Honjin Yaletown Sushi Restaurant

I came in for solo lunch after doing some grocery shopping in the area. I was promptly seated at a table by the window. Tea was served quickly to me and when I asked for water, that came fairly quick too.
I ordered a Toronto roll (California roll with a prawn tempura in it), the salmon belly shioyaki, and the assorted sashimi. The assorted sashimi came first. It had Atlantic salmon, tuna, tuna tataki, and Hamachi. It was a bit underwhelming. The pieces of fish were really small, especially the Hamachi, and it didn’t taste that fresh. $ 13.95 for nine pieces, you would hope to get some fresh and decent sized fish.
The roll was okay. Nothing fancy about it but tasted good.
The salmon belly shioyaki was a huge disappointment. The «slices» of salmon belly were small. And I know it’s supposed to be lightly salted, but it was definitely over salted. I mean, very VERY salty.
Maybe I didn’t order the right dishes or maybe kitchen was on an off day. Service was really good and attentive though. I may come back to try other items, but Honjin wouldn’t be the first on my list.

I had the special bento with chicken. Everything was good and service was nice as well.
Will return to try other dishes next time.

We stopped here for lunch while at first training at the Round House. It’s a nice pretty nice place and the rolls are nicely presented. The rolls are a little pricey but a step up from the average place. My only complaint was the service wasn’t the best, but sushi made up for it.

I work in the area and use to order take out fairly regularly from here. Until one day, my colleague found a hair suck in the sushi rice. I have not eaten there since.

I’ve always walked by here but never went in. Finally went in for a sushi meetup event. We had a group of about 20 people so we had the group tables at the back. The dividers were up so we got the whole long table seating. It just fit us all. Those dividers seems heavy, even though the middle part is the paper windows.
We had ordered food and it came pretty quick for the size of our party. The restaurant had other people in it so it was pretty busy for lunch time. The service was quick but not as frequent as I would like. We ran out of tea a few times but that’s ok, wasn’t there for the tea anyway. =)
The food was average. The salmon sashimi didn’t taste as fresh and the pieces were a little uneven. It could be that we had a lot of orders so they may have been trying to rush through it. It was a kind of like Sushi Garden. It is nothing like Toshi or Sushi by Yuji which I think is about the same price point but those ones have better quality. Miku and Minami are better too but these ones are a lot more expensive.
I will give it a try again with less people and see how it is.

Save your money and go elsewhere. It was gross. My husband ordered a several sushi rolls and all were gross and tasted mushy. Then they try to disguise the poor quality of the fish with overkill of the sauce. So all I can taste is the sweetness from the sauce on the sunshine roll. I ordered the eel donburi. They served 2 small pieces of the fish on a mountain of rice. I pretty much got charged $ 10 for rice.

Greated immediately at noon on Thursday, after confirming «one» (just me) I was seated at a table right beside their bar.
I was offered tea instantaneously and when I asked for water it was quickly presented in a pleasant glass.
Impressive customer service certainly understandably explains why a «lunch special» is $ 14.95 — hopefully the food is impressive as well (as I fear perhaps it’s more for eye candy than hunger sating — let’s wait and see…)
I ordered the «Deluxe maki» lunch special which is listed as: Sunshine roll, spicy tuna roll, dynamite roll, miso $ 14.95
Miso arrived steaming and molten a moment later. Fantastic suspension of miso paste tofu and seaweed dotted by tiny green onions with just the right about of salt.
Sunday shine, tuna and dynamite rolls arrived nicely laid out on a large plate. Certainly just enough food without being too stingy or salty. I loved the sunshine rolls with its mango topper that kinda fell apart on its way to your mouth on most to-​mouth attempts. A throughly enjoyable visit that I’d probably redo on a date than solo due to costs and the want to have upper crust dining.

