Shima-Ya Sushi

Went on New Years Eve so perhaps not the best representation of the food and their services.
There was at least four groups in there, including us, and we were all waiting for the food for at least a good twenty minutes. The sushi bar is in open view, and it wasn’t like the chef wasn’t working, but they were busy making sushi for their take out orders. Rolls were being made but being put into takeout containers.
When the food came it was only mediocre, you could tell that they rushed the entire process and was interested in getting all the orders out and the quality was just so so.
I give it a three star because I have enjoyed my meals here before, but this time was not the greatest experience.

My wife and I have been searching for an authentic Japanese restaurant… and this may be it. She’s from Osaka, the food capital of Japan, so she has really high standards when it comes to Japanese cuisine.
We went to this place at around 8pm… so it was after the dinner rush and before closing time, so it relatively empty when we arrived. Sat down immediately beside the windows, although we kind of regretted not sitting to see the sushi chef applying his trade. In any case, we had trouble deciding what to order as everything on the menu sounds (read?) delicious. We decided to just to order the Party Tray A. I can’t remember exactly what it consisted of, but I do remember negitoro rolls, california rolls, some salmon and tuna nigiri… probably a couple of other items too.
With all the rolls, they were very «integrated». It’s hard to describe exactly, but the rice was tender and moist… but not soggy or mushy. You can taste that it’s rice, but you can’t really feel the individual grain of rice. The nori or seaweed, it has the same moisture level as the rice, so you don’t tear it as you bite into it. Pretty much it «melts in your mouth».
The California roll is perhaps the best cali roll I’ve ever eaten. I mean, they don’t make them in Japan, so I can’t really compare to a hypothetical Japanese California roll, but I can definitely say it’s better than any other in town.
As for the nigiri, the salmon and tuna… perfect. Some places, the tuna may still be somewhat frozen inside, or there is a noticeable difference in temperature from the exterior and interior… but at Shima-​ya… the temperature for both fishes remained constant when you bite into it.
Once again, the fish had that «melt in your mouth» texture, plus the rice portion wasn’t too big nor the rice being dry around the edges. Just perfect.
Lastly, this restaurant is operated by actual Japanese people, which is nice for a change. While this establishment probably isn’t at par to back in Japan, this place is way better than other Japanese restaurants in town.

SO GOOD.
We came here from a Japanese friend’s recommendation claiming that this is the «best sushi restaurant in Vancouver». Well since even a Japanese said so, we gotta try it.
It didn’t disappoint.
There wasn’t a lot of space/​seats in the store so be prepared to make reservation or wait — we waited for about 45 min but luckily it wasn’t too bad as we took a stroll at the London Drugs next door.
Best dishes
1) California roll — MUST TRY because it literally melts in your mouth and I’m not kidding.
2) Shimaya house special roll — very light yet refreshing. The lettuce, chopped scallop, shrimps, avocado and cucumber deliver a surprisingly well mixture of tastes and textures in your mouth.
3) Green tea /​black sesame ice cream — not too sweet but very natural and strong flavour of green tea /​black sesame.
Price was quite reasonable — among the four of us we ended up paying for approx $ 20 per person after a full meal.
One of the best hole-​in-​the-​wall I found in Vancouver.

3.5*‘s This place is adorable… run by an older japanese couple, the space is small and cozy… with good/​clean food. For the prices, it’s a bit more expensive than Toshi, and a bit less delicious as well… but there’s no/​minimal wait. That’s gotta be a bonus, right?

An amazing family-​owned place for your fish cravings. The food is always fresh and the service is amazing.
We used to eat there often with my wife when we lived in the area, and will keep going there even if we we now live further.
It is a bit pricey, but every dollar spent is well spent! I still did not find any better unagi don than there, an absolute favorite!
It is quite small, but if you call ahead for a reservation, they never disapoint. The sushi chef is really nice, and will keep you entertained if you sit at the bar.
Highly recommended!

Tucked away on Victoria Drive, this little sushi shop can easily be missed. My friend and I came on a Tuesday night. It’s a small shop, with around 8 bar seats and table seating for about 12 people. It was good that we had a reservation because the place filled up by 7pm.
Their menu is simple, mostly sushi, sashimi, and rice bowls. There’s not too much cooked food selection. I was immediately drawn to the Alaska Don: hotate, uni, amaebi, ikura, on rice. All my favourite things in one bowl? Sold.
As the place was at capacity, there is a bit of a wait for food. My Alaska don looked and tasted just as delicious. Large pieces of scallops, the uni was fresh, and I really enjoyed the two types of prawns that they added on. It’s simplicity at its best. My friend’s chirashi don also looked tasty; there was a variety of different seafood.
We had also ordered a tuna gomae, but that took an additional 30 minutes to arrive. There is only one sushi chef in the whole restaurant, so if you’re patient, it’s well worth the wait. The tuna gomae had a blend of unique flavours– a sweet soy, sesame oil, a hint of the sesame paste, and a touch of yuzu. I relished every bite.
It’s a bit of a splurge when you come here, but overall I really enjoyed how fresh everything was. There’s minimal service as there’s only one waitress for the whole place. The food is the highlight here, and I’ll definitely be back for more Alaska don!

