Koko Japanese Restaurant

One of the best Japanese restaurants in Vancouver! Authentic Japanese food made in the traditional way by their Japanese chef. Great service. The booths are great. Best tempura I’ve had in a long time. Everything we tried was delicious. Sushi, yakisoba, sashimi, tuna tataki…
Will be back.

Authentic sushi restaurant in Vancouver. Great taste and service. We ordered sashimi and cones, everything was fresh. Recommend to true sushi lovers.

The good old days of Koko are long far and gone. For what was once a superior sushi restaurant located in east vancouver has now dwindled down to a empty shell. The passion, taste, and quality has all been sacrificed over the years to far distance themselves from the once pretisgious placing as one of the best japanese restaurants in Vancouver. The exterior and interior décor has always been the same, the dated and faded yellow sign hanging in front; and the decades old grungy carpet and peeling walls miraculously still standing. No need to hope for any renovations since it is nearing a quarter century and evident the end is near. The restaurant is still owned and operated by the same family with Kuni as the head sushi chef now and his mother as the kimono clad waitress who clearly lost her passion years ago and would love to retire. For what was once joyous greetings with smiles all around and great customer service has now come down to a look of annoyance and inconvenience to serve the few tables of customers still loyal to its brand. Koko is now nothing more of a novelty than a enjoyable japanese sushi restaurant, if you are looking for nostalgia then by all means, but if you are chasing memories of delicious food and service those days have long been forgotten. With the quality and quantity of japanese restaurants out and available now, Koko struggles to even make ends meet and it is quite evident in the quality of their food. The sushi did not taste fresh as if you had to use extra soy sauce and wasabi to mask a stench emitting from it, let alone being warm as if not stored properly or has been left sitting out in room temparature. Lets just say I did not have a pleasant experience afterwards and instantly knew where it came from but should have known better not to eat it. The overall quality just seemed as if you could have made it better with ingredients at home then paying for the convenience of eating out. There was nothing special let alone spectacular left from the old days where everything was good portions, good size, and good quality. From the days of enjoying Koko once a week as a child, to now trying to even consider it once a year is a sad sad memory of how these independant smaller older japanese restaurants are being dominated by bigger newer more mainstream ones. Koko is nothing more than a bittersweet memory now and I do miss the old days of Koko being ran by the same family… but again… in the old days… no more.

We stopped by this restaurant for dinner. I noticed this restaurant the last time I dined at Penny’s across the street.
We were greeted by a server dressed in a kimono. This was different from the usual Japanese restaurant experience. We chose to sit in a booth. The restaurant is fairly large and plenty of seating. It was not busy, but there were customers.
First off, water, hot towels, plates, and condiments were dropped off. Our food arrived shortly after we placed our order.
Sushi was fresh. There was wasabi on the rice which I believe is more of the traditional way to make sushi. The chopped scallop roll was well made. It tasted fresh. The gyoza was advertised as house made. It tasted decent. There was pork and veggies in the filling. The chicken teriyaki was different from the typical. There was barely any sauce. What little sauce there was, it was drizzled on the rice. We asked the server if that was how the chicken teriyaki was suppose to be and she answered yes. She did offer to bring more sauce.
The décor and the booths in the restaurant is showing its age. They can benefit from some updating or major renovations.
For the price they are charging, I think more effort should be placed on plating their food. They are charging above average prices for average quality food. There are so many Japanese restaurants around that we are very fortunate to be able to have plenty of options and competition. There is a lot of potential for this restaurant other than it having been around since the 80’s and Japanese owned.

The best sushi in Vancouver!!! If you want quality! Come here!!! Sit at the bar and order roll by roll!!!