I went here a couple of years ago for a takeout and I remembered that it was an average place with relatively fresh fish so when a bunch of friends decided on this place, I decided to try it out again.
We came in a big group, which made our order came understandably later than usual.
I ordered their chirashi ($ 15.95), which is sashimi on top of rice. I was disappointed. First, their rice was too warm and crusty in some pieces. They serve the chirashi with surf clam, salmon (not sockeye), tuna, shrimp, tamago and maybe hamachi (?). They all taste perfectly boring and bland, not inspiring at all. Not to mention that the cut for $ 15.95 is a little bit too thin, making it overpriced in my opinion.
From the comments around the table, I gathered that their experience was also average at best.

An amazing place to have a light sea food dinner and refreshing Saporo beer on a streets of Yelltown.

No tip for you! Their soup was horrendous. We asked for hot sauce or teriyaki to make it taste like something and not only did the waitress say it costs extra for hot sauce the manager came over and argued and said we ordered the wrong soup. Yes. Yes we did, because the soup was so bland and the service was so terrible that for the first time in my life I left no tip! I won’t be back.

I’ve been coming here for a few months now. The last three times have been terrrible. Ran out of hamachi and Toro the first time. Ran out of sake and was 30 mins late with my order the second time.
I’m currently here with my girl and another couple. Waitress took our order after approx 30m. At 75m, the rest of the table had their food and inquired about mine. We were told repeatedly that my two rolls were ready and would be right out. I have now been here for well over two hours. Cancelled the roll orders. Will not be returning or recommending this place to others.

First time here and I have had a mixed experience:
sushi was pretty good, ramen was awful. But what got me to write this review is that I asked for Spicy Sauce and without being told I got charged $ 2 for it.
I’m OK paying for sauces as long as I’m aware of it, but being charged without my knowledge is not cool.
Overall decent food, terrible customer service.

Service was pretty bad, and the restaurant wasn’t even all that busy. The wasabi looked old, almost had a crust to the outside. The fish roll seemed ok, BC roll was good though. My order came out, and 15 minutes later my companions order came out. His lackluster chicken karaage was 4 chicken pieces, iceberg lettuce, and some orange dressing. Not cheap either.

Honjins never ceases to amaze and wow me in both their fish and service. I have been going to honjins since its inception approximately 12 years ago. I have brought many friends, dates, and groups and everyone has been duly impressed.
On one of the dates we happened to sit beside the owner of both Honjins and struck up a small conversation while she waited for her guests. She thanked us for our ongoing support and bid us bon appetit. When our first dish came out we didn’t recognize it but the owner paused her meal to explain that it is one of their best dishes, is not on the menu, is complimentary and needs to be eaten immediately. For those of you who know the Asian Shiso leaf imagine that with tempura batter and deep fried. It comes out like a warm crispy chip that has added flavor and dimensions from the shiso. Then they pile it high with small chunks of Atlantic salmon that has been tossed with cucumber, green onions, sesame seeds and a sauce/​glaze that brings it all together. Pick it up with your hands and finish it in three bites. You will be tempted to order another round but save room for everything else!
I normally judge a sushi restaurant by the sashimi. Only if they start with the freshest fish and prepare them in the perfect size do I see the quality knife work and attention to detail. Recently I had the freshest toro (tuna belly) that I’ve ever had. It was both flaky, firm and creamy at the same time.
They have a section in their menu called ‘Robata’ which is cooked/​grilled dishes. I haven’t tried many but the Korean short rib is a decent portion and the marinade is enjoyable. There is a baked crab dish that I order every time I eat here. Essentially it is flaked crab meat mixed with a butter/​mayo concoction which is poured over raw sliced button mushrooms and some blanched spinach. The whole thing is sent to the broiler to get some caramelization and marry the flavors. It is served with a wedge of lemon which is highly recommended to help cut the richness of the dish. Try to get a piece of all the ingredients onto one bite to see the genius of this dish. The mushrooms are left slightly raw which gives it a meaty platform for the crab to shine.
I love the rolls but you really need to go often and remember your favorites because there is very limited descriptions for each. The staff are knowledgeable and will patiently explain each roll however I haven’t had any I didn’t like so feel free to pick anything.
I few last tips: the beef tataki is great value and quality, ask about what is fresh that day and you may be pleasantly surprised, and ask for the heated wet naps if you don’t get it automatically.
Finally there is one dish I enjoy but never order here. I enjoy ebi sunomono because of the fresh vinegar tartness as well as the cold noodles on a warm day. There are usually 2 whole ebi (steamed, cooled and butterflied prawns) in a proper sunomono but honjins uses a handful of the baby shrimp instead of the prawns. Their broth/​vinegar base is also lacking in punch and the temperature hasn’t been cold enough. They may have changed things but I don’t dare order it since it would waste space in my belly for everything else that’s amazing!

