Great Japanese restaurant which, judging by the crowd of people lined up before it even opens, is totally not a secret! My original plan that night had been to grab an easy dinner with my friend at Oren’s down the street. Well, as fate would have it, I parked smack dab in front of Sushi Tomi’s door, around 15 minutes before they opened. Plan changed. Sushi Tomi has a very comfortable atmosphere, even with the hustle & bustle of a constant stream of people coming in to put their name down on the wait list. Our server, though very busy, managed to keep a very focused(and cheerful!) attention on us while she was at our table. The food, however, was not the best I’ve had. Everything was great, don’t get me wrong, just not«awesome!!». We ordered a hamachi kama(normally one of my favorites in any Japanese restaurant), Tomi Special roll with hamachi, and a nigiri special. The hamachi kama was a bit too salty(and unequal in the flavoring), but still good enough to enjoy. The nigiri special featured good fish, but, as others have mentioned, it’s not of melt-in-your-mouth quality. The Tomi Speical was much better than expected! I’m not generally a huge fan of rolls, but this is one I would order again. It had a great flavor profile, and you can really taste the different ingredients in it. To sum up — I’d go again, and enjoy it, but the food doesn’t quite reach a 5 star height.
Jewel P.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Playa del Rey, CA
YUMMY! I love this place! Really great quality sushi! :) A bit pricey but worth it if you’re looking to splurge a little. I’d recommend the uni shooters & ankimo(monk fish liver) for sure! The lines are a bit long and the restaurant is super cozy– great place for a nice sushi date!
Cynthia L.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Los Gatos, CA
OMG this has to be the best sushi spot in South Bay. The fish just melts in your mouth and it is at an affordable price! I always order the regular sushi which includes 9 pieces of nigiri and it is heaven in food form. I especially like how they put REAL wasabi inside each piece(it’s also kinda evil of them) but it is absolutely amazing! I literally cried last time I was here because it was really spicy. I love this place!
Roza S.
Évaluation du lieu : 1 Cupertino, CA
I was so sad because I loved this restaurant. I ordered«Negitoro($ 10)» lunch time. It was soooo bad! First, Negitoro is not good taste and texture. I know it’s like mayonnaise. So creamy! Not Negitoro. Second, seaweed is very short and not perfect Maki. Last, Negitoro is too much and rice is little. Probably they don’t use good toro. If is this cost $ 3, I can understand. I never go there.
Grace P.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Mountain View, CA
Best sushi in South Bay! Fresh and delicious. Always a line at lunch or dinner. Well worth the wait though. We sometimes go late towards closing time and get seated faster. We see how they clean everything at the end of the day! Very important for a sushi place. Took away one star because they indirectly raised the price for some items. Deluxe sashimi used to have raw shrimp, sea urchin and raw clams. Now just plain regular fish. They created sashimi omakase to include the above special items. But the price jumped from $ 38 to more than $ 50. A little disappointed. Will still go dine there despite the stealth inflation.
Dan L.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Elk Grove, CA
Sashimi lunch — 14 pieces of fresh fish melted in my mouth! It’s a unique place with food that both looks good and tastes good. We also got the lunch bento — salmon terriyaki and chicken terriyaki — which I wasn’t a huge fan of. It tasted good, but that wasn’t as amazing as the other foods they have to offer. Service was great. The ladies are sweet and kind.
Jenny N.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Milpitas, CA
Totally not worth the hype because its not even authentic Japanese chefs doing the cooking part! Salmon sashimi has the average quality, meat is not even sweet of salmon taste. I would say people have over rated this place since its located in Mt View city, that has a cute little downtown and offers a lot of yummy food. We ordered 2 plates and had to pay for extra miso soup on an order of dinner combination!!! What the ~~~~
Debra T.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Dallas, TX
Great service, fresh fish… Wonderful all around. I was craving UNI and called Sushi Tomi to see if they had any. Whoever I spoke to said they did and to come by! Gladly I did, but when I preceded to order my generous helping of sea urchin, our sweet waitress told us they did not have any at all! I was heartbroken and even explained to our waitress that I called in advance to double check. She felt so awful and gave my family and I free miso soups and salads. Halfway into our meal, the sweet waitress told us plenty UNIII had just arrived to the restaurant. I was thrilled and so was our waitress! She was so sweet, I would recommend this place to anyone, not just for the fresh sashimi but also for the excellent service!
