Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Ebisu (Broadway): Beef Carpaccio and Gyutan Ox Tongue

Ebisu on Broadway is a little hard to find since the front door is not on the sidewalk but it is only a short walk from the Canada Line and even closer to the 99 bus stop.

I went on a weekend evening with a large group at around 8pm and the service was slow. The server was not rude but everyone was inattentive and I had to ask twice before I got my cup of tea. The food also took more than 50 minutes to come. With the slow and inattentive service, I wasn't expecting great food from Ebisu but fortunately it turned out good.

Happy Hour menu is 7 days a week starting at 8:30pm. I wanted to try the raw oysters but they were out. We ordered three things from the Happy Hour menu: gyutan saikyo, dynamite roll and spicy tuna.

Gyutan Saikyo (not pictured): This dish was thinly sliced grilled ox tongue and it was only $4.95! Although the best ox tongue I've tried in Vancouver is still Maruchu, the one at Ebisu is a good deal and tasted pretty good. The meat was chewy and the sauce was buttery.

Dynamite Roll (not pictured): I think every restaurant makes dynamite rolls differently. At Ebisu, it was rice and seaweed wrapped around tempura shrimp and thin cucumber slices. The presentation was nice. I guess that's why the food took so long to come because the chefs were backed up on making the food look presentable.

Spicy Tuna: The tuna was chopped into small pieces and mixed with chunky spicy sauce over lettuce and julienned radish. It's a refreshing appetizer.

Spicy Tuna

Beef Carpaccio: Thin sliced beef Tataki and mixed spring greens, wonton skins, fresh mango, tomatoes served with carpaccio sauce

We ordered the Beef Carpaccio off the regular dinner menu because it looked so good when I saw it on a counter in the restaurant. The yellow heap on top are fried wonton strips, underneath is a pile of spinach and the raw beef surrounded it all. I enjoyed this dish with the raw beef texture, crunchiness of the wonton and freshness of the spinach all soaking up the carpaccio sauce.