Update: Skipperloo has informed me that Sushi Na Ra is closed - something about not meeting lease terms. He tried to go on Sunday, February 28, 2010.
Update 2: We visited the location that was formerly Sushi Na Ra on May 27, 2010 ; it is now called Tomu Sushi. They have been open for 3 months, and are complete new owners. Tomu Sushi has less Korean dishes but the two that we did try did not leave us feeling overly thirsty or too poor. Will return.
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When Lucy told us that there was a new Korean restaurant in town (Erb near Amos), it piqued my interest as she had mentioned "Korean BBQ". Maybe this time it would actually have that option (instead of the restaurant in Kitchener which is called "Korean BBQ" but it doesn't appear to have that option). We had the opportunity to go after church for lunch one day and it seems to offer some pretty authentic Korean dishes (and yes, even Korean BBQ). The fact that it was open on the day we visited is a pleasant surprise, since many small Korean restaurants are closed on Sundays.
Sushi Nara
347 Erb Street West
Waterloo, Ontario
519.746.1566
Date of visit: January 3, 2010
Restaurant
The name of the restaurant is slightly deceiving; they serve more than sushi. In fact, I would venture to say that their Korean dishes likely taste better than their sushi.
We think that this restaurant was the bakery that used to be in this place. They made an effort to renovate it into a Japanese-style restaurant - with some individual booth-style rooms, and an open concept sushi bar area. The unassuming exterior looks like a quick take-out place, with some enlarged photos posted on their windows and typography that doesn't make it look authentic at all.
I'm not sure that I like the wood panelling decor, and if you look around, the green chairs look like they come from an old Canadian-style Chinese restaurant. Particularly if it's a chilly day, I would avoid sitting in the rooms as the dividing walls are merely there for looks - the cold draft from the doorway just goes right to where you are sitting.
Regarding authenticity: they serve you complimentary tea and the water comes from a typical cooler that you see in many Korean restaurants. One sign that it is a Korean restaurant (instead of Japanese) are the flat metal chopsticks, which are very prevalent in Korea. It's also a good sign when you see Korean customers walking in and sitting down to order (in Korean) as well!
Meal choice, food quality
Most of us ordered something different, which were under $10 each on average. I picked a dish I couldn't pronounce (had rice vermicelli, beef brisket in a spicy broth which came with a bowl of Korean rice). I was slightly disappointed in the lack of meat, but the portions itself and the size of the side dishes (like the bean sprouts, potatoes and kimchi) and the salad that came with the order is quite filling. In addition, the food itself was quite tasty (not sure if it was MSG or just the portion that made me take a Sunday nap after). Lucy recommends the stone bowl bibimbap there, but we are in agreement that we probably don't want to order the seafood house noodles again because we find the soup a little too thick (whether they actually used corn starch or not as a thickening agent is another matter). However, I must give them credit - that bowl had a lot of seafood. Also, it's too bad that the enlarged poster on the exterior windows don't match the actual seafood udon (different dish) at all.
The Korean style dynamite sushi rolls were tasty as they had some rice vinegar in the rice. They're not too wide, so one could easily pick up a piece and eat it in one bite. Plus, the ratio of filling to rice seemed about proportionate.
Conclusion
Considering Korean food around here is mediocre on average (the best being Korean BBQ in Kitchener I would say), I think this deserves a second try - the price isn't too steep, plus, I do want to try the Korean BBQ.
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Since Christmas wasn't too long ago, here's something from my archives (a book I pencilled and stapled together when I was much younger). One begins by reading "Big A, little a"...
- Aa - ANGELS
Angels are people that sing and fly.
- Bb - BABY
A baby is a small cild.
- Cc - CELABRATE
Celebrate it is
celebrating a tree.
- Dd - deceration
a deceration is a thing.
- Ee - EARLY
early is you wake up fast.
- Ff - fast
like you wake up fast.
- Gg - Gift
a gift is like a present.
- Hh - HOLLY
a holly is a leave.
- Ii - ice cube
a Ice cube is something that is cold.
- Jj - JESUS
Jesus is a God.
- Kk - Knit
Knit is something that your mom made.
- Ll - LOVE
like you love your present
- Mm - MARRY
Mary is Jesus mother.
- Nn - NEW
like you have a brand new toy. (on christmas)
- Oo - ORANGE
a orange is a fruit.
- Pp - PRESENT
a present is a gift.
- Qq - quick
like quick open the presnent
- Rr - RIGHT
right it is some-thing like good
- Ss - SNOW
Snow is some thing that is on winter time.
- Tt - TREE
like a christmas tree.
- Uu
...the book was unfinished.
