Kadoya Japanese Restaurant

Dec 19/12: I have just had the most frustrating restaurant experience yet. Ordering over the phone for pickup, I slowly and clearly asked for two separate orders as I had offered to go retrieve food for two people in my office from this restaurant.

The first chicken udon. The second chicken udon and an order of volcano rolls.

When I arrived the non-English femalr cashier presented me with a single bill. I clearly again asked for a separate order of chicken udon. She smiled and after much confusion ran to the back to add the order.

When she returned I put the one co-workers $20 bill on the slip in which she wrote the single udon soup. She then took the twenty and used it towards the other order (udon and rolls). I didn't realize so I stated I please would like a receipt. The receipt clarified she charged the wrong order to the cash. Sigh.

She was so confused I asked for an English speaker as she obviously wasn't understanding :(

A person in the back came up and reversed the payment and fixed everything. I love all foods and don't consider myself prejudice BUT if you don't speak everyday English please done A) take phone orders and B) not ask for clarification if its unclear. :(

Am feeling like a big meanie and half of my lunch was wasted. :(

But of course the food there is the tastiest although their other location (davie) is the best.

Kadoya was fantastic. I was meeting a friend and was a little worried about going to a new sushi place when my heart belongs to sushi mura but it didn't disappoint!

The waiter was friendly and we had everything we wanted. The price was right too, and there was cheap beer! The view was great.

The only downside was how cold it was because the patio door was open so that they could serve guests outside, and it took a while for the waiter (the only one, poor guy) to take our order.

I would definitely return!

Excellent, excellent food!!! We ordered sashimi, and sushi, larvar, rainbow, and volcano. All the food was really good. Sashimi was really really fresh.

Couple drawbacks: First, we ordered a hot sake since it's literally 0 degree outside and the sake came out barely warm. So we had to have it reheated but still came out a bit warmer but not hot as it is supposed to be (we had hot sake in ca that is much hotter than that)

Second, we ordered beef udon which is my must have. It came out super salty.

Overall, this is a good place for sushi. I will definitely be back here again. Probably wont order the udon next time.

Had a sushi craving and Yelp lead me here. Usually Yelp is good to me and does not disappoint in terms of ratings. This place must be an anomaly.

Had the

Canadian roll: it has bacon so why not try. It was ok but can't nothing special.
Vancouver roll: love Unagi and this was a pretty good roll. Small-ish pieces tho.
Firecracker roll: not sure what was in it, but it was covered in different hot sauces. Spicy but no flavour.

Seeing as Vancouver has no shortage of sushi places next time I'll wander to the next block to see what's there.

**** WARNING: tourist trap ****

As soon as I saw there were rolls with butter, and cooked chicken inside them and that you could cheese to any roll - I should have walked away. The "chefs choice menu" looks like it was designed by a fat, greasy American man that loves deep fried food.

It's always bad to see no Japanese nationals eating at a sushi place. We were hungry, it was a block away from our hotel; most reviews on yelp were good. I now don't understand how those people had a good experience if they enjoy real, quality sushi. For being right on the bay, they somehow only have imitation crab. Which they added a ton of mayo to and basically that's all the California rolls taste like.

We got 4 sushi rolls: 1 avocado, 1 tuna, 1 California and 1 one of the two items on the fancier rolls menu that wasn't deep fried, the Volcano roll.

The avocado and California rolls were horrific. Stale sesame seeds on top added a terrible flavor and chewiness that overpowered all other flavors. I like sesame seeds in a roll but these were very stale. I Already mentioned the terrible imitation crab salad of the California roll. Not only were the quality of ingredients mostly bad but the rolls themselves were the most poorly constructed I've ever seen. I could and have constructed better rolls than that at home. They used too much rice and didn't seal the seaweed nori properly so the whole thing just unravels as soon as you pick it up - this happened to all the 4 rolls we got. I ended up taking the fish out and eating it as sashimi.

The other two rolls were pretty good, the fish used inside was good quality - the tuna rolls were Hamachi rather than Maguro which I appreciate because in love hamachi. Must be hard to get bad quality seafood in a port city though. Only issue was that for the tuna roll the sushi chef didn't cut it properly with the grain of the fish so there were stringy pieces and the tail connector ligament end were present in the rolls - which all decent sushi chefs would never serve to their customers.

Not only was the food mediocre at best but the service was terrible. We were seated and before they even brought us water our waiter was demanding us to order. Can I look at the menu first maybe? Which I told him and he slammed the menu down (probably unintentionally - we were one of like 4 seated tables, they were not busy in the slightest). The menus had clearly not been cleaned in some considerable amount of time because they were sticky on all pages and pretty gross feeling, not a good way to start out an experience at a restaurant.

