Kita No Donburi

Food is ok, force customer to give out the table because of out of space, if they are busy, expect u can only sit 15mins? Unless you show them u eat very slow.

While the food at this restaurant is acceptable and the portions are quite generous, I found the service slightly bizarre and the ordering system (choose and pay for the food and then sit down) both confusing and inconvenient. I would come here again for a quick lunch with a friend. However, I do not recommend this place to serious lovers of Japanese food.

i enjoyed this place. the set-​up is a bit unusual. the service is bright. you can tell they are making an effort. it’s interesting reading some customer’s theories on the ethnicities of the owners/​workers. what i noticed was the owner was Korean, the service and kitchen staff were Japanese. generally i’ve noticed the Japanese restaurants i prefer are Japanese or Korean operated.
i ordered the aburi set and it came with a beautiful array of carefully constructed nigiri/​aburi (?) and a bowl of miso soup. it wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t instant, but it was really good. and tasted very fresh. i appreciated the presentation and the obvious care that went into thinking about each piece.
i was in a hurry, and regretted not being able to savour each piece more. i noticed they serve wine at a fair price. i’m looking forward to my future visit. unpretentious + delicious + fresh fish + wine = i’ll be back.

Good food at good prices. One of my favourite places for lunch in downtown. The seasonal set lunches are great value. Only criticism is I don’t find the quality of rice the best. Perhaps it’s the way they cook it.

It’s not great, but the food is decent for the price. I’d say it’s worth it if you just want to have a quick and decent meal. We stopped by because we were extremely hungry and the displays in the window made the food look very appetizing.
We got the chicken teriyaki don and katsu don. The portions are not really that big but it isn’t too small either. If you’re really hungry I wouldn’t recommend the rice bowls. Taste wise it’s fine. Honestly we were too hungry to be too critical of anything. However we did notice that the chicken teriyaki don had hardly any chicken. You might as well call it a vegetable don really.
Service was alright. There isn’t really much they do other than get your food so that’s that. Not that it matters, but they say random Japanese here and there but they’re clearly Korean. Arigato gozaimasu~ Overall it’s okay. Go if you want. There’s plenty of better places around though.

The party I was with was looking for a sushi, and jumped into this place. While it wasn’t a very long list of rolls, they were tasty and super fresh. Get the Mori DX for a good sampler. Plenty food for one person. Someone else in the party got the spicy buta don and really enjoyed the dish. Some of the reviews talked about a mean old lady, but there was a nice energetic gal working the register who was really willing to answer questions and get our orders in asap.

I come here in between classes for lunch. Super awesome service. Food is great. Prices are reasonable for portions

Been here few times and I liked it until they changed their menu. My favourite was buta kimchi don (bbq pork and korean kimchi on rice) but they got rid of it recently.
So I tried hamburg don (salisbury steak on rice) but there was very little sauce and hamburg was really plain. So I felt as though I was eating plain rice with very little flavor.
Tried ton katsu don (deep fried pork) and it was not good. Katsu itself was okay but the sauce was yuze based and it was out of question. I mean, I’ve had yuzu based on sauce with katsu before in Japan but not like this. Rather than adventuring like this, I think it’s better to stick to regular katsu sauce or sweet miso sauce.
Tried chicken karaage few times but 2/​3, they were still frozen inside. Finding that out right after I bit in when I got home was an annoying experience. Plus that was after I asked them to cook them through because of the experience before. It tastes pretty good if they’re properly cooked though!
At least they got good service and clean environment to eat in.

The korean cashier old lady misunderstood my order and blamed me for it by trying to make me feel guilty about it on top of that… twice!!!
In addition, I do not understand why they pretend to be Japanese and speak really broken Japanese. In any events, the food was horrible since they Microwave rice.
THEY NEED TO HIRE NEW STAFF.

⁰⁄₁₀
Bad service
Over priced
Small portions
Ever since their recent changes this place loss their touch. The portions are absurdly small, and their service may be the worse than I’ve ever experienced. They constantly forget orders or get orders wrong while providing no compensation. The cashier had actually blamed a patron for having an allergic reaction to the Chicken Karrage (which contains peanuts, yet is not mentioned at all in the menu) and took no responsibility for it. Would not eat here again!

This joint has a crazy-​making fake food display with incorrect pricing.
In front of every display item is its name and price calligraphized in black ink on a wooden label/​card. The prices however, are higher once you step inside the door. For example, Chicken Karage is $ 6.95 in the display case, but at the cashier, you pay $ 8.95.
When I noticed the discrepancy on the payment processor, I chose to pay the extra $ 2.00 thinking that perhaps I had missed a lunch menu deadline, or something like that.
I was happy with the chicken, rice, tea, and general ambiance.
After eating, I discreetly approached the owner, and she gestured me to come outside to look at the display case. As if that was not the first time this had been brought to her attention, she went on and on about in inflation and the cost of chicken, etc.
I calmly told her that I did not have a problem with her raising her prices, as long as they were posted. She did not seem to ‘get it’ and pointed to a tattered piece a paper taped to the bottom of the display window stating that «the prices of each item in this sample display differs from our current item prices».
I asked, «Why don’t you just change the prices on the wooden labels»?
She replied, «because you cannot erase the ink on the wood». AHHHHHHHHH!

Stumbled upon this gem of a Japanese restaurant, and proceeded to enjoy a meal. The seating (I was seated by the windows) are tall, appearing to be wooden platforms. I ordered a simple dish (a donburi, I don’t remember particularly the name) along with takoyaki; overall a neat dining experience! Unfortunately, the odour of the restaurant did in fact follow me home which was strange as it has never been a problem prior to this trip.

