Matsuzushi: $30 sushi omakase in Port Moody

Omakase is a Japanese word that means “I’ll leave it up to you”. Think of it as a tasting menu chosen by the chef.

In sushi omakase, usually the sushi chef will prepare each sushi in front of you and present you with one piece at a time. Watching the sushi chef prepare the sushi is a type of performance, if you will, and is an important part of the omakase experience.

I tried the omakase at Matsuzushi, a small and local sushi restaurant in Port Moody run by a senior Japanese couple.

Matsuzushi’s omakase is only $30 per person – a significant difference between other Vancouver omakase, which usually starts at $80+.

If you want bar seating, you need to make a reservation. You can still order omakase at a table, but Matsuzushi’s sushi chef will prepare all of the nigiri at once and place them in a box instead of preparing each piece and putting it on your plate for the full omakase experience.

The wait time between each nigiri was not too long even though the restaurant became busy on the Friday night we went. There was only one sushi chef preparing all the sushi, but he was quick and always had a sweet smile on his face.

Each omakase featured similar fish, but sometimes he would use crab versus prawn and so forth. It depends on what is more “fresh” in the chef’s eyes.

Our omakase included 11 pieces of nigiri, a cone sushi and a bowl of miso soup along with green tea. I forgot to take photos of 2 nigiri and by then I had already eaten them, but below you can see a gallery of 9/11 nigiri.

Highlights

The ootoro (fatty tuna) nigiri was delicious and he even used ootoro in the sushi cone, instead of the cheap tuna that other sushi restaurants usually use for negitoro (tuna + green onion). You can see the difference in colour just from the photo. If you order negitoro roll from a low-end sushi establishment, the tuna will look pale pink. This one was a dark pink/red.

One of our nigiri also included uni (sea urchin), which is usually very expensive. They were selling one-piece uni nigiri for $8, so having that piece and the ootoro already kind of made up for the $30. I don’t usually like uni because it has a very “sea/ocean” taste – maybe even fishy – but this uni was sweet and not fishy.

Meh

The ika (squid) nigiri had a really bad wasabi after-taste (I cried). This was probably because the wasabi kind of slid off the squid and I basically just ate wasabi on its own.

Final thoughts

Our total came to around $90 for two people, including three Sapporo beers. Without the beers, the omakase would’ve been $60 for two people, which is still a great deal and I was completely full afterwards. I would definitely recommend Matsuzushi for a first-time omakase if you’re not sure about it as it’s a budget-friendly place to check out.

Sincerely, Loewe