Takara Bune Japanese Restaurant

First time visit. Had an awful experience from the service, to the food… everything! I never write food reviews but I am so upset at this place that I felt compelled to make the effort. Their service was terrible. Had to ask many times for basic things like chopsticks, napkins, soy sauce dish, tea, etc. It wasn’t that busy there but most of the time, they were standing around. Or were socializing with some ‘regular’s it seems. Place was also dirty and the table we were seated on had food crumbs both on the table and the seats.
Also the food portions were terrible, especially since we used a Groupon for «$ 58» value for two. didn’t know that included almost nothing (two apps — which were as small as miso soup!!!), two entrees which is maybe a chicken or one roll and two small ice cream scoops. not even worth the $ 28 retail price!!! and to add further insult, they charged tax on the full amount of $ 58 and not the amount we paid groupon. we tried to defend why we shouldn’t have to pay the $ 58 in taxes but they insisted.
They first tried to charge all of it on the bill (even the $ 58 in groupon). They are very sneaky and was one of the worst restaurant experiences I have ever had. NEVER GO THERE!

I bought the groupon for 2. Not a good deal! They charge u $ 65.99 for 2 chicken teriyaki entrée with 4 pieces of tempura and ice cream. You can pay regular price elsewhere and pay much cheaper than $ 28 groupon + 10 taxes = $ 38.

Went with a groupon. When we showed the groupon as we ordered, we got the look from the owner. The night did not go well…
We were the only table that night, and the service was still terrible.

Bad service, we paid for tips and they were chasing us for more. The food is a bit more on the salty side as well.

I came here for dinner with my boyfriend on a Groupon deal. The Groupon deal was for a dinner for two people. We each got an appetizer, an entrée, and a desert. We each ordered the shrimp and vegetable tempera. I ordered the salmon teriyaki and my boyfriend ordered one of their jumbo maki rolls. For desert, we both ordered the ginger ice cream (not every Japanese restaurants offers ginger ice cream). The service at this restaurant is pretty good. The server was friendly and attentive. Although, it wasn’t busy today in the restaurant so I am not sure how it would be like if the restaurant is busy. The food was average en par with other Japanese restaurants in the same price range. Overall, my experience here was good.

Sushi is a bit pricey but the a la carte deals are amazing and we’ll worth it. Beautiful place though. Love going there when I have a sushi and shrimp tempura craving

I love their Don Buri’s!
The perfect mix of rice and soup. Not soup and rice. Loved the sliced and tasty meat. Great dish for a cold day. Their sushi lunch specials are also delicious. The salad is a fresh difference from other sushi places due to the variety of vegetables used.
In terms of service, if you make the mistake of sitting in the bar, they forget about you and don’t clear your plates nor refill your tea. Best to get table service.

This place is actually pretty good. I also came here with no expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. The service was reasonably good, the food was good. The service was prompt (which is necessary for lunch service). I was really happy with this. This place is super close to my parents house, and I have no idea when it opened, but yay! I’d come back for sure.

Went there with a Groupon 3 course dinner for 2. Nice décor, ok service. Appetizers were good & decent size. There was VERY limited options for main meal & only 1 sushi option available. My partner & I both had teriyaki (beef & salmon) & the vegetables that came with were so salty. Only ice-​cream was offered for dessert, nice flavors but the smallest serving of ice-​cream I’ve ever had. Even with the Groupon it didn’t seem worth it & for a sit down dinner we were done in 30 mins…

While I remember the sushi being good, the service now is terrible. I waited over five minutes to be told to sit at the back table (I was not escorted to the table, nor was i given a menu at the time), then over five more to receive a menu and after ten more minutes of waiting I walked out.
There were only a few people in the place, so it was not busy, they were just not interested in serving me.
Service is as important if not more then the product. I won’t be back.

