Ebisu is a step up from the generic sushi places that pepper downtown, albeit not in food quality but in presentation and ambiance. The sushi itself is still pretty good, and they have an extensive menu to select from. The drinks are also pretty cheap, so sushi and drinks is a viable option before heading to a club or event.

The location is a large, L-shaped building that extends around a bar, and although it is fairly large, the tables are quite cramped together. This can make for a more intimate evening, or become just plain annoying if a table near you is loud. There are lots of windows looking down onto Robson.

When I went, the bill for California roll (4.50), Crunch roll (10), Chill tray (34, great deal for 6 oysters and TONNES of sashimi) and a slew of drinks ended up at 90 after tip, so I can't really call the place cheap. In relation to a regular sushi joint, it's a bit extensive. The ambiance and selection, along with modestly priced drinks helps make up for that, and I would visit again.

Arrived roughly at 7pm on a friday night and it was packed, luckyl we didn't have to wait as we opt'd for the non-table seats. The staff are pretty attentive being a busy place.

Food: Ordered potato butter, tiger mayo, salmon carpaccio, 12 oysters and ocean red sushi. All in all, the food is very fresh and solid. I believe the food turnover is very good.

Value: The bill came to under $70 for the both of us and was stuffed so it isn't the best but can do.

Ambiance: Busy busy tapas and seating can be great if you call ahead and make a reservation.

Overall: It was a memorable birthday dinner. 3.5 out of 5

I wouldn't call Ebisu an izakaya, but it is a tapas restaurant.

Three of us went this past weekend and sat on the patio. Table and chairs were fine comfy-wise and the table's lazy susan was unnecessary since it was so small, but cute nonetheless.

They have a huge menu for food and drinks. I love how each drink was pictured and on the side, showed alcohol content. The best was the glass it was served it. Picture the top part of a martini glass nestled in a bowl-shaped (like a fish-bowl) glass filled with ice. Brilliant! Keeps the drink cold!

We ordered a few dishes to share. Overall, dishes were pretty tasty and very reasonably priced. However, I did not enjoy their Oyster motoyaki. The mayo sauce was thick and gummy. Kinda gross actually.

Great place to chill with friends over some drinks and snacks. Pretty good in my opinion. I would be return.

It was not our first time to go to Ebisu. Actually it was our third. The first 2 times were for appies and drinks and we had a great time. We thought the food was good for what it was and the drink selection was enjoyable. The 3rd time was a couple of weeks ago and we went there for lunch for a friend's birthday. We were very disappointed. We ordered their combos for $10+ each plus some specialty rolls. The first few dishes arrived and we thought they were alright and were actually enjoying our meal. At this point though we realized that no one has come back to refill any of our drinks and clear away any empty dishes. In fact since there were 6 of us, quite a few dishes have piled up and we have resorted to placing it on one of the ledges in between the booths as it was getting pretty crowded at our table. I'm surprised because the restuarant was not full at all and there were only a few tables occupied.

Then came my friend's chicken yakisoba order. She stopped after having 2 bites and said that her chicken tasted old and her noodles tasted sour. She asked us to taste it just in case it must be just her. We did, and yes, the chicken did not taste good and the noodles themselves tasted sour. We called the waitress and my friend told her about her concerns. She said she will bring it to the chef's attention. Our server then came back and told us that the chef said there was nothing wrong with it. She was unapologetic and kept insisting that that was their style of yakisoba. That was the only time our server ever came back to our table and it was not even to replenish our drinks or clear away empty dishes.

We spoke to the manager on the way out and even he was not apologetic at all. I'm really appalled by the type of costumer service we have received from this establishment.

Went to Ebisu for a going-away luncheon for a work colleague.

I ordered choose-your-own combo, picking the asari soup, garden salad, katsu curry and the strawberry mousse.

The soup was good, the salad was excellent (I loved the combination of asparagus, snow peas, cucumbers and leafy greens, with the sweet miso dressing). The curry was tasty (as japanese curries go) but I found the pork cutlet a tad dry. The strawberry mousse was decent but unremarkable.

The service was prompt but I found the servers a little terse and aloof.

Nice plating. Lots to offer on the menu. Some items didn't seem very "Japanese" especially the pumpkin/squash soup. It tasted pretty boring tho thick & rich as well--it seemed a little out of place. Now I'm curious about the burger offerings--will it be a hint of Japan or just a taste of... well... burger. The mentaiko yakiudon, quite large in portion, is also several dollars more than other d/t izakaya places that offer similar. It's also too heavy--possibly too much butter or mayo used. The tuna taco is pretty & textually nice but was boring in taste. The unachee looks better than it tastes (a lightly battered deep fried sushi roll). The smoked black cod's good but u can't go too wrong w/ the smoky flavour, it was a definite hit, but not by much. The deep fried softshell crab was just ok. The deep fried sweet potato fries (Thunder Fries) are nicely crisped & a bit better than the ones they make at Kamakura Kamei on Broadway (owned by the same ppl). But for the most part, I think the cooked food actually tastes better at Kamakura.

