Gohan Japanese Restaurant

So after a 3 month hunger strike, I have returned! I've passed by this place before and had been meaning to try it. The restaurant advertises itself as Japanese with a hint of Hawaiian flair so obviously, I just had to try it.

The place has a strange schedule:
lunch ~ M - F: 11 - 2:30, Sat: 11:30 - 2:30, closed Sunday
dinner ~ M - Th: 5 - 9, Fri - Sat: 5 - 9:30, closed Sunday

I went here on a Saturday at 6 and me and my guest were the only occupants for half an hour so not a lot of traffic. There is meter parking on the side but apparently, it is not in effect on weekends or weekdays after 6!

So the inside of the place is pretty nice and I like the cloths on the chairs. There is air conditioning and soft Asian music plays in the background. The waitress was very nice and accommodating. We asked for cold water and we received ice cold glasses with a little slice of lemon in it. I was very impressed with the beverages so let's get down to the food!


Gohan roll ~ $5 - think california roll with bits of fried tempura in the middle and there's your Gohan roll. The extra crunchiness is nice, comes with 5 pieces and let me just say that the roll is much larger than your standard roll but not as big as Samurai. As you can see, it is pretty stuffed and not just rice.


Deluxe holiday roll ~ $10.25 - with 8 pieces, this big badass comes with ebi tempura, avocado, imitation crab, scallop, tamago, masago and it's wrapped in lettuce and smoked salmon. It was truly awesome.



Sushi Pizza ~ $12.95


L: shrimp

R: imitation crab



This was the highlight of my dining experience and it was great. You get two pieces roughly the size of a personal size pan pizza. The bottom is rice and seaweed that's been deep fried and on top you get both the imitation crab and the tangy shrimp with a smoked salmon covering. Although both were great, I liked the shrimp one more. Did I mention that there is also tonkatsu sauce!?


Seafood papaya springroll ~ $9.95 - Inside of each of these are scallop, crab and shrimp with papaya and avocado. Beneath is papaya sauce for dipping. These were very good but oily. Unfortunately, we let this one sit for a while so it was a little soggy when we ate it.


Chicken locomoco on rice ~ 7.95 - rice bowl with vegetables, breaded chicken and vegetables. The locomoco is actually the sauce which is like a tangy ketchup. Since I like ketchup on most of my food, this was obviously awesome. It's quite fairly sized so you could be full eating this alone much less eating all of the above.

So would I come here again? I definitely would! I think it's great that there is a place like this in Burnaby and now I don't have to go all the way downtown for my Japanese fusion kick. Given all the food above, we obviously were unable to finish and when they packed up our food, they gave each food item its separate box instead of stuffing them all in a white styrofoam box. Even the leftover rolls came in a nice sushi box and even though that box would've went to the garbage, I thought it was a nice touch.

The food was excellent, the service was attentive, and the atmosphere great so there isn't really much I can complain about. Oh wait, they have weird hours.

My rating: 9/10



Gohan Japanese Restaurant
1815 Rosser Avenue
Burnaby, BC V5C 6R4
Tel: 604-205-5212

Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant

I usually stop here in here once every 2 or 3 months for their AYCE lunch which I think is a great value at $11. Add about $4 for the unlimited sashimi (yes, there is no limit) and you'll have your fill of unlimited sushi for about $18 after tax and tip.

Tomokazu is one of my favorite places for AYCE cause I think the pricing is of great value (although I've only been there for lunch and late night) and the quality is decent too. The place is really close to the giant Toys R Us sign so it's hard to miss. Parking is all over the streets on Broadway but they have their own little underground parking lot which I think you still have to pay for anyway. This place also goes by the name of Ninkazu... I don't know why the owner doesn't update their business cards but probably cause no one bothers to take one.

I really like the openness and the decor of this place. At the end, they have their Japanese style booths and their own little rock garden. However, I don't like their washrooms or at least the way to get there. Plus, you've gotta get through two doors to leave so you have to save that paper towel and since they don't have waste cans nearby, you leave it by their gas tanks on the way back to your table.
They have a pretty good selection of food and the sashimi has always been fresh for me. I'm normally a fan of salmon only but I think the tuna here is even better than the salmon. Granted, like any other AYCE joint, they won't bring you everything that you list down, but they do get the majority of it. The food comes at a relatively quick pace with enough spacing in between for us the finish our previous plates. Concerning food, my only big complaint is the lack of dessert since it's just hard jello but I do like the fresh oranges they also have available (listed as fresh fruit). Overall, food is pretty solid but not out of this world.

I know AYCE isn't for everyone and expectations usually aren't high but this is one of the few I really like (the other is E-Bei on Granville but I haven't been there for years.). For what it's worth, I can tell you that I think Fish on Rice and Kawawa sushi are not very good AYCE joints.

My fondest memory of this place has to be when I came with a group of friends after late night studying at SFU and one guy had a little too much to eat too quickly. He said he needed to #2 and then stood up. After 5 seconds, he said "oh, it went away" and then sat down and continued eating. Maybe there's something alluring about Tomokazu's food that makes you just want to keep on eating... or maybe it's because their washrooms are gross and that you'd rather go home to do your business.


Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant
201 - 1128 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6H1G5
Tel: (604) 677-0434