Charcoal Sushi & BBQ Restaurant - Sushi or BBQ? Best of Both Worlds

It was Pudding's birthday and he wanted to have his celebratory dinner at Charcoal, a restaurant in Richmond that I haven't visited in a long time (before I started blogging). I was quite excited for it because I recall it being quite good.

Charcoal serves both sushi (they have a lot of specialty rolls) and BBQ meat. It's kind of like the saying 'best of both worlds' because you get to try a little bit of both which is always nice. No need to go to Shabusen *so expensive >.<* for your sushi and BBQ needs now!

Charcoal is located pretty much near the intersection of Westminster and No.3 Road and is on the second floor.

We got the Takowasabi ($5.25) to start and everyone enjoyed this except Pudding. He doesn't like anything too raw or slimy and this was definitely the case. The wasabi is very prominent and pungent so make sure you can take spicy before eating this!

Excuse the funny little boy aka Cupcake in the background and just focus on the Mentaiko Yakiudon ($9.25) :P. I am a lover of Mentaiko anything and this one was done perfectly.

The yakiudon was incredibly moist and while it looks pale in colour, it was ever so flavourful. This would be the perfect comfort food when you are in your snuggie watching TV.

We wanted to do some grilling too so we chose the Top Choice Beef ($11.95) to start. You can choose to have them grill it for you as well if you are not into the BBQ smell your clothes get after.

The Spicy Pork ($8.95) was probably my least favourite but that's because I don't particularly like anything marinated in spicy sauce.

Grilling your own meat is always fun. :D

These Short Ribs ($8.95) were full of flavour and ever so delicious! I actually enjoy Asian style short ribs more than BBQ baby back ribs slathered in barbeque sauce.

Now, onto the sushi. This spicy tuna topped with chopped scallop roll was called Indian Roll ($9.25). I don't know what prompted them to name this Indian roll but this was delicious nonetheless.

I've had the The Submarine ($8.50) before and it was so good we got it again here. This is a roll consisting of avocado and raw salmon topped with seaweed salad and tobiko on top.

Have you realized more and more sushi rolls nowadays are becoming fried? I'm not sure if this is becoming a trend now, but regardless, we ordered one called Golden Roll ($6.95) for the fun of it. It was actually only a California Roll but deep fried. The 'frying' really didn't do anything for the roll except made it a bit drier on the outside. I've concluded from this that the act of deep frying should only include sushi rolls with cream cheese inside so it can get nice and gooey.

Based on these reasons:

• you get both BBQ and sushi in one place!
• prices are not cheap
• has a variety of specialty sushi rolls

Service Rating: 3/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating!


courtesy of http://www.asian-recipe.net/tag/asian-bbq/