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Minato Sushi Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Japanese Restaurants Sushi Bars Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
992 Broadway WVancouver, BC V5Z 1K7
Neighbourhood: Fairview Slopes
(604) 732-6554
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11:30 am - 10 pm
Sat-Sun 5 pm - 10 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Validated
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- Free
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
20 reviews for Minato Sushi Restaurant
20 reviews in English
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Review from Ahmid B.
Victoria, BC
4/23/2012
Accidentally stumbled across Minato and WOW, I'm glad I did. I wasn't expecting much judging by the outside and the sushi is pretty good! Service was friendly and the prices are easy on my wallet.
I would cross town for Minato and I recommend it. -
Review from Matt G.
Coquitlam, BC
3/23/2012
This is my favourite place for sushi in Vancouver.
It is VERY rare for me to return to a restaurant more than once. I work in the food industry & I like novelty and discovering new places to eat. I have returned to Minato more times than any other restaurant in my life.
The fish always tastes fresh, the service is attentive & friendly, and there is SOMETHING special about the rice. I don't know what it is but they do something with that rice that sets it apart in my mind from the hordes of other sushi joints in this city.
Oh, and they pay for your parking, which is another nice touch:) -
Review from Brian S.
4/21/2012 1 Check-in Here
Been to Minatos over 100 times in the 10 years that I lived in this neighbourhood. After going their for five years Lina front of the House Manager introduced herself to us. Because this is a high volume restaurant the fish we order is always fresh. I do not ever remember getting sick from eating the sushi and sashimi at Minatos over the years. I also really enjoy there chicken teriyaki roll. They offer wild salmon for a modest charge and the service is fine.
During the winter months we enjoy their hot noddle bowls. One of the cooks is a bit of and Artist and he draw a great Asian Inspired Pen Drawing of Obama that hung behind cashier station. I really enjoyed looking at the drawing as I payed my bill. Great place for take out for or easy dinner out. -
Review from Gretchen C.
Vancouver, BC
9/14/2011
Minato is the perfect little-place to grab a quick bite to eat. The quality of its sushi is slightly above average at comparable prices, and the service is great. The staff is friendly and attentive, providing excellent service at all times.
One of the best items on the menu has to be the agedashi tofu, with a side of hot-sauce. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, sauteed in a soup-like substance, and sprinkled with flakes of onion. With the hot-sauce on the side, the level of this dish's spiciness can be controlled to cater to individual taste-buds.
The spicy roll is one of the best speciality rolls on the menu. It is made with tuna and special spicy-sauce. The sauce has a distinct and unique flavor to it, that is almost sweet, and peanut-sauce-esque.
A great lunch-break sushi joint for people that work and live within its vicinity. -
Review from Jacqueline S.
Vancouver, BC
11/11/2011
I've been meaning to review this place for a couple weeks now.
They're very reasonably priced and the serving sizes and quality of sushi are slightly above average. Great place for grabbing lunch or a quick dinner. This place is just down the road from my apartment so I tend to go there quite often. I tend to recommend it to friends in the area as well as take visiting friends and family there for a bite to eat.
They tend to be quite busy during lunch time, but dinner is much more quiet. The service is always quick and friendly, the delivery is free and quite prompt as well. I've always left quite full and very satisfied every time with minato. -
Review from Christian M.
Vancouver, BC
10/14/2010 3 Check-ins Here
I can say a lot of things about a sushi joint. But you know what I appreciate the most about Minato? It's not the food. It's not the service.
It's the fact that every time I bring in a reusable container so that they don't have to pack my take-away vegetarian sushi rolls into styrofoam, they thank me for doing it. They recognize that I'm trying to do a positive thing for the environment and thank me for doing it. While I'm waiting for my order to take away, the girls helping me always offer me a glass of water or tea. It's a small thing but it's a nice thing.
My favourite regular items on the menu are the yam roll (which is nice and fat with a yam tempura in the middle) and the spicy vegetable roll (which has just the right amount of heat every time.
While the workers at the establishment aren't actually Japanese, they still make an attempt to greet you with an "irrashaimase" when you enter the door, just like you'd encounter in Japan.
While it looks like a hole in the wall, Minato Sushi is still my favourite local spot when I'm in the area of Vancouver General Hospital. -
Review from Darcy C.
4/1/2011
This is, by far, the best sushi choice in easy walking distance from the hospital. Very fast, very consistent, and their wild salmon sashimi is totally delish at a very reasonable price.
They will get you in and out very fast if you need to be quick, and you will leave full and happy. -
Review from Crystal H.
