East Meets West

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It’s a Saturday night. You and five friends decide to go out for a leisurely, upscale meal. So you throw out a few suggestions. Four want Western Canadian-let’s say beef. The other two want Sushi. So where do you go? Do you get the Sushi lovers to bend, or try and convince the meat eaters to give the Japanese delicacy a try?

Now you don’t have to worry. Edmonton has just become home to North America’s third, upscale restaurant where two totally different cuisines are married under one roof. The old River City Chop House has been transformed into the River City Sakura just across from Earl’s Tin Palace on Jasper Avenue.

The traditional western fare is still there, done to perfection. But now on the menu you can order Sushi, Sushimi, and other traditional Japanese dishes at the same time.

Executive Chef Ron Korn laughs when I get a bit skeptical. “The skies the limit. You have an upper end steak house with your upper end sushi bar. It’s the next step beyond fusion cooking. A marrying of cultures under one roof,” he explains. If anyone should be on this cutting edge of cuisine it’s Korn. He used to own Hemmingways, a trendy, upscale Edmonton restaurant. He was named Edmonton’s Chef of the Year in 1999. And now he’s leading the pack in this latest new trend.

There are only three such restaurants in North America. One in New York, one in Vancouver and now one in our city. And when you really stop and think about it, what a great idea. I mean if Wendy’s and Tim Hortons can do it for the fast food set. Why wouldn’t the concept work in a classy, well established upper end eating establishment?

Owner Henry Mah looked at me with a puzzled look on his face when I asked him about the concept and asked, “Why not?” “It works in New York. It works in Vancouver. Why not Edmonton?” Mah firmly believes it’s the beginning of a trend. Sushi is one of the hottest cuisines in our city. Just check out the explosion of Sushi Bars on many of our street corners. Mah says when you have a group of people wanting traditional western dishes, others wanting sushi, you ended up in a stalemate. “We’re filling a void”, says Mah. “It’s the best of both worlds.”

It’s also a good opportunity for potential sushi and sushimi lovers. Now you can order a steak or prime rib, and a side order of tuna or shrimp sushi and give it a try. The waiters and Sushi staff are more than delighted to talk to you about this wonderful, mild tasting, and definitely very healthy cuisine. They can steer you through the exotic and not so exotic dishes with ease. It offers a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere in which to try something new.

While this concept is relatively new to our city, word seems to be spreading fast. “You best make reservations for the weekend. It’s very busy,” says Korn. “And now the week nights are really picking-up.”

So the next time you and your family or friends are stuck in the old push-pull dilemma of deciding where to eat because of varied tastes, you now have an opportunity to test this latest culinary marriage.