Calgary’s food scene gets a hand-rolled revolution with RAW, a new East Village eatery specializing in hand-crafted sushi, where foodie friends Sharon Huynh and Cindy Tran translate their travel adventures into delicious bites.
RAW Sushi Bar rolls into the East Village
The new concept of a hand-rolled sushi bar has arrived in Calgary in the form of RAW Japanese Hand Roll Bar in East Village. The brainchild of Sharon Huynh and Cindy Tran, RAW is the result of a friendship founded on food, travel and fun.
“We met at work,” says Huynh. “We’re both major foodies and we started traveling together. We came across this concept in LA and wanted to bring it back to Calgary.”
The partners, who still both work as nurses while sharing shifts at RAW, developed the recipes themselves and soft-launched in late March to test them. We went with a three-roll “flight” of Yuzu Salmon, Negituna and Creamy Scallop – all of which were really tasty. Wrapped like open-ended cigars in crisp nori with sushi rice, the flavours are a result of careful consideration.
“With limitations on what we can get fresh here in Calgary, we wanted to make sure we could make each roll unique and bring different flavours to them,” says Huynh. The Yuzu Salmon was bright and citrusy, the Negituna begins with a bitter tang and finishes warm and nutty and the creamy scallop was everything you’d hope for and was probably our favourite of the three.
For dessert, we went with a scoop of ube ice cream from the talented folks at Milk Ice Cream Club in Crescent Heights Village, which supplies RAW.
The space is minimalist and bright, with a chill vibe that lets the food shine. A great spot for a date or girls’ night.
RAW Japanese Hand Roll Bar | 150, 615 6th Ave. S.E. | 825.747.5354 | rawyyc.ca
