Izakaya and Seafood recommendations

I've got some time in Vancouver post-cruise. I would love to do an Izakaya and a Seafood dinner. Locals recommendations only - I've been to Vancouver several times and have been taken to the usuals. I'd like the seafood place to have good oysters and maybe grilled squid/octopus/salmon. Does NOT have to be "high end" - I prefer where locals would go for a weekday dinner. I'm staying at the Hyatt Regency (gotta love frequent guest points!) and I'm comfortable walking and using public transportation.

Izakaya Options

Guu

They have a have a couple of locations with slightly different food and drink menus. Our favourite locations are Guu with Garlic on Robson and Guu with Otokomae in Gastown. Not a fan of their Thurlow location nor their Richmond location. Haven't been to their other locations.

Gyoza King

Gyoza King on Robson is probably the cheapest of the options. Haven't been there in a while though but wouldn't mind going again. I find their menu pretty core/common items, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, whereas the other places kind of have more interesting items.

Hapa Izakaya.

Haven't been there within the past year but have enjoyed their food in the past. Note: They closed their Robson street location though not because of quality issues but rent is a challenge on Robson.

Kingyo

They're in the downtown core on Denman. Slightly higher end izakaya but still casual. They have this great $20 lunch bento which they only make 10 of each day. You have to line up and get there before opening if you want to get one of the 10.

Suika

This is a sister restaurant to Kingyo but slightly outside the downtown core on Broadway. Not too hard to get to if you really want to go as it's just a bus across the Granville street bridge out of downtown and a block walk. Different dishes than Kingyo.

Seafood Options

The Fish Shack

The Fish Shack on Granville is an affordable seafood joint which is part of one of the bigger restaurant groups (not chain) in Vancouver. They have a pretty full range of menu items (though, maybe not octopus, just calamari) with a buck a shuck promo. I have mixed feelings suggesting it because their reviews are generally good but my experiences have been only meh (not bad though; off nights?). The area is also kind of "interesting" during weekend nights.

The Fish Counter

The Fish Counter is a nice neighbourhood joint on Main which is a tad more difficult to get to out of downtown. However, it's more fish & chips, fish tacos, chowders, po'boys type place so not sure if it's the place you're looking for.

Tacofino

While technically not a seafood place and not completely fitting your bill... but I want to recommend Tacofino. They started as a food truck in Tofino in Vancouver Island and then opened up a food truck in Vancouver. They're so successful, they've opened up a couple restaurants and added a few more food trucks. Their bread and butter menu item is their fish taco which is a battered cod piece with delicious slaw and salsa in a flour tortilla which is also my favourite. You can usually find their food trucks in the downtown core by the east side of the art gallery and near the Bank of Monteal by Burrard station. Their downtown restaurants are in Gastown and Yaletown.

Oyster Express

Oyster Express is a bit of a hole in the wall gem in Chinatown. Happy hour buck a shucks. Might be a destination if you're going to walk through Chinatown.

Merchant's Oyster Bar

Merchant's Oyster Bar on Commercial Drive might be an option if you feel "The Drive" is a destination neighbourhood you want to visit.

There are various buck a shuck happy hour places for oysters where you can go for a drink and have a bunch of oysters before going to dinner. Chewies is a good buck a shuck place. Recommend googling it before you come because the list will change. Example: Yew in the Four Season had buck a shuck for a time.

Not to scare you off on the oysters but there's been a norovirus outbreak of late that seems to have been linked to BC oysters. I'd do a google search to check the status of that before partaking when you're in town.

Go Fish

If you visit Granville Island, just off of it is Go Fish Ocean Emporium. It's just a container shack with open air seating located in the parking lot of the False Creek Fisherman's Wharf (they occasionally have a couple of boats docked selling their catch). One of my favourite light tempura battered fish & chip joints in town. However, the grilled salmon tacones (taco's) are also delicious.

Although you mentioned not necessarily higher end, I wanted to throw in Joe Fortes and Blue Water Cafe as they are pretty classic seafood restaurants with a great assortment of seafood. Haven't been to these places in over a year though.

I'll second basically everything Milhouse said, and add my experiences:

Alpha (though billed as a Sushi Bar, it's really an Izakaya and down to a combo of location relative to our place, overall quality/value/service, and relative low profile so it's easy to just walk-in, our local fave) on Granville. Definitely more a locals place - whereas every Torontonian tourist knows Guu;-)

Joe Forte's has really jumped on the Happy Hour bandwagon - buck a shuck for oysters is the norm during that.

The Fish Shack is definitely best at simple dishes - this is where I go for battered & fried haddock & chips. As soon as you get into even the fancier coleslaw options cracks start to appear in the quality, but they do the basics very, very well. I'd be happy to eat any grilled or fried fish dish - just avoid ordering anything that sounds froo-froo! The ambience is definitely 'cheap & cheerful' too.

The Greek (by Anatoli) in Yaletown does IMO the best grilled octopus of any restaurant in the city - we are insanely picky about our octopus, especially the missus, and every dish is compared (unfavourably) with our octopus-guzzling in Portugal and Greece. This is the closest any local resto has come to our vacation memories!

