Sometimes you want itty-bitty portions of izakaya artfully plated on japonaiserie in a darkened setting with servers dressed in all black. And sometimes you want so much fish you think you might die.

After repeat and satisfied visits, my favourite budget sushi spot is Samurai Sushi which has locations near Oakridge and downtown (on Davie). It is also the shop where I have learned many an important lesson since their awesome prices allow you to experiments without bounds….

1. This is the place where you could buy salmon steaks to bring home and fry up, the sashami is so thickly sliced. A 5-piece portion costs $4.95 and each slice is finger-width in thickness.

2. Hamachi is an excellent but pricier tuna, too “expensive” as sashimi but perfectly divine as a long slab across a bundle of rice in nigiri form ($2.00). Mackerel was terrible, not my taste, but splendidly cheap ($0.99).

3. Chopped scallop is heavenly smooth and comes in nigiri, maki, and handroll form. (Never seen or tried sashimi.) Chopped scallop maki, aside from being smaller bundles, comes with cucumber filler and that is just unnecessary. Nigiri ($1.45) was the best form, like a seaweed bowl of scallop-silky, mayo-smooth, roe-crunchy two-bite delight.

4. For “special rolls” that are found at all shops, Futomaki is a winning pick. It has tons of colourful filling - crab meat, Japanese gourd, pickle vegetable, shitaake mushroom, and (yech) cucumbers. Wasabi/soya is hardly needed and the biggest bonus is that without raw fish, it is one of those kind of rolls that can keep when you’ve ordered too much of everything else. =P