Sura Sushi

John is now @
!
Same Quality as what we used to get at Sura! Go visit him & say Hi.

Great sushi bar for lunch. Prices are a little high– I think that is because they are located near a lot of office buildings.
I’ve ordered lunch here several times and never had a bad meal. The staff is always courteous and very nice.

Oh, what a mouth symphony, conducted by the chef at Sura! I’m in love with the sushi here. The pieces are well-​proportioned and the fish is excellent quality, prepared to show off each fish’s best assets.
I asked if I could get the nigiri lunch special with just one type of fish, and they were totally cool about it, which I really appreciate. Beyond that, their perfectly-​cooked buttered scallop appetizer is something that is not encountered everyday (but I would be a lot happier if I ate this daily). Their clam miso soup is no joke — it’s very tasty and satisfying.
Often, a restaurant will be excellent at either cooked or raw seafood, but not both. Sura hits all the right notes across the board, and at a nice price.

Ehhh… I have little to say about Sura except that my experience of their food was bad.
I ordered Hotatte (scallop) nigiri, white tuna nigiri and the chirashi.
Aside from the white tuna nigiri, the fish were not fresh and the sushi rice was hard and under-​seasoned (that in itself is bad). Scallop tasted artificial, no natural sweetness at all! I also noticed that there were some yellow spots on the shiro maguro (white tuna), sea bream, and hamachi slices of the chirashi.
Never seen it before it but decided to take a bite and see. Eck… there was definitely an awful foul taste.
I’m sure their rolls are probably edible considering the sauces they put on them.
Overall, never returning. I was very disappointed.
For the same price for food, I would stick to sushi Tomi from now on.

I’m not sure why Sura’s review dropped so much since I last checked, but my rating is based on the quality/​freshness of their food, especially their fish.
Agadashi tofu (4.5 stars) — I’ve tried this from lots of Japanese restaurants and theirs has really thin and crispy skins. The broth complements the tofu, with a salty and slightly sweet taste and some thinly chopped green onion.
Sushi platter for 2 (5 stars) — It’s a little pricey ($ 64), but you get a salad, an appetizer, a variety of sushi, and some ice-​cream at the end of your meal. I highly highly recommended their hamachi, I’ve been here 3 times and their hamachi never disappoints! The rolls with hamachi are awesome too.
There’s rarely a line here so give it a try on a busy Friday or Saturday night. Usually no reservation needed.

I came here for a work lunch meeting. It’s fairly close to my work. My coworkers and I all ordered bentos and a couple rolls of sushi.
I got the salmon bento with goyza. Nothing special. The salmon was a bit overcooked and the goyza seemed like something I could make out of a frozen package.
The sushi rolls were ok, nothing stood out to me. The fish didn’t taste quite as fresh as I would prefer.
Service is super slow here, you have to constantly wave someone down to get an order or a check.

Not sure why this place has more than two stars. 1 star because I didn’t get sick from their sushi + 1 star for a clean bathroom. Otherwise, SLOW service and TERRIBLE sushi presentation. The size of their sushi is the circle I make with my index finger and thumb… and I have small fingers.
The sushi was slimey and very thinly cut. Not sure why the rolls are ~$ 13 on average when they use a lot of cheap ingredients and fish … *HINT* when you see a lot of california rolls topped with some sort of sushi piece on a menu, you are in a MEDIOCRE sushi restaurant. This place had mostly california rolls for each menu item.
Why only have 2 waitresses and one sushi chef working on a SATURDAY night? Our group of 7 literally had one roll come out every 15 minutes. We would gobble it down and twiddle our thumbs for the next 14 minutes. We were still hungry at the end so we called the sushi we ate as «appetizers» and had to snack more afterwards to feel full.
BOO!

This is definitely one of the better Sushi places I have been to. The food is great for the most part, some days better than others, but by far better than other sushi places. The sushi is always fresh, the waiters usually accommodate that you are gluten free, and sometimes carry gluten free soy sauce, (I usually bring my own, as then I don’t have to ask and hope that they have it). Most waiters here are very knowledgeable about gluten intolerance.
I like the ambiance. It is quiet and you can have a nice conversation over a nice meal.
My favorite rolls are the Philidelphia roll and Blossom Roll, as they don’t contain any gluten (crab meat). Other than that I get the Sashimi, always fresh.

I came here for dinner with my friends on Friday night and we were pleased everything.
Our waiter gave us some complimentary edamame to start. I got the Bi-​Polar Roll which was basically a spicy tuna roll with eel on top and some sauce, very good. My friends got the Jacob Roll and a handroll which they enjoyed.
Even though we came about 30 minutes before closing, we didn’t feel rushed to eat our food very quickly to leave and the quality was still put into our food. The staff was very accommodating and friendly, definitely a plus.
If I’m ever on this side of the Bay again, I wouldn’t hesitate coming here for a bite to eat.

