Japas Bistro

As far as lunch options go in Fairview Slopes, Japas is a pretty good bet. $ 7.50 for a «rice burger» (meat/​fish/​condiments sandwiched between two rice patty’s), fries, salad, and miso soup. The sashimi salmon burger is very fresh and tasty!

This place is great. Right in the heart of the ‘Cambie-​and-​Broadway-​noodle-​district’ is some authentic Japanese Tapas… hence the name.
We ordered:
hot gekkiekan
grilled toro pork
tempura avacado
beef sashimi
crab & cream cheese in wonton wraps
crab, egg & tomato rissoto
The meal and service were great. I’ve never tried the combination of Japanese and Italian before, but this place pulls it off well. The taste and experience is unique — definitely worth a try.
Also– our server gave us free in-​house-​made cheesecake ice cream. It’s worth the trip just for this stuff.

Visited this restaurant after someone mentioned a new izakaya on Broadway that was actually Japanese owned. I love Japanese food and it’s quite close to my work so it was a natural choice to try Japas for dinner.
First off, I hate the name. It’s horrible! So tacky!
The food is good, the prices are quite reasonable.
The server mentioned they had fresh snapper in that day so we ordered two pieces of nigri. I liked the texture of the sushi rice. Very important for me. The fish was also quite good.
We also ordered a salmon tartare, avocado tempura, pork toro and mentaiko udon. The salmon tartare was fun served with some mystery greens that I quite liked. However, I don’t think the salmon used was of the best calibre. Flavor-​wise, it was pretty good.
I love avocado tempura and this was good, but something wrong with the tempura batter. I thought it was a touch heavier and slightly overcooked. I don’t like brown bits in my tempura.
The pork toro was good, nothing too crazy special.
Nicest surprise of the meal with their in-​house made gelato. Cream cheese flavor? Well I guess cheesecake flavor. Damn it was good! Can I buy a whole tub?
I feel this restaurant has a good start but is still trying to figure itself out. I really enjoyed that it wasn’t a boisterous place after a long day of work. I think I will be back and hopefully they are still making some improvements to the menu as there is lots of potential!

Went there for lunch and had a chicken teriyaki rice burger. It was a disaster! It was a soggy, mushy mess. And surprisingly flavorless considering there was so much sauce that the whole thing fell apart.

the food at this place is decent, but i have to give a low rating because it is ridiculously overpriced for the portions you get and the food is only okay. i know this is a tapas restaurant, but the portions are smaller AND the prices are higher than restaurants such as Guu and Gyoza king, which not to mention have a bigger menu and tastes way better. we had a coupon to use and we still ended up paying more than we would in a similar izakaya restaurant. NOT recommended!

I’ve been slowly exploring restaurants in my new neighbourhood and this one was high on the list. Amidst the Earls-​Cactus-​Milestones trifecta, this izakaya stands out… for simply existing! There’s no other izakaya in this neck of the woods.
There are many enticing things on the menu with tons of interesting flavour combinations (ie. japanese lime anyone?). The menu is riddled with poor english translations, including my favourite: «bum» instead of «bun».
I laughed it off, but this might have explained how the bacon-​mushroom spring rolls arrived looking nothing like a spring roll! The bacon was actally proscuitto and it wasn’t really in a roll as much as it was in a cone (slightly more twisted to make sure the filling didn’t fall out). If there were mushrooms, I couldn’t taste them as the «bacon» was quite strong. Bacon, proscuitto, I love ‘em both so it didn’t matter to me that it wasn’t quite what I imagined it to be.
We also ordered the snapper & tuna sashimi, each of them dressed with different sauces. The sashimi was fresh and tasty, though I wasn’t blown away by the sauces.
The ebi mayo had a nice contrast of mayo with a hint of orange which made it refreshing and interesting. The batter was a bit too thick for my liking but still tasty.
The last dish was the Grilled Toro Pork Belly. The meat was cooked well and is slightly fatty to give a good flavour. It comes with a small amount of greens to round out the dish.
During the entire meal, the waiter was quite attentive in checking in with us and constantly refilling our water. He even gave us complimentary ice cream for dessert… and WOW, that ice cream was memorable! It was cheesecake flavour with a hint of lychee and drizzled with chocolate syrup. As overwhelming as all of that might be, it totally worked.
This was a toughie to review as I felt that some of the dishes didn’t quite work. They sound good in theory, but something happens in execution. Perhaps it’s still early days and they need to figure some things out. I am impressed that they make their own ice cream/​gelato and think their flavours are quite inventive.
In the end, I waffled between giving them 2 or 3 stars, but decided to tack on the extra star for the excellent customer service and effort.

