Sushi Bar Ajisai

I have searched for truly good sushi in Vancouver, a place where sushi joints are plenty and competitive. Japanese food here should be one of the best outside Japan. There should be at least one that can surpass my expectations. I still have not found the one.

Personal Yelp Ajisai rate: 3.75 out of 5.

This sushi bar is located in beautiful Kerrisdale. Likewise good sushi joints, Ajisai is small and a little bit hidden in a plaza, giving it a sense of "secret place to be discovered".

I did not had to wait outside to have a seat. There were people but it was not full. I was greeted by the Japanese staff into a seat on the sushi counter. Place is very clean and decor simple and not flashy.

Got myself a combination of nigiri sushi, some simple and some as shown in the chef recommendations (written on a piece of paper near the counter).

Veredict: Very well prepared nigiri sushi. Ingredients were truly fresh and mouth watering. Execution was as expected from an experienced sushi chef. The dish looked straight from a culinary journal. Cuts were uniform (for the nigiri) and the rice was firm and moist and thus not cracky. Rice was as sushi rice should be.

A big plus in Ajisai is that they serve sushi that is rather hard to find and appreciated by sushi lovers. For example, this is one of the few places that had Japanese Tako (octopuss), fresh saba (mackerel, almost always served cured, not raw), fresh katsuo (bonito fish), and the ruby of the sea: BLUE FIN TUNA (true maguro)!! Order these to impress your friends and become a sushi connoisseur.

HOWEVER, THERE WAS ONE BIG SLUMP: Out of the 7 nigiri sushi, TWO had a small fishbone inside. Most strangely, one was on the egg (tamago) nigiri sushi (o_O;). If it was an upscale sushi restaurant, it would be just unforgivable. Luckily, there was none in the maguro.

For the service, I can say it is good. Cons: they do not serve free tea and refills as some good sushi bars in Japan usually do. Also, be careful, because they do not accept debit cards! Not carrying credit cards that day, I felt a cold sweat running through my brow as I looked for enough bills and change for the tip.

Prices are very reasonable. Each nigiri piece ranges from 1.75 to 3 CADs, while the more exotic ones can go up to 4 CADs per piece. Rolls and combos are well priced.

Personal conclusion: Quite good sushi, hard to find ingredients, but by all means NOT perfect. If I need to quickly fill my sushi fix, I would go somewhere nearer and a little bit cheaper. I would come back only if I craved blue fin tuna sushi and raw mackerel.

Great selection and fresh sashimi. Arrive early to avoid waits!!

Friendly staff, excellent service :)

This restaurant must be doing well since they expanded with another little place called Ajisai To Go.

I have to say that the green tea was really good and the waiter was very attentive. Sushi was on the pricier side and portions small, but they were tasty and elegantly presented.

Place is not huge with only four tables and a small bar to sit. Sitting at the bar gives you a nice view of the chef's making the sushi, and you can see that they take pride in their work. Service is fast, polite, and attentive. Parking is metered side street.

Great for singles or couples, not great for groups. They don't take reservations and you only get seated if all your party is there.

Excellent sushi, super fresh fish and beautiful flavors. I'd say it's a neighborhood gem except I have friends coming up from the US just for this place!

Came here on a Wednesday evening around 6:30p and there is already a waiting list. The place is rather small and they won't seat you until your whole party is there. Luckily we waited around the benches just outside.

There is street parking or underground parking for London Drugs.

Waited around 20-30 minutes for the seating and we were at the Sushi bar.

Menu is an URL Code or you can look at their take out menu (there is a slight difference).

We ordered:

Jelly fish - very interesting and refreshing

Special Assorted Sashimi - very fresh fish and yummy

Unagi Battera pressed sushi - very juicy unagi pieces on top of a large roll

2 Fresh Hotate - the scallop is large, thick, and fresh

Hamchi Kama - grilled to perfection

Totally recommend this place. Lots of take out orders.

The quality and simplicity of ajisai never fails to impress me with reasonably priced rolls that are encompassed with perfectly textured and flavoured rice and impeccably fresh fish. Their rolls are not the special rolls topped with sauce and frills but are well constructed and generously filled.

I ordered the:
Ika Ume Roll - squid and a little bit of plum with shiso (i believe) and not often seen on other menus, this little maki was so tasty as I love Ika and the touch of sourness brightens the whole roll.

Toro Taku - fatty tuna belly with a little bit of pickled veggies, I LOVED THIS...buttery but not fishy, the pickle is what makes the roll feel light but satisfying.

Overall, I now know to stick to their maki rolls for a delicious and delicate bite. Pro tip: I ordered take out a couple hours before they opened for dinner to secure a 5PM pick up and was surprised with a 5% discount for the meal!

This sushi place in Kerrisdale feels super authentic and the food tasted so fresh! There's not a lot of seating inside and they do get pretty busy, but it seems that a lot of customers are just getting take out so the wait wasn't long.

They have a huge selection on their menu and it was very hard to choose. I ended up ordering the salmon ikura bowl and it was perfect :) They have so many options with different combinations of seafood for their bowls which I don't see a lot elsewhere. The only menu complaint is they don't seem to have any cocktail options. Drinks are pretty limited to sake and beer.

Overall a delightful experience and I will definitely visit again!

Worst customer service ever. The old granny (obasong) enjoy charging customer extra ginger when you had environmental friendly customer who don't want chopsticks and napkins. A little customer care wouldn't do it at all. Looking at her showing attitudes towards every customer just disgust me all time. When my food ready, not even bother inform me. Rather I look closely at the receipt sat on top of my togo box. It's very idiotic service tat when customer waiting outside for their togo and you just ignore it. Worst Japanese style service ever.

Anyone plan go there eat just needs be aware this old granny grumpy bad attitude !

Things have changed a lot since covid ! Came by for lunch and they only offer a lunch menu with specials during the lunch dining time. Can't order off the main menu but kids apparently can. The server made sure to tell us each person had to order a lunch special. Seems like there is a minimum spend in place? They don't take reservations so there's usually a wait of 20 min or more. We tried the Sashimi lunch set, assorted sushi set, unagi don and gindara. Sashimi and nigiri really fresh tasting and gindara was so tender. Really enjoyed my lunch experience as good quality good but I think this is more of a take out place for me now.

They have the in my opinion rude and disrespectful rule not seating guests until everyone has arrived in a group.

It's far better to set a time limit for each table instead.

Regardless how good the sushi is, it's a big turn off.

Came here for dinner last night. So glad they've had dine in since the summer now. Yeh! Sushi never tastes as good at home as when they make it and serve it to you immediately. Love their daily fresh sheet that they post on Facebook so I can know what they have on special.

We are blessed in Vancouver to have what feels like over a hundred sushi places. We've tried everything from Minami, Miku, Kishimoto, Raisu etc and this is where our heart remains. I spend way more at the first three and are never quite satisfied at that price point, nor do I feel like I get my money's worth. My eyes don't need to feast but my taste buds do. The value here is amazing for the quality you're getting. No frills. You're not going to get a decorative display with edible flowers or they do some knife chopping skills to do a carrot rose or whatever. What you will get is tasty fresh fish on well prepared sushi rice. Their chirashi rice also has pickled yellow radish and mushrooms and it's just not plain ole sushi rice.

Been coming since they opened in 2004 and out of all the places we've taken tons of friends, this one is always the one people ask to come back to.