Kishimoto Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

Extremely disappointed. My food tasted good but the portion was extremely tiny, it's the amount of food you would give a baby. The menu doesn't give any clues as to the size of the dishes as it isn't organized by "Appetizer" or "Entree". You have to ask for the size of the food before ordering. My friend ordered a dish from the same category as me (From the Kitchen heading) and she had a giant bowl of rice and very little fish. Another friend ordered a green tea noodle and there was so much noodle and very little duck meat. I ordered the Gindara Misozuke (sable fish) and I asked what size it was and was informed it was small so I ordered a sushi roll to go with it. It turns out the Gindara Misozuke was actually mini, "small" doesn't even describe how little food there was on the tiny plate. There were two pieces of lipstick sized fish and two spoons of rice on there for $22. It was a rip off and I was starving. Naturally I was confused as to why such a small dish was listed with other huge rice dishes. I've been to many high end Japanese restaurants with Michelin stars (and also ordered sablefish) in the downtown core and even though their food is overpriced their portion sizes are actually bigger and are a suitable size for a meal that fills you. Even an expensive appetizer at any high end restaurant with a Michelin star has a bigger portion than the Gindara Misozuke. I wouldn't go back to the restaurant again.

The service was also extremely slow overall which made the dining experience worse. When my friend complained about the service they said they were busy (funny because the server was just standing there with nothing to do). My friend even critiqued that my food was so little (because she was annoyed by that too) but the server said she informed me that it was small. I find these excuses very unprofessional, and not to mention putting the blame on the customer for ordering the small plate is just plain rude. People go to restaurants for dinner expecting to be fed, not to leave hungry!

The other annoying thing about this restaurant is that the tables are so tiny and the plates they use are so large that it can barely fit on the table... Don't go here unless you want to be...

I normally go to this restaurant for lunch and the food is really great. I went there for dinner last night for the first time and it was packed. They make us put your name on the waiting list and I did. I noticed that the front of the restaurant is filled with people waiting to get a seats, everyone was squashed like sardine in a tin can. Nearby there are many bars so I thought to make room for other people I would go grab a beer with my friend and come back. I checked with a staff to see if I can have an ETA and she said it would be around 45mins, minimum of 30mins waiting for sure. I then told her that I'm going to a nearby bar to grab a drink and she said that if we leave the restaurant our name would be crossed out. I said that you don't need to cross it out, just move people up from the list if we don't make it back in time. I told her that we're hungry so we will be back in 30mins and wait for 15mins. She still said 'no, if you leave the restaurant then we will cross out your name and she proceed to cross-out our name right in front of us'. I was sad that she did that, part of me even consider to stand there and wait. My friend just arrived from New York, straight from the airport and I really wanted to show-off Vancouver awesome Sushi. I can't believed that she want us to stand there like sardine in a tin can and look at other people eating for 45mins. I feel that if this is the approached they want to take then perhaps create a bigger waiting room like Veges. It was raining and very cold outside. I really dislike arrogant restaurant like this, just because you are good at what you do does not mean that you have to be unreasonable. I won't be going there again, there are many other great Sushi place in Vancouver. I don't like to support arrogant restaurant such...

This could be a really good place to eat - if it can improve on the small aspects outside of their food.

Service: Slow. A group of four of us arrived at 5pm during their opening time and we got seated right away. We waited a while though for someone to take our orders. At this time, the restaurant wasn't busy yet. The two servers were just standing around and didn't look our way. And then we waited and finally waved one of the girls over. I liked how she recommended some of the dishes to us. None of the servers asked how our food was throughout the meal. I told our server about the slow service and she explained it is because they're very busy. But it's a small restaurant and they have limited tables.

Atmosphere: It's okay. It has a nice vibe. The dining tables are too small though, so I don't know why they choose to serve the food in big dishes that can barely fit on the tables.

Food: Really good flavours and some very unique menu choices. The menu could use pictures though to illustrate what each dish looks like and their size. And if it's an appetizer, they should probably have a section just for this to reduce confusion on which items are an entree or not. I ordered the chirashi and it looks so pretty. And there are so many different components to this item, but it ends here. The flowers they use to make it visually appealing actually overpowers everything. First few bites are good and then it feels too much and too floral. My friend ordered the hamachi ishinabe and said there's not enough spinach and too much rice. Another ordered the sous vide duck soba and it looked delicious! She said the duck was very good, but that the soba was nothing special. It's a filling dish though.

I would have liked to try the dessert. Maybe another time, but it's unlikely...