The Good: Good Sushi is good. Â The roll's I had were fresh and delicious. Â Philly roll had nice big chunks of salmon that you could taste even with the nice chunk of cream cheese.
The Bad: Each roll is the standard 6-8 pieces, and the rolls are $5 for a standard Cali up to $14 for some specialty, which is really just a symptom of Sushi places in Oregon in general. Â Sushi is expensive and small, that's pretty much a given. Â
Tea however, is not. Â $2 per person seemed a little bit much, though it was nice Japanese green tea. Â I suppose I could just be spoiled by growing up with free Oolong at Chinese places.
The Ugly: The decor and lightning enhanced the overall atmosphere. Â The guys in pick-up trucks lined up at the Bikini Barista place situated in the parking lot did not.
The Rundown: Â Been here twice in the past year. Â Good sushi, standard expensive pricing structure. Â Nothing particularly outstanding, but the sushi is fresh and done well.
Thought I would give this place a shot since they have an offer on groupon, there are signs everywhere when you walk through the door which is kind of a put off.
The service was a little slow as there was one server and I waited about five minutes to get my order taken after I was ready and had closed my menu, there were only three other family's in the place.
The sushi itself was decent, but highly priced.
I tested the california roll which was decent
Philly roll, my personal fave of the 4
spicy tuna, I have seen much better
crunchy roll, your basic fried roll, was pretty good.
I would not return without another groupon. the specialty rolls varied from 11-14 dollars per. california was 5 dollars and everything else varied from 6-9. I have had better though with a smaller price tag. Maybe they could nix the groupon and lower their prices?
The place itself was fairly clean, but weird having "java gone wild" in the same parking lot. It was awkward looking out the window only to see a lady in a bikini when it is 40 degree's outside. The area felt sketchy and dark when we parked, it is near an alley.
All in all, I would not return for dinner even with a groupon, possibly for lunch but only with a groupon as prices are high for its location and food quality, especially next to the bikini coffee joint.
How have I not reviewed this place before when I've been here so many times for lunch?
Pros:
- Friendly service
- Very decent sushi, their california roll reminds me of Sushi Station's, which I love
- The first few times we went here they gave us complimentary cheesecake, and complimentary edamame
- Delicious spicy tuna jalapeno firecracker (very good, though admittedly not half as good as those at Sushi Seoul, which are STELLAR)
- Lots of Groupons make the prices hurt a little less
Cons:
- Lots of groupons have driven their prices WAY up. This place is strangely expensive, more so than any sushi place I know in town. Particularly the deluxe rolls. How is this possible at a place that serves good but not amazing sushi, and had a pretty cheap setup/location/atmosphere? The only thing I can think of: They've been runnign so many groupons, they're recouping their costs by raising prices
- The edamame we used to get were a full bowl. Now the bowl contains like 6 pods. Granted, they're complimentary, so I shouldn't complain, but I did notice the sizeable reduction in edamame and steep increases in sushi prices.
- The setting. Definitely not a 'date night' location, but it's fine for lunch. About a step up above the atmosphere at McDonald's. Actually, I take that back, I've seen some really fancy Starbucks-like McDonald's lately. Pier Sushi is definitely NOT fancy.
In short, I'll keep going here for lunch with Groupons, but I'd never go without one.
I ate at Sushi Pier on my last trip up to Oregon and I regret it. Â The experience started with us sitting at a table that had been freshly wiped down with a dirty rag that made the table smell like dirty dish water, a pet peeve of mine. Â The menus were slapped down on the wet table in front of us, which made them wet on the back side. Â Of course, after handling the menu, my hands smelled like the table top. Â Yuck. Â We told the server that we were waiting for another person before we ordered food. Â She took off without offering us something to drink. Â I had to flag her down to order drinks.
I wanted sashimi, but the menu didn't really have much in the way of just fish on a plate. Â I asked our server whether they offered sashimi plates of, say, salmon. They didn't. They did offer a sashimi plate for $23 that they called Hawaiian Sashimi, but I didn't have a good feeling about a chef's choice sampler in this place. I had to order four orders of nigiri sushi and told the server to hold the rice. Â When the sushi arrived, my fish was on rice. Â I'm not one to make a fuss, so I just ate the fish off the rice. The salmon belly was, in my opinion, just regular salmon. It lacked the thick fat veins of a belly cut. Â And the mackerel, my fav, was dry and obviously not that fresh. Needless to say I wanted more because eight small pieces of fish wasn't enough for me and I had a lot of time to kill before my dining mates finished their meals of tofu stir fry and mixed tempura (boring selections but safe in this place). Â I decided to order the sashimi plate in the hope that I would get a nice plate of fish for the $23. I didn't. What was presented before me was a joke. There were twelve pieces of fish that looked like they were the end pieces of particular cuts of fish. They weren't the same size and some weren't even sliced al the way through! Â All this was served on a salad plate over pieces of chopped romaine lettuce. What?! Â Yes. Â Romaine lettuce. Â I was in shock and was having an uncomfortable meal already, so I just ate the fish. It wasn't fresh and I really should have sent it back. I just downed the drink I had ordered and asked for another to numb myself. Never again.
