Japanese Village Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

Disclaimer: I am likely the most critical reviewer of this joint because of my ties to this place. My father was the beloved former floor manager/bartender of this joint for over 4 decades before retiring during the pandemic as well as an employee of its Ottawa location in the mid 70s. Reviewing this place was what I've always wanted to do but unable to do so until after change to current restaurant ownership. In fact, I credit my restaurant reviewing skills to my pops (Love you lots & add throwback pic of you) I had the privilege to be treated to this place on Valentine's Day by a +1 but had been eating here since the 80s. This place has history since most previous employees in decades past has moved on to become local owners of other restaurants in town and this place used to be the stomping grounds of the late Tony Eng's shows which used to be every Sunday evenings (you can find out more of this in the exhibit inside the Canadian Chinese museum located in Fan Tan Alley).

Normally Shogun Special is the no fail choice I go for but post pandemic they had added the A5 Wagyu into the menu which was what I ordered for this review to test the quality. The salad was standard but their soup was something left to be desired and not how I remember growing up to love (did they changed the recipe?). I was hoping to get the red hat chef but apparently was not given the privilege in this visit which was a bummer but the white hat chef was nice and did the job decently (I'd be the worst critic because my favorite chef aside from Sammy-san was Paul W. from the early 90s who did crazy cooking stunts and New York second slices!).

Normally I like my standard meats medium rare but in the case of Wagyu in this review so I could taste the quality and authenticity of how it's done, I asked for rare to blue. This white hat chef seared it beautifully and was extremely attentive throughout the teppanyaki experience. He earned my seal of approval for sure. I did have the oyster 🦪 ponzu for appetizer and that was good. The chef was doing quality checks, saved up the wagyu oil for my bowls of rice and even catches the server for all other request.

After eating at the restaurant, the +1 decided to have me sat down to have the Izakaya bar section of establishment insisting on ordering me a drink. A Chi Chi was the classic choice to end the evening here.

One thing I really missed which aside from the soup has cost the star was the music or lack thereof should I say by the reception area. The charm of coming down to the joint in decades past was listening to classic Japanese tunes played like Teresa Teng (yes, she's Taiwanese but she sings fluent Japanese), Miki Matsubatu, Mariya Takeuchi. If retro classics and city pop isn't encouraged, at least throw modern electropop like Perfume. I feel music sets the mood of the restaurant where this place was known for so the lack of it made it felt "sterile".

That being said, this place is still the go to for special occasions in the city. Also to my knowledge, I don't know of any other teppanyaki place in this city so enjoy this gem as Victorian landmark restaurants are disappearing over time and this place has been around since I was sporting diapers (yes, my mother does have photos to prove it!) and hoping for many...

Our experience was very 50/50. The waitress was very fast spoken and had a hard time getting everyone's orders correct. 2/3 groups at our table received the wrong check, they were undercharged for their steak (lucky them!) and we were charged for our order "correctly", but they brought out smaller portions and attempted to charge us for the largest potions(what we originally ordered). I'm really disappointed we came here for my son's 13th birthday, I'm glad he found it to be a unique experience but as a person who has been to many teppenyaki places all over the world, this has to be the most disappointing of them all? The food portions were very small, avoid chicken and salmon if you can. We actually ordered 2 large pizzas from panago right before we headed home! We ordered 4 dishes for 4 people and the chef couldn't understand we had wanted to share the meal as to taste everything. I've never had a teppenyaki chef who flat out refused to serve us portions of all the food split between us!! We got the steak, chicken, salmon, and shrimp. We ended up just sharing the meats amongst ourselves but it sure was a buzz kill. I will give him kudos for doing his best to give PG entertainment but his lack of personal engagement with the guests made it difficult to bring out the fun of teppenyaki in the first place. The food was indeed delicious, but I will definitely be looking elsewhere on the mainland for a joint that is actually worth the money we spent. On a side note, the table next to us had a chef that said absolutely NOTHING! One woman was desperately trying to engage him, asking questions like "how long have you been working here" and the chef was giving 2-3 word responses and that was it. I felt bad for their table and was mildly happy that at least our chef was giving funny names to ingredients and chucked a couple shrimps around. The table behind us had a younger chef who was very charismatic and had their whole table in tears. He even made us chuckle from overhearing his commentary! Very disappointed that the experience isn't shared amongst...

Been going to Japanese village for ten years and last night may be my last visit… Took my family of five for a nice dinner or so I thought. We were seated beside another group of 4 at our grill table. The chef looked like he was skipping science class to be there ( couldn’t have been older then 20 ) I tried to give him the benefit of doubt but he only proved my suspicions to be right… right out of the gate he started messing up the orders and I couldn’t even hear him talk… he kept asking questions I think, about our day and how it was going I think. But no one at the table could hear the kid, he was quieter than a church mouse. The group beside us had ordered extra mushrooms. He put them on my kids plate. I ordered the shrimp and steak. He put my shrimp on the lady beside me plate, she told him she did not order shrimp so he took it off her plate of vegetables and put it back on the grill for a few moments well he tried to figure out the orders. He then took the shrimp and placed it on my plate. Everyone at the table gasped and told him that’s not food safe as he was playing “pass the shrimp” with random guests at the table…. He then started to get nervous as he could tell we were not impressed. He then didn’t do any tricks or jokes… he over cooked the steaks, gave my kids the wrong food. My daughter didn’t even get her chicken as he forgot to cook it. Another chef brought my daughter’s chicken from the back kitchen after we had all ate and waiting on bill. Then to top it all off they charged us like the experience and food was totally normal… other tables were watching in disbelief as we paid full price for no show and the wrong food on our plates. I honestly hope that kid rethinks his future as a chef because I will immediately turn the other way if I ever see him there again. I don’t think he even apologized to my daughter for forgetting her food. Waste of $200...