Bistro Sakana Japanese Restaurant

Excellent quality of food and service! I would definitely come back again and recommend this place to all my friends and family!

A clean and upbeat setting with great food. Lots of rules though. They inform us of new ones during each visit (if you have ordered food at the bar, you aren’t allowed to move to a table – even if more people join your party, you’re not allowed to substitute ANYTHING in their lunch specials, even if the substitution request is to omit an ingredient, if you’re a party of two, you’re not allowed to sit at a four seat table – even if the place is empty, you’re not allowed to exit though patio gate unless it’s an emergency (there’s even signage to remind you, and so on).

Come here for the lunch specials. Excellent service.

Gigantic plates, small portion; over priced. Had dungeness crab fat with rice on a open flamed thing, It taste was ok but not a wow factor. You barely taste anything cuz it was too small & too many rice.
Calamari was so chewy and tough.
The duck was good, the only dish we all liked.
Cod fish in miso — had good ones from other sushi resto.
I rather go to minami instead…

It’s a cheaper alternative to Minami which is situated across the street. but I felt like that was all it was good for. Nothing else really stood out to make it different from a few other similar sushi and raw fish restaurants. For a table of 5, we were placed by the outside corner on the patio beside their décor of a jungle of bushes and trees.
It took over 3 hours to serve everyone. 3 orders of A Taste of Yaletown, a few appies and drinks. Food took incredibly long to come out; and I’m really patient and understanding when it comes to wait times during dinner prime time. My salmon chowder had the equivalent of about 6 worthy spoon fulls and that took about 30 mins. Our main entrée included salmon and toro aburi, some fried shrimp and scallops, grilled hamachi and a proscuitto roll. Everything was.alright. Rice was on the dry side and the proscuitto roll didn’t seem to complement the dish well. It was just a weird mix amongst raw fish. For the steep 35 $ price, I expected a little more or even a little less of a wait time.
When it came to paying, we had to ask for the bill 3 times from three different servers! The restaurant isn’t that spacious, so I’m not sure where in between us asking for the bill and the 20 steps it takes to get to the computer where our request was forgotten. It took 30 minutes for us to get the bill, cause we assumed it was on the way from the last person we asked, and the person before them.
I had high hopes for this place. Maybe I’d come back if I had 4 hours to blow for dinner. In the meantime I’ll keep going to Sushi Kamizato for now to save the gas mileage, and high expectations.
We left hungry and had nachos at revs afterwards.

Vancouver has a lot of sushi options, so it does get hard to choose. It is not often that you get a place that has both great food and ambiance. This bistro is one of my most favorite places in the city. The Aburi is out of this world. The sukiyaki is wonderful. I’ve never eaten anything here that I didn’t like.

My favourite sushi place in Yaletown. Low key, romantic and nicely lit restaurant and they play black and white movies on the wall which is cool! The food is great as is the service. I much prefer this place to Hapa down the street — the food is better and it’s less of a scene. Nice patio too!

The only redeeming thing about this place is the food, and it was good, not great… I think the most memorable thing about this place is that its pretty average… server had to be reminded to bring water to the table… The food took, what I perceived to be a little longer than it should have and getting settled out at the end of the meal took longer than it should have… I would not go back as the lack of execution on the part of the staff isn’t worth the «average» food…

My first sushi experience in Vancouver was a disappointing one.
Sakana was staffed on this Saturday night with what seemed to be 3 people. Plenty for 3 parties, yet they were extremely slow. Even more disappointing was the food, which I felt lacked the flavor that I get from rolls in other cities — notably Seattle (coming from a non-​biased opinion I should add).
It was hard to swallow the cost attached to meals that were pretty underwhelming.
I’m teeter-​tottering between a 2 and 3 stars on this one, but because my group seemed to enjoy their food slightly more than myself, it seems fair to up it to a 3.

This is such a beautiful restaurant. Clean and neatly set up. They have a nice patio also.
I stopped in for take out. The staff were friendly. The server was very pleasant. She offered me a complimentary green tea while I waited. My order was quickly made.
The sushi was delicious!

