Manna Sushi

I walked in at 8:15pm on a Saturday and was told that their last orders were already taken for the night. This is the second time I’ve walked into this business where they have claimed to be closed. when they have had an open sign flashing outside.

If you spent around $ 30 between two people at a standard sushi restaurant in Vancouver, generally I’d say that you would leave feeling stuffed with some leftovers maybe… realistic expectation right? I mean… this isn’t Minami or Tojos ;)
Walking into this restaurant, it’s obviously not a «quantity over quality» style sushi restaurant (ie: sushi garden or samurai), so that set the bar for our expectations.
I ordered my standard dinner fare:
— a few nigiris (salmon, tai, ika)
— a chopped scallop cone
— pork gyoza
— edamame
Sushi: The presentation of my sushi was nice, it was well plated and nothing touched anything else. However, usually when sashimi is fresh, the color is vibrant and there is a nice sheen on it. The fish on this nigiri, though edible, was the opposite of that. I have to say that there was far too much rice in the cone that I had to put some aside or else I wouldn’t have even known that I ordered a chopped scallop cone. My companion had a similar experience with his salmon cone and spicy tuna cone… so mine was no anomaly… at least he got some cucumber in his cones.
** Oddly enough, I just had a look at some pictures of other people’s cones, and ours DEFINITELY did not look like theirs… I wish: 1) that I had their cones, 2) that I took a picture of ours because it was night and day. I wonder why there was such a huge disparity… maybe it was late and they had rice to spare?
Gyoza: My preference is not deep fried anything… so this dish was a bit lost on me, but my companion enjoyed it.
Edamame: Best dish of the night… hard to make wrong. I ate it all. Yum.
Pretty unimpressed with the food, but I do have to say that the service was relatively quick and our waitress was friendly and attentive.

A-​ok in my books. I live half a block away but have never come here because of the bad reviews I’ve read. However, I’ve always been really curious and decided to bite the bullet and try it.
Since there’s so many negative reviews warning about the service, I ordered take-​out instead. I went during lunch and the place was packed to the brim! I was quite surprised by that.
I was greeted right away by a couple of servers and I quickly placed my take-​out order. The girl who took me order told me it would be about 10 – 15 minutes. Surprisingly, in about 5 minutes or less she came and brought out my order and thanked me for waiting. Man, that was quick! Impressed.
Value wise, quite good. I ordered a salmon cone, tuna cone and chopped scallop cone, and it came to just under $ 9. That’s pretty good if you ask me. Taste wise, not bad at all. The fish could have been more chopped in my opinion but that’s simply preference.
I’m pleased to say that despite the not so pleasant things I’ve heard about this place, I’m glad I gave it a shot and I think I’ll be back, at least for take-​out. I’ll try dining in sometime soon.

Like everyone said, good place for a sushi/​roll lunch, but the service is pretty bad. The waits for your meal are longer than most.

Great service tonight! The sushi was delicious and the prices were very reasonable. I would definitely come back again. My favorite was the mango mango and red dragon specialty roll.

After tonight, it is safe to say Manna Sushi has the worst customer service of any restaurant I’ve ever encountered in Vancouver. After being a loyal and regular customer here for almost a year (ordering in or doing take-​out 2 – 3 times a week, if not more), I will NEVER go back again. It is extremely disappointing, as I love the food there, but I refuse to continue to put up with the horrible customer service and the terrible owner who doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing and is only running this restaurant’s business and reputation into the ground.
Tonight, I went into the restaurant around 8:30pm for a quick bite to eat, knowing they close at 9pm. I walk in and the owner and the waitress were at the cash register and without a beat told me they were closing and pretty much to get out. I had 27 minutes. That is more than enough time when it’s 1 person, especially when they weren’t busy. They were simply being lazy and didn’t want to serve another person. I have never experienced that before. I have gone in before around the same time many times and have never had issues getting my food and getting out by close. Don’t advertise your business as being open until 9pm and then say you’re closing when a customer comes in at 8:30pm. Major mistake #1.
In addition, they didn’t offer any alternatives like ordering quickly (asking if I knew wanted to order, which I did, so that would have been easy) or offering any apologies. It was simply a «we’re closing now» and that was it. For the owner to be so quick to turn a customer away (especially a regular one) without any alternatives or apologies shows his lack of professionalism and business sense. What customer would want to come back after being treated like a nuisance?
Since Mid-​September, I’ve noticed the customer service declining dramatically. Customer service which was once friendly and helpful has become cold and unwelcoming. Last week, I was ordering take-​out and got hung up on twice. Waitresses don’t welcome you when you walk in or make much conversation with you anymore. The owner refuses to hire more waitresses, so orders can be slow (unnecessarily, tragically slow during peak hours), and the waitresses are left handling way too much. It just creates a tense and uncomfortable atmosphere.
As someone who has always loved going here, it’s disappointing to say I will never go back. This place needs a complete revamp in ownership and the way it’s run. If they keep this up, I’d be very surprised if it is still around in 1 years time. Get your act together Manna.

