IGAWA Japanese Restaurant

GREAT Japanese restaurant in Kennedy Town. My boyfriend and I randomly came across this place while just roaming around starving. Sashimi, sushi, yakitori, udon, two pages of chef’s recommended Japanese dishes, and lots of specials!
I got a set dinner which was a ton of food for $ 178. Salad with yummy sesame dressing to start and three HUGE delectable slices of salmon sashimi, egg custard, six pieces of sushi and two pieces of a sushi roll (the sushi roll was the only thing I didn’t like, actually, it was like a California roll, I think, bleh), two big pieces of fresh tempura, miso soup, and mochi ice cream for dessert. I am extremely picky when it comes to sushi and don’t mind paying a lot for quality, and this sushi was legit!
My boyfriend got the curry porkchop cutlet which was a huge portion, and only about $ 80, I think!
We also got a few skewers, all delicious. I can’t wait to try more of these next time!
Can’t comment personally on the fancy desserts, but they had a pineapple sorbet served IN A PINEAPPLE that looked divine! We were too full from the delicious dinner!
Also, cool thing I haven’t seen at a restaurant before. They have a stamp card with 40 slots on it. I wasn’t entirely clear how we earned our three stamps, though our bill was 300-​something so I have a feeling it was per $ 100 spent, but you can «cash in» the stamps for dishes at future visits, ranging from 3 stamps for some grilled vegetables (I think that’s what it was), and up to a grilled lobster if you fill up the entire thing. There were lots of choices worth between 3 and 40 stamps! Cool little system, huh?! Well, I was impressed at least :-) I’m goin’ for that lobster, baby!
And just for the record, service also superb, and food was out very quickly! Igawa gets five stars from this elite Unilocaler!

I have to be honest, I never actually intended to go to this restaurant. We instead stumbled across Igawa after walking along Catchick Street. And this restaurant was a pleasant surprise!
They have an expansive menu consisting of sashimi, sushi, rolls, kushiyaki (grilled skewers), a bit of Japanese hot-​pot and the like (sukiyaki, etc.), and assorted rice and noodle dishes.
We ended up ordering a bit of sashimi, sushi, and dinner sets.
For their sashimi, we were quite surprised by the freshness of the fish. We expected it to be sub-​par, but we were quite happy to pop fresh little morsels of scallop and the like into our mouthes.
For their sushi, an interesting dish we ordered was the «flame seared butter on salmon oyako battera». Basically, you get a thickish slab of salmon box pressed on top of rice, with a few small pieces of avocado tucked in the centre of the rice. What’s unique about this dish is that there’s a generous dollop of butter set ablaze on top of the middle piece (it is served as 6 separate pieces). For those of you Vancouverites, this dish is reminiscent of Miku’s Aburi Salmon Oshi. For those who I don’t make sense to at all, it’s basically a rich combination of the buttery taste and gently half-​seared salmon mixed together with rice. Try it out, it’s good!
For their dinner sets, most of their rice and noodle selection on the main menu is featured in their dinner sets. When you order a dinner set, you get a miso soup, salad, and entrée. My partner thoroughly enjoyed his curry pork katsu. But for me, the «silver cod saikyo yaki» (grilled black cod), could have been better. I found the fish to be too dry (perhaps due to a prolonged period on the grill?), so it lost it’s moist, flakey richness. :(
Nonetheless, their service was really attentive (there are more managers than waitresses serving patrons) and I find their quality in general to be good!