Brendan D.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Cupertino, CA
Met up with a couple of friends from high school around 5:30pm on a Thursday evening. We had all agreed that anything on Castro Street would be fine for dinner, but we couldn’t figure out what to eat, so we sort of walked around while brainstorming ideas. My friend said there was a Sushi Tomi, and I actually didn’t know that because I had only heard of the other one in San Jose off Saratoga Ave, but we agreed that sushi sounded good, so we settled on this restaurant. By the time we arrived at the restaurant it was almost at full capacity and that was only around 5:45pm or so. We wrote down our name for a group of 4, but we were seated almost instantly in what seemed to be the last available table in the house. My friend, who had originally suggested Sushi Tomi, was the only one to have eaten here previously, and he did warn us that the prices were a bit steeper compared to other places, but he claimed«you get what you pay for,» meaning the sushi quality here is superb. After we were seated, the waitress handed us menus as well as a sheet of paper with a list of sushi that we could use to order, by checking off which one we wanted. This same friend immediately said we had to get the Tomi Special Roll. This roll comes with three options of fish including Hamachi, Sake, and Spicy Tuna. He said his favorite was the hamachi. We ended up splitting this Hamachi roll between three people, and the last person got the Spicy Tuna version for herself. To supplement the rest of my meal, I decided to go all out and order the Extra Special Chriashi bowl. The food came out pretty quickly, but I mean the majority of our food is technically raw, so I wouldn’t’ expect a long cooking time. The two Tomi Special rolls came out first, and honestly, to me at least they were very aesthetically pleasing. The both were garnished with some sprouts and thinly sliced red onions dressed in spicy mayo. Each piece on the roll alternated between hamachi and raw scallop that had been blow torched. My first piece had the scallop on top, and when I took a bite I was blown away. You could really taste the freshness and then afterwards came the beautiful char flavor. I don’t think I’ve experience a roll like this in quite some time, and I was mind blown. I also tried a piece of my friend’s Spicy Tuna version, and while also pretty good, it did not stack anywhere near the Hamachi one in my opinion. My extra special chirashi bowl came with pretty much everything I expected. There was a generous portion of sushi rice topped with the essentials, salmon, tuna, yellowtail, shrimp, uni, octopus, egg, some roe, and garnishes. Maybe 5 minutes of so after my bowl was delivered, the waitress also brought a freshly deep fried shrimp head with a lemon garnish. Again, all the fish was extremely fresh, and I enjoyed every bite I took from my meal. I haven’t had super duper expensive sushi before(like $$$ or $$$$) sushi, but I feel like in my life in the Bay, I’ve had my fair share of sushi, and this is some of the best I’ve come across in the area. I would definitely recommend the restaurant, but I’d say come early. When we left, there was quite the number of people waiting, so the dinner rush can be a bit intense. As I also stated earlier it is on the pricier side, but it’s downtown Mountain View, and you’re also paying for amazing, good quality fish.
Sarah N.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 San Mateo, CA
The sushi here is great. It’s not melt-in-your-mouth quality, but it is clearly of better quality than most other sushi places. The fish is fresh and flavorful without being too seafood-y. I had no regrets about my Nigiri special — it was reasonably priced and each piece of fish was delicious. I only took away one star because of the service. To be fair, this place is very popular and very busy. However, the service does leave much to be desired. The restaurant layout is a little strange and has lots of pillars and nooks, so it can be hard to get a waiter’s attention. It was hard to get water refills and even hard to get the check after we were done eating and had been sitting around for some time.
