Aburiya Sushi — Restaurant in Maple Ridge

I really enjoy Japanese food, besides sushi and hadn't had a chance to go into Aburiya since it opened and decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it turns out that it was a very poor choice. When my boyfriend and I entered the restaurant we were admittedly impressed. The atmosphere was nice and interesting, and looked well done. Almost high class. From there however, it went downhill. The prices matched the atmosphere, but not for the amount served sadly. And the quality certainly didn't match either. We looked over the menu and were immediately struck by how expensive everything was for small portions. So we decided to share an order of Assorted Tempura, but the menu didn't list how many pieces came with it. I asked the waitress, who although was friendly and plucky, didn't seem to know much about what they served as she wasn't sure what kind of vegetables came with it. It turned out that the full Assorted Tempura order only came with 6 pieces for about $10. We really didn't want to spend much as we'd already decided to go elsewhere to get a better value for our money, so instead went with the Appetizer Tempura. 5 pieces for $6.50. For drinks I got an iced tea, and my boyfriend got a coffee. It took awhile to get our drinks, and while mine was fine since it came in a can, the coffee was different. At first, it was really interesting, having come in a fancy glass and apparently appeared to be a high quality bean. However, according to my boyfriend (the coffee drinker) that it tasted watered down and sugar couldn't make it taste better.

The food came quickly however, which we were happy about... but, then we found out how they managed to get it out so quickly. It seemed a little undercooked, due to the prawn being quite limp and the taste. The rest of the tempura was ok for how it was cooked, but the batter was low quality, and it all tasted very bland, even with the sauce.

All in all, we paid just over $11 for a can of iced tea, watered down coffee, and 5 pieces of bland tempura. Not a great value and while the ambiance was nice, I don't feel that should be part of the price for the food.

Sadly, I can't recommend this restaurant unless you want to go strictly for the nice...

The food was delicious as always. The Hamachi Nigri was absolutely amazing! The family loved everything from the rolls to the Terriyaki to the Udon. It was all fantastic. As always they have Gluten Free Soy Sauce available. I do have to say that this was the first time that I have visited and experienced really poor service. Like really bad. Usually every visit the service is amazing. This time our server forgot our drinks and had to be reminded. Then forgot our mains and again had to be reminded. Then when I asked and checked that the crab in the roll was real crab due to a gluten allergy. I was told yes then it in fact was not. It was immitation crab. That was dangerous. That server was lucky to have received a 10% tip from us. This considering I spent the night seriously ill from the piece of roll that I ate that I was allergic to. Plus I had to order extra items to replace the specialty roll that I couldn't eat which upped my bill higher than it should have been. Our server was clearly not trained, nor ready or honestly even capable of doing the job. She really needed a lot more training before being allowed to take more tables. Note when we got there, there was only 1 other table in the restaurant. 2 other tables came in long after we had already placed our order. There was multiple front of house staff working. No excuse for such...

Shame. Used to be the "high end" sushi restaurant of Maple ridge. Known for their aburiya sushi and oshi sushi, things you don't find in typical sushi places. This last time we went at 4 pm. Sushi rice was a bit hard to chew. Sushi size isn't impressive. Typical size, but since in general he price is higher, it makes these sushi have less value for the money. Ordered their Cali and dynamite combo. Nothing special. Their aburiya salmon was okay. Good umami flavour. Slight light smokey taste. Very slight. Salmon nigiri super overpriced. Their chopped scallop roll should cause them great shame. Barely any filling. One of my pieces was concave in the filling part.

Overall, everyone should just go to Fat Tuna so they can have enough customers to churn out fresh fish everyday instead of buying fresh fish and then freezing it because the customer number isn't there. It's the problem with maple ridge sushi. Too many out there, splits all the customers, and every restaurant ends up having to freeze their salmon.

Am I harsh? No. I regard sushi California as being the best for that reason. Salmon always fresh because of insane demand, they churn out fresh fish daily.

Anyway, mediocre sushi at a premium price. You're basically paying for the choice of being able to order aburiya...