I came ready to like it but couldn’t.
— - — - — Honey dip for the harumaki: It seemed like 99% honey with a bit of pepper. That was way too sweet for me. I wish it was a ponzu-​type sauce instead, or even honey with soy sauce.
— - White Snow drink: It was too translucent for me to think it was fresh. I think it was a mix, though it had a few orange pulp bits in it. But then, they never claimed it was fresh, real fruit.
+ — Mochi Harumaki: wasn’t bad. As noted above, I didn’t like the sauce, but the salt in the cream cheese was enough for me to reasonably enjoy it by itself. the basil was a good addition to the mochi.
+ Corn Cream Croquettes: the crust was a bit thick, but was normal good.
+ + Shredded Cabbage under the croquettes: had dressing on it.
See, this isn’t going to be my favourite restaurant when what most excited me was the garnish: p
Although I had two deep-​fried items, my stomach didn’t get upset. So I have to give it to them that they use fresh oil.
There was only me and another table occupied, so maybe the waiter was bored, but every time he came over, he would ask me about my book (which I wasn’t reading during eating, just before). After I was finished eating, he told me I could stay as long as I want, which was nice, but I really didn’t want to.
The décor was dark-​stained wood furniture. Not the usual «Japanese» you’d expect. Maybe it’s supposed to be like a café from when Japan was quickly westernizing after the war??? Or could be just that they kept stuff from a previous restaurant.

Rice burgers OMG what a sweet treat !! But only at lunch time. Oh they are tasty and unique. I must come back for more. They serve up 5 – 6 different types and weekly specials. This is the new hotdog !!

Can’t wait for their full menu!
We decided upon this place because it seems to be the only restaurant which serves up Japanese style Izakaya food in Cambie Village (correct me if I’m wrong, please!)
The restaurant is still fairly brand new so they were offering and introductory menu until they fine tune their full menu.
After we ordered the server came out with a plate of two different sashimis and asked us to try them. They were testing for menu recipes. We tried some sashimi with a sweet chili sauce drizzled over it and some sashimi with a pepper sauce over it. We told them we liked the pepper one better. The black pepper went really good with the sashimi!
I highly recommend their Chicken Karaage. The pieces of chicken were so moist and plump and juicy inside. Delicious!
The mackerel was also very juicy and tasty! For the price it was a good value as well since you get quite a large piece of it.
The server always made sure we were happy and there are people there to make recommendations on the menu if you are not sure what to order.
They also have a very extensive drink/​dessert menu which I hear is made all from scratch using only fresh ingredients and home made ice creams/​gelatos in some cases. So if you wanted to come only for a drink or dessert that is good too.
If you care more about service and quality of food over décor, then you will enjoy this place!
I just hope their full menu comes out really soon!

This is a lunch review only. They have 3 items only for lunch. You have a choice of chicken teryaki, beef or veggie patty served on a rice bun (the bun is made out of rice, ie. rice patties, not buns), with miso soup (it was warm, not hot), french fries (served with 1 cm of ketchup in soy sauce container) and green salad (dry with no dressing or seasoning whatsoever) for $ 7.50. The burger was flavourful but it certainly wasn’t something to rush back for so I think that will be our one and only lunch visit…3 items only on a menu does not cut it.
Waitress said owners are Japanese and everyone working inside the restaurant appeared to be too. She had very little english. She stood and watched me right at our table until I finished my miso soup so she could take the bowl away because my partner was finished his. (I was so uncomfortable at her standing there staring at me, I didn’t finish it, I just handed it over to her)! She was very sweet though. Our tea was refilled every minute!
It made me laugh at the end when she asked if we wanted anything else. I said, «There is nothing else»…Earlier, she brought over the dinner menu to us but said we couldn’t order anything from it.

This place opened up pretty much over night, a long awaited izakaya restaurant in my neighbourhood! They quickly stripped away the italian themed décor from the previous restaurant.
The food was delicious, although the menu for the opening was limited (they are trying out different dishes to see what works). That being said there were certainly enough dishes that looked appealing enough to us to order. The service was 5+ star, the staff was really friendly! (the best I’ve received at any Japanese restaurant).
My fav was the chicken karage, but all of the 4 dishes we had were so delicious we had to try a 5^th (the pork belly).
They need to fix the place up a bit (seems like some of the dishes and glasses were holdovers from the previous restaurant) and they use the cheapest of wooden chopsticks (the ones you get at most food courts).
They have a giant book full of delicious looking drinks and desserts that they make from scratch, was totally stuffed so I didn’t get one but they gave us a green tea frozen slush sample thingy that was delicious.
For my next visit I will save room for dessert.
5 star service + 4 star food + 3 star décor = overall 4