Sushi Hibiki

Cross-Posted from Calgary is Awesome.

For my last night over at B.'s house last week, he decided to treat me to dinner out - we'd heard good things about Sushi Hibiki, a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant that occupies the space that used to house Café de Tokyo, so we decided to give it a try.
Despite its rundown exterior, the tiny, 30-seat restaurant is clean and elegantly decorated in beige and grey tones. A single employee acts as the host, busser and server, which is fine for the small space though there can sometimes be a backlog - as we were waiting to pay at the cash at the end of our meal, we saw a group leave as they thought the restaurant was busy (it was just groups of people waiting to pay for take-out). But the friendly, personable service makes it very easy to forgive any wait there may be (and it's usually not a long wait.)

B. doesn't like seafood (I know, terrible, right?) So to start we shared one of the sushi specials that they had listed on the whiteboard out at the front - an avocado and [green] bean roll ($5.75)


(Please excuse the grainy photos - I forgot my camera on this trip and had to use my cell phone.)
This was simple and delicious - similar to a California roll, but the green bean added a fresh, snappy crunch.

We also shared the Hibiki Agedashi Tofu ($4.75), which is essentially agedashi tofu topped with teriyaki sauce instead of the usual, thin sweet soy sauce. This was probably my least favourite dish of the meal - I thought the teriyaki sauce was too sweet, and the tofu was not battered enough, so it wasn't as crispy as some of the other agedashi tofu I've had before.


What impressed me the most about Sushi Hibiki's menu is that although there is a lot of the expected fare (sushi combos, udon, tempura, etc.), their menu also includes items that are not as common in Japanese restaurants around town, and they are always advertising new items and specials near the front of the restaurant. Some of them are actual Japanese dishes, like zaru (cold) soba and goma ae (a spinach and sesame salad), while others are more "fusion" dishes, like salmon carpaccio, Japanese cheesesticks, and what I ended up choosing for supper - Salad Soba ($9.50).


This was an interesting mix of fresh flavours and textures - the springy soba noodles were on a bed of crisp lettuce, surrounded by fresh tomato and cucumber and topped with crunchy tempura batter. All of this was tossed in the traditional savoury dipping sauce for zaru soba and a dollop of wasabi for a bit of heat. The server nicely gave me a squeeze bottle of their "house dressing" (read: Japanese mayo) to have on the side, but I found it completely unnecessary.

B. ordered their tonkotsu ramen ($8.75), which the server said was his favourite out of the broths they have available (there's also miso and soy), but warned him against because it's "very rich and flavourful... Canadians usually don't like it because it's too rich." B. ordered it anyway, and he really liked it - the soup was packed with wakame seaweed and corn niblets, and topped with a boiled egg.


The broth itself was not too rich and scary, but I thought something was off with the noodles - they were too straight and skinny! Were they trying to pass somen off as ramen? Even the picture on their website looks more like ramen than this.


Overall, we enjoyed our meal, as well as the friendly, efficient service. However, I didn't feel comfortable posting a review of a sushi restaurant without trying any of their fish, so a few days later I headed over there for lunch by myself. All their dinner items are available, but they also have a list of lunch bentos, which are trios of California rolls, nigiri sushi, sashimi, tempura and teriyaki chicken for $9.75. When my bento - which had California rolls, sushi and teriyaki chicken - arrived, I was immediately impressed by the appropriate portions of rice and meat in the little bento box.


The teriyaki chicken came with corn (!) The chicken itself was tender, with crisp edges, though again I found the sauce a little too sweet for my taste. I didn't like how they put the salad with the chicken as it warmed the lettuce and the mayo ended up spreading around everywhere.

    
The sushi was good, but not amazing. The California roll was just the right size (a lot of places make them pretty big now) and the quality of the fish varied - the tuna and salmon were good (but again, not amazing) and the snapper was a little dry.

I also tried a piece of turban shell (sazae) sushi ($2.75), as I'd never seen it before. It came chopped up in a roll with wakame seaweed and tobiko.

The toppings in the sushi made it quite salty and the sazae itself was very chewy. Based on my personal taste I would probably not order it again, but it was certainly fun to try.

I definitely see myself going back to Sushi Hibiki - there are a few more interesting dishes on their menu that I'd like to try and they are always adding new specials, and their kind staff is definitely a bonus. Plus, now that I have tried their fish and only found it "ok", I won't feel like I'm missing out if I'm there with B. again ;)

Sushi Hibiki
630 1 Ave NE
Calgary AB T2E 0B6
(403) 264-1211
Open Tues-Sat 11 AM-2 PM, 5 PM-9 PM. Closed Mondays.