Okeya Kyujiro

A very unique and excellent sushi experience! 5 deserving stars across the board. Recommend booking online well in advance. From memory, there are 14 seats counter only and 2 seatings per night. The concept is "omakase" or "leave it to the chef", so there is no food menu. Would not be suitable for vegans or vegetarians as most dishes, if not all, had some form of seafood in it. When ordering sake, the sommelier will ask you about your preference and recommend a bottle based on that. For pricing, food was $300 per person before tax and tips and our bottle of 700ml sake was $180. From the onset upon arrival to the restaurant, you are greeted by the hostess and head chef outside the front entrance. Once inside, it feels like you are transported to a fine sushi establishment in Tokyo. There was a waiting area for guests to sit in before the "show" starts which is a nice touch. The "show" as they call it was a few minutes of ceremonial rituals and I loved that the chefs were all individually introduced by name. The omakase is seasonal so the food offering is always evolving based on timing of year. Honestly, everything we tried today was excellent. Each ingredient and dish was expertly prepared and explained. You can tell that they take great pride in their sourcing and preparation work, and no shortcuts were taken. Before serving each dish, the main ingredient in its raw form is shown and explained. Not surprisingly the head chef selected many of his favorite fish and other ingredients from his hometown in Japan. I would describe the omakase as a sushi and kaiseki experience. Half the dishes were cooked i.e. deep fried or tempura, steamed, grilled, soup, noodles and the other half were nigiri/sashimi, and there were about 20 dishes in total including dessert. See photos November 2022. Highlights for us were the shirako tempura topped with uni sauce, lobster tempura, grilled unagi, smoked fish sashimi, and all of the nigiri sushi. Wonderful meal and I would come back in a heartbeat. Would not hesitate to recommend Sushi Okeya Kyujiro to friends, family and out of town guests. Special thanks to the restaurant for being super accommodating and understanding when we had to cancel our previous reservation last minute due to an elevator incident.

Omakase concept, very tasty food and excellent experience. Everything from the decor to music to how they paced the dishes were great. Menu is seasonal based on what's in season, 100% will be back!

It is an honour to write the first review. This was the best dinning experience I've had. The hospitality, the attention for details, the music, the decor, the atmosphere, everything was excellent! We felt special from the beginning to the end. What a gastronomic journey! The food was delicious: we were served imported crown melons, fish, crab, wagyu and more, that were so fresh, tasty, and felt as if they could melt in your mouth. #Umami! This culinary experience is a must, I recommend it a million times! Thank you to everyone at Sushi Okeya Kyujiro.

Omakase and a SHOW! This is fine dining Edomae Japanese omakase elevated to a theatrical art form showing traditional cooking styles with a modern twist. Expect top quality ingredients imported from Japan and around the world turned gourmet right before your very eyes.

Sushi Okeya Kyujiro scores top points for ambience, service, location, and presentation. When you enter, you're welcomed in by very kind front house staff all wearing kimono and directed to a separate and quiet waiting room. When your seat is ready, you'll then move into the main open dining area. There's a partially open kitchen and the sushi chef team are located in the middle with bar seating surrounding them in a U shape. Sharing the omakase experience with others is nice and the front house staff provide excellent detailed course descriptions throughout the meal. The whole experience is extremely well coordinated - the music and lights add extra drama to the experience and the chefs are constantly in motion and there's no break in the food service. For the actual food itself, the ingredients are high quality and tasty. However, there were a few choices that didn't make the food a 5/5 experience for me. Okeya does a wide variety of raw and cooked foods nigiri, don, chawanmushi, wagyu beef, tempura, miso, ramen. While the variety in textures is nice, I personally prefer omakase meals that focus on nigiri and sashimi versus noodles and other cooked dishes. Also, while the ingredients are definitely fresh, there are portions of the menu that are more "showy" rather than prepared fresh in front of you - for example while there's a hairy crab and crown melon on display the chefs will also hold and display the ingredients so people can get their photo ops, those just stay on display and the actual prep is done in advance in the back. This by no means I don't trust the skill of the chefs - it just made the whole thing feel a lot more "showy" to me. For $300 + tax and tip, you're definitely paying for the Okeya show and experience over just the food. I'd recommend going to Okeya if you want an easy and friendly omakase with a big focus on the show and whole package experience rather than just focusing on the food. If you're feeling nervous or stressed out about dealing with a strict/formal omakase experience, Okeya has the same vibes of going to a fancier Western restaurant. I personally won't be going back as I like to focus more on the food and for a similar price point, there are other local omakase restaurants that will fit that for me.

My favourite omakase in town for special occasions. Skilled chefs “perform” on front of you. Yes, it’s fairly expensive at $300 pp before alcohol. I highly recommend for birthday and anniversaries. Everything tasted amazing except the aged tuna which was a little chewier. Waitress are friendly and nice too

Authentic omakase experience! All of the staff are from Japan. The most important thing is their ingredients are very fresh. The chefs are definitely skilled and ready to put amazing flavors on your palate. Apart from the incredible food, I love the culture components they integrate in the whole immersive experience from the beginning to the end. It felt like I was in Japan. Will definitely go back.

I just wanted to say, thank you, to the chef and his team for an amazing meal.

I loved the entire experience. The food was amazing and the they always explained what type of fish or food it was. I also enjoyed the tea ceremony at the end.

I've tried most of the omakase sushi places in Vancouver, including Sushi Jin, Sushi Bar Maumi, Kiwami etc. I am NOT a food blogger just a regular paying customer that loves omakase. I wanted to highlight this as I see a lot of the raving 5 star reviews are by sponsored food bloggers. If this is your first omakase experience and you have never experienced Japanese culture and tradition, this is a good option. The environment, ambience, and service embodies everything Japanese culture has to offer. There is a good variety of raw food, cooked food such as tempura/wagyu beef, and even ramen noodles. However, in terms of food and value, the most similar experience you can compare Okeya to is Kiwami. In this case, I think Kiwami is superior in terms of food just based on value. The portion sizes are much larger with the same quality of cuts. For example, the dessert provided by Okeya was a mango icecream, whereas Kiwami provided Uni Icecream. I was also disappointed that the Don provided by Okeya was only Bluefin and Ikura, no Uni in sight! If you go to Sushi Jin or Kiwami, their Don always included Uni. Personally, when I spend the money to eat omakase I want the focus of my meal to be nigiri and sashimi, not cooked food. If you are like me, I suggest Sushi Jin or Sushi Bar Maumi. Okeya is good for a one time experience for a special occasion. Unfortunately, I would not return based on the price point and value provided. The total bill was around $700 for two people with tips and tax. You are paying for the "show" not necessarily the food.

Directions to Okeya Kyujiro with public transportation

---