Koi Japanese Tapas Bar - Vancouver

My first taste of Japanese cuisine was a wonderful experience. This tapas bar is friendly, lively and has a warm atmosphere. The food is presented beautifully and lots of it! Green tea is always on hand and the service is exceptional. Would travel back from Scotland to visit again.

Koi is not an authentic Japanese tapas place. You won't find chefs greeting you loudly as you enter the restaurant, the tea they serve you isn't the typical green tea and the servers aren't even Japanese... but they score high points in food.The sushi rolls were delicious, fresh and had the right amount of sauce. The tako wasa had some overly chewy pieces of octopus, but still had the great flavor and the right amount of wasabi. My favorite was the unagi salad roll. So unbelievably good. I don't really care for unagi, but just loved this dish. The salad roll wasn't the slightest bit dry and I can tell they just rolled it right before serving to us. The plate was drizzled with a sauce and carefully over the roll as well. The unagi was warm, but not too hot so it didn't make the lettuce soggy. It was cut into 6 pieces, which was easily shared and devoured.

I can't stop thinking about those ebi fritters! They were absolutely delicious! Lighter than tempura and incredibly fresh and sweet. I've never had anything like them before.

Minami serves the best flame-seared sushi and is one of my top choices for sushi restaurants.

For our final meal in Vancouver, my cousins, who are locals, took me, the tourist, to Minami! I was so thrilled to try their aburi-style cuisine.