Sushi Bar Kilala

Sushi Bar Kilala has been on my list of Japanese mom and pop spots to try for ages. Seriously, this place is right up my alley. It’s small, prices are fair and run by an older Japanese couple. It’s close by to Chez Christophe.

Signs outside.

Hours.

The inside is small with four seats at the sushi bar and 6 tables. Service is friendly, sweet and attentive. Love how they drop off a whole pot of green tea for the table. Note: they don’t take reservations.

The menu is split into combination, sushi (bowls, roll and pressed), hot food, nigiri and sashimi.

They also have a whole page of party tray options.

There’s three specials available on their nigiri board.

Trip #1
We dropped in on an early Wednesday evening (around 5:00pm) and were the first ones there.

Deluxe assorted sashimi ($29.75 for 15)
They gave us salmon, tuna, hamachi, tako, botan ebi and ika.

Everything was fresh and good quality. Favourites were the hamachi, botan ebi and ika.

Saba battera ($11.50)
Pickled mackerel pressed with sushi rice. Excellent and you get a touch of the tartness from the shiso leaf.

Chicken udon ($7.75) – a couple pieces of chicken and spinach. Simple but noodles had a good bite and broth was solid.

Unatama ($5.00), umeshiso ($3.00) and negitoro ($3.95)

Umeshiso (Japanese plum and o-ba leaf). Don’t see this too often so always order it. Love the tartness.

Negitori (chopped tuna and green onion). Simple but well done.

Unatama (torched eel and egg omellete).

Never seen this type of roll before. Everyone liked it.

Nigiri
We tried a couple of nigiri’s including uni ($4.95), salmon ($2.00), tako ($2.75) and tamago ($1.80). Rarely order uni but this is their speciality.

It was creamy, melt in your mouth and stuffed to the brim. Salmon and tako hit the spot but let’s talk about the tamago.

Man, oh man, this is always how I grade a Japanese spot and their tamago was money.

Fantastic eggy texture, not overly sweet and creamy.

2x Hokkaido hotate ($3.50 each)
This was on their specials board. Large scallop from Japan. Sweet and plump.

Trip #2
We came on a late Saturday afternoon (around 2:00pm) and it was busier than we expected.

Beef udon ($7.75)
Honestly, a good udon is hard to find in town.

Like the broth, udon has a good bite and beef slices were good. Cheap too!

Negi saba shiso ($5.25), negihama ($4.00) and chopped scallop & tobiko ($4.75)

Negihama (yellowtail and green onion). Excellent.

Good chunks of fresh scallop. This reminded us of the quality you get from Sushi by Yuji’s version.

Negi saba shiso (pickled mackerel, green onion and o-ba leaf).

Haven’t seen this roll before.

Nigiri
We tried all of their specials; uni ($4.95), Haikkado hotate ($3.50) and anago ($3.00).

Anago (torched sea eel) was fantastic; flaky, melt in your mouth. Really impressed.

We also ordered toro ($3.00), saba ($2.50), beef tataki ($3.00) and tamago ($1.80). The toro is market price on the menu but was reasonable. Not oily but good, buttery texture.