Jenny L.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Cerritos, CA
They make really great everything here! I’m usually not that picky when it comes to eating sushi so when a place tastes that noticeably good, I think it says something about the quality of their food. The three of us shared a tempura udon, edamame, rainbow roll, caterpillar roll, Tomi special roll w/hamachi, and 2 orders of uni nigiri. It is definitely on the pricier side. Our meal was $ 90. But, like I said, the seafood was really fresh. The special roll was particularly delicious — highly recommended! I usually don’t like uni because I think it can taste like sea water. But this restaurant serves really good uni. Beware of the market price though! We didn’t know each order was $ 13. Just those four pieces of uni nigiri was almost 1⁄3 of our meal cost. But since I don’t usually order that, I’ll be happy to come back again :)
Chris L.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Los Angeles, CA
The line was forming and I can see why. Sushi Tomi delivers great quality at standard sushi prices. For the two of us we thought we went overboard while ordering, but we finished everything! Karage — Cute chicken wings! With good subtle flavor Deep Fried Gyoza — Standard, small, good texture Tomi Special — We ordered this with Hamachi and our minds were blown. It was so good and so fresh! A must order! Dragon — Standard roll Super Bomb — Deep Fried goodness We felt like celebrating… celebrating our gluttony.
Michael L.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Manhattan, NY
This was a really good Japanese place, one of the best that I’ve been to in the area! I went during lunchtime on a weekday with my friend so it was a little bit busy(we had to wait around 10 minutes), but nothing crazy so that was great. The service was really fast(probably because they were trying to turnover tables quickly) so that was excellent as well. I decided to order the salmon teriyaki and my friend ordered a sushi bento box. For me, the salmon was really delicious. The portion sizes were pretty generous for the price I was paying and the fish definitely tasted fresh and light(sometimes Japanese restaurants will put too much teriyaki sauce on, but this was not the case). My friend had a complaint about the amount of wasabi that was on her sushi which overpowered the sushi a little bit, but I can’t speak for her so this rating is a reflection of my experience. Overall, this is a really good Japanese place and I personally would recommend it to anyone else looking for great Japanese food!
Tiffany T.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 Union City, CA
I came here for lunch with my mom and sister because we were craving uni. My sis called ahead to make sure they had uni today, and the lady on the phone said yes. So when we arrived, which was around noon, the place was already full. We had to wait about 15 min to be seated. We ordered chicken don, sashimi lunch, abalone, and 6 pieces of uni. However, our waitress, Mishiyo(I think that’s her name!) told us they didn’t have uni today. We were bummed so we had to order something else. We decided to get hamachi and shiro-maguro. Mishiyo felt bad and kept apologizing to us. She gave us edamame, miso soup, salad, and ice cream. Later on, Mishiyo told us that they had uni so we were beyond excited! Overall, everything tasted great and the service was excellent all thanks to Mishiyo. I’m not a fan of the abalone but my mom loved it!
Emily Z.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 San Francisco, CA
This is my go-to spot in the Peninsula when I’m craving fresh sashimi. I always get the extra special chirashi bowl($ 29), which comes with a generous side of uni(sea urchin) and amaebi(raw shrimp). I’ve never experienced any issues with the freshness or quality of the food, and their prices are more than fair considering the quality and quantity. The roll selection is very sparse, and has only about 8 or so choices, most of which is the more generic options(spicy tuna, salmon and avocado etc). The only one we really ever order is the Tomi Special roll($ 14.90), which allows you to customize the top with either hamachi(yellowtail), sake(salmon), or spicy tuna. Dragon and caterpillar roll are good, but nothing terribly special to write home about. This is definitely my favorite place for quality and freshness, but if you’re looking for fancier rolls or more Americanized meals, this is probably not the best choice. However, get here early as there is almost always a ridiculous wait during peak dinner hours. There is a public parking lot across the street that’s generally full, but since this is located off of Castro, you can usually get lucky with residential street parking nearby.
Kell S.
Évaluation du lieu : 3 Los Angeles, CA
Was kind of disappointed but maybe my expectations were too high after reading all the rave reviews. Despite having«Sushi» in its name, this restaurant may actually be better for its cooked dishes and bento boxes rather than the sushi. Saw a lot of people order bento boxes of grilled fish, teriyaki chicken, etc which all looked delicious(and also at very good prices). We all opted for sushi. I had the special sushi lunch which was good but just nothing amazing. Definitely not the melt-in-your-mouth delicious kind of quality. The cuts were kind of thick and sloppy and there was too much rice in the nigiri. Would maybe come again and try one of the bento boxes if I’m in the area.
