Hokkaido Sushi is located at 272 Dalhousie St. in downtown Ottawa. It is a brighter and newer place with mural artwork including the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa painting. Disposable chopsticks are used unfortunately, and we forgot to bring our own... oh well. Ordering is old-school onto paper templates. There are many items that are only dinner-menu marked in red that are odd, such as seaweed salad. Soy at table was strongly flavoured, but not salty, and was fresh, savoury and quite good. Pop is $2.50, canned not AYCD. There are mini-booths available and they certainly are “mini” as I could barely get my legs in them, but I did so anyway as I like the coziness.
Wonton soup was good, although had some seaweed in it which gave it to sort of fishy ocean flavour which some may not appreciate but I find it “authentic.” Green salad was just lettuce with ranch dressing, but at least it was fresh. Mishy didn't like the miso soup at all, saying it was terrible, but I didn't mind it at all; I even ensured that she'd stirred it first, and she said she did.
California roll was very good and fresh and had just about the most generous amount of tobiko aka flying fish roe that I have yet seen. Avocado cucumber roll was also very fresh and delicious, and had some seasoning in it which was excellent. Salmon nigiri was delicious with good rice texture and the salmon was very fresh and it paired well with the intensely rich soy sauce. Surf clam and red snapper aka tilapia nigiri were both very good and fresh and the rice was good consistency, as was crab aka surimi nigiri. Spicy crispy salmon sushi was very good and we both enjoyed it with the crunchy tempura crumble.
Fried deep fried scallops aka surimi were good, although they didn't come with any sauce but there was a small dollop of sauce on them. Chicken wings were quite good, with a dipping sauce made of ketchup and hot sauce, which was correctly proportioned and not too hot. Chicken cutlet aka katsu was excellent, cooked well with a very nice sauce mixed in with it on the surface, and quite savoury. Chicken teriyaki was excellent with a very good sauce and Mishy even said it was not “rubbery,” which is rare. Beef teriyaki wasn't the most savoury cut but it was still pretty good with that same good sauce; I am grateful it was offered at all on the lunch menu.
Chicken teppanyaki was excellent and we both enjoyed it; it was very fresh and the sauce was delicious. Gyoza were good, not too oily and the sauce was delicious. Fried tofu was also quite good with zero oil and a good sauce, which was of course the same sauce as the gyoza.
For dessert, there is banana tempura which appears on the menu, however there are also four varieties of ice cream (strawberry, vanilla, mango and green tea) which do not, so be sure to ask the wait staff. Green tea ice cream was quite good and fresh, however mango, although not freezer burned, was quite muted with barely any flavour. Strawberry ice cream was excellent and flavourful and also very fresh. Vanilla also was slightly muted but also was fresh. Banana tempura had chocolate sauce and was quite good and not oily. Weekend lunch is $27, which is reasonable these days. Hokkaido has the basics and they are done well enough that it was a good and enjoyable lunch.
Rating: 7.5 – 8 /10
