Ajisai Sushi

Another pictureless post; I should really remember to bring my camera!  Hubbs and I tried Ajisai Sushi in Kerrisdale tonight, after reading a lot of favourable reviews for the place.  I'd read that they don't do a lot of cooked goods but their sushi is fresh, and some of their more special cuts of fish are flown in from the motherland.  That got me curious.

We arrived at about 6:55 on a Saturday evening and the place was packed.  We were put on a waiting list for the next available seat, and were told we'd be waiting for more than 30 minutes.  Luckily, a lot of their patrons on the waiting list were picky about sitting at a real table (versus on stools at a side table or at the sushi bar), so we were seated in about 15 minutes at the side table.

Keep in mind that Ajisai is tiny, and at best can seat about 30 people.  Given there were 10 ahead of us in line, the wait wasn't bad and as beggars we weren't going to be choosers table wise.  When we got to our seats we immediately ordered some green tea and began making a list of all of the things we wanted (we were starved).  We ended up ordering the Special Unagi Roll, 2 pieces each of their special nigiri sushi, some gunyan sushi, a plate of toro sashimi, a crispy hot tuna roll, a pressed anago roll, and a negitoro roll.  We weren't thrilled with the pressed roll (too much rice, and not enough fish) but the rest of the food was remarkably fresh and very enjoyable.  In fact, it was good enough to tie with our favourite all-time sushi restaurant, Wasabi Sushi in E-town.  We especially liked their specialty fish (young yellowtail, Japanese mackerel, Spanish mackerel) and their special unagi roll (which contained asparagus, avocado, scallop and unagi).  Hubbs really enjoyed the negitoro, but he's biased towards it anyway.  The toro sashimi was tender and nearly melted in our mouths; I think that was my favourite of the night. 

The service was also quite quick (though not super-friendly) considering how busy the place was.  We inhaled our food and from arrival to departure, our eating adventure only took about an hour.  Impressive, or perhaps just incredibly gluttonous - I'm not sure which one just yet.  Anyway, our bill was steeper than I had expected (each piece of nigiri cost about $3.00 and we blew $12 on that pressed fish thing) but the quality of the food nearly justified the higher-than-normal costs.  

Will we be back? Yes, but probably for the sushi and not for that pressed stuff.  We're always on the hunt for the freshest and tastiest raw fish in the city, so if you think there's a better alternative than Ajisai, speak up!  Otherwise, this is our new favourite non-izakaya, non-AYCE sushi joint in Van.

Service: 3.5 out of 5

Food: 5 out of 5