Service is very slow today however foods are still excellent. Same faces with the crew Im a frequent here so faces were familiar. Nothing is perfecr though so I beleived I will still come back in here. read more

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Uhoh. This double posted... please delete this one They have a happy hour now with a choice of 20 items. Seemed ok at a cheaper price. I'm all for cheaper ayce with lower quality foods but this is really low. The nigiri are dry so it's been sitting out for a while. The chopped scallop cone, spicy tuna/salmon are salty. The negitoro is chewy. The mini chashu don is salty. The only ok thing is the wings which are flavorless but has a crunchy exterior and juicy interior. House roll only had imitation crab, salmon, and egg. The oyster motoyaki had the weirdest tasting mayonnaise. And at the end they charged us weekend rate on a Wednesday night at $17.95 instead of $16.95. The quality here used to be much better. It's not worth anymore and you can get better quality at ninkazu in Richmond without a limit number of items to order. read more

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Not an AYCE place but close enough. You get 30 items per person in this "Mix and Match" menu. Regular and Premium menus. For $10+ extra for the premium menu, you get sashimi and more grilled items like beef short ribs. Service was slow as there were only 2-3 staff on the floor. The quality of the food was mediocre. You are only here for the quantity, not the quality. If you couldn't finish everything, you could pay for the take out box and have the remaining to go. Not bad if you're a small eater and order items which could be to go. Like teriyaki or fried stuff. The fish slices on the nigiri were thin. There were only a couple of fish pieces in the temaki. The oyster and scallop motoyaki were mostly the cream sauce. The good: Fried chicken wings (max 5 pieces) Fried chicken Grilled salmon head (half head) Gomae salad Green salad Agedeshi tofu The others were really very average and below average. Pay after eating at the cashier. They can do individual payment which is nice. Do check the order count as they miscalculated for our group. Good place for those who just want to fill their stomach for $23 plus tax. They do have a regular a la carte menu too. read more

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Food was ok, service was ok too but forgot our tea at the start. They even charge 3 dollars for takeout fee, which is ridiculous. Vibes are a very basic Japanese restaurant. read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - Just get the cones, it's worth - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

This restaurant has been around for a long time. The first Japanese restaurant in this location was a boat restaurant (very similar to the belt train restaurant) but it had a water moat that would travel around the restaurant. Sushi would be placed on a boat that went around the restaurant. You can order it upon request or grab it off of the water moat. Then Kawawa came along and changed everything. It became an all you can eat restaurant no limit. It used to be a very popular restaurant at Metrotown. Today, the restaurant is never full. Maybe it is because the food quality being very average. Kawawa has been over for at least 2 decades. I never went back until recently. We were very curious about the restaurant and how it survived all these years. They no longer offer unlimited all you can eat but a menu that let you order up to 30 items. They have the regular menu for $23 or the premium for $39 and of course if you don't want the up to 30 items menu, you can order a la carte. I thought I could do 30 items easily. Unfortunately, I was full at 15 items. We continue ordering some small items here and there. The cones were the average size. The sushi tasted nothing special but more of what you would expect from an all you can eat restaurant (Ie. Richmond Sushi taste). All in before tip was $25 and with tips $30. I could have went to a better restaurant and get $25 worth of food and still be full. I don't think it was any where of a deal. The restaurant is rarely full. So no reservation is required. read more

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Came by to try their mix & match deal. This place has been around for decades. Back then (20th century) it was a sushi bar with a conveyor belt. Looked cool but was super inefficient. They underwent a few iterations, and am now more like a typical AYCE (misnomer) type place. Inside is modern but pretty beaten up. Place gets a lot of traffic I imagine. Staff are friendly. The mix & match deal has 2 versions - regular and premium. Premium has more items, such as sashimi and beef short ribs. As of the time of writing, one can choose up to 30 items for the flat rate. Food quality is decent. Actualy reminds me quite a bit of (the now closed) Tomokazu. Nigiri is smaller than normal. To load up on volume, get the cones instead. The tori (chicken nugget) karaage is good, as well as the deep fried wings. The tonkatsu (pork cutlet) is just 2 strips. In other words, it is maybe 1/3 of an order when compared to other (AYCE) places. Overall it's a good deal. My buddy and I maxed out the allotments and left comfortably full. Wouldn't mind coming back. I do see a review mentioning mice there though. Something to keep in mind, but honestly this is a huge problem most restaurants will have, whether we see them or not. read more

