Hapa Toronto — Restaurant in Toronto

Came here after looking at the reviews and pictures online. The restaurant is pretty big, they had both indoor and outdoor seating available. The decor and ambience was pretty nice. They had an open kitchen concept where you can see the chefs prepare the food.

It was a Saturday night at around 6pm, the restaurant was empty, we were the only ones here. They had about 3-4 kitchen staff, and two waitresses but the service was really slow. The waitresses were just chilling around and talking to each other. We had a difficult time calling for a waiter to place our order.

We order: Beef Tataki, Karaage, Chicken Wings, Lobster Pressed sushi (oshizushi), Shrimp Pressed Sushi (Oshizushi), Fire Cracker Pressed Sushi, Kobe Wagyu Pressed Sushi

Beef Tataki, average, nothing too special

Karaage was crispy but a little bland

Chicken Wings, were delicious

Lobster Pressed sushi, was one of the main reasons why we chose to eat here as it was something unique that other stores did not offer. We were really excited to try it but it was not good. The sushi was really bland and the lobster is pretty tasteless. There was very little sauce. I would not consider this oshizushi, more like lobster niguri. It was pretty much just plain rice in the shape of a rectangle, topped with lobster. Similar to the lobster, the shrimp oshizushi wasn't good. It didn't have the special flavourful taste that most oshizushi have. Hapa's Oshizushi is not anywhere comparable to JaBistro or Miku.

Fire cracker pressed sushi (Oshizushi), it was seared in front of us. Wasn't that good, still very bland if you eat it without soy sauce. We did not finish it.

Wagyu Pressed Sushi (Oshizushi) , it was simliar to the rest of the food. Very Bland. Most places top this type of sushi with a sauce but there was non in this case. Must be eaten with soy sauce. It was cool how they torch it in front of you though.

However, their portions are bigger than Miku and JaBistro. The order came with 10 pieces whereas, the other places come with 6.

Overall, i did not like the place. It was very pricey for bad food and...

Food took at least 45-60mins to arrive, and it tastes SO BAD!! We ordered the Aburi Tuna Oshi Sushi and the rice tasted like it was soaked in vinegar and it was soooo sour that we couldn’t eat it. Actually shocked they could give us such inedible food (even though the photo looks good). The shots/drinks tasted like cough syrup. We didn’t even bother complaining cos we wanted to leave ages ago but couldn’t cos everything took so long. Not our first time here but were disgusted and will never come again.

Edit (as I got a response from the owner and want to reply): FYI we did NOT finish the food and we didn’t bother to complain cos 1. the staff knew the food took so long since she gave us complimentary shots as a sorry (and she was very nice and the only think we liked about the place, she can verify this). 2. we were waiting so long that we were wanting to leave ASAP and didn’t want to have an entire conversation (we also didn’t want to sit there for longer for them to remake the food as we rather leave). And another response to the owner (on their point that I only post bad reviews)- my reviews range from 1-5 stars (I have given other restaurants and bars 5 stars before, and I feel like my range is quite balanced) and I only give 1 star to restaurants and places when I feel like I have the responsibility to let others know about my personal bad experience so they can make an informed decision. I rarely write reviews because I’m not paid and I’m not doing this maliciously (as the owner of this restaurant was accusing me of doing in their initial reply to my original comment). If I really was coming from a malicious intent, I would of posted this on my social media as I am a food blogger with a large following (so I actually do know a lot about food as the owner was accusing me that I don’t in their reply). Super long edit but just wanted to reply to the owner’s original super long reply to address...

I'm going to start this off with a couple of pros. Pro 1: servers were incredibly nice. Pro 2: atmosphere was cool and I would probably go there for a cocktail and MAYBE an appetizer. The cocktails were good.

The food was God-awful.

We got the Omakase menu (the dinner was given to us as a gift). The best thing on the menu was the avacado and tofu salad, and the avacado was mushy and over-ripened, and the tofu was freezing cold (almost frozen?). The first course was edamame. For some reason, it was also cold to the point of almost being frozen? We didn't say anything because we weren't sure if the intention was for it to be cold. Second course was the salad. It was fine, whatever. Third course was a fried shrimp, which was slightly undercooked. Fourth course was chicken wings which had no flavour and the chicken was borderline medium-rare. Sixth was sushi that was quite fishy (like the fish did not smell or look fresh, and I have eaten at probably 40+ sushi spots in this city ranging from excellent and expensive to food court, and this was among the fishiest and worst).

Fifth and seventh were so bad I wanted to walk out of the restaurant right there and then. Fifth course was a jerk chicken taco. First of all, fusion is great. But this course was like 4 countries on a plate. It made zero sense. The combination tasted horrible and it just fell apart when you tried to eat it. And I've been to Playa Cabana and El Catrin, I know what a taco is supposed to do when you eat it. This was next-level falling apart. The 7th course was this hot stone bowl that resembled a Bibimbap, but it also resembled a Western omelete. It was more like a Western omelete and almost made me sick.

Overall, the menu made zero sense. The quality of the food was poor and we definitely recommend that you stay away, especially if you have something better to...