One of the better fusion sushi restaurants in Downtown Vancouver situated right in Yaletown. I enjoy the basic fishes that Vancouver has to offer. The yellowtails, the Toros, the salmons & chopped scallops. The quality of these fishes here are so good, I don’t venture out into different ones. Cuz if I’m elsewhere in the world, these basic fishes just aren’t the same.
The two pressed rolls on the menu are a must order. I always order both, cuz I really can’t choose between the two. The hot dishes are also pretty good here. My favorite appie is the sweet potato fries.
It’s more quiet and intimate than Miku or Minami and not nearly as big. Service however is extremely slow. If you have nothing to do or anywhere to go, your fine to dine in.
They also take Togo orders, which I prefer to do. It’s just as good as eating it there.
PS. Parking is often a pain, it’s in a hot spot of Vancouver.

Was there for dine out Vancouver, love this place awesome sake selection. Friendly waitress, food was great, price (i think it’s reasonable since its in yaletown location and food its with quality).
Will be there again.

I went here in December with 7 other friends and was embarrassed with my decision on suggesting this restaurant to my girl friend from Japan. She hosted the table and invited all her other out of town friends on my suggestion, as she did not know what Vancouver was like at all. But the night was pretty bad with terrible customer service, and I felt so embarrassed for getting them to come here. I could tell my friend felt bad. She didn’t want to complain about this, so I will complain instead. This is how bad the night was:
1) Our table of 8 was put outside. They never told us we’d all be pushed outside. Granted, they have heated patios, but we wanted to be indoors during the cold December, lol. Out of courtesy, shouldn’t the hostess on the phone say «Would you like to be seated indoors or outdoors» when we make our reservation? If she had said «Sorry, your table of 8 must be outdoors.» then we could have replied politely, «Oh no thank you» and booked elsewhere. It’s not that hard to tell your customer that!
2) The waitress forgot to offer everyone their glasses of water in the beginning. I worked at several restaurants before and I was always taught by my restaurant managers to serve water at the table before anything else. The waitress came to our table 20 minutes later and asked to take our orders. One of our table members asked her if she could bring water. She replied she would bring water after she takes our orders… Uhhh ok. But then, the waitress never came back, so I guess she forgot. So my guy friend had to call another waitress and ask for 8 glasses of water.
3) They forgot to give a dinner to one of my girl friend’s husband. After all our dinners were halfway done, they came with his dinner after one of us reminded the waitress TWICE.
4) We were almost all finished our dinners except for 1 girl, who was having her hotpot and was only halfway done. A male waiter came to us and said it was time for us to wrap up and if we wanted our bills separately or together. Holy crap, that was so blatantly rude when it was obvious 1 girl was eating her meal. You never go up to a table and tell them if they’re leaving and want receipts just blindly. Youu go up, observe how they’re doing, who’s eating, and then offer dessert or drinks, not just ask them if they’re leaving and want the bills. She was upset about that and one of our guy friends at the table told the waiter, «She’s still EATING, could you please wait?» The waiter just shrugs and goes «Oh ok» and walks off. How do they train these people at this bistro?! Seriously I see such good reviews on here, were the waiters and waitresses having a bad day on the evening we came?
5) At the end of the night, one boy suggested to us not to tip. My friends were embarrassed about that and didn’t want to do that, but I voiced that the service was so rude and terrible that we should tell the manager. 3 of my friends went up to the manager to talk to him. I should have gone up too and said something but I figured 3 people was already overkill. Plus I tend to be really blunt when I want to voice myself so I didn’t want to start a fight. However, I WILL write this on Unilocal.
6) I asked my friends if they got any apology from the manager. They said that the manager (a Caucasian man) gave them all a weak apology and only said perhaps the waiter wasn’t the right person for the job. What kind of an apology is that? Blaming your staff and not owning up to not training your staff right? If things went bad at my restaurant, my manager would give a free dessert or offer a free meal or something to compensate.

