Tekkaba

LIVE PIANO AND GREAT SERVICE!

The staff here is super welcoming and you get to hear live piano in the end!

The omakase is decent, generic. Nothing special but the experience on how welcoming staff here is amazing.

I feel like it's a bit overpriced for the quality. My fish had ALOT OF BONES and had to pick them out. (Soup) added a photo too.

Overall it's great to go once but I don't think I would go again with the price and quality. It tastes like generic sushi u can get at a joint. There's no special flavors or ingredients to them

Interior: warming, a little small joint. All the decor is made by the family! Which is pretty cool. The egg decor that was made by their grandparents to put on display!

My favourite dish was the truffle uni! But that's about it. If you like it extra creamy

Chef Tom and his daughter Emily were amazing for the entire experience. Tom does omakase dinners with the standard course and premium course. Reservations are required and sometimes you can be blessed and get a last minute allowed if someone cancels. Normally, there is only 3 to 4 parties or two or solo. You won't feel like a stranger with Tom as your entertainer.

If you like alcohol, I highly recommend getting the soju sampler to pair with your sushi dishes. I really enjoyed how fish was aged and everything was custom prepared or bought with thought to taste buds in mind.

Wasabi is actually real like the ones from luxury omakases and soy sauce was made by him. You can taste the fruits he used to infuse into it! Our other patrons were very fun so you must come here for your birthday. There is music and lights haha! Parking is street or maybe get dropped off by ride share/taxi. Located near the China and Japan town. Be aware, that neighborhood near by is more on the rough side. Although, do not let that deter you from having all of your taste buds burst as well as your mind blown from the delicious flavors. Tom will ask you questions to make sure you are engaged. Like my soju sampler, you will be like Japanese tradition and over-flowing with love and a happy belly by completion.

It was experience to enjoy our first Omakase at Tekkaba in Vancouver. Crossing the border to enjoy the Canadian discount a little bit helped but Tom, the owner with his attention to detail, customer centric mindset and relaxed setting gave us the ability to converse with a man that has spent countless years crafting a great food journey through his dishes.

Check out my photos and let them speak for themselves because my mouth was orgasming and moaning with every bite I took. It was a memorable experience for a birthday dinner for dad that he deserves and so much more!

I had never been to an omakase before and we looked at a few around town. This just opened a few months ago with some solid reviews so we decided to have a look.

Wow! Am I ever glad that we did!
There are 2 seating options and we were seated front and center at the bar for their first. It wasn't too busy (likely because of the winter storm) so we had Tom provide us personal service for the entire evening. 12 amazing courses of deliciousness and will share my absolute favorites. The second course of beef tartare was incredible! The tenderloin was a fantastic combination of sweet, spicy and savory. It paired so well with the crackers and salad.

The prawn tempura was fantastic and you also get to eat the head which is also lightly battered and seasoned. My favorite hand-crafted nigiri is their ika aburi nigiri. It was lightly torched and the squid was exquisitely creamy.... Soooo good! Everyone's favorite (according to Tom) is their caviar truffle uni pasta. I can definitely see why as it was absolutely decadent. So rich, cream and packed with flavour.

Ended this incredible meal with mochi and their yuzu tea. It was so good that we made reso's for the following week with friends :)

My girlfriend and I came to Tekkaba for her birthday after seeing many posts about it on Instagram. 

This restaurant doesn't stand out from the outside, but as soon as you walk inside, it instantly gives a totally different impression. The lighting was very dim, which makes you feel the coziness inside. 

Unlike traditional omakases, where you sit around the bar and watch the chefs make the nigiris, Tekkaba brings the food to you on a wooden tray. The owner would then walk over to every table and explain to us what was on each dish. He emphasized how the wasabis are raw, real ones unlike typical imitated ones; they're also unlimited if you love them! 

My personal favorite dish turned out to be the truffle pasta instead of the nigiris. Apparently, the owner was an Italian chef for many years before he opened this Omakase restaurant. He really knows what he's doing with the pastas, and most people find them their favorites too. 

There was also live music at the end of the meal; the musician would mention the guest's special dates, and then the staff would bring a "special dessert" to these guests. I really appreciate the service!

What a fantastic experience at Tekkaba for omakase dinner for $78 for a twelve course menu composed with appetizers, sashimis, nigiris, maki, pasta and dessert. We were seated at the bar which is the place to be with chef Tom who is so friendly and knowledge about Italian and Japanese cuisine. I enjoyed pretty much the whole menu but my favourite are:

- Chawanmushi - nice starter of steamed egg with nuts and ichiban sauce
- Beef tartar - great flavours. It was a bit spicy for me but I kept going for more. Great pairing with spring salad.
- Awari soup - clam soup was so clear and tasty. Tom uses 60 clams to make the soup and he says it's challenging to make as you can over cook the clams and make the soup go south
- Baby squid aburi nigiri - delicious does not describe how smooth and creamy this tasted
- Tako maki - first time having ankimo, the foie gras of the sea, was so devine
- caviar truffle uni pasta - take in the smell of combination of caviar and black truffle and the first bite will overcome your senses
- Yuzu tea - perfect tea at the end (simply calming - yuzu and honey)

We have already dined in twice within a week and the snow did not hold us back. The classical music played provide a sense of relaxing experience that melted the crazy week I had a work.

For dinner omakase, there are two seatings so make sure you reserve online. We were lucky to sit at the bar, both times. Tom, we will see you again, soon! :)

A kaiseki is a special curated course for people celebrating a big occasion. I didn't have an occasion to celebrate but came anyways because being able to eat always calls for a celebration right #littlewins. The ambiance was great with beautifully decorated trays ready for you when you get there. Plus, as the dinner courses started, they would take the time to explain every course to you which is something I appreciated. Plus, they were really attentive and made sure our cups and wasabi is never empty

Their chawanmushi is decent with the eggs being perfectly smooth and bouncy and complementing well with their ichiban sauce.

