Every time I go back to Vancouver, I must eat at this izakaya ? It has a great atmosphere, the boss is friendly, he drinks well, and the ingredients are fresh.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: 花綜生魚片
Bunny Buy Ltd.北美兔姐
The food is delicious, the place is small, and the waiters are good. However, there are not enough service staff, so I had to wait a long time for a few dishes.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Ocean Wan
Took an hour for my food
Jihee Hamaguchi
The food was great. Quality of materials always taste fresh. Service was good. Friendly, gentle, with comfortable space.
Store is cozy and lovely, bathroom is clean.
Will keep coming back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Joanna Lam
The food is good, we love their BBQ, steam eggs.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Jessie
My favorite dishes.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jack Xiao
Good skewers and good sauce. I liked the chicken wings and shitake.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Lisa Zhang
This place use to be a lot better when they have the late night happy hour. It’s still very yummy but the value is not as great as before. I haven’t had anything here that I dont like or wouldn’t order again.
TL
In my 47 years I've eaten at hundreds or even thousands of restaurants. Some would say I'm a "food reviewer" or a "foodie"; I say, I'm merely indulgent. Koto Izakaya has perfectly blended the two sides of the restaurant business to formulate a warm and greeting atmosphere the moment you step into the restaurant. The food is impeccable and perfect to satisfy any craving of sushi or protein.
Vegetarian options: Many vegetarian dishes such as an assorted tomato side.
Dietary restrictions: Watch out if your allergic to fish
Kid-friendliness: Brought my kids here and they had a lot of fun as well. Loved the place and would love to come back.
Very cute restaurant with great ambiance. Food was tasty (especially the mentaiko yaki udon and oyster motoyaki and salmon oshi sushi) although a bit pricey. Service could be a bit better.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 3
Jeannette Walsh Chen
We loved this place for a late night nosh. The food is great and the service is friendly.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Paige Bowman
i love koto, and have been quite a few times, bringing and recommending it to friends. didn’t feel i needed to leave a review until now as we dined in last night, and were told upon sitting down that they had no rice, therefore no sushi.
we were kind of stunned at such a possibility, as you’d think any restaurant with sushi as the dominant part of its menu would prep enough for a nights service - not to mention, a sunday night where they’re likely not as busy as a friday or saturday.
a couple of us ordered the sunday sashimi special, which is excellent value at 50% the regular menu price for 15pcs of sashimi. i also was overjoyed at the soba, served traditionally and with a raw quail egg on the side - super nice addition and stands out compared to other places that never get the noodle texture right or who serve it with subpar tsuyu.
our waitress unfortunately didn’t know much about anything on the menu and gave off a very standoffish vibe while serving us - i’m suspecting she may have been new, but making us feel like we’re the problem rather than welcome wasn’t amazing. i’ve worked in service for most of my life, so i’m sympathetic to long nights and being overwhelmed by a new job. however, a little effort to make paying customers feel at ease goes a long way.
will certainly be coming back, especially to have sushi next time, but felt it was worth to share this experience so that maybe more attention can be paid to food prep and staff training in the future!
Vegetarian options: they’re helpful with suggesting what’s veg/vegan on the menu if you ask!
Dietary restrictions: a friend of ours is gluten free and they were helpful with advising what is and isn’t gf on the menu
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Toro and Salmon Sashimi, Chef's Selected Sashimi Set
Aramayis Harandi
Bad Service: My sister was visiting me from out of town - Texas - and wanted us to go out for some Sushi, as the Sushi down south isn’t great compared to what we have here. We ordered an appetizer and a couple rolls and they were tasty, however the service we received was unsettling. Our server (not sure of her name but she had bangs and contact lenses in - we were served on August 4th approx 11 pm) wasn’t very warm or welcoming. This initially wasn’t a problem until we had a minor problem with our order. We ordered two miso soups (I ordered one myself and then asked my sister if she also wanted one and she said yes - our server was standing at the table and took note of this). Then only one soup came out. We called our server over and kindly asked her if she knew when the other soup would be coming out and she bluntly said to us - “you only ordered one” and made sure to make us feel like we were in the wrong when we said we were sure we ordered two. She could have easily said “oh, seems like I misunderstood you and thought y’all only ordered one, I’ll bring out another soup right away”. That would have been the right way to handle it and I say this being a server myself. We eventually got the other soup and made sure to thank our server at the end after we got our bill and payed and she didn’t say a word to us when we did thank her. Although the food was good I will not be coming back because of the service we received.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Roll, Sushi
Ana H.
I loved the atmosphere and the way the place is decorated - you truly feel like you’re in Japan. Tried some special rolls and salmon oshi. Food was tasty but the portions were very small for the price. Probably won’t come back just because it’s overpriced (there’s great sushi places in Richmond at much better prices), but it was still a nice experience.