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When folks ask me how my Christmas was, the first thing I can think of is how much I ate! All I remember doing is eating - multiple times during the day, and one meal after the next. Let's review:
HK-style cafe
- Christmas Day - immediately after landing, we hit a local HK style cafe for a late dinner in Richmond, which was tasty and filling!
Family meals
- Boxing Day - our traditional Christmas brunch followed by an extended family dinner
Sushi and seafood
- Sunday - lunch at Sushi California followed by dinner at my aunt's place where my uncle served us delicious home-baked cinnamon rolls for dessert
All that fish for $41
- Monday - Our first time snowshoeing with a light packed sandwich for lunch (loved snowshoeing by the way), followed by dinner with the Oh's at a Chinese seafood restaurant. First time j.w' s tried sea cucumber and was a first time for him to have lobster and crab combined in a dish. Before lunch we stuffed ourselves with Zoo sticks from White Spot (had to share with j.w the only thing I wasn't sick of at White Spot when my father worked there for what felt like forever) and their Original sliders.
Pad Thai and sushi
- Tuesday - we enjoyed a walk in White Rock and had pad thai with a friend (nicely done al dente noodles), despite White Rock having a great sushi place. Why? We needed to save our sushi appetite for the evening for all-you-can-eat at Toyama, which by the way, I would recommend paying the extra $5 for their deluxe menu (which includes BBQ black cod, BBQ lamb, and wild pacific salmon sashimi mmmm. Their oysters were delicious too! Discovered that I'm not a fan of sea urchin or geoduck sushi though - really strange textures.
American portions
- Wednesday - went down to the States and had frozen yogurt for "breakfast", McDonald's chicken nuggets for a "filler", jalapeno pretzel for "lunch", Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory chocolate-dipped frozen banana for "snack", and happy hour appetizers at Applebee's for "dinner", and a Starbucks Mocha ice cream mini tub for "dessert" (we had to eat it otherwise it would melt on our drive back). My goodness - that dinner is likely one of the most unhealthiest I have eaten - between the 4 of us, we shared 2 pounds of wings, 1 basket of deep-fried onion wings, 5 slices of quesadillas (though we took that home), 1 order of potato skins, 2 orders of sliders and fries.
Dim sum, seafood, and peking duck
- Thursday - New Year's Eve lunch with grandparents at Kirin in Coquitlam for dim sum (no longer recommended as a place to go for dim sum). Dinner feasting at home over steamed giant scallops, huge oysters, and ginger and green onion crab! All home-made by mom. The house smelled like fish and soya sauce but it was all worth it. And, new year's count-down at Miche's with Earl Grey tea cake for dessert.
- Friday - New Year's Day - we had lunch with the girls at the military woman's dim sum place on Kingsway (near MacPherson) and dinner at a Chinese restaurant with peking duck!
More seafood and #1 house special drink
- Saturday - a brunch/late lunch at New Westminster's Boathouse (not recommended) to celebrate a friend's wedding! And, because of reservation limits, we had an early dinner at the Cannery (before it closed down forever). Now we can say we've been to the Cannery! It's too bad that I was left with a negative impression when I alerted the hostess that the ladies washroom was out of soap. Her reply? "We don't have any at all." What does that mean? Is it because they're closing in 3 months and they don't want to be bothered to provide soap for their customers and instead to force them to use bottles of hand sanitizer instead? What do their employees use to wash their hands? *shudder* A filling dinner was followed by a great tasting #1 House Special drink at 8 Juice in Aberdeen (Miche and Tunger's recommendation). It's a sago pomelo mango and coconut juice mix and they only had a Medium left ($4.50) when they overheard me telling my sister that they were closed. I'll be back next time!
Chinese food and dessert
- Sunday - very filling lunch with my aunts at a New Lake Restaurant (Chinese) nearby the church, and then a early dinner (which I could barely eat) at another HK style cafe restaurant in Coquitlam (which was decent), followed by Chinese mango sago dessert at Honey Dessert House on Kingsway near Boundary. That was good! They also had great service - they kept refilling our lemon water and let us sit there for a good two hours (we left when all the young'uns started coming in which was also an indication that it was getting late).
Meats
- Monday - lunch at a new Japanese restaurant in Surrey called Tengoku, which are actually owned by Koreans. The portions aren't bad but it's nothing outstanding. For dinner, the whole family came over once they heard Ron was bringing steak!
