Iki Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

As a celiac, this used to be my favourite restaurant in the city and I have been going for almost a decade. I have always been so excited to eat all of my Japanese favourite without a worry, and the extra bonus was that I never felt I would sacrificing quality for a gluten-free experience.

Today, I was so disappointed. It was actually the worst Japanese meal I have ever had and would have preferred to eat gas station sushi.

The agedashi tofu was gummy, soggy, and had a weird sticky gel-like substance coating it.

The tempura which has always been amazing was flavourless and gummy on the inside.

I have always looked forward to the gyoza but these were nothing more than hunks of meat wrapped hastily in gummy rice dough that was hard to chew.

The spicy chopped scallop roll was not at all like any other chopped scallop roll I've had before. One small piece of scallop and a strange soy glaze on top that was anything but spicy. Perhaps this will appeal to someone that doesn't know what it should be.

No loose green tea served. Just a tea bag option on request with a hot water top-up.

The interior is being run down fast with random pieces of paper stuck to the walls (including Valentine's cards from February) and piles of random things strew everywhere. It felt dirty and uncared for. The oddest part was a handwritten sign scribbled in Sharpie taped to the wall above every second table, or so, that said something to the effect of, "Please no conversation before ordering food." I mean...what!?

The kitchen was shuttered so you couldn't see what was happening in the back and the constant beep of the microwave in the background was more than a little disconcerting.

I have never left a bad restaurant review before. I love that this is still a place one can go to eat gluten-free sushi, but I feel like the previous food and positive reviews do not reflect the current reality. It feels a bit like there might be new ownership that is capitalizing on a business well-built in a niche market without any regard to how it got to be so highly regarded in the first place.

This is Vancouver. There is no room for awful Japanese food of any kind. I am so sad to have lost my favourite...

I've been meaning to write this review for a long time. I LOVE this place. It's one of my top 5 favourite restaurants in the world.

The establishment is 100% gluten free which means people with coeliac can throw a dart at the menu. It's incredibly satisfying and relaxing to not have to have "the gluten conversation" when dining with people with coeliac

Gluten aside it's a lovely little place ! Very warm and welcoming. It has a nice family vibe. The staff are genuine and they don't overservice. The food is absolutely delicious and authentic (in the honesty sense I haven't been to Japan so can't comment on this aspect). They do a great job of offering enough things to have variety while not offering so many things they don't do any one thing well

I read some of the negative reviews and all I can say is that they aren't negatives in my book. Someone brought an outside cake (containing gluten) in there then got mad when the staff insisted the cake couldn't be on the premises. That makes the place even better in my eyes. The establishment even did them the honor of sending the chef to talk to them ! The establishment is entitled to make a 100% gluten free environment and the fact they stuck to their guns shows a high level of integrity. Another negative comment talked about the service being slow and forgetful. Given how intricate the food is and how much care they take preparing it that makes the timelines volatile. I do wait longer for food there than other places. But for me it's 100% worth it. I'd rather go here and go with the flow than go to some chain restaurant where the staff are fake friendly and overservice and the food comes out in six minutes but it's mass produced and mediocre. Finally there seems to be lots of issues with food delivery. All I can say is the food delivery industry is broken at many levels and doesn't excel at delivering high quality fresh food. This type of food is better eaten at the restaurant. Generally speaking takeaway is never as good as eating at the restaurant and that applies...

An unfortunate and underwhelming experience.

I ordered tuna and sockeye salmon sashimi and dynamite roll. Sashimi came out first, well before anyone else's food. Cuts of fish were far smaller than I have seen at other sushi places, and did not taste fresh. I understand getting fresh fish is hard, but this fish still had a slightly frozen texture to either. So perhaps it wasn't defrosted correctly. I asked the server if it was fresh and why the pieces were so small. He went to ask the chef. The chef came out, berated me, saying his slices of fish are average (perhaps average for him), and then said if I didn't like it I could leave. He didn't give me much chance to respond as he marched back to the line. It would be one thing to respond politely to my criticisms, but chef was just rude. Dynamite roll was okay.

On top of this, our server was a bit clueless. It was difficult to tell if he was legitimately struggling with the job, or was just under a lot of stress. He was the only one working tables, running food and hosting, so I wonder how he is when it's a full house of 12 tables. When I had the issue with the sashimi, I asked to order something else. No menu came. Then the food came and I was asked if I wanted something else. The attention to service was lacking.

Overall, very underwhelming. I feel for celiac people like my friend who want a good sushi place that offer GF items. This place unfortunately is mostly underwhelming. On top of this, their prices are far above average and I have a hard time believing the price difference is all going to make GF tempura batter.

We did order their spicy yam fries (Fire Tower) and those were delicious, so they get a well earned extra star...