Restaurants NOT Recommended

[Hong Kongese]

The rule of thumb about the good sushi is don't go to any japanese restaurants which are not run by the japanese. There are lots of them owned by either chinese or korean, the korean run sushi bars are not too bad but the chinese ones are shits!

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Hong Kongese

The rule of thumb about the good sushi is don't go to any japanese restaurants which are not run by the japanese. There are lots of them owned by either chinese or korean, the korean run sushi bars are not too bad but the chinese ones are shits!

Hmm, I don't know about that. I like one that is Chinese owned. The all you can eat menu is a serious downgrade, though. If you order by the roll you get: A better plate, better decoration, better / bigger sushi, with different fresher ingredients than the all you can eat people. Oddly, it works out to less than the price of all you can eat... for what I order. How much do some people eat....

[bugsy]

Originally Posted by Hong Kongese

The rule of thumb about the good sushi is don't go to any japanese restaurants which are not run by the japanese. There are lots of them owned by either chinese or korean, the korean run sushi bars are not too bad but the chinese ones are shits!

Indeed. I can attest to that.

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Hong Kongese

The rule of thumb about the good sushi is don't go to any japanese restaurants which are not run by the japanese. There are lots of them owned by either chinese or korean, the korean run sushi bars are not too bad but the chinese ones are shits!

Maybe they've pulled up their socks lately, but the Korean places as I remember them were also pretty bad. They too were notorious for cutting corners and costs.

Nobody's fussier about food standards than the Japanese. Food programs are all the rage there, and I hear you can get better Italian in Tokyo than in Italy itself.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Maybe they've pulled up their socks lately, but the Korean places as I remember them were also pretty bad. They too were notorious for cutting corners and costs.

Nobody's fussier about food standards than the Japanese. Food programs are all the rage there, and I hear you can get better Italian in Tokyo than in Italy itself.

You can get better American (McDonalds ), better Mexican (real Mexican, they don't have Taco Bell...), better Indian, better Italian, better Chinese, and pretty much everything else in Tokyo. They are obsessed with cleanliness and quality. A bakery in Gunma I've gone to voluntarily closed for 3 months to express their sorrow and shame for using one day spoiled milk, which nobody noticed, but they had found out. The Japanese are just all around awesome

[Nutterbug]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

You can get better American (McDonalds ), better Mexican (real Mexican, they don't have Taco Bell...), better Indian, better Italian, better Chinese, and pretty much everything else in Tokyo. They are obsessed with cleanliness and quality. A bakery in Gunma I've gone to voluntarily closed for 3 months to express their sorrow and shame for using one day spoiled milk, which nobody noticed, but they had found out. The Japanese are just all around awesome

We really should issue more visas to the Japanese to set up restaurants and other businesses here to raise the standards.

[Yume-sama]

I don't know, seems like we could scare them in to something akin to Paris Syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_syndrome

[djh]

Originally Posted by Hong Kongese

The rule of thumb about the good sushi is don't go to any japanese restaurants which are not run by the japanese. There are lots of them owned by either chinese or korean, the korean run sushi bars are not too bad but the chinese ones are shits!

When you say "run by the Japanese", do you mean that the head chef is not Japanese? Because then I would understand what you mean.

[Hong Kongese]

I used to watch the Japanese version of Iron Chef every night and I was so fascinated by the chefs' awesome cooking skill. It is too bad that it is no longer on the air, and I think it is much better than the American Iron Chef show, which I find boring.

[Hong Kongese]

Originally Posted by djh

When you say "run by the Japanese", do you mean that the head chef is not Japanese? Because then I would understand what you mean.

That's correct!

[cornholio]

I havent been to Tokyo yet but I dont understand how they can have better Italian food then Italy and better Mexican food then Mexico etc. Thats total bs, it might taste better to some but then it is not authentic Italian food. My mom used to make Spagheti with Ketchup in it, I like it more then Italian style spaghetti...does that make it better Spaghettti then the Italian Spaghetii...no. Anyways iv traveled all through Italy, Mexico and you can not get any better Mexican or Italian food then what you can get in the countelss little authentic restaurants in butt fuk nowhere towns.
Being on the food subject the best Pizza I ever had and really think ill ever have was in a little middle of nowhere town in Sorento Italy...I could spend the money to fly out there just for that Pizza. The worst Pizza and Italian food I had in Italy was in Venice, it was just total crap. my cousin lives next to Venice and she basically said to not ever eat in the tourist districts because you get crap food because the foreigners dont know any better, and more importantly will never be returning customers. guess i went a bit of topic...oh well

[Yume-sama]

