Uptown Sushi

Not bad for sushi lunch specials. Courteous staff and tastes ok. Interesting rolls. The cuts on the fish are a bit sloppy sometimes. The green tea sits in a carafe and is disgusting.
Wish it was open later.

Mediocre experience. The sushi was fine, but took a very long time to reach our table despite us two people being the only customers in the restaurant. The waiter was talking on his cellphone when we arrived and handed us menus from behind the counter while still on the phone. He proceeded to text from the front desk all through our visit and I had to call over to indicate we were ready to order. All this would be forgivable perhaps if the prices were in line with such a casual dining experience. This place isn’t on the low end of the sushi price scale, even the simple rolls are fairly expensive for what they are. I wouldn’t make an effort to go back.

You know, it may just be that I had a bad experience the other day here; but Uptown let me down last week.
The reasons are simple, and unfortunately, like interest you don’t want to pay, compounded. The sushi wasn’t as good as I have had in the past here, they missed my miso soup; which I was really looking forward to; the rice wasn’t cooked all the way through on anything, the sushi didn’t taste as fresh as I would have liked, and it took 45 minutes to make one lunch special (which consisted of 2 California rolls, 5 pieces of nigiri and one miso soup.)
I’m sorry Uptown, but you’ve got to up your game.
T.

Weird atmosphere, bad food.

Decent sushi. Fairly no-​frills service. You order your food at the cashier counter. You sit down and they then bring your food to your table. If you want hot tea, you get up and get it yourself from a big pot and drink it from a plastic cup.
The dish you use for your soy sauce is just a little plastic cup.
Again, the food is ok, but there is really no ambience. Prices are fair.

See this is why I love Unilocal: Even in a city where established downtown restaurants have only 10 – 15 reviews total (thats like what SF restaurants get the day they open!), still I end up at an awesome sushi joint, in the
middle of the beef and rodeo capital of canada no less.
Anyhoooo this place is awesome and here’s why:
Its small and simple, order at the counter then sit down, either «for stay» or to wait for your to-​go box.
Its affordable, 12 – 15 $ for sushi combos that include 5 pieces of nigiri
(along with various specialty rolls)!
The staff are all family as far as I could tell, and the nicest people ever! 2 sisters taking orders and running food, one dude (brother maybe?) rolling and slicing up tight fish treats, and mother overseeing everyrthing
The food is delicious. The fish is chilled perfectly, the rice is soft and clearly fresh, the classic rolls are perfectly executed, and the special rolls are beautiful. The tuna nigiri melted in my mouth.
Its as good as sushi in vancouver, and better than anything Ive had in that price range in SF. Btw sorry SF I love ya and overall your food kills vancouvers, but it ain’t even close with sushi, its not even a fair comparison really considering the sheer number of sushi joints in Van.
Anyway eat here if you in Calgary!

A little piece of reasonably priced sushi heaven, uptown is definitely one of my go tos. Where else could you find such excellently made but reasonably priced piles of sushi?! The selection of rolls is exquisite (and adorably named. I am a sucker for japanese cute). So many tasty combinations. The service is always super friendly, and it quick, easy and cheap. Today they introduced lunch bento boxes! Delicious and filling. However, a warning: the lunch specials are very special and cheap, and the dinner specials are huge but more expensive.
The fish is fresh, the rice tasty, the tea free and easy. I’m serious: free tea, serve yourself. Very casual, but a great place for a lunch date. Or lunch in any form.

My expectations may have gotten the better of me here. The thing to realize is that Uptown is a very casual neighborhood sushi restaurant, and certainly not a destination location. Orders are taken at the counter, meals are served on disposable plates, and seating is a little limited.
This wouldn’t necessarily be an issue, except that prices are more in line with what you would find at a nicer (though not upscale) place. Then again, I’m still trying to get a sense of sushi pricing in Calgary, so I could be a little off in my expectations.
As for the food itself, it was just okay. It reminded me of supermarket sushi (albeit from a nicer supermarket), with nigiri on the smaller side, maki that doesn’t quite hold together well, and miso soup that’s a little dull and murky.
As I try other sushi establishments in the city I may change my mind about Uptown, but for now I’ll rate it as a pass.

Holy crap, Calgary finally has real sushi, albeit served on disposable plates.
Amazingly fresh and VERY Japanese service. The rolls are very straight forward but unique and locally inspired. The menu is pretty small which makes sense: specialize on the good stuff instead of making lots of mediocre inconsistent crap. The texture of the rice obviously shows that the chef knows what he is doing, and the portions are plentiful and VERY fresh. This is the closest thing to Japanese sushi I have ever had in this city, yes, and that is considering, blowfish. globefish. whatever it’s called.
Price is very competitive for sushi along with 10 per cent off menu for delivery. Thing is, on a Saturday at 2000hrs, we were the only people there. While I hate crowds of families and yuppie fucks, this place does deserve the business. Check it out. Amazing. Honestly.

Having lived most of my life in big cities on both coasts of the US, I am, unfortunately, the type of person who would roll my eyes at the mere mention of Calgary sushi. And thus far my prejudices had been correct– any sushi I had had in Calgary was a nightmare of bland fish and hard rice. But I still get the craving. And then one chilly night I randomly walked in, having forgotten that I don’t believe in the myth of good sushi in Calgary. As soon as we walked in and saw the takeout-​style counter, my partner said, «I don’t think this was such a good idea.» We sat down regardless.
Uptown Sushi is actually a pretty nice little place. For a café-​style space, the décor is actually rather chic and pretty. So we were surprised to see our cute little table set with plastic cutlery (what kind of place has plastic cutlery, but still does place settings??). We got even more nervous when we saw the big laminated menus with stock photos of food, more like a cheap Chinese takeout place than a sushi restaurant. Growing more apprehensive by the moment, we ordered a couple of safe-​sounding rolls and a potato and corn appetizer. We felt somewhat reassured by the very sweet waitress who said they could make my partner a spicy tuna roll even though it wasn’t on the menu.
When the food came, it came in the little flimsy disposable plastic trays that you get when you buy sushi from the supermarket, rather than on wooden or ceramic serving trays one would normally expect. And we had little disposable plastic sauce cups for soy sauce. We puzzled over this incongruous experience for a second– the reasonably upscale décor, the carefully set table laden with disposable plates and utensils, the lovely and gracious service, the cheesy menus. And then, without our even asking, someone came and brought water to our table. Not in cups, but in two individual plastic bottles (we weren’t charged for this– this is just how they serve you water apparently.) Again, wonderful service but so odd! And then, with low expectations, we dug in.
Surprise! The sushi was great! Not transcendent perhaps, but tasty and fresh and well made. The potato and corn croquette was delicious comfort food, deep fried but golden and light and greaseless. The rainbow roll was topped with generous slices of fish and filled with crab salad made with real (not artificial) crab. The avocado and sushi roll (another item they were happy to make for us even though it wasn’t on the menu) was yummy too. And the prices were very reasonable– I’ve had much worse sushi at much higher prices in this city.
Overall this was a great experience– unexpectedly good food and very nice people. If they could only give up trying to emulate fine dining using takeout props, Uptown Sushi would be a night on the town.