Good quality sushi. I like spicy tuna sashimi and it was great. Nice and cold not like room temperature you get at a lot of places. It wasn’t exactly cheap but we all know what the quality is like if you go cheap. Had great service and all were friendly.

Food is tasty, but expensive.
Not enough waitresses, which creates a long waiting for everything you need to do — order, pay, get a bill.

The sushi is pretty good and the pricing is affordable but the service is atrocious.
While we were seated fairly quickly, the actual server was clearly overwhelmed (only two for whole restaurant as far as I could tell). The server got around to taking our order… eventually.
The food for two people did not arrive at the same time. One of us was halfway finished by the time the other party’s food arrived.
Nobody cared to check if we were enjoying our food or if there was a problem. No refill on water at all. Just really poor service all around.
I would eat there again because the sushi is good but the service is going to give me pause for sure.

Good sushi if you’re in there for lunch. But order anything non-​sushi or to go and it’s THE WORST SERVICE EVER IMAGINABLE. I’m talking 30 – 60 minutes waiting and forgotten orders or orders that don’t get put in. Plus they’re jerks if you say, hey you got my order wrong, they’ll argue with you on it. Go to Clubhouse down the street. MUCH BETTER service.

Really fresh delicious sushi. I come often and they’re always friendly, even when the place is packed and they’re rushing around.

Hey ho!
Still fresh and whammy.
Also I like the fact that the place smell fresh…
Sometime sushi place got this (it’s fine) cooking smell…
That not bothering me but during summer time lil bit…
So I came back for a dine in and I was very pleased.
The customers service is great.
Very polite and smiley.
As usual it’s 15 min wait for a take out (purfect with me)…
I like their Philadelphia roll.
Cali mix, avocado, salmon, cream cheese (NOT A LOT)
and top WHAMMY smoked salmon…
So for 7.75 $ I couldn’t really taste da cream cheese…
I would prefer to pay 6.75 $ per roll but it’s still good… So…
Their Manna roll is more tasteful cuz the deep-​fried prawns tempura…
That’s all for now!

One of the best sushi choices around the block but I don’t like the fact the close 3p to 5p everyday.
The service though is always nice and friendly!

Well the service was kind and pleasant, although the waiter was a bit confused about differences between some sushi. That’s the good news. The food itself wasn’t worth what I paid for it (and it was relatively cheap). The rice was cold and tasteless– considering the fact that I have received my order a minute after placing it it’s no surprising.

Great space, but not good place to eat and hanging with friends, cheap way of running business, when you pass through the kitchen to bathroom you can see the kitchen area is tight as student dom.
Price and food qty were not match. Well, I like thick one. Here can’t satisfy me.

For the area, not much other than Aqua Sushi which serves great healthy sushi, so thought MS would give me the craving for the saucier special rolls but sadly missed the mark.
With new restos, I play it safe and order the Cali and Negitoro roll. Not only were the rolls not made tight together, wasn’t enough green onions. And I like a lot lol.
Nice décor and booth seating, but that’s about it.
Another Korean-​operated joint.

Oh, I’m sorry I came here for dinner. Sushi preparation is sloppy and made me sad. (I uploaded a picture) I tried a yam tempura roll and it’s just cold, a bit greasy and a loose wrap. The spicy tuna roll is just plain sloppy presentation. The Wakame salad was fine. The Red Dragon roll is passable.

Nice ambiance and good food. The staff were very friendly, making for a pleasant dining experience. I loved the Volcano Roll. It had real fire in the middle of the dish! Very creative.
I would definitely come again.

Terrible. Save yourself and go a few blocks down to Clubhouse instead.
We went for lunch with hubs and a baby, after we sat down nobody came back. We had to ask for the menu. When we said we were ready we had to flag down the waitress who took our order and removed the menus… Only to have another waitress give us menus as if we just sat down.
The food took over 45 min to arrive. It was so long in fact the hubs took the baby home as he couldn’t wait any longer. When the food did finally come out it was in the weirdest order that had my husband stayed his order wouldn’t have came out till mine was done. There were another customer sitting next to us who also waited so long he asked where his food was. The response he got was «are you in a hurry?».
Nobody came to check to see how the food was and when I finally finished nobody came to give me the bill. I looked around and by this time the lunch crowd had cleared out and I was one of maybe 3 tables. Yet no one came around.
The food is pretty blah. Nothing to shake a leg at. Except for the décor everything was Bleh. Seriously do not go here… I hope they improve soon because the current state is garbage.

Don’t get the Nabe Udon. Giant bowl, small portions. And also it only came in a regular bowl (not a stone/​clay pot) so the egg didn’t even cook at the end. I like my egg a bit runny, but this was pretty much raw. I did, however, enjoy their tempura. The batter had an interesting herb/​spice mixed in. That was pretty much the only thing I liked about my Nabe Udon.
My coworkers got the combo/​bento boxes and fancy sushi rolls which seemed pretty decent. They try to make their sushi presentation pretty which I appreciated.
They do have a parking lot at the back but it was strange. The parking was packed but the restaurant was only half full.
Would I come rushing back again? Probably not.
PS. Korean run Japanese restaurant.