Gabrielle JV
I can’t recommend this restaurant enough! The service is prompt and friendly, the food is delicious and authentic. This is one of my favorite spots to go to have a nice, quiet dinner with my family. It’s got a diverse menu of sushi and traditional Japanese dishes so that anyone could find something to love.
… moreLinda Inki
Food was overall good but nothing special. Rainbow rolls were delicious and have a lot of fish on them. My husband liked his pork katsu. I would not recommend getting the boba tea here. We ordered the taro milk tea and it’s overly sweet but doesn’t taste like taro. The color looks off too, like a deeper purple.
We went for a late lunch on Sunday and there was no wait. Our server was really sweet.
… moreNic
Food and sushi were good, although rice was a bit dry. We stopped in for dinner. We ordered at 6pm, and didn’t get our food until 7pm. We ordered 5 sushi rolls. There were a total of 3 tables in the restruant that had people sitting at them. One waitress, and two cooks. Waitress didn’t seem interested in keeping in top of things, and one cook was obviously not wanting to be at work. When they finally got around to preparing our food, one chef disappeared and it took the other 25 min to make all of our sushi. The sushi was good, but there are better places in town for the same price with much better and faster service. I wouldn’t recommend stopping in here.
… moreJohn Shafer
We got to Samurai when they were not busy. There was only one other table there when we arrived. By the time we left there were maybe 4-6 tables seated mostly with two people each and our table of four. They seem unable to keep pace even with few customers.
The server was definitely new and his attire was unbecoming. He was not able to answer basic questions about menu items and didn’t offer to find out so our questions simply went unanswered. He never checked on us to see how our food was or to offer refills on beverages and we had to go to the bar area to ask for our check and to get a to go box.
I ordered a boba tea as my drink but I didn’t receive it until after I received my soup, salad, and appetizer (35 minutes after ordering it). Full service time from order to check was about one hour so overall, not bad there for a weekend casual visit but probably not for a lunch break during g the week.
Aside from the service, the food was surprisingly good for how much the microwave was used. I’d personally put that out of sight in my kitchen as it’s not the most classy thing to see used continuously in a restaurant. We also saw prepackaged food being opened and served although we couldn’t quite see what was in the bags.
Our bill came out to $80 for two appetizers and 4 entrees which for good food and atmosphere would have been worth it if I didn’t feel like I was partially just served frozen food from SAMs Club out of the microwave.
Hide your prepackaged goods and your microwave usage better and work on your wait staff’s appearance, education of menu, and attentiveness.
**UPDATE**
After about 4 months we did return to Samurai and have updated my review from 2 stars to 3 starts due to many improvements.
The best part was probably the waitress. She was great! Much better service than our previous visit.
Food was still on the slow side but times were pretty much cut in half across the board and the microwave was nowhere to be seen! Based on the owners response, I have no doubt they’re still using it but moving it out of sight was a good business decision.
The miso soup is not for me. It might just be that I don’t like miso soup because I’ve only ever had it at one place that I actually liked it.
The gyoza appetizer is amazing! We ordered one for each of us!
When my fried noodles came, the plate was beautiful and vibrant (see picture).
The food here is good! If I had two suggestions to help them thrive it would be to #1 speed up food service and #2 simply the menu (which will also help accomplish #1). If you think that the the regular menu is huge and confusing, just for laughs, ask to so the boba tea menu. Seriously, wow! It’s great to have such personalized offerings but not at the expense of overwhelming your customers with choices. Pick like 6 great bobas combinations and offer them, if nothing else make them your “house favorites” and I bet more people order those than any combination of customizable ones.
We hope they keep improving, we do like the food here. We’ll be back to check on them again!
… morePhil M
First time here absolutely love the food and the menu right from the start. I believe they have the same drinks as ” Tasteteas ” in town. Which makes the food and drinks excellent. If you like Japanese food come here. They also have eel, sea urchin, and tons of sashimi options.
… moreFaviola Perez
The service is great and the food is so fresh , I recommend this place any time, the fry rice was so delicious also the salad was very fresh. We came Sep 19/2023 and this was our experience. Thank you !!
… moreTyler Afdahl
Great service, great food, and a fun atmosphere.Their soft-shell crab tempura was amazing (not pictured – it didn’t last long enough for a photo). I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the menu on future trips, and very excited to have another great restaurant on the West Side of town.
… moreMisty Green
Absolutely will not recommend eating here. The floors and table were sticky, for starters, and it just went downhill from there. Our poor server was new, so we’re guessing that was part of it. We weren’t offered any more menus, silverware, or napkins – just the two that were on the table. My husband’s sushi roll came out first, and we had to wait another fifteen minutes for our bento box – only for it to be the wrong kind of chicken. Another ten minutes passed, and they still hadn’t brought out my son’s noodles or our drinks. They had forgotten to make them. They eventually told us they didn’t have the boba flavors or tea/soda they ordered, so they made something different entirely. My daughter’s smoothie had little black plastic shards in it. When my son’s noodles finally arrived after everyone else was done eating, they were flavorless in a soup, and they gave him a hoisen paste on the side to add it himself. They wanted to charge $4 more if we paid with a card over cash. For a $70+ meal, I never would have come in the first place.
… morerotatorwrecker-180
I ordered some kind of sushi combo platter, which was really good and for desert i had the tempura banana. And the prices are great.I highly recommend this place .
… moreMak Massman
The vegetarian rolls are made so incredibly well here. Other places throw them together lazily, but every time my man and I order takeout from here we are so satisfied. I love the Idaho roll and their boba tea as well. We will definitely be regulars at this awesome location
… more