the kitchen dada sushi bar & grill — Restaurant in Vancouver

The food was good and the service was great… until it wasn’t. Came in for dinner the other evening with my husband and a friend. We ordered several plates of food between the three of us and were having a nice time catching up while we ate.

We knew they were closing at 9:30 that night, but before it was even 8:45 we started feeling pressured to hurry up. We were clearly deep in conversation, so it was annoying to suddenly have our server popping over every 3 mins interrupting us, taking the plates we’d just scooped the last bites off and continually asking if we needed anything else. I finally said “we’ll let you know!” and think our server finally understood to give us a bit of space… Then 5 mins later, some different server came over to ask us again. Now sufficiently irritated at being interrupted mid-sentence for the 10th time in one dinner; I said she could bring us a couple of takeout containers. So she brought them, and without us even asking, presents the bill. What if we had wanted some dessert or sake? That didn’t seem to matter. So we said sure, she can drop the bill on the table. Then, still standing over our table while we’re scooping up the leftovers into the containers, she pulls out the credit card machine and is holding it in her hands not 2 inches above my food, expecting someone to pull out a card immediately and pay, not even giving us the chance to read the bill. It was a very unfortunate end to what was otherwise a nice evening out.

I’ve been a server before too, and I know what it’s like to want to finish your shift and go home. But pushing paying customers out like that, using all these impatient tactics to move us along, was enough to leave us feeling like unwanted stragglers. I deduct 2 stars over that part of...

Visited The Kitchen Dada restaurant in Point Grey out of curiosity. Since its opening, it has attracted a steady flow of customers and managed to survive the pandemic and stand out in an area with at least 4 other Japanese restaurants. We tried their lunch hour set menus and were pleasantly surprised by the number of plates/items included in each one of them. Our waiter was smart enough to wait until we saw the size of our orders before we ordered even more food. The Unagi Lunch was good and plentiful. The eel had the right balance of sweet & savoury. Udon noodles had texture in a mild broth where it made sense to dip the tempura prawns that were part of this set. A salad & pickled cucumbers completed the Unagi Lunch. The other sets we tried were the Nigiri and the Teriyaki Lunches. In general, very acceptable flavours and very reasonable prices. Service was very friendly and helpful. Will definitely return and find out more about their menu. Since that first visit, we have been back to try their dinner menu, and it didn't disappoint. On this occasion, we had the Appetizer Tempura, Agedashi Tofu, Beef Udon, and Hamachi Ishinabe. All impeccably presented. In particular, Ishinabe, a generous serving of gohan topped with 6 pieces of yellow tail fish and a raw egg. The waitress expertly mixed all the ingredients inside a hot bowl and added a mildly spicy sauce. Everything got cooked to perfection. Make sure you scrape the bottom, and you will find that the rice that sticks to the bowl is toasted and crunchy! You have...

The sushi was average (but perhaps I've been blessed by good sushi). Delivery took an hour longer than expected (this was on the preparation side not the driver). Portions for the sushi were decent but on the small side for the appetisers. In order from favourite to least favourite: tamagoyaki volcano roll nasu dengaku unagi oshi salmon oshi

The oshi had good flavour but the salmon was very overcooked and the unagi had lots of bones in it and was not buttery/fatty. Thus I believe that fish quality and preparation could be better. The nasu dengaku was quite sweet and the batter was thick. The eggplant was quite juicy, and overall it was decent but I wouldn't get it again. The volcano roll had lots of crab meat and I liked the sauces it came with (unagi sauce, spicy mayo and some gochujang inspired sauce) but the salmon quality could be better. The avocado was nice and ripe though. The tamagoyaki had a nice sweetness, was thick, and I liked the crispy onion/garlic? on top which added a nice crunch. The portion, like with the nasu dengaku, was quite small though, which is a shame. If you do go I recommend the tamagoyaki and...