They still give out complimentary edamame although it was almost flavorless compared to the last time I tried it.
This time around I didn’t want any sushi so I decided to try their yakiniku beef. Every bite was so flavorful, but they gave a paltry amount of rice to go with the dish. I would have given 3 stars, but thankfully they refilled my rice for free so that warrants a 4 star rating. I absolutely hate paying for rice especially when I want refills. At $ 16, the dish was quite expensive, but I did think that it was really well made and had lots of flavor.
The service here was a bit slow since they only had 2 people manning the floor on a Friday night.

«It’s 1:30 PM, I have yet again been held back from my lunch by a client, and now I am starving and food better be good!» That’s the thought that comes to my head whenever I am at work and starving, and Sura Sushi never fails me!
I have to admit that I was really iffy about trying this place at first because I don’t know that it is Japanese owned, and I have had bad experiences with Korean/​Japanese restaurants in the past. As it is literally across the street from where I work, distance played a major factor in my decision and I am quite glad that it did.
I ordered the Ebi Tempura that comes with rice, soup and salad, and I also ordered California Maki. The Maki, eh… never ordered again, but the Shrimp? OH MAN! I am pretty picky with my tempura… the batter needs to be flakey or else, light and crunchy and I promise you, it is! The shrimp is fresh and cleaned — no gross black guts that turn me off with every bite I take, either. Salad and soup are good too, but nothing special. Oh, and the extra special side of beansprouts (that you only get at a Korean Restaurant) totally makes my day!
Service is hard to explain. The older lady is very abrupt (at least over the phone — I have never actually eaten in the restaurant), but always gets my order right and has even walked out to meet me at my car on several occasions (she saw me walk in with my walking boot once). She is actually quite nice. All I know, is that I have grown very fond of her pretty much telling me that she knows what I want to order, telling me to come over in 10 minutes, hanging up on me, and then being ready with my food! HA!
The only complaint I had was with the younger server… she has messed up my order twice and I always have to wait for my order even though I have called for pick up. It’s as if she waits to see me and THEN starts packing my food. I have to give it to her though, when I complained the second time, she packed me a whole new lunch and both her and the owner/​manager (?) profusely apologized, leaving me feeling guilty for saying anything in the first place.
Needless to say, I order here at least once or twice a week… when I «forget» my lunch at home.

So the two stars are for the decent food and nice ambiance. The MINUS three star is for the lack of respect for their customers. They were very nice when we went inside the restaurant but then after our order was taken, we waited for 30 minutes to even see the chef make our food, but when the chef was finished making the sushi, the waitress didn’t even take it out to us.
Highly upset, I walked over to the chef and ask if it was for our table, the chef said yes. I told him that I DO NOT WANT THE FOOD that has been sitting out for 10 minutes. I refused to pay for it and voiced my opinion that their service is seriously lacking. How can you ignore your customers like that?
I have heard good things about the restaurant before, so I was so excited to go here. At the same time though, I heard that the regular customers (whom are my friends) get their orders served first before others even though they came later, plus they get special or free rolls. I think that’s okay, it’s nice to reward your regular customers because they’re loyal, but to ignore and mistreat your new customer will make you lose potential «loyal/​regular» customers.
This is about my experience.

Love this restaurant! The people who work here are so nice, and it’s my favorite sushi place in all of Mountain View and Palo Alto. I’m a student at Stanford, and I even drive all the way out here (which is quite a drive in traffic) to order sushi from Sura.
Rolls I Love:
Mexican Roll
Lion King Roll
Crunch Roll
Orange Blossom Roll
All of those above are such winners! Tasty and fresh.
I also love getting a small side salad to compliment my meal here. The dressing they use is so delicious!

Chirashi Chronicles #24
Stopped by for a late weekday lunch and found a convenient spot on El Camino Real. The interior is clean and service was friendly.
The menu contains a broad assortment of rolls, appetizers, and standard nigiri selection. Decided to try the chirashi at $ 21.
Entrée selections included a standard salad with miso dressing and an average miso soup.
The chirashi bowl arrived shortly and was good size. Multiple large cuts of salmon and tuna dominated the bowl as well as a few pieces of tamago. Small pieces of a white fish similar to super white tuna or escolar and a tiny smattering of tobiko.
The salmon and tuna were thick cuts and fresh and it’s understandable why people like the sashimi cuts here. However, as a chirashi bowl, the variety was definitely underwhelming at the price point. I usually find unagi, amaebi, ikura, hamachi, and even occasionally uni or toro.
Overall, it was a solid meal. Enjoyed the freshness and the amount of salmon and tuna, but wish there were better variety befitting a quality chirashi bowl.
Sura Sushi accepts credit cards, including American Express.

