Sushi Taku-en Japanese restaurant — Restaurant in Vancouver

We ordered takeout once from this Japanese restaurant when they first started the business. The food was okay. It was not impressive.

After months, we finally went to the restaurant and had dinner in person. We arrived around 6:30pm on a weeknight. We got a table right away. Then more customers started to come. They only got one server to serve all tables. Even the chef had to come out and took orders and took care of the customers. And then he quickly rushed back to the kitchen and made sushi.

We ordered the food once we were seated because we knew if we ordered the food late, we might have to wait for a long time. It was great to see the restaurant got good businesses especially both dine in and takeout orders.

Why I gave three stars overall is because the food quality was not great. When I went to real Japanese restaurants in town, all the dishes including simple ones like house rolls or different big and small ones were refined. The front and end of the sushi rolls would be finely cut and sliced perfectly. The sushi rolls here were cut and ingredients inside were very loose. The imitation crab was not the good ones that I used to eat at other restaurants. The size of each piece of sushi or each dish was very generous, but eating great sushi is not only about the portion but it was about the fineness, presentation, and quality of the food. The Alaska roll that I ordered had salmon in it. But the part of salmon included the chewy “skin” which was not the good part of the fish.

The pricing is reasonable and affordable, so I can understand a lot of customers would order from here. The customer service was okay. I would prefer some of the good authentic Japanese restaurants in Vancouver...

I had high expectations of this place from reading most of the positive reviews so I placed an order for pick up: chicken teriyaki bento box lunch special with a side of ebi sunimono. The young lady on the phone taking order was nice and pleasant. Order was ready in 20 minutes and upon picking up I noticed bag seemed quite heavy so I was a bit excited. But once I got home I realized the weight was mostly due to the extensive packaging. I’m just use to having an actual bento box for the various items not packaged individually. Miso soup was good and so was the sunomono, salad was also good with thin slices of avocado that added a nice touch. That’s where this restaurant gets its 3 stars from me because the rest was terrible. The chicken teriyaki was perhaps the worst tasting version I’ve ever tasted (and I’ve tried plenty). First, it did not remotely resemble chicken. It was dry, tasteless and seemed old, like it was leftover from day(s) before. 2nd, pieces were small and quite hard and had no skin whatsoever. I’m disappointed at the quality of my first visit and will give this place a 2nd chance because they seem really nice and they are so close by me. But for now, this...

Tried Sushi Taku-En Japanese Restaurant, a Chinese run Japanese spot. The lunch bento (11:00am to 3:30pm) seems reasonable.

Ebi sunomono ($4.50) - standard. Wild salmon sashimi ($16.00 for 7) - slighty watery, soft texture. Meh. Tuna toro sashimi ($14.95 for 7) - came out slightly frozen, lacked a buttery texture. They only gave us 5 pieces. Negi toro roll ($3.95) - sad, don’t order. California roll ($4.75), dynamite roll ($5.50) Chopped scallop roll ($5.50) - best of the rolls that we tried. Salmon oshi ($12.95) and saba oshi ($12.95) - nicely seared. Saba still tasted like saba. Salmon teri don ($13.50) - salmon wasn't overcooked. Flavours were plain. Futomaki ($9.95 full size) - not a tasty or traditional futomaki. 2x Tamago ($1.50) - run of the mill. Salmon sashimi ($14.50 for 8) - liked these better than the wild salmon. Chicken udon ($11.95) - broth was bland, udon had no bite. Another miss. Spicy tuna oshi ($12.95) - texture of the tuna was mushy.

Can't see us returning to...