I do not recommend this place to anyone. There are many good seafood and sushi places in Vancouver - this is not one of them. 4 rolls for $20 is not worth it.

A pretty amazing sushi restaurant which serves good sushi at very reasonable prices. They also have a large selection of rolls, including local varieties like the Vancouver and Maple, plus a number of combo sushi dishes. All of the rolls we ordered (tuna, salmon, California, Maple and Vancouver) were eight piece rolls. I had the $9 combo of tuna, salmon and California and it was a meal. It all seemed fresh (little gets past my nose) with good tasting sushi rice and nori.

One oddity, we ordered take out but the person we talked to didn't understand much English and had to get someone else to actually take our order.

In any respect, it's a pretty good, pretty cheap sushi restaurant in an area known for Asian food.

I was looking forward to trying out Kadoya based on the reviews here. It was perhaps the biggest mistake of my life.

The food selection seemed adequate, with the usual japanese fare on the menu. We decided on some sushi bento boxes. When they first came out, they looked good, nice big shrimp tempura, a good amount of food. Unfortunately, this impression changed very fast after the first bite.

The tempura greets your mouth with the flavour of oil, which can be alright, except when it overpowers the rest of the flavours. It was mostly deep fried batter with a thin shrimp in the center. At least it came out hot.

Sushi, you can usually tell by looking at it if the balance of rice and fish is on or not. It was not. The fish was cut too thick, and in too large slices, with an equally clumsy amount of rice. Sushi is meant to be eaten as delicate morsels that can easily be popped in the mouth. These gargantuan pieces really need two bites to eat (yes I'm talking about nigiri here). The fish had a freshly-defrosted taste to it, you know what I'm talking about- kind of watery and flavourless. The rice was uneventful and really didn't add anything other than bulk.

The rolls... I don't even.

The one redeeming thing was the salad, which had a pleasant dressing on it.

Did I mention they charge 50 cents for green tea?

To summarize my feelings on Kadoya.. I love sushi, have eaten sushi in many many restaurants, including restaurants in various cities in Japan, USA and Canada, and I must say this is possibly the worst sushi experience I've experienced. I am completely baffled that people have given this restaurant 5 stars and positive reviews, my brain is simply unable to comprehend it. I have a discerning palate, but generally my standard for -okay- food is quite low.. I'll generally eat whatever is in front of me. This meal, I lost all will to eat..

The view was nice at least. And the prices were reasonable. But if you don't enjoy the food, then what's the point?

This is Kadoya's second location in the West End. If you have visited the Davie Street restaurant, you can expect the same delicious and creative sushi, but with a view of English Bay. There is some outdoor seating available - great for watching fireworks or Pride Parade if you can get here early enough.

Order from the Special Rolls menu and be delighted by treats like the Snow White roll, with coconut and mango, or the Maple roll with smoked salmon and cream cheese. They even have a dessert roll with candy sprinkled on top!

I will likely never eat sushi at another West End restaurant again. Kadoya, you spoil me.

The meal was a little hit and miss. We started with the Spicy Tuna Roll - and it was as good as it gets. Good, not overly creamy, right amount spices, and something nice and crunchy in it.

Sadly, the meal peaked here. We got an order of Yakisobe noodles with beef and a Sashimi Dinner Box.

First the noodles----WTF? These were dripping in oil, and should have come with a "syphon" to drain off the fat.

The sashimi box is a good value - however, the chicken wings were not that great, as was the fried rice. The sashimi and tempura were a bit ho hum, but not inedible.

The portions are large. The service was very spotty, no refills for our tea or water, had to wit to get our check.

Having said that, I am willing to give it another shot, and will try to stick to their rolls and sushi.

Tasty big fish rolls but terrible selection for vegetarians :( mentioned the agedashi tofu was horribly soggy and received terrible service. Such a shame, back to Shima I go!

Definitely don't know how to handle a complaint. Mentioned the agedashi tofu was like jelly on the outside (it was part of the lunch box) and asked simply if they could re fry it like they do the tempura. Instead of giving me any sort of reply they pulled the box away from me WHILE I had a piece of veg tempura in my mouth, made me put it back on the tray... Never came back with a response or more food. Simply avoided our table and I went hungry :(

More expensive than every other sushi joint in the surrounding 2 blocks, but has the best view. The choice is yours!