Hapa Izakaya Yaletown — Restaurant in Vancouver

The patio is our favourite Friday evening repose. Our go to dish is Gindara – baked sablefish pickled with miso, mirin and sake for at least two days and grilled. We like the fact that the it comes with cooked vegetables. When we come with friends, we've ordered Ebi Mayo, Renkon Gyoza, Aburi Saba, all very good. We've been back many time since, always ordering the Gindara which is perfectly grilled everytime so that even the skin is enjoyable. This year, we are more vegetable conscious, we ordered the Tokyo bean (unfortunately, the sauce has garlic!). On our last visit, my system must be craving land animals, so, I order chicken wings. I hate it when the chef and server are so indifferent to the suffering that comes with food allergy. The chicken wings were battered, at minimum with flour, perhaps, even eggs – chicken wings aren't always coated in flour, but the Hapa menu did not mention flour. I had a crazy-itchy eczema flare up afterwards. Before ordering the wings, I explained to the server that I can't handle garlic, so together we settled with the salt and pepper flavour – me thinking that it would be safe, and I suppose the server did not mention it to the kitchen. Well it wasn't, although it tasted OK except for the garlic flavour, they are not gluten free, and the wings were pre-marinaded in loads of garlic. Aaarg! There are umpteen spices that that can be used to marinade chicken wings, why can't kitchens be more creative in the use of spices? Why wreck all the food with garlic? Yup, my...

The food was pretty good. Had the karaage and prawns and gyoza. But that's where it ends. The service was very poor. The server would deliver dishes to customers at the table and not ask if anyone else wanted anything. Just walked away even though some of us were trying to get her attention. She would deliver drinks and not make eye contact with anyone at the table to see if we needed anything. She'd walk by and we'd be waving for attention and she didn't even look at us. A server should at least glance over when walking by. Finally, I went to the bar to ask for another glass of wine. Just felt ignored by our server. We asked for water. Brought a jug but no glasses for the new comers to the table. Took forever for our dishes to be cleared. Won't be back anytime soon. Food was good but not good enough to be treated like that. Charged $11 for a glass of wine that I had to go to the bar to ask for when what I wanted was the $5 happy hour wine, the same one I was having previously. The server brought it to me (after I asked for it at the bar) and should have known as I had ordered one previously. Plus mistakes in our bill (items charged on the wrong tab). Just not a good experience overall. Photo is of all the empty glasses and plates not cleared when she delivered my drink. I prefer to write positive reviews and am reluctant to write negative feedback. But this was exceptionally substandard for any restaurant, let alone a Yaletown venue with so much competition and other options...

Went to Hapa last Friday to celebrate a friend's birthday. 👍booked online and restaurant called day of to confirm booking and let us know table had a one and a half hour window. That was good to know. 😒I did not see it on their website though. 👍Wonderful loud welcome greeting at the door and vaccine proof and ID checked efficiently. 😒 kind if dark as you enter so have to adjust. Like going into the movies after movie started. I did get a fright as I was greeted and not being able to see well... Well. I also did not have my glasses on to make it worse. I'm an on the cusp boomer in case you interested dear reader. Yes 🤣😂 👍menu was fantastic..best sushi rolls I have ever tasted. Fried squid yum. Everything yum. My friends agreed. A bit on the pricey side and not California Sushi (Downtown Vancouver and Broadway) prices. But if you want to take it up a notch with some unique flavours then Hapa is the place. 👍👍server was amazing 😒 they take the plates away too fast. I was still trying to get the sauce with my squid which was on a smaller plate and whoosh my spe I'll Japanese sauce was gone.first ti.e I was able to stop the whoosh.second time I gave up. They did redeem themselves though. See below. 👍👍we did not even tell the restaurant we were celebrating a birthday but the wonderful server saw us with the gifts etc and at the end of the meal brought a complimentary desert with candles !! 😒 green tea is $1.50. But it's very tasty...