修 SYU Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Richmond

I visited Syu in Richmond for a weekend lunch with my family after searching for an authentic Japanese restaurant, and the experience exceeded my expectations in terms of ambiance, service, quality, and value. The ambiance was exceptional—very zen, with a sense of privacy and well-spaced seating that added to the relaxed atmosphere.

Our server, Yuwi, was compassionate and dedicated to delivering a true Japanese dining experience. She patiently accommodated my strict gluten-free and sugar-free dietary requirements, ensuring I could enjoy the meal without compromise. I ordered the sashimi salad, and the chef thoughtfully adjusted the dressing while preserving its flavor. The salmon sashimi itself was incredibly fresh seared well seasoned, with hotate (scallop) which beautifully complemented with my salad.

I also had the deluxe chawanmushi with uni and ikura. The silky-smooth steamed egg pudding was a perfect balance of savory flavors, enhanced by mushrooms and the luxurious toppings. Every bite was delightful.

While my dietary restrictions limited my options, the rest of the menu looked equally enticing. My family ordered a variety of dishes, including bento boxes that is priced reasonably at $25 average. The chicken udon was enjoyable, the tempura was decent, but the karaage stood out. Unlike the usual crispy version, this karaage was juicy inside and packed with flavor—a testament to the chef’s skill in frying. Their offering is unique compared to what you find in the other restaurants. It’s the preparation.

For dessert, the family had the matcha brûlée and Hokkaido milk pudding. Both were good, but the family expressed that the matcha brûlée truly stood out with its perfectly balanced flavors.

Once my dietary restrictions are lifted, I’m eager to return to try the omakase and explore more of the menu. Syu delivered an authentic Japanese dining experience that transported me back to my memories of Japan. The quality of the food, especially the variety of fresh fish and seafood sourced from Japan, was exceptional. The added bonus was the ability to communicate easily and customize my meal. If you’re seeking authentic Japanese cuisine in Richmond, Syu is a must-visit. Also recommended for...

Tried their new $49 full course dinner which was worth it but I have so many things I need to mention that was very frustrating about tonight’s dining experience. Overall all dishes were delicious, except for dessert. The sashimi carpaccio with fruit was so refreshing. We ordered 2 of the set dinners so we could try both options of the main course and finishing touch. Note that the uni risotto was 3 times the size of the other option Hokkaido crab chazuke.

Some points I hope that it will be improved for future guests:

1. the black cod had lots of bones so the fact that it wasn’t deboned was very irritating considering this is a higher end Japanese restaurant. I had to pull out more than 5 long bones while I ate my cod.
2. the table across from us had a teapot to themselves but for our table we always needed to wait for the server to pour us more tea
3. We were told that there was no Milk Pudding available unlike advertised on the course menu and the replacement would be macarons. You advertise Milk Pudding on the first night your full course menu is offered; I was the first table to be seated for dinner and already the server tells me there’s no Milk Pudding. Pretty disappointing, the macarons were less than satisfactory and all we could taste was vanilla and sugar.
4. both ‘Finishing Touches’ are rice dishes and we were not given any spoons until we asked for them. I’d understand the lesser attentive service if there were many tables full, but there were only 3 other tables and you had 2 servers.
5. We were still eating our uni risotto and the male server just brought out our desserts carelessly, he just put them on the table as we were still having our main course. 0 attentiveness, didn’t ask us if we wanted dessert served already, didn’t ask us if we were done with our main, and also there was cream that goes with the macaron, and if he had bothered to check that we weren’t done eating our main, he would not have served dessert as the cream was melted by the time we were ready to eat it.

Overall $49 is a great price and worth it price point for what was served, but the inattentive customer service was very disappointing, just serving us tea 5 times is not even enough to call it good...

We were pretty excited to give this new Japanese restaurant a try as we've been to most around greater Vancouver. The service was really good from majority of the staff as far as friendliness. We had to ask multiple times for tea refills. Like some previous reviews there was mistakes with our order and missing/extra/wrong items which were fixed right away and maybe bc they're still in their soft opening?

The whole fish options are nice and we ordered the whole Kamasu which is served nigiri, sashimi, then the bones are fried. The bones were fried either not long enough of at too low temperature so they weren't crunchy and kind of hard to eat. The fish was fresh and we were told the pieces were seasoned but the pieces were unevenly seasoned and still needed soy. Not such a huge deal but for the prices the chef's skill level should be a bit better.

The wasabi used had no kick or flavor which is usually wasabi that hasn't been stored properly so it's not spicy at all. We asked if they had fresh wasabi was told we can order it for an additional $10 which we did and it was good but by then we didn't have much sushi left to eat it with. There were also fish scales in our sashimi which shows lack of detail by the sushi chefs.

The flow of the food coming out was quite slow and sporadic.

The uni shooter was absolutely awful. It's nothing like what other sushi restaurants serve with well balanced flavor and ingredients. It's literally a small piece of uni with a quail egg and sake. It tasted like taking a shot of straight alcohol. There's also no indication on the menu that's it's a shot of alcohol but it's under the appetizer menu. Same with the uni bomb under chef's specialties. It comes deep fried which is not indicated so we were surprised it was deep fried and not raw.

I noticed there's also no menu for non alcoholic drinks like tea, soda etc.

They also don't have highchairs, but they called to let us know an hour before our reservation that they currently are waiting for the highchairs to come in. So that was thoughtful to let us know.

There's definitely better options especially for this price point and the bar is set pretty high in Vancouver. I don't think we...