Kanpachi

A lazy walk with the boyfriend yesterday lead us to Kanpachi. It is that big black restaurant next to the Mongolian Grill restaurant across from the Canada Line Station. It also has that huge banner up (still) that says grand opening and 10% off.
The moment we stepped in, the girl sat us down with all you can eat menus. I was rather shocked that she would assume something like that. Did I gain weight recently? Do I have a sign that said ‘pig’? I wasn’t sure. But my boyfriend didn’t complain. He said it’s a good deal. He was right because It was only $ 11 per person. (It’s just $ 10 if it was a weekday & not a holiday). Apparently we made it in time for «happy hour» on a weekend. Whatever. It’s their restaurant.
In anycase, there was no service after that. For a very, very, very long time. It was so long since we had been left with a menu and order seat and empty tea cups that even my very patient boyfriend accepted the fate. The fate that we were forgotten about.
When I finally saw the waitress again, I flagged her down and acted as a hero and got our order in.
The food that arrived was pleasantly nice. The fish tasted fresh enough and the seaweed was nice and crisp. We both thought that our luck had took a turn for the better. For sure it must have!
But of course, we thought wrong. When we made our second order, with some repeat items. The rice tasted completely different. It was overly sour and to my horror. The rice was warm and needless to say the seaweed was soggy.
I was realy disappointed but didn’t want to turn the food back in (we had a few orders of agadashi tofu go missing by this point, and had also received a strange order of teriyaki beef that we were sure belonged to the table behind us). So, I tried the soy sauce with my sushi and the soy sauce was definitely NOT kikkoman as the jar had said. It actually tasted really salty like something you’d find in a cheap chinese dinner.
After much waiting around for someone to come get our money. We just gave up and went to pay up front. I am surprise my boyfriend left a tip at all considering how long we waited (for everything) and how inconsistent their food is, but he’s a nice guy.
I’m a nice gal too, because I bumped up their 1.5 star raiting to a 2. Only because the waitress was friendly and their mango pudding made me laugh… but that’s another story.

Love Japanese food? Hate flavour? Look no more!
Before I continue, only been here once and it was New Years Eve, pretty sure no one wanted to be there… Including me.
Did not try sushi here so I can not speak for that, but the gyozas came out mushy on the outside, cold on the inside, just like Mom used to make. I sent the gyozas back, and I am not a «send the food back» kinda guy. From there my palette met Chicken udon, but I’m still waiting for the flavor to show up. I do know broth has water, but I do not know if water can be broth.
The moral of the story is, If you ever find yourself with flu and looking for a quick meal on New Years eve, this may not be the best place to get your noodle on.

I am a picky sushi broad — and Kanpachi is solidly ok. Barely. I would never go out of my way to eat here, but it is literally 2 blocks from my house. On those days I am only willing to accept the tradeoff of «mediocre sushi/​short walk» I grab a negitoro roll and some wild salmon nigiri.
It is pleasantly decorated in a modern way, and the staff are friendly, but the fish is only so-​so. Another big letdown is the fact that they use Sriracha hot sauce (you know, the «cock» chili sauce with the green topper) on their spicy tuna. Yuck! Southeast Asian flavour mixed with Japanese? No thanks! It anhililates the delicate flavour of sushi. (There is another place near my house that advertises Vietnamese food and sushi — together at last? No thank you!)
But I digress. Kanpachi is perfectly acceptable if you are feeling lazy, but don’t go out of your way.

Went here again tonight out of laziness and was pretty disappointed. They served me a tuna tataki that was basically inedible. The tuna has a consistency of beef, it was hard to bite through. Brutal.

Kanpachi as *loosely* viewed according to Freud’s structural model of the psyche (Psych majors bear with me; nerding out is cathartic…):
Super-​Ego: The California rolls need work.
Ego: The lunch meal is decent and on top of that the servers are nice and pleasant.
Id: I got good food for cheap! I could’ve been eating out on the curb and I would’ve still been happy.

Kanpachi looked like it was going to be expensive. It’s where the Russian place used to be, right beside the Mongolie Grill. It’s very nice inside & lunch was cheaper than Sushi Bang! I had a standard lunch box which included Tempura (2 shrimp & veggie), Salmon teryaki, rice, california roll, salad, miso soup, for $ 6.75! Very reasonable & pretty good. I can’t imagine the prices staying so low for long. I’d rather sit & have lunch here over Sushi Bang since I’m comparing any day! Quality was better too.
I was a little disappointed in that I was hoping it would be different than all the other sushi restaurants in the area but it wasn’t. Here’s the menu offerings:
Appy’s: (I liked the BBQ Prawn & Bacon).
Sashimi
Teryaki & Agemono
Special Rolls: Not too many but the Kanpachi roll is seared tuna, green onion & house sauce. The Caterpillar roll is eel, smoked salmon & lemon. There’s about 10 & they’re all $ 7.95
Tempura
Temaki
Vegetarian Rolls
Sushi
Maki (rolls)
Nigiri
Udon & Donburi
Soup & Rice
Box
The Dinner Boat for 2 which is $ 29.95 and includes Miso soup, sashimi (5 pieces), Nigiri (8 pieces), Roll (2 rolls) 2 pieces deep fried tofu, 4 pieces chicken karaage, 2 pieces of gyoza, prawn & veg tempura. 2 ice creams/​fruit.
That ends the menu. There is a page of lunch combos (like what I tried).