Samurai Japanese Restaurant

Definitely a place you come for quantity, not quality. But boy do they fill you up! The oyako-​don was a saviour when I was a broke student — rice, egg, glass noodles, AND tender morsels of chicken on top of that! Add some sichimi seasoning and you have yourself a meal. Nowadays I go for the robata, mainly the salmon collar and sanma. Both are grilled to perfection and come with a side of lemon and grated ginger to cut the richness. Explore the menu! There’s so much more to them than the standard giant California rolls and thick-​cut sashimi (don’t get me wrong, I adore those as well).

Cheap sushi. Better than some cheap sushi places but still not worth going to. I recommend Yamato not too far away on Davie and Seymour

You come here for this reason combo: price, taste, and size/​portion. You don’t come here for amazing sushi. It’s quantity over quality. I’d say it’s better than Sushi Nanaimo and others on that level.
The rolls are quite big and generous. They also cut it into 6 – 8 pieces but these pieces are huge. You’re playing chubby bunny with sushi! I’d say if they cut it into regular sizes, you’re looking more at 10 – 12 pieces.
The ikura nigiri was delicious. Those little sacks of awesomeness were fresh and popped in my mouth. The amaebi were decent but nothing amazing. Not as «juicy» as at places like Shiro though.
The beef sashimi was AWFUL. It was cut thicker and it was so tough to chew. I only had one bite and couldn’t eat the rest of my dish. I’ll never get that again here.
The chicken udon on the other hand was delicious. They gave a ridiculously large portion of chicken. The soup base was really nice and not overly salty. I’d get it again. YUM!
I’d come here again to fill up.

Sushi bites are huge, but the fillers they put in them make them taste watered down. The sake also tasted like they added hot water. Will not be coming back.
Service was good though.: /

I was here a few days ago visiting from Edmonton and looking for good sushi. A friend of mine suggested this place on the infamous Davies street.
I was so excited as I know that vancouver has some amazing sushi. I was not disappointed. When we got there it was quiet and we were greeted very warmly. The server gave us a list of the daily specials. I was extremely hungry so I ordered a lot.
We ordered a bento box, dragon rolls, beef maki, and salmon rolls. Starting with the bento box they brought out the miso soup and it was delightful. Then they brought out the chicken teriyaki bento box it was a hearty portion size. I was surprised and overwhelmed in a good way. I love large portions. All of the rolls were amazing with the smoked bc salmon. Everything was fresh. I have to mention the deep fried tofu omg yum the spicy sauce on it was prime! There was no heavy fish smell in there and the service was great. It began to get very busy and they had one server but I can tell it’s popular.
I thought it couldn’t get any better until I saw the bill! I posted the receipt as proof! a little over 15 bucks!!!
So great! Will be back when I’m in van city! Great value sushi!

Very bad experience, ramen is too oily, ask more soup got refused, won’t be visit again

We went there for the first time yesterday and were very disappointed with the quality of food. We only tried sushi so I can’t attest to anything else. We ordered 3 rolls (dynamite, spicy tuna, and another with fried shrimp) and 1 salmon battera. We had miso soup to start, which was great! The rolls had way too much rice on them to begin with, the spicy tuna was slimy in texture and tasted like it was canned somehow. We found a bone in one of the rolls, which was outputting. We couldn’t finish it.
The service was amazing though. They provided hot tea right away and were very friendly and helpful.
Unfortunately, we won’t be returning. Nothing can make up for the poor quality of sushi.

Have been a customer for years but recently the quality has really deteriorated. Decided to give them another chance today. I ordered 2 roles and spinach gomaei. The Tuna and roll smelled so bad i almost threw up. And the california roll had brown Avocado. The spinach goamei was still frozen. This place used to be great i wonder what happened. My $$ went straight to the garbage can.

Great restaurant!
Always busy and seems like everyone goes through the unavoidable line up. But the wait is worth it.
The food is cheap and delicious. Samurai provides excellent quality food with a very efficient staff. Everything in the menu seems so delicious, and my recommendation is to try the spicy salmon sashimi.
The only area where I think the restaurant can be improve is the overall feel and brightness of the restaurant. Although, regulars come here often and prolly doesn’t care, being new can actually deter me from coming in here.
Also the sushi size can be smaller for people with smaller mouths. The sushi they provide are a mouthful and hard to eat. I lose my appetite when I can’t eat my food properly.
Overall the restaurant is a must visit and hope hat they can improve from what they have. But I must say this is one of my top sushi place in the downtown area.

This sushi place is a bam bam bam for me XD. My house is aproximately 40 minutes from this place and i still love to come here. I almost always order for take out so i couldnt comment on the service.
The food is great. I love tuna and salmon sashimi, they look fresh 90% of time (there were 2 – 3 times that i though it taste&look weird). The BBQ eel on rice (sorry forget the name) is also my favorit. However, I am not a big of their sushi rolls. I have tried california, dynamite roll, house roll, alaska roll. I think their shushi is quite average… i would give them 3.5 if i look at the shushi roll alone.

