One of my favourite restaurants in Vancouver has a brand new name – Okini. Okini – meaning ‘great appreciation and gratitude’ in Kansai dialect is a direct reflection of Land and Sea’s culinary journey. Don’t worry, the same amazing team at Land and Sea is still the same behind Okini Restaurant & Bar so you can continue to expect amazing Japanese West Coast food. I stopped by earlier this week to try some of their spot prawn features and let me tell you, you need to come here if you love spot prawns. They have three amazing features during spot prawn season so you don’t want to miss out!
Okini Restaurant & Bar – Spot Prawn Features
To celebrate the beauty of spot prawn season, Okini is currently running three features:
- Spotty Snack Board – Grilled whole spot prawns (or ask for the heads to be deep fried), summer greens, housemade spot prawn oil, pepperonata, Italian burrata, toasted focaccia with a bottle of wine of your choice
- Spot Prawn Zaru Soba – daikon oroshi, wasabi relish and dashi poached (mini lobster sized) spot prawn tails
- Spot Prawn Risotto – mitsuba pesto, wild mushrooms, gindara sablefish, and summer truffles
The Spot Prawn Risotto is a brilliant green colour from the mitsuba and this was definitely our favourite dish of the night. The risotto was perfectly cooked and had so many incredible flavours. Everything was rich and decadent but just works so perfectly together. The spot prawns were enormous and meaty and already peeled (major bonus!).
The Spot Prawn Zaru Soba is a really lovely light and refreshing summer dish. The wasabi relish definitely packs a punch! I loved the chilled spot prawn broth ice cube to keep dashi cold without diluting it as it melts.
Okini Restaurant & Bar – Must Order Dishes
Of course I couldn’t come to Okini and not order two of my favourite dishes here:
- Unagi Risotto – aburi freshwater eel on creamy mentaiko risotto with 63 degree egg, ikura and katsuobushi
- Chili Crab – house made ravioli stuffed with dungeness crab in a sweet tomato chili sauce with soft shell crab tempura and black tobiko
The Unagi Risotto was made extra with two enormous grilled spot prawns on top. The risotto was ultra creamy and delicious (as always) and I can never say no to more spot prawns!
The Chili Crab is my number 1 dish here (okay, I lied, it’s my #2, but after the spot prawn risotto it might have been my #3…). Regardless, this dish is fire. It is so flavourful, with the perfect balance of sweet and spicy. This dish converted me to be a soft shell crab lover!
Worth a Try?
Absolutely. Kevin and Steph are amazing people and good friends of mine. I am so happy to support them on their journey and I adore the new name. I always take my friends or out of town visitors to Okini. In this case, an old friend who used to live in Vancouver but has now moved. He really enjoyed our meal, and I know he will definitely be back when he visits again. If there is one spot you need to put on your “Places to eat in Vancouver”, Okini should definitely top that list.
Okini Restaurant & Bar (Previously Land and Sea)
Address: 1864 W 57th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V6P 1T7
Website: https://okiniyvr.com/
