Review: Vegan Omakase at Cofu Chinatown

Chef Akiko (left) getting ready to serve omakase at Cofu

Earlier this week I was invited to experience vegan omakase at Cofu Chinatown, opened by chef Akiko Gulkison in Vancouver. 

It's unlike Shoku Vegan Sushi in Kerrisdale, where food is made to look and somewhat taste like fish and meat.

Silky chawanmushi without eggs

Instead Cofu reimagines an omakase meal using mostly vegetables and some fruits. It takes a lot of skill and knowledge to know how to create flavourful vegan and vegetarian food. 

For the most part chef Akiko does a great job. In an 18-course dinner she showcased the sweetness of carrot, how chawanmushi can be just as silky smooth without using eggs, and miso-marinated eggplant paired with snow fungus on rice wrapped in nori can make a delicious pairing.

There are some interesting items like a skewer of zucchini covered in tofu that is marinated and then grilled, or a nigiri with potato mixed with various vegetables, and combining sake-steamed shiitake with zuke peach.

I wasn't quite sure about the radicchio wrapped in kombu and then made into nigiri -- the seaweed was unable to tame the leafy chicory's infamous bitterness. 

Miso-marinated eggplant with snow fungus

Meanwhile chef Akiko's version of ochazuke, where a tea broth is poured over rice was quite bland. The same could be said of the shojin dashi, which was made with vegetable trimmings, but perhaps not simmered long enough to extract more flavour.

Nevertheless, the meal ends with a dessert of matcha  sponge cake and red bean paste, followed by a lovely palate cleanser of a scoop of beet sorbet. The dinner could have ended there, but we are served ceremonial-grade matcha tea with homemade sweets.

Cofu is a warm and inviting space, and a rarity to see two female Japanese chefs serving eight people at the bar. 

On the weekends, the restaurant is a coffee joint, and will soon serve breakfast paninis using vegan cheese...

Refreshing beet sorbet for dessert

Cofu Chinatown, 488 Gore Avenue, Vancouver, BC. Tel: 604 336 1166