Bistro Sakana Vancouver

We ate dinner here last night and it was fantastic. Certainly the best and most authentic Japanese food and experience I’ve had in a long time. Reminds me of when I lived in Japan years ago.

Thank you for such a wonderful dinner and evening!

They have a sign outside that says "Please wait to be seated" which I can totally respect given that it's a small shop. I would not have been bothered except that their staff do not pay attention to whether or not anyone is waiting outside.

A couple in front of us was eventually seated and, given that we were right behind them, I assumed the hostess would return to seat us soon, especially as they were not at all busy this evening. I assumed wrong. If the hostess had seen us she quickly forgot. I had to go inside to ask if anyone would be seating us. I found this reception a bit rude. Especially given that I had to secure my reservation with a credit card on OpenTable, then wait only to be ignored.

Throughout our meal the staff were mostly huddled in the furthest spot away from the door and I noticed did not seem to pay any attention to the front. Anyone who did come in, had to come through the door to get attention. So.why the sign? Maybe just put the sign out when you're busy? Otherwise, it's just keeping patrons out in the cold and putting the burden on them.

The food here is good (not my first time here) but I found the service tonight to be a bit careless.

Edit: I should add that our waitress took only my partner's order before walking away and she had to be called back to take my order.

The atmosphere was cozy. The lighting setup and the space between tables are perfect. It’s worth your time to try.

Tried out the $59 dine out menu. Overall pretty good. My favourite course would be the appetizer course 1 as it was the perfect balance of flavours and worked perfectly with the texture. I also enjoyed the baked scallop as well as the rolls. The ice cream was okay too, it just felt really sticky and combining the sweet yam and ice cream was way too sweet for my liking.

Had the “Dine Out Vancouver” course menu for $59

Half of the dishes were very good and the other half were good, but the portion size was tiny. Still hungry after.

The sake pairing was $24 (the premium would’ve been $45), for 150 ml total sake.

Had to wait 40 minutes for the first course and more than an hour and a half for the whole meal. Our reservation was 8: 30 pm Fri

Ended up being over $100 per person after drinks and tip.

Came for the dine out menu. Overall it was ok. Tasted good but compared to the price, was sorely lacking. Service was horrible.
When we arrived we were seated a few mins after but things went downhill from there. After waiting 10 mins no one came to ask or take our order. We had to flag a server down to let them know we were ready to order. We did the dine out menu with the sake paring. Overall the sake paring wasn’t worth it. Better off ordering a bottle on the side. But even then it’s very over priced. Not completely worth it.
After ordering the the first thing that was brought was the sake. Nothing else just the sake. No explanation or anything. Am I suppose to drink it first? Or wait for the first course to come out? After a long while the first course arrived.
For what it’s suppose to be it was decent enough. Tasty but found that portion size was a bit small. But again as an appetizer it’s ok. The second course took a while to come out as well. By then we ordered extra bottle of sake. The second course again was tasty but as with the first course was slightly lacking. After what felt like a very long time later the final entree course came out. As with the first two dishes was very tasty and the presentation was good. Again the food tasted good but overall was slightly lacking.
While waiting for our dessert to come out one of the waiters decided to “help” by pouring out the sake that was ordered in the side. But he made a mistake and mixed the sake that came out as part of the pairing.
Once he realized what had Happened he brought over a extra serving of the sake which was nice of him. But considering how most of the time we were there it felt like we were being ignored, not intentionally, this misunderstanding could have been avoided.
The dessert finally came out and it was good.

Overall the reasoning for the low rating was due mostly to the service and value compared to pricing.
Each time the dishes were brought out the waitress tried to explain what was being brought out but in the end we couldn’t hear what she was saying. She spoke very softly and the background noise overpowered her. Anytime we needed anything we would have to flag down a server to ask for things. Generally any other place it was usual for the servers to come and ask if we needed anything else or how we were enjoying our meals etc.we found none of that here.
Bang for buck it’s not worth it.
Compared to other similar places, quality and portion size wise you’ll find better options elsewhere but they do somewhat make up for it in taste.
Maybe their regular menu is better and much more fair. But looking over their menu on their website I don’t have very high hopes.
Maybe my expectations were too high. Or there’s too many similar places around.

We visited during dine out Vancouver with a group of 5.

Service was great as well as the value and quality of the food was excellent. Would recommend visiting if in the area. We enjoyed the lime black cod so much we ordered additional pieces.

Fine.it's excellent and you should go.

I hate sharing but this place pumps out some awesome regular items and has a stellar special / fresh menu.

Decent Happy Hour, great booze deals.