Mars Japanese Bistro

I’m pretty picky about good sushi and this place simply isn’t Aji Sai or Shiro.
Every time I walk by this place, it’s always empty. We decided to give it a try because I want to find a good sushi place locally without having to trek to Cambie or Kerrisdale.
The service was good. There is only one waitress and she was friendly. But we don’t go to restaurants solely for service, so let’s talk about the food:
— I generally avoid restaurants with low turnover because it means they don’t go through their food as quickly. This was the case here. My piece of ikura was off. I struggled to swallow it. The first piece was fine but the second piece was awful.
— the squid with spicy cod roe was delicious. I would say it was the most delicious thing we had that evening.
— everything else was mediocre. The sushi rice wouldn’t stick together and kept falling apart.
At this price point, I expect better quality. I would say it’s a step up from Samurai Sushi, significantly better than The Sushi Bar (across the street), but still subpar compared to the other two places I mentioned.

Solid 4 star Sushi selection made by a veteran Vancouver Itamae.
Excellent service warm welcoming atmosphere and cheap booze.
Notta helluva lotta room in this place though it redefines cozy so don’t show up with a mob.

Of all the Sushi restaurants in Vancouver, of all the fantastic sushi restaurants in Vancouver, in my brief visit back to my home town, sadly we ended up here. Put simply, Mars is far from being, «out of this world».
With no data access on our phones in Canada, we took a risk of dining here without Unilocaling and things did not end well. Not well at all.
The service, while friendly, was frustrating, with the waitress needing to make multiple checks back to the chef for simple questions like, «can we get this roll without tobiko» or «can you make this roll without mayo.»
WIth the orders placed, we awaited our food. First to come out was a Tuna Sashimi and Avocado salad, the highlight of the meal. The Tuna was tender and tasty and the salad fresh and palette pleasing. Sadly, It was downhill from there.
The scallop roll was slimy and mayo soaked and instantly lowered my expectations for the rest of the meal to come. Problem was, the rest of the meal did not come. Despite clearly ordering two additional roles, the waitress did not not pass on the message to the chef. With my rather mediocre scallop roll recently behind me, I can’t say I was too upset.
I did however want to give them another chance. Not wanting to venture into their seafood selections again, I opted to keep things simple with a Yam Tempura Roll (YTR) and an appetizer sized portion of assorted Tempura. The YTR was unspectacular at best, with the yam undercooked, and the ratio of cucumber to yam, much too high, for any measurable degree of taste. The assorted tempura was run of the mill, but decent enough to ingest with mild enjoyment.
Upon entry to the restaurant, we were greeted by a large «Grand Opening Sign» laid out across the front window. I fear, that if things don’t soon improve, that sign might soon be saying «For Lease».
–SZ

It’s cheap. It’s OK. Bang for your buck? Maybe. I too, like many people was looking for the delicious skewers, they were nowhere to be found and I considered leaving, but hey I’ll just give them a try! Honestly it was a bit like eating sushi on Mars, not as good as on Earth.
Tried their California, tuna, salmon rolls. The regular stuff if you want to call it that. The fish was fresh, not the best quality sockeye or anything but it wasn’t bad. The only thing that I really didn’t like was that there was so much rice! Sure you get full, but on rice = carbs? No thank you. Service was alright, food was very fast. I would come back if I needed a fast and quick sushi fix in the area. Overall B.

* No more yakitori — now a sushi bar with some hot menu items too *
We wandered in and thought we were sitting down in Zakkushi. But were surprised when the menu came to not find any yakitori on the menu anymore. Then we realized that things have changed and this is now Mars Japanese Bistro — a sushi focused spot with a bunch of other Japanese hot menu items too.
Many of the customers were confused and looking for the skewers. Alas no longer on the menu.
We started off with the tuna avocado salad. They served this using bincho, which was nice and fresh. The avocado slices were small but fresh tasting. Both were on top of some standard greens and topped with a decent sesame ginger dressing and a few slices of radish for colour. 3 stars. Photo:
The California roll had a strong crab flavour (perhaps they mix a bit of canned crab in with the standard fake crab?) and fresh avocado. The nigiri were the standard selection of bincho, salmon, and ebi. All were reasonably fresh. The nigiri itself was formed a bit sloppily, as was the roll. Not a fine piece of work, but everything was fresh tasting. 3 stars. Photo:
The chirashi was a fairly basic offering with the highlights being the wild salmon, large fresh tasting hotate, and the ika. The tamagoyaki was also pleasant. The random piece of lettuce would have been better if it was a shiso leaf. Overall 3 stars. Photo:
Overall I liked Zakkushi more than this new spot. I’m not sure what caused the change, but I do wish them well in a sea of budget sushi spots.