Sushi Mago — Restaurant in Saanich

Update: This restaurant is still absolutely superb. The tuna don and salmon don we had today were sublime. We ate in at the window seat. Take out is always excellent too.

Finally an excellent sushi restaurant in Saanich! There has never been a decent sushi option in Saanich before which left people who wanted things like sashimi and sushi to have to venture downtown and deal with parking and all the other issues down there. Rejoice, that is no longer the case. My family ordered from this restaurant once for takeaway and we were all absolutely delighted with dinner. We ordered a variety of different sushi as well as karage chicken and a couple of different tempura . On the weekend, my husband and I walked there and sat in the charming little restaurant and had a variety of sushi and we also had the yam tempura and the prawn tempura. It was the best Japanese meal we had had in ages. The sushi was excellent, the fish was absolutely fresh and perfectly prepared, the sushi rice was excellently done, and the tempura was absolutely perfect. It was not greasy or soggy. The tempura was blissful perfection. The staff/owners are welcoming and delightful. The restaurant has a table and chairs to sit at, as well as a couple of sushi bar spaces with chairs. Most people who eat here seem to take out food. But there is the small space there if you want to eat in. I fully recommend this delightful new restaurant. There are plenty of different options on the menu besides sushi and sashimi and karage chicken and tempura and prices...

I am extremely disappointed with what I ordered tonight. For 65$, I received the smallest possible portions that could easily be classified as fast food sushi. There was no size, or quality ingredients , or great flavours. You could easily mistake this for mall court sushi. It has been a long time since I felt like I had been robbed by a restaurant. There are so many competitors nearby that offer better quality and bigger portions for less money. I really don't think this place will survive if they continue this way. There is something positive in that the establishment itself was very clean, which is important for a restaurant. The service was also good. However more focus must be applied to the food.

Update: the owner reached out to us and apologized and assured us that the portions were indeed not as they should have been. He refunded our food costs, which we appreciate. I raised our rating from 2 to 3 stars, and will give them another chance...

Ordered takeout directly from the restaurant. They said it would be ready in an hour. Went to pick up my food at the scheduled 1 hour after ordering. Waited in the restaurant for 35 minutes. They could’ve let me know that my order wouldn’t be ready at the scheduled time and to come back in 1/2 hour… but nothing. Just made me wait and wait. When I finally got home and ate my sushi, there was a hair in it! I was so disgusted. Was not a pleasant experience tonight and it’s going to take me a while to go back there, if I ever do. This is my second time trying this restaurant. The first time, food was decent. Second time, the food was not that great. Smaller portions than last time, crab meat was soggy and seaweed was tough. This combined with the long wait time and hair in my food was unacceptable and...