Zakkushi Dining On Main

Several months ago, we went to this Japanese yakitori restaurant for dinner. We ordered a variety of items: miyazaki wagyu, short rib, pork belly, momo, tsukune, sockeye salmon sashimi, gindara saikyo yaki(grilled black cod), mentai carbonara udon, yakioni(grilled rice ball), and giant scallop.

Standouts were the tsukune, scallops, mentai carbonara udon, and sockeye salmon sashimi. The miyazaki wagyu was $19/skewer but it was a bit of a letdown. I expected to be a melt in your mouth kind of wagyu beef but it was a bit chewy. Otherwise, it was a pretty good meal.

We came to enjoy some izakaya fare and drinks. The food was good and so were the drinks. The service was definitely not friendly or respectful though. We agreed when we visited we would be done by a certain time.

The waitress kept coming by our table and checking her watch impatiently. Clearly trying to make us uncomfortable or make us leave quicker. Never mind that we're spending $200 in a meat stick restaurant and ordered quality sake. We had an agreed time to leave and were happy to be done by then but it was super rude yo.

Anyway, we closed on time like I knew we would. There was no reason to make the last half hour totally uncomfortable and to just drag the check out like that. If it was up to me they'd get no tip.

Terrible service! Do not recommend. I would not return.

This has to be the first time I've been let down by a meal and experience and then after when I get snubbed for a follow up response

For the price point of this place save your money or go somewhere else Trust me

After the $200+ bill with zero customer service, a non existent management team and sub par food you will understand

So tasty. The servers were accommodating, letting us sit earlier than our reservation. The food came out promptly. Some standouts:

- Me maki (garlic stems wrapped in sliced pork)
- Uzura maki (quail eggs wrapped in sliced pork)
- Shiokonbu cabbage

I also tried the sesame ice cream, it had a nice soft texture.

Haven't been here in a few years, came with my partner for a early dinner. Super quiet on a Sunday evening. We were the only table for about a half hour (5pm). Ordered a variety of skewers, hot and cold appies and cold sake.

Pros:
- Food is delicious as always, great quality and simple flavors
- Push buttons for service installed at every table
- Ordering is done on little menu check-box sheets (like dim sum) makes ordering super easy

Notes:
- On the pricier side for a casual spot, understandable with inflation, etc. ($160 for two of us)
- Parking lot gets full easy and zakkushi only has three designated spots. Free parking on the inside streets west of Main St. in the residential area

The only downside is that some skewers tend to be in the pricey side but the premium items are delicious. The lamb is amazing as well as the premium beef tongue. Food comes at a good pace and the servers are very attentive:

Food was amazing! We had a great time there on a Friday night, parking is hard to come by but not a huge deal :) Favorites were the Umeshiso Yaki, Mé Maki, Saikyo Miso Beef and Mochi Maki. Desert was also one of the best we have ever had!

Overall 10/10

Hands down one of my top restaurants to venture to whenever I'm in Vancouver. I'm soo glad.. but also really sad that someone introduced it to me because I've yet to find a place similar to Zakkushi near me.

Their variety of yakitori is unparalleled and sooo good. My highest recommendations would be:

* Horumon (pork intestine with teriyaki sauce)
* Yakoni with butter + soy sauce
* Uzura Maki (quail eggs + sliced pork)
* And you genuinely can't go wrong with any of the beef options.

I'd highly recommend making a reservation in advance.
This place is a must-try when you're in Vancouver.

Great authentic Japanese food and service! We'll definitely be back.

It's usually not hard to find Japanese Izakaya at big cities but we are definitely pleasantly surprised by the quality. We enjoyed every single item we ordered here.

Came here at 7:45 on February 26 (Saturday) for a date night.
The place was packed but we were promptly seated since we had a reservation at that time.
The staff was nice, and it did make the experience a bit more 'authentic' since I was able to talk to them in my mother tongue.
We ordered a lot of food so I'm going to try my best to break them down.

Special skewer of the day (I forgot the name but it was a special part of the chicken heart)
5/5 It was AMAZING. Much more tender than the regular chicken heart with a lot of flavor.

