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Banzai is a sister restaurant to Samurai Sushi on Cambie serving very large sushi.
After I wrote my review, my friend told me he got a little sick after having Banzai sashimi. Agh! It's not serious but I won't describe the details to turn you off. I had rolls and he had lots sashimi. That explains why I am safe.
I guess there is no point to go back if food doesn't sit well in your tummy. I knew it was not ideal when I saw how dingy the place was and the square was kind of dirty. Note to yourself: don't eat sashimi from an unclean restaurant. I think you have to be kind of picky about the cleanness of restaurant especially if they serve uncooked food.
Mrs. C and I were out buying last-minute Xmas gifts in Richmond, and I remembered that BSH was near the building that got hit by the plane. “Hey, let’s check it out”, I said. So in we went.
The restaurant was very modern and clean overall, except the scary unisex w/c.
The server was friendly, and the menu selection was vast. So too was the sushi. It was crazy big, but not as insane as at Samurai. Close though. We had some nigiri, a Cali and a beef roll and some sashimi. Everything was well-prepared and fresh, but you could choke on the pieces. The sashimi looked like each piece was about 150 grams. Ouch!
Will I be back? Probably, but only if I am very hungry.
Food: Had the house roll and spicy tuna roll. Tuna was a bit fishy (as in not that fresh). House roll was ok, nothing spectacular but not bad either.
Service: Had take-out. The lady taking my order seemed a bit out of it. Didn't notice me even when I stood right in front of her and tried to get her attention. Just took my order and money. No thank you or anything. But the food came out fast.
Value: As others have mentioned, the rolls are huge! So definitely a good value if quantity is what you're looking for. Can't say that much about the quality though.
Ambiance: The place looked clean but as I only ordered take-out, I can't really judge.
I went there once and the lady there was like being very bitc**. The problem starts here: the time before coming this time, there was some problem with their waitress. We order Spicy Salmon roll but they gave us the Salmon Roll (cheaper). So I obviously told the lady that I want the spicy salmon roll instead so she gave me an angry face, purposely put EXTRA spice in the roll to annoy us. So then this time I went the lady came and told me " I remember last time we had a problem and I am going to write down all the stuff you order on another piece of paper . When one dish comes, I will check it off" My first impression : *DISRESPECT*. We didnt even think it was a big deal and God that happened 1 MONTH ago!! Before I got the chance to talk to her, she left. So when she came back with the dishes, she told me to give her paper. I didnt, I told her that we are very angry at the service. It was disrespect to the customer. Her excuse was that she does that to ALL the customers with LONG orders. Guess what I ordered. 1 spicy salmon roll, rice and sashimi. Thats it. Are you kidding me, my or der is *so* lonnggg.... so she kept arguing and arguing. we were like wow and she said its a rule from the boss. i bet shes the boss herSELF but she doesnt want to admit. Overall I say ****AVOID**** this place. Sushi wasnt even that good only because we live close and its convenient.... so i overall rate it 1/5.
The food: big BIG pieces of sushi. Pretty solid quality for a sushi place in this price range. I really enjoyed their house roll.
The service was okay. They were going through a lunch rush, so I didn't expect them to be super attentive. They were, however, very polite and definately tried their best.
Value is outstanding. As the previous poster said: you can definately get full off of $8.00 ($5.00 if you order the 1/2 house roll!).
Ambiance is decent. It's a LOT nicer than their sister restaurant (Samurai on Fraser or Cambie).
Overall: I would highly recommend anyone looking for an inexpensive but fulfilling lunch!
If you want to get full of 8 bucks, and have some half decent sushi...go here! its definately NOT quality, but thats not what they are selling...they are selling quantity...for around 8 dollars you can make yourself full from some ok sushi. If you frequent tojo's or are from japan don't go looking here...
The quality is ok, but I personally like it since I'm a guy, and love HUGE PIECES OF FISH AND SUSHI...