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My experience was great. I am senior so paid $24 plus tax for the 30 regular item menu. 30 items is all-you-can-eat anyways. The ingredients and preparations and service were very good; relative to other buffet restaurants. It was thursday evening and it was not busy so that may have enhanced their service (1-2 servers). I am guessing that the biggest problem with this place is that no enough people know about it. read more

service was ok. food.. the calamari was questionable. was probably frozen calamari. did the get 30 pieces special. i took a bite of the calamari and it got lodged in my throat. drank water to hopefully get it not stuck but it didn't work. ended up having to pull it out of my throat (i love squid so i was confused why i had to pull a long piece out... its never happened before .. this was a first. 0/10) which was not an experience i was hoping to have today. the food was mid as well. i don't believe i will come back to be honest... i had really high hopes seeing how nice the insides was and the vibes of the place read more

This restaurant on the menu says you can order upto 30 items on the menu. The woman that works there crosses out our order and said we can't finish that much food. Seriously if it's all you can eat then yeh she can limit us but we're allowed upto 30 items as per menu. The same woman came back to our table and said we are only allowed "5" units per item (no more then 30). I asked her to show me where it says that on the menu, she says it's not on the menu but she's telling us what the limit is. Like seriously, if she wants the restaurant to be all you can eat then do so but don't act like a special type of Japanese restaurant that advertises great price food choice and then changes on a fly. ITS LIKE BAIT & SWITCH! I find that woman quite rude, ruined my Friday night dinner. This place had a good idea until this woman decided to kill the business image! I doubt this restaurant would last, I give it 3-6months before it goes out of business!!! WANT TO RELAX AND HAVE A STRESS FREE MEAL? Don't go eat here! I would give them no star if possible for deceptive and rude female staff (short black hair, in her 40's or 50's). read more

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I remember the first time I tried this place was with a friend and it was a year ago. The food was okay but the service was kinda poor. At that time we waited for almost 30 minutes for our order, with lots of follow-up (our order was ramen and bentobox). The table beside us (a group) who came in 15min after we are seated was even served first and was accomodated well. Now this is the second time. I came here with my colleagues and we had the all-you-can-eat. Food was okay with lots of option but apparently, the service is not that okay and orders are getting mixed up. Overall the place was okay but since it was located inside a mall, you can hear the noises from outside. The space is average - they can accomodate big groups but you have to book in advance to make sure you get the tables. read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

Went for a late lunch. What a treat. All you can eat up to 30 items. I could only eat about 1/2 that. Everything was fresh. Small portions but that just lets you try more different things. Very nice staff. Do not let that it is in a mall deter you read more

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We were instantly seated. Then we were kind of rushed to give our order. The service was decent thus far but just seemed rushed. The waitresses delivered hot miso soup and came over quickly with their trays and my baby sitting in a high chair--gave me a panic attack! The food was decent. The best thing was the teriyaki chicken. They forgot my husbands beer. They also never brought over our check so we had to go to the counter. Overall... prices were reasonable but the service could use work read more

Not the first time but as usually very delicious and well presented Japanese culinary. Fiona is a great server and gave us a fast and profesional service. They are very well organized and are taking all corresponding measurements to avoid risks with the COVID-19. Ambience is very cozy and the only trendy restaurant in Metrotown . A place to visit many times read more

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Being that this business has been around for decades one would be able to figure it out on the appropriate number of staff.. which obviously the Management haven't figured out.. there were two waitresses that were run ragged .. firstly standing around waiting for someone to clean dirty tables to then wait for someone to take an Order took nearly 20 minutes.. water and tea didn't get here for another 10 minutes beyond that.. their customary of "please wait" well that's what everyone did patiently .. food order went in and food arrived 10 minutes later.. observing during the wait for our food that support finally arrived to help these over whelmed ladies nearly half an hour in where two others joined the madness.. the fried rice was bland.. literally zero taste .. gyoza is the average frozen variety .. Tan Tan noodles were presented nicely but the soup was a tad salty to my taste .. all in all not really anything to rave over other than the two brave staff that took it on the chin in a cool and collective manner .. Managers need to think about the customers versus counting their chickens before they are hatched ( aka looking at the revenues) .. food was a 4-5 .. staff were a solid 7 given what they had to deal with read more

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food is AMAZINGGG OMGG ACTUALLY SO GOOD, service is okay, but for ambiance i prefered the old layout of the restaurant which made is private but also looked fancy but this ones okay too i guess. (i ate yam tempura, prawn tempura, takoyaki, lunch box d, and spicy salmon sashimi!! all 10/10 especially the sashimi!!) read more