Picked up tuna maki to go. Was quite tasty. Presentation was nice, ingredients fresh however quantity was a touch light for the price. Came with a very small salad and soy sauce. The staff were incredibly friendly and hospitable, offering me a lovely green tea to nurse whilst waiting for my order. The restaurant was clean and pride of ownership was evident.

I’ve gotten Takara Bune on several occasions as a take-​out and dined in. Take-​out has been okay thus far. I ordered their salmon avocado roll, which was pretty good (they custom made it — not on their menu) and ordered a spicy salmon roll. I wasn’t too impressed last time with the fact that my spicy salmon roll’s tempura bits tasted a bit stale.
Recently, I had a dine-​in experience and portion sizes were standard. However, they seriously need to change their soy sauce (b/​c it’s way too salty) and ruined my sushi. They also should change their tempura sauce to be a bit more flavourful (lacked some sweetness and was a bit too salty). Finally, their appetizer salad was lacking freshness. There were definitely some bruised pieces of lettuce in my salad, which I was definitely not impressed about. Their teriyaki sauce was also a little off too.
Like Jennifer K has already mentioned — I’m impressed with their use of ceramics!!! Did you know that plastics can actually trap in a lot of bacteria when the paint crack? (also another reason, my friends, if you have cats, to use ceramic or metal bowl b/​c they can chin acne from all that bacteria… ANYWAY)…
This place isn’t cheap. But it’s not immensely expensive either. Definitely will come back for take-​out for rolls though. You just have to know what to order I think!

10 piece sashimi lunch special with bowl of rice and also comes with miso soup and salad $ 10.95 — the sashimi was fairly fresh but portions small
Eel with rice $ 11.95 — I have had AYCE eel with rice that tasted better than this. The eel was rubbery and portions extremely small. I recommend Osaka Sushi Japanese Korean Restaurant if you want some real eel with rice
2 piece uni sushi was about $ 8.95 or so. Once again small portions and didn’t taste that fresh
Normally I would give 3 stars for a place like this but when compared to other sushi restaurants which I have given 3 stars this one is determinately a step below. Perhaps I didn’t order the right items on the menu but I was quite disappointed when walking out — its the same feeling you get when you finish watching a bad movie in the theaters.
PS — for the guys out there — extremely attractive waitress alert :)

This place makes some good sushi. It taste fresh, looks good on the plate, and that’s about it. Nothing really stood out to me, other than one thing, the price. The prices are a bit on the expensive side. Maybe I’m more used to the pricing in Markham, where the quality might be a bit lower, but this one seemed quite expensive. It comes out to about 30 $ per person for a relatively small portion. One thing that I observed, is that the restaurant has a more honest Japanese feel to it, not overly cluttered with cheap Dollarama Chinese turned Japanese type décor.