Their beef tartare pays homage to their Korean heritage with it tasting like bulgogi, with their thinly sliced beef in gochujang and salad in balsamic sauce adding a much needed acidity to the dish. What a great start to the night

Their shrimp was flash fried to perfection so that we are able to sample the head and the head.
The clam soup was savory and their fish courses were great. I liked how we progressed from sashimi to Nigiris to torched Nigiris. I loved their Hirami as well as their sweet sweet shrimp and scallops.

Another thing that tells us how much thought they put into the sequence of their course is how they left the truffle hamachi to the end since truffles can be overpowering to your palate at times.

After that came the uni pasta where the uni added a depth to the creamy dish, complementing the truffle pasta.

Dessert came with a surprise where someone was singing and playing the piano. Truly an experience that engaged all senses!

One thing that I'll improve on though is the portion sizes but great work throughout!

Lunch Omakase
So glad we made it here for lunch omakase 12 course lunch experience.

I wasn't too impressed when I first looked at the menu but after the chef owner and servers came by with every dish and gave an explanation of the dish and the best way to enjoy the ingredients, I was blown away by how dish was created and prepared with care and consideration

One of my favorite dishes was the chawanmushi (steamed egg) with seeds, nuts and Ichiban sauce. The texture was extremely smooth and complimented well with the sauce and seeds/nuts

The sashimi and nigiri courses seem simple but the fish were very fresh, and with the addition of matcha salt, and the house made soy sauce elevated the flavor profiles of the madai, hamachi, sockeye and bluefin tuna.
Each dish was quite small but it was quite filling at the end
The Tako Maki was served like a taco using the seaweed with the marinated fish as the filling. I wish this dish was a bit more creative

The meal ended with a couple pieces of mochi and a refreshing fermented rice drink.
They change their menu frequently so I look forward to visiting for dinner.

Other notes:
The restaurant is located in Gastown so free parking is not easy to find. The restaurant is quite modern looking inside, but lighting is not the best for photos.

Right now they have a 30% grand opening promotion until the end of the year (mention this from their Instagram)

After seeing this all over Instagram, I decided to try out their lunch omakase. The pricing seemed very reasonable considering how many dishes there are. It's $42 for lunch omakase and if you tell them you've followed them on Instagram when making the reservation, you can get 30% off (they also were giving coupons out after the meal). With that in mind, the pricing was very good. The omakase was Korean influenced on some of the dishes, which wasn't what I was expecting so it kinda threw me off. But anyways here's the breakdown of dishes:

Chawanmushi- it was very plain, but came with nuts and a sweet and salty sauce. Different from most chawanmushi I've tried since it typically has a strong taste of dashi or seafood in it. This was very simple and I guess it made sense since it was the first dish of the meal.

Tako wasabi- standard Tako wasabi served with seaweed. Nothing special. I did appreciate that the wasabi wasn't too strong.

Sweet prawn tempura- one of my favourites. The sauce it was served with was flavourful and the prawn was very meaty. They deep fried the head too. However I found the batter to be a bit too heavy. It would have been nicer if it was lighter and crisper.

Wakame miso soup- nothing really to note here.

Sashimi- the salmon texture was off and tasted almost spongy, the madai was alright, and the hamachi was the best one. Tasted the freshest and had the best texture.

Atemaki- the fish was on top of a kanpyo roll. I found the kanpyo to be a bit overpowering for the fish. But this was unique as I never had a roll like this one.

Aburi nigiri- seared salmon toro was buttery and had that familiar aburi taste. The tuna toro tasted a bit too cooked. The ika was pretty good but could have been torched a bit more.

Nigiri- these ones were fresher tasting than the sashimi. The chutoro was nice and fatty. The hirame had a small dab of a spicy sauce (very similar in taste to gochujang) and it was a bit too overpowering for the fish. Also the rice was seasoned a bit too much on the sweeter side(?), I just wasn't really a fan of their sushi rice.

Tako maki- although Tako in the name, it wasn't octopus, but called that since it looks like a taco. Instead it was chopped scallop with a spicy sauce. Similar taste to Korean spicy sauces. This was just alright.

Donburi- again, same comment about the rice. Once the negitoro was mixed in with the rice and arugula, I honestly couldn't taste it very much as the rice overpowered the fish.

Rice cake and fermented rice drink- the drink was a refreshing way to end the meal! But after having so many rice dishes, the rice cake was too much for me and I couldn't finish it. I also wasn't a fan of the flavour of it.

Overall, I think Instagram really hyped this place up for me and made me expect a lot more. For price, the meal is worth it. I just wasn't a huge fan of some of the flavours and menu items they served. I must say their service was really good and everyone was friendly. Although timing of the dishes at the beginning felt a bit rushed as we were served another dish before finishing the previous one. But after that, spacing of dishes was fine.

I'd say give this place a shot, as it's an affordable place to try out an omakase meal. Seems like they'll be changing up the menus every once in awhile. So it's worth it to try. I just don't think it's for me.

Tekkaba deserves 10 stars! Don't look any further for a better omakase experience. We enjoyed the omakase dinner for a birthday celebration priced at $78. We sat at the bar for an intimate experience with Chef Tom, who you can tell is passionate about his work as he meticulously perfected every dish he served us. He took the time to chat with us, explaining each dish and the best way to enjoy his delicious creations. This was my first omakase but Chef Tom has set the bar high! I was worried we would leave still hungry but we left completely full as the 12 course meal had multiple parts to it, finishing with the most amazing truffle Uni pasta that chef said is the most popular dish and for a good reason! Chef Tom and his wife work beautifully together to provide a wonderful dining experience that was unforgettable!