Moltan Roll Bar + Sake: Sushi Bar in Kitsilano
Moltan Roll Bar & Sake is located in Kitsilano is a fusion izakaya that offers sushi, sashimi, and other Japanese dishes. It’s been a hot minute since I visited Moltan, but at one point I did see it all over my Instagram so we came to celebrate a friend’s birthday.
Their website doesn’t say anything about reservations, but I am a reservation type of girl and will not risk going anywhere without a reservation 😖 (especially for a weekend or birthday meal). So I DMed them on Instagram to see if I can make a reservation, and they confirmed a date/time/table for how many. However, when we arrived at the restaurant, they didn’t have our reservation in their system 😵. So I think consider Moltan only if you’re comfortable doing walk-ins or don’t mind a wait.
After the confusion, we waited 20 mins and they were able to get us a table and here is how our experience went.
Moltan Roll Bar + Sake
1941 Cornwall Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1C8
The vibe
So one of the reasons why I cared so much about making a reservation to Moltan is because the restaurant is incredibly small. There is kind of like a front counter/sushi bar and then there are maybe 5-6 tables in a row and that’s it.
We were seated at the very end right before the hall to the bathroom, but generally it was fine. The space is a little cramped but we didn’t mind. I would not recommend coming here with children or a large group (more than 4 people).
The interior was kind of cool, with colourful lighting and wooden panels on the walls.
Food review
Here is everything we ordered to share with 4 adults. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Moltan’s ultimate sashimi ($100)
This is the main reason I wanted to check out Moltan – their amazing looking ultimate sashimi platter with 32 pieces of sashimi in total 😍. The fish you get is just the chef’s choice of 8 different daily fish selection.
Ours included the fattiest bluefin tuna, scallop, hamachi, thai snapper, mackerel (I think?) salmon and sockeye salmon. I was a little disappointed because I’ve seen photos of the platter and sometimes I saw uni, spot prawn, and fatty salmon, but it wasn’t in our platter on the day we ordered it 😔.
For the price and the fish we got, I would still say it is a reasonable price as it averages out to be around $3-4 for each piece of sashimi. The cuts were thick and the fish were fresh.
Saba miso shisho ($17)
I am not a big fan of saba, but this was a nice little appetizer. I prefer this over raw saba sashimi.
Pink ocean roll ($62)
This is one of Moltan’s signature maki rolls and one of the most pricey rolls I have ever ordered. The pink ocean roll includes a delicious mixture of bluefin o-toro, negi-o-toro and uni with some gold flakes.
You can’t really see in this photo, but each piece of this roll is pretty big 😋! It was a big bite of umami.
White kuma roll ($18)
This was a pretty tasty roll and good for sharing – it has deep fried soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, tobiko, real crab meat, and drizzled with mayo and katsu sauce.
Akami and ikura don ($40)
Moltan is pretty popular for their dons (rice bowls), so we ordered the akami tuna and ikura don. The don comes with 8 pieces of akami and a healthy amount of ikura sprinkled on top. I would say this is easier to share between 2 people or big enough for lunch for me.
Presentation was quite nice and again, the akami tuna was fresh and a thick cut. Although I do think it is more worth it to spend more and get their more luxurious dons.
Creamy truffle tiger linguine ($25)
To end our meal, we order 2 pastas. The first one is a tiger prawn linguine with a creamy truffle sauce. The presentation was quite nice and the portion is also huge. I liked that there were a lot of prawns in it and the truffle paired nicely with the tiger prawn. However, the truffle is a paste.
Inside the pasta, you will also find baby scallops, mushroom, onion, garlic and lots of parmesan cheese.
Uni pasta ($35)
This uni pasta is made with uni paste, miso, mushroom, onion and garlic topped with uni and ikura. Out of the 2 pastas, I actually enjoyed the tiger prawn linguine more simply because the consistency of the uni pasta was too wet and liquid for me 😟. You can also see it kind of caking up at the top there with the cracks in the texture.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My rating for Moltan hovers between a 3-4 stars.
The food is pretty good but I think you need to come in with the expectation to ball out. I would say a lot of their more expensive items seem more worth it ($50+ 💸). I would only choose to order sashimi and sushi items as their fish is really fresh and thick cut, but I may not order things like the pastas and fusion items unless you want to fill yourself up with some carbs.
Service was ok since there was the confusion with the reservation at the beginning but it was resolved. They seem to give all tables a yuzu tea/thank you or welcome drink which was also quite tasty.
Overall, I would recommend you to check out Moltan for their sushi and sashimi selection. Their takeout also looks quite good and fresh, but expect it to make a small dent in your wallet.
Sincerely, Loewe