Sushi sama — Restaurant in Maple Ridge

Second time this year I've been to this local restaurant, the food is always consistently good albeit this time at lunch they were short staffed. Normally would give them a higher mark on staff...

Doc Livingston, local realtor and I had a meeting and arrived right at 12:00 and stayed till about 1:30. Right in the middle of the lunch rush. It gets quite busy in there and it was fairly noisy. If I knew it was going to be that busy I would have delayed lunch till 1:00... by 1:30 The place was almost empty. Yes a huge lunch rush kudos to the restaurant for their consistent good food and fair prices.

Both of us had the bento boxes. My order was spicy salmon. I eliminated the tempura bringing the price down on the bento box by a small amount and had them bring me appetizer or side a sizable Gomei. Doc had the Sashimi bento box and asked for extra ginger which they supplied quickly.

We had tea, although alcoholic beverages are probably available I didn't check. I would ask them next time to bring a teapot to the table if they have them. They seems they brew them and bring a carafe around and top up people's tea. Great when they are adequately staffed. This lunch time when we were there midweek they were short-staffed. My food was delayed, but it went arrived it was to the standard I was used to. Note to the manager they adjusted the order and bought us an extra dish that we had not asked for as a sampler and a gratitude for the wait.

This restaurant does a huge takeout business... So if you're looking for takeout sushi in the Maple Ridge area, consider this place as they have three tables to place the takeout orders on near the front door.

The atmosphere there is definitely in need of a update. It is not a fancy Japanese style restaurant. There are others in Maple Ridge that have significantly better atmosphere. I go here because the food is usually a five-star every time. If you're looking for a nice decor, fancy restaurant you'll need to choose another one. If you're looking for good food at a fair price, and usually excellent service, this would be a place to go! Located centrally in Maple Ridge... Easy to get to.

Will I go there...

It's now under new management (Sept 11, 2016) and the menu has changed slightly, prices have gone up... The sauces they put on the rolls have changed, it resembles sweet Thai chili sauce. For now it's getting 🌟🌟🌟 as the new menu didn't wow me like the original owners did. I'll look back at the review after a couple more tries. UPDATE (Sept 27, 2016): The original owners (Sushi Gen in Burnaby) had this place right and the new owners have changed it for the worse. Since my initial review the prices have gonna up again $1.50-3.00... We live in Maple Ridge here not Vancouver, affordable it is not. It well now get 🌟 from me, and we will frequent Sushi Gen in Burnaby for the original bacon and Salifornia roll. UPDATE (Dec 19, 2016): Well it's sorta got a little better (🌟🌟) as they retained most of the original menu. Prices are still inflated, but now we ask for no Sweet Thai Chili sauce and it's mediocre. Bacon roll now has cream cheese which makes it very rich, and the Salifornia roll is missing the white sweet sauce. The tonkatsu remains good with a very good cook on the meat. UPDATE (FEB 2017): Ordered the vegetarian box for lunch, wanting the Agedashi Tofu... As you can see I got Teriyaki Tofu which was soggy from the sauce and terrible. The service was horrible and the place was freezing cause the had the front door propped open while off loaded a truck. I was greeted by a grumpy girl who made me wait for a cup of tea as I was the only customer in this frigid place. I have officially written this place...

Let’s start with the food is good but I’m saying that their service is something else. Their young gentlemen host that they have with the silver hair has a mouth like a trucker and loves his swearing in from of the customers and has no idea proper restaurant edict is! The first time I ordered take out my fiancé went in to get the food. For some reason he kept insisting to call him by name like addressing him with my name.... ok odd my fiancé even corrected him but still the guy didn’t care. Second time we ordered take out we were told 30 mins, which lead to one hour and ten minutes.. they seemed to more interested in getting out their skip orders than anything else, and let’s not end without another shout out to this young silver haired host who again doesn’t know how to watch his mouth and knows again nothing about manners! So we were not the only ones waiting for our order but they gave other people on the house things for having to wait for so long but didn’t offer anything to us. Now I’m not about getting free anything but don’t be like oh sorry for waiting we have you some stuff on the house to some people but the others who have been waiting just as long if not longer nothing. The only reason I’m giving them 2 stars is because the food is decent. I’m not sure if we will be going back as I firmly believe that the host is a reflection on the restaurant and what their host is putting out is nothing worth...