This is not the place to visit for high quality sushi but the portions are crazy. The rolls are huge and can feed any hungry guy. I have taken out the $20 sushi tray before and it is enough to feed 4 people dinner. Great value and you will definitely be full. Whenever we are looking for a big sushi meal and not wanting all you can eat this is the place to visit.
I loved the LARGE portions of the salmons, unlike other cheap business owners who give you less and makes a bunch of you. The price to the food is awesome. This restaurant made party a lot cheaper! Their party trays are very worthy and we were able to order before hand. Their parking space was very limited so i had to get my friend to get the food for me. It took her less than a minute to get the food and out. It was literally get in and get out attitude =) very efficient.
When it comes to services, im very picky. I went in as a group once and the restaurant only had one waitress.So what happened was, once in a while we told he waitress to get us water, since we had a large amount of people so the water demand was constant. The waitress was ticked off by our demands and just left the water beaker at our table and told us to serve on our own. It a sense it was a smart choice, but i was quite unsatisfied by her attitude. There was only one serving so i guess that's fine...
The restaurant is really small so if you can actually get it, that's great. Not willing to take the risk? Order for a take-out.
I highly recommend eating at banzai's especially for parties take-outs.
I've been to banzai a couple of times with my family of five. I love how the portions of fish and sushi is huge. They have some over sized california rolls that I like. For a reasonable price, we ordered only three dishes and it filled my whole family up. The salmon sushi is okay, just a bit chewy. The rolls are yummy, especially the teriyaki chicken roll. The donburi rice bowl is pretty good, just with a little off-taste in the sauce.
The service was friendly, but it was hard to call someone over due to the number of pickup orders. The place is small and very simple looking.
From what I remember when I came here, the biggest rolls were about 1/2 the size of my fist. Me and 2 of my friends ordered the party tray A, it was $20 and we ate about 3/4 of it and were so full we were about to sh*t our pants. Some people like this kind of sushi, to me when I eat this everything tastes about the same.
Been to Banzai sushi several times in the past. Was never impressed by the quality of the food but found myself going back once in a while because it was close and portion sizes were generous. However, will never be returning after today. I'm far from a sushi snob. I don't have high standards when it comes to raw fish, but today’s experience was too much even for me. The salmon in their house roll was the single most disgusting piece of "food" I have ever put in my mouth. When I unknowingly took the first bite I was overwhelmed by the vomit inducing slimy texture of the fish. Upon closer inspection it was so far from fresh it was starting to break down. It would fall apart just from being picked up with chopsticks. It was absolutely disgusting. Thinking about it still makes me nauseous.
When confronted about it, the Banzai staff was unbelievably rude. They were adamant their fish was fresh and refused to refund our money. In the end they finally gave in to a refund, but not before they made it clear they never wanted our business again. That’s too bad, now I will have to find a new place the next time I have a craving for rotting fish.
PS. Will be putting in a complaint to Vancouver Coastal Health later.
meh...its ok if u want to eat sushi like u do in japan (but then again very few places in vancouver...) then dont go here...the good thing is that the food is pretty good by canadian standards, and its huge. too big. 5 pieces and im already full. and my friend said it was pretty cheap too (i went to a party and ate it). so overall, ok sushi, good price. never been there in person so i cant really say anything else.
I've only done take out there, and out of all three times, the sushi has been warm. They leave it out on the counter, waiting in room temperature for the unexpecting, hungry-hippo customers.
Yes, the sushi is huge. Each piece is larger than any sushi I've eaten at other restaurants, but that doesn't mean that the food shouldn't be good.
The service is pretty good. There's always a hostess there and they take your orders quickly and give you good timing for when the sushi will be ready.
My family keeps ordering it simply because of the value. However, I personally don't enjoy my sashimi warm.
First time at this place but have been to Samurai before and its basically the same thing. Large sized sushi rolls for a cheap price. You will definitely need a take out box! If you want authentic Jap food, do not come here. This place is for quantity not much quality. Don't expect the freshest fishes. The tuna was too mush and the texture of the salmon was harder then usual. Would come back if in the area and starving!
