Kami Strawberry Hill Japanese Restaurant

My husband, son and I eat there every week! Kami Sushi has the friendliest staff and the BEST food! The Victoria roll is to die for! I bring my friends here whenever I can!

I’ve gone for sushi here twice for a late lunch and both times were great. Sushi is tasty, sashimi is in decent portions, and the presentation is nice as well. I have seen reviews mentioning unattentive waitresses; I have not experienced this. Definitely would like to come here more often!

Kami in Strawberry Hill is our favourite Japanese restaurant. We have been there several times and we have had an excellent experience every visit.
On Friday (our usual date night — Chapters, dinner, Starbucks), we had a hankering for Japanese, so we made Kami our first stop.
We were met at the door by a smiling hostess who showed us to our table. The servers at Kami are always friendly and helpful. They are attentive without being intrusive, always ready to refill teacups and answer questions.
This time, we decided to have a light meal — instead of ordering our usual fare: appetizer, two gourmet rolls to share & seafood udon for Bruce! So we chose to order only three items to share: Agadshi Tofu, Sashimi Appetizer, and Yaki U-​don.
Once again, we were not disappointed — our dishes arrived in a timely manner, and they were elegantly plated — almost too pretty to eat (but we were hungry so had no problem digging in!).
The tofu dish was delicious — deep fried — but not greasy, crispy on the outside, delightfully hot and soft on the inside, served with a yummy dipping house sauce — this is one of my favourite ways to eat tofu. Definitely worth a try, if you like tofu or even if you have never tried it.
The appetizer sashimi came with two piece of salmon and three pieces of tuna. The fish was fresh and had good texture. It was beautifully arranged on a bed of daikon and garnished with a single shiso leaf. And in a word: heavenly! (A note on the Shiso leaf — I had never tried to eat the garnish before, but this leaf looked so inviting that I tore a tiny piece and tasted it. To my delight, it was piquant, a bit spicy with a unique, fresh flavour that is difficult to describe. I think it would add a delicious zest to any salad or vegetable dish. I hope that I can find a market that stocks this Japanese herb!)
The Seafood Yaki U-​don was excellently prepared, and mouth-​watering. I love the udon noodles, and the seafood in the mix was so good. I enjoyed this dish a lot, the only small criticism I have is that there could have been a bit more seafood. However, that may have been due to availability.
If you are looking for a great Japanese restaurant that specializes in Japanese fusion cuisine, try Kami at Strawberry Hill — I highly recommend it!

Best sushi I’ve ever had! Had the white mt., the Mary Kim and the spicy love roll! Great service as well. Not sure why the reviews were sub-​par. Been here only twice though. Hmm?

I was super starved today, and I am fairly new to the Strawberry Hill area so Kami caught my eye as I cruised by. I wanted simple food so I got the chicken teriyaki. It comes out on a sizzling dish with loads of cabbage, sprouts and 1 or 2 pieces of carrot and broccoli. It was about $ 12.00.
I was seated in a nice quiet booth and was full with the good portion of food they served.

I used to LOVE this place. The décor, the servers, and yummy food. But it went from being my weekly sushi stop to a superb disappointment. They upped the prices, lowered food quality, lowered service quality, and even got rid of their awesome lunch boxes. Now I’m not sure I will ever return unless they turn things around.

The food was good but service was not that great. When we ordered pick up, they gave away our order to another person. After waiting for 30 minutes we had to wait another 20. All we were offered was a half assed apology and water as we waited.

Very disappointed with service. I met friends in surrey and we ordered as a group and we all got food at different times, which made it awkward to choose whether or not to eat. I got some of my rolls at a decent time, finally when everyone had food we all began to eat (even though some of the food was there for at least 7 – 8 minutes), and I got my last roll after everyone was done and just waiting ~ about 5 minutes after everyone got their food. It was very awkward to be the only one eating while my friends watched. The food tasted decent, again some of the teriyaki was kind of cold when we started eating. After the service affecting the food quality and atmosphere, I do not recommend this restaurant.

We ate there last night. I ordered a dish which had salmon. I asked the waitress if it was wild pacific sockeye salmon and she assured us it was wild. The Salmon is NOT wild pacific sockeye salmon. It is farmed Atlantic salmon which is genetically modified and causes health and ecological problems for both humans and fish.
Please be honest and tell your customers the truth about your products.

Well when this restaurant is on their game its great! My husband and I get a decent amount of food for 30 $. However, they are very inconsistent. It’s not uncommon to get a ball of seaweed gum from the avocado rolls. There is also a good possibility your roll will not have rice the whole way around or it falls apart right away. I wish I could say there were times to avoid to ensure a good meal but there really isn’t. It’s kind of like a lottery. Either it’s a good night or it’s not. However the bad nights are more common then the good nights.

This place opened up a couple of years ago, and at first the customer service was seriously lacking, but recently they’ve hired some new staff and it’s improved the experience quite a fair bit. The food here is always fresh, and their chefs seem to really pride themselves on product presentation. Wait times can get really long though, which is why I had it at a 4 and not 5 stars. It’s my go to whenever I need sushi in the area. Their combos are affordable, yummy and very filling!