DO NOT COME TO THIS RESTAURANT! You have been warned. We have been seated here at 5:40pm and it's now 6:10pm. The waiter asked us about 5 minutes what we wanted and when we told her we wanted the chicken karaage ika karaage combo she stated that they ran out but she'll double check. We are still waiting here for the waiter to come back. The waiter seemed to look at the menu like she's never seen it before. Interesting take as I haven't been here since about 5 years ago. The restaurant is shared with the Kawawa Ramen which is connected together. We came on a Monday night and the restaurants not even full. I'll update on the food but so far I would give the service a 0/5. Update; our first combo of N15 came. It was beef roll and dynamite roll. The beef was very dry and tasted like it was expired end of last year. The dynamite roll was decent but not the best. We are now waiting for our other food; oyako don, katsu don and chicken combo. It has been another 10 minutes sitting and writing this review. Our neighbours across the table who just came to the restaurant about 15 mins ago have already received their food ! I'm not sure what is going on but will definitely not go here anymore. The oyako don had the egg super dried like it was microwaved. read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - "Sad" Restaurant - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

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They have a mice problem. I screamed when I saw one under the table and the waitress seemed it was no big deal. They made us pay and rushed us out. read more

My go-to spot for a peaceful lunch. Love the ambiance, polite service, and the fantastic all-you-can-eat 30 deal! But my top pick is the delicious tonkatsu . read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

Can I give it less than 1 star? Good took a very very long time to come and when it did it was super staggered. Order was mixed up and my child's cucumber rolls came 10 min after we finished eating everything else The washroom was broke and filthy. When we went to leave I thought my mask slipped behind the seat. When I checked the seat cushion came off revealing a bowl of rice and a mouse trap. A mouse trap and bait station was under my seat the whole time... read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

Didn't realize this place no longer served All You Can Eat Sushi! That was probably the only thing that made it stand out from the rest of the sushi competition in the area like Sushi Garden. After reading some of the reviews about the poor customer service a lot of diners received, the waitresses during my visit were actually quite pleasant and listened to our order modifications. There were however, several problems with the food. My katsu curry came over cooked and tasted a bit dry, hard, and stale. I can't help but wonder if it's leftovers from the previous day? It also came with barely any curry sauce at all; definitely not enough for all of the rice and meat on my plate. Thankfully, the salmon nigiri and red bean smoothie I ordered were decent. Kawawa surprisingly has a lot of smoothie and slush options for a sushi restaurant. Since they no longer serve AYCE, maybe they should consider rebranding themselves as a drink place instead of serving poke bowls? As for the food menu, I would stick to strictly ordering sushi if you plan on dining here. read more

Kawawa Japanese Restaurant - Looked good on the outside; but the taste was disappointing... - Sushi Bars Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

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I have never walked out of any restaurant until yesterday. My niece, her daughter and I came to Kawawa around 4 pm after walking around Metrotown and we just wanted a light snack. There was another couple that arrived at the same time as us and everyone did the vaccine QR showing thing. The hostess led the first couple to their table and just waved from there for us to go over to the booths too. She motioned that we were to take the table behind the other couple and handed out only one set of menus. She sat another table then she came back and took the other couple's order then left. We waited for 20 minutes and NOTHING. No tea, no water, no menu order, no cutlery, NOTHING! She finally came over when she saw us putting on our masks to leave because we had waited 35 minutes with NO service or acknowledgement whatsoever! Rating = 0 read more

Service was non existent sat there menuless for about 5 mins. Got up grabbed a menu. Alerted the hostess we are sitting at this table kinda strike 1 but you know.. we're sitting here.. 30 mkns later still hadn't been served watching everyone else get helped, went to leave and decided to say you knownkts pretty disrespectful leaving us to sit there like some idiots. We thought we'd be served eventually... she said something mumbled. Then asked me if I speak Chinese... when I don't and this is canada... why the hell doss taking my order have to do with the language I speak.. Unless you don't speak enough to take my order.. get someone else ?? read more

Worst sushi restaurant no organization or structure how to run it waitress runs up n down in the restaurant with her head cutoff even though there is 5 people in the establishment took her 10mins sit me down and never came back to talk my order not even water so I got up n left ppl next to me were complaining how messy n stale the sushi was n sashmi tasted horrible so I left !!! read more

