Ebei Japanese Restaurant

I will miss this restaurant!
This restaurant is closing for good at the end of MARCH 2015!
Once of the best AYCE places!
Will miss the Yummy food and all the smiling staff!
Only 5 more days left, hope i have time to make one more stop!
R.I.P. Ebei Sushi!

I only ever come here because it’s conveniently close to my work. Not authentic Japanese by any stretch and you could definitely tell with the workers who are quite rude on the phone and in person — a typical phone conversation goes like this: «Ebei sushi-​yes?» me: excuse me, what time do you open for lunch? Ebei: «11:00!» click (phone hanging up) no hello, no thank you — just plain rudeness. The place itself is spacious and comfortable and really check your bill because we were charged for pop that we never ordered. As far as the taste, come here if you’re really hungry and order 2 – 3 of your favourite items because the portions are very small (makes sense though because of waste). Skip the miso soup (no taste) and sunomono salad– sometimes too watery or too much vinegar. I did enjoy the oyster and scallops motoyaki and the deep fried wings are pretty good — sushi is a hit and miss so try and come early to get the freshest taste.

Food was not that great, you are paying for what you get, I would advise going somewhere else, they charge for a lemon and even little bits of left over rice, there a server constantly watching, which makes the meal feel rushed. Not much variety in the selection they offer. I would advise going somewhere else.

An unfortunate 2-​star for a below average food quality and untrained servers.
I’ve been here about 5 years ago and did the all you can eat with a couple of colleagues; didn’t leave with a negative impression then. I passed by it today and thought to give it another try since a lot of places were closed during the holiday season.
Our orders were a salmon sashimi don, a salmon roll, and a katsu don.
The salmon sashimi don was poorly prepared; scattered on a plate of unevenly spread rice. Fish was not fresh. the salmon roll was standard, though it was above average market price. the katsu don looked nice but there was barely any meat. It also tasted very blend.
Customer service was poor. I did not exchange any heated conversation with the waitresses like many other Unilocalers have experienced, though they did seemed to be always in a rush and had attitudes. One stood just a table away from us and watched us eat (I don’t know why), she came to grab the plates right when I was about to finish.
on the positive note, the food came rather quickly!
No, I do not recommend this restaurant.

Came here after not coming back here for a couple years and the place has gone a little downhill. The food was okay, nothing special, but the service was a little lacking. Nobody came to pick up our plates, so we just stacked them on the seat next to us, and they kept forgetting orders. There are better options for AYCE, but I guess value wise, Ebei is still pretty good. It might be another couple years again before we come back.
TIP: They have pay parking outside the restaurant. Don’t bother, just park across the street on Granville.

Came for AYCE for dinner on a Wednesday and was reminded why I stopped coming to this place. Due to the lack of guests in the restaurant our service was very good and the items came quickly.
We ordered a wide range of meals including oyster motoyaki, beef sashimi, ebi sunomono, and almost every roll on the list. Everything was edible but not very enjoyable. The rolls tasted a bit off and were hard to swallow due to dryness, weather it was the rice or seaweed i’m not sure. The beef sashimi was swimming in soya sauce and ruined the taste of the meal. The oyster motoyaki had pieces of sand (or something of that nature) still inside.
I’ve definitely learned my lesson this time and will be sticking to Aji taro or richmond sushi for AYCE.

Fair warning I have only eaten late night AYCE here. I rationalize this review because ebei has perfected what it’s meant to be: a cheap all you can eat place. Every time I have eaten at ebei, I have had outstanding speed of service and competency from all staff. The food tastes great and they have a competitive selection of rolls. On a rather busy night I had my only mildly unpleasant experience when I had to wait at the cash register for five minutes. Overall a great late night experience.
I would recommend for groups of 4 to 8 as the tables and private booths can accommodate a variety of parties. Coming alone isn’t a problem either; you can sit at the sushi bar and watch a quick team put together hundreds of rolls in an impressively clean kitchen.

Food is okay, with a large selection to choose from, but unfortunately that where the pro’s end. Service is slow and full of mistakes (we had all you can eat, and were repeatedly given either the wrong items or the wrong number of items). Servers are also quite rude. One lady scowled at us for asking for an extra slice of lemon. They were very curt and no one came back to ask if everything was alright (I’ve always assumed this was standard practice at restaurants in this price range.)
All in all, while the variety is good and the food is okay, it doesn’t balance out the sub-​par service.

