Matsuri Japanese Restaurant

Pretty gross place. Faint smell of «old fish tank in need of cleaning» when you walk in. The two air filter machines sitting on the hostess station are quite odd — why are they needed in the first place?
The food was a disaster. I order Chirashi. This is a great dish of fish /​sashimi over rice that gives the Sushi Chef a chance to showcase and show off his skills and the the restaurant. This Chirashi was a pathetic, plain, unimaginative, and boring presentation of poorly cut fish with only 5 pieces of fish and two vey old and dried out tamago. The first piece I went for was salmon and it was just okay. The next piece was definitely fish… and it tasted like fish… you know, fishy like a fish… yuck, yuck, yuck. I actually had to spit it out because it was so bad and I’m positive I would have gotten sick if I ate it. I cleared my way to a portion of rice to get some substance from the meal and avoided the other questionable pieces of fish all together. Vegetables of any sort? Nope, none. Not even garnishing. The Chirashi was way overpriced for what was delivered even had it been good quality and edible fish.
The only reason I didn’t complain is because we were there to celebrate somebody’s birthday and he really likes this joint for nostalgic reasons (it can’t possibly be the food).
My wife ordered the vegetable tempura and has been feeling sick to her stomach all night since we left the restaurant. I’m sure the oil hasn’t been changed in a while.
The service was extremely slow. The entire meal took a very long time including waiting nearly 15 minutes for the waitress to show back up to get our credit card after she gave us the check.
I’m not sure how this place stays in business. It’s in downtown Geneva, IL and there are a lot of great restaurants to choose from. St. Charles has some nice sushi spots and is only a hop skip and a jump away.
Very disappointed and won’t be back.

Great food. Great ambiance. Will be going here often! Just went for first time and let loved it!

I was going to write a 4 star review, but after getting my check I sat there for another 15 minutes writing an email. The waitress came over and stood over me until I signed the credit card. Wtf?! Very rude. Your food was ok, but the waitress actions really turned me off. Enjoy your measly tip. I don’t tolerate rudeness like that at service establishments.

Best sushi in the Fox River Valley area, and I have been to practically every sushi restaurant around here. The fish is always very fresh. I have never had a «fishy» tasting piece of sushi. (I cannot say that about any other sushi restaurant in this area.). My husband and I come here at least once a month.

Met here for a blind lunch date and didn’t think much of it until the food arrived. Room is medium sized, but good atmosphere. There was only one other table seated when I came in and the staff was very nice and led me to a table right away. The food presentation was phenomenal (my date had to take photos of it) I had the chicken teriyaki which came with the most amazing miso soup (probably worth a visit alone). My date (who spoke Japanese) ordered several different types of sushi and I still have no idea what it was, but it was all gorgeous. I would recommend this place to anyone who loves sushi, but probably not the best idea for someone new to it (the menu doesn’t give much description of what each item is).

Very clean and well appointed atmosphere. Awesome waitstaff and sushi was great. Rating ⁴⁄₅ because it was not over the top from a culinary arts perspective. Great value and a hidden gem on 3^rd Street — worth a visit.

Great place with very fresh rolls and sushi. Limited menu but have yet to have a bad meal. Small and quiet atmosphere good for date nights. Sorry Swordfish, we have found a new favorite!

Matsuri is a pretty standard cookie cutter suburban Japanesse sushi restaurant. We were the only people eating there at the time, but the room itself is decent size.
We started with the sauteed scallops and mushrooms, pretty meh — not much flavor, the scallops were a bit chewy. The soft shell crab was pretty decent, served with a simple ponzu sauce on the sde.
For a third appetizer, we decided to go with the karaage — it was well fried, but not as flavorful and a bit soggy when compared with others I’ve had. Still pretty good, but far from the best I’ve had. I’m surprised this dish hasn’t caught on mainstream — I feel like it would be much more appealing than some other appetizers you typically see on a Japanese menu.
We got an assortment of nigiri next, and none of it was anything more than average. The salmon didn’t have that really oily texture, the tuna was a bit firm and lacked good color, and the super white tuna was missing that burst of cool freshness when you bite into it. The rice itself was lacking in flavor. The unagi was the best of the lot, with a solid BBQ sauce on top and a good texture to the eel.
Next were the rolls — a spider roll, spicy tuna roll, an Ebi crunch roll (california roll with cooked shrimp instead of imitation crab), and the Geneva roll, which I’m blanking on in terms of the ingredients. Like the nigiri, the rolls were overwhelmingly underwhelming. The spicy tuna had only a touch of kick to it, the spider roll lacked any crunch, as did the ebi crunch.
In the end, Matsuri is more or less you’re standard, run-​of-​the-​mill sushi in the burbs restaurant. Maybe I caught it on a bad night, and given it’s one of the only sushi restaurants in the area, it’ll probably be around for awhile, but there are much better options in the Geneva area. Ultimately, I’m probably just getting spoiled with good sushi.
Check out my blog for pics!

I went here with four other girls for a birthday. Ambiance was nice, quiet and quaint.
The good things were the hot saki (don’t know how that could be bad tho) and the beef pot stickers (actually called something else, can’t remember). One girl ordered 3 rolls: california, crunchy tuna, and something else, she liked them. Another girl ordered chkn terryaki and liked it.
Bad things… I ordered yellow tail because its the ONLY raw fish I like and it smelled fishy and tasted bad. I have eaten it more times than i can count. I sent it back saying it didn’t taste right and the waitress came back with the same piece and asked what was wrong with it and it said it smelled fishy and tasted bad. She said it was fresh from that day and asked if I wanted another piece. I said no. She left it on the bill and seemed upset that I mentioned she forgot to take it off.
I can’t remember what the other 2 had but they didn’t like it at all either. Oh… and no birthday dessert??? :(

The smell of hot oil was overwhelming when we walked in – had to do a double-​take to be sure we weren’t going into some kind of fondue place… Every table was full while we were there, so some folks like this place. We thought it was just okay. Had the combination with sashimi and tempura veggies.
The Geneva Roll was delicious.
Ambiance-​wise, this place is dull. Standard small restaurant tables and booths, small sushi bar space. I believe Mr. Matsuri was behind the sushi bar working like crazy. Seems like a nice fellow, though.
Staff was running around like crazy, though, and that’s never good. They apologized for the slow kitchen and gave us a free order of edamame.
Not enough here to make us give up our favorite local sushi joint — Swordfish.

Tough call here for me. The night we went was incredibly uncomfortable, due to what I thought was the AC not working. Strangely enough at the end of our meal, it started to get considerably cooler, so I don’t know if the AC didn’t work and just happened to be fixed while we were there, or if they simply chose to leave it off until a specific time. Either way, it was very off-​putting to my wife and I. Food was probably 2.5 stars. We shared a couple of rolls, my wife had a salad, and I had the fish. Nothing really stood out to us. Rolls were luke warm, which worried me a bit given the nature of raw fish. My wife just gave a shoulder shrug when asked about her salad. She wasn’t impressed. My fish was good, but nothing to blow my mind. Service was very good though, and that essentially saved what could have been a disaster of a meal. That, and the 3yr old at the table next to us going to town on mom’s empty beer bottle. That was hilarious to watch!
Given the number of sushi restaurants in the Tri-​Cities area, I doubt I will be back at this one. I won’t completely shut the door though. Time will tell…