Umai Sushi

Located near London Drugs, my friend suggested we go in for lunch. Was extremely impressed as was she with the very polite staff even though two servers called in sick. The owner came and helped her, and was so pleasant and to really make it a great experience was our lunch. She had the Beef Teriyaki Beto Box and I had the Salmon Bento Box with 10 piece prawn Tempura. DELICIOUS.spoke with the people at the other table and they were earring a huge Mt Fuji Roll tuna, scallops, salmon.we will definitely go back.one of the best in Nanaimo.sorry I didn’t take pics.too hungry.oh and the Miso Soup.

Umai Sushi is so lovely! The staff are all so friendly and attentive. The atmosphere is very inviting and cozy! Can't wait to come back!

Everything is great but they have started giving really cheap chopsticks with take out. Sounds picky maybe but it makes a difference

Completely satisfied with our visit to Umai Sushi. Polite staff and delicious food. Interesting offers for lunch.
Pictured is the DRAGON EYES ROLL, my favorite in this place.

Food is really delicious, and staffs are all super friendly. It’s my go-to restaurant during lunch break.

It was so good! Staff are super friendly and fast. They have little pager buttons on the table to call a server - love that. They have pretty cherry blossom tree things hanging on the ceiling. Nice vibes.

This is our favorite place to go in Nanaimo. The food is amazing and the serve is always superb!

Great food great staff, everyone is so very good. This place is a jem special thanks to Thuy, you always make me feel welcome

Love the cherry blossom branches for the decor. The food portions are big and it is fresh! I got the sashimi bento box with the wild salmon upgrade.

Excellent service and food is always amazing. That's why I go every week I guess hahaha

Umai sushi is wonderful! We love the cherry blossom decor and the food is very high quality. The service is excellent. Highly, highly recommended.

Not the best sushi in town but very good for the price, and the staff are super nice and incredibly accommodating

Food was delicious! Service was great. And food is reasonably priced. Always a good experience here:)

Tasty grab and go sushi, however the price point feels a little high. Deep fried rolls coming in at around $10 or $11.

I love eating here! The food is always amazing and the staff are always so nice and quick. My favourite sushi place ever

Umai Sushi’s sushi is the absolute best I’ve ever had. After over a dozen years living in BC’s lower mainland and having easy access to great sushi, I never expected to find this gem in Nanaimo. If you love good sushi, don’t miss this place!

Great food and a very extensive menu. Lovely atmosphere and the service has always been excellent. Highly recommend.

Wow! Umai did it again.perfectly fresh and beautifully presented. Care, pride and artistry, in every plate. Consistently quick, efficient and personal service from the wonderful long time staff. (Thank you for remembering my specific likes and dislikes, and offering favorite details without being asked Tea'! My absolute favorite Japanese restaurant on the Island-no, across Canada. Love the cherry tree decor too- so fresh, cheerful and bright Decently priced menu too.

Love the staff there! They made me feel so special on Valentine day by giving a rose. Food is so good. Everything is awesome. Definitely will return.

Umai has always been my favorite Japanese restaurant in Nanaimo. I especially love their lunch bento boxes, but the grab & go usually has a good selection. I'm lucky enough to live nearby, and I love to just drop by.

Good portions, fair pricing, good quality fish, delicious teriyaki and tempura. I really love having a call button instead having to flag a person or have them pop up every 5 seconds like they do at most place. That nikoniko roll is the bomb. Very happy repeat customer.

It's been my favorite place for years. All the staff is so friendly and accommodating. The food is absolutely perfect everytime. It'll always be that special place to go?

I had another review on here I thinking it was a little too harsh for this store so I removed it. The food is good but the store employees could use some work especially ones for taking your order down. To the owner please work on your employees with taking orders down. It is all about the small details that matter a lot of people especially to myself. On a side note this is the only sushi location in Nanaimo that I will go to because other Sushi locations taste like it has in the fridge for a couple days.

Had takeout from Umai many times and it's always been delicious. Love their Tempura and Rolls, and they're always flexible and able to make accommodations for specific dietary requirements

Was extremely happy with the meal and service. Covid safe with buttons on the table that were washed down between customers. Good food that was brought out extremely quickly. Is quickly becoming my favorite sushi restaurant in Nanaimo

Wonderful service with friendly staff, big portions, and clean settings. What's not to love? Pictured here are black dragon roll and Poseidon roll, and takoyaki.

Absolutely phenomenal. Our favourite sushi restaurant retired after over 20 years, and we've been to so many sushi restaurants looking for a replacement. This is it. Incredible atmosphere, food in about 10 minutes, larger quantity than expected and it was so delicious that we finished it all anyway. Beautiful presentation and friendly, organized staff. Definitely worth a visit! We'll be back soon!

Love this place. Been going for years and years. One of the best places in town and the staff is wonderful

Wow! 13.99 for a lunch bento box!
This special included a miso soup to start, the bento box gave you a bit of everything- rice, salad, tempura, sushi roll and teriyaki beef. If you are undecisive, then a bento box special is a very good choice. Great food! Great service! Deserving of the 5 star rating.
Hint: try get there early for lunch, we got there at 11: 30 when it opened. Because upon leaving, it was a full house, as seating is limited.
They also have the best green tea I have tried in a long time. It's really hard to find a good cup of green tea!