My top favorites in Japanese food would be: shrimp tempura, baked oyster, salmon sashimi. I give 5 stars to Ebei’s shrimp tempura (it’s very good), fine for baked oyster and 4 for salmon sashimi. The menu has a good variety of food, covering most of fish kinds if memory serves me right.
Their dinning rooms are private so everyone can relax in the room without worrying about other people’s sight. Great for family dinner. Vancouver gets a lot of All-​You-​Can-​Eat Japanese restaurants, and Ebei is pretty good among them.

Food is decent here, not bad and not great. Would come here again only if my boyfriend drags me out of bed.

Always a great place for lunch or late dinner all you can eat because of the great price. Quality is good overall, and the salmon and tuna sushi is tasty. The food typically arrives quickly but you may need to remind them of some foods you order if you are in a big group or order huge amounts. Teriyaki chicken and salmon is okay but the rolls and cones are what I would suggest sticking to. Don’t try to hide your rice or extra food because this place keeps an eye on you and won’t hesitate to charge you for what you don’t eat. Instead, make more orders and pace yourself. Lots of good food here for the price you pay.

I am not a fan of all you can eat sushi bars. I am always cautious about the quality of the fish and some of the restrictions that apply. Going here was not my choice and the people I went with were not Japanese, so I made the sacrifice and agreed to go.
There was a nice variety of food offered. They give you a menu and bring all items to your table. There were some menu items that you could order at an additional charge for your table. There was long list of fried food items. Some were traditional Japanese and others were a bit of a stretch. There were also several sushi items and a variety of rolls. I am more a fan of traditional sashimi, so I consider ordering a lot of sushi and rolls a waste. I went with two men who were basically bottomless pits. Needless to say we definitely got our monies worth day. I am surprised we did not put them out of business since we ordered so much food. I passed on most of the fried food items (I don’t usually eat cooked fish). The sushi seemed fresh and luckily no one got sick. I consider that a win for an all you can eat sushi bar. I did like that they had traditional Japanese tables (private rooms where patrons sit on the floor) in the back.

I would give this place 0 if I can. I’ve been here before and I though I’d give it a 2^nd chance since my family wants to try it.
They had a huge garbage can sitting in front of their entrance which makes me wonder about their hygiene and quality of food. There was garbage at their entrance that was lying there as well. The place is like a dumpster.
We had 6 people and the table we were seated at was more for like 4 people because there was no room to move. I don’t understand why the places us there however when I asked if we can move to a Bigger table, they said no. There was literately only about 15 people there and half of the place was empty. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t give us a bigger table. We decided not to give tips and was forced to do so.
I think giving tips is a gesture for good customer service which they don’t deserve. We didn’t care and walked out of the restaurant.
I’ll never recommend this to anyone and I’ll never ever go back again

Our friendly server was very honest about the size of portions and talked us out of some items because we had already ordered some large dishes. THANK GOODNESS because there was a lot of food coming out of that kitchen to our table. I’m not sure how portions work at all Japanese restaurants but E Bei was clearly trying to turn us into fat Americans. One of the sushi was some of the best I’d ever had but as is typical with sushi I had no idea what I was eating or what it was called.
Our booth had a low table with benches and pillows. E Bei’s location is great – especially if you were trying to get into the sushi place down the street which is super tiny and busy all the time. Park once: check out both and go for the shorter line!

Okay, I have been to this place years ago and it was great for an All you can eat place. The food was average and place is decently decorated. However, one of my best friend just went there on Thursday nite, and she had the worst experience ever. So this is not my actual experience, but I just wanted to passes this info on.
The situation went like this: they were a party of 4 for all you can eat. The food was great and good selections. When they were done and ready to leave the place they were just shown the bill and trusted it was all in order and paid it in full with tips.
As they left the restro and went into their car and about to leave. A waitress that serves them came knocking at their car window and claiming they under paid. Yes, they claim they under paid. Eventually, the waitress made an error of only charging them for party of 2 instead of party of 4. So it was just a simple mistake on the waitress end.
It would be a easy fix if the waitress would come knocking on the window and apologize first and tell them that she made an error and she needs to recharge them the difference. But NO, she came with rude attitude and claiming them for short paying or intended chip out on the meal!
GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE WE HAVE HERE!
So for those who plans to go there, make sure you check your bill before you leave!

