One of my fav places in columbia for sushi... u have never had bad sushi here..its always fresh... the butterfish is my favorite.I went in one night and they didn't have any bc when it came in the chef said it wasn't fresh enough and wouldn't accept it.. Â The service is excellent n friendly ...Amy is our favorite server...highly recommended....
Review Source:Go for ambience not food or service. Â We had a party of nine and were seated in a great little area so comfy and decor and feel was awesome abs trendy. Â But the service was so slow--and the place was mostly empty---at a few times not only were we without alcohol but water too. Â We finally had to ask her to take out order and the eve ended up being a 2:30 night bc food --sushi--uncooked---took so long. The sushi tasted good but this is a typical sushi place where u pay for style not fish. The amount of actual fish was small in the roll mostly rice but quality of fish was good no one had Timmy aches ;)
Review Source:The atmosphere is great here with a great location. The food is hit and miss. One thing I will say, it seems like no one is actually minding the store. A few times now, particularly over the last week but this happened a few months ago as well, I call in to reserve their "Dragon Room" and no one can help you but a guy named Dave, I assume he's the owner. He seems like a very nice guy. Anywho, I couldn't get his staff to take my name and number for a reservation. I just needed to keep calling until Dave was around. So, long story short, I miss the reservation of the room because someone else called in and was lucky enough to speak to Dave. If you don't mind college kid service and  lack of attention to detail from staff, the food, especially off the grill and the location are worth while. If you those things I mentioned work your nerves, you might want to skip SakiTumi.
Review Source:50 cent Thursday would be delicious if you were a bird. The pieces were mini sushi (very cute but not very filling). We decided to then try a rainbow roll (our fav) because it was our first time. Rainbow roll sucked. Covered in eel sauce that was not even a good eel sauce. We will not be back.
Review Source:Well you should know better when you see bruschetta on the same menu as a Kobe burger and sushi (well sort of sushi). The fish pieces are pre-cut and to make matters worse, they only offer about 8 selections of nigiri. Â This place is mainly pedestrian maki rolls with cream cheese and other soulless selections that no real sushi bar would ever serve. The veggie futomaki, a standard sushi presentation, has no pickled vegetables or egg,, which is what give its flavor and texture. Â This is an undressed salad wrapped in rice and seaweed. The Firecracker roll is nothing but heat. The Candycane Soy roll has no discernible taste other than cream cheese, no texture, and costs $12. Â
There are lots of pretty girls around and the bass is pumping, but the food...umm, no. Â I guess if you are looking for a hip place in the Vista that will serve something for everyone, this could work. If you are expecting a real sushi experience this ain't it.
Sakitumi had advertised a special night where part of the proceeds of the night would go to disaster relief in Japan. Â This was heavily promoted around the Columbia area (USC newspaper and local TV news) and so my girlfriend and I went there to try it out. Â We were really disappointed, too.
The ambience is "crappy NRG club style", with loud, thumping dance music, sparse decor and hiphop/dance videos playing nonstop. Â It was really annoying for us because it made conversation difficult.
The service was terrible. Â The waitress we had was very much more concerned with showing her fellow waitstaff how to dance the shag and we waved for ANY waiter/waitress to come over for TEN minutes. Â I finally had to stand up, walk over and ask in a loud voice if it was OK to order.
The 50-cent sushi special consists of very, VERY small pieces of rolled sushi; there were only 4 to choose from. Â They were about the diameter of a quarter and about 3/4ths of an inch thick. Â They weren't bad, but they didn't taste any fresher than any other sushi place in Columbia. Â Next, we ordered entrees and I ordered a beer. Â $2 Kirin Ichiban pints sounded good, but it came in a glass that was about 10 ounces....not a full pint! Â I ordered the Kobe burger with gorgonzola cheese and my girlfriend ordered a roll from the specialties menu. Â My burger was cheaper than her roll but we were assured by the waitress that it would be very large. Â The food was awful: Â my burger was burnt on the outside and cold pink on the inside. Â I got the burger on flatbread with a leaf or two of spring mix and a platter of soggy, greasy chips coated in hot pepper powder. Â The chips were NOT salted, at all, since pepper powder doesn't have salt in it. Â I asked for salt and got more powder mix. Â It took a few minutes to explain that I wanted SALT because there was NONE on the chips. Â 10 minutes later, I had salt and the chips were cold. Â The gorgonzola was good, though. Â My girlfriend's roll was pathetic! Â It was so small! Â It was the same roll you can get at ANY sushi place for $6!!! Â It was about 12 thin pieces and about no bigger than a gold dollar coin in diameter. Â The flavor was flat and the shrimp and crab were not textured well. Â We spent $33 there and left hungry and ANGRY.
