Shirakawa

Yakinikuya Japanese BBQ Restaurant

Salmon Tataki (Thinly sliced Salmon sashimi lightly seared and served with mixed vegetables) $8 4.5/5 - salmon were okay fresh but what I liked was that it came with dressing already.  No soya sauce was needed.

Rainbow Roll (Salmon, tuna, ebi, and avocado on california roll with unagi sauce) $12 3/5 - It was okay but nothing special.  The rice was a little softer than what I wanted.

Lettuce Set $3 - comes with sliced garlic, sliced green chilli pepper and korean chill sauce.  The chili sauce was quite salty so remember not to put too much.  We could have ordered another set.

Sakura Combo $44 (Korean Style Kalbi 180g; Special Kalbi 120g; NegiTan 120g; Pork Belly 120g; Pork Jowl 120g; 4 Side Dishes; 2 Miso Soups; and 2 Steamed Rice) 4.5/5 - There are about 6 pieces each except the pork belly came with 4.  The pork were too fat for us.  I wish we could ask for leaner ones.  More than 50% were fat.  It looks like every table ordered this combo.

Pretty good value for the quantity and quality of the food.  They forgot about our soup and rice.  The first bowl of rice they brought was much bigger than the second one they brought.  So I would say the combo rice was about 60% of the regular priced one.  The quality of meet is much better than Gyukaku.  Gyukaku has dropped much when you compare it when they first started.  I only go there during happy hour now.  You also don't get to pick the sauce of your meat.  It didn't bother me because they tasted very similar.

I've made a reservation for 8:30pm and there was a walk-in couple waiting.  When they had a table available, we thought that the table should be ours.  The owner explained because the other party was there first.  Then what is the purpose of making a reservation?? Service was okay but they kept forgetting some of our order.  We ordered another BBQ dish which never came.

Finally, special thanks to pinkmashmellows for her 10% off on Japanese BBQ.  The owner decided to give us 10% off everything.  However, I only found out after that they did charge me $2 for two bowls of rice which should be included in the Sakura Combo.  This special is still valid for another week.  They also have a 50% off happy hour Sun-Thu after 9pm.

Kanpeki Teppanyaki Restaurant

Our chef was very shy.  She repeated herself multiple times asking us not to take pictures of her.  Mmm..Given her job as a teppanyaki chef, she should have expected that people will take pictures.  At one point, she asked us to show her our pictures to make sure that she was not in them.

Lobster Miso soup 2/5 - Little to no lobster meat.  I remembered we each got a claw when I was here last time.  The soup was not too salty or water but nothing memorable neither.

Scallop 2.5/5 - It would considered it the best part of the meal.  It was on the smaller side but at least it wasn't overcooked.
Black cod 1.5/5 - Bland and not fresh and the outside wasn't crispy or anything.  The darker colour was from the sauce.
Chicken 2/5 - 3 pieces of chicken were fine.  Nothing was wrong with it.  I could make it as good as if not better.

Beef 1.5/5 - Who would expect 1 slice of beef??! Nothing much could go wrong with this already.  Too bad she didn't know what rare to medium rare meant.

Vegetables 2/5 - She was trying to do tricks (not really) and patterns with them.  Sitting on the grill too long made them looked brown and overcooked.

Fried Rice and Noodles 1/5 - They used to prepare this in front of you.  Our chef said she had to leave because the next table is waiting for her.  Mmm..Our server also told us that we got half fried rice and half noodles so that we could have a taste of both.  Nobody asked us if we want that.  The rice and noodles were also cold.  They had been sitting for at least 20 minutes.  (You can also see my empty glass.)

Lobster Tail 0.5/5 - Frozen baby lobster tails.  We were told that they were serving fresh lobsters.  They arrived after the rice and noodles because our server told us that they were preparing the lobsters.  What a joke.  The lobsters were small, no fresh, and overcooked.  I would rather not have any.

Ice-cream 1.5/5 - We only had a choice between green tea or coconut.  It used to have vanilla and mango too.  Our server miscounted and she had to take one of our ice-cream back.  Was she going to put in back to the freezer and serve it to somebody else??

Our dinner was $35 but sorry I still wouldn't go back because of the amount of food.  I could listed out what I had the entire meal: 1 piece of scallop, 1 piece of cod, 3 pieces of chicken breast, 1 slice of beef, vegetables, one baby lobster tail, and cold pre-made noodles and fried rice.

Service 1/5 - Very unacceptable.  There were 3-4 chefs (none of them were Japanese) and 1 server who served appies, drinks, and cleaned.  I understand that our server was the only server in this restaurant.  However, it wasn't appropriate to ask the customers stop ordering her around.  She told me that she had too much work waiting for her.  You can complain it to your boss but not to your customers.  Being busy wasn't a good enough excuse.  At the end she was okay after we tipped her but that was not the right way to do.  There wasn't even a show.  We weren't there for a groupon neither.  The biggest problem was not the wait; it was more about the attitude.  None of them were enjoying their job.  This place used to be okay (3/5) when I came here last year.  Our chef was funny and he played some tricks with us.  

Kamamarui Ramen & Don

*especially written for MissVancouverPiggy*

Tonkotsu Ramen $9 3/5

Noodles - harder than average ramen. I like hard nodes and didn't find them overly hard.  However, my friend said it was too hard for him.
Meat - 2 thick pieces of sliced pork.  Too bad they were pan-fried and overcooked.  At first, I thought the Tonkotsu Ramen might not come with meat because the Chashu Ramen says (+2 slices of pork).
Soup - Less than 1/2 filled.  Not sure if it was their style or they were just mean.  The menu says half size ramen soup for $2.  The soup was bland which made me try the 3 sauces on the side (spicy sauce, ramen sauce, and chill oil)

Spicy Sauce - same as Dou Ban Jiang (chill bean sauce)
Ramen Sauce - more like a garlic sauce
Chili Oil - spicy oil but not much flavour
At the end, I decided to go back to the spicy sauce.


Bomb (combo +$1.5) 4.5/5 - 2 rice balls instead of 1.  Loaded with lots of seaweed.  You will like this if you like seaweed.  The rice was too moist.  I would give this a 5 if they were roasted.


Buta Don (combo +$4.5) 4.5/5 - above my expectation!  Pork belly comes with the unagi sauce. There were quite a bit of sauce and I wish there were more rice.  This made it saltier than how I wanted (but still good).


Service 2.5/5 - They said they only had hot tea and cold water.  Hot water was not an option.  One of us already had lunch so we ordered 2 noodles +sides to share.  Our server did not seem to be very happy with that.  He came back a  few times with a menu and asked if we want to order anything else.  We would if there were some other appetizers or sushi but there were nothing to choose from.

I used to come to this area a lot and it changed quite a bit.  A lot of their customers came alone for a Saturday lunch.  The seats were very uncomfortable.  A cushion or a futon would help a lot!  I understand this is suppose to be fast food.  I thought this place was famous for ramen but the rice dishes were way better.  I would not mind going back from them!  Maybe I would try miso ramen next time.  I don't think their tonkotsu ramen is anything close to those on Robson yet.