This place has some enormous pieces of sushi. I ordered a combo of makis and california rolls, and boy, the california rolls were HUGE. I had to go to a party afterwards, and I was so stuffed, that I couldn't walk properly. My mom ordered salmon/tuna sushi, and they were really large pieces of fish. It was kinda scary.
The staff were friendly and the food came quite fast.
Despite the size, the food was good. I would defintely go again.
Before I give more detailed feedback, I want to start with my creditentials as a sophisticated food dude that's eaten in real sushi-ya in Japan. Ya, I'm an expert - and I have very very high standards, so take this with a grain of salt. In a nutshell, this place is like the ultimate fish slaugther house!
1) Overall Rating
Banzai is like a fish slaugter house for their crude food quality, ok service, take-out style ambiance. Measured against an absolute in-Japan standard - it fails along with 98% of the sushi restaurants here. Measured against "average" in Vancouver, it's average. "It's not you, it's me" - I'm just not your target market. However, it has its place; afterall, the marketing offer (bulk product, low price, convenient place, and word-of-mouth promotion).
2) Food Rating
The fish butchers don't deserve to be called "taisho", which is sushi chef in Japanese. ALL of THEM must have worked in a meat slaugther house in their previous jobs and thought that using a chainsaw to cut meat was a tranferable skills to creating pretty sushi. I've never seen such rough, super-sized, untailored cuts of fish, poor wrapping of nori (seaweed), and gohan (rice) that was poorly prepared in taste, shape, and cohesion. The whole thing looked, tasted, and felt like a bulk wholesale warehouse offering. Perhaps I should have had a fork and knife to do my own sushi tailoring to upgrade it to professional class.
3) Service Rating
The service was ok. They were nice people.
4) Ambiance Rating
The place was all packed with people, and looked more like a take-out joint. The server took out a table and jammed it in between two other tables so close that we would've been, literally, sandwiched back-on-back with other people. I said, "kekko desu" (it means no thanks!). We opted to sit at the sushi bar, which is the proper way to eat in a sushi-ya, but we saw too much - please refer to my opinion in "food rating" above.
What Banzai serves is not Sushi. It is just massive pieces of filling surrounded with rice.
According to Japanese tradition sushi should be sectioned into small bite sized pieces that are easy to eat. The Japanese are traditionally a very proper people who want to save face at the dinner table, rather than get their meal all over their face.
I will concede that much of the Sushi we get in Canada has ventured from the traditional and has been geared to the western market. Without breaking from tradition we would not have tasty favorites like the California or Alaska Role. However, the sushi at Banzai is such a mammoth leap from traditional Japanese Preparation that it can not be called sushi.
It is an absolute travesty that Banzai sushi has to be dismantled for eating (due to its massive size), and in certain cases eaten with knife and fork. When you eat a piece of sushi you should be able to enjoy the flavor combinations of the role in one bite. At Banzai, it takes 4 bites to eat each piece, so you can never enjoy the flavors in combination. Instead you get salmon in the first bite, avocado in the second bite, crab in the third bite, and tempura in the last bite. What then is the point then of putting it in a role?
Japanese Soldier's in WW2 often shouted BANZAI, prior to an expected death. Now I know why they call this place Banzai. With the gargantuan pieces of two day old fish they serve, customers can almost expect a certain death upon ingestion.
good price compare to is quality and quantity. you will be more full than eat at all you can eat at less amount of $$ spend. service n ambiance is just ok. what can u expect for a little take out place?! the only thing i have to complain is the sashimi and sushi are too big. it is quite difficult to put in the mouth at once especially for ladies. big is good, bbut not too big please. i like eating cali roll one bite a piece.
Literally. Huge rolls for a decent price. You will get full fast depending on how much rice you can fit in your tank. It's a great bang for your buck. I ate 5 rolls and had to unbuckle my belt. Quality of fish wasnt too bad overall.
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