SUSHI NOVA VANCOUVER — Restaurant in Vancouver

I highly recommend Sushi Nova! I'm a sushi connoisseur: I love great sushi & I'd much rather eat high quality sushi & pay a lot more money than to eat cheap but average or good tasting sushi. Vancouver has tons of average & good sushi restaurants but Sushi Nova is one of the best great/excellent tasting sushi restaurants in the entire Lower Mainland! And sushi is my favourite food so I've tried a lot of different sushi restaurants in my life. I highly recommend their amazing, delicious Japanese food! And their staff are very nice both on the phone & in person. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions have been going on for 15 months now, I haven't ever sat down in their restaurant to eat (so I can't comment on that) but I've bought a lot of take out from Sushi Nova. They are very accommodating at making changes to their menu items if you ask, often with no additional fee or just a small one. I've also found that Sushi Nova's staff are very accommodating at finding out all the ingredients that go into a menu item & even into each pre-made ingredient (such as soy sauce & mayonnaise) that they use to create...

I have come to this restaurant many times and the sushi has always been good quality. But today we received very disappointing rude service. We ordered sashimi and when the server brought it to the table she said that "the tuna was still frozen" and to let her know if we "were not comfortable eating it". I asked to have the tuna switched for some salmon if it was still frozen. The server took the tuna away and then brought the same tuna back again and told us that the "chef said it was not frozen". She then took the tuna away from the table. When she brought the bill they had charged us for the sashimi that we did not eat. When we asked for it to be removed from the bill she said she could not do that, and when she checked with the chef they began yelling, multiple chefs/management and the server were all in an argument over the item. It felt extremely awkward as a customer. I live in the area and have brought multiple groups of people here. I will never return again...it does not matter how good the food is, I do not want to be yelled at...

How this place has 4+ stars is completely beyond me. I sincerely hope the poor quality of the order we got was just one-off and happens extremely rarely. I ordered Temaki (cone), sashimi, and some nigiris. The quality of tuna sashimi is probably the lowest you can expect other budget sushi places, although I felt like even sushi garden had better quality tuna. Toro was just no good as it wasn't even close to what they offer even at other Korean budget sushi places like sushi garden/town. What astonished me the most is the quality of rice which is why I gave it 1 star. It's basically either half cooked or had been in the fridge for too long. It's unacceptable even by the lowest standard. Also, the size of the cones is just too small. I hope restaurants stop with the shrinkflation bs to fish you with the price but offer smaller portion. Just raise the price, and offer standard portion. I rarely give this harsh of a review but having eaten at so many sushi places in the Lower Mainland, this one was really surprised me...