Do a search below using the city or postal code search box if your city is not listed above.
Get dining news including restaurant closures and qualify for giveaways.
This is the third location of the popular Japanese tapas restaurant Hapa Izakaya.
Went to the Yaletown Hapa for some food before the Canucks game. They open at 5pm so lots of time. The menu included a sampler where you chose 3 items from a list of approx. a dozen. Actually tried 6 items including - beef sashimi - very good, tuna carpaccio - good, ebi mayo - bad as it was not crispy, gyoza - good twist on this, crab cake - very good. Then tried their spicy scallop roll which was not very good. On the outside of the rice, they put some sort of puffed wheat or rice which had a stale taste to it. Also tried their Isiyaki Ramen which is a dry ramen cooked in their stone bowl and tossed with some Korean style sauce. It tasted like a Mr. Noodles in some spicy sauce, we did not finish this. Service was good as there were not too many people and place is very nice. Would return but not order those items. Price is reasonable with the appy taster at $12.
My gf and I wanted to catch up with a friend for dinner and we figured Hapa's Yaletown location might be worth a look.
The menu is overwhelming to look at but we were able to wrangle away with some selections. The grilled shortribs was easily one of the highlights of the night. The herbs, soy and apple marinade really livened up the beef, which was grilled to a nice medium rare. The chicken karaage was tossed in a very light soy ginger sauce, a little innovation from the original but it worked well as it accompanied rather than overtake. The ebi mayo too was tossed in a light mayo dressing and again, complimented without overpowering. The Gindara (black baked cod) was fabulously cooked to retain it's buttery texture. The Ahi tuna carpaccio again came lightly dressed and rounded up the highlight dishes. Here, things slide a little. The tuna tacos were far too rudimentary and frankly lazy for Hapa. It basically amounted to tuna salad wrapped in flour tortillas with the tartar sauce binder taking over all the other accent flavours. The ishi-yaki stone bowl rice combines minced pork, egg, tomato, lettuce and miso. Unfortunately subtlety here takes away from the overall experience, since the rice, tomato and lettuce requires lots of coaxing for flavour. The vegetable "renkon" gyozas too had little zip with the lotus root and pork combo and the Hapa tofu felt like a toss in; a wedge of pressed tofu with a kimchi/miso type sauce.
Service is off the beaten path here. Our servers seemed demure, and lacked any enthusiasm normally found at Hapa. The checkups were adequate but an extra one or two pop-ins would have been preferred.
Echoing a previous review, it does feel like the overall experience has diminished. Food execution doesn't follow through with every dish and considering it's locale, it could use a shot of adrenaline. While not a bad choice, it's not in my top 3 choices.
I haven't been to Hapa Izakaya for a while and while looking for a place to go before the game on Sunday, we ended up here because the sushi place we were originally going to was closed. This was the first time visiting the Yaletown location after frequenting the Robson and Yew locations on many occasions.
The room is nice, looks similar to the other locations except I don't remember them having televisions. They have Sapporo on tap which I enjoyed. We ordered a bunch of dishes including ebi mayo, saba, sashimi, daikon gyoza, boneless karaage and a few more. The saba was the roll variety which is wrapped on the outside of rice and then torched tableside. I definitely prefer the sashimi version better, as there was a ton of rice and thats not really my thing. The ebi mayo was extremely saucy and I would prefer less sauce for sure but the actual shrimp/prawns were tasty. The daikon gyoza were good but I remember this dish having less daikon and more meat. Overall, the food was good but just not great.
I will return but it won't be my first choice for izakaya.
Cannot say anything bad about this place Food was good. Though this particular salmon was a bit too dry, like it has beeen prepared in advance and been sitting on a counter for some time. But yaki udon was very good.
Cannot complain about their service either. They were prompt and friendly. Overall nice place.
Delicious food and great sake. I would give a high rating but my purse was stolen and the staff weren't sincerely concerned. Service wasn't good to begin with... purse stolen or not. You'd think it's a decent place and should be more secure but... somehow a lowlife needed the cash and bad karma.
Five friends and I tried the new Yaletown version of Hapa. It was a funky little place. Very Hapa. Very Yaletown. It is not a large restaurant - we were originally told we would have to wait for 2 hours to get a 6-person table, but, due to a cancellation, we got in straight away.
The Food: the food was good without being amazing. It is certainly no worse and probably better than Hapa's Robson Street incarnation. It is better than Guu, but not as good as Yuji's or as Shiru Bay Chopstick Cafe (now defunct). We ate Ebi Mayo (ok, but a bit soggy); Chicken Karaage (good); salmon sashimi (alright, but in this town alright is not good enough); stone bowl rice dishes - both minced pork and muchroom (good); short ribs (good, but not as good as Flying Tiger's Kohlrabi Ribs). The popcorn calamari (which was tonight's special) was average at best. It was overcooked and uninspired. The best dish of the night was the grilled sablefish. It was fresh, delicate, buttery and perfectly cooked.
We drank many large bottles of Kirin in cute little Kirin glasses. The beer, along with the constant flow of good food and good conversation made for a very enjoyable night.
The service was fine. Not friendly, but professional and attentive.
| 1. | Coal Harbour (1.4 km) |  |
| 2. | Robson (1.6 km) |  |
| 3. | Kitsilano (2.5 km) | |
| 1. | Chez Faye Cafe (17 m) | |
| 2. | Flying Pig, The (21 m) | |
| 3. | Caffe Artigiano (22 m) | |
| 4. | Cactus Club Cafe (31 m) | |
| 5. | Cafe O (43 m) | |
| 6. | Agro Cafe (44 m) |  |
| 7. | Simply Thai (45 m) |  |
| 8. | Cento Notti (48 m) |  |
| 9. | Opus Bar (48 m) |  |
| 10. | Starbucks (58 m) | |