It actually is 100% authentic. Not everybody in Japan is Japanese, however, they hold themselves up to Japanese standards. The Mexican restaurant I frequent has real ingredients from Mexico, made in to the authentic Mexican food that you would find in Mexico. Same with the Italian restaurants, the Indian restaurants, the Chinese restaurants, and etc. It is true they have some "local flavor" dishes, but the majority of it is 100% authentic. And it is very good It's a surreal experience when you meet someone from India, who owns a restaurant in Japan, is fluent in Japanese and his language, but doesn't speak a word of English. And then you meet a Japanese man who is a Mexican enthusiast who closes his business one month a year to go to Mexico, who is fluent in both Japanese and Spanish, but not a word of English. Ahh, Japan

[204]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Not everybody in Japan is Japanese

Almost everyone is. About 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese and 99% of the population speak Japanese as their first language. Not exactly multicultural now are they?

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by 204

Almost everyone is. About 98.6% of the population is pure Japanese and 99% of the population speak Japanese as their first language. Not exactly multicultural now are they?

Probably what keeps it a nice place.

However, you will find that most non-Japanese food restaurants (and there are thousands of them) are run by people from other countries. So, in one sense, they may not be the most multi-cultural citizen wise, but there are always tens of thousands of people from dozens of countries, and food from any locale you can think of, making them, in a strange way, as multi-cultural as New York, London, and Paris. They are all cities that you can find absolutely anything you could think of, whenever you want it. Not too many places can say that. I would never have thought to go to Tokyo for the best French / Mexican / Italian / American food, along with the Japanese food

[204]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Probably what keeps it a nice place.

Ok, so Japan's "nice" because it's not multicultural? Some might take offense at that comment.

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

as multi-cultural as New York, London, and Paris.

Make up your mind, you say it's a nice because it's not multicultural, now you're saying it's as multicultural as NYC (of all places)?

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

I would never have thought to go to Tokyo for the best French / Mexican / Italian / American food, along with the Japanese food

Better French food than Paris? Ok..... right.

[Yume-sama]

It's nice because they are a relatively "closed" society and aren't transforming in to the West, the Japanese values are still very strong. It is extremely multi-cultural, and unless you've had French food in both Paris and Tokyo, I don't see how you can argue. My point is that, it's all there, it's all as good and in some cases better than it's home Country (BECAUSE of the quality of work that is insisted upon the Japanese, which *very* FEW other countries implore upon their workers). So I don't see where the argument came from, it's all a matter of personal opinion, based on years of extensive travels around the World, anyways.

[Nutterbug]

Now how do we elevate ourselves to their standards? What can we do to restructure society to hold merchants more accountable and raise expectations on them to the level of the Japanese?

Hopefully, Japanese autos and electronics blowing away domestics is just the beginning, and the Internet will make reputation and word of mouth a more powerful force in tilting the market in the buyer's favour.

[bugsy]

This place is just disgusting, stale tasting fish raw or otherwise. That, and they don't bring you half the food you order.

[Rusty Gull]

Originally Posted by Nutterbug

Now how do we elevate ourselves to their standards? What can we do to restructure society to hold merchants more accountable and raise expectations on them to the level of the Japanese?

Hopefully, Japanese autos and electronics blowing away domestics is just the beginning, and the Internet will make reputation and word of mouth a more powerful force in tilting the market in the buyer's favour.

Well, Japan has lost major ground in electronics. It was almost pathetic how they let Apple take over the digital music space - and yet many retailers there still insisted on ignoring Apple's rise, instead stocking their shelves with the usual crap from Sony, Panasonic and other lessers.

And really, who needs a Japanese mobile phone when we have the superior choice of Blackberry and especially iPhone. The advent of iPhone has helped consumers catch up to Japan overnight in terms of the power of mobile devices.

As for dining? Yes. The standards are, for the most part, very high. And restaurants in Vancouver should aspire to them, especially when it comes to service. But, I have had some horrible pizza and spaghetti in Japan.

On the other hand, a few Japanese restaurants in Vancouver do Western food very well, even if the end product is quite different from the original recipe.

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

I would never have thought to go to Tokyo for the best French / Mexican / Italian / American food, along with the Japanese food

I totally agree with this. In particular I find that they do european-style pastries there very well. In the busiest train stations (shinjuku) you can find a non-descript bakery that sells exquisite, freshly-made sweet pastries, better that what you can comparably get in a train staion in europe. Even small cafes in smaller cities (i went to one in matsumoto) have very atmospheric, wood-panelled cafes with great pastries, again miles ahead of a comparable japanese restaurant in europe.