This is usually the place to go for late night sushi craving as it closes the latest among the other ones on Davie Street. Price is definitely one of the cheapest in town and not to mention their HUGE portions. Keep in mind one roll equals two. I’ve heard coworkers getting diarrhea afterwards but out of my many years with Samurai, I’ve never had that issue before. Service is usually good, restaurant looks tidy and neat. There are also specials posted on the walls. Meter street parking available.

More of a 3.5 stars, but I’ll round up :)
Inexpensive local sushi place. The obaasan serving was friendly too. As I already had a light dinner when I arrived to the area, I didn’t order much at Samurai. For nigiri, we ordered amaebi, ikura, aji, and tako. For rolls, we got scallop and special request: maguro natto. Though maguro natto roll wasn’t on their menu, the chef was willing to make it for us.
Unfortunately, they did not have any uni in stock. I was really sad as that is my favorite but obaasan said it wasn’t fresh this week so they didn’t get it. My aunt said that their uni is very tasty usually.
Overall, a nice place to go for a quick bite in a mom and pop type of place.

Bam! The trifecta of sushi! Super fresh, super massive portions, super cheap prices! This adorable hole in the wall definitely stand outs from the rest of the millions of sushi joints on the same block.
We found this place by asking a local where their favorite sushi restaurant was and they lead us to here. Each roll was $ 4– $ 6 a piece and miso soup, a $ 1.50.
Plus, each roll was so delicious, smoked salmon, fresh shrimp, avocado galore! We only plan to be in Vancouver for a couple days but we are definitely coming back before we leave back for the states.

Cheap inexpensive and quick to go sushi if you are in a hurry! Sashimi are fresh
Nothing gourmet though! And not a place that has a good atmosphere for friends gathering… But it U are starving or if U are just looking for a quick to go dinner it is highly recommended!

Brown rice option.
Ambiance & Service ³⁄₅.
Food ³⁄₅
Location ⁴⁄₅ next bus routes, Walkable and bike-​able from burrard st bridge
Price ⁴⁄₅. Cheap eats for big portions

The sushi is good but the service is pretty bad.
I usually never give bad reviews on Unilocal but this time I have to mention that the service is not that great. I have been to Samurai already a few times but the last 2 times the server were super rude. We got to order in a rush, we got send outside to wait & we got the wrong order! When we noticed that it isn’t what we ordered we got told in a really rude way that it will take about 30 more minutes to get our correct order (after we waited already over half an hour). We left with the wrong order (it was a sunny day and we wanna to enjoy the sunset at the beach) and there we noticed that the wasabi was all over the sushi!!! A total fail!
I always liked the sushi at samurai & thats why we decided to get take out but that was even worst! sorry Samurai but I won’t come back to you! xo

Most people like to go to Samurai because you get great value for your money, and in this case you get ginormous pieces of sushi. Although quality wise might be better elsewhere, you will have to likely sacrifice in price and size. Since I’m all about the bang for my buck, I am a big fan of Samurai Sushi. It is a good combination of taste, amount of food, and cost. I had their croquette for the first time today and I strongly recommend it :) The tuna tataki however was a little too fishy :(
I usually prefer to take out from Samurai. The restaurant is rather on the dark side and could probably use an upgrade. They can get fairly busy so you might have to wait a tad longer than at other restaurants. Nevertheless, 4 stars!

The portion size and quality of food is pretty good. However, because of their popularity once they get busy hard to expect good service.

⁴⁄₅ happy new year
so i can’t benchmark this against other vancouver options. but on new year’s eve, we walked in w/​o reservations and had a feast.
first — wow so affordable. we ran out of tabletop for all we ordered, and paid just under $ 75. which for all the soup, rolls, tempura, etc. we had — amazing. those combos are terrific deals for the food you get.
which second — huge portions. the slices of sashimi were like more than an inch thick, which actually made eating them a bit of an issue, as others have noted in their reviews. but whatever dude, i will bite it in half and just have even more to eat. the amount of sashimi that came as a side in my combo was more than i’ve had served as a main in other restaurants. and the fish had decent flavor! the tea was served hoooot which was exactly what we needed to thaw out a bit. their house roll are about as thick as a small palm — definitely gets challenging. but again, for the value just go for it!
if i lived in VC, i’d imagine i’d be here quite a bit.

This place was so good that my friends and I came here twice in two days, and we don’t even live in Canada!
While bigger is not necessarily better, Samurai manages to take a stab and really load up their sushi rolls with more rice, more ingredients, and more happiness. Their House Roll is huge and comes out to about $ 8 for eight enormous pieces.
The real gem here are the massive pieces of sashimi for cheap! For a plate of ten pieces (five salmon, five maguro) costing just under $ 11, there was no turning back. The slices were thick and very generous! On top of that, ten slices of toro for about the same price is just unheard of especially in California.
Happy hour also lets you sip on $ 3.50 Sapporo drafts– another win in my book. The restaurant also closes around midnight, so it’s definitely a place to enjoy a late night supper if you want fish. In fact, both times we came here, it was our 2^nd or 3^rd meals of the night. We couldn’t let the amazing deal go to waste!
Seating is limited so smaller groups will get you in quicker. Enjoy the sashimi! So worth it.