The General Public

What an unusual place. First of all, right when you walk it you know it’s going to be a little different. I came here for lunch the other day and I had to come to Unilocal to express what a genuine place this really turned out to be. The food speaks for itself, the sashimi was very tasty, but the deep fried dishes were really the restaurants speciality. What also stood out was the attitude of the service staff. The girls really went out of their way to offer us a great time regardless of having to wait a minute for our hot food dishes. (I would recommend sharing food dishes) I left with a huge smile, I must say I’m glad I found this little gem! Don’t be scared away by its unusual décor, the food and staff make the whole thing a great meal you won’t soon forget!

Really hungry, decided to come here for a (let me emphasize this) *mid afternoon* meal. 3 PM. So it was completely dead. Ok. Got to our table and no one brought us menus for 15 min. Went and grabbed our own menus and waited for another 15 – 20 minutes before we decided to call a waitress over. She dropped off water and said she’d be right back. Then, she did rounds of the entire restaurant looking completely lost for about 10 minutes more. We asked another waitress to take our order. She did, and we waited 10 more minutes for 3 drinks (1 beer, 2 Caesars). Then finally after almost AN HOUR AND A HALF of being there, our food came. At this point, we had contemplated leaving at least 3 times. When our bills came, we all decided no tip was the way to go. This is the worst service I’ve ever had. We paid our bills (we even ended up having to punch in our own payments to the debit machine when she left us for another 15 minutes to walk around aimlessly and play with her hair.) As we were leaving, the second waitress yelled at us from the back of the restaurant «THANK YOU SO MUCH HAVE A REALLY GREAT DAY». As sarcastically as I’ve ever heard. Basically a disaster.

The food is pretty good here, though somehow a giant stuffed animal + random wall hangings = overpriced sushi,
The service leaves something to be desired, We were a table of 8 – 10, which I’m sure is fairly common for this place. Menu items we didn’t order magically appeared, water glasses weren’t re-​filled after asking several times, drinks that were ordered never came until we had to go up to the bar and bills came out all mixed up. The hipster laissez-​faire attitude is so very 2015.

We LOVED this place so much. We were visiting from Seattle, as we do every year on our anniversary. Last year we went to The Eatery and enjoyed it, but I have to say we like the General Public better. The ambiance is nicer at the General Public. I had the Salmon Run roll and it was delicious and unlike any roll I’ve ever had before. We also had the fat elvis which was unique and tasty. We will definitely make it a point to come here on our future trips!

I’ve been here a few times and the staff have always been friendly and attentive. In the summer you can sit outside too on their patio which is nice.
The food is the same menu as the Eatery, and both are delicious and perfect for both myself, and my vegetarian friends. There are so many options, and I haven’t tried one thing I haven’t liked yet.

Fun menu, tasty food, you can sit outside if you like (if there’s room), cool atmosphere, general ‘Main Street’ vibe.

One of my favourite places to take people out to eat in Van (other than the eatery). Main Street location is just what I dreamed of. A rad hang out spot with amazing food!

The General Public is owned by the same company as The Eatery, so naturally the theme of the restaurants are very similar. We ordered the chicken wings, tuna tataki, and the red ninja roll. Like The Eatery, the food was pretty good, but we found the portions to be way too small for the price. There are much better sushi and sushi fusion restaurants in the city. We would not recommend, save your money!

Come for some fun creative sushi, like my personal fave the eel +banana roll. I also like the tempura avocado (Fat Elvis?). Expect funky menu item names like you’ll find at sister restaurant The Eatery. They also have a long heated covered street facing patio. The cocktails are decent and they have a nice selection of alcoholic drinks and drink specials. Best for bites and drinks with friends in a fun cozy atmosphere.

Went here for a foodie event a few months ago. The Sake Bombs were pretty awesome. I’ve had Jäger Bombs before but this was my first time trying a sake bomb. It was basically a shot of sake in a glass of Sapporo beer. It was fun to watch them pounding the tables to let the sake cups drop into the beer. :) We also got to try the the Sakira cocktail and the Lychee Mojito. The sakira was basically grapefruit juice and ginger beer. The lychee mojito was more refreshing so that’s what I ordered for myself.
We had a large variety of sushi rolls and appetizers so we were able to try a little bit of everything, which was great. One of my favourites was called the Fat Elvis. It was a tempura avocado topped with tomato and green onions. I actually don’t like avocado but this was really yummy. The batter on it was crisp and the avocado was warm and creamy. Everything else was pretty good too. I was actually pretty impressed with their sashimi. I wasn’t expecting much from a fusion restaurant but it wasn’t bad at all. Everything seemed pretty fresh and there was no fishy aftertaste. The one dish that kind of stood out as subpar was the Sizzling Cow. It was basically beef teriyaki on a sizzling hot plate. A lot of people seemed to like it but it was much too salty for me.
Food — ⁸⁄₁₀
Service — ⁷⁄₁₀
Ambience — ⁸⁄₁₀

