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Ocean West Coast Japanese Bistro - CLOSED
Category: Restaurants Japanese Japanese [Edit]
3121 Granville StVancouver, BC V6H
Neighbourhoods: Shaughnessy, South Granville
(604) 736-3121
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Has TV:
- Yes
6 reviews for Ocean West Coast Japanese Bistro
6 reviews in English
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Review from Janice F.
4/5/2011
Well, it's not bad if you're in the neighbourhood and your other dinner plans didn't work out. Kind of expensive, unimaginative, but decent food.
The space is large, minimalistic and rather cold - but the service is friendly. Half-lounge, half-restaurant - it looks like it could use a Yelp event ;)
We had a deep-fried eel sushi roll which was nicely presented and tasty. The chawan mushi was smooth and came topped with spinach and one prawn hidden on the bottom. I do give them props for having kawahaki - they called it dried pufferfish. Either way, it's like fish jerky served with mayo flecked with chili. It was not too chewy and warm, which I liked. -
Review from Joyce P.
Vancouver, BC
10/21/2010
I've been to Ocean a couple of times since they've opened by my work area. I've never been truly impressed but the food wasn't bad enough to stop me from coming.
Once in a while I'll grab a bento box for lunch but because of the very slow service, my lunch break is half over by the time I get my food. Or some instances they've forgotten things that were ordered and I don't have the time to go back to get it.
So I went there recently and ordered some food. There's nothing wrong with the food. I mean it's not amazing but it's really not bad. We had the firecracker roll, cream croquette, takoyaki, chopped scallop roll, negitoro roll and amaebi sashimi.
Now everything was good, if somewhat average. I love amaebi sashimi and it looked really good when I saw the server bringing it out to other people. We mentioned we were in a bit of a rush and gave the server the prawn heads the moment the dish came out so they could fry it for us. This was after we had asked for them to check on our food because we had a time limit.
Anyways, we asked if the prawn heads were ready yet so we could grab the bill and go (there was a small child waiting for us to pick her up), the server tells us the deep fryer is very busy and it'll be another 10 minutes.
Now I understand fair is fair, but I thought that was such bad customer service. It does not take more than 2 minutes to fry the heads, no one knows who's dish was ordered first AND we had made it clear a few times we were quite rushed on time. This is the difference between a great restaurant and a so so one. A great restaurant will strive to make their patrons happy and with Ocean, I think I am done with it. -
Review from y l.
Richmond, BC
6/26/2011
Very late post but nonetheless:
I went to Ocean with my fam for a celebration. I have to say I was disappointed. Selection and prices 'look' fantastic. Pictures of the food looked yummy but to my surprise, portions were smaller than usual and of course then, prices are then too high for the amount. For a wakame salad of $5, I got no more than a golf ball size stuffed with lettuce. Really???? I was disappointed.
Oh and of course..drum roll.....we ordered 10 dishes in total..server came back and said they ran out of Uni. Wah wah wah...understandable..fine..then another server comes back and tells us they ran out of mango..SERIOUSLY? Now, to top it off.."sorry we ran our of garlic clams!" THREE DISHES that they "ran out of." To me thats unacceptable. Especially for a fairly newish restaurant.
Upside to this experience is both servers were fantastic and accomodating. They constantly brought hot tea and even gave us a complimentary dish. We also got ice cream for dessert so they somewhat redeemed themselves. If I could just give the servers 5 stars i would...but i jugde overall. Now I know what youre thinking, "they offered you this, and youre still complaining?" YES I AM STILL COMPLAINING! WE were ALL disappointed...sheesh! -
Review from tee a.
7/19/2010
I'm not a fan of fusion foods, so when my friend was having her birthday here it was the perfect opportunity to try this place out. The decor was trendy and simplistic. The presentation of their rolls were amazing. The price range is similar to what you would expect from a downtown izakaya, perhaps $1-$2 more.
I had the deep fried octopus, a spicy roll (forgot the exact name) and a chicken stir fry udon.
The deep fried octopus came highly recommended. It was tasty, exactly what you would expect it to taste like.
The spicy roll.. yum!! I regret not remembering the name.. if you go.. it's the one with spicy tuna inside. This roll definitely packs the heat.
The chicken udon.. normal and many pieces of chicken.
Bonus: free parking in the back and a great patio in the back
Boos: we were in a large group, we ordered with everybody else and unfortunately our food was the last to arrive... at least 20 mins after most ppl finished eating. -
Review from Sandra G.
Vancouver, BC
3/21/2010 2 photos
This past January, my friend recommended I check out Ocean: West Coast Japanese Bistro in South Granville because her friend just opened it, and she was going to have her birthday party there. Plans changed, and we didn't get to celebrate there, but I kept the business card because it looked cool (with a title like "West Coast Japanese Bistro" who could resist) and I'm always down to check out new places.
My boyfriend and I decided to have a date night out, and drove down to the area. The place is clean, booth-less and not really what I expected; it looked more like a casual cafe. However, the big bar and over-sized photos of downtown Tokyo give it an izakaya feel, which - as they say in their menu - is what they were going for.
Ocean prides itself on its tapas. Appetizers range from $4-9 and entrees aren't much more. The sake selections were probably the most expensive items. Although the place wasn't busy for a Saturday night, I could see it getting busy if more people knew about it.
Food: The Okonomiyaki ("Japanese pizza") I ordered didn't have as much filling as I'm used to - definitely more doughy, and they skimp out a little bit on the sauce. For those who haven't tried this dish, it's more like a Japanese pancake than a pizza - definitely not crusty.
But both that dish and the "Flammable" roll my boyfriend ordered both had some decorative mustard, which I guess is what made them 'west coast.' The agedashi tofu and vegetable tempura were pretty standard, and my boyfriend had no complaints about his food either. I asked for a 2 oz. ume (umeshu = plum wine) + 7up - my standard drink of choice at izakayas - and I was surprised to see that it came premixed. It was a little too sweet for my taste, so now I know to get only the 1 oz.
Ocean gets 5 stars in presentation and service, but overall nothing extravagant. Most of the food selection is seafood and meat, so unfortunately I couldn't sample much else. Nice, casual, quiet atmosphere, definitely worth a try if you want to escape the busy izakaya scene in downtown. -
Review from Joanne W.
Richmond, BC
4/12/2011
Love their Ocean tower, and the atmosphere inside is very nice and chill!!
From time to time I just like to go and chill out there!
