- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Coffee & Tea |
- All
Azuma Sushi
Categories: Restaurants Japanese Restaurants Sushi Bars Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
615 Yates StVictoria, BC V8W 1L1
(250) 382-8768
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take Away:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
17 reviews for Azuma Sushi
17 reviews in English
-
Review from Amanda J.
Victoria, BC
12/12/2011
Reasons to go to Azuma:
- Good prices
- Decent service
- Decent food
- Nice, newly renovated large space - you probably won't wait for a table
Reasons to find a different sushi place (and I'll take suggestions, as I'm a newbie to Victoria):
- The sashimi is just kind of "eh"
- The california roll was kind of warm and squishy
- I wasn't blown away.
Our friends who had the lunch bentos seemed very pleased - perhaps their strong point is their other food and not their sushi? I won't lie, I'll probably be back, but I'll continue searching for my favorite Victoria sushi joint. -
Review from Karina S.
Vancouver, BC
1/23/2012
Really great service and pretty good sushi.
-
Review from Jenn M.
Victoria, BC
7/31/2011
Don't know about you .. but I think Azuma has amazing service.
They never disappoint me. I've never had a bad experience with this restaurant. The food was amazing, service was amazing .. what more can I say?
Recommend this place. I always come back for sushi here :) -
Review from Silvia C.
Vancouver, BC
11/28/2010
I dropped in looking for a bowl of something comforting and was immediately received by a friendly hostess. She showed me to a table for one. Unfortunately the smallest tables are tucked at the back off to the side of the bar and just in front of their storage room. I ordered miso soup and a bowl of salmon don to thaw myself out. The miso was piping hot with cubes of tofu and slivers of seaweed, though I tasted the lack of dashi. Generous slices of wild salmon sashimi topping the rice was not fresh. The pieces easily separated, whereas fresh salmon is more firm and not as easily separated by chopsticks.
My tea cup was regularly filled and the staff was friendly. -
Review from Beth C.
Victoria, BC
Updated - 7/24/2010
Ugggghhhhh, what a revoltin' development this turned out to be. I hate upgrad-- DOWNGRADING a review, especially when I used to like the place.
In the beginning, 10 years or so ago, Azuma was small, and all the food and service was excellent.
About 3-4 years ago they upgraded the restaurant's decor. It's larger and prettier, but the sushi went vastly downhill - inexpertly prepared, less fresh than other places, and the rice to fish ratio was a rip-off. HOWEVER! Their hot food was excellent, and the service was still good, and it was still the only place outside of Japanese Village to get the rice with sesame sauce. Mmm.
As of tonight, I can report I am done with Azuma. The menu was impossible to navigate, with items only available before 5pm mixed in with everything else throughout. Under soup it gave a choice of miso or shabu shabu. Upon ordering shabu shabu, the waiter informed us that was only available at lunch. It didn't say that.
Tonight I had beef teriyaki, with a cup of miso soup, a side green salad, and my beloved rice with sesame sauce. The miso soup was fine, and the tea was fine. Neither was noticeably good, or noticeably bad. They were fine.
My side salad was drowning in dressing. I left half of it swimming in wilted misery at the bottom of its little white bowl. My beef teriyaki was overcooked, DROWNING in sauce, and basically a ball of salt. Seriously, it was like someone had coated a car tire in salt lick and called it beef. What I left behind sank slowly into the remaining lake of salt-sauce like a sad saber-toothed tiger giving in to the tar.
And - heartbreak of heartbreak - my side of rice was dry, lukewarm, and covered in the glorious sesame sauce - which has now traded in much of its sesame flavour for oil, and salt. I left much of it behind, too.
I would have mentioned some of this to the waiter, had he come back (even once) or asked (even once) how we were liking our food, or even chirped a cheerful (how WAS everything?) after the fact. Nobody asked, nobody came by, nobody cared. I wanted more tea, and that was never an option either, as the second we were finished they scooped up our salty, saucy plates, took our money, and bid us farewell.
...forever, even if they didn't know that.
It was a really bad experience. Sadly, Azuma has gone so far downhill that you now need rappelling gear and a helmet with a little light on it to get there.
And what do you find at the bottom?
Salt.1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
4/5/2009
Graham P's review is...well, kinda wrong.
1) The "random guy with a teapot" isn't odd or creepy, he's… Read more »
-
-
Review from Christine C.
6/30/2011
some friends and i were roaming around on a search for dinner when we came across azuma. we took a peek at their menu and figured they were reasonably priced if not cheap so we decided to eat here.
maybe we're just spoiled sushi snobs but last time i checked, otoro isn't supposed to be white. isn't it supposed to be FATTY tuna? not mystery fish with VEINS running through it? my bf got a sashimi set and the tuna that came in the set looked better than the otoro. too bad whoever cut the pieces didn't even cut all the way through so he had a christmas lights like string of salmon and tuna. and the salmon wasn't sushi salmon, it was like the salmon you buy at safeway that's not for sushi. guess the prices were too good to be true..
so apparently they don't know their fish, and their sushi chefs don't know how to cut it. to top it off their service sucks. the girl we had looked pissed, acted pissed, and when she brought our food out just kinda threw it wherever she wanted on the table, completely disregarding who ordered what and not asking or looking for anyone trying to grab their dish from her
only good thing was their karaage. was really really good, unfortunately not good enough to offset the huge issues they have with sushi basics. we all agreed this wouldn't be a place to bother coming back to. -
Review from Eric B.
Victoria, BC
1/24/2010
The girls working there are cuter than the food is good.