In all honesty this place deserve a 3.5 stars. the food is good but nothing amazing. There are just too many sushi restaurants around this area to be giving out 4 and 5 stars.
The sushi here is fresh but the portions are a tad small. The prices are also a tad higher than most other places around here. The interior is really dark and trendy which might appeal to some folks. The salmon teriyaki is surprisingly good, but the chicken teriyaki was sliced too thin and was dry.
Not a bad sushi restaurant but its pretty comparable to most places around here. My favorite sushi restaurant in this area is Tomi, they have the freshest variety of fish. I’d rather go to Oh My Sushi because the quality is similar and the prices are a tad cheaper. Satsuma is also comparable quality and a good place to try out.

Sura is pretty solid. Buddy and I walked into the place packed on a Friday night, seated at the sushi bar. After various minutes of contemplation, we ordered up the sushi dinner for 2 ($ 60). Awesome deal IMHO.
We got, salad, miso soup, 20 pieces of sushi to share, and green tea ice cream, for about $ 35 a person after tax/​tip. I don’t remember all the courses (I don’t take pictures of everything like most) but I can say the highs and lows. Lows: a couple of the tuna sashimis had a slightly fishy aftertaste. When I say slightly, I mean, it wasn’t enough to stop eating it, but enough that I had to order some rice and soy sauce to keep it from carrying over into the next fish. Highs: Salmon was buttery and delicious. Unagi was smokey and crisp. They give you a urchin course, which is pretty rare (and a good value for what you are paying). And you get a TON of fish, including some great pieces with roe on it. Squid was good. Fatty Tuna was delicious.
Overall, solid place. Semi-​decent service (it was packed so service was on the slow side), pretty fresh fish overall, good presentation, what I think is good prices, and a nice place to grab some sushi. Definitely more on the more modern side than on traditional (not a lot of sushi chefs yelling, no wood paneling at the bar, no blue japanese banners anywhere).

Came by for dinner the other night. Parking is plentiful in the private lot.
The interior is slightly up-​scale and pricing is slightly more, accordingly.
Started off with the miso soup which was above average and the side salad was average.
The tempura appetizer was very good with very light batter with small portions.
Moved on to the special dinner with the flying dragon roll. The roll was decent but the tuna wasn’t too fresh.
The nigiri had relatively thick pieces of fish but not all of the fresh was super fresh, especially the tuna. The rice was also okay.
Service was good.

I like complimentary edamame. Not many places do this anymore.
I like that they can host big groups like the one we had the other night.
I like that they have fresh fish (we had a plate of tuna, salmon and hamachi sashimi), decent rolls, chicken karaage and a huge plate of seafood yakisoba.
I like that their knife skills are up to par (not to mention, generous sized pieces).
Service was great — they constantly refilled our water and put up with our boisterous party.
Highly recommended!

Pleasantly surprised about Sura. I have driven past this location for years now, but was terrified b/​c there were never any cars in the lot during dinner hours.
Also Sura took over a Pizza Hut.
If you’re a fan of menus with photos of 40+ types of roll creations, they got it here. And the sashimi was good too.
Tried out: Jackpot, Kiko, Dora Dora, Bliss & Zesty. My least fav was the Kiko. The mystery mayo scares me, it was on ⁴⁄₅ of the rolls. Also, do they need to add more fat by sprinkling one of the least healthy nuts ever, at least the mac was crumbled. Some places do full pieces.
Not THE best ever, but for the area one of the better places and the interior is nice.
What? They still offer FREE edamame and it’s not overcooked. Happy clap!

Sura Sushi offers slightly above-​average Japanese fare with very friendly service. The restaurant itself appears to have originally been a fast-​food establishment, though it took me a few visits to realize this. (They did a good job obscuring this fact with interior design). The staff’s knowledge of English was minimal (typically a good sign)
The food itself was good, but not extraordinary:
– Lunch sushi sampler A: ($ 13) Included ca roll plus 5 pcs of nigiri: shrimp, tuna, salmon, eel, yellowtail. It was pretty good and decent quality, though the yellowtail seemed odd, like a similar fish may have been substituted at the last minute. 3.5 stars.
– Sushi a la carte at the bar. (~$ 15) Despite some initial communication problems with sushi chefs I was able to wade through the large number of wackadoodle rolls and find a large, straightforward ebi-​based roll. I also opted for some Hamachi nigiri (yellowtail — the real thing this time). Everything hit the spot but was not phenomenal. Green tea was piping hot. 3.5 stars.
–Two-​item bento: ($ 9.50) The Cal roll was fresh and tasty (crab salad style). Chicken was a little tough. Good portions. 3 stars.
On all three of my lunch visits, Sura Sushi was nearly a ghost town. (On one visit, I was the only patron.) Consequently, I’m tempted to bump them an extra star out of charity. But then again, I must not forget that I’m a cold-​hearted bastard.