The best sushi place on earth — hands down — I’ve eaten sushi all over the world. Koko ichiban des

i just came from there i really like the setup and the the service
everything was amazing

One PIECE of Sushi Garden Salmon Sashimi = One ORDER of Salmon Sashimi at Koko’s
This restaurant has been here forever, 30+ years and at the same location too! It is probably the only Japanese restaurant in Vancouver, maybe all of Canada that lasted that long. However, it does not make this a better restaurant.
25 years ago, the inside was dingy dirty. Now it looks freshly painted. Family owned, son (2^nd generation) is now the Sushi Chef. His wife runs the kitchen inside and mom (around 65 yrs old?) is the waitress.
Pretentious friendly. Actually I felt quite uncomfortable in the restaurant. The mom kind of scares me. Didn’t like this restaurant 25 years ago and still don’t like it today.
Chicken Teriyaki Don — Tastes good and not drowned in sauce. Authentic and different from today’s Japanese restaurants. It’s not breaded or deep fried then topped with icky sweet teriyaki sauce. Instead it’s marinated and then grilled.
Kalbi — tastes good, a little bit too sweet. $ 6 for 4 pieces.
Oyster motoyaki — Big and very light tasting mayo and has spinach on the bottom. $ 4.50 Good
Tsukune Chicken balls — $ 6 for 6 Tastes good, with a very light sweet sauce.
Salmon Sashimi — small order $ 7.25 NOT FRESH. I even got a bone in my sashimi. I showed her the ¼″ fish bone to the owner. She either didn’t hear or pretended not to hear & not see. The size was equivalent to one piece of Sushi Garden Salmon sashimi cut into 6 tiny pieces. I kid you not. Each piece was 1″ x 0.25″ and not consistent size. Go to Toshi, Zakkushi or Kishimoto for fresh sashimi.
Scallop Sushi — $ 4 one piece!!! Take a tiny scallop and cut it thin until it covers the rice. It was so thin, I could see the wasabi underneath it.
Chopped Scallop Sushi $ 4 — no mayo and it tasted good but it was $ 4!
Ok, the good about the restaurant. All their china dishes were of good quality. None of the dishes were cracked or chipped. No charge for the tea and there is actually a tea bag in the tea pot. If you notice, the other restaurants use wood for the sashimi platter. The platter is so worned, I wonder if I would good food poisoning. i.e. Sushi Garden, Nanaimo Sushi or any Chinese/​Vietnamese/​Korean owned Japanese restaurants.
I have spoken to waitresses that used to work there. They are yelled at in Japanese by the Sushi chef. They are very nervous & uncomfortable working there. They are sent home after 2 hours with only 2 hours pay, if the restaurant is not busy. They are asked to find their replacement when they quit.
Service: 2.5÷5
Food: ²⁄₅ for the sushi/​sashimi and ⁴⁄₅ for cooked food
Value: ²⁄₅ It has been a few days now, and I still complain about my $ 7.25 one-​piece like order of Salmon sashimi.
Score: 2.5÷5
Ahhh, now I remember why haven’t gone to this restaurant to in 25 years. Might go again in 25 years, when I forget again.

If this place was good at some point. those glory days have passed.
The price point far exceeds the quality of ingredients, preparation, presentation, service, and ambiance.
Our server was not impolite, but seemed very detached and uninterested in serving us, almost like she was there against her will.
We started with a seaweed salad which was very good but the portion size was inadequate. We ordered the assortment of sashimi ($ 26.50) and special assorted sushi ($ 21.75), and a chicken teriyaki for our 3y.o. The chicken was fine, but what high school cafeteria can’t nail that dish. The sashimi was very underwhelming. The pieces were too small and the cuts were inconsistent. 4 pieces of sockeye, 2 were one size, the other 2 were half that size. The taste was a bit off, unpleasant. 2 tiny rolled up pieces of ika which were uncharacteristically soft, almost mushy with no snap to it. 4 pieces if tuna, not red maguro, soft albacore, not terrible but no better than you’d find in a grocery store takeout tray. 2 pieces of very thin heavily (and unnecessarily) scored pieces of hokki. 2 opaque and dull pieces of amai-​ebi, no accompanying fried heads. Some thin slices of taco. And 4 sloppily hacked pieces of gritty mirugai that tasted of low tide at the rankest beach you can imagine. That was $ 26.50. The large assorted sashimi platter at Kishimoto (an impeccable sushi spot on Commercial Drive) is $ 18.50. On to the «special» assorted sushi. Not very special. Artificial crab, hacked up hokki, the same funky mirugai, soft ika, ebi, dull amai-​ebi (no fried head), inoffensive but thin piece of taco, and a lonely piece of soft tuna. One piece of fish! No salmon, no hamachi, no tai, no toro, no hotate… That disappointment was $ 21.75.
Over all I paid about $ 75 for a very disappointing meal-​ish experience. I had a delicious salad my wife made when I got home.
If your contemplating trying Koko, don’t, unless you have a time-​machine, perhaps it WAS good. but it sure is not worth your time or money now.