There is NOTHING Japanese about this restaurant and it fits the definition of a tapas bar: Â expensive prices, SMALL portions, BAD service, packed with HIPSTERS.
I would have been better off going to McDonald's and giving the rest to the Red Cross in a check. Â I am Japanese-American, have eaten at EVERY sushi place in Sumter and Columbia and I have to say that this is the WORST place I've ever been to to get sushi from. Â AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I'm not the biggest sushi fan, but I loved all of the sushi that I tried. The best night to go is on Mondays, where you can get two soups or salads, two entrees and two glasses of wine for $28. My favorit thing to get is the steak, but on Mondays it is a great deal. The service has always been great, fast and a fun environment.
Review Source:Presentation isn't always everything.
Upon entering this establishment, I was very pleased with the environment and atmosphere. No matter where I looked, the restaurant was very modern and had a bit of an upscale feel to it.
I sat at the bar and informed the bartender I was ordering takeout, and then placed my order for sushi only. The bartender informed me it would only take 10 minutes, and unfortunately, for such a simple order, it very disappointing when it arrived 35 minutes later.
And this particular night the restaurant was only about 40% full. This night also happened to be Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The establishment has music videos it plays on TV screens around the bar, and instead of allowing everyone in basketball jerseys watching the game the ability to hear the game as well, the restaurant left the teeny-bopper music videos with annoying sound on the entire time.
Sadly, my sushi tasted like nothing other than squishy, wet, soggy, rice. I had absolutely no flavor whatsoever. I still cannot believe I had crab and smoked salmon in my sushi at all, because I didn't taste any of it.
The price you're paying for the sushi at this establishment is for the high fees the interior designer charged the business's owner, but I may consider giving this restaurant another chance, only based on the fact that sushi isn't everyone's forte, and that it may just be this business's weakness.
Another menu item caught my eye while I was waiting for my sushi, and that is the Saki Salmon. Should I decide to give it a try, I will give SakiTumi another review at that time.
The portions vary depending on the dish. Others who ordered different dishes seem to have paid a lot money for little portions. I ordered the Rainbow Roll expecting fresh tasting fish as described by other reviews. Instead, all I tasted was the cucumbers and possibly felt the texture of the shrimp on one piece. The portion and the quality of the sushi was not worth the $15 I paid. The size of the dishes wouldn't have bothered me if the quality was much better. The drinks and the drink specials, however, aren't bad deals. I was pretty happy to get a Sapporo draft for $3.50. Those who ordered a mojito were happy with their drinks. The apple flavored sake wasn't bad either.
I will probably return to try the 50 cent sushi on Thursdays and some Sapporo. It's hard to complain when you're getting a deal in this case. I doubt I'll return any other day after the expirience with the Rainbow Roll. For the best bang for the buck (and the best sushi in town), I would highly recommend Inakaya on Saint Andrews.
The entrees are really great - my date had a steak that was absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked, even though it came out cold. The tapas menu is creative and interesting.
I think this place is a bit pretentious. The sushi leaves a lot to be desired. They seem to be more concerned with their appearance (decor, wait staff's physical appearance, etc.) than actual substance. Loud house music greets you at the door. Totally unnecessary when there's not really a huge crowd inside.
