Japadog

When traveling, we reserve an extra meal for the end of the evening...after dinner, after dessert, after the late night cocktail...I'm not sure what it's called, but in Canada it often means "vegetarian hot dog" because the nation is rich with they-hardly-ever-close hot dog places, always with a veggie dog option. That was our experience in cities in the east of Candada, and to our delight, here in Vancouver where Japadog services up a zillion different unique Japanese hot dog combinations, with a veggie dog ready to put in place, and, for heaven's sake, they're open until 3am.

We were in Vancouver for 3 nights, and, sure enough, we went to Japadog 3 times. If you're there before 10pm you can sit in their small dining area. After 10 you order at the street window and there are a couple of stone bench/planter areas right in front you can park yourself.

They have a separate vegetarian menu which is not fully on display in the restaurant, but IS available when you use their electronic ordering tablet (and viewable on their website.) That threw us off a little on our first visit when we knew we had seen the veggie options on the website, but it was before 10 and we were ordering from a live person who only mentioned 2 different options. (There are a lot more than 2!) No matter, over the course of our three nights we tried the Veggie Croquette (made with fried potatoes), the Veggie Oroshi, and the Veggie Terimayo (With no mayo). All looked unique and tasted good and served our late-night extra-meal stomach reserved for just such occasions.

The fact that it was almost across the street from our hotel was a bonus. (Or a disaster depending on how you look at it.) Please, Japadog...you have many locations...what would it take for you to open up just one more here in Newhall, California, and also be open until 3am...pretty please?

Stopped by here for brunch and it was good. Very versatile menu and unique choices for hot dogs and Japanese street food!

Very small establishment with very limited seating inside and outside. You can either order at the kiosk or with the cashier. I'd say the portions are on the smaller side but prices are decent. Got pretty crowded as it turned into lunchtime.

What we ordered:
-Wagyu Menchi Katsu: Okay but served oddly. It was like a huge menchi meatball in a hotdog bun so you didn't get menchi with every bite. It was also pretty heavy on the mayo which I wasn't a huge fan of. Menchi was okay. 3/5
-Japanese Curry Poutine: This was really good! Fries were amazing with the curry. Curry was flavorful but def tasted like the packaged curry. 4/5
-Aonori Fries: These were basically furikake fries and they were actually really good. Seasoning complimented the fries well. 4/5
-Chicken Karage: This was very disappointing just because I've had better before. The breading was very plain and not flavorful, just tasted fried. Smelled a little fishy too which I wasn't a fan of. 2/5

Overall, this place looked cooler than it actually was. I wasn't super impressed with the food nor the portions. I'm not from this area so if I came back to downtown Vancouver, I'd probably try something else instead.

We heard about Japadog while researching for our Vancouver trip. And I don't get the hype. We stopped by on a Monday at 12, and it wasn't too busy yet but people were slowly starting to trickle in after we ordered. We got an order of the 3pcs of Takoyaki, Kurobuta Terimayo (Kurobuta Pork, teriyaki sauce, japanese mayo, fried onions, seaweed) and the Hot Spicy (beef, special original spicy sauce, lettuce). The Takoyaki was okay, but I'm not really a huge fan of Takoyaki to being with because it's always a soggy mess. This was no different. The Kurobuta Terimayo had way too much mayo on it. If it wasn't for that, it could have been pretty good because the hot dog itself had a nice snap and flavor to it. The beef hot dog was just mid. The 'spicy sauce' it came with was more like a hot relish than it was a sauce, and there was SO much of it. Some if it accidentally fell off onto the table, which made it slightly better but not by much.

Maybe we just didn't order the right items but I don't think I would try it again. Plus for something as simple as a hot dog, these things ain't cheap!

Decent hot dogs and a fun, unique dining concept in Vancouver. The hot dogs are tasty enough, but I wouldn't say they're "must-try" if you're only in town for a day. It is nice that they offer non-meat and seafood options if you're looking for something beyond the typical beef/pork hot dog blend.
The takoyaki was also tasty, although there wasn't enough octopus or sauce in the dish.

Awesome place good value for the price. My favorite was the #5 spicy cheese terimayo really good snap on the dog, seaweed and nice accompaniment. The #6 was ok the noodles on the dog did not do that much for me. The #8 was amazing to tonkatsu was fried perfectly and tender. The fries with the shoyu butter were pretty good all in all really solid place and must try when in Vancouver. Plenty of seating inside and outside at Robinson location.

We'd heard of this restaurant via YouTube reviews from locals. Couldn't wait to try it and so glad we did!
Although we saw stands set up throughout the down town area and at the airport, when we walked by this brick and mortar location, we knew this was where we wanted to go.
We tried #3 Oroshi and #5 Spicy Cheese TeriMayo.
I love daikon, and liked the way it was grated for the #3, but it wasn't my favorite.
Both were good but the #5 was amazing. Will go back to try other flavors.
Poutine was also decent!

Japadog was one of those places I heard about as an iconic Vancouver food. They started as a small hotdog stand in 2005 and saw success, opening more stands and then sit-in restaurants. It's a great story.

This location on Robson Street is pretty unique, the architecture of the small store definitely feels like you could be in Japan. It offers some table and bar seating inside, and a couple picnic tables outside. Though it's not a bar, "dive" does seem to be an apt description. I think it could use a deep clean.

Their menu has, of course, hotdogs as well as fried chicken, takoyaki, fries, and some desserts. As a first time visitor, I asked the staff for their recommendation of what was popular, and they didn't really have an answer for me and didn't seem super friendly or engaging. They also said they didn't have wifi for guests to use.

I appreciate the interesting menu items. I'm not sure the flavors worked for me. It was a little mayo heavy. And the veg option was flavorless. I am curious why they cannot make any hotdog into a veggie hotdog and instead have a specific section of veg options.

Overall it's certainly unique. However, I fear that their success has led them to fall from the heights they started at. I might visit again to try a different order but it wouldn't be a priority.

Pleasantly surprised.
Wasn't sure what to expect but had low expectations.
Ordered the number 1 and also the Tokantsu and also the green tea ice cream on bread.

All were great. The number one had a great flavor profile with the Japanese mayo onions and sausage and nori flakes. The katsu was delicious as well.
The dessert with the green tea on the sugar cinnamon bread was excellent as well.

Been almost 10 years since I first tried this place. Made sure to stop by for a quick bite and didn't forget about dessert.

Ordered a Kurobuta terimayo #1, a Hot and spicy #9, an original Lemonade. The lemonade was a bit on the sweeter side. Once we were done, we went back to the counter to order an Aged Ice with Vanilla ice cream. It's essentially a hotdog bun thats made into a sugar donut and ice inserted into the middle. Just as good as i remember it!

We were looking for a quick bite. I thought, based on what I could find that we had located a shop version of the restaurant, but it was only a "food cart." Either I had the wrong location or no sit-down place exists. Anyway, we were the very last customers to get food for the night. Everything was good, but it was a bit challenging to eat - quite messy, especially since we weren't at a table with lots of napkins available!