Went with a party of 7 people on a Sunday night. The place was about ¹⁄₃ full. Decided to try the restaurant again after seeing it in the Sun newspaper as we hadn’t been there for more than 10 – 12 years ago. Now I know why we stayed away for so long. The food was good, but we’ve had far better quality at other places. Worst of all was the service. When we walked in, nobody greeted us. I told someone that we had a reservation and she just walked away from us. I walked up to the chefs and said we had a reservation and then someone led us to our booth. After giving us our menus, nobody came back for 15 minutes. She then asked for our drink orders and left. We ordered our food and it took about 40 minutes to get it all. Some people got their food in about 15 minutes, while others waited for 30 minutes more. During dinner, we asked for tea refills and pop refills, which we never got. Getting our bill was even more of a wait. Meanwhile, the two waitresses are running around serving one table of four, but pretty much ignoring every other table. Needless to say, they received no tip. The food wasn’t good enough to put up with such bad service and now we’ll be staying away forever.

I heard about this place via The Vancouver Sun online article, and it talked about how there’s so many sushi places here in Vancouver — but only a few gems amongst the many. This place was cited as one of them, so I decided to give it a try.
The place from the outside looks old, rundown, and doesn’t attract the eye at all. The yellow sign doesn’t look good, with a logo with looks like it was designed from the 1980’s. And upon entry, the inside is as old as the outside… very gray, dimly lit, worn carpet and walls — the building truly does show it’s age. But none of this matters if the food and service are as good as the average 4 star average suggests, right?
Weeeeeell. The service is pleasant enough, and the food was alright… but the problem here is, it wasn’t necessarily *much* better than everyone else. OK sure, it’s slightly better than the infamous chains like Sushi Town, Sushi Garden, and all the other McDonald’s of sushi places.
The spicy tuna roll was good, the chicken teriyaki had a smoky flavor which was so-​so, but the tuna and salmon sashimi were only just OK. Not better than really any usual chain places around Vancouver. Service was fine… nothing to take issue with, but nothing to rave about either.
Even odder was that this was dinner on a Friday night, and the place wasn’t all that busy. Maybe this speaks to just how much competition there is (there was some strange «BBQ sushi» place or some such just down the road.
So in closing… this is not a 4 star place. Sorry guys, but it just isn’t. It’s 3 stars, meaning it’s just fine to eat at for a «regular» dinner. But this is not a place I would take a date to. The general area, the appearance and ambiance… maybe if you live close by sure, and want something a little bit better than Sushi Town.

Delicious !! Freshest fish in the city.
Jumbo spicy dynamite roll
Yakisoba
Gyoza
Kamakyzie chicken
To name a few favs
I grew up in a Japanese family and know good Japanese food! Try it!

Dinning at Koko reminds me an old saying: Don’t judge a book by its cover. I was totally surprised by the taste of the food, the service and it is owned and operated by real Japanese.
I have to agree with the other reviewer’s comment. Koko has been around long times (over two decades). The front door and the décor is getting dated. But it does not affect the quality & taste of the food; so is the service. Price wise is a bit higher than average. I personally think it really depends on what you are after, authentic genuine Japanese cuisine or average non-​Japanese sushi stuff… Your call.

It’s getting harder and harder to find good sushi and authentic Japanese food in this city. I remember a few years ago, you couldn’t swing a cat on Davie street and not find decent sushi. This comes from someone who first had octopus nigiri at the old Aki in what used to be Japantown along Powell. (I was 6 years old and I loved it) now they make what I call ’ garbage can rolls’, the more crap they throw in the more they can charge. (I’m pointing my finger at you, Kadoya, you started the trend) You won’t find these at Koko, just clean tasting fresh fish and huge perfectly prepared rolls, more fillings than rice. And another thing, their Ramens are awesome if you would rather do noodles. You gotta go try it for yourself !!

I had dinner there tonight and realised, to my alarm, that it has been 25 years since the first time I went to Koko. In all that time I have sometimes gone a few years between visits, but I am always pleased when I go back and it’s just as good as it ever was. It is a low-​key place with great fish and lovely service. Not as cheap as some places but that is because they aren’t using cheap fish. Well worth a visit.