Always thought of this place as more of a take-out sushi shop, but had a good meal at their smaller but nice looking sit-down dining area.

Great food at a great price. So happy they didn't go out of business during covoid. Try it. You'll like it; my wife and I do!

The food is fresh. The prices are reasonable. Occasionally they forget the chopsticks, but that won’t cost a star. I’d recommend this restaurant… I think I just did.

Quite disappointed. Sushi just tastes old. I don’t even want to finish eating it. I guess I should have known not to get plaza sushi. Would not recommend.

I am rating one star because in one of the pieces of sushi, my girlfriend felt something odd and what she thought was just going to be a piece of shrimp skin turned out to be plastic! Probably mixed in with the rice. Never ordering again here again. Don't risk it. There is other places. But who knows they are all lowkey trash.

If you want to enjoy some decent sushi, then go to Umai. You can literally taste the freshness of the Sushi. Their bento box is one of the best in town and it's reasonably priced. The amazing part is that they never lowered the quality of their food even through Covid. The service is also great: they are not only checking on you regularly but also provide a call button on the table that you can press to get service whenever you need it.

Fresh and delicious food. Front staff were very nice. Priced comparable to the industry standard. I like that they have a button on the table to call the wait staff over.

I have always been impressed with Umai however, today I found multiple bones in my Victoria roll in the salmon as it wasn’t filleted properly. It was a huge turnoff and I couldn’t finish the rest of the sushi.

Sadly wont return to this place. I ordered food and as I am mask exempt I always pay in the parking lot and they refused me service this time. This used to be my favourite sushi place that I went to a lot but wont be going back given how rude the woman on the phone was. She kept telling me I had to come in and wear a mask even though I told her repeatedly I was unable. She hung up on me.

This is our go-to Sushi place. Staff is always friendly and food is always ready faster than we expect.

Amazing selection of sushi at a very good price. The sizes of the sushi are quite big and they don't cheap out. It's a very modern and beautiful establishment, which I like. There is tons of parking at the front, since they are located in a mall area. I will for sure come back whenever I'm in the Nanaimo, which I also have to mention was the most exciting part of the trip IMO. This is from from a guy who doesn't order sushi on the island but I will make an exception for this place.

Food is always delicious and tastes fresh. The store is clean and all the workers wear masks.

Definitely recommend Umai Sushi.

I have enjoyed every experience at Umai. I have not eaten in restaurant but have done take away a few times, the prices are great, especially for the quality. Good food, good selection, definitely would recommend to any friends or family.

I have an amazing experience here. Good quality food with fair price and friendly atmosphere. It gets busy sometimes but the service is quick and nice.i will absolutely come back.

Food is excellent. It being Valentine's Day, it was very busy at lunchtime. Roses for every customer was a very nice touch. It was my first visit here. Love the decor with cherry blossom trees, and the added Valentine's touches. Service was a touch slow, but they were super busy. Will definitely go back!
For 2nd visit, I ordered the chicken teriyaki dinner: a well-prepared generous serving of grilled chicken, rice, miso soup, and veggies stir-fried to the right "crispness. " Very friendly and attentive staff.

Amazing, the food was fantastic, well presented and very reasonably priced. Everyone I was with all left super satisfied; Even the one in the group that doesn't like sushi at all enjoyed her meal. My only disappointment was walking past this place so many times and not venturing in sooner. I will be back again and again. Maybe tomorrow.

First time visiting this place this afternoon and I'm super impressed! Service was fantastic and sushi was amazing! Had the nigiri sushi combo and for the price, I was very surprised with the quality and taste. Can't wait to visit again next time I'm in Nanaimo.

Price was fair but some of the sushi was a disappointing. We ordered the BBQ salmon skin roll and a dynamite roll, while the flavours were good the fried things were not crunchy instead very chewy. We had a few other things that were very tasty including sunomono and negitoro. Sadly did not finish the other things and when the waitress asked why we told her, she explained how the fried things were made in advance but if we wanted it fresh we could request it. I find this very strange since if it can be made fresh then shouldn’t that be just what they do anyways? I understand needing to prep things in advance but when I have had these types of rolls in other sushi restaurants they are still crunchy so maybe they just need to be made sooner.

Very clean, modern and fun atmosphere with friendly staff and terrific, reasonably priced sushi. There was a minor wait to be seated, under 10 mins, which just shows this is a local favourite. The menu has a good variety of options and the food we chose was terrific. A+ to the Candy Yam roll and the Chicken Udon!

Prepared well, but a lot of repetition on the insides of rolls: crab stick and avacado again and again. Also, too much California-roll nonsense, which is just filler for either the type of people who cringe at raw fish or the other type who love raw fish and think they're eating it. Still the little details like complimentary tea, cucumber water, and after-meal candy don't go unnoticed.

This is one of my favourites in town! They are reasonably priced and very quick. My go-to is negitoro with half rice and extra green onions and it's always perfect. They use more tuna that most places and it's great quality. Highly recommended.

The soup that I had was bland and boring. The prices seemed a little steep for what it was. Service was the bare minimum. Won't be coming back to eat in. Maybe this restuarant is just a better take out place.

Eaten at this place dozens of times. It's always fantastic sushi, great value, and friendly environment. Highly recommend.

I recommend upgrading the artificial crab to real crab in any of the rolls: for only $2 more it’s a deal! Large sake for $12.5 and beers for $4.5.