Masayoshi — Restaurant in Vancouver

Enjoyed lovely dinner at Masayoshi sushi bar which is chosen as one of the Top 50 restaurants in Canada.

Basically they serve Omakase (chef’s recommendation/best choices) and it always changes because that’s their “Omotenashi(welcoming customers from their hurts)” sprits.

First serving was fuzzy watermelon juice which they just squeezed the day.

Zensai means appetizer. Last night came with hotaru ika (baby squid), corn and sesame tofu chimaki (the green stuff), and tai snapper roe. Their dashi soup base is gently cooked and flavourful.

Golden eye snapper (kimme-dai) came with domyoji sticky rice and seasonal asparagus and bacon flavour soup! Not only their creation, also their each dishes and bowls are wonderful.

Otsukuri (sashimi plates) is just gorgeous. They import fresh taken fish directly from Japan 5 days in a week!! Slowly cooked octopus with its bubble, itoyori-dai (striped snapper), scalp from Hokkaido, and blue fin red tuna. The combination of fresh mini tomatoes and myoga-shiso leaf can refresh your mouth! The most interesting was their soy sauce! It’s not just soy sauce, it’s Tosa-jouyu which marinated with bonito flakes. You can drop the soy sauce by yourself and enjoy the little bit smoky flavour.

Duck with somen-noodle was smoked with cherry tree wooden tips.

Dungeness crab was so tasty and juicy. I love the side of pickled veggies.

Can you believe they serve your clear dashi soup with a coffee siphon right in front of you! Inside with dried bonito shavings, dried seaweed, and dried tiny fish. When you heat from the bottom, the water going up to the top and automatically making clear dashi itself. After you turn off the heat, the dashi on the top is chilled and gently coming down through the net.

Individual pieces of the sushi is just an art. Mackerel is caught in Japan which is much less fatty and they soaked with vinegar. On the top with chopped ginger and green onions that helps you refresh your mouth. Tai-snapper came from Naruto which is the strongest current so that make tai much muscular and sweeter! Eggs marinated with ground shrimps and mountain yum. So soft, juicy and melting in your mouth. Every single experience was awesome and the chefs’ work are stunning! Great moment in the...

My Fiancé and I came to celebrate a late Valentine's Day.

Booking the restaurant is easy, as long as you plan ahead, as the quantity and quality of dishes they make need to also be carefully managed, since they import some ingredients from Japan. One to two weeks ahead seems to always permit seating unless there are special occasions, which leads to my next point.

The restaurant itself is small and intimate, with beautifully arranged wooden furniture and sushi counter where Chef Masayoshi arranges each dish. The only flaw that I would consider the restaurant having is also the space, which I understand is completely out of their control. To elaborate, there is no lobby or seperate waiting area, the entrance goes straight into the seating, which means the coat rack is right there, and during the meal time, if anyone tries to drop in thinking they can get a quick seating or bite, they will affect the experience of the other customers in the middle of their course. Understandably, arriving a few minutes early is preferable (as they have 2 seatings a night), but you may have to watch the previous seating finish their meals, me waiting on the side.

Chef Masayoshi has a diligent, but fun loving personality that shines through in both his meticulous plating and the flavors of his food. It was great seeing him always scan the room to see how his customers are reacting to the dishes to gauge his menu. It was also stressful watching the servers navigate past war

All of the dishes we were served were amazing at worst, and mind-blowing at best(like we didn't even know that this was a flavour profile that we needed in our lives 😅). The dishware was all so beautiful and authentic, we wanted to visit Japan to buy some. It would be really great if there was a simple "tonight's menu" that we could follow along and record to commemorate what we ate.

The restaurant also does drink pairings, and offers caviar at a cost to have with the nigiri. Watching Chef Masayoshi make his sushi rice was such a fun experience too.

Overall, we thought the restaurant definitely deserves their Michelin Star, and we will...

Very overpriced for what you get. Appetizers are not great. Chef and servers were friendly and welcoming…

Our reservation was for 8:15. We were on time, the chef was not. We were ushered to a waiting table to get drinks started, which was nice, but I was surprised that we had to wait.

I was really disappointed by the appetizers as they lacked creativity and flavour. Sashimi were not treated much (not kombu cured, aged, or marinated, torched, for example) nor were the garnishes (just aromatics sliced and served as is, or veg just boiled in water). Things that came with broth were bland. I understand natural flavours and am a fan of it, but the broths that we had tasted super watered down. They didn’t just lack salt, they lacked flavour and depth overall. There was a distinct lack of sauce too. The whelk course was the most disappointing. I love whelk for its distinct flavours, but this one lost it all when it was blanched in water. I kept wondering why it wasn’t blanched in stock instead.

The sushi was good, but not the best I’ve had in the city. Though, the hand cone was quite good. I do wish that the fish slices were slightly more substantial, and the cone bigger. It would have been nice to receive a full size hand roll instead.

My husband got the sake pairing for $95. That was really good.

Kudos to the chef for the dessert course though. The hochija ice cream was incredible! The flavour came through beautifully and the texture of the ice cream was icy and light, like a sorbet. Underneath were deliciously caramelized pineapples that paired beautifully with the ice cream. I wish the same bold flavours and creativity was present in the main meal though.

For the two of us, our meal was over $700. I feel it is much too steep for what we got. We didn’t leave full and felt like the ingredients weren’t treated enough. This is the 4th omakase I have tried in the city, and I place it at the bottom of my list and won’t be returning. Though the dessert was honestly...