Pho & Japolo Sushi

To be clear, this 5 star rating is for the 48 hour phở broth they make — it’s absolutely divine! I’ve had multiple phở dishes, including what I think may be the best phở I’ve ever had: their #22 is beef stew in phở broth with rice noodles and it is incredible. Super flavourful, good helping of beef, and the meat is super tender.
I’ve had vermicelli dishes as well which are also delicious, and sushi that was so-​so. All in all, I’d totally recommend this as a great vietnamese food stop, but probably not as a sushi restaurant.

Phở: I can definitely taste the flavour from the meat. They do not seem to use a spice pack, which is good. However, sometimes the noodle is overcooked and has a loose consistency. However, I am a fan of how the soup tastes.
Cleaniness: No issues here.
Service: Sometimes the waitress are not seen for awhile and makes it difficult to even order the food.
Price: $ 9 for a bowl of phở.

Japolo sushi is a neighbourhood favourite that has been around for years. Jacki, the sushi chef and owner, is always whipping up inventive ways to serve sushi… sushi pizza? sushi burger? Sounds kinds crazy but delicious. Makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.
The portions are very generous and between the sports on the tv’s and Jacki’s fun loving personality, you will find yourself having a very good time indeed.
Fast, friendly service and take out for nights when you need a break from your own cooking.

I used to eat lunch here at least once a week, but my work schedule has been quite hectic lately and it had been a while since my last visit.
This restaurant serves both sushi and Vietnamese food. I know what you’re thinking… «That’s just crazy!» Right? But seriously, they manage to do both very well.
I’m guilty of ordering pretty much the same thing every time I go. If I’m having Vietnamese, I have the Phở with brisket & flank steak. If I have sushi, I have combo box C, which starts with miso soup and sunomono salad, then the box comes with assorted tempura, lemongrass chicken with rice, assorted sashimi and nigiri sushi, and a 4-​pc California roll.
No matter what you order, you’re getting value for your money and the food tastes great.

This establishment had one table full at lunch time on Saturday. The Phở was awful, it was tepid, had discoloured beef, and was bland tasting. I seriously regret stopping by this place and wish they do not serve Phở to anyone in the future.

Solid sushi spot. Nothing fancy but everything is done fairly well. Tight clean rolls… big fresh slabs of sashimi… well-​made cooked sharezies like gyoza and karaage.
It’s also nice to get a Vietnamese spring roll to go along. :-)
I will try again for more Vietnamese items.

Phở is average. Sushi is good! Great for my family as half love phở and half love sushi. Jack the sushi chef is friendly and talented … He will make you a custom roll on request … Service is friendly and prompt. Solid 3.5 stars

We visit this venue quite frequently on lunch from work. Service and food is both consistently good. Fairly inexpensive. Moderate menu with both Japanese and Vietnamese dishes available for order.
⁴⁄₅ only because they recently downsized their Japanese menu to include only sushi/​sashimi items and not hot items like teriyaki, tempura, etc.

I haven’t tried the sushi but came here recently for the Vietnamese food.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best experience. I’m quite picky when it comes to Phở as I’ve been to several restaurants and have made the soup several times at home myself. My soup was a bit strong for my liking — either they put too much Star Anise or Cloves as I could distinctly taste it. I also felt the peanut sauce for my salad roll was too sweet.
My husband however, enjoyed his Pork Chop/​Chicken on Rice. Although he also thought his fish sauce was too sweet as well.
The portions sizes were pretty decent and service was prompt.
Negatives — They had the World Cup game running on the TV at a really loud volume so it was a bit hard to talk over the TV especially since we’re not sports fans. It is also a bit on the pricier side for Vietnamese food.

The food here is pretty good. I eat phở and other viet dishes, my wife has had the sushi. We’re never disappointed.
However, beware if you order takeout. The portions are not the same. It’s like they make you pay for the takeout container by shrinking the food. This applies to all items but it’s never more obvious than with the sushi.

I can constantly count on Japolo for 1. Delicious, mouth-​watering food, and 2. Really sweet service (as in the waitresses are sweet, not like the slang word sweet).
We’ve been here twice, and both times I’ve ordered the chicken and prawn vermicelli. Holy moly, if there was every a reason for me to eat until my stomach exploded this would be it. Really, who needs chocolate anyway?! My other half ordered some beef soup or another, I can’t quite remember but he was thoroughly appreciative.
We only just realized that there’s a student discount and free delivery, too, so I’ll probably be ordering from them rather frequently from now on!

