-
- Oysters
-
- Asahi Big Baby
-
- Butter Potatoes at Ebisu
-
- Thunder Fries
-
- Mushrooms
-
- Mushroooms
-
- Colossal Cheese Yakitori
-
- Kamei Katsu Don
Ebisu is located on corner of Bute and Robson in Downtown Vancouver. This is a place that my girl friends like to go to chill, drink, and snack during late nights out in town. This was my first time going here, and was quite excited about the menu. It was really busy there on a Friday night. We reserved a table for 10, but there was actually 12 of us. Our server didn’t mind moving the group of 4 beside us to another location.
So Ebisu is a Japanese restaurant with some of the more funky food that you can actually find in some regions of Japan (says my Japanese friend). Things you wouldn’t really equate as Japanese food, because of strong Mexican influences - like nachos, or taco rice, and lots of cheese.
Anyways, there was a lot on the menu that I wanted to try because they were just so different from what I normally see at any other Japanese restaurant. A lot of there stuff was loaded with cheese or butter. Anyways, I was able to try quite a few things off the menu for my first time there. The food was OK. One of my friend’s said the food isn’t really good, and to stay away from the Thunder Fries. Low and behold, my other friends ordered the Thunder Fries, and they actually were not bad today. They were good. Even my friend who said to stay away liked it this time. They were probably the best thing I had that night, and I had quite a few different things. Anyways, Thunder Fries are basically strips of tempura sweet potato and served with a tangy house made cajun dip. I think last time they ordered it they only got 5 sticks, this time we got a whole basket full. Maybe they asked for two orders, I’m not sure.
We had some Edamame on the side which are nothing special, my friends ordered a couple of plates of Fresh oysters which they seemed to love, because they ordered another one after they finished with the first. My friend also ordered some Mushrooms, which was served in tin foil over top of a little grill. It wasn’t anything special, just I think 3 different types of mushrooms – button, shitake, and enoki. I think it’s an ugly presentation.
Now onto what I ordered. I don’t know why, but I just kept ordering random things here and there. First I ordered the Butter Potatoes, because for those that know me, know I am in love with butter. These however were alright. There wasn’t anything really “buttery” about it. It was mostly just Potatoes covered with cheese and baked. I also ordered the Colossal Cheese Yakitori. Yes, another thing loaded with cheese. This skewer was pretty huge. It was a metal skewer with chunks of chicken with some green onion on top, then loaded with cheese. The chicken was tender, but it seemed like the green onions were whole (or at least a layer of it, length-wise), so it was a little bit tough to bite through. I wouldn’t eat this all by myself. If I did, I’d probably feel sick due to the huge amounts of cheese I had already eaten. Both of these things, I would not order again.
Next I ordered the Asparagus Bacon Twirl, which was asparagus wrapped in bacon and skewered together. There were three sticks, each with 2 sets of bacon wrapped asparagus. It was already precooked, but it also came with a little mini grill to heat up your food, or char it a bit more. Again, nothing special. Finally, I ordered the Kamei Katsu Don. Why? I have no clue, because I wasn’t even hungry anymore, but they said they were taking their final orders. This was very lacklustre. Maybe because I was no longer hungry, but at the time it wasn’t anything special. The pork was overcooked and a tough. And the egg-onion mixture that was poured on the rice didn’t have much of the flavour that I love oh so much from other restaurants.
The 4 dishes was only $25, so the price is reasonable. But add the price of alcohol, and the price was up there. We also ordered an Asahi Big Baby, and had lots of rounds of sake (which wasn’t very good, and .. cold? I thought it’s supposed to be served warm. It was also very weak and served in a Bamboo shaped bottle). Ebisu on Robson seems to be a really happening place for Asian people. They had lots of TVs around the place to watch sports and wrestling. Next time I go, I’d probably order more stuff, but I’d stay away from the cheesy items. Most of their menu items had pictures and descriptions to help you decide. The best thing I had was definitely the Thunder Fries, which I would order again, and pray that I don’t get the crappy kind that my friend had.
3-stars, and fairly inexpensive. I would definitely go back to try some of the other stuff on the menu.
Ebisu
827 Bute St.
Vancouver, BC
604-689-8266
http://www.ebisu.ca
4 Comments on "Ebisu on Robson"
Even though you said nothing tasted special, the pictures still made me wanna go eat there.
There is one in Richmond on Ackroyd and No 3. Avoid it. You do not get the same quality of food as you would in Vancouver.
Happy hour 4:30 – 6:30 @ Robson location is worth going to. @ the happy hour price I’d give an extra star for the food.
My party of 2 got into at least 20 chicken wings, salmon paradise something, oyster roll, beef ribs, calamari fries, and 3 other specialty rolls which i can’t remember their names. Oh and a pitcher of something.
So I guess it was more of a western meal…
Water kept on refilling (I’m a camel, what can i say?). This doesn’t happen much in a city with free drinkable tap water.
One of the key thing to our experience is that they kept the food coming at a nice pace. They didn’t just dump everything on our table so someone was actually paying attention.
O-</:
there is hot sake…you ordered take sake, that’s why it was cold. and the 5 pieces of thunder fries is for lunch only, for dinner you get a whole basket. I thought the food was great there but the service was horrible