Masa Japanese Restaurant

If you want Japanese food that is always fresh and presented beautifully, Masa is the place to go. Prices are very reasonable and you should check out the amazing artistic creations displayed in glass cases. Both food and décor are an art form in this favourite restaurant of mine. It is conveniently located on Broadway between Granville and Hemlock streets on the second floor. Although operated by a lovely Korean family, the chef is Japanese and obviously knows how to prepare food which appeals to the eye as well as the stomach!

I an others have dined here for both dinner and lunch. Nice menu, great sushi and other dishes. Very nice presentation. Good service. Nice place to go in the Granville Broadway area.

Discovered this place a little while ago and it has become our go-​to sushi place. And this was before we even moved to the neighbourhood.
Awesome menu, the food is consistently really good, service is friendly and our bill never comes out to more than $ 25 for myself and my boyfriend to be full. Overall win :)

Unbelievable service and reasonable prices. Nicest employees that made sure our order was correct and made sure to check in on us multiple times throughout the meal. I would recommend to anyone wanting great Japanese cuisine!

I don’t throw five stars around all willy-​nilly, and when I do, I ponder-​hand on chin– for at least 2 – 3 minutes on whether the place was really truly 5 stars. However I can say with confidence this place deserves it, my pondering was limited to 5, maybe 7 seconds.
The sushi was great. The prices are great. The ambiance is fantastic, and above all they have pride in their establishment. From the food to the family painted artwork and faberge eggs on display.
If you haven’t checked it out, then go!
Oh and real cloth napkins… All of this wouldn’t matter if the food wasn’t good, but it was really great.

A solid sushi joint for take away.
Glad to finally have a good sushi place in the hood. Fish and chips hand roll is yum.
Great sashimi. Damn good seaweed salad.
Super sweet staff.
Excellent.

Finally made it to Masa to try a new Sushi place. Masa seemed like a good deal compared to Sushi places in Whistler, serving size is bigger for similar pricing to what I’m used too.
The fish serving on the Nigiri seemed well portioned, a big slice of fish on a small bed of rice. The sashimi wasn’t amazing, the salmon was ok and the toro wasn’t ass melt in your mouth as I’ve had it at other restaurants.
Service was fast and friendly, the waitress was good at clearing the table between courses and refilling my water. The food wasn’t anything special, nothing to write home about. But a very good portion of food for $ 16.95

Food and service are both very mediocre. Prices are decent.
Came here with a group of friends for dinner one night. Got seated in the back in a booth which was nice. We ordered a bunch of rolls to share and everything tasted very mediocre. The rice was cold and hard for all the rolls, so the rice was definitely not freshly made but rather refrigerated previously. The quality of fish is also very mediocre.
Service was ok, I had to ask for my tea to be refilled several times. Bathrooms are not super clean. Street parking was pretty easy at the metered spots around the area, but this was on a weeknight.

Went there again last night and I have to say, they exceeded our expectations. They seemed a lot busier than the last time we went, so word has definitely spread about this place. It was really cold where we were sitting so we let them know, and I couldn’t believe how fast they responded to it because not long after, it was no longer cold.
As usual, quality could be seen in every dish. They were pretty busy and forgot to put one of our orders in, we didn’t ask about it as we were chatting, but they served us a whole order of complimentary Toro Battera to apologize for the wait. Great food + great service, it will be our regular sushi spot from now on.
Highly recommend their Prawn Sunomono and Rainbow Rolls.

Love this place. Seems pretty clean, food taste very good. Been here a few times always can find something I like. Also they are open very late till midnight I think, when I finish work late, I know there is this place I like, waiting for me and can serve me some good food.

Another one I found because of Unilocal,and they happened to be offering Dine Out.
The service here is fantastic! All the staff were so friendly, and really happy to have us.
For 20 $ I was so impressed with the menu. Started with a refreshing dish of pickled items and seaweed, as well as miso soup. For the appetizer I had the smoke salmon salad and my bf had the scallops. Next we both had the sushi/​sashimi selection (the only change I would have made was to ask if I could upgrade to wild salmon). After this a delicious bowl of soup was served. Finally we ended with vanilla ice cream.
I had also added a veggie sunomono, (the presentation was the nicest I’ve seen) and a avocado cone.
Needless to say I was so full! The dine out meal alone is more than enough.
I will happily return, very glad a nice sushi option has opened close to home.