It’s a good sushi place with traditional Japanese decoration. Sunshine roll and rainforest roll are the best.

Surprisingly one of my favourite sushi places in vancouver. You need to order 2 things: 1. Tuna shooters, at least 2 each. 2. Rainforest roll.
Great quality, decent price, lots of creative roll selections.

Tuna and wild salmon sashimi were nice big/​thick pieces and extremely fresh.
They were also able to accommodate my request of a chopped scallop cone without rice which had a very tasty filling. :)
BBQ smelt was cooked well.
I’ll def be back.

Honjin Sushi’s 2014 Taste of Yaletown $ 29 promotion is superb value for what you get — a filling meal, tasty food, artsy presentation.
Example: Their Yaletown Roll is not your usual sushi roll where everything is tucked in and every piece looks the same. Here, the prawn an fish are draped artistically on the outside, and the tail of the prawns are used as well. Beautiful to look at and every bite is slightly different.
The $ 29 TOY menu is really quite filling — after your appy and roll you get a full plate of several items including a good slab of teriyaki chicken. You’ll be grateful dessert is a small bite because that’ll be all the room you have left for it.
Unlike last year’s TOY menu, they did away with the rice, which is not only a good thing menu-​wise, but they have replaced it with even more tasty value.
Definitely go if you have never been there.

Why do I end up going to these average restaurants? My friend and I meet at Honjin cuz it is a middle spot for where he lives and where I live. Hardly a good way to pick a restaurant hey? Let’s eat here cuz it’s in the middle! Haha
We share some deep fried gyozas. We didn’t like it. It was a bit on the dry side. Very flat flavor. You pretty much had to drown it in soya sauce to bring out any flavor whatsoever.
I had a nabeyaki udon… It was ok. But I found I was very thirsty when I got home. I drank a bit of the soup so I’m going to conclude that Honjin uses a fair amount of msg in their soup base.
We also shared the Japanese seafood pancake. A bit disappointing again. Dry dry dry! We both had 2 pieces and dumped the rest of it! The dipping sauce that came with the pancake was a bit tart. I don’t think it was a good flavor match for this dry dish. The sauce should enhance the dish’s flavor not mask the flavor!
Ok given the negativity why 3 stars? Cute waitress! Haha. She was a cutie and served us well. She deserves a star by herself!
After that unsatisfying meal I stopped my the DQ and got a chocolate dip cone! It was the best part of the meal!

When it comes to price, you can get a great deal here. When it comes to taste and freshness, perhaps not. I think I’m a bit of a sashimi snob, but I know people who prefer the approach of getting as much food as they can for their money. And to them, it doesn’t matter if the quality is only mediocre.
I came in here on a whim and ordered the sashimi lunch. It mentioned coming with some rice, salad, and miso soup, as well as some tempura. Okay… I suppose I imagined this incorrectly. I pictured a couple pieces of tempura but was a little surprised (read: mortified) when I saw how much food I was getting. Did I supersize this meal by accident? See my photo for reference — you get two prawns, two pieces of eggplant, one yam tempura, a good portion of rice, a good portion of salad, a typical miso soup, plus the sashimi. Really, I was going for a light meal…
I couldn’t finish the meal, not because of the amount of food, but more because it just wasn’t all that great. The sashimi didn’t taste fresh and the pieces were cut way too thick. I definitely ate all the tempura, however.