Shoku Izakaya — Restaurant in Banff

The good:

Most of what we tried tasted good if not great. Highlights were the tempura vegetables (it’s kind of a giant hunk of vegetable shreds, doesn’t look elegant but I could’ve eaten 5 more orders, it was that good) and the dessert, specifically the miso creme brûlée. Chicken meatball & pumpkin were the best that we tried out of their skewer lineup. Sashimi is sliced THICK. Menu is fairly expansive and good to order multiple sharing dishes in true izakaya fashion, and they have a daily special board (though we didn’t notice it until we were on the way out). They are definitely not shorting you on the alcohol in their cocktails, lol. Really nice design inside, it’s a good ambiance if you’re looking for that sort of classy snack bar feel. Service was friendly.

The bad:

Sorry, the portion to price ratio is just not okay. Banff is obviously bad for this, but I would rather have gone to one of the nearby dinner spots that has a more expensive menu but at least gives a half decent amount of food for what they charge. I believe the ebi mayo was $16 for 4 shrimp that were relatively small & tasted no higher quality than you might get in a bag from Walmart. The creme brûlée looked like a steal on the menu for $9 but it was (no exaggeration) smaller than the palm of my hand, and I’ve got small hands. Like I said the sashimi is sliced thick but it’d better be, if 3 pieces of mid-tier salmon are over $10. Because of the above, you notice after a few tiny $15-$20 dishes that you CAN’T really do the whole ‘keep ordering and sharing’ thing, unless you want to leave with your pockets 5 bills lighter. Cocktail menu looks sizeable at first glance but a lot of drinks have the same flavour profile, only wild card I could see was a sangria. Would be nice to have a salad option that’s not thirty dollars. Need to take reservations or have a Yelp waitlist or SOMETHING, we lucked out with our timing because it was a Thursday but you’d be hard-pressed to get a seat here on any busier a day.

Banff needs good Japanese!! They’re not lacking for sushi but the izakaya style is a really good niche to fill — I hope Shoku improves in a few areas because I’d love...

I was shocked to see another review mentioning that their employees were being racist. Unfortunately, I had a similar experience.

On the 22nd of October, around noon, I visited the restaurant. A lady with shorter hair was serving our table. She was very kind and polite, but the manager’s behavior was quite the opposite—rude and even aggressive.

We ordered ebi mayo, deep-fried shrimp, but had to politely send it back because the batter inside was undercooked and still raw. I could even pick up pieces of the uncooked batter with chopsticks. The server saw the batter, apologized, and took it back to the kitchen. It wasn’t her fault, and we reassured her that it was okay—things like this can happen.

Out of nowhere, the manager came to our table and insisted there was nothing wrong with the food. We hadn’t asked to see the manager, nor did we even know she was the manager at first. To our surprise, she raised her voice at us, which left us feeling confused and uncomfortable. Later, as we were leaving, I asked the server if that person was the manager, and she quietly confirmed that she was.

What puzzled us even more was why the manager felt the need to approach us in the first place. She could have simply let the server, who was already doing a wonderful job, handle the situation. The server was professional and kind throughout our visit, and we truly appreciated her service.

However, the manager’s behavior completely ruined our experience. Her approach felt unnecessary and confrontational. It left us wondering if she couldn’t stand seeing her staff treat us well and felt compelled to intervene just to be rude.

As someone who works in the restaurant industry, I understand that mistakes can happen, and I rarely complain. But I couldn’t eat raw food, and it felt unjustified for the manager to escalate the situation.

This experience was deeply disappointing. As an Asian customer, my experience here was particularly upsetting, and I would caution others from similar backgrounds to be mindful...

If I could rate my family's experience with this restaurant less than 1 star, I would! We came here sitting outside at their patio with my whole family for lunch and right off the bat we can already feel that the server that were serving us weren't really feeling serving us. You can definitely tell the difference with the tables she serves and ours. And then, we had to get up from our tables outside because suddenly it rained. So we expected to be transferred to the empty tables inside as half of our family already ordered. When we transferred inside we had to temporarily seat on a table that is empty because the hostess agreed to sit us there. Then after some time, she told us that they're going to sit us all in one long table in a short while. We agreed because this will be better so all of our family can sit together (8 adults and 2 babies). Suddenly, this server that walked out on us in the middle of taking our orders (because I mentioned to her that we are transferring tables again per the hostess, but obviously they're not communicating properly!) she was talking LOUDLY to the other server as "i didn't take their order because they keep on switching tables so they just got their cokes!" As if we're not standing by her! And its not mostly what she said, its HOW SHE SAID IT! LADY!!! WE WERE SWITCHING TABLES BECAUSE IT RAINED AND ITS NOT LIKE WE WANTED IT TO RAIN OR CAN CONTROL THE WEATHER! If you've had a long day at 1PM (already) in the afternoon, don't take it out on us! Most people in banff are on vacation and wants to have a good time! Clearly, WE DID NOT ENJOY OUR EXPERIENCE IN THIS RESTAURANT! The food was not that great too! Either its salty or bland. I was a server for years before, I have never ever treated any customers like she treated us! So belittling and trigerring...