Kappa Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in White Rock

Overview: A truly authentic Japanese dining experience, a mom and pop run Japanese eatery. They are based from Nagoya. You must take off your shoes to seat yourself to eat. Each table is sectioned off in quarters enclosed with the curtains so it feels like you are having a private dinner with your group or dinner date. Truly one of a kind of a restaurant; a must try for all. The experience is worth the price. Definitely not a place to come when you are hungry, but perfect for a fine-dining experience.

Vibe: Great authentic vibe, the minute we walked in, we were welcomed by courteous staff. We truly felt like we were back in Japan.

Flavour: Truly amazing flavours we haven’t had elsewhere. The prawn gyoza came in 5 at the price of $9. Each gyoza had one full prawn in tact with the tail, and was extremely flavourful wrapped in a pork filling inside. Accompanying it was a slightly sweet and tart vinegar based sauce. Chef's Assorted Sashimi ($40) was definitely a smaller portion, but very freshly sourced sashimi, and the star of that order was the prawn sashimi (extremely buttery and sweet). White Rock Roll was extremely flavourful, not only because it had lots of filling, but the seaweed used was of a high quality and the flavour really worked well with the filling. Also, although the roll was massive, none of the ingredients fell to pieces as you picked up a piece of the roll, and this speaks to the chef’s attention to detail.

Originality: Gyozas were extraordinary, first time I’ve seen them with tails at the end, but retains moisture and juiciness. "Gyo Za" soup, you can tell it was freshly made to order, with a swirled egg added and one gyoza in the soup (small portion for 1 only).

Service: Extremely courteous staff, kind and thoughtful. Provided complimentary Gomae while we waited for our food. Food came out in order, with appetizers to start, and allowed time in between to allow guests to fully enjoy the experience. The mains came shortly after.

Overall Experience/Star of the Show: Prawn Gyoza and...

This is normally my favourite japanese restaurant in the area because we prefer the aburi sushi at Kappa more compared to Taka’s, but I was so disappointed by my experience here tonight. If I ever come back, for sure it will only be with my husband and no other guests. We brought our friend here tonight and spoke so highly of Kappa prior to arriving, and we left feeling nothing short of embarrassed...

We booked a table for 7PM for 3 (plus an infant), arrived on time, and ordered immediately when we sat down. A portion of the sashimi and appetizers came out within a reasonable time.. but then we sat with no food on the table for over 30 minutes wondering if they forgot the other 75% of our order... we asked the servers twice if the food was coming. Both times they said the kitchen was still working on our order. We did not receive our nigiri until 8:35PM. The food quality was fantastic as usual but for a restaurant this size, it really shouldn’t take 1.5 hours just to receive some nigiri. By the time the aburi came we weren’t even hungry anymore from having waited so long. While the server did apologize once for the slow service, nothing was done or attempted to make it right either via discount or perhaps a free dessert. We asked for more tea when they brought the bill, and the waitress only filled 2/3 cups and was ready to take off before I told her there was one more. They expect us to wait nearly 2 hours to eat dinner but they don’t even have the patience to fill my drink once the bill has come?

The last time I was here we had a fantastic dining experience and spent nearly $300 among 3 people. But after tonight we definitely won’t be rushing back...

Best Japanese in White Rock/South Surrey.

Staff is very friendly and attentive. When it gets, and it does from time to time, service can get slow/bottlenecked by the kitchen. But otherwise, it's ok.

I think it was $15 for 5 pieces of Hamachi sashimi which is a bit on the pricey end wrt to Japanese restaurants I frequent. In fact, across the board, prices are on the high end of Japanese restaurants but for South Surrey - pretty much on par.

Now, I love my sashimi. Hamachi, Kampachi, Madai, Shima-Aji are probably my favourites - they have Hamachi. They may have others but I suppose it's a matter of access and likely, they wont' sell all of it so most of the time, they don't carry it. I have had their Omakase - a chef's selection of 8-9 sashimi and it was not bad. I prefer not seeing salmon and tuna on their but again, their selection will be limited.

They do have lots of cooked Japanese fare - the agedeshi tofu is mediocre but makes up in quantity. The tempura is really, really good. The miso..meh. Sunomono is good as is their chicken teriyaki. Chicken karage and yakitori are also excellent. Their inari (rice wrapped in sweet beancurd/tofu) is awesome and a steal of a price.

We have two kids - and it's a great place to bring them because they love the private rooms and we get to lounge with them. Too bad my daughter doesn't eat sushi.

Are the better Japanese restaurants, in my opinion, yes but they are farther off in Richmond and Vancouver. Kappa is close enough in distance and quality to keep me coming back - and I have about a...