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GuideUpdated July 15, 2026

3 Best Japanese Restaurants in Winnipeg

The 3 best japanese restaurants in Winnipeg, sorted by rating and curated by TastyPals editors.

The best japanese restaurants in Winnipeg are Peacock - Kitchen & Drinks, Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub, Sushi Cushi. Start with Peacock - Kitchen & Drinks if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Yuki Tanaka•3 ranked picks•Published July 15, 2026•Updated July 15, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
Peacock - Kitchen & DrinksIchiban Japanese Steakhouse & PubSushi Cushi
3 Best Japanese Restaurants in Winnipeg
Google

Top picks at a glance

#1Peacock - Kitchen & DrinksJapanese • Winnipeg • value#2Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & PubJapanese • Winnipeg • value#3Sushi CushiJapanese • Winnipeg • value

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated japanese restaurants in Winnipeg. The picks are sorted by Google rating and review volume to give you a reliable shortlist.

Quick picks

Peacock - Kitchen & Drinks
Japanese • Winnipeg
Peacock Kitchen & Drinks on Grant Avenue is the kind of restaurant that makes you recalibrate what a neighbourhood room can aspire to.
Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub
Japanese • Winnipeg
Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub on Carlton Street has been doing teppanyaki in downtown Winnipeg since April 1973, which means it was performing tableside theatre decades before hibachi dining be…
Sushi Cushi
Japanese • Winnipeg
Sushi Cushi is a japanese restaurant in Winnipeg that is worth opening when you want a clearer read on the menu and the room. Takoyaki and Sushi Pizza also give you a decent sense of the menu.
Browse all Winnipeg restaurantsBack to Winnipeg hub
Editorial details
Author: Yuki Tanaka
Published: July 15, 2026
Last updated: July 15, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. Peacock - Kitchen & DrinksView →
  2. 2. Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & PubView →
  3. 3. Sushi CushiView →

How the restaurants compare

Peacock - Kitchen & Drinks
Winnipeg • Japanese
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Ramen
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub
Google
Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub
Winnipeg • Japanese
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Sushi
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Sushi Cushi
Google
Sushi Cushi
Winnipeg • Japanese
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
Sushi
Mood
Casual

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

3 ranked picks

Peacock - Kitchen & Drinks — Peacock Kitchen & Drinks on Grant Avenue is the kind of restaurant that makes you recalibrate what a neighbourhood room can aspire to. Chef Edward Lam — who ran this same space as Yujiro before relaunching under the Peacock name alongside partner Esther Lo — has built something genuinely unusual: a Japanese-anchored kitchen that borrows freely from European technique without losing its footing. Landing at #68 on Canada's 100 Best in the restaurant's first year is not a marketing claim; it's a data point that explains why Grant Avenue regulars are booking weeks out. The price level stays accessible, which matters when the ambition in the kitchen plainly doesn't. What distinguishes Lam's menu is the specificity of its combinations. The kitchen centers on Japanese fundamentals — nigiri, karaage, agedashi tofu, pork gyoza, shrimp tempura — but the menu's documented range extends into territory most Japanese restaurants in this city don't touch: charcoal-grilled seabass arrives with a garlic black-bean marinara that reads Italian in technique and Japanese in its base flavors, and a poached halibut dish is built around English peas and beurre blanc, the kind of classical French preparation that signals real brigade discipline. Diners consistently point to the mochi flatbread with tuna as a signature worth planning around — it's the dish that captures the Peacock logic most cleanly, rooting something familiar (mochi) in a format that shouldn't work on paper but apparently does in practice. Peacock is closed Monday and Tuesday, and the Friday-Saturday window runs late, which gives it a genuine late-dinner identity that few Winnipeg spots at this price point can claim. Wednesday through Sunday service starts at 5pm, and the Canada's 100 Best recognition means the room will fill early on weekends — book ahead, and if the karaage and the mochi flatbread with tuna are both on the night's menu, order them before you weigh anything else. View restaurant →
Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub — Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Pub on Carlton Street has been doing teppanyaki in downtown Winnipeg since April 1973, which means it was performing tableside theatre decades before hibachi dining became a shorthand for birthday-night spectacle across North America. That longevity is the point. This is a place where the cooking-at-your-station format — a chef working a griddle in front of roughly a dozen diners at once — is not a novelty imported from somewhere trendier but a genuine institutional habit, embedded in the neighbourhood's memory. The addition of a Japanese Pub side, serving hybrids like Teriyaki Poutine and Sushi Nachos alongside cocktails served in collectible geisha-shaped ceramic mugs, signals that the kitchen is willing to meet the room where it is: a downtown spot that has outlasted multiple dining eras by being genuinely useful to the city rather than precious about its own concept. The menu's anchor is the teppanyaki format, and the dishes diners consistently point toward reflect that. The Ichiban Dinner — filet mignon, shrimp, and teriyaki chicken together — is essentially the house argument in a single plate, named after the Japanese word for 'number one' and built to justify it. The Filet Mignon and Lobster combination is cited as a signature for good reason: surf-and-turf at teppanyaki is a high-wire act that depends on the chef's timing, and regulars credit chefs like Roger and Head Chef Kenny Chan specifically for the skill and entertainment they bring to the station. On the sushi side, the Midori and Fuji Volcano rolls — tempura shrimp, unagi sauce, spicy mayo — represent the kitchen's more composed register, and the handmade sushi rolls are broadly praised by returning diners as reliably fresh. The practical move here is to book the teppanyaki room rather than defaulting to the pub side on your first visit — the chef performance is central to what Ichiban has always been, and sitting at the cooking station is the experience the kitchen is built around. If you're bringing a group, the communal table format works in your favour. Order the Ichiban Dinner to understand the baseline, then add a sushi roll — the Fuji Volcano is the one most frequently called out — to bookend the meal. Keep a ceramic geisha mug at the end of the night; it's the most honest souvenir downtown Winnipeg offers. View restaurant →

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Save these spots to your Winnipeg list

Save these spots to your Winnipeg list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.

Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist