Sushi Sapporo Grill — Restaurant in Vancouver

Lulled into a sense of buoyant optimism by the positive reviews I invited my wife to meet me here for dinner. I probably should have scoped out the neighborhood first, not exactly a romantic area. The building looks run down, but optimism dies hard in an old man and I thought, perhaps we have found the elusive grail, the perfect little spot hidden in plain view. You know, that hidden treasure that you can share with your most exacting friends.

Inside, I'm afraid it still felt kind of shabby. I don't know, kind of stark and beat up... But still, I remind myself, it's all about the food. The food is the balance for the patio furniture, the piles of togo containers on the counter, and the bottled drinks. By the way, I hate this shortcut of restaurants selling canned soft drinks instead of actual house drinks. It feels cheap and unsatisfying, but even then, if the food is amazing, even that can be forgiven.

We get the Edamame and it really is the biggest plate I've seen in a Japanese place, but recently we've been to places that excelled at this humble snack. They scattered rough salt freely and these tasted like they needed a bit more taste. Not bad, just not special. My wife gets MIso, which she likes and I get a Chicken Bento. The Gyoza are a disappointment as is the spring roll. Absolutely nothing of interest here. Maybe I'm wrong, but they do not taste remotely home made. The chicken teriyaki has a good strong char, but the sauce lacks any character, no one here is cooking with joy or creativity. My wife gets the Panko Shrimp and they look suspiciously like the ones from Cash and Carry. Along with a packet of standard sweet sauce. No one here is trying.

Now none of this is bad, it just does not rise to level required to make this place worth the lack of atmosphere or amenities. It's like climbing to the top of the remote mountain looking for the ancient wise man and the guy there wants to talk to you about your extended car warranty.

I was hoping for something simple, but well thought out. I lived in Japan for many years and I get tired of Japanese food being immediately translated as Sushi. The vast majority of places in Japan serve simple well done fare in comforting environments. They take pride in simple honest fare and it is one of the most charming aspects of the country. But that is not Oyako. It doesn't really know what it is. A mix of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese without actually being any of those places.

Maybe I should try again, but as Robert Frost said, Knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should...

Effective time management is paramount in the food industry, presenting significant challenges. The quality of food at this establishment is generally commendable, making it a frequent destination for our takeout lunches.

Yesterday, however, we encountered an unsatisfactory experience. We placed an online order at 11:00 AM, the restaurant’s opening time, and arrived approximately 10 minutes later. Despite our extended wait, accompanied by frustrated delivery drivers from Uber Eats and DoorDash, we were informed that bags of prepared food were being prepared for an apparent office lunch order for over 40 individuals.

Our food was ready over 70 minutes after placing our order, which is unacceptable during a limited lunch hour. Regular customers were inconvenienced by this substantial order.

To address this issue, it would be beneficial to limit large orders to six guests and require such orders to be placed one day in advance. This would allow the restaurant to better plan and allocate additional support staff to manage such disruptions.

Alternatively, we could have driven to another sushi restaurant, ordered, eaten lunch, and returned home in a shorter time than our experience yesterday. Furthermore, the recent health violations from a few months ago...

Tried this place for the first time as it is close to me and higher rated than where I normally get sushi (Thai Orchid). It was really awful. I ordered one special roll and two salmon/avo rolls. They didn’t have the salmon avo rolls on the menu so the owner charged me for two spicy tuna rolls. I didn’t want spicy at all and she said it was the same thing just without the spicy mayo. She was very wrong. They put siracha and jalapeños on top of one of the rolls. I told them it was wrong. So they left it and made the second roll the same but without the “salsa” on top. When I got it home, the salmon inside the roll was a spicy salmon mix. I just wanted a basic salmon avo roll. I was charged nearly $50 for two rolls that I couldn’t eat at all and one roll that was not very fresh tasting. I also got gyoza and that was the only thing edible. The dipping sauce was pure soy sauce though so that went in the trash too. I don’t understand how people like this place. The owner can not communicate with the customers well enough to take an order. Her cooks mainly speak Spanish and she can’t talk to them either. So she just yells at them and blames them for everything. This place...