Good Sushi, Friendly Staff, a simple and comfortable atmosphere. Â Vegetarian options on the menu, that applies to both sushi and dinner menus. Â This place isn't much to look at, but I don't go in for expensive decor and overly priced food. Â
I have always had helpful and quick service, I have always enjoyed my food immensely, and I've never walked out feeling like I needed to sell a kidney to balance my check book. Â If you are Downtown and looking for a quick bite of delicious Japanese food, just walk right in.
Recommendations for dinners, Yakisoba, Vegetable Tempura, or Hibachi Vegetables.
Wow! Â Really, are you kidding me? Â Eat here if you want a roll that has pieces that are too big for your mouth, can't tell by looking at it what is in it and is covered in a duck sauce that overpowers the entire roll. Only ordered 1 and man am I glad that was all! This is awful, I came to taste fish not some weird sauce. Never come back or recommend this place to my dog!
Review Source:Let me preface this by saying I have eaten in everything from hole-in-the-wall to top notch restaurants around the world. I also frequently eat sushi, as it is one of my favorite foods. So, I have some idea about quality. And, to be honest, some of the highest quality I have found tends to be at those hole-in-the-wall restaurants. That said, this review has nothing to do with decor or location or how rich the patrons are. In fact, it's not even really about the sushi.
Truthfully, the sushi wasn't worth the price and it didn't taste the best but it could have just been an off day. The real problem is the service.
5 of my friends and I ate there at 7:00 PM on July 16. One of my friends, who doesn't know much about sushi and has limited finances, wanted to splurge and enjoy some sushi. So, he asked the waitress what the difference was between the sashimi and the nigiri. The server gave him false information and brought him the sashimi (a 40 dollar plate). He politely told the server that he didn't order the sashimi; he ordered the nigiri. He even admitted to his embarrassment that he didn't have enough money to pay for a 40 dollar plate. The waitress spent 10 minutes belittling him and saying he was the one in the wrong. Finally, she concluded with "you ordered that, there's nothing I can do." after storming off, she came back and argued for an additional 10 minutes. After him sitting at the table and refusing to eat it, she angrily grabbed the plate. 20 minutes later, he finally got his nigiri dinner. The sad thing is my friend is so nice that he left her a huge tip and said I'm sorry for troubling you.
I have NEVER in my life seen more pathetic and disgusting service. I recommend that nobody go here. For the price, you can get much better food at Kai, Nakato...even Kyoto! This place is a total joke and I will tell everyone that I know  about their horrible service.
I have lived downtown for almost 2 years and frequented the area and have never heard anyone talk about this place. I always pass by going to any other place on Walnut St and wonder why I haven't either been in or heard about it. After eating here I have to agree with Brad D.'s assessment-its pretty much straight up average. Its the even-Steven of restaurants. Dig it:
So it looks sweet from the outside-cool old building with an awesome window space, but once you step in, its actually a little disappointing. Green walls, a weird air filter thing (I think?) up front, unusually bright lighting, flat screens and carpet dumb this place down right off the bat. And, if you have a bunch of omnipresent rednecks there (seriously, how come they are in every sushi bar I go to??), the ambiance is less than delightful.
The menu is pretty comprehensive, but that makes it tough to find something worthwhile. My menu philosophy-more things on there-more to screw up. We got a vast variety of things on our visit, and all things equaled out to unimpressive.
Gyoza-by far, hands down, the best thing we tried. Great fried (even though they say "steamed" on the menu) textures and flavor. Even better than Dumpling Man in NYC. The fried tofu thing we got next was also pretty good, but not life changing. It was kind of hard to eat with chop sticks, but all the flavors were there. The miso soup was very nice, but not that hot. It had a great color and is nothing like the clear broth the other Japanese places serve. I guess its worth the $1.50 extra? Sure, why not...The side salads are cheap and nothing but iceberg lettuce and ginger sauce. I get mad every time I see this salad. Never been to Japan, so not sure if this is a joke against Americans or not. Seems like one, but if not, I'll skip salads while in Japan...