Wow. This was horrible. The tempura appetizers we got came out cold. Same with the gyoza. My wife's chicken teriyaki Don was ... Not at all what we would expect in a Don. The wait staff was completely inattentive. We saw our waitress once to take our order. And that's it. We're still waiting for our bill. And it's not busy here at all. This used to be a great place. Complete waste of money. Will not be back, considering the number of dramatically better places within a stone's throw from here read more

My favorite sushi place to go. Very close to the theater and arcade. Fast service good portions. The place smells a little too bleachy. Walls are dirty with food or boogers. I try not to look. read more

Hadn't been to this location in some years since they changed hands (it used to be a kaiten sushi restaurant with the conveyor belt and some all-you-can-eat specials, however things have gone downhill, so no more conveyor, and all I could eat was about 2 rolls before I just didn't want any more. There are too many good sushi places in the GVRD to accept anything less than reasonable, and Kawawa is definitely less than reasonable. Despite taking 30 minutes for my order of sushi to arrive (4 rolls of about 8 pieces each), and my wife's lunch box, the food was bland and pretty tasteless. Sushi rice is supposed to be prepared with a bit of sweetened vinegar and this had nothing, just bland rice wrapped around not terribly appealing seafood. Decided to cut my losses and leave most of it behind. My wife finished her hot food box, and was reasonably satisfied, but she commented that she wouldn't have ordered any sushi. Give it a pass and look for any of the other multiple of good sushi restaurants in the vicinity. read more

Absolutely one of the WORST experiences i've had with food and service. We decided to try this place again since they newly renovated the place. We had decided to try their all you can eat buffet. We were seated at 2:15PM and they didn't take our order until 2:40PM. The servings were quite small and to be frank, the food was also not good. We didn't end up finishing our food since it didn't taste very good. There was a policy that they could charge us for the leftovers we didn't end up finishing. We decided not to tip since we were also frustrated with how the service was, and when we left the lady chased us down asking us to tip. We explained that we were unhappy with the service and food. Overall, not a place worth going to unless you want slow service and horrible food. read more

I used to come here when it was a quick and easy all you can eat sushj place. It was always a convenient location to end off a day at metrotown and the quality was good enough for all you can eat. I went back for the first time in about nine months yesterday and to my dismay, realized that they only serve a la carte. Not only that, but the price point is ridiculous, 5 pieces of paper thin salmon sashimi for $9.95? Rolls were an average of 10-17$ and tobiko nigiri for $5/piece. It's obvious management is trying to make this place a bit more upscale, but aside from the menu change, there were no renovations (cracked seat cushions and dented tables) and there was no huge differentiator in quality compared to sushi garden across the street. These are downtown sushi bar prices at a place that people are used to bringing their families to for a good all you can eat meal after a shopping day. As the other review says, skip this joint and head to sushi garden across the street, or Kingsway sushi if you're feeling all you can eat. Way more solid sushi places in this general area that do it better for almost half the price. read more

If there was an option for a zero or a negative number rating I would have given it. THE STAFF WAS SNOBBILY RUDE!!! Food was not any special so they could have compensated for the service. But No... these people were absolutely terrible. No service whatsoever. Avoid this place like the plague! Trust me... it isn't worth it. I've seen better customer service where they sell gas station sushi! read more

It kinda sucks now. Service is poor and food quality same. Idk how much longer they'll be here it's that bad.

If you like getting all your food at different times and then your drinks for desert this is the place to be, the sound of the dish boy rolling the cart and loading all the dirty dishes right in front of you while you eat was also a treat. Gas station sushi would have been a better choice. read more

No star! Chef did not know how to cook chicken karaage. They replaced my first order since it had bloody color. Second order came in and the same thing, bloody inside. So I end up cancelling it. Will not recommend nor will I ever come back here again! I would rather go to Mcdonalds! read more

On a weekend, there should be more staff to accommodate busy times. Waited too long to get seated, even through there was staff around, but they pointed to only one person. The food is bland and the service is worse. Then you have to wait super long for the food and forget it if you need to wave someone down. You pay at the front and you got it, you have to wait to pay. There aren't too many options at the mall except the food court, but next time I am definitely going to the food court for better food and quicker service. read more

I made a yelp account to post this review. I happened to be in the mall, and wanted to get an experience better than what the food court has to offer. What I received was no service for half an hour. There was a period of at least 20 minutes where not a single waiter even passed by my table. When I finally ordered, I asked if I could make a simple change to my combo, just switch out one of the items. Obviously, they declined. It doesn't seem like they care much at all for the customer. If you want to wait an absurd amount of time for some average tasting food, and receive some of the worst service you've ever had, this restaurant is for you. read more