Prices and selection are good but the food is pretty bland - the agedashi tofu was plain jane as was the california roll (it did use real crab though). The chicken teriyaki udon was alright but the broth was really just a plain broth with no depth or nuanced flavour. -
Review from Steve J.
Toronto, ON
6/23/2009
The quality of the food is up there, but not quite enough to justify their prices. I think the main reason I keep going back is because it's close by. The place does pretty brisk business, and they manage to handle the turnover quite well.
The decor/atmosphere is a bit nicer than most of the downtown sushi places, but that doesn't necessarily more or less authentic than any of the others. -
Review from Gillian F.
North Vancouver, BC
11/4/2009
I'm surprised at myself for giving a not so great review on this place being a person who used to go here endlessly. I had been going to Azuma for a few years because I really hadn't found any other sushi restaurants in Victoria I liked half as much. My three favorite things to get on their menu was their spicy salmon(or tuna) roll, oyster ponzu and one of the most popular, plain rice with sesame sauce.
I have since moved to Vancouver and have been living here for 2 years so I have become a bit bias against sushi places in Victoria however since visiting back within those last 2 years I have found that the quality of the food has gone down, and the prices have gone way up (since the obvious fact it had become more popular).
I was disappointed to see my small spicy salmon roll go from its original price of 3.75 to 4.95. It's disappointing because now I've been to may other sushi restaurants that have elaborate sushi rolls (that have 4-5 different things inside or on top) and those rolls cost roughly 5 or 6 dollars.
I can honestly say the only thing I will go back to Azuma for is their still low priced $1.50 rice and sesame sauce which I still can't find anywhere else in Victoria/Vancouver but Japanese Village. -
Review from Amanda A.
Toronto, ON
4/2/2009
This is third place with the best sushi in the world. Out of about 10 countries. I've been to Azuma about 10 times (probably an understatement).
They have an amazing selection of rolls, and not badly priced either.
I don't know what the heck buddy below was raving about, but the tempura (which I have a had several times) at every restaurant I've been to has had an onion in it.
The BC roll is really good, probably my favourite here. After that would ebi nigiri with a quail egg. Yum, yum. (You have to ask for it..) They have really good miso soup too.. I especially like the sea salt on the edamame!
The waiters (especially the asian man!) are great-- your tea is ALWAYS topped up with hot, hot green tea.. And not the cheap green tea, it's the rice type.
This place is fairly easy to get to, and there is lots of parking around. If you go after 6 it's free on the street! -
Review from Norm E.
Victoria, BC
11/24/2010
Decent for lunch and a quick bite. If you are looking for a bit more ambiance for an evening dinner, it is ok. But there are fancier places nearby. No complaints about the food or service, which are decent.
-
Review from Dustin D.
Victoria, BC
5/25/2010
stopped in for lunch somewhat reluctantly after perusing many of the reviews here and elsewhere.
the good - service was great, tea guy was on it the whole time, seated fairly quickly even though it was busy, served quickly and the decor is pretty nice.
the bad - the food. (and the price isn't that great either, but it's downtown victoria sushi so what do you expect?) I had a bento box and two rolls (tempura and tempura yam rolls). The bento box was ok, the salad was all lettuce with not a great dressing, the soup was pretty meh with the main flavour being salt (I'm mentally comparing the soup and salad to japanese village's and it's not even close). The chicken karaage was alright. Now for the real bad - the sushi - the tempura rolls were undercooked and not quite crisp so it had a bit of an oily inside (a fatal flaw for anything tempura) also as many others have stated, they use WAY too much vinegar in their rice and it overpowers all the other flavours, subtle or not. Even soaking half my roll in soy sauce and ample wasabi couldn't mask it.
I have no idea why this place is so busy, I won't be returning. -
Review from joe w.
Victoria, BC
1/7/2009
I am local and I keep going back.
-
Review from Jennifer H.
Victoria, BC
1/6/2010
Azuma is a great place for lunch. They have more than ample seating capacity and the service is quick and friendly. They expanded a few years ago and the decor is up to date and clean. If only the sushi matched. Where are those half stars when you need them? 3 1/4 is better suited so I'll have to round it to 3. I've been five starred wowed at too many sushi joints to know Azuma isn't deserving of a full four stars. If you're feeling like sushi for lunch during the work week, and want a table with fast service, Azuma is a first rate choice.
-
Review from Weirdie B.
Victoria, BC
11/4/2009
Azuma is a good place to go if you're Downtown and in need of a quick, moderately priced lunch. I almost always go with a bento box, which is consistantly good, since I'm not willing to brave the sushi again after a bad experience. Within ten minutes of ordering, even if the restaurant is busy at Noon, my lunch is ready and I'm out the door. It's a nice change from the usual sandwich or pizza lunch, but Azuma isn't high on my list of "night on the town" dinner places. There are better sushi restaurants in town if you're looking for good, fresh sushi and sashimi.
-
Review from john h.
7/21/2009
This seems to be one of those restaurants that can be hit or miss.
For me, the service was excellent (but I can see how some of the staff might head off to la-la land since my server started talking to some customer-friends at one point), and the food was good. I cannot say that the sushi/sashimi is the best, although it is pretty decent. I did think that the rolls were good, so probably better to go with the creativity of the rolls rather than the quality of the fish. The tea (gen-mai-cha I believe) was quite good. -
Review from Sumomo O.
1/9/2010
I'm surprised by the mediocre reviews. The place was bustling, which is how we chose it. I got the chirashi, and the fish was very fresh, varied and plentiful for about $14. The vinegared rice wasn't the best, but I didn't want much of it anyway.
