The Korean sushi restaurant features live seafood freshly flown in from South Korea. Live seafood is cheap and readily available in Korea unlike Canada, so these specialty delicacies are what people are crazy wanting to try at Gonoe. These include Urechis Unicinctus (Sea Penis; yes you read correctly that’s their other name!), Sea Squirt (Sea Pineapple), Abalone, Sea Cucumber, Sea Snail and live Octopus. But, if you are not so adventurous they do serve typical Korean and Japanese fare (because the appearance of some “specialty” seafood can be quite scary).
We went to Gonoe with expectations to try the Urechis
Unicinctus and Sea Squirt, so we didn’t order the other “specimens” as you can
get them elsewhere plus we have had them on several other occasions.
Urechis
Unicinctus
Anyways
these dishes are only offered on their separate Korean Fluke sashimi set menu
and if you order their large sashimi set ($159.99 feeds 4-6 ppl), you get all
of the above mentioned delicacies with assorted tempura, grilled fish, spicy
seafood soup, rice, dessert and bottle of soju. Given that we only had 3
people, we ordered the small Korean Fluke sashimi set plus the Urechis
Unicinctus and Sea Squirt (because the small set consists only of one whole
fluke served with the accompaniments).
The appetizers: Abalone congee and Salad
Urechis Unicinctus (left) and Sea Squirt (right)
I
apologized for not remembering to take a picture until after we started eating.
It was $20 each, but they only charged us for one set.
Surf Clam: It was on the house. *We started eating before
the picture again.
Grilled Salmon Collar: Average, but nothing special.
Korean Fluke Sashimi: The texture is firm and chewy in
comparison to most fish in Canada. I didn’t mind the texture but I was
expecting it to be sweeter, in fact it kind of tasted bland. It came with
garlic, hot peppers and bean sauce to be added to the ssam (lettuce) wrap.
Spicy Fish Stew: It came last with rice as if we weren’t
stuffed by now!
The stew was cooked with the fluke bones, but surprisingly it
didn’t taste any sweeter.
Conclusively, the food served in this restaurant is
really good and most importantly very fresh! The so-called “exotic” seafood
delicacies were delicious and nothing to be scared of, so I would definitely
recommend you to give Gonoe Japanese Sushi a try. As for their other fare, they
are pretty good as well from past experiences. But I only return to Gonoe
whenever I am in the mood for their specialty delicacies. And the servers were
very nice, mind you that they might not be as attentive at times. If you happen
to be there when their manager is around, she is quite pleasant and
accommodating.