Wagyu-Don
3.5/5 Would not repeat. Don't get me wrong, the meat was great. But it was one very thin slice. And the meat was smaller than the picture in comparison to the bowl. They gave us two bowls to split between the two of us, but the meat was hard to split and share. There was also way too much rice for the amount of meat you get even though the bowl was small to begin with. Definitely not worth $22.50 either.

Ryu-kyu
4.5/5 If you like yellowtail, it's a good dish to try. I loved the combination of the dish and shiso (Japanese basil), but my partner did not enjoy the shiso, as it was too overpowering for her.

Zakkushi Set (thigh, umé-shiso, me-maki, p-toro, oropon beef) $15
3.5/5 I was quite surprised to see that they chose these skewers as their 'set', and not things like tsukune (chicken meatballs), ton-toro (pork jowl), gizzard, chicken skin.
Umé (sour plum) with shiso was forgettable and not too juicy.
Mé-maki is a skewer with garlic stem wrapped with sliced pork. It was perfect. Crunchy garlic stem with a juicy slice of pork.
P-toro was very tasty and juicy
Oropon beef was a good combo but the meat tasted a bit dry and very chewy

Tori-kawa (Chicken skin)
3.5/5 My partner liked the crispy-ness but I found it way too crispy than the ones I'm using to eating in Japan so I did not enjoy it as much as she did.

Tsukune (chicken meatballs) and Nori-mayo tsukune
2.5/5 I was quite disappointed by this one, partly because it was my childhood favourite back in Japan. The meat was small, bland, and it just did not have a great texture either. The nori-mayo did make it taste a bit better but it was just not good.

Uzura-maki (quail egg wrapped in pork)
4.5/5 Tastes exactly like you imagine. Solid skewer.

Mochi-maki
3/5 Not exactly sure what I was expecting, but we didn't really enjoy it. The other mochi dishes we tried were great though.

Ikada (Japanese leek)
4/5 We loved how sweet the leek was and how it blended well with the sauce. The only reason why it's a 4 was because the last piece in the skewer was undercooked and it was spicy.

Elingi (king oyster mushroom)
4/5 These were good but it was hard to taste the butter by the time it came to the table.

Yaki-onigili (Soy sauce and Soy sauce with butter)
3.5/5 The char on the grilled rice ball was great but the flavor was definitely lacking even though they seemed small enough to brush on a good amount of flavor.

Houlensou no Goma-ae (spinach tossed in sesame)
3.5/5 It was good but it tasted a little off than what I am used to or have tasted in the past in Japan to make me want to order it again. It was also a bit more bitter than I expected.

Ika Mentai (squid tossed in marinated cod roe)
4.5/5 I LOVED how they cut the squid. It really improved the texture and the overall taste with the cod roe. Was a bit disappointed by the amount of shiso they put on, which was not like the picture at all.

Age-mochi (fried mochi)
4.5/5 Crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Solid dish.

Tako-yaki
4/5 Solid dish tako-yaki in Canada. Just wish the octopus was a bit bigger.

Oden highlights
We also ordered a couple oden, and I just wanted to mention Mochi-kinchaku. It's called 'Sticky rice' on the menu, but it's basically mochi (sticky rice cake) inside fried tofu. You can tell that it absorbs the soup well and the mochi is very soft and floppy like it's supposed to be. We loved it. Konjac (yam cake) was a piece that my partner really enjoyed due to the hard jelly-like texture.

Drinks
We did enjoy the yuzu calpis (calpico) series a lot. It was like juice so it can be a bit dangerous lol
Yuzu shibori was also nice, but the lychee pineapple was a bit too sweet and the pineapple overpowered the yuzu in our opinion.

Dessert
Dorayaki with Matcha icecream
Dorayaki is a traditional Japanese dish that has redbean inside a Japanese pancake. For the price, I thought it was great. I loved waiting for the icecream melt a tiny bit before inhaling it.

Overall, we really enjoyed the experience here, and I was very grateful that our waiter (Unfortunately, I forgot to ask his name) chased after us to hand us our takeout box. Thanks a lot!