This place is actually not bad. The last three restaurant in this location are all japanese Restaurants. So came here for lunch with a colleague and ordered their set lunch. It came with a miso soup, a fried item some small side appies, salad and the main course teriyaki Chicken.
The Teriyaki chicken was fresh with a bit of crunch to it. I personally liked it. Service isn’t bad. The place was quite full not at noon but after 1pm. Guess most people have lunch after 1pm around the area.
I will definitely come back.

I really enjoyed the rolls and share plates. In particular, the Rainbow and the Boston rolls were very tasty. The sashimi was lovely and fresh. Good drink promotions to make a Saturday evening more interesting. Overall, good value for money!

Over the years, this location has housed several Japanese restaurants but Masa has been the first one that I felt had good sushi for very reasonable prices.
I had the chirashi don and chicken karaage. Overall, the sashimi was fresh and the portion given was good. The chicken karaage was also fried and seasoned well.
Service was also attentive and fast. Will return again!

The best Japanese (comprehensive) restaurant on West Broadway west of Oak and easily east of MacDonald – Japanese-​operated, great price points, and tasty! Highly recommended!
Try their udon!

From what I can remember, this restaurant, or rather this lot, has always been some sort of Japanese restaurant, and neither of them did very well. Now comes a new player, Masa.
Lets start off by saying, I didnt do dine-​in, rather I did take-​out, so my current judgement is based purely on food and the pricing.
From what remember, the entrance has really been stepped up and lots of thought has gone into the décor. The waiting area is open and spacious with a nice table in the middle, kind of like a high-​end clinic. Originally, I thought that Masa was operated by Japanese people, but to my surprise, It was Korean operated. This is not a bad thing, several of my favorite Japanese sushi restaurant [Sushi Mura & Sushi Mania] are owned and operated by Koreans. They were very polite in person and on the phone, A+ for service. The Takeout menu is the same as their dine-​in menu, which is amazing, because many places simplify their take-​out menu to really mundane and basic items.
I ordered 2 Tobiko, 2 Masago, 2 Tamago, Gyu-​tata, Sockeye Sashimi, and Gindara. And holy smokes, even for take-​out, presentation was immaculate. All the items arrived safely at home even with my bumpy driving. I was surprised at the copious amount of masago and tobiko i received. If this is what’s to come from Masa, then Ill be a returning customer. The Tamago was your run of the mill pre-​made tamago, but the rice ratio for their nigiri and gunkanmaki [tobiko/​masago] were perfect! No samurai style sushi here folks, you get perfectly bite sized pieces for all types of mouths.
The Beef tataki was «perfect,» not too thin, not too thick, and a generous amount for the price you pay. Both the sashimis come with a generous amount of shaved radish which is mixed with other vegetables like carrots and red cabbage?. The Gindara was alittle cold but thats probably due to my commute, but the sizing and price was perfect aswell.
This was probably my most fulfilling take-​out sushi ever, reasonable size, price, and not to mention Masa is open until midnight for those late night munchies.
A copious Four, out of Five.

Decided to try this place after seeing the «now open» sign, and I’m glad we did! Excellent service and tasty food. We tried the «Boston Roll» and the «Fish & Chip» cone. Both were very tasty. We will definitely be back.

