Manzo - Richmond

You drive down Alexandra street in Richmond and you get bombarded with lights, restaurants, and then more restaurants. It's no wonder some call this 'restaurant lane'. The choices for Asian cuisine seem endless.Along the short street, in a small slot among scores of restaurants lies Manzo. You step inside and it's a restaurant that sits very narrow and deep with a selection of sake that's reminiscent of ones you see only in Japan. We order the food that we want and it comes out fast, fresh, hot, and with a smile. Arriving at 530pm without a reservation and being seated right away was something we must've lucked out on because this place packed up quickly on Saturday evening. The Geoduck sashimi is fresh and sliced just right, the skewers are grilled fresh and tender, and the sashimi salad is light and well balanced. You can't miss the skewers and grilled dishes (robata) when coming here. Service is attentive and polite and there was no rush for us even though we had the feeling that our seat was reserved at some point that was drawing near toward the last quarter of our meal. If you're ever in Richmond and happen to fall upon this lane with countless restaurants, look for a red and black sign closer to the end of the street on the left, just before Kwantlen Rd. and here you'll find Manzo.

After reading others' reviews I'm convinced that we need to go back and more a better variety. That is: we really enjoyed our first meal there last weekend, but I had forgotten my close-up glasses and could not read the menu in the available dim light. And it was so busy, and the servers so harried (service out of the kitchen was pretty slow), that where in some restaurants you could have a conversation with your server about what to order, here it felt like it would be an imposition so we stuck to a selection of nigiri and a shared plate of tempura. All of which were done well, but it was a shame ot to get into the izakaya stuff Will look forward to trying again, especially at a less busy time. Sounds like there's a lot here worth trying.

Wonderful presentation of all the food. We were there in a large group so we had a great assortment from sashimi to rolls, beef tongue robata , goza, asparagus, edananme, Beef and chicken teriyaki, The Asaki beer and chill saki was also very good. we all ate for a couple of hours and left very full. Its a gold-mine in a small strip mall on Capstan way and Garden city. It is expensive but well worth it.

We went to the Manzo Itamae on Capstan Way and Garden City. We lived in Japan for 16 years, and were happy to find an izakaya with all the foods that we have been missing like nattomaki. Although higher priced than most other Japanese restaurants, the food was very delicious (albeit somewhat "Canadianized"), and the service was quick. There was quite a bit of upselling (big price differences that we were only informed about when we asked) with pretty much everything we ordered, but I guess it is to be expected. I appreciated the Japanese TV programming as well, but was dismayed that there was no volume and only Chinese subtitles, which took away from the whole Japanese experience. Still, overall, we were very happy with our meal at Manzo.

Fun atmosphere and great service -- we ate here over the weekend with our 3 year old son and were impressed with how warmly the staff welcomed him. They brought him a little bowl of steamed rice right away, as well as IKEA-style plastic plate, bowl, and cutlery, and all of our servers made a point to chat with him. We ordered a few sushi rolls -- the spicy salmon was especially good -- and gyoza, and really enjoyed our meal. Thanks for a lovely night out, Manzo!