I ordered nothing but sushi and all rolls were pretty lame. If you think this is "great" you need to get around a little more. My smoked salmon nigiri was dry and on its very last leg. I've had better smoked fish at Gailey's next door for breakfast, PLUS the rice was dry. Major sushi faux paus. My tuna and avocado roll was just good enough. Bland, but just enough tuna to make it tolerable. My "Honey-Roll" had a sickeningly sweet honey bbq sauce on top of whatever was underneath. It didn't matter, this was a horrible choice for my sushi and I should have known better. Sauces on sushi= the devil. This is a good starter for someone who has never had sushi and has spent their whole life eating the fried cashew chicken we love so dearly here. Avoid this roll. I also got the shiitake mushroom roll, which was honestly the most enjoyable. I avoided all the other rolls because they were either fried, had some sort of mayo like sauce or were out of my price range-which is not high. Again, I can't imagine they serve this junk in Japan. Please! Fresh, clean tasting sushi is all I want people! I know we are a land locked state, but come on!
The lady got the vegetable tepanyaki, which looked soooo sad on its plate compared to everything else. They should really try to make this look more like a meal and less like a compromise for people who don't want to eat meat. They also will not make vegetarian dumplings. I have no idea why not, but they refused when I asked. Very uncool. Makes me think-either they aren't making them there, or they are just that stubborn. But its hard to believe they aren't making them fresh because they were fantastic...So get them and don't talk about how good they are in front of your partner if they don't eat meat.
So. All in all we dropped too much cash for our meal, but still had some good flavors. "A-OK" sounds like it was awesome, but it should stand for "Just good enough to not get mad". Unfortunately this place might be worth it if you know what not to get, which is a terrible outlook for going to a restaurant. That being said, I will gladly come back just for the dumplings or miso-which will make for a cheap night. BUT I will not be ordering the sushi or tepanyaki meals.
A note must be made about our server, who was an adorable little Asian girl who was nicer than anything in the world. I wanted to stuff her in my pocket and take her home to play with my cat. She made the night fun and introduced a bit of delight with her upbeat personality. So overal...cool? I dunno. I guess...if you have to and are drunk and need a Japanese food fix and don't want to deal with the bro/sorastitute crowd at Kai/don't want to drive to Nakato/Haruna/Sakura and you have more money than you know what to do with and don't care about ambiance...sure, why not.
Why this spot isn't packed out everyday is beyond me!
Great sushi, solid wait staff, great atmosphere, a fantastic go to if you know and like sushi or if you just like good food.
Thanks for putting this great spot Downtown Springfield. i like eating good food.
Good price, good portions.
Had their lunch special: chicken terikyaki, sticky rice and a cucumber roll. Wasnt bad at all but the star was the extra Bonzai roll that we got (salmon, eel, octopus and avacado.) It was GREAT!! Also, remember that their wasabi seems to be a lot hotter than a lot of other places around town. It's very flavorful but man does it burn, lol
Review Source:I'll just say right off that I'm vegan, so I can't say anything about most of the sushi. However, they do make special room on the menu specifically for veggie sushi, which is pretty rare in my experience and very much appreciated.
The shitake rolls are the best I've had there, though half the time I go they are out of it. Besides that, the umeboshi rolls are pretty delightful.
Izumi has the best miso soup I have ever tasted, and that's after at least 6 years of making my own at home. There's something really down to earth and comforting about it.
The only problem I have is that it's sometimes hard to communicate with some of the waitresses, which makes it hard to convey special dietary needs.
Avearage decor
Average undereducated (in sushi) service
Average presentation
This place didn't impress me. Everything was pretty much unimpressionable. As you can see in my photos, they poured mayo all over the top which isn't very commendable for a sush bar. It takes away from any flavor the fish might provide and isn't very authentic.
They had a few different dishes that I wasn't use to on a typical sushi menu, but like I said before, nothing really sticks out about this place. It was really slow when I was there and it seemed to take longer than I would have expected and keeping my drink full was a task. If you want average, eat here.
I walked in at 9:10pm tonight, and the hostess just looked at me for a long moment before saying in a friendly tone, "You know the kitchen closes at 9:30." It sounded more like a declaration than a question. I mentioned that I had seen on the restaurant's Google local page that it was open until 10, and she said, "No, 9:30, but you're welcome to stay." I felt totally unwelcome and asked her to recommend a restaurant that stayed open late. She recommended an Italian place. I think she felt bad (because she was wrong about the restaurant's hours or because she realized how rude she had been?), but the cardinal sin had been committed already, and there was no undoing it. What awful customer service. I chose another sushi place a few miles away and had a great dining experience.
Review Source:
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