Hi Genki

It's hard to believe that it has taken us so long to get to Hi Genki, which reasonably could be considered a Vancouver institution. Located in the Nikkei Seniors Residence, on Southoaks just off of Kingsway, it is for good reason that they switched to take-out only long before it was mandated during this period of the pandemic.

So we placed our order online, rang the buzzer at the side door at the appointed time (felt a little like a covert operation) and a friendly employee of the cafe brought us our food. Since fried food is best consumed soon after preparation, we had staked out a bench in the nearby lovely garden at the Nikkei Cultural Centre and made a picnic of it.

We started with Su Udon. Simple udon with fish cake and crumbs from tempura batter (a little like the crackers you crush up into your soup) in a dashi broth flavoured with yuzu, this is a tasty and light soup with nicely chewy noodles. Very nice!

The Aji Fry Teishoku is panko-breaded horse mackerel. It seems to be a traditional Japanese favourite so we decided to order it. The fish itself was perfectly cooked, crispy, moist and light. Horse mackerel is a little 'fishier' than some white fish but very tasty. It is served with tonkatsu sauce which didn't make it into the picture. A little bit of rice and a little bit of salad and you have a perfect light lunch!

I was disappointed as I had intended to order Korroke Curry but ordered Korroke Teishoku instead. Same set up as the Aji Fry but with very good potato croquettes. Nothing really to cry about as we enjoyed them as much.

We love Spicy Kaarage Chicken and at HG it is very nicely prepared! In addition to crispy hot and sweet fried chicken, there is tasty rice that soaks up the sauce. A little bit of salad rounds this out beautifully.

We still wanted to try their Japanese curry and so we placed a second order, this time for the Vegetable Curry. This dish and all our leftovers made the trip home with us and so we had Hi Genki for lunch and dinner. The curry was not spicy but earthy and rich as it should be. It was worth the second ordering process to enjoy it.

We don't do dessert very often but the Red Bean Donut was tempting. More of a bun than a donut this was just perfect being not too sweet and made a low key conclusion to our picnic. So we finally made it to Hi Genki after many years and now we can properly call ourselves Metro Vancouver foodies. If you haven't been yet either, they should be on your list.

Food              4 1/2 out of 5

Service          4 out of 5 (friendly and on time)

Comfort         NA (unless you count the park and have nice weather?)

Value             4 1/2 out of 5