Went here for dinner with 3 friends. From start to finish this restaurant failed all of us. It started with the poor service — waited 20 minutes for water and tea, the server hovered over our table basically telling us to order before even opening the menus. While explaining the menu he mispronounced many of the items on the menu and described one roll as «runny»!?
The food eventually came and it was well the worst sushi All 4 of us had ever tasted, I’ve actually had better sushi in Phoenix. We ordered 5 rolls, 2 of them the waiter specifically told us not to eat with soy sauce?! Which was a very strange comment. It was actually a chore to try and finish this meal.
So if your looking for overpriced tasteless sushi with awkward service this is the place to go.

The sashimi here is so fresh and good! The tuna is my favorite just melts in your mouth –drools– I love the brown rice rolls and the patio during summer is awesome. Service is average.

This restaurant is situated in a great location, and the layout is clean and relatively modern. The outdoor patio is a nice touch in warmer months. They seem to have an interesting selection of spirits to choose from.
Note– my experience is only from the lunch service:
Unfortunately the rolls aren’t ever well put together — I think the best way to describe it is messy/​sloppy; the rolls seem close to falling apart. This has been the case a few times that I have tried the sushi there. The teriyaki plate is relatively under seasoned beef, and simple Costco style lettuce. Not much going on there.
They get pretty busy, and service slows down considerably when the restaurant starts to get full.
They need to tighten up the sushi rolls, and speed up the service.

This place brought me so many memories in my 20’s. I always have a great time and enjoying the high-​end Japanese menu. The sushi are always fresh and well presented in a traditional style. There is nothing much to say but to give an applause for all this years.

This is not where you go to order your run-​of-​the-​mill sushi. This is where you eat intelligently crafted and beautifully innovative dishes.
Among my favourites: tuna and avocado crêpe, sockeye jalapeño aburi (they had this before Minami!), prosciutto roll, duck a’ l’orange sakana (!!!). I also like their Geisha Girl cocktail. And the chestnut panna cotta is amazing! It’s too bad that the last two times I’ve gone, they’ve said it was not available because it wasn’t in season (although it was still on the menu).
Their prices are a bit steep, so I tend to go once or twice a year maximum for special occasions.

Overall 2 thumbs up from me and my buddy! We been here a few times and the sushi is always good and fresh! Not too busy either considering it’s a Friday night!
We sat in the heated plastic enclosed patio and pretended it was a warm Summer night! We ate, lamented over the sad path our beloved Vancouver Canucks were traveling down, and he tried to convince me not to invest in real estate in the States.
I digress… The food was excellent… My minor complaint is that the toro was a bit tougher than I like. It’s supposed to melt in your mouth, this toro did not! Still I’m not a nit picker so I still give this place a big thumbs up!
The service was efficient and friendly. We ordered too much food! In the end we waddled home slowly. Enjoying the cool breeze of a rainless Vancouver night! The End… Haha

I wanted to like this place. The ambience looks so chic. The idea of a japanese style bistro fits right in with the Yaletown vein.
So what sucked about this place? Well, we came at lunch, when it was super crowded. Service was ridiculously slow. The space is so cramped. The floor layout of the restaurant attempted to squeeze as many seats as possible into the dining area. As a result, there are multiple bottlenecks for the servers and the guests. I really did not enjoy the physical experience of sitting elbow to elbow with complete strangers while trying to enjoy a japanese meal.
As a result of the bottlenecks, we noticed the servers not being able to efficiently serve tea or dishes. Paying for our bills was also quite a hassle. This was my first time here, and I was surprised that it was so inefficient, yet there were so many customers.
The food was ok. Nothing special really. I’m not sure why people say that this was the best sushi in Yaletown. Minami’s aburi rolls across the street taste better. I went to Ki-​Isu Sushi later, cuz I was still hungry, and I thought they had better sushi.

Lecker und frisches Sushi zu einem aktzeptablen Preis. Zur Mittagszeit wird es hier sehr voll und es empfiehlt sich, schon kurz vor 12 Uhr einzulaufen. Nicht nur, dass alle Tische und Stühle aus den umliegenden Firmen bevölkert werden, auch die Zeit von der Bestellung bis zum frischen Fisch auf dem Tisch wird deutllich länger, wenn man sich für die Zeit 12 – 12.30 Uhr entscheidet.