Takumi Sushi — Restaurant in Montreal

TL;DR - I would not recommend this restaurant because they don't allow you to order more than 20 pieces of sashimi at a time and make you wait a long time in between orders, which limits how much you can order.

Something I wish I had known before coming here was that the sashimi orders do not come with more than 20 pieces at a time. We ordered 40 pieces of salmon sashimi and 30 pieces of oil fish sashimi for the table, but we only received 17 and 18 pieces respectively. We thought the remaining pieces were on their way, so we placed an additional order. However, we waited over 20 minutes for the second order to arrive, and it still did not come with the missing sashimi. We had to wait quite a while before getting a hold of a server to notify them that a large chunk of the order was delayed and we were wondering that if it will come, it was only then the server told us that they do not make more than 20 pieces of sashimi of each type. Had we not asked we would keep missing sashimi orders and left wondering why.

This was a deal-breaker for us as we specifically came for the sashimi. I've never been to an all-you-can-eat sushi place with such a limit on the amount of food you can order. We were only allowed 2 hours to dine in, but each order took a very long time (over 20 minutes) to arrive, making it difficult to order enough sashimi. My friend and I were left offering the last few pieces of sashimi to each other out of politeness... This is not something I've ever imagined from an all you can eat sushi restaurant. We ended up just sitting there, disappointment, hungry and just left looking at each other with nothing to do while waiting a long time for the second order to come.

It is no surprise that this is a tactic used by the restaurant to maximize their profit by minimizing the amount of sashimi they serve you within the 2-hour timeframe

This only reason I'm writing this is so that someone else doesn't make the same mistake like we did, we were really excited to have some salmon but for $45 each not including tax and tips we barely had a few pieces each, it's not worth it at all. There are many other all-you-can-eat places in Montreal without such absurd limitation and foul tactic.

With that being said, I'd like to recognize the staff and servers as they were very courteous and polite. We were greeted with a friendly attitude the moment we stepped in, and whenever they came around, they were kind and polite. They may be a bit short-staffed, as it was difficult to get...

We are a group of friends, that have been tyring to do AYCE at least once every two months. We have tried several, and loved it. THis one, I saw on TikTok and decided ok, lets try it out. Compared to others, its mid at best. The food was not ... bad. But it wasnt anything spectacular. First issue, was no tablets. I thought it would be a nice throw back, but with that, comes, the wait. Which we were not used to. Cause with all the others we have been to, service was pretty quick cause once you submit, the order is in, and you dont have to wait for the server to come. Next issue, which I have not had, since the last time we used paper and pencil was the: Wait, did we order this? Where is what we ordered? and everything in between. WIth that, is cautiously ordering, wondering if by the end of the night you will end up with a plate of 50 sushii, since you did not get what you ordered, so you keep re-ordering. ex, the last order (cause it was last call) we submitted a sheet and actually checked what we ordered, and remembering what we still did not get. That being said. The last service was what 1/4 of what we ordered, and a couple of items we totally did NOT order. As you can imagine we were frustrated. Service was ok. Quality of food. again mid. And very very salty and you can actually taste the rice vinegar in the rice, which was a first, for me (with the exception when i made it at home.).

I think this place has potential, if they slightly improved the quality of food less sodium and ease up on the rice vinegar, and finally get tablets! I mean, unless its saving money tactic, (we kept joking that they were hoping we would forget what we ordered). LOL. I know it comes with high reviews, which is why we went, so it could have been an off night, however, the paper an pencil thing although quaint, was a throwback to one of the reasons I had stopped going, i need to know i will get what I ordered and, not sit in panic that it will all show up, when I am finally satisfied. In case you are asking , we DID check with the waiteress on the items we were missing, and her answer (oh boy we were dying of laughter) was : It will probably come.

Again, no hate against this spot. but compared to several others in the city we have been...

What an incredible find right in downtown Montreal in the vicinity of St Denis. The moment you enter Takumi, you know that this is not an ordinary AYCE buffet restaurant. The ambiance is exquisitely calm and the service personable and attentive. What it lacks in selection at lunch (for instance not a single one of the sashimi options are offered on the lunch menu), it makes up for with lower pricing and high quality nigiri. Even the sushi rolls, as pointed out by my lunch mate, were not bulging in rice but had generous fillings. It is also uncommon to find deep fried cheese sticks (yummy!) and freshly steamed dimsum items at a sushi buffet, let alone irresistible dessert options such as cranberry coconut sago, grilled pineapple in maple syrup and Nutella nigiri! The Hunan dumplings were to die for… I literally could swim in that delectably rich peanut sauce which had a hint of chilli powder that simply took it up two notches, I found myself spooning it all up. But what Takumi best left me with was the loving feeling that, even though it was a buffet restaurant, it simply didn’t feel at all like one. Each plate sat before us was a piece of art, crafted by passionate chefs who took pride in presentation and served by a team of wonderfully professional staff, several of whom were of Japanese descent. Before we left, I even momentarily toyed with the idea of moving to the neighbourhood so that I would be able to dine here daily (yes, it was that good). The only let downs were the tempura shrimp (very thick batter, almost pogo-like and certainly not the light, flakey tempura that it should have had been) and general Tao chicken (dry, thickly battered white chicken meat, overly salted and very lacking in sauce), yet these disappointments were insufficient to steal a single star from this easily 5-star...