We have all come to expect inauthentic and poor quality food from the all-you-can-eat "Japanese" restaurants in Vancouver.

These restaurants typically serve food that has a Chinese flavour to it. There is no attention to detail, quality ingredients, and presentation, let alone preserving the unique subtlety of Japanese flavours.

There generally is no service - no "you're welcomes" to my "thank yous," no smiles, no eye-contact. Most servers at these restaurants are robots, totally disinterested in your dining experience. You feel like you are inconveniencing the staff by ordering food at their restaurant.

Fish on Rice on Kingsway is no different.

I am writing this review primarily to warn others that the restaurant may be charging you more than your receipt indicates.

I noticed that the amounts on my bill and my credit receipt did not match.

When queried about the differences, the manager replied, it was an additional charge for leaving items uneaten.

I told the manager that neither the serving staff nor he had told me I was being charged an additional $2 for not eating 6 balls of grease. He initially insisted that that was their policy, but I argued that the items in question were inedible.

The item uneaten was a yam tempura roll that was so oily that one could only taste overused frying oil and not the yam tempura flavour. The batter was so thick - unlike the delicate batters offered to you at genuine Japanese restaurants - that it was chewy rather than melt-in-your-mouth >>> inedible!

I raised my voice just loud enough so that other patrons could hear our interchange. I repeatedly said that this is bad business practice and wondered how many thousands of other patrons had been ripped off, scammed in the same fashion.

He said he is only charging what the serving staff had advised him and proceeded to apologize for his staff member's mistake. He not only did not take credit for his error in not advising me of the additional charge, but he tried to put the blame on his staff.

He gave me an affected "I sorry" and was quick to give me a toonie. "OK, OK, I sorry. I give you back toonie, OK, OK."

I took my toonie and left incensed by the experience and compelled to write about it and let others know about the un-ethical business practice of this restaurant.

If you have to eat at this place: come with no expectations about the food and service. In fact, expect the worst and you may be pleasantly surprised if a staff member smiles at you.

Please check your bill and the actual receipt (after paying) to ensure that no additional amounts (unknown to you) have been charged.

You might just simply avoid this place altogether to prevent any unsavoury (stomach or headache) experiences.

I believe i've made a review earlier for fish on rice but an update is truly needed. I have always loved this place and i was proud to recommend it to most of my friends. sadly this place has truly gone downhill. I hope the manager/owner read these comments and realise that no positive comments have emerged in the last several months. First the food is still imo decent enough for a AYCE. compared to other places i've been to they are still one of the top places. the dissapointment comes from 1) the salmon sashimi where i dont think it is as fresh as it used to be 2) the reason the food scored a POOR is because what is the point if ur food is great but u dont receive them. i love black cod but it never comes accurately, you order 4 piece u get 1 or 2 pieces , you order 10 pieces you get 2 pieces.. that is what i called FRAUD. Next the service, i wonder if the waitresses get beat in this place because they look sad and look angry. Value for eating angry = poor, ambience, what ambience, I frequent this place quite often due to proximity and their wide selection but i pray that their managers take a look at these latest review and change the way they do thigns because with the addition of the HST I have already noticed a drop in customers and I dont want this place to go out of business.

This is probably one of the better all-you-can-eat Japanese places around here, but that isn't saying much in terms of service and food quality. The food is mediocre, but nothing to rave about. I like how all-you-can-drink pop is included with your meal as well -- nice feature. The selection of menu items is good as well. Food doesn't take too long to arrive either, but expect less quantity than what you had written down (just means you must order more).

Been here a couple of times before, and while the service left something to be desired, the food was ok. However, for this visit the third time was "the harm" as the service left me with the desire to descend into a wild rage. Three friends and I had gotten there an hour before they stopped serving lunch but the manager assured us this was plenty of time. After waiting for about 15 minutes I had to grab our server and we made our sizable order, including our limit of sashimi (tuna and salmon). Twenty minutes later we only had four small dishes of the many we had ordered, and only the tuna sashimi. Being a sashimi lover, I had to grab the waitress again to ask where the rest of the food was. She informed us that we had received the food and our sashimi limit was reached! After a breif argument she also told us it was last call for food. All four of us still being hungry, I gave in and we submitted our order. Twenty minutes later and we still only had a few dishes. Once again I grabbed the waiteress, and when I asked where our food was she told me the computer said we had received our food and I was lying!!!!! In disbeleif I had to ask if any more food was coming and she said "no, the kitchen is closed". Talking to the manager solved nothing as he just told me to order lots next time since mistakes can be made!!!! There are signs on the menu that inform people that they will be charged extra for any uneaten food clearly discouraging people to overorder and besides we ordered quite a bit anyways! By this time I was fuming and I refused to pay. Feeling responsible for suggesting the place and not wanting to cause a scene, my buddy paid the entire bill although none of us will ever go back. As if traffic on kingsway was not enough, now everytime I drive by Fish on Rice I want to break something! :(

My friends and I went to eat there for dinner. It cost $24 for AYCE. When paying, the waitress waited behind us and stared us down making sure we paid our 10% tip. Worst experience / service in Burnaby and Vancouver. Next time, if there is a next time, we will make sure they are not getting tipped.

I have been to this restaurant, very disappointing. they proceeded to forget to bring our actual sushi (nigiri and sashimi) maybe to fill us with other stuff first. When I complained we finally recieved the sushi, I was disgusted. The sushi was warm, smelled very fishy and had a disgusting taste to it.

I think our meal was at least $20 each. Never going back.

