Isami Sushi Japanese Restaurant

Me and my husband ordered take out and were really disappointed when we got back home. Small rolls, to much sauce, the lack of fish. Sashimi is ok, but too thinly sliced. The bigest surprise was Teriyaki — watery sauce, absolutely dry chicken breasts and some bean sprouts. It’s a mystery why Kadoya is rated like a good restaurant.

Great Sushi, Friendly service and clean seating area and not overly crowded.

Well established Japanese restaurant with quality & authentic Japanese cuisine. It is not extremely pricey, but I personally found it offer value food for fine Japanese dinning. Servers and chefs are Japanese. Menu is not extremely wide, but whatever they offer on the menu, they are good. We were there at lunch, and there were business men in suits eating there, women in office and casual wear, but very obviously Japanese ladies having lunch and meeting with friends. Service is a bit slow, but waiter who was not too fluent in English, really helped us out with our order. Sushi orders were well prepared and nicely presented. Their sashimi and sushi are very fresh. Donburi, udon etc are deliciously cooked. Although it is just a small clean Japanese restaurant with a small suishi bar, a few tables, a few booths and some inside dinning area, we enjoy our meal there and will definitely go back again when we are in the area.

I honestly didnt realize there was a Japanese restaurant at this address, but to my surprise, there was and it’s very good! For those who do not know, Isami is a Japanese owned and operated Japanese cuisine restaurant, focusing on typical sushi-​esque fare. Parking is limited to neigbourhood parking or meters. The staff speaks both English and Japanese. My party ate on a thursday night, while it was not packed and lined up, it was atleast half full throughout the night, pretty indicative of quality.
As one might expect with Japanese service, it is very attentive. The waitresses come along often to refill your tea, and is super courteous when placing your food on the table. All the waitresses wear a cute frilly apron that is quite common in Japanese restaurants in Japan, its a very professional and traditional looking attire, which brought me back some good memories. They accept Cash, credit, and debit, and were very nice about letting us split the bill 4 ways via cash and credit. Many places impose restrictions on how one can split the bill, but not Isami, A+ for effort!
Some general observations from the menu, they have Chawanmushi! But I didnt order one =(, but generally, if a restaurant has Chawanmushi on the menu, its a good place to go. The appetizers are fairly extensive, from salads, karaage, tataki, etc. and all priced well, except for the Beef Tataki which was very overpriced for what you got. The Hiyayakko (cold tofu) was beautifully presented but for 3.75, i would of expected more than just ¹⁄₃^rd of a brick of store bought tofu with ice, slice of tomato, and toppings. The vegetable tempura was crispy and perfectly portioned into edible thickness, with a flavorful dashi sauce.
Moving on to the raw food, the Sashimi and Tuna Tataki were very good! They offer both Atlantic and Wild Sockeye salmon, and a good assortment of other fish aswell. The sashimi was around 9.5 for 8−9pcs of well portioned salmon on a bed of daikon and shizo. The Tuna tataki is beautifully portioned and presented with daikon, green onions, garlic, grated carrots, and ponzu.
The rolls were perfectly portioned and presented aswell. We had one of those special rolls which was deepfried, then drizzled with some spicy mayo sauce. it was not overly spicy, not overly salty, but very savory with good texture. The BC and Avocado roll were «normal» aswell, and when i say normal, its not Samurai sized.
This review may be kinda short for me, considering I arrived half way through the meal, but through my observations upon arriving, i have nothing but good things to say about Isami. Aside from some irregularities in price: portion department, everything checks for a return visit.
A refined Four, out of Five.

Friend recommended this place as they have been coming here for a while. Everything we’ve tried on the menu is delicious. Great service from super polite staff. Great value for the food. The food is more along the lines of home-​style cooking, seems to be quite traditional. Definitely give Isami a try!

I went to this place with a friend, hoping that we could get some good sushi at a reasonable price. We were greatly disappointed, There is way too much sauce on the sushi, most likely to cover up the poor quality of the fish, and the roles are mostly composed of rice. It was a great disappointment.
Additionally, the waiters were not at all attentive and the order took too long. They weren’t even that busy. It seemed the waitress prefers to chat up with her colleagues rather than do her job.
Would not recommend !

Very good food! I ordered the Nama Charishi.
The fish was very fresh. I really enjoyed the food. The service could of been better. But the food made up for it.
I will be back to try the sushi and sashimi.
I recommend this restaurant. Enjoy!

Sushi was excellent, but service was very lacking. Definitely worth trying.

Didn’t like it at all. My set of sushi rolls was topped with some bad quality mayo that ruined it completely. The other set was just not tasty. Service was good though, so I’m giving it 2 stars instead of 1.

PROS
+ Clean and well spaced out
+ I liked how tables are separated by dividers
+ Friendly service
+ Quality sashimi
+ Well-​cooked and seasoned sushi rice
CONS
— Cooked-​dishes
— The price of each nigiri sushi is not on menu
RATING
Food 4.0÷6.0
Ambience 4.0÷6.0
Service 5.0÷6.0
Price $$

This place is pretty good, pretty standard food for a japanese joint! Definitely one of the better places to eat near Metrotown, but I’d rather take the trip to Oyama probably.
Rice doesn’t come with the teriyaki dishes, so you’ll need to order that separately unlike most places where the teriyaki usually does come with rice. On that note though, the karaage here is pretty good and I would recommend it to anyone that comes here. Sushi here is pretty good too.

