It seems that once or twice a year, I find myself staying at the Hilton Burnaby and going to Sushi Garden for dinner....but not this year!! After calling ahead and getting wait times (ugh) at SG we decided to give this neighborhood sushi joint a try instead and were overall quite pleased with our choice. The sake was chilled and plentiful (found a new favorite here, check out Gekkeikan Draft Sake) and the rolls fresh. The spicy tune (my colleague's benchmark for the quality of a Sushi joint) was a bit off-putting in texture but redeemed itself in taste. Service was prompt, prices not too damaging. All in all a nice evening, and in a peaceful quiet surrounding, too (unlike Sushi Garden). Will probably alternate between the two in years to come... read more

The staff is so fabulously attentive and friendly (pretty sure they're all japanese!). My absolute favorite is the tuna tataki...I always find a benchmark for my favorite dishes, and so far, the tuna tataki at Isami's has so far held it's spot as my #1 for Tuna Tataki :) It's got a sweet and spicy-gingery sauce going on that my husband and I just gobble up. I also love the chopped scallop roll. The prices are consistent with Vancouver, and the quality is top-notch. I used to live in Vancouver-Burnaby (now in Seattle). Whenever I go back, I always get my REAL sushi fix at either Sushi Garden or at Isami Sushi. Isami's right around the corner from Sushi Garden, so if Sushi Garden (super popular) is too busy, hop around the corner! I love Sushi Garden too, but sometimes their lineups are too long, and their sushi somehow a tiny bit less authentic than Isami (c'mon, I know that they have made their mark by making BIG sushi, but isn't sushi supposed to a one-bite thing, not a 3-4 bite affair?) and sometimes I just want a really relaxing place to sit instead of the hectic affair they've got going on at Sushi Garden (very in and out, which is fine and part of the experience, but one doesn't want that all the time!). read more

Food quality has definitely gone down, this place used to be my go to for sushi. Things just aren't as high quality as they used to be and there are a lot of new staff members in all areas of the restaurant. Today I ordered my usual sushi cone combo and rolls. The cones fine with the exception of the negitoro cone. Biting in I found two bones the size of my pinky. Immediately the manager realized the situation and offered me another, which also ended up having a bone in it. I lost my appetite after the first cone, but wanted to try again because i liked Isami so much. I wasn't fussy just put it aside and said everything was fine and then I overheard one of the new chefs say "the negitoro cone always has bones." I've had the negitoro at every restaurant I've been to and never have I ever encountered bones. read more

Was visiting here from San Francisco, saw this on Yelp, but was not sure as it had very few reviews. Got more concerned when I saw it was not busy. To my surprise it was a great Sushi place!! I sat at the bar and asked the chef, who turned out to be the owner, to "fix me" and wow!! Amazing stuff, I didn't wanna ask him what each one was, I just wanted to enjoy. So the next time you are in Metro town, go to Isami, ask for Sami and tell him to "fix you". Then I got the bill, another pleasant surprise, coming from the Bay area we always expect to pay a lot for Sushi, this was very reasonable. Very surprise this place does not have more reviews. Highly recommend the place for their service and food. read more

Best yakisoba and california rolls by far. The service is also excellent. This is one of the best Japanese restaurants in the lower mainland. It's a humble little place that's easy to miss but shouldn't be missed. read more

I love this place so much so then I come here very often for lunch or dinner!! I particularly love Isami's Uni and salmon nigiri sushi.. it's just so great! You should try then! I can't say enough about that. I've tried so many menus like salmon don, salmon & tuna roll, sashimi, tempura, udon, soba, beef teriyaki, chiken garage, bbq squid, and more stuff.. most of them are quite good especially the quality of salmon! The price is also reasonable! What is more, everyone in this restaurant is super nice :-)) read more

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Authentic Japanese restaurant... Best in the area. Family run, been around for 3 decades with husband and wife still running the joint.

