Hapa Izakaya

By Sebastien Robillard

Twitter: @fashionbpm

Email: fashionbpm@gmail.com

After landing in Vancouver I was pretty tired from the trip so we headed out to a place close by to have diner. As we were close to Yaletown we went down Hamilton street looking for a place to eat. There was lot to choose from on that street but the place that got our attention was Hapa Izakaya.

I love trying lots of food so Izakaya’s are places I enjoy as you can share lots of plates while enjoying different tastes. After ordering some drinks we got down to business and ordered a round of food. The Edamame and right away we were satisfied with our choice, they were well marinated and cool. The beef tataki, slightly seared and served with a sesame-chili sauce was also good. The Kimchi was also very tasty and the beef short ribs in their apple-soy marinade were tender and actually had meat on them, it happens too often that I feel like there’s only bone and sauce on short ribs. The stir fried chicken and vegetable Yaki Udon was also good but our favorite dish was the Chipolte Beef Curry Ishi-Yaki a nice mixture of rice, slow braised beef, chipotle curry and egg served in a hot stone bowl. Our other favorite was the Yakitori, grilled chicken skewers served with ume-chimichurri that was marinated to perfection. We then finished the meal with Ebi Mayo which are tempura prawns with spicy mayo and a Lobster Tempura Roll, lobster meat, avocado, asparagus and wasabi mayonnaise.

The place looks great and the staff was helpful to recommend some locations where we could finish our evening. I saw that they also have other locations in the Vancouver area one in Calgary and also Toronto, but this is the only one I tried. Very fun place to go to if you’re a group and it will also give you some options in the area for drinks after to finish the night.