Vancouver, BC
3/31/2010 1 Check-in Here
Perhaps this was an off day, or maybe it's just my sushi senses got the "no" feeling from Minato, but from the moment I walked in, I felt like I had entered a hole-in-the-wall world that I didn't belong to.
Clue one: the sleeping child or small adult at one of the tables just left of the door. Head fully down on the table, hood of a jacket over their head.
Clue two: the incredibly off putting smell of pinesol. There's lots of tables, but we were ushered to the back, which was fine, except for that smell of pinesol coming from the kitchen was not what I wanted to smell while eating.
Clue three: the extremely salty seaweed salad. So salty in fact that I had to return it. They were nice enough to remove it from the bill, and they let me know that it was from a different company (what, a different company? Do Japanese restaurants always buy their seaweed salad from other companies?). I assume this is only temporary and that their seaweed salad will be once again be edible, but for now, I'd avoid it.
Clue four: random boxes piled up and just an overall feeling of dingy grime everywhere.
They did have a few things going for them though: service was super friendly, the Pinky roll was pretty fresh and their chicken noodle soba was fantastic!Listed in: Mr Clean, Where Are You?
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Review from Jessie J.
8/8/2009
Can't believe it's taken me so long to review Minato! This is my family's go-to sushi joint, where you will often find at least some of us every Thursday for "sushi night."
For starters, its owners and chefs are Japanese, which is not as common as you might think in Vancouver. The prices are good, the fish is always fresh and tasty, and they have a number of rolls you won't find elsewhere.
They're not crazy creations like the Sushi Bar or Hiroshi's (both of which I have reviewed already), just nice simple combinations no one else makes. Like the Pinky and Rocky rolls, made from salmon and tuna respectively, with raw fish, avocado and scallion on the inside, and a thin layer of the same fish smoked on the outside. I love the yasai maki, a particularly tasty vegetable roll, and the sauce used in their spicy rolls actually adds to, rather than takes away from, the fish. Both other reviews hit the nail on the head in talking about eel here. Order the dragon roll for sure, and tell your waitress you want it to look like a dragon. The sushi chef is a real artist - with a sense of humour!
Also always good: the wild salmon sashimi, and the goma-ae (spinach salad with sesame dressing). Feel like a bunch of fish without the extra trappings: go for the Chirashi sushi, a bowl of sushi rice covered in a dense layer of delicious assorted sashimi, with a few hidden surprises tucked in the corners. -
Review from Mike P.
4/20/2010 1 Check-in Here
This is the closest sushi place to my work so I often visit for lunch. I always visit for lunch and i always order the sashimi lunchbox that is very reasonably priced.
For me this place is the definition of a 3-star sushi restaurant. The food is decent, not spectacular. The decor is a bit below average but I don't need my Japanese restaurant to be ornately decorated (the space is a bit too dark and cave-like for my liking). Usually the restaurant is pretty full at lunch and they're always very prompt with their service.
The lunch box I get is a great mix with a green salad, teriyaki chicken, tuna and salmon sashimi, tempura (including two prawns), a california roll, miso soup and ebi sunomono to start.
Interestingly when i read all of the other reviews i can relate to most of what people say, from the ones that give this place 1 star, to the 5 star reviews. -
Review from Sheila W.
BC
1/20/2009 1 photo
Discovering the Unagi Roll ($5.75) was worth the trip to Minato Sushi!! The Unagi (BBQ fresh water eel) was still warm inside the roll and there was lots of thinly sliced, crunchy cucumber in there. Definitely a new favourite of mine!!
I also ordered some Nigiri sushi. The Tai (snapper) was a bit tough and the cut was thicker than I would have liked. The tuna and salmon were both melt-in-your-mouth. They didn't put the usual smear of wasabi between the fish and the rice, but they give you ample wasabi on the side to add it in yourself.
The place does a brisk take-out business and the staff is really quick to serve you. They'll bring you green tea while you wait (which is not for long). There's lots of seating, nothing fancy though! Just your usual bare table, wooden chair kind of decor you expect in a sushi joint.
Although the atmosphere is lacking, it's good sushi and a fantastic place to get take out. They'll give you back money for parking in the lot out front and they'll deliver for free ($20+ orders, 5km away). -
Review from Mercedes G.
Vancouver, BC
12/13/2008
Always on the lookout for good sushi in Vancouver, a friend of mine suggested Minato on Broadway. Located on the corner of West Broadway and Oak in a small strip mall, Minato may be easy to miss but you really should seek this gem in the rough out.