We bought a groupon for here hoping for excellent sushi. Guess what, it was amazing. I am not a fan of sushi myself, anything that comes from the sea, I question. Â But my husband and son both love it.
I didn't see on the menu where they offer free edamame, but we got it! Â We ordered the tempura unagi roll, baby lobster roll, spicy yellow tail roll, tuna roll and chicken yakisoba. It was all so delicious! Â Unagi (it's cooked) I was surprised when I found myself ordering this, and it was so great!
The atmosphere was bright, clean and comfortable. The hostess/waitress was very friendly and polite and the sushi chef said personal good byes and thank yous as we left the shop. I will return to this establishment!
!!Disclaimer!! I work in food service. Â I write menus and am responsible for correct costing and some customer service issues. Â I was even wearing my company logo'd shirt.
First off, let me say I am NOT a sushi fan. Â To me...raw fish is called bait...that aside...
My family wanted to go out to dinner and a good friend advised us to visit Pier Sushi. Â My wife, daughter and her husband and father in-law all being fans of sushi were all for it. Â We met said friends at Pier Sushi at 6:30. Â The restaurant had two tables in use, a young family of 5 and another couple. Â we were a party of 7.
We were promptly seated and given water and steamed soybeans. Â While I am not a big 'Edamame' fan, this is a fantastic touch. Â We were all given menus and asked if we wanted anything immediately, at this point the service seemed very attentive and prompt. Â For appetizers, we ordered two tempura plates ($15 ea!!) for TWO WHOLE PIECES of shrimp per platter and some sliced onions, yams, zucchini and broccoli. Â (for those not good at math..that's $30 for 4 pieces of shrimp and some veggies.) Â The tempura taste was weak and did not have much flavor. Â The cooking oil did taste fresh and all the items on the platter were hot and crisp.
On to our entree's. Â I played it safe and ordered the Yakisoba with pork. Â My wife ordered a bento box. Â My daughter ordered something called a Screaming Monkey..I really don't know...it was a monkey something without any real monkey in it. My friends ordered rolls of rice and bait...
While our dining companions ordered what looked to be fantastically assembled sushi rolls with various kinds of fish and vegetables that were served quite promptly. Â Mine and my wife's orders were served quite few minutes later...at least in excess of 8~10 minutes. Â As anyone who follows my posts on this site knows, I whine about expediting. Â I don't eat until everyone is served. Â Fortunately, my companions had no compunction about waiting and promptly dug in (and shared as well). Â When mine and my wife's food was served, my daughter yet had to wait another few minutes.
My plate had a moderate serving of noodles and plenty of cabbage...okay...more cabbage than noodles...with maybe 2oz of pork or a pork like product...and a #2 scoop size of rice that seemed to my tastes as to have been prepared the previous evening. Â To me, this was insufficient at $12. (if memory serves...) Â I know food costs and this plate cost no more than maybe $1.50 in product costs. Â The food was hot, but somewhat minimal on flavor.
This is where things not only get weird...but just plain surreal...
Again, my daughter ordered something going by the name of Funky Monkey ...Honestly, I don't really know, but I do know it was supposed to come with spouts (yech), sweet sauce and no avocado (again..yech)...this dish was chosen due to most of their rolls having some form of avocado and the Belligerent Monkey specifically said on the menu what was in it...sprouts...sweet sauce and no avocado mentioned...what my daughter was served did not have sprouts...or sweet sauce...and it had avocado...
My daughter became confused and asked the server if she got the wrong item or if it was a mix up. Â The server plainly said that the Drunken Monkey no longer came with sprouts, sweet sauce ...and now came with avocado...
The owner?/chef? decided to change his menu ingredients...but not change the menu...MONTHS AGO!
My daughter...not wanting to eat something she did not order asked for chicken yakisoba instead. Â Offering to accept the not on the menu as designed Psychotic Tamarind and give it to her husband who had no problem eating avocado...(or real monkey I would presume as well)
keep in mind, my daughter was served last...and had to reorder something else...
The owner?/chef? did not want to do this and proffered (without customer acquiescence) a simple plain yakisoba sans any protein (or monkey...) as gratis for the undesired Frightful Macaque.
Really?
Did I mention the water being served as we were seated? Â I had finished my water well before our entree's were served. Â Not only did our server have to be repeatedly reminded for items ordered (beer, lemon for my wife and a few other items) the server never came back to refill my glass until the meal had been consumed. Â
Yes, I should have spoke up, but by this time I was piqued and a bit amused...I wanted to see just how bad this was going to get...
