Matsuzushi — Restaurant in Port Moody

This is one of those places where people put way too much weight on the fact that the people operating the business are Japanese. Yes I get it many different nationalities try their hand at sushi restaurants thinking that it's an easy thing to do and in doing so tarnishing the cuisine. It is somewhat of a relief to find some Japanese restaurants that are actually run by Japanese people, I get it. Yes It's authentic yes it's traditional and yes all of the fish are imported from Japan as thebowner proudly said but whats wrong with locally caught? Whats more fresh than haida gwaii sockye salmon or B.C. spotted prawns or tuna off the coast of Olympia? Ive had sushi more fresh than this at countless sushi restaurants in the LM. Serving only imported fish from Japan borders on Aquatic Racism and is a disservice to sushi connosieurs. The presentation was below average, the service was below average, and I have no idea why the IG crowd rave about it having the cheapest omakase in town. Omakase is the Japanese equivalent of 'surprise me'. The chef puts together a set and and in this case keeps it at $35. I can't say that was necessarily cheap considering what we got. I went with 2 children and 3 adults (5 people) and the total bill was $230. Cheap? I don't think so. The part that left a real bad taste in my mouth was the 18% tip was automatically included in the bill. As much as they pride themselves on being from the land of no tipping, I find including a tip of 18% is very conveniently Western. There are much better options in the area even if your budget is $35. Oh, and at the end of the meal, we were still starving so went down to lazy dog for some tuna sandwiches and a chocolate oreo coconut jelly BBT ...

I have been here twice this month and it is my new favourite Japanese sushi restaurant. It is not a new restaurant but quite easily missed as it is quite small. This place has got to be the best place in town for omakase in terms of quality and quantity. For omakase you get 11 pieces of nigiri and 1 temaki and it comes with a crab miso soup and it is only $25! It is tremendous value.

I would recommend making reservations and getting a counter seat so you can watch chef Hataguchi at work. He is incredible quick! After my first meal at Matsuzushi, I brought my family to try it and we are a family of 11! Chef rapidly prepared the meal for all 11 of us while serving other tables as well - we counted, he was making 1 sushi every 6 seconds! :O

Aside from his speed, you can tell he really understands fish from the pairings he creates. Sushi is much more complicated than just "fish and rice". A few of the particularly memorable pieces we sampled was aji nigiri and wagyu nigiri. Normally aji is a really plain fish with not much flavour, but it was served with a small piece of shiso leaf tucked inbetween the fish and it elevated the whole bite into the perfect refreshing morsel of sushi. It turned a normally forgettable fish into our favourite of the meal. With the wagyu, he added a thin slice of garlic over top that cut through the wagyu's fattiness and strangely added a sweetness to the sushi.

Seriously, if you have not yet tried Matsuzushi you need to stop by! If you are here during peak hours, expect a small wait as the restaurant is completely run by just Chef Hataguchi...

I had been curious about this interesting looking little Japanese restaurant for quite some time and finally decided to try it out after reading some of the great reviews on here. Well let me tell you that after my horrible dining experience here which frankly was a rip off I am not one of their fans. Service was excruciatingly slow, there was a communication barrier between me and the lady serving me, the dishes were served in no particular order, sushi was sloppy and poorly presented and I had to ask for wasabi (which was runny) and was given not nearly enough to go with what I ordered, which by the way, whether intentional or not two of my dishes were forgotten about. After I had finished the first couple dishes the lady seemed to ignore me and I waited over 45 minutes while other diners we're being served until I finally had enough and asked for the bill and to take the 2 items off because I couldn't wait any longer. Just an observation; but I was the only Caucasian in there and everybody else was Japanese and it seemed they were getting preferential treatment while she basically ignored me along with her husband who was preparing the sushi. The tempura vegetables had almost no batter on them, they were greasy and I've had better sushi from a gas station. Nothing special about anything else I had and I don't understand how this place has such a high rating. Even if the owners read my review and offer me another meal for free I will never go back since it appeared they didn't want my business anyway. My whole dining experience wasn't just bad, it...