This quiet little neighbourhood Japanese restaurant is a family favourite. While there are a few little things that take away from a 5-​star rating, I like to support local, family-​owned businesses and the quality of the food here is very good. Always fresh, made-​to-​order (as it should be). It is a little pricier for a small restaurant but if you want mediocre food for cheap prices go a few blocks west to Sashimi House, the prices there are fantastic but you get what you pay for.
As a previous poster mentioned, although this is a Chinese-​run Japanese restaurant, the owners lived and trained in Japan and are not only fluent Japanese speakers but highly skilled Japanese chefs. Don’t judge based on the ethnicity of the owners. This is much more authentic than a lot of other «Japanese» restaurants in the area.
Pros:
— food is fantastic. Fresh sushi/​sashimi, generous portions, food is always hot. The dinner sets are in the $ 14 – 17 range and typically only come with a bowl of rice. For a few dollars more upgrade to a bento box, it’s worth it.
— Quiet atmosphere — it can get busy during dinner hours on Friday and Saturday nights or during lunch hour during the week, but with only about 10 tables it’s a nice intimate atmosphere. Nicely decorated, clean, cozy.
— Very friendly staff — as a family-​run operation, the owners themselves are almost always working. Ivan is always at the sushi bar and Lisa is either clearing tables, serving customers, answering the phone, or in the back in the kitchen bustling around. Their kids are often seen helping serve evenings and weekends too.
Cons:
— though the servers are very friendly, service can sometimes be slow if they forget to come back to check on you.
— Since it is a small restaurant, it can fill up/​get busy very quickly and the noise level rises accordingly
— it’s in kind of a funny location, tucked in between the Winners and the italian restaurant. If there’s a big Chuck-​E-​Cheese party parking can sometimes be a pain but it’s a big lot, only a real issue when it’s raining/​snowing and you don’t want to park far away.
— the patio is cute in the summer but you’re basically sitting on the curb looking at the parking lot. Realistically nobody wants to sit out there.
** DECEMBER 2013 **
They have this amazing Holiday Sushi Platter special on right now — $ 50 for 68 pieces of their specialty rolls, plus you get a $ 5 voucher for your next meal. Picked up one of these for a pot luck I went to last week and it was fantastic. You want to talk about value? Well here it is. For $ 39 you can get a platter of 48 maki rolls from Tako Sushi on Don Mills but the quality is sub-​par and they’re just plain salmon, tuna, cucumber, and California rolls. Take advantage of this special, you won’t be disappointed!

I’ve been there about 3 time, they never disappointed me. Everytime I found new fav from there.
Recommend:
1,Definitely «Sashimi «, Fresh, big portion, Juicy…
2:Fried Udon, the one I ordered first time there and really surprised by the texture of the udon and the well-​balanced sauce
3:Teriyaki Chicken Lunch Box: Chicken are so tender and juicy, sauce not too salty or sweet, love it, and good portion again
I’ve been Aoyama for their signature sashimi, did turn me down, but this one never turns me down, so sad to see it’s under-​rated review on Unilocal

I bought a TeamBuy $ 40 voucher for $ 20, with very low expectations, since I kind of knew that this was a Chinese-​run Japanese restaurants.
The food for the most part was very good. We ordered a spicy tuna roll, chicken terriyaki, udon, and a sukiyaki.
The spicy tuna roll was well done; the fish was very fresh, and not too much rice — albeit very small for 7.95.
However, for 15.95 for the chicken terriyaki dinner, it didn’t come with anything other than rice! No miso soup or salad. If you want to attract people to come, then you have to allow them to have a full meal, otherwise they won’t return. A miso soup was 2.50 extra, salad probably more.
It’s really unfortunate, because the food was quite good. But charging these types of prices for the portion sizes willl not result in repeat customers.
I don’t think I would return, but with a second TeamBuy voucher, and their unwillingness to refund it, I think I will have to!

Quality was decent. Went there for dinner.
We ordered a number of maki rolls and the bill was almost $ 30/​pp — and we didn’t eat much.
Wasn’t really a good value for money… for this price, go down the street to Aoyama and have a way better meal!

It was. alright. not the best, but not the worst. I didn’t see any daily $ 5 – 6 specials as everything started at about $ 7.99. Had the Spicy Maki set for $ 12.99. For that price it doesn’t really compare to a place like say Ichiban.
The service was fine. The Food was fine. Everything was. well fine. Not sure if I’ll remember to come back or not though.

I came to have lunch at Takara Bune with no expectations. Maybe that’s the reason why I am so pleasantly surprised!
Lunch Specials from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Talking about long lunch break!
Different daily special for $ 5 to $ 6! Talking about value?!
And for me, my choice is always sushi!
Sushi Lunch ($ 10.95) comes with miso soup and salad exceeded my expectation. Nice balanced Shari rice, crunchy seaweed rolls and fresh fish. The only complain is the portion…
Free WIFI!
Friendly service!
No plastic plates are used… I hate those plastic everything in some of the Japanese restaurants! Here only nice ceramic table wares!
Value not equal to CHEAP!
Accepts all credit cards!
I will be back!