So apparently the sushi chefs here rip the heads off octopuses with their bare hands. I’m not talking about the baby ones. These are the full-​grown purple ones. My friend and I couldn’t stop staring. When he was done, we couldn’t resist and ordered a couple of pieces of tako nigiri too.

This is a mediocre place for AYCE sushi. Yes, it is labeled as Junk Food sushi. Something that fills you up with cheap quality cuts, cheap quality sushi meat at a cheap price.
The cuts for the sashimi wasn’t as bad as I thought for junk food sushi. It was good and delicious, but I still had to douse it in soy sauce because there wasn’t enough flavor for the fish… Hrm. The cooked food here is not that bad, their terriyaki food is cooked perfectly. No judgement there.
The service here is not bad, but I can say the parking sucks. Why would you charge for parking anymore? Especially when the whole plaza is like extremely small already? Makes no sense at all. I don’t see me coming here anymore because of such amazingly dumb plaza expectations. ew.
I would only come here with a bunch of friends for just a great time spending with each other, and some random sushi junk food. We just come here to have a great time with a bunch of friends, share food, talk with each to catch up! It’s amazing to have these amazing times with each other.

Lunch buffet here is something like $ 12! And boy, did we eat our hearts out.
The service is fast but not quite as irritatingly fast as Richmond Sushi, which I appreciated. It was pretty quiet because we came at a strange time, so service was ok. Typical buffet service. My friend ordered chicken katsu and beef teriyaki which she couldn’t finish. They are supposed to charge you for that but luckily some persuading in Cantonese did the trick.
I came with two friends. We had:
–Green salad
–Shrimp vermicelli salad
–Fish soup
–Miso soup
–Nigiri: tomago, surf clam, salmon, red snapper, hamachi? (can’t remember this one),
–Rolls: california roll, Alaska roll, shrimp tempura roll
–butter and garlic calamari
–fried calamari
–scallops and oysters in mayo sauce
–a sweet tofu (can’t remember)
–agedashi tofu
–chicken katsu
–beef teriyaki
–fried sardines
–mackerel
Needless to say, I think we ate our $ 12 worth. The food was good, but as buffets go, not mind blowing. I thought the selection was also pretty good. It is definitely better than the sushi buffets in Seattle!
Its fun and a good deal: we will definitely be back.

E Bei presents a challenge for me. I’m used to being the voice of dissent in the negative direction and doing the opposite might lead some to question my health. However, review science isn’t about maintaining an image, it’s about honest opinion.
A site for sorely empty stomachs, Ebei presents three lunchtime options:
— All You Can Eat ($ 11), for power eaters and masochists
— Three item combo ($ 8.50) plus miso soup and salad, for minor power eaters
— A la carte, for the times you need something specific or small
E Bei is wise to AYCE shenanigans, taking the perhaps overly draconian steps of requiring all-​or-​none at a table for it to avoid sharing abuse and adding an extra charge for sashimi. I still considered this option out of some kind of spiritual culinary duty, but ultimately could not bring myself to do so.
Declining that option, we all opted for the combo to avoid having to compromise on choices. The range of options was surprisingly wide, from rolls and nigiri to unagi don and various hot appetizers. The presence of «chirashi» as an item led me to believe that everything was going to be miniaturized and raised concerns that I might not even have enough food.
I was flat-​out wrong.
Either I’m going soft in my thinner years or the crunchy salmon karaage, mini-​chirashi and savory ton katsu was, on top of the miso soup and salad bearing the standard Japanese dresing, far more like a large dinner than a lunch. Further, the rolls of my companions were 5+ pieces and possessed a mutant diameter.
Is E Bei the pinnacle of Japanese cuisine? No.
Is it a popular destination reinforced by being packed after 1pm on a weekday? Yes.
Is it a cheap satisfying lunch venue? Absolutely.

I usually don’t go for AYCE coz I’m not a big eater and I don’t believe the price can offer quality of food.
The food were ok coz I didn’t have any expectation. Honestly, the grilled pork chop was very tasty.
However, we ordered a bit more than we expected. The sashimi came a bit late and we were so full, therefore, we had to cancel it. The waiter was so friendly and took it back.
Therefore, I gave them 3-​star for service.