Sushi By Yuji — Restaurant in Vancouver

Sushi date night with @adorables ❤️ we've been eyeing this place for a while now, luckily one of us (not me) made a smart decision to reserve ahead of time, it was fully booked at 6pm!

Friendly attentive servers in a quaint and clean place. Adorables ordered a half Shiro house roll ($8.50), loved the fresh fish with the creamy avocado. However, we both agreed the mayo was a bit much and didn't compliment the roll.

Takowasabi ($4.00) was a small, but perfect, portion for starting our palates. Not enough spicy wasabi, and some of the pieces felt chewier than I've had before. Probably wouldn't order again.

Then came the Hamachi Salmon Avocado roll ($6.95). We both got a good giggle out of it since it was literally the exact same thing as the house roll but different roll format 😂 again, the mayo made it a bit too creamy but overall fresh fish and tasty!

Tonight I think I failed on the ordering train, I got the Deluxe Chirashi donburi ($20.95) and pretty disappointed. The fish was ok, not super fresh: tuna was pretty mushy and Hamachi didn't have much spring to it, unlike in the previous rolls. Presentation wise it's neat but kinda monochrome. Wasabi was fresh and highlight of the dish. Most disappointing was the mushy over-seasoned rice which was topped with oddly flavored ginger (kinda bitter with a weird salty flavor). For Twenty odd dollars, this was definitely a let down.

Finally I got a Tobiko with quail egg ($2.50). This was fresh, but the quail egg was straight out of the fridge, so it hit my mouth super cold--not quite enjoyable. A good sushi size though, almost one comfortable bite (just a wee big for my little mouth).

They also had good tea, constantly refilling it. Adorables and I quite enjoyed their music selection, a lot of feel-good nostalgic...

UPDATE SEPT 2022: During COVID suddenly you can do take out? You refused to sell me takeout before so rudely and arrogantly, since you thought your poorly made sushi was too good for take out. What a hypocrite chef you are, Yuji.

If you truly were principled and believed that sushi cannot be eaten as take out, then WHY ARE YOU DOING ONLY TAKE OUT DURING COVID??? Because now it's about your wallet and $$, so your principles actually mean nothing.

Do you understand your job is to satisfy your customers' reasonable requirements? Such arrogance. How dare you claim to be "unpretentious"???

I'd hate to imagine if you ever became famous, how you would behave...

Original review:

As others have noted, this is a really small, poorly designed restaurant with few seats, and is pretty much purely a sushi bar. I ate here for lunch a few years ago when it first opened. The food was good, but the value was mediocre for the price being charged. I spent about $30 with tax and tip, but I left hungry.

More recently, when I tried to go back for lunch, I noticed that this sushi bar stopped operating a lunch service.

When I later I went to get some take out for dinner, I was very much surprised that they do not do take out (even though the restaurant was not even full). What makes them deserve the 1 star is the arrogant attitude by the waitress and owner. It was as if asking for take out was offensive to them. If you don't want to accept take out, then do better on the seating and ambiance of the restaurant. I prefer not to pay a bunch of money to sit in cramped quarters.

Also, what if I make an eat-in order and suddenly have to run? Are you going to make me throw out the order? Isn't...

Really great sushi with a fair price. For nigiri sushi, I ve had kanpachi(amberjack) nigiri, toro(tuna belly), ika(squid) with shiso leaf, uni (sea urchin), aji(horse mackerel), kohada(marinated gizzard shad) and saba(jack mackerel). For hosomaki, I've had ika(squid) with natto, ume(pickled plum paste) with shiso leaves. Gotta say that the kanpachi is really great, the fat of the fish binds with the tender texture, creating a masterpiece. The marinated gizzard shad is also fairly great, it doesn't tastes fishy at all, there is a saying in japan when a sushi chef can make good kohada nigiri, they can make great sushi. The uni is sweet and creamy, note that the piece is performed in nigiri style, its never easy to form the uni with nigiri style as they are soft and fragile, they might break easily which again tells us that taisho yuji got some skills. This is also one of the few place to eat raw saba in Vancouver, the saba again is not fishy and it's pretty good too. While the toro nigiri is kinda surprising, its not albacore but the price is similar to the albacore belly so its pretty good too, the fat in the fish is not overwhelming but the taste of the fish is not strong enough to balance the whole flavor of the fish. For the hosomaki, there is a regret on the ume shiso maki, the plum sauce in the roll is way too salty, I have to tune down the saltiness with sake and tea. The natto ika roll is on the average, though not everyone could take the weird taste and slimy texture of the natto I think its still recommendable. This experience in sushi by yuji is pretty great, I definitely see myself going...