Very nice people and food! I love the calamari and udon. The battery sushi is good, but could be better with torching? Maybe different style. Would come back again since they open late too! :)

When we visited, it had literally opened for less than a week or so. We immediately noticed some changes. They kept the section dividers, but it seems like they have done some renovation on the seats and décor. The cutlery has also all changed and it looked pretty upscale, with your own tray and all. Management has also changed to what seems like a Korean owner and staff. Goodbye to the weird old school music they used to play; they now play more upbeat music.
The menu has also changed quite a lot, and we all noticed that the prices were much higher than the previous Kaneda. It’s not unreasonable, but you can tell that they are trying to be a more upscale Japanese restaurant. During lunch, they have their so called «lunch courses». All lunch courses are served with miso soup, 3 side dishes and a «special deep fry». My 3 side dishes and special deep fry never came, but at the time I wasn’t sure if mine came with it, so I didn’t want to make a nuisance. Looking back at the menu now, my course should have came with those dishes. Well, at least my Miso Soup came… This one had lots of kelp but no tofu.
Anyways, I chose the Sushi Course, and your first choice is between a Sunomono or Salad. I chose the Sunomono, which was nicely presented and had a slice of cucumber, cherry tomato, julienne carrots, and alfalfa. The second dish was a choice of tempura or yakitori. I chose the Yakitori and it turned out to be chicken. This was pretty good with two skewers with two big chunks of meat. Nothing too special with the sauce though
And then the wait began… We soon realized that everyone’s sushi dishes were not arriving. It was already 45 minutes into our lunch, and we were getting impatient since we wanted to get back to work. They should know that most people coming in for lunch work around the area and need quick lunch services. Well, finally after letting our server know that our food still hasn’t come yet, our sushi arrived. Mine was part of my lunch course and it had 8 pieces. Four pieces were California Rolls and the other four pieces were nigiris that the chef chose to make. This included Salmon, Tuna, Ebi, and a Smoked Salmon Oshi. The fish was much more fresh compared to Kaneda, but it didn’t blow my mind. I would be happy eating at Sushi Van for a similar or cheaper price.
E got the Chicken Yaki Udon which came with vegetables and chicken. This was quite a large plate, but I thought it lacked in ingredients. From the looks of it, it looked like it didn’t have much sauce as well. Nonetheless, E said it was okay.
E also got the Tamago Roll. This also took 45 minutes to arrive. Seems like they only have one sushi chef? But seriously… this shouldn’t take long.
StevieD got the Best Top 3 Roll Combo. This included California Roll, Dynamite Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll. It was presented quite nicely and StevieD commented that they were pretty good, but he had to eat all of this in 15 minutes. He also commented that it was quite pricey for similar quality to Sushi Van.
Overall, we were quite disappointed with Masa. It’s not that the food was terrible, but it also wasn’t above average. I’m hoping that the slow service was because they just opened, but if they don’t figure that out, then they are going to have angry customers leaving. StevieD for one has already banned the restaurant it seems… I may give it another try in a few months, but with so many other options around town, it may not be for a while that I return.
Pros:
— Decent eats
— Ambiance has been upgraded compared to previous owners
Cons:
— Service was extremely slow (perhaps they just opened)
— Slightly pricey for the quality of food

I passed by Granville and Broadway last week and saw a big banner for Masa Japanese is opened. I checked on Unilocal and only found good 2 reviews but no food picture posted. Sure, let me check it out and take some picture for them. Also, I would love to have sushi in hot day.
They’re not busy when we arrived on Sunday 7ish. We got seated in booth with painted Japanese peony flower petition around us. Not too classy but nice.
They served simple menu of raw and cooked sushi as well as other hot Japanese dishes with great prices! The owner (I guess) was so friendly and he offered a complementary apple juice to my friend’s daughter.
Hamachi Sashimi — It’s good and fresh.
Mango California Roll & California roll — Mango sauce was tasty just a bit at sweet side.
Caterpillar roll — If you’re super fan of avocado fan, you have to order this.
Beef Tataki — It’s mediocre but ok.
Chicken Udon — I rarely found 2 pcs of chicken in udon. My friend’s daughter said she could eat this every day! Thumbs up!
Chopped Scallop cone — It’s ok, a bit too much sauce with chopped scallop and it turned seaweed soft quickly.
Tobiko, Ika, Saba nigari — All of it were great!
The rolls were perhaps a bit heavy on the rice side of things, but that might work for someone looking to fill up more on sushi alone. Apparently, we over-​ordered and no room for dessert.
Food: 3 star
Service: 4 star
Price: 5 star (it totally cost under $ 60 for all the above food)
I definitely return before the price back to market price in that location.