Also, if they're still passing around shooter-sized free trials of their lychee slush drink, I'd suggest u hold off ordering the full order of it otherwise, they'd just skip sharing some w/ u while u see everyone else w/ it, all u get is a shrug & giggle that "it's the same thing you have". Which is fine, just makes one feel a little left out of the party--in this case the "treat". I wouldn't have minded having a little "sample" sized portion as well, easier to shoot one down than to suck all of the lychee goodness out of the thin straw anyway.

Service is pleasant & efficient for the most part.

Love the space, seating, decor, location. Great for larger & smaller parties. I would definitely be returning more often than not for the location & atmosphere while you don't get the loud greetings upon entrance & departure like u do from the Japanese-run ones, you also don't get the long waits & the crowds for the time being.

Usually when I go downtown, I expect to go to a restaurant of good value, good food, and good service. This restaurant did not fit any of these expectations. I originally didn't want to go to this restaurant when it was "highly recommended" by my friend, but I was so hungry, I just decided to give it a go. When we got in, they told us that it was currently "happy hour", which meant that it was 40% off sushi and that we had till 7:00 to finish our meal, which I thought was kind of strange, but whatever. After we got seated, we were asked if we wanted anything to drink. I ordered to green tea and my friend got a shot of baileys. We then ordered the soft shell crab, some tofu calamari dish, 1 piece of sushi, some deep-fried sushi and a sashimi salad. When the sashimi arrived, there were only 2 pcs of salmon and 2 pcs of red snapper which was loaded with cheap salad and a mediocre spicy miso sauce which was about $8. The tofu and calamari weren't too bad, even though all the calamari were chunked together... The soft shell crab was a huge disappointment. I ordered it in hopes of an actual crab, but what we got were deep fried, miniature crab legs with crab organs, and of course a load of salad to fill up the plate. They completely forgot about the sushi, so we had to re-order it. I'm wishing we didn't re-order it because it was just another mediocre deep-fried dish again. Our total bill came to $46.50 for all that food including $5.60 for that shot my friend got and $1.50 for green tea. I was very disappointed in the restaurant that we left immediately and gave no tip. Restaurant - NOT RECOMMENDED.

I was here Friday a couple of weeks ago to hang out with a bunch of my buddies and I must say this restaurant was really nice!
For service, our waitress we had was always smiling and really friendly to us even though I could tell she was extremely busy with the Friday crowd! The place was completely packed! - Always a good sign! I don't think we felt like needing anything so we never had to flag her down. We had empty water glasses for a while but then of course we had the beer constantly flowing so that wasn't really an issue. For a minute I thought that we might have been too noisy because even the manager came over to say hi and talk to us a bit but I later realized that he recognized one of my other friends who's apparently a regular customer here and he turned out to be a great host, really nice guy, chatting with us and making sure we were having a good time.
Foodwise, we ordered a bunch of different tapas plates as I think this is what they specialize in so I can't pinpoint every dish that we had, we must have had 15+ dishes altogether. The ones that did stand out though were the Yam Fries, they were very crispy and nice & thick. The chicken karaage was great as well with a new twist of having 2 interesting dipping sauces with it - I've never seen that at other Japanese restaurants, cool. There a couple of tasty rolls too, samurai roll and this other roll with cream cheese, and I love cream cheese so that roll was heavenly!
The drinks were really good value too considering that we were in the core of downtown I haven't seen better deals around here especially with the great atmosphere, high ceilings & good looking people. Sure you can find cheaper beer in some hole-in-the-wall if you're into that sort of thing, but for what you get here, it's awesome!

Love the raw oyster blowout here! It's ten oysters for 14.99 with a bunch of sauces you could put on top. It's basically what I come for. And the beef sashimi and sashimi salad mm... I'd say the rolls are mediocre and not worth ordering. Great ambiance, very busy restaurant and okay service. Cheap drinks!

I haven't been back here in a while and I was left wondering why. The experience I had here last week was great! I'm not sure when they changed the menu or maybe I just forgot what they had before but there were quite a few dishes me and my friends ordered this time that were delicious! Notably something they definitely didn't have before was the Miso Ramen! I love ramen and I would definitely have ordered it on my last visit but I don't recall seeing it on the menu. So I gave it a go and it was really good! My friends also thought it was pretty good but they said it was a bit too small which I didn't mind because who wants to stuff up on ramen when there's so much else to eat? The cook-if-yourself beef tongue was a neat quirk and quite simple yet tasty. We had a few of the traditional dishes as well like the fried chicken and mentai udon, pretty good still.
They were very busy but my waitress was really nice and smiling which is a an improvement from last time, although we weren't a huge party like last time so maybe she was not as flustered.
Definitely will need to make a mental note to come back more often as places like this are perfect for me!