Gaya Sushi Nanaimo — Restaurant in Nanaimo

It is with regret that I have to give this poor review 😔... My first experience here was good, I was pleasantly surprised. So, I decided to give it a try again a couple months later, just last week. Well, needless to say, it was enough of a disappointment, that I give it only 1 star. It takes a very unacceptable experience for me to give such a rating... Yet, here I am. The ingredients, were literally rotten. The crab smelled like soiled diapers (rotten crabmeat) and all dried up, the tuna was on it's way to being rotten (it's not uncommon for sushi restaurants to use tuna that's starting to go bad in spicy tuna rolls), AND even the sushi rice was absolutely rotten, probably several days old. This sushi rice, and actually this roll, seemed like it was made several days earlier, and kept in the fridge for an unlucky customer (me). The sushi rice was hardly recognizable in some spots, and almost rock hard, it was like a paste, squished onto the nori, and then got hard in the fridge. This sushi rice also smelled like soiled diapers. Let me tell you, this experience was absolutely disgusting, and quite literally turned me off from eating sushi again. Trust me, it takes an awful bad experience to turn me, a sushiholic, off of sushi all together. It only takes 1 bad experience of this type to completely turn you off from ever going back. Very...

Giovanni Iachelli introduced me to this restaurant. It has the best "authentic" sushi within 150 KMs from Nanaimo in any direction. I lived in Hong Kong & Japan ergo, I am qualified to rate food establishments anywhere. Restaurants like Wa Ku & Nori are listed amongst the 10 best Japanese restaurants in Nanaimo. The people who write accolades about these places obviously know nothing about food. These and several others do not have decent food & certainly can never compare to Gaya. As Gaya has very limited seating I hope you do not eat here so when Giovanni and I arrive, we don't need to wait for a table. I was so infatuated with their sushi on my next visit we will try the TEMPURA which is one of the best ways to rate the capability of a restaurant. Maybe in my next review I will list the sushi I eat there & let you know about their tempura to keep you informed. By-The-Way, their TUNA + TORO are incredible. Their MISO soup is superb and surpasses most Japanese restaurants...

Just discovered Gaya Sushi today and let me tell you, it’s a gem!!! Best Sushi’s in Nanaimo!!! Food is fresh, plentiful, tasty. Presentation is on par with the best sushi joints. Also when you order online you get 10%off!!! Staff is great, welcoming and they listened to our special dietary requests. I’m a huge sushi fan and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food you get for the money you pay for. 5 out of 5 or 10 out of 10, whichever ways you want to rate a restaurant, we will be back for sure! With the state of the economy I hope they will stay in business for a long time, I’m hooked! We’ve been looking for a long time for a reliable Sushi restaurant in the Nanaimo area, today we found it! Great job...