Ajuzoun

They were awesome but now they’re closed :(they had a great happy hour. Their sushi was on the expensive side but it was really fresh and tasty.

Beautiful bay front restaurant. The service was very slow, they even messed up our bill, and didn’t apologize. The sushi are by all means delicious, but very very over priced. We ordered 5 different signature sushi rolls, and the bill came to $ 100+. The fish were quite fresh, and the flavors were generally good.
Favorites:
Yellow Orange ($ 21) — Salmon, mango, shrimp tempura, avocado, mango, orange tobiko — the mango and fish gives it an amazing tropical taste!
Spider ($ 17) — fried soft shell crab, avocado, cucumber, tobiko
California deluxe ($ 19) — Unagi, avocado, tobiko, California roll
Other orders:
Rainbow ($ 21) — California roll, tobiko, bell pepper, grape, lemon, house sauce — California roll topped with an assortment of sashimi, taste good but nothing special
Quadruple Times ($ 21) — Unagi, spicy tuna, tempura shrimp, masago pearls, avocado, cucumber, carrot, scallions — a little too much different flavors going on at the same time

Ajuzoun is a Japanese /​Steakhouse located south of Jack London Square on West Embarcadero next to the Channel 2 news studio. The restaurant is not visible from the street. You have to drive through a parking lot and the restaurant is in the back next to the Estuary. So you do have great views of the Estuary and Alameda from the restaurant.
The restaurant was very large with a second level. It appeared to be a family run business with the husband making the sushi and wife cooking the hot orders and assisting in the serving and the daughter waitressing. There was only about five tables occupied during our time there, but I can see longer service times if it gets busy.
Checking out the menu, we decided on three rolls:
Rainbow roll — California roll, tobiko, bell pepper, lemon, grape and H sauce
California Deluxe roll — Unagi, avocado, tobiko, California roll.
Oha roll — Hamachi, avocado, cucumber, arugula, kaiware, jalapeño, micro greens.
Our favorite was the rainbow. The rolls were large and nicely presented. The fish tasted fresh.
Overall, service and food was good, but prices were on the higher side.

Nice view but food was expensive for the quality. 6 of us went for dinner on a weekday night. There was no people, except us at the beginning. Then 3 more people came.
That explained why the food was not fresh at all. We ordered some sashimi and sushi rolls. The rolls were around $ 25 each depending on what you order. I think the rolls cost much more than other Japenese restuarants. I really don’t mind the price if they are good qualify and fresh. I can’t taste any flavors in the fish. And yes, the tea cost $ 2 each. It wasn’t even strong tea.
At the end each had to pay over $ 40 dollars each without any wine or alcoholic drinks (just tea). With the $ 50 groupon, we saved a little bit. This is definitely not the place I will not recommend or come back. Yes. there was only one Sushi Chef. I am glad we were the only table there; otherewise, it will take them forever to prepare the food.
I have to say the view, the salad, and the tempura were good.
If they want to continue the business, they really have to step it up with the qualify of the food.

This place deserves a 3.5 stars. Food wise its great but service was a little touch and go at the beginning. The hubs and I went last night for dinner as I got a groupon for this place. It’s right on the water and across from Alameda waterline but not really close to Jack London Square. In terms of environment, its pretty low key and nothing too fancy. We got there around 6:30 and place was empty but started to liven up shortly after. I told the waitress that we had a groupon and she was like you need to make a reservation (um its empty right now) but let me use it. What turned me off was she proceeded to go on a small tangent that we can’t use the $ 100 one (when I showed her the $ 50) and also still have to pay tax and tip on the overall total. uh could you not make me not want to come here ever again before I even try the food. So very rocky start needless to say but got better in the end. She needs to chill.
This place is PRICEY and while the pics look like huge portions, its because its pricey. We got:
Tuna Poke — eh nothing special — mango, tuna, cucumber, seaweed salad mix — it wasn’t in a mold like most placed but mango was really good.
Chirashi — again HUGE but $ 33 so honestly you got what you pay for. A nice portion of fish over rice — no veggies what so ever. You get the typical sake, tuna, walu, nigiri, etc. No miso soup or salad.
Sashimi salad — $ 22 and a good amount of fish too — sake, walu, tuna, octupus. I thought this was more than enough
Uni Nigiri — I think it was like $ 15 which again pricey but you get a decent amount.
Unagi Nigiri — $ 9 and pieces were big. The sauce on top though was a bit gelatined over which was not appealing.
overall, decent but pricey. better to go on a nice sunny day of course.