Very slow service, bill never came. everyone is busy, you can get away without paying. We lined up to pay but cash register was doing take out. Then waitress started to clean our table without wondering where we were. Because of the wait, food wasn't that great anymore. read more

We discover this small and cosy hidden gem by accident. This is an automatic Japanese restaurant! Owner and waiters are very polite and courteous! Japanese foods are the best in town! Love the Eskimo row, inari sushi, sashimi so fresh.....to bad Sunday we went there again was closed! It would be our third time in a week we go there. read more

I went to this place with a friend, hoping that we could get some good sushi at a reasonable price. We were greatly disappointed, There is way too much sauce on the sushi, most likely to cover up the poor quality of the fish, and the roles are mostly composed of rice. It was a great disappointment. Additionally, the waiters were not at all attentive and the order took too long. They weren't even that busy. It seemed the waitress prefers to chat up with her colleagues rather than do her job. Would not recommend ! read more

The food is ok, but the service is so slow, had to wait 35 minutes for a simple tuna and avocado rolls. It' s been 50 minutes so far and I still didn't get my karaage. Definitely not comming back and would not recommend this place. read more

Good price for good food. Once the restaurant got busy, the service became a bit slow. I ordered a glass of water and waited for about five more minutes. read more

Reasonable sushi. Slightly expensive but a lot of variety. Nice setting as well!

This is out favorite sushi place in Burnaby. Good price, quality food and good service.

Food was good, but the service was just terrible! They were busy, but it's not like they had a shortage of staff. Seems to be just bad management and incompetence. Didn't get menus and utensils until we asked for it. Took almost an hour to get our food and even then, they had missed some orders. Saw a couple of tables get up and left. They were unapologetic about the situation too. read more

Yes I finally found a real Japanese restaurant with Japanese servers and cooks in Burnaby! I definitely recommend this place! I ordered California, kamikaze rolls which were very good. Nice service, good design and cute staff's uniforms. Love it! read more

Went by myself for a business meeting out of town, got this recommendation and thought I would try. I sat at the sushi bar and the chef made me some great dishes to try. Very good selection, fresh and priced right. Very good service and nice people. Would go back! read more

Great hide away spot for some local sushi! Staff was great and very courteous and provided large portions. Recommend them if you're in the area. read more

Like previous reviews. The food is great. It's authentic and delicious. However, the wait is what depreciates the rating. We were seated almost immediately which was nice. But the wait for service and the length of time for your order to come to your table was disappointing. As we were waiting for our last dish to come to our table (40 mins after ordering) this other couple sat down and they seemed like regulars, chit chatting with the staff. They ordered and their food comes out minutes later. In the future, we may just do take out ‍ read more

this restaurant is overrated. I am not a hard pleaser in terms of food or service, but what they have there is really not that fantastic. And their service is HORRIBLE. We asked for tea 7 times and non of those times they served us tea. And mind you, we even took our cups to them eventually because we were so thirsty, but we didn't come back with tea either. We finally got our tea the 8th time. And they gave us cold tea instead of hot tea which we asked for. It also took 30 min for the bill to actually get to the table too. There are much better spots for Japanese food around town, and I WILL NOT recommend this place to anyone for whatever they have to offer (if any). read more

Sushi was excellent, but service was very lacking. Definitely worth trying. read more

Isami Sushi - Japanese Near Me - Burnaby, British Columbia

Me and my husband ordered take out and were really disappointed when we got back home. Small rolls, to much sauce, the lack of fish. Sashimi is ok, but too thinly sliced. The bigest surprise was Teriyaki - watery sauce, absolutely dry chicken breasts and some bean sprouts. It's a mystery why Kadoya is rated like a good restaurant. read more

I have been going to this authentic Japanese restaurant since 2007. This is my favourite J restaurant. All meals are delicious, love their BBQ seafood, caterpillar rolls(just melt in your mouth), yaki soba, beef sashimi and so on. The chief chef is the owner and the lady behind the cashier is the wife. It's a family restaurant which has been there for more than 2 decades. The staffs are most Japanese. The restaurant is not too big, so I will recommend going there in the week days for dinner since weekend could be really busy and you won't get better service. read more

Possibly my favourite sushi place. The food is always great and the staff are always friendly. I recommend the vegetable udon soup.