Gloria M.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Mountain View, CA
Usually the lines to getting into this place is long! But for some reason a Thursday night was perfect! The restaurant still had a handful of people and they seated us right away! Sushi tome is located close to Castro street and there is plenty of parking in the street. It looks like a small restaurant from the outside but once your inside the restaurant is huge! The waitresses are super nice and they were very tentative to everything we asked for! We got the udon since it was cold that evening and another order of combination tonkatsu!!! And to our surprise the food was great!!! The sashimi was very fresh and clean and the cooked food was not disappointing at al!!! As long as you are patient to wait for a meal this place is worth the wait.
Azizi M.
Évaluation du lieu : 3 Los Gatos, CA
They take lunch reservations. Green hot tea is fantastic. Udon is very good– I suggest ordering this. Entrees plates are good Sushi ok
Ping S.
Évaluation du lieu : 2 Fremont, CA
I’ve gone back several times with co-workers and friends. Food is really just mediocre and I don’t think it’s worth the price. My first time experience was the worst(from my first review), but after going back in groups, and we’ve ordered with no budget constraint once, I really feel like there are other better sushi restaurants in the area, let alone the bay, that you can spend equal amount of money and get something better. Not sure if sushi tomi at cupertino is owned by the same owner, but that one is way better.
Dmitris I.
Évaluation du lieu : 1 Mountain View, CA
Sushi here posts serious health risk. I ordered extra special nigiri sushi, the most expensive set on the menu. When I received my fish, my toro(fatty tuna) and white fish have blood on them. The whit fish has blood oozing from it. This suggest that they have not done the blood draining part of the preparation job correctly. Lots of bacterial and worm lava reside in fish blood. This is not sushi quality fish. Please refer to the picture. On top of that, the fish are sliced in a irregular way, to hide the fact that they are using cheaper part of the fish. The toro scallion role has tuna so old that it tastes stale, and the seaweed was not even wrapped tightly, and fell apart. I don’t understand why this place has such high review or long line.
Émilie J.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Mountain View, États-Unis
Le poisson est vraiment frais comparé à d’autres endroits. Par contre, les sushis né sont pas très élaborés. Plusieurs sushis n’ont que de l’avocat ou de la salade comme garniture autre que le poisson. La mayonnaise épicée est clairement trop épicée et aucune sauce spéciale sur aucun sushi, même pas de sauce unagi sur l’anguille. Ca vaut la peine d’y aller seulement pour la fraîcheur du poisson et les nigiris. Attention, si vous n’aimez pas le wasabi, le mentionner parce-qu’ils en mettent automatiquement dans chaque nigiri sous le poisson.
Pierre-François L.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Berlin, Allemagne
Encore une institution du centre-ville de Mountain View dont la taille est inversement proportionnelle à la foule qui s’y presse(pour savoir ce qui est une institution ou pas, un seul critère: la présence de la file d’attente sur le trottoir): Sushi Tomi est une référence locale pour les amateurs de sushi. Avec le succès, le resto n’accepte plus les réservations depuis quelque temps(le chiffre d’affaires s’en trouve augmenté quand il s’agit simplement de réguler le flot qui se presse à l’entrée !) mais le soir en semaine, il suffit d’arriver au plus tard vers 18h30 pour né pas poireauter trop longtemps(oui, on dîné tôt aux US…). Vous trouverez 3 ou 4 menus différents sur la table, je n’ai pas bien compris pourquoi… mais le service très aimable vous pardonnera vos hésitations. Alors je sais que mon jugement est faussé à vie par les prix et la qualité de ma cantine à sushi berlinoise(Ishin), mais je n’arrive pas à mettre 5 étoiles: c’est bon, c’est frais, c’est varié et inventif, mais il manqué l’effet«waouh» qui justifierait la note maximale, sachant que pour la même quantité votre addition fera facilement x2 ou x3 par rapport aux prix d’Ishin. Cela dit ça reste une très bonne adresse pour se changer des cafés de Big G. :-) PS: leur thé vert est délicieux !
Gerd P.
Évaluation du lieu : 4 Möhrendorf, Bayern
Solid Sushi, nothing fancy. Reasonable lunch/dinner menus. Busy location, so call in and reserve.