Kanpachi Japanese Restaurant

Restaurant: Kanpachi Japanese Restaurant

Cuisine: Japanese/Sushi
Last visited: November 17, 09
Area: Vancouver, BC (Mount Pleasant/Main Street)
457 West Broadway
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3 (based on the 2 rolls I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 3.5
Overall: 3
Additional comments:

• Looks and feels more expensive than it is
• Reasonable prices, cheaper than expected
• Just opened November 09
• Current/fresh atmosphere
• Spacious, clean, big space
• Decently busy for lunch
• Lunch specials/combos
• Plays hip hop music
• Attracts Westerners
• Lunch and dinner service
• Closed 3-5pm
• Closed Sunday
• Dine in/Take-out

**Recommendation: Kanpachi Roll (I only tried 2 rolls though)

Kanpachi Japanese Restaurant is a new restaurant that serves the typical Japanese dishes as well as a selection of about 10-12 specialty rolls. (This review is only based on the 2 rolls I had, which is not representative of the overall restaurant and the food they serve.)

The menu is not overwhelming and serves all the usual Japanese dishes. They have sushi, donburi, noodle bowls and sashimi etc. I don't know what it is, but there was something that wasn't really authentic Japanese to me. The operations are young and there's a current feel to the restaurant and maybe that's what it was. But even focusing on the food, my rolls were good and there was nothing really wrong with them, but they weren't great either.

I would go back to try more items, but I also wouldn't make it an occasion to go again. I am curious to try more of their rolls though - so I can make better recommendations and give a fair review.

Grand opening special: Special rolls: $5.95 - regular pricing $7.95 (Offer valid throughout November 09)

On the table:

• Kanpachi Roll 3.5/6
• Shrimp tempura, seared tuna, house sauce $7.95
• There's also avocado, but it doesn't list it on the menu.
• The rolls are for me the perfect size. Not too big and bite size, so they are smaller than what most places make. You can fit the whole piece in your mouth easily.
• The house sauce is great! It's a paste like sauce and I think it's made with finely minced apples, onions, fresh ginger, garlic and ponzu sauce (Japanese vinaigrette). It's salty, tangy, sweet and spicy. It tastes almost like the salad dressing Japanese places use for their house salads...but it's homemade so it's so much better. I thought it suited the roll very well.
• The seared tuna and house sauce stood out the most. It reminded me of a Negitoro roll with the onion, green onion and citrus sauce.
• The sushi rice is too separated though. Therefore it came off a little like grocery store sushi. It wasn't flavorful enough, but I like how they didn't use it to make the roll look big.
• 
• Sunshine Roll 1.5/6
• Shrimp tempura, smoked salmon, mango, house sauce $7.95
• There's avocado and cucumber in this one, but it doesn't say on the menu.
• There was no house sauce. I didn't even realize until the end of the meal when I was reading back.
• The shrimp tempura was a good size, but a little too battered.
• Without the house sauce it was a very plain roll.
• This sounded and looked better than in tasted. It could have been a 3/6 even without the sauce, but for the mango they cut into the core so it was hairy! It was really distracting. The mango wasn't that sweet or ripe either.
• They layered a slice of avocado, smoked salmon and then mango. The also put some salt and pepper between the avocado and smoked salmon.
• The presentation was nice but the smoked salmon was a bit overpowering and made it taste quite fishy. I would have preferred salmon sashimi with the mango.Smoked salmon I think goes better with citrus/tart things and salmon sashimi with sweeter ingredients...like mango.
  

• Other specialty rolls available:
• (I took what I thought were the most interesting ones, but I haven't tried them)
• Saba roll: seared saba, gingered rice
• Bake roll: spicy tuna, chopped scallop, house sauce
• Caterpillar roll: unagi, smoked salmon w/lemon, house sauce