Ji Sushi on West Broadway & Cambie St

I just realized I am about two months behind in my posts... I have two months of yummy food to share with everyone but no, it's not happening yet because it has been so busy! I was studying hard for my exam which was in June, and then proceeded to plan for our two-week vacation in Singapore and Malaysia. In July, I took two weeks off work for the actual vacation part and it's been pretty chaotic since I got back.. So much to do, and still got to keep on top of my books!

*Posts are slowly being updated and backdated to appropriate dates.*

I'll try to do as best as I can, but I can't say for sure when I can clear my backlog.. Here's a quick post for you guys...

Last week, before J.S. got his wisdom teeth out, we decided to have a celebratory meal before his gums take a week to recover. We opted for Ji Sushi, a newly opened sushi restaurant on Cambie and Broadway.

We had seen it with a special banner for its opening, advertising $10.95 all-you-can-eat sushi. By the time we went there last week, the banner was gone and all-you-can-eat sushi is now $13.95. We went in anyway and had to wait as a manager-looking man took his time to show us to our table.

It was a fairly small restaurant, and we got a booth seat toward the inside of the restaurant. We told the waiter we wanted all-you-can-eat and he gave us two menus. A quick look at the menu told us something was not right -- the price said $18.95. We quickly flagged him down and verified with him.

It turned out that there were two variations of all-you-can-eat. The more expensive option was with sashimi and the other one was just the rest of the regular menu items. We opted for the non-sashimi one since we are not that big of sashimi fans.



We were given a slip of paper with the menu items on it, but no actual menu to look at what the items look like. Never mind that; we are pretty familiar with most of the things on these AYCE menus.



We got some appetizers and sushi to start, and had to wave for five minutes before our order slip was whisked away by an unfriendly waiter. Meanwhile, we heard other waiters explain at the other tables about the two AYCE menus available, much to my disappointment that we did not get any of that.

Our food took almost 20 minutes to come as we see the waitress haphazardly placing dishes on the other tables. We concluded that they filled each order slip as they come in, and not having a certain person prepare a certain group of dishes etc. (ie. specialization).

Don't you think that's an inefficient way to fill orders? I mean, how much work and effort does it take to serve a bowl of miso soup? We ordered one but it never came. And even dishing out a portion of salad would take mere seconds, but it all came at the same time as the other dishes that took some time to make or cook. But yet the orders were not perfect, as we handed in two more order slips and they missed a dish here and there every now and then.



The food was alright for such a low-cost all-you-can eat. The sushi was good if you are looking for quantity and not quality. I was surprised by their generosity with the salmon in the first hand cone we ordered, but got disappointed when I ordered a second one. Inconsistency indeed.



We also ordered some grilled items like pork and saba fish. I was in utter disbelief that the grilled fish was not deboned! I had a lot of trouble eating it and J.S. ate most of it...

Over all, it was a surprising experience. The food was decent, but the service could be better. It is a convenient location and the price is reasonable. Lack of pictures because we ordered too many different small dishes and it was difficult to snap every single dish AND remember what it was :P

*As of January, 2012, we have been there about two more times and we learned our lesson and dared not order anymore fish lest there were bones in them. We found the sushi to be worth it if we ate a lot.*

Ji Sushi is located at 457 West Broadway, Vancouver, B.C.

♥ Nikki