This is my new favourite sushi restaurant when I am in the Metrotown area. The place is a small family-run authentic Japanese sushi restaurant and it is so cozy. The service was a little slow, but they were very busy with lots of large groups. It was just two of us. The food was worth the wait! The sashmi was wonderful, fresh tasting and melted in my mouth. I am allergic to soy, sesame, dairy, citric acid & wheat and they answered my questions about the rolls and left of the sesame, ginger & wasabi for me. I can't wait to go back to try some more rolls. read more

The Metrotown area has a serious drought in good sushi. Isami does the best in the area, and you can get some quality food if you pick carefully. Stay away from the lunch box special, deep fried rolls, and the gomae is truly terrible (made with mayo, not sesame). Besides that, everything else is A-OK. They make a particularly good tempura soba. Guaranteed, you'll do a lot worse going anywhere else in Metrotown. read more

Ordered an Uni sushi and it tasted great. Good service.

This is my favorite Japanese restaurant. Quality food at great prices. Staff is friendly. Great drinks, from Japan, too!

food is good and consistently so. sushi is fresh and the california roll has real crab. i always have the spinach gomae since his is the best i have ever had. the yakatori chicken and the karage chicken is good. my son likes salmon cheeks at isami's. everything i have ever eaten there has been tasty. isami's is a gem which i have revealed to a few friends. they are always delighted and pleased. read more

This place is amazing, great service, very friendly and the best sushi in town. Tried the kamakasi roll and the eskimo roll and they were so delicious. Love how this is family owned and they bring out the rolls as they are ready so you don't have to wait for the whole order to be complete. I would totally recommend this place and I look forward to going back again. read more

I believe this is the only actual Japanese own Japanese restaurant in the metrotown area. Good quality food, friendly service. However, their waitress has been changed over the times. Recommended! read more

The staff are always friendly and polite. The food is always good and fresh. The only downside preventing 4 stars is the service is slow. All my dinners are approximately an hour long. read more

Absolutely loved it!! The service was great, the sushi was excellent, and the owner/sushi chef was so friendly and polite! We went nearly closing time, but they had no problem and we had a nice chat with the owner before we left, after closing. Too bad we found this gem of a restaurant on our last night there. My husband jokingly said we should move to Canada just for this place. No place in Hawaii will ever beat this place for the quality, service, and exceptional prices! Hope to see you again soon! read more

Poor sushi at fair prices. Veeeeeeeery slow service. Don't bother with this place unless you have two hours to waste.

Didn't like it at all. My set of sushi rolls was topped with some bad quality mayo that ruined it completely. The other set was just not tasty. Service was good though, so I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1. read more

The food is delicious. We have both cooked and raw food. Fish is impeccable. Ther service is good. This is a complete find. We come from Vancouver to visit and for a while we're going once a week! read more

Great Sushi,Friendly service and clean seating area and not overly crowded.

I went here and ordered the salmon roll, chicken udon, dynamite roll, and New York Steak. It was amazing because for just a low price, I could meet my expectations easily. I always go here casually whenever I shop at Metrotown. The waitresses are very polite and the food come as fast as possible. The boss always greets me whenever I come in. Overall, this restaurant deserves 5 stars because even though this place isn't as known as others, for example, Sushi Garden, it still fully meets a top Japanese restaurant's expectations. read more

Japanese owners which always makes the food taste authentic and it also means the staff are all pleasant. I wouldn't go with a big group f people because of tbe lack of seats. It is across metrotown so it has relatively easy access if you are not driving. I believe it is only street parking but not sure. read more

This place is a hidden gem in Burnaby - I always the order the chirashi when I come here and they have the freshest fish. Prices are very reasonably. Great traditional japanese sushi restaurant! read more