Finally our checks were presented and we promptly got our cards out and placed them in the little vinyl booklets...and then waited...and waited...after figuring out that we don't pay at the door, my son in law gathered up the booklets and tracked down the waitress to process our payments.
On the whole, the food was generally fresh (my rice being the exception?). Â Everyone who had sushi rolls really enjoyed them, they did think the prices were a bit high for what was served. Â
The service...inattentive at best...
We won't be back.
Not the best ambience (but again, this is Springfield, so I wasn't expecting the Pearl District) and I left smelling a bit like cooking oil from the kitchen. However, the complimentary edamame was great and the sushi was pretty good. Not the best I've ever had but not the worst either. The customer service was great.
Review Source:You won't catch any sushi snobs eating here. Â Pier's not the hot date type.
Complimentary edamame got me on their side real quick - Clever way to earn your customer's good will at the get-go. Â The edamame was steaming hot and of quality on par with the other sushi shops in Eugene.
Prices on the deluxe rolls were too high by ~ $3 in my opinion, but there's another section of the menu where you can get blue-collar rolls that are priced right. Â As of this writing, the spicy salmon / tuna / yellowfin / etc rolls are $5.50 and had a not-insignificant amount of fish - good value rolls for sure. Â Between my friend and I, we had about 5 different types of fish and all were fresh (no weariness warranted thus far, yet I get the sense that the turnover at Pier isn't that great, which just isn't something you want in your sushi place.) Â Included in my order was salmon belly nigiri which would without question be compared to my experience with Kamitori's (holy effigies on toast is Kamitori's salmon belly good.) Â I'm afraid I was a compromised test subject, though in that I didn't have fair opinions of this place to start with, and I have a notion that Kamitori's salmon belly is unique in this town and in another class. Â I ate Pier's salmon belly as a skeptic. Â So now that I've caveated my opinion appropriately, I will say that Pier's salmon belly was very good, yet not as good as Kamitori's. Â If anyone is interested in shuttling me between restaurants to help me fortify my opinion, hit a brother up on pm - we can do this!
Regarding the spendy fried rolls: Â they are practitioners of the light breading & flash fry, which I am a fan of. Â It doesn't overpower the other components of the roll. Â It is much preferred to the heavy breading you get from Domo's Willamette location, for example's sake.
I would definitely eat here again given a convenient opportunity.
Went there because I had a groupon. Was a little concerned because of the area it was in, but quickly learned that my impression was wrong. They have a nice shop. I liked the portions and the taste of their food. The ambiance was nice too. The yakisoba was exceptional and so was the white tuna sushi.
Review Source:My daughter had bought a <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> coupon and got it for this place so we could go for my birthday.I had received a good recommendation from a friend about this place so-off we went.I drove all the way to west Eugene to pick up my other daughter and set off for a nice evening celebrating my 66th birthday.When we arrived I noticed a sign on the door stating that they were not honoring <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> coupons.I asked the young waitress why this was so and she said she was just a server.So I stated I wanted to talk to the owner or whomever was in charge.She stated that he was busy.I saw him behind the counter and asked if she could get him but she refused.So I waited till he was done and asked him why we couldn't use the coupon.He said a lot which I couldn't understand but I did get out of his gibberish that it was restaurant.com's fault.I explained that it was my birthday and how we had diven a long way but to no avail.He kept saying the coupon expired in March.I pointed out that it said that on the coupon that  there was no expiration date.By this time I was livid .I felt that he should honor the coupon as a courtesy to us and just good business.He refused.He not only lost a customer forever but I will tell all my friends and family to not frequent this place.I thanked him for ruining my birthday for me and that I would be writing a negative review on Yelp as well as Urbanspoon.Not a good way to start out as the only Sushi restaurant in Springfield.If he continues to do business like this there will be no Sushi restaurants in Springfield.
Review Source:I was introduced to this place via Groupon. I'm glad I had the 1/2 off deal because this place is not one you want to pay full price. It's expensive for what you get. I ordered the whe dop bop, which is a bowl of rice, mixed greens, topped with chef's choice sashimi. What a terrible value. Bay shrimp as a chef choice item? Really?
The miso came with the rest of the food instead of as a starter. My 4-year old was with us and waiting so long was not pleasant. The waitress did not seem to care.
The rolls were okay but the rice was a bit too heavy on the vinegar. My husband got the sashimi bento which was decent but at $16, not enticing enough to make me want to come back for more.
Would give them a 4.5. Â A five would have been this Sushi Chef, their choices and the service - in a nicer location with better surroundings. Â
My wife and I met with another 7 friends Saturday evening for Sushi. Â We were exercising a Groupon just to try things out. Â We called and made a reservation and when we arrived they had a table set in a private little area, all ready for us. Â Gotta say, we're not disappointed that we bought extra Groupons and will be going back. Â
After we were done ordering a second round, the owner had our server bring over a complimentary order of Japanese Halibut Nigiri with a bright green roe... excellent example of Lagniappe ! Â Everything was fresh, tasty and artistically arranged. Â Definitely recommend them and would also tell you to try a mix of their Sushi. Â They have a great selection, and several were somewhat unique...
