Sushi Bar Ajisai — Restaurant in Vancouver

Update (2023): first time back since the pandemic. We went on the Saturday night in September without much expectations. The food was surprisingly pleasant this time, close to the quality we once had.

We ordered Yaki salmon battera, various nigiri and a combo C, finishing off with tamago nigiri. Most of the fishes are pretty fresh (considering we are there the night before the days off) and the battera is prepared well. Tamago is also done much better (moist and balanced). We definitely think it's a good sign and will be back again soon.

Background: we visit the restaurant around twice a year in the last 4 years (last visit in 2018). We visited on a Thursday early evening.

TLDR: Not great value any more. Their seafood salad, rolls and basic nigiri (like hamachi, tuna and salmon) are acceptable, and that's what most people order. I would recommend staying away from any chef suggestions and "fresh" items (see explanation below).

Waiting experience has been much improved as you will receive SMS when your table is ready. We were sit at the sushi bar this time. We ordered a seafood salad, 7 types of nigiri sushi and 2 types of rolls.

The seafood salad is tasty as usual with a good combination of seafood, sauce and cornflakes to give a nice crunchiness. This is a staple of the restaurant. 👍

Unfortunately that was the high point of this visit. Our rolls came next. They were okay as we don't have much expectations. We deicide to go with a lot of chef suggestions on the menu this time, but that was a big mistake.

The chef suggestions generally list the freshest catch but that didn't seem to be the case. We started with light tasting FRESH hirame, which is very chewy but no taste other than a slight fishy taste. (It's like chewing fishy gum) 🤨

Then our FRESH scallops again was tasteless and watery. We know it's not us because we can definitely taste the rice and vinegar. The common choices like chu-toro and hamachi were so-so.

At the suggestion of the chef, we order both the freshwater eel and the sea eel to compare the difference. The difference was quite drastic, the freshwater eel was acceptable, but the sea eel was so dried to the point that it flaked and mushy in the mouth. 😭

Not impressed with the nigiri, we tried to finish with the food quickly and move on. With 3 pieces of rolls left, we were asked by the waitress to move in order to make space for another group.😩

That was the last straw. We haven't visited for so long because our experience last time was subpar. But this visit showed how far the quality...

Might be a little bit of an unpopular opinion here but I did not enjoy my recent experience there. TLTR: food itself tasted good but server seems like she doesn't want us there, and communication was unclear. There are many good sushi option in Greater Vancouver and I don't think I will come back to this one.

Went for lunch on a weekday and was told to wait outside in the cold. No big deal, they do have a small space and very limited tables so it was understandable.

We stood outside studying their full menu and lunch special menu posted on their window, and decided we only wanted items from the regular menu. After 20+ min of wait, the server popped her head out the door to take our order, only then we were told we could only order from their Monthy lunch special menu, not the regular menu. There was a couple items marked on the regular menu that is "take out only", but there was nowhere on either menu saying only Lunch Special was avaliable. We studied the menus the whole time we were waiting outside so unless all 3 of us were blind. A little heads up from the server would have avoided this situation entirely, we could have went somewhere else instead.

When the server was taking order(at this point we were still standing in the cold and she only popped her head out the door), the interaction went like this :

Friend A : can I get Set A please. Server: ok so 3 Set A right ? All of us : No...? We are all getting different things.

We have all decided what we wanted so it's not like we were "uhhhhh" "ummmmm" thinking what we want. She just needed to let the next person speaks before she cuts us off and decided we are all ordering the same thing.

After we were finally seated, we were asked by another server again what we would like to order. Seems like they didn't communicate properly. When asked if we wanted anything to drink, we asked for hot tea. Little did we know it would cost us $2 per little tea cup! Yes, businesses are free to charge what they like but it should be communicated properly to the customers. Especially for something common like hot tea in a sushi restaurant. The server could have checked with us especially she hasn't even put down...

YOU WILL BE FORCED TO ORDER A LUNCH ITEM YOU DO NOT WANT BEFORE YOU CAN UNLOCK THEIR SUSHI BAR MENU.

RESTAURANT WON’T LET DINERS ORDER WHAT THEY WANT FOR LUNCH UNLESS EACH PERSON ORDERS A LUNCH SET ITEM.

We have always enjoyed dining at this restaurant. Never was disappointed with their food. They have been consistently good for the 15 years that I supported them. It was my favourite place to order sushi take out during pandemic. Our average bill there per visit is around $130-150 (for two person).

Today was the only odd occasion that we decided to come here for lunch. Just before we were about to be seated their waitress told us we need to order at least one lunch menu item (all combos and donburi sets) averaging 23-30 dollars. Just when I was about to agree and take my seat they clarified saying each of us needs to order one lunch menu item. I tried to explain the two of us would order around 18 pcs of nigiri and our bill would be at least be $100-130. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to be stuck with the lunch sets. Simply because we couldn’t eat that much food. However their waitress still insisted we MUST order at least two lunch menu items before we can order any sushi from the bar.

As a diner it was shocking to hear their lunch menu rule. It was not a fact that the restaurant sushi bar was closed for order (as you can unlock the sushi bar after you ordered the lunch sets). I can understand if the restaurant has a minimum charge per person (This restaurant is not the cheapest to begin with). What is the difference between an order of a chirashi donburi for $23 than an order of 5 nigiri that’s around $6 each? And I must order the full set of lunch before I can order the sushi I wanted?

Perhaps the business should have displayed their rule at the entrance, website and even social media. I would’ve stayed away and only go there for dinner. Yes, you can order whatever you want for dinner at no minimum charge! We love supporting local restaurants as much as we could. However if your small family owned business that only has a few chefs which can’t handle a lunch peak. Maybe you guys shouldn’t be taking so much take out orders and expand with...