Sushi Mura - Cheap eats in West Van

If you're looking for a cute sushi spot that is really affordable, Sushi Mura would impress you. It's unbelievably cheap here. The food is actually decent, the atmosphere is quiet nice, and the service is good (during lunch hours). What really stands out about the whole experience is opening the menu to find specialty rolls for $4.95. The exact kind of specialty rolls most places offer for at least $10, they have for $5, $7 and $9. They're full sized rolls and are equality as well presented as other places.

Above we ordered the Party Platter A which included a whopping 42 pieces of sushi, all for $19. I noticed that they used the same trick that a lot of All You Can Eat sushi places use, their rolls come with a thick layer of rice and a much more modest amount of filling than you'd usually expect. This way they look normal in size but they're 1/2 to 3/4 rice.

Exhibit A 

The dynamite and BC rolls, fully loaded with lots of rice

Exhibit B 

The California and Spicy Tuna rolls, the spicy tuna was more of spicy sauce and rice roll, with a touch of tuna but the sauce was really good so not a huge complaint here.

Exhibit C 

The Fresh Seaweed Salad,  I don't know what it is about these kind of salads but they are so good. It's such a refreshing treat and they're healthy too. These guys make a pretty good one. 

Atmosphere: 4/5 

The restaurant is newly renovated and that was a huge highlight for me. All the cheap sushi places I've been to before are small and have very basic tables and fold out chairs. They're there for take out or a quick bite but not a place to hang out with friends. Sushi Mura has nicely designed tableware, is spacious and an interior similar to Sushi Garden or Deer Garden. It's a good lunch or dinner spot to go eat with company. The staff look like older Japanese teenagers, with bleached hair and a taste for EDM music. Helps make it a good spot for students. Also, if you drop by during lunch hours or in the early afternoon (not rush hour), you can pretty much get the place to yourself.

Service: 4/5 

My visit was on a weekday somewhere between 4:00-6:00pm and they were not busy at all. I think I saw maybe 4 other groups of people eating inside? Other reviews I saw all made note of terrible service but I didn't experience that. We were served fairly quickly and didn't have any problems with the bill.

Food: 3.5/5 

The only think that really stands out about the food is the price. Otherwise its pretty standard in terms of taste. Even with how they cheap out on fillings and fill you up with rice, I still think that it's a bang for your buck. As a student, good prices definitely call out to me. They're generous with the sauce for the Spicy Tuna rolls so those didn't taste much blander than usual but I did notice a lack of flavor with the rest. The California rolls were still ok but the Dynamite rolls were only saved with a big dunk of soya sauce. The $19 Party Platter served our group of 3 quiet well and the two guys are big eaters. Next time I would go for their specialty rolls instead though.

Recommended? Yes
Revisit? Yes

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