[Homestyle Sushi]
Isami is one of the few mom-​and-​pop sushi restaurants actually owned and operated by Japanese people. It really makes no difference to me as long as it’s tasty but it mattered to some of my dining companions. We arrived with no reservation on a Friday evening and had no trouble getting a table for four. The restaurant has a very traditional homely feel with seating for 50 including a few shoe-​free booths in the back.
After perusing the menu, I went with a duet combo, avocado roll, and spicy tuna roll. The duet combo consisted of two spicy crab and two chopped scallop nigiris, and a california cone. The chopped scallop and spicy crab sushi was quite fresh andthe favorite on my plate. The avocado rolls were decent but I wasn’t a fan of the spicy tuna. This particular spicy tuna sauce reminded me of Sriracha and mayonnaise mixture. Yum. Portion sizes were good so no pre-​bedtime snacking was required.
Service was average — servers were a little slow to refill tea and bring our food but politeness goes a long way. Value was pretty average as well given the multitude of similar options within walking distance.
Isami is a solid option for those times you don’t feel like a 60-​minute wait at Sushi Garden. They’ve been around a long time (20+ years if memory serves) and rightly so.

Yes I finally found a real Japanese restaurant with Japanese servers and cooks in Burnaby! I definitely recommend this place! I ordered California, kamikaze rolls which were very good. Nice service, good design and cute staff’s uniforms. Love it!

This is my goto sushi joint. It is authentic Japanese and probably one of the best in Burnaby.
The food here is good and the service is alright. If you want some authentic Japanese sushi near Metropolis Metrotown, do give this place a try (I think I’ve tried all the Sushi restaurants nearby). The seafood selection is plentiful and is generally very fresh.
A perk for this location is that parking is free in the parkade (off of Hazel St.); just make sure to inform Isami’s of your stall # and license plate #.
Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

First off, I’m constantly shocked at how inexpensive sushi is Vancouver compared to Las Vegas (where I live).
Last year when I visited Vancouver I ate here twice, and same thing this year. I find the service great and very friendly. My last night I was able to sit at the bar close to the head chef and owner and had a great conversation with another customer who through random chance didn’t know he was sitting in his friend’s father’s sushi restaurant. Long story short, very warm and friendly atmosphere.
The sushi is on par with what you expect with a major coastal city, not ground breaking but good, solid sushi. The first night I went with Chirashi-​don and was very happy. Each cut of fish was clean tasting and had enough texture to let you know it was fresh without being too chewy. The tomago (omelet) was a pleasant surprise as it was light and sweet as you imagine it to be. Love that there were three different kinds of fish egg (ikura and red & orange tobbiko).
The second night I went a la cart, started with a small tuna, salmon and shrimp set followed by spicy tuna and salmon w/​avacodo maki and two orders of the seared scallops in spicy shoyu. Even got a comp’d tuna sashimi sampler!
Other’s have pointed out there seems to a good amount of communication issues between the waitresses and customers. Disorganized would be the world that describes it best. There were times I had to wave to the waitress to let her know what was mine and my second night there I had three different waitresses ask me for my drink order. Perhaps it’s station overlapping.

It’s an all rounder.
Very attentive staff, except that I didn’t know one of the owners’ daughters is the server!
While the prices are a little higher, you get what you pay.
One of the places I’ll get my sushi fix.
Their green tea ice cream is also what leaves you craving for more.

A-​OK is exactly it
Food is exactly the same as EVERY OTHER sushi place in the lower mainland with the EXACT SAME menu. Prices are pretty comparable.
The spicy tuna sashimi was mediocre and expensive. The california roll and dynamite rolls were well put together and tasted fine. Would I be able to tell them apart from say Superstore take-​out sushi? Probably not.
I typically like a few of the places down the street that are a bit more creative with their menu and a little cheaper. But a solid ³⁄₅

My experience tell me that very often if you go into a restaurant with high expectations, you will be disappointed. In Isami’s case, it’s the other way round… I went with no expectations and it turned out fabulous!
The moment I entered was greeted by a young pretty lady with cute Japanese accent, I know I can’t be far off… Then I hear some customers speaking Japanese, it enhanced my dinning appetite here and when I looked at the chefs with such Japanese face. I feel good… :)
By the time I pay the bill, I am totally satisfy! Not only the food was good, it was beautiful to look at, service is accommodating and price is reasonable. The only comment I have if they will follow the eating order like soup came first, Apptizer, then sashimi, then hot food… It will be perfect!

I’ve been to quite a few sushi places in Vancouver (still not even all though… damn is there a lot of sushi places). Took the wife here for our anniversary (it’s in the neighbourhood)… she hasn’t had sushi in a while, so let’s give it a try…
Not the fanciest place out there… but we were seated right away… given a good amount of time to settle in and decide on things in the menu.
The food was ok… good even, but I’ve had better (and much better at some places). It will probably get a return visit because I’m not interested in waiting in line as Sushi Garden… and that makes this one of the closest sushi places.
We split a bottle of a yuzu sake… which was ok… but seeing how it is imported and probably not all that popular, was very pricey.

Just recently got the chance to come here last week and I must say I believe their sushi is definitely one of the best I’ve had.
I’ve been to about a dozen sushi/​Japanese restaurants, and I have to say that they do serve some of the most freshest sushi I’ve had in BC.
Their prices is kind of high up there but that’s to be expected when you had their sushi. And if I remember correctly, some of the chefs are actually Japanese. Many of the Japanese restaurants around here in BC are commonly operated by the Chinese for some reason but this place actually does have Japanese chefs, which might possibly be one of the reasons why it tastes pretty decent.
All and all, I would definitely recommend this place be one of the places you go visit when you are hungry for some sushi. :)