The food was good, but it was too expensive. Fish was great, but the lettuce was just bag lettuce. Cheese cake was okay but not super fantastic. Just normal quality. The salmon, sea bass
and tuna sashimi was really great. Complimentary edemame was very nice though. P.S. not to be a jerk, but server was not Japanese. Also she does not pronounce nigiri correctly.wait. did I order cheesecake with sushi? Yes I did because I thought it couldn't get any worse..... I was wrong .
This is for the sushi part of their menu. Â Miso soup was fine.
I cannot attest to their main meal options. Â We went in to get sushi take-out during the week; it wasn't busy and there were a couple of small families that showed up just when I did and sat down. Â I ordered mine, paid and waited for my order. Â The interior is decent, there was music on. Â Almost half way through my wait a server showed up and finally about 5 minutes later got the orders of the tables that came in when I did. Â
Overall it was pretty bland. Â The portions are small and one of the rolls we tried, we are pretty sure, was close to (if not) spoiled. Â We've never had sushi taste like that and it was a common order for us. Â The rest wasn't great either but was edible. Â It's not worth the full price bill and well worth the extra travel time to go to some of the better sushi joints in Eugene.
This has been the best sushi I have eaten in this area by far! Â We have been several times. Â First time we tried their special and were pleasantly surpised. The edamame was free! Â The fish tasted fresh and the portions were appropriate. Â No monster sized pieces! Â The gyoza sauce I would do straight shots of if permitted. Â Every time we have been there the wait staff has been nice and always available. Â Love this place!!
Review Source:This review is for the lunch offerings.
Great prices, great portions, great view of coffee girls in bikinis.
How am I not going to give this place four stars?
Yes, the California Roll wasn't spectacular. But who cares? We scored free edamame and free cheesecake with our lunch. The spicy chicken I ordered was indeed spicy and well plated. It came with a salad, rice and the CalRol for $7. $7?! $7 will buy you some neon pink sweet and sour sauce tossed on top of year old deep fried meat at Spring Garden.
I was impressed with the decor, this place has transitioned from dingy nasty empty building to dingier nastier hookah bar over the last few years. The crappy plastic signage on the outside of the building and adjacent to the Java Gone Wild sign really doesn't accurately represent what they have done with the space. The floor is bamboo or something? Anyways, it's nice.
The waitress was a little weird though. "Do you want more water?" Yes, I want more water. My glass is empty. Why are you asking? Is there a drought? Last I looked we weren't in Somalia. Hook it up.
We just had the most amazing dinner at Pier Sushi. Â After ordering chef sent a delicious sampling of Tempura Lobster sitting on its shell. Â As each entree arrived we were wowed by how beautiful and artistic each plate was presented. Â All were beyond excellent! Â Watch out Eugene, this place is perfection and just when we were sure it couldn't be any better they served two types of frozen desserts!.
The service was perfect, the plates were beautiful and the food displayed like pieces of art, very impressive chef!!!! Â Prices are very affordable especially when you faction in all the wonderful free samplings. Â I got to try food I wouldn't have ordered but because of their generosity next time ( which will be soon) I will order without reservation. Â Thanks Pier Sushi for the great experience.........!
I wanted to like this place, as it's yet another addition to a growing Springfield downtown dining scene. Â And hey, sushi in Springfield can't be any worse than sushi in Roseburg, eh? Â Okay, at least it'll be dirt cheap even if the food sucks... right? Right??? Hmm. Â
Let me first say, I'd eat good sushi off of a soiled toilet seat in a prison stall if it's good sushi. Â Â I *really* like sushi. Â
The decor is...converted-diner-esque. Â Okay, no big deal. Â Ta Ra Rin has the same thing going on and they seem to do a decent job foodwise.
Looking at the menu... unfortunately, it isn't particularly cheap. Â The sushi prices are on par with the nicer establishments on the other side of the river. Â Okay, well, maybe the portions are huge... or the quality's superb? Â
Err.
Nope.
Several of the sashimi and roll portions that did come out were... still frozen in the center. Â How can you not notice that in prep? Â It's not like it's pre-cut or pre-rolled (is it?). Â Eeesh.
The service was friendly and attentive enough and the chef did offer a few extras since it was their first week open. Â Had the fish been decent, that might have been enough to bump up their rating a bit. Â However, due to the fish flop, I don't think I'll be going back. Â
Even if they do manage to fix the obvious, they're going to have a tough go of it. Â Springfield's not likely to support three or four-star prices in a one-star setting.
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,915 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
