Temaki Sushi — Restaurant in Vancouver

While Temaki Sushi has been around since 2003, it really hasn’t been on my radar until just recently (I suppose the overabundance of sushi restaurants in Vancouver is partly to blame).

Nevertheless, we stopped by Temaki Sushi in late July for lunch and were pleasantly pleased with the food here. The Gomae ($5) and the Assorted Tempura ($14) were the first to arrive to the table. The cold spinach was wound up into a tight cone and was a bit difficult to unravel at first. Meanwhile, the tempura included 4 pieces of prawns and 3 pieces of veggies.

The Agedashi Tofu ($6.50) is deep-fried and topped with green onions and bonito flakes while swimming in a light broth.

The main event was the Chef’s Sashimi ($48) which is the chef’s selection of 30 various pieces of sashimi. During our visit, this included sockeye salmon, salmon toro, scallops, tuna gomae, halibut, mackerel, tako, hokkigai, kampachi (similar to hamachi), as well as ikura, and squid. The sashimi here is super fresh and well prepared. Loved the buttery softness of the salmon toro and the presentation of the sashimi was on point.

They have a number of items on their fresh sheet so it’s a great place to check out some sashimi that you don’t normally find at your typical run-of-the-mill sushi joint in Vancouver.

We returned a couple of months later to try their dinner service. This place gets pretty busy at night (both with walk-ins and with take-out orders). The thing that got to me was they weren’t very efficient at handling the mix of walk-ins, phone calls, and service. We arrived just before 6pm for our reservation and, although our table (and many other tables) were open and ready, she said she’d seat us in a few minutes and then went to the next people in line who she planned to seat at the open bar seats but told them she’d seat them in 5-10 minutes, etc… and she kept going through the steadily growing line-up of patrons waiting to be seated. So by not simply seating the people waiting, the foyer kept getting crammed full of people as the hostess created a bottleneck. Guess she’s never played Diner Dash before.

In any case, after finally being seated at our table that was waiting for us, we decided on our dishes for this night. First up was one of the items under the Chef’s Recommendations… the Snapper Tempura ($16). Breaking into the light and crisp tempura batter, the firm yet delicate white flakes of the snapper on the inside was piping hot.

We were quite pleased with the sashimi on our last visit so we ordered the Chef’s Sashimi ($48 for 30 pieces). The sashimi arrived in a large wooden bowl that had been chilled with ice underneath the sashimi. They do a good job with their fish here and the temperature is just right. Going clockwise from the top-left: wild salmon, tako (octopus), hokkaigai (surf clam), ika (squid), tuna gomae, Atlantic salmon, hamachi (yellowtail), ikura (salmon roe), hotate (scallop), and something which I think was some type of saba (mackerel). In the middle of the dish was the kanpachi (amberjack) which was really good and had a somewhat firmer texture but still excellent. Honestly, everything in this dish was really good.

Next up was the Kaki Miso ($10) served with in the oyster shell with a creamy motoyaki sauce.

And finally, the Crab Salad ($12) with real crab pieces, fresh mango, shiso leaves, cucumber, kaiware sprouts and a house ponzu dressing. I loved the big chunks of crab that they use in this dish.

Overall, the prices are fair given the quality of the food that...

no i didn't eat here

yesterday I went into the restaurant and its very crowded, I “excuse me” and went to the waiter to ask if I should take a number. there were two waiters，one was talking to another group of customers，and one was on the phone. after the other group of customer leaves, I ask the waiter do I need to take a number，he doesn't understand me, I repeated. I dont know if the waiter understood my question but he asked me am I the only one, I said no 3 of us.

before he could answer me, a Karen with her son rudely interrupted us and said she has a reservation she should go in first, and she started to blame me for cutting in the line. I'm angry because it's the first time I came to this reataurant and I have no idea if I need to take a number, or leave my contact, or just wait in line. I have to ask the question, it's not my fault she made a reservation but could not get seated.

of course i let them in first I don't want to waste time talking to a Karen... the waiter answering phone finished his call finally, and told me if i have no reservation I have to wait for 45 mins and he will call me when tables available.☜ this is the answer I was looking for！I told him my contact and left...

and I did not get any phone call the whole night! surprise～

I know my terrible experience was not 100% the fault of the waiters，but there is obviously issues in the management of restaurant，if your dine in customers need to wait 45 mins，maybe you should not answering take out orders. if you accept reservations，maybe you need to ask every customer the minute they step into the restaurant，instead of having everybody squeezing in the tiny area and waiting 45 mins，things may get worse in the rainy or cold days

and they deleted my...

I have to say... this was quite a disappointment overall. We had an 8pm reservation, but still had to wait to be seated. Shortly after we ordered, we were informed that it was now last call, so if we wanted anything else, it was now or never.. though our food hadn't even arrived yet, so it was hard to know if we would want anything else at that moment. Fast forward to 10 minutes later, our food had arrived, but now they wanted us to pay for our cheques, even though we had only just started eating?! One of the people at our table even asked if that was really necessary, and we'd like to be able to finish our meal before paying, but the lady just stood there with her card machine and insisted. So, we all had to stop eating, pull out our purses and wallets, and pay for our meals. Also, there were different prices on my bill than what was listed on the menu - when I pointed that out, she acted like she was doing me a big favour by honouring the printed menu prices! As for the food, my meal was a miss. The portions were tiiiiiiny, and there was more tamago in my chirashi don than fish. The pieces of fish that were included appeared to all be the scrap ends of whatever they had left - honestly the pieces were smaller than postage stamps. DEFINITELY not worth the price point. I'm especially disappointed because I was looking forward to dining here based on all of the positive reviews and photos that show big juicy pieces of fish, but that is absolutely not what I experienced tonight. The waitress did keep our water glasses full though, so I guess that's...