Umai Sushi — Restaurant in Nanaimo

Our quest for good sushi is no secret, and on Friday night it lead us to Umai Sushi, a cozy little place near the mall. The decor inside is fantastic.

For a Friday, it was quiet, probably about half full, though we were there a bit later.

We ordered a few appetizers and some rolls, as always, expecting our appetizers to come first, but we got our rolls first, which was weird.

The appetizer sashimi combo of tuna and salmon was terrific. Big pieces of good fish.

The appetizer tempura was pretty much what you'd find anywhere else (2xPrawn, 2xYam, Asparagus and Squash), though the tempura batter wasn't quite as bland as alot of other places. Sadly, about half our asparagus was inedible, possibly because they didn't break the woody end off.

Umai has their own special appetizer called the "Sushi Pizza", and it was the breakout star of the night. It's kind of a rice cake thing covered on sauces, the fish of your choice, and avocado, and it was delicious. There was at least an entire fruit worth of avocado and a healthy order of tuna sashimi. Totally delicious.

Roll wise, we ordered quite a few: Crunchy spicy tuna: exactly what you expect. A tuna roll with sriracha and that crunch powder stuff. Fine, but not memorable. Green Dragon roll: not bad, though it contains crab (which isn't listed as an ingredient - though it's actual stick crab rather than crab salad). Palm Beach: very similar to the GD roll but replaces the crab with entirely too much cream cheese. It's weird to have cream cheese be overpowering, but they pull it off. Yam tempura roll: very disappointing. Substantial amount of yam in the roll, but the tempura is super thin and gets super soggy, and the yam itself was overcooked so it was just kind of a mushy mess. standard Salmon Maki: surprisingly great. Lots of fish. Dancing Tuna: this is a deep fried roll that we ordered on a lark, and we definitely wouldn't order it again. It's fine, but unfortunately it seems that the frying takes long enough that the fish is completely cooked, and that definitely takes away from the taste.

All in all, Umai isn't the best sushi place we've been to so far, but it's near the top of the list, especially when you consider the value. We'll be back.

All of the above plus two sodas was $65 before...

I'm very sad to share my experience because I've often enjoyed both the atmosphere service and food. I arrived at the restaurant on a Saturday evening at 8:13pm. I walked in and was asked if I was picking up. Odd because ive always been welcomed into a restaurant with a hello. "Id like to place an order for take out" I said the server then promtly told me theyre already closed. This is a bit of a shock to me since i had just looked at the hours... but i accepted that they were closed and left. I had to wait outside since I was dropped off so I could order the food while my husband went to pick something up nearby. It was not long at all maybe 5 mins and the staff was leaving and locking up the front door. When I got into my car, I decided to check to see if I was wrong but the hours online say open until 830pm (google) or until 845pm (facebook, which is what i had seen).

Personally I've worked in the restaurant business. When a business has hours they need to adhere to them. It's quite unreliable and unusual to have staff closing the shop and walking away before the posted closing hours. Yes to speed things up you can have the restaurant ready to close, not allow dine in, take final temps, have things tidy. Final clean up should be done after closing, and can take a half hour or more depending on the tasks. Staff should be able to serve at least take out until close. If staff are scheduled until 8 you should close the restaurant earlier. So i suppose be warned if youre hoping to get some food in the evening, it seems they may close earlier than the...

VEGAN REVIEW. I wasn't sure at first what had dairy or eggs as the menu was labeled vegetarian. One of the staff members was newer to the language and could not quite understand. I decided to ask another staff member before leaving as I don't wanna risk it. So glad I did.

Taylor helped us and had in depth knowledge of what was vegan and what was vegetarian...down to the T.

Super helpful and relieving to have that kind of kitchen knowledge.

I had the lunch box...and my lord was it amazing. So filling and great price, also came with a full roll (not pictured) but I made quick work of it.

My partner had the vegan ramen! It was also delicious upon my stolen sips.

Everyone was super friendly, I gotta throw down the MVP status to Taylor for saving the day.

Great food, great value and so many vegan options DAMN...will be back for sure. FYI beware the miso is not vegan.

My only constructive criticism is for the menu to label the options strictly vegan or vegetarian as it be helpful for customers and staff and cut down on questions that may not be able to be answered by everyone as if Taylor wasn't there I would have had to leave to find a different restaurant.

Will...