I went there for Japanese food regularily as my daughter loves very much, but I couldn't help but tell everyone the very bad experience that I had there recently.

I was over charged once as they treated my daughter, who is only 9 years old, as adult. When I questioned the manager the next time when we had dinner there. What I was told was that it was always being processed and you should be careful with the bill in the future. Okay.... I accepted.

We went there again last night. I was really, really, pissed by that happened to us...... Unacceptable ever!!!!
A waitress, whom I had never seen before, walked to us and asked my daughter's age first, and then told me later on that they were going to charge me the kid's price this time and I had to pay for the full price for her in the future. She also said to me that we, once, told them that my daughter was 10 years old. How rediculous was that?!

Luckily, I had my daughter's birth certificate with me. When I asked where their manager was, and a boy told me that the manager wasn't there. I let him to see my daughter's birth certificate and questioned how they could make up a story to a customer like that. All he said to me was that "sorry, but now, you have approved yourself that she is 9 and you can pay the kid's price for her now."

WHAT WAS THAT????!!!!! Do we have to approve ourself when there is no such a policy in story? And the thing made me feel even worse was that the manager was actually there, but he chose not to show up because I saw him at the registra.

This was the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant where we are supposed to have a good services as we pay for it. I thought it would be better to let everyone know about this suck service ever because you don't want to be treated like that!!!!!

Usually whenever I come here it's with a larger group of friends. The place is pretty clean and they normally give us a room to ourselves that looks over Kingsway area, which I really like.

Normally we do AYCE whenever we come here, and it's alright. One of my friends is a vegetarian, as am I. The food is okay, not great though. I like their agedashi tofu. The tempura is good too. They don't try to slice the sashimi too thin I've noticed.. but I have no idea how it tastes. I have a feeling their miso soup has a lot of msg.. cause I always chug water after I drink it. Also their salad.. don't bother. It's like prepackaged salad mix dumped in there with a sauce on top, though I do like the sauce a fair bit.

The service really depends on how busy the place is. We normally don't have a problem with it, sometimes you may need to ask the waiter/waitress to refill tea or water, but no biggie.

It's affordable and has alright sushi. I'll go back, it's better than some overpriced AYCE places.

I went their friday night with a group of ten people and left very disappointed. Here is what happened in the two hours I stayed there...

1. The waiter and waitress messed up the drinks, our glasses were always empty, nobody bothered to fill them as it is all you can drink.

2. We got double order of rice sushi and unknown fish heads that came out of no where. We got our sashimi at the end when everyone was all full. Sashimi was not not fresh and did not taste good.

3. We had dirty plates in front of us 30 mins at a time, we had to clear the plates our selves.

4. They forced us to pay 10% tips when were only going to give them 5% for their bad service.

5. Nobody bothered to come and asked us how we were doing.

6. The mango pudding was cut into bite size pieces, they were hoping we would eat only one piece.

7. We asked about our sashimi order over five times, and took them forever to make it.

8. The food was not great compared to other japanese buffets in Richmond.

9. The servers did not split the food for us, they threw everything on a big plate and expected us to pass it around. If the food was one two separate plates, they just give it to one side and were lazy to bring it to the other side of the room. Talk about self service.

10. We did not get everything we ordered. We had to write the sheets many times to get what we wanted.

I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone unless they get new servers!

I readily admit that when it comes to sushi, I’m a bit of a snob. I'm not a fan of all-you-can-eat, and prefer to see my sushi made before my eyes, or at least within easy view. Part of this preference is due to freshness, and to reassure myself that everything is made to order. But part of it is also for entertainment. Watching an experienced sushi chef ply his craft is just plain fun to watch. That said, it was with some hesitation that I went on an office outing to Fish On Rice on Kingsway. I’d been there once before – a visit that was surprisingly passable – and didn’t want to press my luck. As it turned out, the second visit was a mistake.

Maybe it was the size of our group (there was a dozen of us), but service was chaotic. Food arrived which we hadn’t ordered. Orders we made never came. It seemed like we had three or four different servers bringing out food, which resulted in confusion regarding who was to receive what. At one point, dishes were simply dropped off at one end of the table, leaving us to figure out to whom it belonged. It wasn’t as if we were being particularly difficult patrons, either. Despite our group size, we were well organized, placing all orders at the beginning rather than tossing them in during the course of lunch.

As for the food itself, the hot items were mostly okay. The high point, personally, was the chicken karaage. It came out hot, crispy, and delicious. The veggie tempura was also decently made. The chicken teriyaki was only so-so, no better or worse than you’d find at most Japanese restaurants. And I was advised by several that the beef teriyaki, which I didn’t try, was not very good at all. The biggest disappointment was the gyoza, which came out deep-fried despite us not ordering them that way. By consensus, they were awful.

The sushi received a similar reception. The sashimi tasted alright, although there was something a little off about their textures. The salmon was gummy, and the tuna gritty, as if it hadn’t been properly frozen/defrosted. The dynamite rolls, which normally are among the first to disappear, were only half-eaten. The BC rolls, which again I didn’t try, were hardly touched by the person who had ordered them. And all the other nigiri and rolls were only average, at best.

Service, as noted above, was spotty. Even though I know it was unintentional, it still left a bad taste in my mouth that my debit card was almost charged $150 instead of $15 due to the careless push of a button. Ambiance-wise, Fish On Rice looks exactly the way you’d expect a high volume Japanese restaurant to look. The one area where Fish On Rice does excel is value – as long as you’re interested in quantity over quality. In which case, I’m in no hurry to return for a third visit.