Daimanya: AYCE Japanese food in Richmond
Everyones loves free stuff on your birthday and at Daimanya, you can get an all-you-can-eat (AYCE) meal free if you dine there on your actual birthday 🥳.
Daimanya is a pretty new AYCE restaurant located in Richmond by Meet Oyster (the sign still said Meet Oyster, actually). They position themselves as an AYCE izakaya that has all types of Japanese bar foods like sashimi, oysters, seafood, fried appetizers, etc.
We came here as a group of 6 for a friend’s birthday and ate in their private dining room. Here is how my experience went!
Daimanya
4160 Number 3 Rd #150, Richmond, BC V6X 2C2
The vibe
I will say the private dining room is quite cool. They have a very regal looking large table that seats 6-8 people comfortably on very plush chairs. The inside has cool gold shelves and décor and there is also a TV there so you can watch Singles Inferno or Love is Blind or something 😂 while you eat.
The rest of the restaurant space and dining room is pretty small but they do fit a decent number of tables there that can fit 2-4 people.
Food review
Daimanya has AYCE pricing and it differs depending on which day. We came on a Thursday night so it was a little cheaper at $78 per person with a 2 hour dining limit. Birthday boy’s meal was free because it was the actual day of his birthday.
Corn butter yaki, Ankimo, Tako wasabi, Ocean tartare, Foie gras
Get ready readers because Daimanya has a lot on their menu and we tried to order almost everything in insane amounts because we are insane 💀. So the food kept coming and I tried my best to take photos of every dish but for the sake of my sanity writing this review, I will group them into categories.
Here we have the appetizer category and these are my thoughts on each dish:
- Corn butter yaki 🌽: This took awhile to come but it was a decent portion. It mostly tasted like butter and was very soft. I was hoping it would have a more smoky flavour.
- Ankimo: This is monkfish liver and it’s an appetizer I like to get when I see it because it’s unique. The one here tasted a little bitter and not as fresh.
- Tako wasabi: Good. Hurt my nose 👍. That’s what wasabi does to me.
- Ocean tartare: Just ok. It was mostly a mixture of random raw seafood.
- Foie gras: We definitely shouldn’t have ordered such a big plate of it but oh well. It was actually good but definitely tasted fatty and very rich.
Assorted tempura, Takoyaki, Cheese corn ball, Chicken skin, Chicken karaage, Soft shell crab
I will call this next round of dishes the fried appetizers.
Again, we ordered too much and it got a little heavy/greasy with all the fried items, but here are my thoughts:
- Assorted tempura: This was pretty good when it came out fresh. The first bite had a great crunch. 👍
- Takoyaki: Just average
- Cheese corn ball: These are good (everyone else liked them) but I don’t like cheese balls.
- Chicken skin: Nice, crispy, easy to eat.
- Chicken karaage: Pretty juice meat inside and good!
- Soft shell crab: This tasted a little fishy to me 😐
Aburi salmon, Aburi tuna love roll, Black dragon roll, Handrolls, Sashimi platter
This next round I will call it the sushi and sashimi round.
This round was definitely the most “worth it” in the sense of what you get. I think the sashimi orders were definitely the best value and it came in a very cool presentation 🤩 – large bowl of ice and fake smoke/liquid nitrogen. In general, the sashimi was delicious and felt good quality, but when we ordered a second round of sashimi, we noticed it was a lot “colder” and felt more “frozen”.
- Salmon sashimi: Good – must get 👍
- Akami (tuna): Good – must get 👍
- Hotate (scallop): Good and sweet – must get 👍
- Hamachi: I usually really like hamachi but this was just ok for me. The salmon, akami and hotate were better.
- Ika: I liked it but it wasn’t as good as the other sashimi 👍
- Tuna: I’d skip this
- Amaebi: this is the smaller spot prawns – they were ok but so small!
For all of the sushi rolls, I would not order. The only one that tasted ok was the salmon aburi oshi but even that one had too much rice in its ratio (all of them had too much rice).
Handrolls were decent but also quite filling.
A5 Miyazaki wagyu sukiyaki, Seafood hot pot
This next round is the very special hot pot round because you can only order one pot per round. Meaning you can only order it once during your entire meal.
They both came in a small hot pot with individual burners and the staff will light it up for you and it will cook in front of you.
The wagyu sukiyaki was delicious – the meat was soft, tender, and full of flavour 😍! Loved it but reality is that we mostly each got one piece of meat with 6 people.
The seafood hot pot was a pain to eat because of the crab leg shells, but the broth was delicious 👍!
Oyster motoyaki, Hotate motoyaki, Crab/seafood chawanmushi
The next round I will unfortunately have to call it the fishy round because everything just tasted too fishy for me 🥴.
- Oyster and scallop motoyaki: This was really salty and the oysters did not taste that great or fresh
- Crab and seafood chawanmushi: The chawanmushi itself was nice soft and jiggly (decent portion). The crab roe again was just too fishy for me
Lamb rack, Grilled squid, BBQ Hamachi kama, Wagyu beef fried rice, Mentaiko udon
This last round we will name it ✨Why did we order this round. Because we were all really full already and we still wanted to do a second order of the stuff we felt were more worth it.
- Lamb rack: I didn’t eat this as I was too full and I don’t like lamb. my friends liked it though!
- Grilled squid: Pretty good
- BBQ Hamachi kama: pretty good and fish meat was cooked well
- Wagyu fried rice: Don’t order this if you don’t want to be full
- Mentaiko udon: This was actually kind of refreshing
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️
It was kind of hard for me me to rate this place because we tried so many different dishes and some of them were good but there were some bad misses. In general, I rate restaurants based on this:
- 3 ⭐️ = average
- 2 ⭐️ = likely won’t return
What did I like about Daimanya? The service was awesome 👏 – servers were so fast and helpful. They also give out free ice cream at the end of the meal. The private dining room was awesome. The menu selection is huge and there’s something for everyone. Given the items on the menu, $78 per person is not bad.
The best parts? The first round of sashimi platter was great. But again, the second platter – not so much. The fried foods were all ok, the two hot pots were delicious.
The misses? The oysters, scallops, crab and things that can be too fishy. I’m not sure if the quality is the reason for the fishiness or if it’s the way it is cooked. The fishy seafood was a big minus because it also impacts whether the AYCE price is worth it 😟.
Overall, I don’t think I will come back because the quality is a hit or miss. If more than one dish is bad, I don’t usually come back 😬. Everything we order has to at least be average. But again, we ordered so many things. The only thing worth it is if you order the 2 hotpots and then continuously order sashimi.
If you are a big eater and you care more about the overall quantity of food, then the price is decent for all the different items you can get. Birthday free or discounted meals would also make this more worth it.
I’m not really an AYCE kinda girl although I think this group of friends is (they ate way more than me). I struggled to eat my “worth” and found some items were too salty or too fishy.
Sincerely, Loewe