Alright, it’s been 2 years since I came here. I work nearby so I was like hmm okay why not.
Their service has improved a LOT since 2013. Good thing too! I noticed a brighter working atmosphere among the staff, and the customers look pretty content too. The food tastes really good; I had the Katsu Curry, and it was very crunchy, tasty, and curry-​esque.
It’s definitely busy there during lunch hours but hey! It must be that good to have a lunch rush, right? I’ll be back from time to time for some more.

I have never expected this to happen here. It is a fast Japanese food place. Today we waited our food for more than 20 mins… all they said was umm… yes…wait a minute… so in the end we had to choose to get our money back and lunchless for the rest of the day… before we got our money back the cook in the kitchen was making funny faces and still insisted to have us to wait and then left the conversation with a cocky ignorance attitude like I don’t care. I won’t go back to this place anymore. This is. Classic case when boss not around the whole place goes down!

Not much was open at 8:30pm on Friday night and we were feeling picky about certain things so when we saw Kita No Donburi with their open sign still up, we were looking forward to trying some place new! They were closing at 9pm but there were 2 other tables eating still and they seated us, no problem. We were pretty hungry and they were slooooow. Slow at taking our order (there were 5 people working but only 1 seemed to be servicing the tables and never looked our way until we flagged her down), slow at bringing us our food…
I ordered the sukiyaki beef don which arrived first. I waited a while for my friend’s meal to arrive to eat together but after about 10 minutes, decided to start eating before it got cold. Then another 10 minutes went by and we kept thinking they were bringing out our food but then they would bring it to the other table which was weird because we didn’t see them order so they must have ordered well before we arrived. Finally the server caught our eye and came over and asked if we had received our bibimbap yet. Uh, no. I guess they forgot!
By the time we each received our meal and finished, it was well after their closing time, although they didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get us out as they were starting to clean.
Food was mediocre, my sukiyaki don didn’t have very much sukiyaki beef in it and the bibimbap as well. Big minus is that you, your hair and all your clothes will reek of stinky food smell after. Had to air everything out! Service was friendly but why is it so slow?

I can’t get enough of this place! I’m allergic to seafood so whenever I have japanese food I always opt for a Donburi dish. This was the first place I’ve been to that has about 50 million varieties! I tried the chicken karaage donburi that came with miso soup. The japanese mayo on the side made all the difference! YUM! I can’t wait to go back again for lunch!

This is one of my favourite places to go to for lunch. It’s close to my office and I love their Sushi Rice Bowls. I personally find that their quality of food is very good, I usually come here 2 – 3 times a month and no complaints about their food.
Kita is more or less a self-​served restaurant. when you first walk in, you line-​up to order your food first and then you find a available table, and you grab your own tea and water. Their line-​ups can be daunting during the lunch-​time rush, but most of the time I am able to get a table and their kitchen and servers are pretty fast at serving the food. Most diners at Kita know that it’s not a place to «hang out» basically you eat and then you go. So usually tables are freed up pretty fast.
I usually order their curries or their Salmon/​Negitoro Don. They also have Seasonal Menus for the Summer and Winter.
This is a great little place to have lunch, if you work around the area, I highly recommend trying it out.

My friend was raving about this place to me a while back so I thought it would be worth trying. I was wrong.
Even though you may hear random Japanese words being shouted, the owner and the majority of the staff are actually Korean. The food was very mediocre and their version of gyu-​don did not make the cut. The beef wasn’t very tender and the rice was very bland. As mentioned in my other reviews, I lived in Japan for approximately half a year, so going for cheap and delicious 350¥ ($ 4.00CND roughly) gyu-​dons was a regular thing for me and I expected much more from Kita No Donburi.
The salad was kind of sad, with 4 pieces of lettuce and a tomato while the miso soup was decent. My friend got a beef udon and it wasn’t anything special. I honestly have to say that my experience was quite disappointing.
As for the service, it is quite confusing but fast. After entering in the restaurant, you may be shouted at by the manager, not to sit down. She’ll force you to order first and then you choose your table. The food literally comes out 2 minutes after you pay and there isn’t much interaction between you and the staff. The waitress will usually just shout out your order and you’ll have to flag her down in order to get your food.
If I were to ever come back, I think I would try the Chirashi don since it looks like a great deal. ($ 8.75 for a fairly decent portion)

Pretty much what to expect near the English ESL colleges and SFU – targeting students so it’s good value. Not expecting like Donburi on Robson lol.
Ordered the chicken one, surprised the egg covered the entire bowl; decent amount of chicken, sprinkled with ginger and green onions. More rice of course.
But price can’t be beat, average price under $ 8.
No exactly a hot date material here, just a quickie during lunch for the working crowd.
Some bar style seating but faces inward, so no eye candy action haha.
free wifi.

Everytime I walk by Kita No Donburi, I always stop to look at the plastic food models in the window display. Finally I decided to give it a try and here’s what I think:
Good
–Décor…clean and open with high ceilings. I especially love the Japanese rice bowl chandellier
–Service… although the girl at the cash register had a hard time understanding what I was asking, staff is friendly
–Prices were reasonable for downtown. Food and quantity was good for what you paid for.
What Needs Work
–Food needed to be hotter. The tofu in my Sukiyaki Don was slighty cool in the middle. My husband’s Unagi Don was lukewarm. I almost wanted to take it back to the office and nuke it in the microwave for 45 seconds. Lucky the flavors in both our dons were still there, but a minus for the temperature.