This weekend we were in Chilliwack for a staycation, which coincided with their annual food festival: Dine Our Chilliwack. From February 17th to March 1st, 2026. Visitors and locals are encouraged to dine-in at local hot spots, each offing their own promotion and/or discounts meant to entice.
This hasbrought us to Hana Sushi for lunch, on our way back to Vancouver. We had mentioned that we would be visiting them, and a few locals claimed that they love their food, so were already optimistic going in.
For Dine Out Chilliwack this Japanese fusion restaurant is offering 10% off their specialty items as a way to get aquatinted with their menu. This includes any of their Lover Boats, specialty dishes, and specialty rolls. And on top of the discount each of the above order also comes with a bowl of miso soup and an appetizer. For the latter you have a choice between either salted edamame beans or vegetable spring rolls.
It has been a while since I had my sushi served on a wooden boat so we started there. Each is themed and varies in price depending on the focus of said boat. We went for the Deep Fried Lover Boat over the Meat Lover Boat. Ultimately because it sounded liked we would get a greater variety of sushi with less pieces of each. Both comes with two bowls of miso soup, 2 sunomono, assorted tempura, gyoza, and fruit. All of the rolls of sushi here were deep fried in a tempura batter: 5 pieces of deep fried California roll, 5 pieces of spicy deep fried California roll, 4 pieces of deep fried tuna roll, and 4 spices of salmon roll.
Sadly, I didn’t think ahead on how the fish would be cooked during the deep fried process, and the result of this would be a change of texture, giving it a fibrous finish. The tuna was the least desirable, coming out like it was flakey from a can. The best was the California roll, as they used imitation crab stick and its texture remained unchanged. In the end the sauces drizzled over top and a healthy dunk in soy sauce and wasabi helped hide. For this alone, in hindsight, we should have went for the Meat Lovers boat with chicken and beef rolls instead.
The gyoza is different as well. This was not as expected, solid in a dense baked shell. This was a hard barrier, hiding minced pork meat.
We liked the rich miso soup, which was on the saltier side with seaweed flakes and tofu cubes. Both it and the sunomono salad was helpful in adding some freshness to all the heavy fried food above. The noodle salad was refreshing with citrus, and the chilled vermicelli made for a lovely slurp.
Our bonus side here was an order of vegetable spring rolls, 2 rolls cut 3 ways, plated and drizzled over with a sweet chilli sauce. It had a nice crisp and a familiar filling. There was nothing out of the ordinary with this one.
Our second dish got us more miso soup and another side, as per the Dine Out Chilliwack special. The other appetizer option was an edamame, which made for a simple break of green.
Upon realizing that we would be getting 5 bowls of miso soup, between the ones the dishes we ordered normally comes with, and one more for each of the Dine Out specials, we asked for a substitution. Despite the restaurant not normally doing so, they obliged, upon recognizing that we didn’t need so many bowls of miso for the two of us. Here, we were given a bowl of seaweed salad as a fine substitution. This then became the ideal side for the deep fried sushi above, it helped me eat more than I thought I could in one sitting.
Our other Dine Out Chilliwack order was the Bibimbap, not Japanese, but a fine take on Korean. Served still sizzling in a cast iron pan. The rice continued to brown and crispen as we squeezed our desired amount of sauce and mixed everything together. It had a good variety of vegetables, but we could have used more beef and a runny yolk to help bind everything together.
In short, Hana is the neighbourhood go-to for sushi and Japanese cuisine, and right now for Dine Out Chilliwack, they are giving you multiple reasons to visit.
Hana Sushi Chilliwack
45300 Luckakuck Way #101, Chilliwack, BC V2R 3C7
(604) 847-0305
hellohanasushi.com
