Gyoza King

The weather in Vancouver is getting better and better everyday even though it's still very windy sometimes. EU has finally finished all her final exams, so we decided to have a little shopping spree to celebrate her free post-exam period and, to celebrate the arrival of spring ;)

Originally, we planned to have Viet Sub (mainly because both of us MISS their subs so much); however, they had coincidentally run out of french bread. Of course, we were very disappointed. Then, EU suggested Kingyo, which is on Denman Street. Even though I was not feeling Japanese that day, Kingyo seemed a good idea since I've already heard its name for a couple times. As we were taking #5 bus, EU said she actually meant Gyoza King instead of Kingyo! Luckily I found out the right after we got on the bus......so there we went, the "legendary" Gyoza King.

Gyoza King
1508 Robson St, Vancouver BC

Ratings
1:Yucks! 2:Improvement needed 3:So-So~ 4:Good 5:Very good 6:Heavenly

Food: 4.5
Price: 4.5
Service: 5.5
Ambiance: 4.5
Overall: 4.5

• Like other izakayas, it opens late at around 5:30-6pm
• Late night
• The first izakaya in Vancouver (?)
• Popular to locals
• Dine in/Take out (Surprisingly, I saw a lot of take-out orders that night)
• One of the biggest Japanese restaurant groups in Vancouver. Chicco, G-Men Ramen Shop, Gyo-O, and Nan Chuu are all under Gyoza King.
• Authentic Japanese restaurant
• Famous in gyozas just as its name implies.

• Seatings are not too cramped. They have tables and a small sushi bar.

Chicken & Vegetables Gyoza-4/6

• $6.95/10pcs ($4.95/6pcs)
• Who will leave Gyoza King without trying their gyozas? ;D

• To be honest, I really didn't find anything special with the gyoza. The only thing I could say was the texture of the dumpling wrap. It didn't taste floury or thick; it was thin instead. The proportion of the fillings was acceptable, and for the flavour, I could not say anything about it because it's kinda...stamdard.

• Gyoza King has a special sauce for their gyozas. It has a little bit of vinegar flavour but I think it's basically soy sauce with some additives.

Grilled Fish Cake with Bonito Flakes-3.5/6

• $3.95 (one of their Today's Special)

• This fish cake is actually squid cake.
• It was actually pretty good; the outside was not too dry and the squid was not mushy at all. Overall, it was soft and chewy.

Tuna Platter

• $9.25~ (I don't remember the exact price)
• Spicy tuna, tuna sashimi, tuna tataki
• When EU and I looked at the Today's Special menu, we thought this tuna platter was a pretty good deal. So we decided to give it a try.

Tuna Tataki-4/6

• The tuna was fresh but I found it's a bit soft for my liking.
• They added some soy sauce to the tuna, which made them more flavourful. But I would rather they serve it without any added sauce. I like it r-a-w :)

Tuna Sashimi-3.5/6

• Ok, it's raw this time; however, the tuna was a bit too soft and tasted kind of mushy. I wondered maybe they have defrost the tuna for too long. Hmm....

Spicy Tuna-4.5/6

• Gyoza King did give us a decent amount of tuna chunks!
• The spiciness of the sauce was not too strong. EU said it tasted like tabasco sauce.

Mixed Green & Seaweed Salad-4.5/6

• $6.50
• Nothing to shout about really...but I like how they have mixed in another type of seaweed into the greens (even though they didn't give us a lot)
• Somewhat over-priced.

While I was waiting for the bill, I took a look at their menu again and found out their food is more on the traditional side. So if you want to eat some fancy Japanese food, I will suggest you to go to other izakayas instead (e.g. Hapa Izakaya, Guu's branch).

The food in Gyoza King is acceptable, but given the wide choices of izakaya in Vancouver, I will rather give other izakayas a try before my second visit to Gyoza King ;)