Every time I go back to Vancouver, I must eat at this izakaya ? It has a great atmosphere, the boss is friendly, he drinks well, and the ingredients are fresh.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: 花綜生魚片
The food is delicious, the place is small, and the waiters are good. However, there are not enough service staff, so I had to wait a long time for a few dishes.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Took an hour for my food
The food was great. Quality of materials always taste fresh.
Service was good. Friendly, gentle, with comfortable space.
Store is cozy and lovely, bathroom is clean.
Will keep coming back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food is good, we love their BBQ, steam eggs.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
My favorite dishes.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Good skewers and good sauce. I liked the chicken wings and shitake.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
This place use to be a lot better when they have the late night happy hour. It’s still very yummy but the value is not as great as before. I haven’t had anything here that I dont like or wouldn’t order again.
In my 47 years I've eaten at hundreds or even thousands of restaurants. Some would say I'm a "food reviewer" or a "foodie"; I say, I'm merely indulgent. Koto Izakaya has perfectly blended the two sides of the restaurant business to formulate a warm and greeting atmosphere the moment you step into the restaurant. The food is impeccable and perfect to satisfy any craving of sushi or protein.
Vegetarian options: Many vegetarian dishes such as an assorted tomato side.
Dietary restrictions: Watch out if your allergic to fish
Kid-friendliness: Brought my kids here and they had a lot of fun as well. Loved the place and would love to come back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Assorted Aburi Sushi Set 6pc, Roll, Salmon Oshi, Tsukune 2sk, Dynamite Roll, Tuna, Sushi
The service was great, and the restaurant was clean, but the food was really disappointing. Super greasy and unpalatable
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Very cute restaurant with great ambiance. Food was tasty (especially the mentaiko yaki udon and oyster motoyaki and salmon oshi sushi) although a bit pricey. Service could be a bit better.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 3
We loved this place for a late night nosh. The food is great and the service is friendly.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
i love koto, and have been quite a few times, bringing and recommending it to friends. didn’t feel i needed to leave a review until now as we dined in last night, and were told upon sitting down that they had no rice, therefore no sushi.
we were kind of stunned at such a possibility, as you’d think any restaurant with sushi as the dominant part of its menu would prep enough for a nights service - not to mention, a sunday night where they’re likely not as busy as a friday or saturday.
a couple of us ordered the sunday sashimi special, which is excellent value at 50% the regular menu price for 15pcs of sashimi. i also was overjoyed at the soba, served traditionally and with a raw quail egg on the side - super nice addition and stands out compared to other places that never get the noodle texture right or who serve it with subpar tsuyu.
our waitress unfortunately didn’t know much about anything on the menu and gave off a very standoffish vibe while serving us - i’m suspecting she may have been new, but making us feel like we’re the problem rather than welcome wasn’t amazing. i’ve worked in service for most of my life, so i’m sympathetic to long nights and being overwhelmed by a new job. however, a little effort to make paying customers feel at ease goes a long way.
will certainly be coming back, especially to have sushi next time, but felt it was worth to share this experience so that maybe more attention can be paid to food prep and staff training in the future!
Vegetarian options: they’re helpful with suggesting what’s veg/vegan on the menu if you ask!
Dietary restrictions: a friend of ours is gluten free and they were helpful with advising what is and isn’t gf on the menu
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 3
Recommended dishes: Toro and Salmon Sashimi, Chef's Selected Sashimi Set
Bad Service: My sister was visiting me from out of town - Texas - and wanted us to go out for some Sushi, as the Sushi down south isn’t great compared to what we have here. We ordered an appetizer and a couple rolls and they were tasty, however the service we received was unsettling. Our server (not sure of her name but she had bangs and contact lenses in - we were served on August 4th approx 11 pm) wasn’t very warm or welcoming. This initially wasn’t a problem until we had a minor problem with our order. We ordered two miso soups (I ordered one myself and then asked my sister if she also wanted one and she said yes - our server was standing at the table and took note of this). Then only one soup came out. We called our server over and kindly asked her if she knew when the other soup would be coming out and she bluntly said to us - “you only ordered one” and made sure to make us feel like we were in the wrong when we said we were sure we ordered two. She could have easily said “oh, seems like I misunderstood you and thought y’all only ordered one, I’ll bring out another soup right away”. That would have been the right way to handle it and I say this being a server myself. We eventually got the other soup and made sure to thank our server at the end after we got our bill and payed and she didn’t say a word to us when we did thank her. Although the food was good I will not be coming back because of the service we received.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Roll, Sushi
I loved the atmosphere and the way the place is decorated - you truly feel like you’re in Japan. Tried some special rolls and salmon oshi. Food was tasty but the portions were very small for the price. Probably won’t come back just because it’s overpriced (there’s great sushi places in Richmond at much better prices), but it was still a nice experience.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Loading...