Shabusen Yakiniku House

I'm probably spoiled from the Korean food I eat in Seattle but this was the worst I've had. I was eating angry knowing this cost me round 40 bucks. I shouldn't have tipped them the standard rate. The meat quality sucks and they intentionally give you wrong quantities of food so it isn't wasted. Why have customers fill out a sheet if you're just gonna give them 1 of each dish? The sushi did not make up for it. It was worse than dollar conveyor belt sushi. My friend who has been here before said their quality went down as well.

The food both in terms of quality and quantity is great at this restaurant. The concept of barbecuing the already tenderised meats keeps the guests busy and makes the meal more appealing. Definitely going back for more

This review is about Too Good To Go deal and their sushi quality.

I understand it's surprise bag and the customer doesn't know what inside. That's totally fine and I was looking forward to the surprise.

First of all, it had good volume and variety of rolls with miso soup.

Normally, I don't order any spicy rolls but the surprise bag had it, why not? I tried it.

All I tasted is only spicy sauce. I flipped the slice up side down because I doubt it was sushi. Yep there was a fish. I wondered how many people can recognize what fish inside and how fresh they are under the sauce? It's a pleasure part of eating sushi. But here, I felt disgusted.

And Gari, pickled ginger, there was moldy taste.

I would never come back again.

The taste is terrible and the menu doesn't have many choices! Shortrib is not bone-in beef! Their food quality is the worst and the beef is hard to chew! The miso soup doesn't have any ingredients! Even the spoon is not given! And there is no dipping sauce for the grilled meat! The price is expensive and there is a misleading charge for children, 4$per year old, 4*8=32$for 8 years old! There are flies flying around while eating! Even the toilet is very small, can't think of any good points! Anyway, I will never come back a second time!

By the way, the food was unhygienic and my family had stomachaches at night!

I couldn't decide between 2-3 stars. In summary: this is one of the few AYCE sushi places left in Vancouver, but the selection and quality leaves too much to be desired. It's not a bad price for AYCE but just not worth it.

You only get 8 pieces of sashimi per person, total. The pieces are on the small side compared to other local places, and the quality especially of the hamachi is not very high. It feels not firm but mushy. The "spicy" is just some sauce on top, very blah.

The selection is very tiny. 4 kinds of sashimi, only 6 kinds of nigiri of which only 2 is fish, not even eel. Only 2 kinds of rolls if you don't count California roll and basic veggie rolls. They have more hot food. The Chicken teriyaki and tonkotsu is not bad - crispy at least though not much meat. The yakinori is really tiny.

The gyoza and agedashi tofu is pretty sad.

If you must have AYCE I guess this is an option but I would just pass.

Honestly an A-OK yakiniku house. I've had yakiniku in Japan and this definitely does not compare to it and I also felt it didn't compare to other AYCE grill restaurants. The sushi was very OK - we got a tuna sashimi and it was not very fresh. I did like the salmon though. For the yakiniku, I would say the BBQ spicy pork and chicken were quite good. The yakisoba was very flavourless - I could really only taste the salt. But I did like the vegetable tempura very much!

One thing is I don't know how clean everything is as the employees use gloves - they're holding bowls of raw meat, bringing new dishes, removing old dishes from multiple tables, and pouring ice into the pitcher and using the gloves to prevent the ice from spilling out with the same gloves. Maybe they change their gloves at intervals but I do feel there's a high incidence of cross contamination.

Still a good experience to go to in Vancouver!

Lamps like lamp popcorn. Beef over sauced. Everything tasted like come from same soy sauce. Horrible tasting! Owner is sitting next us. Talking and laughing so loud over 80dB.

One of the OG last remaining AYCE sushi places in the downtown core. I remember eating here once maybe 15 years ago, and totally forgot until all the other AYCE places around town started drying up.

Parking is awful. Try for a loading zone, or take transit.

The place is up on the 2nd floor.

Interior is pretty dated with the neon strips. Looks 1990s. One thing worth mentioning is that although this place also has Korean BBQ, the tables do not have exhaust vents above the tables. The entire place gets pretty smoky, and their solution is to open the front door(!) to air the place out, letting all the cold air in. Not sure if this is even legal. Cough.

The staff speak Cantonese. In other words, don't expect an authentic experience. Just expect a whole pile of sashimi goodness.

This place has unlimited sashimi. Yes, you heard that right. I can't remember the last time I got to have that. Can't imagine how many salmon and tuna fish my friends and I went through. Special mention. Skip the regular nigiri.

The nigiri selection is pretty decent, with stuff like hokkigai (surf clam), tako (octopus), and unagi (eel). However, there was no masago or tobiko (fish roe) variant.

The Korean BBQ selection is nice, but the grill burner at our table must've been slightly clogged. One side was noticeably hotter than the other, so we could only cook at half speed. The grill area is also quite small, so we couldn't cook the pieces fast enough, which put a damper on the experience.

Lastly, the coffee jello dessert is like crack. The staff had to stop us after we probably had 6-8 each. Another special mention.

Despite the flaws, my friends and I will be back to gorge on more AYCE sashimi. Despite the steep price, it's still way cheaper to eat sashimi here than at T&T. I can't believe I'm saying this.

We were craving a late dinner and thought this place would be a perfect blend since it offered AYCE sushi and bbq. Not to our surprise, the sushi and bbq were mediocre but it fills you up for approximately $40 per person.

We arrived an hour and a half before closing and were aware that there were last calls. Even then, you can tell the staff wanted to leave asap. We ended up staying 10 minutes after closing to finish our food. The staff wasn't rude but we definitely felt pressured to rush.

The location is a bit hard to find at first but if you see the sign, head to the stairs and it is located on the second floor.

My family and I used to come here a few years ago and loved it because of the value and quality of sushi but that has drastically gone down, probably because of COVID and trying to cut down costs. We are here for lunch (sushi only) and were extremely disappointed.

The salmon, while being the best thing on the menu, tasted frozen and lacked any kind of flavor. The rice on the nigiri is also pretty sour so it makes it seem like your sushi has gone bad but it's just the rice vinegar.

They used to have albacore tuna which was pretty good but that's been replaced with Escolar, also known as Oilfish. If you don't know what Escolar is, look it up and the first thing that pops up is how cautious you should be eating it. It's known to be a cheap replacement for tuna and while the taste can be similar, escolar has a wax that's indigestible and can cause diarrhea.

Even the food from the kitchen (fried rice, karaage, vegetable tempura, chicken teriyaki) none of it was memorable. I can't speak for the bbq but there's so many great cheap sushi restaurants to go to so I would avoid this one.

This place offers AYCE sushi and jbbq. But they limit your sashimi person to 8 each and it's really like 4 sashimi because they're small pieces. and the other fish (nigiri) are not as good. The hand rolls are good.

Nevermind me and my friends all got a headache after eating here