Ajisai

https://www.yelp.com/biz/ajisai-sushi-bar-vancouver?osq=sushi

Thanks so much for these! I wish I had more time in YVR to go to all of them. I've been to Joe Fortes before when I was attending some conferences - yep, it's good, but I want something different AND I don't want to spend that much money. Where I live, there is a real dearth of Japanese outside of 3 sushi bars and an "Asian Fusion" place, so I was looking for something different and I always wanted to try Izakaya. Thanks for the heads up on oysters; I never go somewhere I am not familiar with unless I get a solid rec from a friend. I'll keep an eye out on this before I get there. I was going over to Granville anyway, so the places there sound like what I'd want - good, basic, fish.

Speaking of Japanese - any good udon places??? I totally fell in love with udon in Hawaii - Marukame Udon House was my favorite cheap eat...

You generally don't see stand alone specialty udon places in Vancouver. There was one on Robson called Sanuki Udon but we didn't get around to trying it before it closed last year after only a year in business. There's Sekai Udon Bar at Metropolis @ Metrotown Mall in Burnaby. While their udon is ok and other items mixed, I would not recommend a trip out there unless your primary goal is to visit the mall. Many sushi places have a selection of udon which I think are adequate to satisfy a craving but I doubt any make their own noodles nor have a really special broth worth writing home about. We had a really nice nabeyaki udon at a place called Toshi Sushi near Main and 16th Ave but I don't think they don't serve it any more.

Instead of udon, I'd steer you to ramen in Vancouver. Ramen is kind of all the rage in Vancouver, though, I think we've kind of hit "peak ramen." If you do decide to check out a ramen joint, here are a few I recommend:

Ramen Jinya

Their downtown location is on Robson though they've just closed their original location near the stadium to move down a few blocks to new digs at the base of the Telus residential tower, though not open yet as of this past Wednesday. It's a chain and they have various locations across the US. Their specialty is tonkotsu ramen with variations on that broth base. My fav is the tonkotsu black which is kind of a silky rich broth with garlic. They're one the most expensive on the list with bowls around $12.

Ramen Butcher

They're located on the southside of Chinatown with a number of other new businesses and have been open for only a few years. It's a chain from Japan. Their specialty is also ramen with tonkotsu style broth with various options but also offer a tsukemen option. They also have a "black" version with roasted garlic oil which is also my fav. I find their noodles have a bit more chew/al dente which I don't mind. They also offer kaedama, a free refill of noodles (you have to conserve your broth). Their base ramen is sub $10 while their nicer ramens are $11ish.

Kintaro Ramen

They're located on Denman on the way to English Bay / Stanley Park. I think they've been around the longest and are probably one of the cheapest options at under $10 a bowl. They serve their ramen with a traditional shoyu, ****, or miso broth but also have some other options like cheese, spicy garlic, etc. You also get an option on how rich you want your broth and how fatty you want your port slices. It's a pretty small hole in the wall joint so there's occasional waits but less so than in the past with all the competition nowadays.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Another very popular chain from Japan with their downtown location located on Robson. They probably have the widest range of options with shoyu, shiosalt, miso, tonkotsu, tsukemen, and specialty toroniku with pork cheek slices coming on a side plate. While also one of the more pricier options it still generates a line-up.

Most of these ramen joints only have a very limited selection of side dishes beyond ramen, like gyoza, chicken karaage, etc. I occasionally order the gyoza out of habit but I find most of the side dishes are only so-so.

I'll save my udon for the next trip to Hawaii. Even in my little mountain town, we have a ramen place! I was just curious about it. I'm going to stick with izakaya and fish this trip!

Seafood? If you are in a large group and want to end your meal with a live King crab... check out the local premium Chinese Seafood restaurants. Forget the boil and butter frozen stuff in Alaska (cruise season is not crab season in Alaska). Deep fried? Ginger? Garlic? Schezhan? Baked? If you can't decide.... ask for a combo for a medley of flavours!

http://www.followmefoodie.com/2014/04/dynasty-seafood-restaurant-alaskan-king-crab-dinner-vancouver/

Marakume Udon in Honolulu is one of truly one of a kind... I don't think I've ever seen a place where you can just grab whatever kind of tempura you want to add to your soup noodles (cafeteria ala carte style) anywhere else....

I'm a solo, I always look for places that are low-key and will treat a solo women well. I'm not doing Alaska, just a relaxing Coastal trip.

I do love Marukame!!!

Marakume Udon in Honolulu is one of truly one of a kind... I don't think I've ever seen a place where you can just grab whatever kind of tempura you want to add to your soup noodles (cafeteria ala carte style) anywhere else....

Yep, Marukame is good. The texture of their noodles is really good. I like the chicken there, too. The 2nd location in downtown is nice, don't have to battle to find parking in Waikiki and the lines at the Waikiki location is crazy.

If in Honolulu, another place I'd recommend if looking for ramen is Lucky Belly, also in downtown.