Momiji Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Canby

Canby's first sushi restaurant, nice little location which features a robust menu with the quality (and prices) expected for fresh sushi.

The space is fairly open with gray sponge painted walls featuring gold and silver fish accents. Booths line the walls on each side of the restaurant with tables distributed in the center of the quant space. There is small sushi bar in the back which looks similar to want you would find at any other sushi restaurant, along with a front desk located a few feet from the door and a seating area for people waiting for their take out order or a table to free up.

We walked in during the tail end of the lunch rush, despite being busy the waitress greeted us and seated us immediately. She promptly left menus and ice waters for us and after a few minutes of deliberating we were ready to order. The menu was fairly extensive and had plenty of vivid color photos displaying nearly every option up for grabs, so it took us a little longer to make up our minds based off of all of the delicious looking options. Some of the prices made the decision much easier, all 3 of us decided to go with one of the lunch specials which was about half the cost of most other options.

The waitress saw we were ready and upon approaching asked if we had any questions or if we were ready to order. No small talk, just straight down to business, which was fine because I was hungry. I ordered the bento box lunch special ($6.95) and my friends ordered something different. Within a minute of ordering she brought soup and pickled cucumbers, I was somewhat surprised at how prompt the waitress was and immediately noticed the miso soup was light and fresh, not overbearing like some Japanese restaurants that sit on fish stock for days on end. Nice balance but a little on the light side. The miso had crisp scallions and finely diced pieces of tofu which was a very pleasant start for our meal. I moved onto the cucumbers which were not as fresh as the miso soup, a little too much vinegar and sugar plus the texture of the small cucumber pieces made me begin to ponder how long the cucumbers had suffered before they found their way to my table.

I scanned the restaurant and noticed that the lunch rush was slowing down, it was about 1:45pm and I was curious to see how the bento box would pan out for me. A few minutes later our waitress arrived with our meals and after some trading of plates amongst one another I tried the tempura first. The batter was clean and light, not too thick where it would jeopardise the integrity of the vegetables, but instead added flavor and warmth to what would otherwise be a boring veggie. The California rolls were Momij's rendition which fit the maki ticket and were a few steps above my "good" rating, not exceptional but we're certainly acceptable to any sushi fan. The chicken teriyaki was god, cooked well but still very tender, marinated and seasoned enough for flavor but not at all heavy like some teriyaki. The rice was cooked well and consistent, overall the food quality and presentation was on par with big city sushi bars. You would never know you are in a strip mall in little Canby. With so many options on the menu I am looking forward to trying something new each time I visit...

This place is an experience. I don't recall if I've ever had sushi prior to here, but if I did... I don't remember it, unlike this place.

First off, this is a restaurant that is good for someone who might like to decompress while eating. Among other details, one thing that stuck out about it is that the music playing is pleasant & barely noticeable. For that reason, you would be doing the place a disservice if you took an obnoxious child here.

The food is not only much better for you than pretty much anywhere else you can eat, but also you can piece your entire dish together in parts as you see fit. This is great for an entire table that may have varying appetites. Doing so can allow you to spend perhaps as little as $4 to your hearts content, with a full meal figuratively around $20 (less a drink).

Wasabi is an interesting hot spice. It's not as relaxed as say a Mexican habanero, but not as dangerous as an Indian ghost pepper.

The place is mostly run by men, whom you hardly notice regardless of what they are doing, yet in the rare case you will need something else, it's as though they are there before you even turn around. This creates the right balance of service between attentiveness & mindfulness. It is oftentimes something I find almost exclusively some waitresses lack at other restaurants, where the difference was otherwise noticeable after I came here.

After this, sushi is now in my top three favorite cuisines, with Italian and barbecue duking it out for the top...

Wow... This place is amazing. I've been to MANY sushi locations and this one is definitely up there among my top favorites!

First the food is delicious and very fresh. I myself had the house special ginger onion beef and I fell in love. The rice that came on the side was cooked perfectly and had a fantastic amount of stickiness to it. I am a stickler for rice and I had no complaints about it. I also got myself some nigiri to check out the fish they had available. Perfect cuts and that same perfectly cooked and sticky rice.

Service was very friendly and prompt. We brought in out little 4 month daughter and she was being her cute little self and the waitresses couldn't help but come and watch her. I loved they were open to complimenting about her! They even said they liked coming over just to see her, which was awesome!

Environment was super clean and well staffed. I really liked the genre of music that was playing as well. They also do accept reservation! Which is a huge plus.

Price are about your average prices for the type of food served. Which is very underpriced for what they are serving. They also have a happy hour where nigiri is $1/piece, I took advantage of this :P

Overall, if you had a choice, or if you were on the fence from this and something else, I believe you won't regret chosing Canby's Momijis. I am coming here very often, you can...