Sushi Bar Maumi — Restaurant in Vancouver

Atmosphere and the exclusive feel of the place is the standout piece. We ordered the Omakase set ($135pp) the sake flight. ($15pp), a bottle of sake ($60), additional pieces of nigiri (taira-gai, and tamago) and dessert at the end. For the price, and being a Michelin guide restaurant it’s decent. It’s comparable to a standard sushi bar in Japan (lived there for a while) in terms of food quality and taste.

The GOOD: seafood was fresh and generally well prepared. The okami-san was friendly and was attentive, explaining where and how to access the online menu. Relatively good value for omakase in downtown core. My guests were stuck in traffic and after letting them know they were nice to serve their pieces after they arrived. Rice was prepared well and at body temperature. Additional nigiri rice can be requested if you want a bit more food. The dessert (matcha cheesecake) was decadent and rich, yet not overpowering. Selection of sake in the flight of 3 had good contrast and variation and was a good deal at $15pp. Remember, you're here for sushi, so there is going to be limited selection of hot foods. Since they can focus at what their good at, the overall sushi experience is excellent (minus one major caveat covered under the bad).

The OKAY: the preparation of the 13 types of nigiri was surprisingly spartan. Aburi or oshi-zushi would have been a simple addition or variation to some of the pieces. For example, they had 2 types of uni (sea urchin) back-to-back which could have been spaced out for contrast. Furthermore, as many other reviewers have mentioned, the taisho (chef) was professional but didn’t take much time to elaborate on the various types of fish (IE: what’s so special about each and how they are prepared?) personally I don’t care as much since I just want good food, but some people come for the experience. Green tea is not included and costs $5 per pot. Even though I tried making conversation with the taisho, he didn’t really pick up on it.

The BAD: powdered wasabi, and using too much of it. Makes me wonder if the chef is tasting his food. I had to remove it from the pieces that were possible because the powdered stuff is way too pungent for the delicate fish being served. For this price point, using real grated wasabi would not only be a great touch, but also kind of expected. The amount needed wouldn't have added too much cost; or simply charge for it as an option. Finally, since this place is paid-reservation only through Tock, it is not well explained and I noticed another couple asking questions about it. According to Tock's website, the reservation fee should be deducted from the bill total, but it wasn’t, causing some confusion. Not really the restaurant's fault, but could be made more clear. The reservation fee was refunded directly via Tock a few hours later.

Omakase menu items and some notes:

BOTAN EBI - fresh and tender, wasabi too pungent KINME DAI - good KATSUO - slightly fishy, well marinated and good amount of ginger SURUME IKA - very fresh and bouncy HONMAGURO ZUKE - well done NAMA HOTATE - my favourite, sweet and plump MURASAKI UNI FROM JAPAN - ok, colour a bit off and slight bitterness. Wasabi was removed before eating BAFUN UNI FROM JAPAN - really good and creamy, sweet and nice orange colour. Wasabi was removed before eating HONMAGURO CHU-TORO - buttery, excellent SHIMAAJI - nice glaze, fresh HONMAGURO O-TORO - good but had huge piece of connective tissue there SABA - very fishy (as expected) could have used some lemon or ginger ANAGO - below average, boiled and not enough tare Taira gai - thinly sliced, firm but tender Tamago: temperature too cold, but tasted ok. Would have been nicer if left to room temperature. Dessert: matcha cheesecake - this one was really good! Nice amount of sweetness and bitterness with real cream

Summary: The omakase set is good value but nothing extraordinary. Atmosphere is exclusive and intimate, but the human interactions could have been enhanced with more omotenashi (hospitality). Great choice of sake with updated menus online....

We went for my SO's birthday this past week, since sushi is one of the things a Japanese person loves.

You won't find another place like this in Vancouver and the owner knows this. He provides an experience you probably aren't going to go for every week (because you're probably paying 50% of your income for housing), but you should check out at least once.

As other reviewers have stated you can only dine there by reservation. 10 spots available for each of three sittings. Prices are in the top-high range for Vancouver sushi, but mid-high range for restaurants overall. Bringing the cost down is the fact that you can't order alcohol since Sushi Bar Maumi isn't licensed.

So you sit, order your choice of the two courses, and enjoy watching the sushi being prepared.

We had tea while we waited. I couldn't tell exactly what kind it was, but definitely not a roasted rice or popcorn tea. Probably a good sencha, or perhaps even a gyokuro. I (being the Canadian I am, and apparently like Japanese ojichans) tend to slightly over steep my tea, so theirs tasted very subtle. Subtle but very nice.

We also had the miso soup, which was probably the best I've ever had in a restaurant.

Then the sushi starts to come around. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Like the best sushi places you eat it as it is served, without adding your own condiments. One piece at a time as it is served. Everything we had was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

You're allowed to take photos of what's served to you, but not of the preparation.

This isn't a pub so don't carry on your banter like it's a pub. Sure, have some conversation, but keep it a little hushed and polite. The other people probably don't care to hear your clever banter. Pretend you're in Japan for 1.5 hours.

You can tell they take pride in the place. Not to be an aesthetically perfect establishment, but to provide a superb product and experience to those who are willing to fork out the cash and follow the simple rules.

Highly...

It is a joke to call place an authentic edomae sushi. The rice was mushy and under seasoned. There was not texture nor could you taste the kernels of rice. The flavour of the rice was plain, there was no hint of vinegar at all.

The fish was also very inconsistent. The reason the chef cuts the slices of fish before service is so that the fish will be brought up to room temperature before service. Some pieces of fish had the right temperature while other pieces were ice cold, void of any flavour. Some cuts of fish were overly fishy/oily in a bad way. Makes me question if the chef even prepared the fish properly before service. His knife work in the Surume Ika was very lacking, I was expecting thinly scored piece of squid which brings out the texture but instead, it was a haphazardly cut and it ruined the texture in my mouth.

The service was extremely cold. Other diners during the service had to ask the chef what fish they were just served. The chef did not communicate at all to the diners, he did not tell us what was done to preparation of the fish nor did he even try to get to know us individually.

The slices of ginger given was also done without any consideration. Some pieces of ginger were as big and long as my thumb, how does anyone expect to eat that big piece of ginger as a palate cleanser.

The last issue was that the dinner service felt like a business transaction more than an experience. Before the last piece was severed, they already told use to scan the menu and order more nigiri.

Definitely a 0/5 in my books. Vancouver doesn’t have many places that serve this style of sushi. For many people this will be their first “dab” into edomae sushi. To be frank, this is a pretty bad representation of what you normally would expect from this type of sushi. The rice is bad, fish is bad, service is bad. You wouldn’t call California Roll Japanese food. You certainly can’t call what you have here Edomae...