Taiwanese noodles and shaved ice
- Tuesday - lunch at Aberdeen in Richmond at the new Taiwanese noodle place (great taste but way too pricey for what you get), followed by dessert at Frappe Bliss in the Food Court upstairs. The shaved ice place is absolutely worth whatever lactose intolerance reaction I encountered. In fact, it's more like flavoured shaved milk with fruit and other toppings for $6 a bowl. I was so full that I could barely touch dinner, which was at home with leftover crab and veggies.
And, that was my holiday in a nutshell :).
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Wrong boarding pass, delayed flight, no potable water, and misdirected luggage.
Because of the great experience with WestJet last year with holiday travel, I decided that I didn't want to risk it with Air Canada and convinced my husband to fly WestJet. I told him that WestJet had the 24-hour no-penalty refund policy, plus that they would take care of you should anything happen with our holiday travels (unlike their major competitor who stranded their passengers last year). Had I known what ended up unfolding, I might have kept my mouth shut, as he now prefers AC.
Wrong boarding pass
Upon checking in on Christmas Day, we were warmly greeted by the WestJet agent at the counter, who was still in good spirits despite having to work on Christmas day (something was said about being a WestJet owner!). Perhaps it was Christmas day or our general chit chat that may have distracted him, but after he printed our boarding passes (I guess because only I had mine on my BlackBerry but j.w didn't), j.w happened to look down and noticed we weren't sitting together. I pointed it out to the agent, who gave a diplomatic response that essentially meant "don't look at me - that's what the system gave me". I was certain that we booked our seats together when we had checked in online, but as I was about to say something, j.w looked at his ticket again and asked, "Who is Allison Wong?"
For some reason, the WestJet had printed out the wrong boarding pass; it's likely that Allison's name was the first name that showed under Wong. Funny thing is that j.w turned around and lo, and behold, the next in line was Allison and we knew her! (yes, the agent was surprised too). By the time we waved her over, he had already ripped up her boarding pass. She wasn't even going to Vancouver; she was bound for Calgary! At least they caught it - I mean, what would happen if it was only noticed during security...or worse, at the gate or on the plane?
Delayed flight
With that out of the way, we went through security without incident and waited at the gate for (to me) the standard holiday delays - this time for 2 hours. The plane had been caught in Edmonton for deicing, from Kelowna. When it finally arrived, we were moved to a different gate, and Allison had long departed. Because of the rush to move people off and on the plane as they were behind schedule, I have a feeling that's why they forgot to refill the potable water.
No potable water
Yes, in mid-flight, the WestJet attendant announces over the speakers that a strange occurance had happened: they had seemed to run out of potable water; they must have forgotten to refill it in Toronto. What that meant? No more water in the lavatories to wash dirty hands, and no more coffee or tea. Instead they would provide you with hand wipes or bottled water to rinse your hands. I opted for the bottled option, followed by my own hand sanitizer. Still, it felt very unhygenic (especially if you had to come out of the lavatory to get the bottled water).
Misdirected luggage
Once we landed, the luggage came very quickly. Well, one of them did. When one suitcase didn't show up and I asked someone if all the luggage was out, I was directed to the baggage counter. Thankfully, I had kept my luggage tags/claim stickers but it was too late when we realized that no, I was not Allison Wong (due to the check-in mistake!). And yes, my suitcase was waiting at YYC (in Calgary). With promises to deliver it to us first thing the next day, I was happy that at least they were able to locate it.
In the morning, a call came asking if we were willing to pick it up for a $100 WJ credit in exchange, which was a very nice gesture on WestJet's part. What they failed to tell us was that we had to book a flight within 90 days for a trip within the year. As I didn't have plans at the time to travel anytime soon, I was a little annoyed that they didn't tell us the catch when we picked up the phone since it takes us almost an hour to get the luggage and come back. Thankfully, I remembered that I could try and apply the credit to my return flight - which they accepted! Yaay!
Epilogue
J.w says that he's not about to choose WestJet again if Air Canada is an option. Me? I just booked with WestJet again to attend a friend's wedding in May :). I must say that I'm not very thrilled at their new reservation system (Sabre). I like their online reservation (and refund) system, but their phone wait times are RIDICULOUSLY long (1.5-2 hours) even after midnight EST, and when you do finally connect to an agent, and they transfer you, it disconnects you! Otherwise, if you try to call the Wedding and Convention line to try and book a seat using a wedding discount code (which by the way, is great when it works), all you get is "all circuits are in use; please try again later" instead of being put in the queue. However, I have learned that WestJet gets social media: if their response times on the phones is as great as their responses on Twitter, I think you would have more happy customers. Now if this was my first time with WestJet, I might jump ship, but why do I still choose WestJet? Generally, it's because of their attitude towards customers - they seem to care...and it sure beats the alternative choice.
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