This place is weird, but in the best way possible! The theme is weird cartoon characters with odd movies playing in the background. This place knows how to mix up an interesting variety of sushi rolls and fresh fish. Coming from LA it was just what I wanted and need! Delicious sushi, great pricing, and great staff… Must try!

What… Is this place.
Went here with a group of 9 for a Saturday dinner on the recommendation of my cousin who lives in Vancouver with a mix of Vancouverites and out-​of-​towners.
The «art work» is an assault to the eyeballs and an insult to art. Art is subjective, I get that, but this was just nonsense to all of us. Neon sculptures made of little happy meal toys, Uncle Sam with horns on his head and paper mache heads with crudely drawn faces on them were everywhere. It was honestly too much.
There was a «DJ» (read: a guy playing his iPod) who was playing decent beats, but it was far, far too loud for dinnertime.
Our waitress was pretty upbeat but also pretty buzzed. We kept seeing her take shots throughout the night. The menus are literally huge, almost hard to hold they are so big. There are a ton of items to choose from so it took our group a little while to decide. The meals started to come out and I was left sitting and waiting. Eventually the waitress placed a bowl in front of me, but it wasn’t what I ordered. It turned out another girl at the table had been eating my meal for 5 minutes and I got hers. I must mention that we didn’t order the same thing, so either chicken and shrimp at The General Public taste the same, it was too dark to see, or both. I will say that our waitress was incredibly apologetic, brought me a new dish and didn’t charge me for it. I was really impressed by that. She also brought out a complimentary battered shrimp appetizer. It was drizzled with some sort of mayo/​sriracha blend that I didn’t personally enjoy, but it was a really nice gesture on her part. I ordered the Tempura Prawn Teri Don Buri ($ 14.95). The portion size was good for me and there were a nice number of shrimp in the bowl. I liked it at first but it was incredibly salty and I couldn’t eat the whole thing.
This place isn’t terrible, and I may have enjoyed it more at a quieter, brighter time of day. The prices were reasonable and the drinks were quite good and reasonably priced as well. I was impressed with the waitress when there was a mistake with my order. However, the atmosphere is just too jarring.

The GP’s predecessor, The Eatery, fell victim to its popularity and location. I always felt that it was overrun and extremely loud.
The GP however is beautiful. The relatively new venue is fresh and trendy, with the most amazing artwork hanging from the ceiling and walls. The menus have amazing selection and the fusion rolls are to die for. There isn’t one specific roll I’d recommend because there is something there for everyone.
My friends and I say down and had 1-​litre mojitos which come in a handful of flavour.
The only minor downside of this place is that it again falls victim to general dining volume. It’s not quiet in here. If you can come to terms with this fact, and are prepared for it, you will have a great time.
Our server was lovely, she held great conversation, made sharp recommendations and was genuinely concerned over our experience. I’ll be coming back again for sure.

I wish I could give this place negative stars!
We walked in, sat there for 15 minutes, and once our server finally showed up, ordered drinks. Which showed up another 15 minutes later.
I had a Jameson cocktail, she had a martini. For 9 bucks each, neither had any alcohol and might as well have been pop.
We had a few questions about what to order, and tried to flag the server down several times to ask about the menu. She ignored us.
45 minutes into it, we finally ask for and get the bill, can’t get the waitress to come back with the card machine, so I left cash. I ended up leaving 25 on a 21 dollar cheque, not because I wanted to tip or that she deserved it, but because I was tired of waiting.
Horrible, horrible, expensive, and horrible.

Went here on a Thursday night with some friends around 9pm. It was my first time trying General Public although I had been to the Eatery (it’s sister location) many times before. The place wasn’t busy but the service was very slow. Nice enough waitress… just took more time to blab with her co-​workers than she did to attend our table. Took a long time for us to be able to order and a long time for us to get our food.
The food was delicious. The sashimi salad was great, the tuna tempura was awesome and the Bob Marley and San Francisco were top notch. The location is cool and the food is good but I won’t be running back any time soon.