While lacking in atmosphere and design aesthetic, Minato makes up for tenfold in fantastic, fresh sushi! My friend and I ordered a large bottle of hot sake, the Vancouver Special Rolls and the Dragon Rolls with avocado and unagi (eel). We noticed the VS rolls appeared to be huge on the menu photo and they turned out to be even bigger when they arrived at our table, requiring us to shmangle cutting each sushi roll with our chopsticks. We didn't really care though because the rolls were amazing and fresh. The Dragon rolls came out fashioned in, you guessed it, the shape of a dragon, the most artfully plated sushi I have seen in Vancouver thus far, and just as delicious.
With hot sake flowing, our stay at Minato resulted in us being the last people in the restaurant with the staff giving us lingering glances that said, ever-so-politely, get the heck out! Fair enough, we overstayed our welcome, but I would definitely do it again...! -
Review from Laura M.
Vancouver, BC
4/14/2011
I mainly love this place because of its extremely convenient location to my house. There staff is friendly, their service (for takeout) is fast, their drinks are cheap, and their fish is always FRESH.
I probably visit Minato at least once a week and the girls always know what I want. -
Review from Tamar K.
Vancouver, BC
3/11/2011
I have near Minato for the past four years and it has always been my primary sushi joint. But I feel lately the quality has been declining. Their wild salmon used to be one of the freshest in the city. The last three times I have had it, I found that it was tough and difficult to chew when served as sashimi. Their tuna has been more consistent, or may that is because I always order their hot minato roll (favourite roll in the city!), where they chop tuna into small pieces and mix it with a tasty, but not too saucy, hot sauce, then roll it in tempura pieces.
Minato is usually busy for lunch because of the VGH crowd and quieter at dinner. Even on a busy Fri and Sat night you can usually get seated without much of a wait.
Best aspect of Minato remains their super friendly staff. I hate to stop going there just because I want to continue to support their business! I hope their raw fish quality improves though or I might stray for good... -
Review from Stacey H.
Vancouver, BC
8/22/2009
Minato Sushi used to be my regular sushi destination about 15 years ago when I was dating this one particular guy. We considered ourselves sushi aficionados and found Minatos's sushi to be as tasty if not better than most pricier sushi restaurants around town.
After breaking up with the guy and moving to a different part of town Minato sorta fell off my sushi radar. Until last week when a friend and I were on our way home from the Victoria ferry, that is. Not wanting to deal with downtown rush hour traffic I remembered Minato conveniently located on the corner of Oak and Broadway. Sure enough it was still there but would it still be as good?
IT WAS! We had a fabulous meal and couldn't have been happier. I was so glad it was still as awesome as it always was so many years ago. The place is no frills and has very typical-sushi-joint décor but the food really stands out. We love sashimi and it was so fresh and yummy. The rolls were all great and the wakame salad generous and delicious. We ate ourselves silly and the bill was most reasonable. Service was excellent and super friendly.
The even better news is that they now deliver so I can access their fine food from the West End. -
Review from Barry C.
Vancouver, BC
8/25/2010
A solid 3star. In Van you can usually divide Japanese restaurants by the size of the rolls/sushi. Big rolls lean towards the quantity focus while small rolls tend to lean towards quality. A tad oversimplification but those who do Japanese here know the dichotomy. Minato is a big roll kinda place. Not that the rolls are bad. No. They are workman like. No surprises, no flourish of brilliance or wow factor.You get what you expect. They are what they are. The menu has the standard suspects of rolls, appies, noodles, donburis, teri this teri that, panko encrusted things fried and sushi. Big rolls places donot have stellar sashmi. Workman like is the tag. A plus is that the noodles come in the udon or soba variety...a real choice for the health conscious. Though the rolls here donot have the trendy brown rice option.
Place is workman like. Plain. You dont pay for the decor here. Service is friendly .
Price points and hefty portions makes this a go to place(not for sashimi) but for the comfort of no suprises and value when you want Japanese after a day in the trenches. -
Review from Shelley C.
Vancouver, BC
12/29/2009
Go there all the time because it's right outside my apartment. The service is always friendly; tea is offered while you wait for your take-out. They have a great selection of rolls. The food is always decent. Nothing stands out but it's a solid sushi place to go.
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Review from Amy P.
Vancouver, BC
6/21/2011 2 Check-ins Here
Delivery always on time. Lots of specialty rolls.
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Review from Jon T.
Vancouver, BC
1/16/2010
I'm a regular at this place and I've only ever been disappointed when it's closed.
The Hot Yam Roll is an amazing thing. -
Review from batta t.
Vancouver, BC
5/25/2011
Convenient location, clean environment, friendly service, good selection of food that is well prepared and delicious. California rolls, futomaki and sashimi are highly recommended! Try the nabeiyaki udon too - best comfort food.