We’ve come here often since we moved to the area and have always had a good meal. The last few times we’ve come here however we’ve noticed the service deteriorate.
We came in tonight for dinner around 6. It seemed busy but looked like everyone seated were eating. We were seated quickly in the room to the right, I assume it’s used for large party reservations, and given our menus. It took over 20 minutes of waiting (with our menus closed) until we had to step out of the room to flag down the girl who sat us to take our order. Luckily I ordered drinks as I don’t think I would have been asked. A family of four were seated beside us.
We ordered two miso soups, pork gyoza, chicken teriyaki and the favourite roll combo. One of the girls from the family who sat down beside us walked up front to place their order and returned with a tray of drinks, I can only assume she works there. It took us 40 minutes to receive our order in completion (about a half hour after the favourite roll combo came out for my date to receive his chicken teriyaki and gyoza) and in that time the family who were seated beside us after we ordered had received what looked like their full order.
No one checked on how we were doing or if we needed anything more. I do not think we will be back anytime soon, thankfully there are other sushi joints near us.

Kami isn’t your average japanese eatery on the Scott Road corridor.
Lets do a comparison shall we? Well we got Akari, Sushi Wara, and Sushi Topia. They all have a completely different style and feel when it comes to their food, but when it comes to their atmosphere and décor, I gotta say it’s pretty similar. They have these calm, innocent, and serene feeling when you sit inside the restaurants, but Kami feels more like a hip and downtown-​style restaurant with it’s loud K-​pop blasted through the speakers making it almost impossible to talk in your inside voice. So that was my view on the type of environment Kami has to offer for those people who’ve never been inside. Anyways moving on to the food… first thing I have to say is that it tastes better than some of the restaurants on Scott Road (Akari, Topia). But really is the food that great? Like from what I read on Kami in strawberry hill mall is that the food is just absolutely «superb» and «best in the lower mainland» but really I’d say I disagree. There is nothing substantially wrong with the food, its just that I expected a whole lot more from the prices and especially what people have been saying. The main reason I gave this review ³⁄₅ stars only… is one of the most important things for a good dine in experience. The service… ah the service. I have so many negative things I can say about the service but I’m gonna try to cut it down as much as possible. Lets see. I was one of the two tables inside the restaurant dining in at around 8:30 on a Saturday night. From what I could see there were 4 people working in the hall and all of them were preparing to close the place, on Saturdays if I’m not mistaken they close at 10. I was pointed to my table and they briskly took my order without asking me what I wanted to drink, and then they never came by the table after my food was served. Anyways aside from all that, the part that really grinded my gears was when the waitress tried to keep my 15 dollar change as tip from a 35 dollar check. All in all, the food is not bad but the service is horrible. My advice is to go there for take-​out and find a different restaurant nearby for dine-​in.

Decided to check this place out based on Unilocal reviews and it was just a short walk from Winners. We were seated right away so that was pretty good.
Waited 10 minutes and no service. All the servers were just looking around. They clearly have no idea which table has ordered or not. We decided to leave and just go to Akari across the street.

Been here MANY times the staff was friendly. Family run business, good service, no complaints in that department. Both times I’ve gone I’ve tried different sushi rolls and I can’t say there’s ever been a time where I didn’t like one of the rolls. The last time I came we came close to closing time. Our server brought over the bill and a minute later the owner came over and told us they didn’t send the bill over to rush us out and she told us to take our time, so sweet! Definitely my go to sushi place in this area!
Update: last time I went about april2015. I ordered the chicken teriyaki roll and the chicken was a bit overdone. Don’t know how you can mess up a simple roll like that. Knocking it down to four stars now!

The food is good but overpriced.
The service is terrible. I had to ask 3 times the waiter to get some water and she seemed like she was doing ME a favor, her clothing was also very inappropriate.
When we decided not to tip (because we were treated so poorly) we had to go up to the register to ask for our change because they just assumed that we were leaving a 10 dollar tip.
Not worth my time.

The sushi is very good but the service is terrible. I wrote an earlier review and it’s not here so I am writing again. The service has deteriorated since it opened and although we were excited to have decent sushi in the area, it is not worth the terrible, slow service. We were ignored while the waitress was eating. Had to ask her to take our order after waiting 10 minutes with no one coming over.
I will never go back to this Kami.

This place opened a few months ago and ever since my friend recommended it I’ve been hooked. The other sushi bars in the area do not compare. My usual order consists of spicy tuna roll, chopped scallop roll, salmon and tuna sashimi, and we try different special/​house rolls.
I’ve had their lunch combos for take out. I always have «D» it’s the raw selection. Great variety. It has things I would have never tried.
If your in the area you have to check this place out.

Nothing to rave about but it was ok.
I ordered the seared tuna salad. The miso dressing was good, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. The salad was pretty drenched in it. Ask for light or dressing on the side.
My boyfriend ordered the Tropic roll. Spicy tuna inside with seared tuna and avocado on the outside. I’m not a huge fan of spicy tuna but my bf enjoyed it.
You wouldn’t have to drag me kicking and screaming back to his place but at the same time it isn’t a place I NEED to go back to ASAP.

This place had opened up recently by my moms house and we just had to go.
They had an amazing variety of delicious looking rolls.
We tried a few of the more exotic ones and they were great. The Jalapeño Bomb things were just ok, I would not order them again.
The BC roll was only ok.
Overall if you go try some of the more adventurous rolls you will be glad you did.
My mom has gone back at least 3 times since…