This review is a long time coming! Matsuzushi has been on my to-try list for many years. They are known for their fresh, authentic sushi at reasonable prices. In particular, their affordable omakase is very popular and what most people get! We finally came here in January and it did not disappoint.

Matsuzushi is a small, inconspicuous husband and wife run shop in Port Moody (similar to Kilala Sushi in Burnaby).

The restaurant is already quite small but with the COVID restrictions, they had 5 tables open if I recall correctly. A reservation is highly recommended and you may be turned away if they are fully booked.

At first, the sushi chef was awkward and intimidating to us when we were sitting at the bar. He kept staring at us expressionless, boring deep into our soul (I think he was trying to be funny??) and it felt uncomfortable. The restaurant was also dead silent so it made it even more uncomfortable. However, he warmed up as the evening went on and we got used to his sense of humour.

Since omakase varies daily, I won’t go into full detail of each piece we received that day. The omakase was $35, which included 11 nigiri pieces, 1 hand roll and a miso soup. This was an incredible deal considering most omakase places are around $50-$200+.

Since I don’t remember all the names and the omakase changes each day, I will just post the pictures.

Every piece was delicious and we had no complaints. Most of the sashimi just melted in our mouth and was so incredibly fresh. Check out that glisten!

Despite the cheaper price, the quality was not sacrificed.

The sashimi was extremely fresh and high quality. It reminded me of the sushi in Japan, and made me miss Japan even more than I already do.

The mouth watering, blue fin tuna. Look at how fatty and rich that is!

The bottom piece was the crab, which was our least favourite. The crab had a lot of salt on top, and was way too salty.

We ended our omakase with a creamy, sweet, and fresh uni. It was amazing. The temaki cone that day was a blue fin negitoro, which was so delicious. I need to stop using the word delicious so much in this post, but I don’t know how else to describe it!

We also ordered some beef sashimi as well. This was delicious and fresh too. The garlic was sliced in front of us and was very strong. We had garlic breath after but it complemented the beef sashimi very well.

A bowl of miso soup also came along with the omakase. The taste was pretty standard, but there was more tofu pieces inside than other restaurants.

I’m not even sure how the husband and wife profit from such cheap omakase, especially with expensive items like blue fin tuna and uni, but I’m not complaining!

We will definitely be back for omakase.  I’m glad we finally checked out this gem! Matsuzushi is quietly tucked away in Port Moody but it is worth the drive.

A couple of years ago when delivery apps were just starting out, the fiance and I ordered Osaka Sushi often. It was our go-to sushi place for delivery and I also wrote a review on it.

Over the past year or more, we stopped ordering from them because they aren’t on UberEats or DoorDash, the 2 apps we use most. Skip sent us a coupon and we decided to order Osaka Sushi again for old times sake.

Salmon sashimi: The salmon sashimi was delicious and very fresh. I was craving sashimi that day and I was very satisfied afterwards.

Salmon roll: Just like the sashimi, the salmon in the maki roll was fresh and tasty. No complaints here!

Negitoro roll: The fiance loves his negitoro roll. As usual, the negitoro was fatty and melted in our mouth. There was a good amount of crunchy chopped green onions too.

Negihama roll: The negihama roll was good too. The tuna was fatty and fresh.

Chopped scallop roll: The chopped scallop roll had fresh scallops with a nice snap to it. No complaints here either.

Chicken teriyaki roll: We usually don’t order chicken teriyaki roll except for at Osaka Sushi. The chicken teriyaki inside was delicious. It still had some crunch to it despite being delivered. The chicken was marinated well and very flavourful.

Overall, we had a great meal and remembered why we like Osaka Sushi so much. It is pretty under the radar and not as popular as other places in The Heights (Tentatsu, Sushi Uomo, Kilala Sushi, and Hiro Sushi), but it has not disappointed us over the few years.   

I have always been a big fan of Ebi-Ten, having gone there many times in the past decade. I wrote a previous review on it 1.5 years ago if you may remember. Usually, I don’t write re-visit posts if I’ve already written something in the past 2 years ish, but our delivery experience recently was disappointing that I wanted to share.

Ebi-Ten is a Japanese fast food restaurant in downtown. It is pretty small, and mostly for quick meals. There are a lot of these places in Japan but not many in Vancouver. From what I remember, they only serve hot meals such as rice bowls or noodle soup, and don’t have sashimi or rolls. Manpuku Bento opened up recently this year which has a similar style as Ebi-Ten, they are the only other restaurant I can think of that has Japanese style fast food.

Since we enjoy Ebi Ten so much in person, we thought we’d get delivery! However, it ended up being so disappointing that we wouldn’t get delivery again probably.

Chicken katsu curry combo: The fiance went with the chicken katsu. The curry was delicious and comforting. You really can’t go wrong with Japanese curry. Most Japanese curry is made from the instant packets so they taste the same. This means that it’s pretty easy to make at home but sometimes you just want curry quickly!

The size of the chicken katsu was disappointing though. Compared to Manpuku, the chicken pieces were pretty small. It was not worth the price although they were crunchy and flavourful.

In addition, Ebi Ten forgot the miso soup that came with the combo.

For size comparision, you can see how much more chicken we received at Manpuku. It’s hard not to compare the two places!

Tempura udon: Continuing on the disappointment, my tempura udon was pretty disappointing too. The size of the udon was small and not filling.

The tempura udon came with 2 pieces of shrimp tempura, and a vegetable patty that was a mix of chopped carrots and onions. I haven’t seen tempura served like this! Taste wise, the tempura was pretty good and still crunchy but again, it wasn’t filling. For the price, it was definitely not worth it and I was disappointed.

Overall, we were disappointed with Ebi-Ten’s delivery despite having many great meals in-person previously. The portions were small and not worth the price.

Sometimes, restaurants aren’t as good for take out/delivery and Ebi-Ten would be one of those. If we were craving Japanese rice bowls, we’d be better off having Manpuku for delivery instead. I would still go to Ebi-Ten in person though.