Sushi California — Restaurant in Coquitlam

Don’t recommend this place if you want to have a good meal with positive experience! This is always our to go place for our sushi cravings! We always loved this place. I even decided to come here for my birthday but I think this will be the last time!! We got here around 520ish and got seated right away. I was so excited until we started talking to our server. When she asked for water or tea, I said one tea and 2 water please, ice water. Then I heard her whispering ok I will bring hot water. She came back with one tea and one warm water and said “you get one tea and on water”, when we have 3 people at the table. Well we were looking at the menu, she came back within 5 mins while we were still deciding. I apologized and asked her to come back later. Then she was already unhappy and rolled her eyes at me. When I was talking to my husband about one item from the menu, she came back and started putting that on the order. We were not ready but she insisted on taking orders. After she finished, I asked if I can keep the menu to look. She looked at me so confused and asked me “why?”. Couple minutes later, she came over, grabbed the menu off from my hands and said “can I have the menu back.”. Then I let it go and said well I guess we are not ordering anything more. My husband looked over and saw that there are tons of menus sitting there. We were so confused with the way that she was treating us. We asked her if we can speak to the manager, she refused and asked “what’s the problem?! Why do you need the manager?”. We repeated that we would like to talk to the manager about our concerns. She rolled her eyes at us and left to talk to her co workers. Then we saw her looking at us, laughing and talking to her coworkers in Korean. I felt so offended that I decided to leave. We had to ask to another super nice server to speak to the manager. While we were talking to the other server, the manager was just staying in the back listening. We briefly talked to the manager as he heard most of the conversation. He just said “sorry”. There was no apology from the rude server. When I pointed out the server, the manger said he knows which one. With their attitude like that, I said we will never come back again! Maybe she is having a bad day but not fair to put your negative attitude onto others!!! Thank you for ruining my birthday! I will make sure to tell all my family members, friends and co workers to avoid this...

Attention Sushi California Owners and managers,

I am writing to express my disappointment and frustration with the treatment I received during my recent interaction with your restaurant’s staff and manager at Lougheed location. Today I ordered takeout from your restaurant and unfortunately did not receive a sauce that was supposed to be included in my order.

When I called to inform your staff about the missing sauce, the lady on the phone asked if there was anything that could be done to improve my meal. I requested a $5 credit for my next visit, to which she responded that she would speak to the manager. After a few minutes, she returned to the phone and informed me that the manager said this had happened before and that they could not do anything to accommodate me.

When I asked for clarification, I was accused of lying about the missing sauce. I requested to check the camera footage to verify my claim, but was told that the camera was broken that day. I asked to speak to the manager, but was told that the manager was not available.

I was appalled by the way I was treated and the accusation of being a liar. As a customer, I expect to be treated with respect and courtesy, especially when I am simply asking for what was supposed to be included in my order. The fact that I was accused of lying without any evidence to support such a claim is unacceptable.

I even went to the restaurant to speak to the manager and resolve the issue, but unfortunately, the manager was not available at that time. It is disheartening to see that your establishment does not take responsibility for its mistakes and instead accuses its customers of being dishonest.

I would appreciate it if you could look into this matter and take appropriate action to ensure that this does not happen to any other customers in the future. I hope that you will be able to rectify this situation and provide me with the respect and professionalism that every customer...

Sushi at first sight…

If my memory recalls correctly, this was the first Sushi California I came to when they first opened. I think it’s safe to say they have upgraded their menu and quality ever since then plus opened up a few more locations throughout the lower mainland.

The service is always decently good, the food is quite decent for its price compared to similar restaurants, and the casual atmosphere here makes dining somewhat relaxing and casual for all.

This time around, I ordered the following to go;

Assorted sashimi. Everything was fresh and of good portion. However, I think they forgot the deep fried heads from the amaebi? And they didn’t separate each individual sashimi properly. Rule #1 do not and never let a different fish or sashimi contaminate each other!! Spider futomaki. All the ingredients were fresh and the soft shell crab still retained its light crunch. Seemed a little less messy to eat than the regular spider roll? Salmon, tuna, ikura and uni nigiris. Very fresh, good portion especially the uni nigiris, very generous amount. And the rice was nicely cooked and seasoned. Bluefin trio nigiris (Akami, chu toro, o toro). They were super fresh, buttery, beautiful colours, and of generous portion. It’s only $18 for the set, it’s a steal! Loved it!

I seldom dine in at this location now because the shared parking lot with other restaurants could be a challenge during peak hours. However there are street parkings available. The service is always decently good here, well at least for me. Plus their sushi and sashimi are always fresh besides this time around, didn’t like how the sashimi all mingled together in the take out box. I really don’t recall a bad experience with any of the Sushi California locations yet (knock on wood). For some casual sushi, I think this is the safe recommendation. At least it’s Sushi at first sight for me.

Solid 3.5...