy and not too sweet, which was the most important thing. The terrine was a solid choice, but I think I have to be in the mood for it and clearly, last night, I was not.
Overall, it was amazing food and equally amazing service. A huge shout out to our server, who’s name I didn’t catch, for this evening. He was absolutely wonderful and made this experience so much fun. I would definitely recommend this place, even though it is a little on the pricier side, I think it is totally worth it. Based on this experience, I’d give this place a 9/10.
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