Getting to «Japolo» is a bit of a challenge. It is across from Lougheed town centre, in a shopping complex not heavily visited; and on the top floor, not visible from the main road. The out side is a little confusing. Their store’s banner reads «Phở Japolo», a second hangs below it declaring, «we serve sushi»; like it is an after thought.
Walking in at 3:30pm on a Friday, it was an empty restaurant. We stood, but sat ourselves when we realized there would be no hostess to seat us. The only server was in the back and she didn’t pop out until my third and loudest, «Hello?»
“Combo three rolls”. Salad roll, fried roll, pork roll. If you have read any of my older posts you know I am an advocate of combos, being able to try a little of everything in one order. But here is where I say no. This roll combo was a disappointment. The menu gave no specifics and after seeing the plate land, we knew we should have asked more details as to what was actually in each roll. The salad roll was the usual vermicelli, lettuce, and shrimp wrapped up in a delicate rice wrap. The fried roll was a vegetarian spring roll, and this too was common. Julienned vegetables bundled together in a rice wrapper, then deep fried until crispy. The pork roll however was were it got unexpected. Reading pork roll I think minced pork with vegetables. The filling you get in a dumpling but wrapped as a roll instead. The reality is it was exactly like a salad roll, but with «Spam» instead of prawn or shrimp as the protein. «Spam» is precooked meat product, it isn’t even classified as meat let alone pork. How deceiving. And to exacerbate things the «Spam» wasn’t even prepared properly, it was pan fried and made heavily burnt on the edges and bottom.
We were lucky that the sushi chef came back earlier than expected and thus we were able to try «sushi pizza». This came highly recommend by my guest, and was one of the reasons why we decided to come in, in the first place. We choose Atlantic salmon as our sushi pizza topping. The other seafood toppings varied in price, with more highly coveted fish bringing in higher tags. The salmon was one of the least expensive options but at $ 11 it was still a little on the rich side. Though as far as cost for product goes, this was worth it. I have never tried anything like this, something so delicious. The sushi rice is pressed flat to mimic pizza dough. It is then breaded before it is deep fried. This gives its edges a nice crispy crust. The «crust» is then drizzled with mayonnaise and unagi sauce. Sprinkled with chopped onion, red pepper and green pepper. And finished with Masai and green onion. The pieces of salmon sashimi were extremely fresh. Its cool flesh gave a nice hot and cold contrast, along side the breaded rice. I guarantee your first bite will be a wow. It is also available in sockeye, unagi, albacore tuna, and hamachi (fresh yellow tail).
They also have a similar concept for their «sushi burger». Something that I will be sure to comeback to try. And instead of fries as a side, this japanese fusion burger comes with a side of yam tempura. How fun.
As we were waiting for our last order, and the first from the Japanese menu, we realized that the sushi chef was sitting at his own bar eating. We wonder who was making our pizza then? And why couldn’t we ordered before he came back from his break, only to take another to eat?
Would I come back? — Yes and no. The food was surprisingly good, it came promptly with no idle chit chat from our server. The restaurant peaceful and clean enough to spend 2 hours enjoying 7 menu items in. And with all their slight variations, the chefs managed to transform a few everyday classics in Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine, into dishes that attract attention and are worth trying. Though I just can’t validate the drive from where I live all the way out to almost coquitlam, for what is technically Asian fast food.
Would I recommend it? — Yes, this is the perfect place when you want phở, but your friend wants a California roll. Two cuisines and two menus under one roof guarantees a group is more then likely to find something good. The menu is easy to navigate for anyone unfamiliar with either cuisine. With pictures, listing of ingredients, and headings that arrange dish by the level of the diner. The Japanese menu even describes their speciality sushi by what is outside and what is inside each roll. Don’t deny your cravings and try what I have deemed a hidden gem.

Getting Vietnamese food and Japanese food at once, sweet: D

A trip to Japolo is definitely worth your time and money. They have a great menu, everything is served as you picture it, and delicious! It’s a neighborhood favorite, which means it could range from busy, rowdy, peaceful, annoying, etc.

I wish there was ½ stars this place is more of a 3 ½ for me.
The food I got here was delicious. I ordered phở and sushi. The sushi was good, and phở although not perfect was a bit better than the phở 99 just down the road. The service was good but the prices seemed steep. Some of the speciality rolls were 8 – 12 dollars. Ehhhh, and compared to other places the phở was on the pricey side. Around $ 7 for a small. Hmmm.
The service was great though. Not bad for a place that serves phở and sushi. I’ve been to cheaper places though. Im glad to find another good sushi place in and around Coquitlam this makes two so far!
Also if you love your sports and want to eat sushi this may be the place to go. The walls in here are covered in flags, and sports team memorabilia, and the TV was playing soccer matches.
TIP: Their delivery requires a $ 25 dollar minimum so unless your ordering a lot of food I wouldn’t recommend it.

This is a good sushi place (it’s actually called Japolo Sushi & Phở btw). Wonderful friendly people, good food (but their appetizers have something to desired; I won’t order them anymore), and, as sushi joints go, reasonably good atmosphere. Best of all, they deliver, which is hard to find when talking sushi!

I’ve never tried this place for lunch except for dinner and thought I should go visit the place since I was close by. I then realized that they included phở in their restaurant title… a little odd but nonetheless, I still had sushi in mind. When I walked in, I saw a table or two had ordered phở and noticed that they had new items on their «special board» like sushi burger.
I ordered the Lunch Boat for Two which consisted of california roll, salmon and tuna roll, dynamite roll and ebi sushi. It also had tempura shrimp and yam, yakitori which was chicken skewers on rice. The appearance of the dynamite roll was not obstensible enough for you to recognize it’s a dynamite roll and NOT a california roll. The prawn in the dynamite roll was soggy and didn’t meet my expectations. The yakitori was pretty good with the rice… I think this was the best thing about the lunch boat for 2. Other than that, the rest were «meehhh».
I give this place 3 out of 5 stars.

A mixed dealing of Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine in one restaurant, this is the place to come to. It is an odd combination yet it exist out here, and it has taken me this long to come back to this place. Some things have changed, as they have revamped the menu to make it look pretty, and they have added some items on the menu.
Located on the corner of Cameron Street and North Road, it is upstairs, depending on which parking lot you parked at. The restaurant is roomy, as they do not have many tables there, and the distance between the tables is far apart. The time we were here, which was a late lunch, there was not many people left, but the service was pretty good.
They offer different types of rolls not just the standard simple california roll, they also have numerous bowls of ‘Phở’ on the menu. Perfect place to come if your at a standstill with some people who want one, or another.
Our table had the nabiyaki udon and the chicken teriyaki, pretty nice size in servings, as I noticed the chicken used on the teriyaki was a pretty thick cut, filled with the sizzling plate, carrot, beansprouts, a pretty good sized meal. The udon was nice too. A good place to come for an alternative to what you are used to around the neighborhood.