Sushi Itshoni

This was our first dining experience at this restaurant — we (senior couple) went for dinner, arriving just after 5pm (a Thursday). The restaurant is located within Hanin Village, and situated on the east side, at the far end of the shops, stores, and restaurants on that side of the plaza.
Upon entering, we were greeted/​welcomed by staff, and shown to a ‘booth-​like’ table along the front-​facing side of the restaurant by a young, and friendly male server. I thought it was a rather nice set-​up — it seemed sort of cozy, and offered a sense of some privacy, and the overall darker colours and ambiance of the restaurant itself helped in that regard.
The restaurant offers Japanese and Korean dishes. I had had mackerel «on my mind» when we chose to try this restaurant (after seeing photos in reviews, and such, and not tasting such in so long), and once there, and into the menu, decided I just had to try it. The waiter advised at ordering, that the baked mackerel came with a good-​sized bowl of steamed rice, and a soup. We decided to add an appetizer of gyoza, and their largest offering of assorted tempura to the order. Tea, and three side dishes of banchan (kimchi, sliced & marinated beets and cucumber) accompanied the order.
The mackerel was a small, whole fish, that had been split in half, the two flesh sides presented ‘up’ on the plate. It was mackerel — tasty and oily — and when eating it, definitely brought back some fond memories of why I did, and did not like this fish. But no real complaints about the preparation — it was quite well-​prepared, and offered a taste ‘treat’. Except for a small portion of the head, little was left as waste to go back to the kitchen. Would I order it again?. maybe, but not too soon! The side dish of rice was good, the soup, only so-​so (not very tasty). The gyoza and tempura were just what I would call ‘standard’ fare — no surprises, and nothing special either. The prawns and veggies in the tempura were cooked well, and tasted fine, but the batter was greasy, and lacked any crispness. The banchan was nothing special — the kimchi peculiarly cut (like chunks), and too spicy hot for our tastes, the others cool, and ‘ok’
I believe our dining experience at Sushi Itshoni matched expectations. We were not thrilled, but we were not totally disappointed either. It was a decent ‘ok’.

Sushi Itsoni is the best Sushi restaurant in Coquitlam, where you can taste fantastic Korean cuisines as well. In summer time, they serve beautiful cold noodle. Especially, they serve wonderful texture seafood sasimi. I think it is the only restaurant where you can taste the real Korean style sushi and sashimi, once you are a big fan of flat fish, it is the perfectly right place. Enjoy extremely savory and yummy Japanese and Korean food there. 2 thumbs up.
Herald Mark Kim

One thing a prospective diner has to know before going here is that you will NOT get an authentic Japanese experience, nor does this restaurant try to give you one. Instead, this is what I image Japanese restaurants in Korea to be like; complete with numerous side-​dishes and Korean/​English menus and signage. Limited Japanese items on the menu, but the variety of Korean dishes was impressive.
Rustic, casual, very comfortable décor. Some tables had partitions allowing diners a degree of privacy.
The quality of the sushi was comparable to cheap sushi joints; loosely rolled, and blatantly previous-​frozen fish. This place really shines with their stews and noodle (ie: Korean) dishes, though. Delicious pork-​based broth, tender and juicy seafood, fresh (I think) noodles. Even the complimentary side-​dishes had me wanting more.
Great service; greeted as we entered, orders taken and side dishes and tea delivered all within 5 minutes of sitting down. Only «complaint» is that the waitress needed some flagging down for the bill but it got pretty busy by that point.
I’d definitely go back to this place when I need a Korean food fix. If you’re looking for Japanese, you won’t find it here.

New Japanese, Korean owned place so there was a lot of Korean food on the menu which is what we all ordered. This place is new, but I think they did not change much of the décor from the previous restaurant tenant.
I ordered Hwe Deop Bap (sashimi salad) which had a little less seafood than other places I’ve ordered it at (but more veggies and rice, which was nice).
The food was great, the prices were reasonable. I think we’d come back. My only suggestions to this new business:
Pull down the «booths» and open up the restaurant. They have these old partitions, i think from the previous restaurant. We sat in one of these, and although the privacy was nice we were forgotten by the staff pretty much the whole night.
Since you’re in a Korean mall and many of your customers are Korean, don’t be stingy on the side dishes. We were given two bites of kimchi, brocolli and sprouts to share between the three of us (we asked for more).