Gyo-O

It looks like the Gyoza King Group is doing well, first starting off with their izakaya on Robson, then their ramen shop G-Men Ramen in Richmond, and now Gyo-O in the same complex.  I don't go to Gyoza King much, but G-Men is currently my favourite ramen place in town.  They've got consistency, they've got good service, good size portions, good taste and great price.  So, I figured I'd give Gyo-O a try.....

The decor is pretty cool, a style not too often found in other places.  The staff is friendly and the food comes pretty quick.  Pretty good service overall.

Everything was great until I saw the fridge where they keep the fish.  I wasn't impressed when I saw all the sashimi pre-cut.......not the freshest scene in the world.  A good quality chef would not pre-cut his fish and leave it piled up, a good chef will cut to order.  I literally just sat down and I started to worry.

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Loads of specials, menus a lot like izakaya....

.....but this place was supposed to be good for seafood, so I ordered the Kaisen Don, which was essentially a chirashi don.  There were three levels of Kaisen Don - Junior $10, Regular $14, and Special for $27.5.  The pictures on the menu didn't really impress me as the portions all looked about the same, but the size of the serving bowl got larger. 

Chicken Karaage $5.75 was incredibly good.

I'm sorry to say, that I wasn't entirely happy with my meal.  In fact, I was outright disappointed.  The selection of seafood in my Kaisen don was mediocre at best, just another run-of-the-mill chirashi don, with no exceptional ingredients (tuna, salmon, surf clam, ebi, and a bit of ikura to top it off).  Regular rice instead of sushi rice was a bad choice as well and for 14 bucks, defintely NOT worth it. 

Though my experience with the Kaisen Don wasn't a good first impression of the place, it's not a bad restaurant.  Like I said, the service was good and the staff are friendly and quick.  The next time I go to Gyo-O, I'm going to order the Chicken Karaage with OnTama Don.