A mixed review, so let’s start with the good. The Takoyaki with octopus was hot and delicious, with yummy bits of octo, a drizzling of teriyaki and bonito flakes. The less good but not bad, just needs adjusting, is the Tunacado — a cubed tuna salad with mango and avocado, with a dressing of sesame and lime. The lime was very minimal if not just missing, so it felt kind of dull with just the sesame. It could use that lime to perk up the flavour, like how a ceviche goes, but not as extreme.
Enjoyed the Saturday summer lunchtime atmosphere, very laid back and funky casual. A cool
place to hang with friends. There’s a nice sidewalk open air seating area, and the walk-​by traffics is far enough away to not feel like everyone’s staring at you (eating).

The first thought that came to mind when I walked in was that the place looked eerily similar to The Eatery out in Kits. Turns out this is a sister restaurant.
Parking is available along Main as well as the side streets.
Just like the Eatery, the place has that funky hipster pseudo-​Japanese theme. Strange looking knick-​knacks, vintage hipster furnishings, and funky posters line the entire place. The chain is definitely unique in this regard. Not sure if the Eatery has updated their décor, but this place has some really trippy looking masks with fluorescent paint. The place is also coated in black light. Try not to get cataracts when eating. There is a nice but small patio in front of the restaurant.
Staff were friendly, and quite quick.
Unfortunately, just like the Eatery, this place is expensive. If one isn’t careful, one can probably spend at least $ 30 on a dinner before drinks. My ebi (prawn) mayo was $ 7 on special, and that was really just 5 battered prawns. Yes they were delicious, but not $ 7 delicious. I would’ve left hungry if I didn’t eat beforehand. Beers were also more expensive at $ 6. Hence the 3 stars instead of 4.
They do have a good thing going. I just wish they were cheaper.

Absolutely love this place! It is perfect for groups.
Randy who runs this gem is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet! A++
— I recommend the Miss Piggy Roll (bacon wrapped sushi!!!), the breaded chicken wings with hot sauce on the side, and a cocktail or FIVE to wash it all down!
— Heated outdoor dining area overlooking Main Street
— Great place to have a bday party or watch the Canucks play on TV.
— It gets loud in here, so it’ll probably not an ideal first-​date spot. But maybe a 2^nd date or 3^rd date? Whow knows? With the delicious food and all the tasty drinks, you’ll probably «score». :P
— Restrooms are clean.
— There’s plenty of cabs around. So just drink up and let someone else do the driving!
— Staff was A++. super friendly and attentive.
Cheers!

The area that the General Public is in is extremely nice and hip with lots of restaurant and shopping options with this one being one of the most popular by far. The décor inside is really cool, with tons of sci-​fi pieces of art and different big pieces made from tens of hundred of small toys (if that makes sense). There are a couple tv’s inside which seem to play old horror movies or tv shows as I noticed behind the bar that there were a few movie boxes on one of the shelves, which is something I have never seen before in any restaurant.
Unfortunately the atmosphere itself is more of a bar feel because it’s so loud and crowded with little space in between tables and even though there were a couple beside us that brought their young daughter, I wouldn’t recommend this place to be much of a family establishment (unless everyone in your family is 15+)
The food itself was pretty good, nothing too special though. Don’t expect legit sushi here as it’s more of a fusion type place. Extremely Western style Japanese is what I would call it so it kinda reminded me of a bunch of stuff you’d create yourself at home when extremely hungry and have nothing but leftovers in the fridge and want to roll it up with rice. The drinks seem to be what a lot of people go to this spot for as they have $ 10 mason jar drinks… I mean who DOESN’T love mason jars these days? told you they were hip lol,
In the end, I can say that I am not a fan of Western Japanese food. Korean run sushi joints are the furthest I go: P but one thing I liked a lot and would eat again if I went back to the GP is the «KFC roll» that thing was delicious and the sauce was spot on. It’s a cool looking place that might be worth trying out just to experience something a little different but not somewhere I would go out of my way to make a reservation for.

This place isn’t for those on a diet. They have crispy fried sushi (stuffed with raw fish and avocado) and topped with a pile of crab meat and mayo-​like sauce. It’s so good.
The Elvis (fried avocado) was really surprisingly yummy. Who would think to fry a fat fruit?
Then I had another spicy roll. It was alright. Not mind blowing. So I would suggest going for their wow items like a whole list of crazy rolls. Don’t bother with the regular ones you can find at other sushi joints.
Also, drinks here are great. Def must try is the maple whiskey sour. If I had space for more, I would have had the shiso martini. Love a fresh taste for sure.