Vegan Sushi Is No Oxymoron at Sunset Harbour's Sushi Garage

Who says sushi has to involve fish? Let 'em stay in the ocean, because Sushi Garage has your fish-free sushi cravings covered. The Sunset Harbour eatery now offers an array of menu options that are all good for vegan and vegetarian eaters.

Vegans can dig into the bok choy ($5), truffle shiitake nigiri ($8), lemon vegetarian roll ($11), kapparoll ($7), vegetable roll ($10), shishito ($6), and watercress salad with no dressing ($11). Vegetarians can eat all of the above plus the vegetable tempura ($11) and avocado tempura ($8).

So why add vegan sushi to the menu at an omnivorous restaurant? "I'm not vegan or vegetarian, and I have never looked at food in that way," Sushi Garage's executive chef, Sunny Oh, says. "The vegetarian dishes I make at Sushi Garage is food I love to eat; it just happens to be vegetarian or vegan. The lemon vegetarian roll originally had salmon, but we decided to take it out because it wasn't needed — the flavor was already there."

"I have been looking to expand the vegan and vegetarian options, so I'm currently experimenting with other things," Oh adds.

If you need to veganize any menu items, staffers should be able to assist. "The servers are trained to work with most dietary restrictions," Oh says. "We also have members of our staff who are either vegan or vegetarian."

And according to Zarko Stankovik, the restaurant's director of beverage, all cocktails are also vegan- and vegetarian-friendly, so you can raise a toast to tasty food. Try the Fat Qcumber, made with cucumber vodka, St-Germain, and grapefruit juice ($13), or the lychee mule, containing Tito's vodka, lychee purée, and ginger beer ($12).

More than a trillion fishes and marine animals are pulled from the oceans every year, so opting for meat-free sushi is a wise idea.