Sushi Mura Richmond — Restaurant in Richmond

Edited: 2nd Review 👎👎👎

I’ve been a frequent customer of Sushi Mura in Richmond and have generally enjoyed my visits. However, this time, my experience fell short of expectations.

We arrived on Sunday at noon for lunch, expecting it to be busy. While there was a large group of nine waiting and a few smaller groups of twos and threes, the restaurant didn’t seem overwhelmingly packed. When I approached the front desk, the receptionist—a taller woman—was busy calling names from the waitlist and did not acknowledge my presence.

Initially, I understood she might have been preoccupied, but after several minutes, she continued to overlook me, avoiding eye contact and proceeding to seat other guests without any acknowledgment.

Eventually, she placed the clipboard in front of me without a word and walked away, which felt dismissive and unprofessional.

I added my name to the list and waited patiently. After about 20 minutes, we were seated, and my wife and son ordered sashimi and sushi dishes, while I opted for chicken teriyaki. Unfortunately, while all other dishes arrived within 10 minutes, my order took an unacceptable 40 minutes to be served. I appreciate the male staff member who followed up and sincerely apologized for the delay, as well as the younger female server who brought our bill and checked in on our experience.

That said, I was disappointed that nothing was done to make up for the significant delay in my order. More concerning was the lack of professionalism from the front desk staff. A receptionist should be welcoming and attentive, and unfortunately, this particular staff member did not demonstrate the necessary customer service skills. I hope management addresses these issues to maintain the high standards that have made Sushi Mura a favorite for many.

———————————————————/- Original 1st Review:

Delicious food, fair prices, and excellent service make this spot a must-visit. The only drawback? No free or designated parking for customers, so be prepared to hunt for a spot.

We came for Sunday lunch, and thanks to a whopping two inches of snow in Richmond (yes, really lol), the restaurant was nearly empty. But that just meant faster service and piping hot dishes made with fresh, high-quality ingredients.

The tonkatsu in the picture? That’s the extra meat option, because when it’s this good, more is always better! Don’t miss out...

We had out of town guests that we wanted to share our favorite sushi restaurant with, Friday evening at 8pm August 9th. Four adults and two small children. We had ordered a full order of spicy salmon sashimi with sauce on the side. The order came, it looked like 1/2 order and lots of salmon odds and ends. I didn't want to say anything as we had guests, but our guests even commented on all the odds and ends that was served. Sashimi is not supposed to have ANY odds and ends in it, those should be saved for the rolls where it wouldn't really matter.

We had to add a half order because the full order was really small, kind of looked like half order with few extra pieces. The half order was little less quantity of the full order but not much smaller, but this was FULL of odds and ends, there was maybe 3 square pieces on top to hide the odds and ends. This was the smallest full and half order we've ever had, we've been coming here faithfully when you opened this location. The cucumber that has been served past few months look like leftover skin plus a bit of meat. They use to be nice 1/4 cut pieces, again these should be kept for inside of rolls.

We usually come at least once a week, sometimes even twice a week, most of the servers know us. I wanted to take a picture, but again we told our cousins from Ottawa this is our favorite sushi restaurant, it would have been embarrassing if I took a picture.

Both the sashimi orders were embarrassingly small served with alot of odds and ends under a few full square pieces. The full order should have fed four adults no problem but not this time, the two kids didn't touch the sashimi, so the full order should have been more than sufficient. The half order I would have sent back if we didn't have guests with us. It's totally UNCEPTABLE to serve odds and ends on a sashimi plate.

The sashimi should be weighed for the correct quantity, it was very consistent quality and quantity up until few months ago. The quantity and quality has been going downhill the past few months.

I'm hoping it's just a new person working, but it's been going on for months now. Weighing and no odds and ends in sashimi will rectify this situation.

We are grateful your server ran out with my husband's work phone he had left on the...

I don't usually write reviews but this is... really subpar food. Me and my partner come around the area often. We've been meaning to try out this place since it looks pretty from the outside, and it's hard to go wrong with sushi. Except it could.

We got a party combo for the both of us. Food arrives really fast, which is cool, but I was just a little shocked because I never realized restaurant sushi can look so BULKY. It looked as if it wasn't wrapped properly before cutting. That, or the chef packed too much into one roll. The rice ring was uncomfortably thick, and the content in many of the rolls tasted underseasoned. I've never had to dip dynamite roll in soy sauce before. The spicy tuna roll, I couldn't tell if the content was properly seasoned because it's coated in a thick layer of spicy sweet sauce that's way too overpowering. The most unforgivable one was the BC roll. Whoever cut it tried so hard to make it thin that they didn't account for the huge amount of cucumber filling in it being unable to hold the entire thing together. Also, it looks as if it's not cut straight but rather diagonal? Look how it goes from thick to thin in the picture. Even the most basic NA sushi, California roll, looks weirdly squished (and you can see the carnage of that BC roll, it didn't even make it to my plate before wholly collapsing). Meanwhile, no one came to refill our tea without us prompting (which was quite a while of us waiting to see if they were too busy).

I didn't give one star because the ingredients were actually alright, but it's so unfortunate to be cooked by someone who's either not paying attention or not equipped for the job. I don't want to blame the servers there for the laid back service either, it's clearly a managerial thing. It's natural to assume the customers don't need anything if the 'call server' button isn't on. I've had worse food, but I can't articulate just why I hate this instance so much. Maybe because I assumed sushi chefs all had a standard that couldn't be breached. But oh was it breached. I hate the sushi here. I am NOT...