Went here for my birthday lunch! It wasn’t crowded, a very nice and quiet place. Food was good and the lady there was really nice. Great service! Would love to go there again. BC rolls there is a must!

Very consistent and high quality sushi & sashimi. Service is pleasant. Quiet, relaxing, spacious. Lunch menu is great.

Koko had been on my radar for a little while now. Finally, today was the day.
The main attraction was their Sashimi. Per the bf, they had a master sushi chef back in the day. Apparently, just the way the sashimi was cut was so special that he wouldn’t stop talking about it. :)
Well, fast forward to 2012, I don’t know if there is a master sushi chef or not. But gosh darn it, that was some gooooood sashimi! Best I’ve ever had. I went with the ol’ standby Salmon and Toro (tuna belly) as recommended by the sushi chef. Both incredibly fresh and had a palatable chew (kwim?). The salmon was a beautiful deep red colour and toro was melt-​in-​your-​mouth buttery.
Other food items I ordered were also decent. I’d recommend giving the Gyozas a whirl. Lots of hot and cold selection on the menu.
Under its unassuming front next to an A&W drive-​through, this is a gem. How is this place not more popular?!
I noticed that it was hard finding the hours of operation on the Internet. They are open 7 days a week for dinner (starting at 5pm), and Mon.-Fri. for lunch.

This place has been here all this time and I’ve never ever thought about venturing out to try you Koko… Now that I did, I’m a believer!
The Lay of the Land:
This restaurant is big, but they have their seating really spread out. Japanese décor, sushi bar, a few tables, and a couple of booths. Don’t forget to take your shoes off when you get in a booth!
The price is a bit higher than the average Japanese restaurant, but mind you the majority of the Japanese food restaurants, that I’ve been to, are owned by Korean or Chinese lol. Their food is very authentic and excellent quality hence the premium price.
Food:
The food was stellar! Homemade vegetable gyoza, OMG! Gyoza King (
…), meet Gyoza God!
The yakiudon had very sophisticated yet subtle flavours and is probably the best I’ve had!
Gotta get the salmon sashimi too! Something about a perfectly cut fish taste so much better! lol Excellent quality of fish used and you could tell!
My only disappointment was the roll. I got the spicy dynamite roll which tasted good, but the rice was overcooked and almost gummy. Really???
Service:
They were amazing! I’m loving the Japanese hospitality! Superb friendly service!!!
I would have giving this place 5+ stars, but that roll… *sigh* really?

Koko’s has been here for as long as I can remember — and there’s good reason for it’s longevity.
Back in the day, the only place you could really get decent affordable Japanese food was Powell Street’s Aki or the Japanese Deli (aka «Disco Sushi») and Koko.
Flash forward twenty five years and sushi’s fairly ubiquitous — and while Disco Sushi is long gone and Aki’s moved uptown, Koko’s retains it’s humble roots in it’s unassuming Hastings location, next door to an A+W… and when it comes to value, quality and taste — it’s easy to see why this family run restaurant will likely be around for another 25 years.
Dean W.‘s on the money about the quality of their private stock wild salmon sashimi. I’d also recommend the house special sushi platter.
With regard to Alina N.‘s comments.
I’ve yet to encounter rude service at Koko’s (even with a hyperactive child in tow, or in a large drunken group overstaying our welcome) and while it may be a little on the dingy side I’ve never found the place to be unclean. I suspect like most people, I won’t use a chopstick that’s fallen on the floor in ANY restaurant, whether the place looks clean or not.
Koko’s is a great place to go with a group. They’ve got lots of izakaya /​tapas fare perfect for sharing and picking at. I’m a big fan of their seafood motoyaki and house-​special «Kamikaze» chicken (basically boneless strips of chicken cooked in Frank’s Red Hot — but goes great with beer and sushi). Prices for booze are fairly reasonable for the standard fare of hot/​cold sake and giant Kirin by the bottle. Weekends can get pretty busy during dinner prime-​time, so I’d advise calling ahead and try and snag one of their spacious tatami rooms (there are about nine of them — and I *think* a few of them can be combined to be double-​length).
Bonus for the gents, Koko’s also has the distinction of best view from the urinal ever. Unload a few of those giant beers with a panoramic view of the VanTerm cranes and North Shore Mountains.