A couple of issues here, as I did not want sushi, I had the chicken udon for lunch and the waitress made my meal in the microwave. The owner only makes the sushi it seems. And the ingredients were minimal, chicken, packaged udon and green onion for $ 9 bucks. As this is only as small place the service is brutally slow but that is understandable as the waitress not only serves the tables but makes the non-​sushi orders. I also had the chawan– mushi but it came in a teacup, pretty chintzy portion. I used to live in Japan and wanted to support this place, but I simply cant get past these issues.

Love this place! It’s quite a small place so it can get packed quickly and the wait for the waitress might be a tad bit longer. Regardless it’s still a place that we love to come.
Their fish are really fresh and their fish kama (grilled fish neck) is always perfectly done.
Their tamago sushi is also really well done.
Their appetizers I would skip and just order more sushi.
For hot food, the oyako don and chicken udon are both delicious. It’s a little bit pricier for the amount but they are worth it!

I’ve been meaning to try this little «hidden gem» for awhile, and finally had a chance one night with 3 other girls (read: eat more variety).
Crab salad: chunks of real crab with roe and thinly sliced cucumber in mayo. Good. You must like crab to order it. I thought the roe was a smart decision as a textural addition.
BBQ Squid ($ 11) and BBQ mackerel ($ 8 – 10): both were great. Mackerel is hard to do wrong; I was really impressed with the squid — it was my second-​favourite dish of the evening. It was tender and baked plain. You eat it with grated ginger and soy sauce. There is also a sweet sauce that was offered to us, so we tried it both ways. I’d definitely order the squid again. Bonus: it normally costs $ 11, but because the squid was smaller today, we were charged $ 7.50, which I thought was lovely customer service.
Rolls: we ordered negitoro, negihama, chopped scallop, dragon (unagi & avocado), Shima-​Ya dynamite. The negitoro was excellent. The dragon was good, as was the chopped scallop. The rice is done well, and the seaweed is crispy. My negihama didn’t taste amazing — maybe the ratio of the green onion to hamachi didn’t agree with me? The shima-​ya dynamite is prawn w/​asparagus and avocado. It was honestly a disappointment and I wouldn’t order it.
Nigiri: we ordered salmon, toro, hamachi, chopped scallop, spicy chopped scallop. All were done well, with well sliced fish and good ratio to the rice.
BC don ($ 8): salmon skin on choice of rice (regular or sushi). This was my favourite dish of the whole night. We didn’t originally order it, but saw it on someone else’s table and decided to try it. The skin was super thin and crispy, and there was just enough salmon to make it not too «skin-​ny». I don’t know what the regular rice would have been like, but I’m glad I picked the sushi rice, because the chewiness lends well to the crispiness of the salmon skin. The rice comes with a splash of sweet soy sauce and also pickled ginger. I thought the flavours and textures were great. A definite win.
Overall, I think Shima-​Ya lives up to its reputation is a special gem in the Victoria-​41^st area. The sushi is authentic (the chef himself Japanese), the food fresh, the service, while sometimes lagging (they forget to refill our tea when busy), is full of consideration and you can tell they do care about pleasing their customers, being fair, and also making sure you know how to enjoy the food in the best way possible. I liked this place.
Note: they don’t have a liquor license and cannot do anything fried «due to being in a residential building» so if you’re looking for that, you need to look elsewhere.

Excellent quality sushi. Really a hole in the wall nobody knows about except local Japanese friends and relatives. But wow, super fresh. They do great work, and have a surprisingly robust menu for such a small restaurant.

We stopped by for a Saturday evening dinner and found the small mom and pop restaurant full. Thankfully, we called ahead and reserved a table (they had to turn away a couple of customers while we were there). Upon having sat down, we enjoyed a fantastic meal which comprised of the combo C platter, the tuna natto appetizer, the squid natto appetizer, the black cod (melt in your mouth buttery flavored fish with the perfect amount of exterior grilled char), salmon collar (just as perfectly done as the black cod), salmon skin nigiri, and a couple of other items.
Needless to say, my group thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Three of us in the group are from LA and I would have to say I’m very particular when it comes
to food, especially Japanese food, so I am very picky about what I eat. That being said, I was impressed with the quality and flavor of what I had.
Service was great as well. I highly recommend this restaurant.

5 stars for the vinegar!!! We came from Portland to just look around and eat. After spotting a review that recommended this place we decided to give it a try. at first the prices seemed a bit high for a hole in the wall sushi joint but I quietly wondered how they could stay in business if over priced? We decided to try the sunomomo and seaweed salad to start. I watched the sushi chef put it all together and as he handed us our order I noticed this didn’t look like any Japanese cucumber salad I’d ever seen. But the first taste!!! We had never tasted anything as delightful, ever! The additional orders of sashimi and sushi were very good also but the home made vinegar deserves some serious accolades!