They get away with this because they're in Columbia, and people in the Vista like to feel like they're going somewhere "trendy." House music? Check! Skinny attractive wait staff in all black uniforms? Check! Streamlined decor and interesting plates and silverware? Check! Great sushi? Eh...
The sushi isn't crafted very well. There's also nothing special about the rolls here. Everything's very run-of-the-mill as far as that goes. There's no love in the food!
My suggestion would be to make this "SakiTumi Grill," because sushi is just an afterthought.
our party was promptly seated and the service was attentive. Â there are many tables as well as bar space for eating. Â the drink menu is a feature with many options for mixed drinks, margaritas and mojitos. atmosphere tends to be college/grad students out to have fun. Â big screen TVs play random clips and the music is loud. not a first date sort of place, imo.
the strength of sakitumi is the tapas menu which is fun and varied.
the sushi is alright. no major complaints but nothing to get excited about at all. Â the rolls are fusion-oriented, and the quality of the ingredients is mediocre. Â if you are looking for traditional japanese in which the quality of the fish is important to you, i would not go to sakitumi. there are much better places in columbia for that, trust me!
Hmm, I reviewed this place several months ago and it's not showing up. Â I won't be able to be as detailed as originally, but here's what I remember:
This trendy little cove has almost a cocktail lounge feel to it, aside from the Rob Zombie that was pumping through the speakers at 4:30 in the afternoon.
My wife and I tried several (8 or 9) dishes and most of them were good, the others were ok. Â The sushi was ok and I was surprised to hear that this is received as the 'best in Columbia'. Â We actually have better sushi in Sumter (#1 Thai House).
I will give it 4 stars, though, because overall we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves.
Great place for dinner with something for everyone. Good Saki and some original dishes. We usually order a sushi roll and 1 or 2 tapas to split. I've never had something I didn't like there. Kind of a chill spot to have dinner and relax with friends or go on a date. They also have a full bar if you just want to grab a few drinks.
Review Source:So I haven't been back to my "college" town of USC in a long time, but during this visit, me and one of my girl friends decided to do dinner and I was actually kind of surprised to hear that there was a sushi place here now. Columbia has certainly changed a great deal since I was in school here. Anyways, I digress.....
So we had originally gone to Tsunami but they were packed for a Monday evening, so we decided to come to SakiTumi. I must say I disagree with Jordan S. when it comes to the servings. We were seated promptly and as far as servings go...... they have a good variety of food for those who aren't really "sushi" lovers. They have tapas, Â entrees, and many different sushi platters as well. I only ordered the spider roll and was stuffed from it. The pieces were huge and normally when I go to sushi places, I have to order two or three different rolls because they're so small. But that wasn't the case here.
However, I must say the lack of stars comes from the fact that the sushi was just "okay" it wasn't the greatest sushi I've had by far.
It fulfilled my sushi craving however, so I can't complain. But next time I'm in town, I'm going to have to try Tsunami, b/c I've heard that it's better than this place.
From the outside, SakiTumi looks promising. The trendy, Vista location is perfect.  Enter the restaurant by walking down several steps, as if walking into  a basement.  A very chill atmosphere awaits inside with loud trance music and young professionals relaxing after work in their business attire.  First thing on your mind:  Am I still in Columbia, SC? Â
The menu contains only appetizers, or Tapas, so you will be ordering 2-3 dishes to equal a full meal. Â Each dish is $7-$18, and portions are very small. Â You will spend a minimum of $20/per person, excluding drinks. Â
The food was excellent. Â I've never tasted such great grilled chicken, salmon, and California Rolls. Â But, amazingly, after spending $56 for two people, with no alcohol, I was still not full. Â I've never left a restaurant hungry before! Â
Underwhelming service. Â We were seated immediately, but didn't see a waitress for drink orders for a full 15 minutes. Â I felt like we were being ignored. Â No one was even looking at us. I had to flag someone down. Â I HATE that. Â Service was very slow for the remainder of the night. Â Our final plate arrived a full 25 minutes after finishing our first plates. Â
Try it, but prepare to spend and wait.
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