This place has reviews all over the map.
Shima-​Ya is a tiny little restaurant outside of the core. I think you need a car to get here. No idea about public transit.
All the fish was delicious. Very generous pieces sitting on top of not too much rice.
I was impressed by the quality and selection of the sushi omakase. For $ 31, I felt it was more than reasonably priced. We ordered additional nigiri because there wasn’t quite enough (we eat a lot), but even on a per piece price point, it was definitely fair.
I can understand how people may think this is expensive but from this Toronto person’s point of view, you’re so lucky! West coast sushi… the fish is amazing and totally worth it.
I’m definitely a fan!

This place was just OK for me.
First off, it’s super hidden. I’ve actually been here before, but didn’t realize the name. This place is located beside 128 hair salon. Not easy to spot while driving pass because the store is kind of covered by a tree on the sidewalk.
I found it expensive. Yes the sushi was good, but perhaps I didn’t appreciate it as much as other people.
One thing that I feel deters me away from going back is the small space.
We walked in for dinner and two tables that they had were both reserved so we had to sit at the bar. We had to convince them to let us sit in the corner so we can get more surface room. I like to order a variety of dishes so a small standard bar space in front of me wouldn’t be enough. We definitely needed that space once we received all of our food. However, they told us that they wouldn’t have to move us over if another party came in and wanted more than 2 seats. Side note: they couldn’t take many walk ins because they reserved all the actual tables.
Also, my friend and I were deep in conversation when we kept on hearing a «hey, hey, hey, hey, hey». Finally we looked up and it’s the sushi artist trying to hand us our food. This went on for everything we ordered.
The staff was friendly, but it came out to about $ 70 for both of us and we felt it wasn’t worth it.

I’m Japanese.
I was very disappointed about quality and over price.
I never want to eat at here.

You know you’re in the right place when you’re the only person in the restaurant not speaking Japanese…
This place takes the cake for authenticity! I may have had inflated expectations due to Unilocal but Shima-​Ya definitely met all of them! We mostly had sushi here and it was incredibly fresh, well portioned, and well seasoned. There were so many careful garnishes, and I really respected the time and attention to detail paid to each piece. We also ended up ordering a grilled squid out of curiosity, and was pleasantly surprised by how tender it was. The owner/​server also instructed us on eating it with a gingery paste, and upon our uncertainty, also provided some ponzu type sauce (which we much preferred). Very accommodating and understanding of our adventurous but tentative ways.

Overrated and overpriced.
My dining companion and I were in the area and in need of a bite to eat, so we went to this restaurant because it had a 4 star Unilocal rating. After seeing the prices on the menu, we considered going somewhere else ($ 14 for 6 pieces of salmon sashimi is outrageous), but we decided to stay and ordered rolls instead (~$ 3 – 4 each).
The service wasn’t very good. There were two other tables of 2 in the restaurant and it took about 25 minutes for our order to arrive (3 rolls, 2 nigiri and miso). The food wasn’t anything special and was only OK. The total was $ 25 which I thought was kind of expensive considering we didn’t get a lot of food.
Now that I’ve dined at this restaurant, it’s clear to me that it has some fake reviews — this place does not deserve a dozen 4 or 5 star ratings.
Shame on the faker reviewers out there. I won’t be back.

Food very good, good fish from Japan. Authentic? Yes. Big however! No alcohol and extremely ghetto.
Real authentic sushi without a sip of alcohol?! Very very strange… don’t thinkI’ll be back. Maybe for lunch. I expect some poor surroundings when going for Dim Sum but not with sushi. It should be more sanitary.

Unfortunately this place is *very* overated. I’ll explain why.
As you read some of the previous reviews by other users, there seems to be a pattern where the restaurant goes short on food, be it rice or sushi. At first I chalked this up to just bad luck for those people.
But this proven to be indeed the case. At first the waitress stated that they were out of salmon (and hence couldn’t fulfill my salmon nigiri order), which I accepted and picked something else. But then afterward the waitress came back and said, oh actually we can make your nigiri. OK — great, I thought.
But when the salmon nigiri came to my table — it looked like a bunch of hacked up small pieces squeezed together on top of the rice. This was bad, and taste definitely wasn’t there. The dynamite roll substitute was definitely quite different, but it felt as if they didn’t bother to chop up the asparagus into smaller pieces, it felt like a big chunk.
The rolls were just OK, the nigiri was bordering on bad, and what others said regarding service held true — service was slow for such a small place, and so few customers. Food wait time was long, general wait times for table service was lengthy. A little side note that the place also isn’t the easiest to find. It kind of blends into the Victoria Drive buildings and it’s awfully easy to miss.
And unfortunately for Shima-​Ya, it might as well be.

A was a bit disappointed by this restaurant. The seaweeds wrapping the chopped scallop sushi and Tobiko sushi were soggy when they were delivered to our table. The house special roll we ordered had little taste to it and fell apart easily.