I am over this place. I don’t even know why I bothered to give it one last try. My friend and I went for lunch today because we noticed there was a lunch special menu online making the sky high prices more reasonable at $ 15.99. But now I wish I had just spent that money at Boca Nova or Jack’s.
Even though there were only two of us in there the entire time and we both ordered the same thing, it took about half an hour for our food to come. The lunch special was supposed to include jap chae which we were promptly told was not available so gyoza was being substituted in. And this was after I had to ask for a lunch specials menu because we were only given the normal über expensive menu when we first sat down. Moreover, the place was pretty rundown looking and dirty even though I don’t think it’s been open for more than one year. Since the place was empty, you would think our waitress would spend her time filling in soy sauce containers, wiping down chairs and cleaning the sticky menus. Of course, I put my finger smack dab in the sticky goo that was on my menu. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about the seat next to me that had sticky stuff all over the back of it and the one across from me which had white stuff dripping down the side of the seat. The carpet had large black stains all over it.
While we were eating, we ran out of soy sauce at our table because the container was near empty when we got there and leaked everywhere. The bulgogi that came with our meals did not look like any Korean food I ever had before; it was a stir fry of some kind with pork in it. The salad that came with it had the gross mixed greens I hate because because of the black wilty pieces bad restaurants serve. The waitress never came once to check on us.
And when I was thinking about what to write about, I realized that we never even got the miso soup that was supposed to come with our lunch. The place is a total ripoff. Don’t bother to give this place your money. There’s no redeeming qualities here. Not even the view, because it’s much prettier down at Jack London Square.

Such a beautiful restaurant for date night! I recommend going just before the sunset and sitting next to the window.
The service is slow so you have to be a little patient as they are a relatively new restaurant. The sushi is a little pricey but they give you larger than normal portions. The wait staff is very friendly but as I stated, they are a little slow. I don’t mind this because the food is good. I do wish the food was a little cheaper. This restaurant is spacious and ideal for a group or corporate event, if you feel like spending a pretty penny.

Terrible service & bad food. There was hardly anyone at the restaurant on a Saturday night and yet they were still really slow. It took 15 minutes to get the attention of the waitress to take our order and then we had to wait 40 minutes for our food to be ready. We only ordered 2 things, one of which was Sashimi, which shouldn’t take super long to prepare. Waitress came over and said they never sent in the order… I can understand why prices are so expensive since you’re essentially paying for the view, but the service was simply not up to par with the prices. Definitely one of the worst restaurant experiences we’ve had in a long time.
To top it off, I woke up in the middle of the night with major indigestion.

This is my first time to write review on Unilocal.I would like to give that place a five stars. My girlfriend brought Me here to celebrate my birthday on Friday night. The place is nice and quiet. Don’t need to make reservation Or wait for seat. So it is easy to request for a window seat. Nice harbour view. We had a cake need to put into the fridge and They help with No problem. We ordered a sashimi combination, sashimi salad And a soft shell Crab roll. The foods are Good. Sashimi are fresh. We spent $ 105, i think Its not too expensive for a harbour view restaurant. We spent a nice evening here. We definitely will come again.

Came in for dinner on a Sunday night with my bf and the place was completely empty. The parking lot was easy to miss since they have a banner up that says steak and sushi instead of the restaurant name. We had to venture past the reception desk, down to the main floor, looking very confused, before we found an employee. Of course we were seated immediately.
We ordered a yellow orange roll, California roll, tempura udon, and sake sashimi. The quality of the food was pretty good! The portions were large and their presentation was impressive. The sashimi tasted fresh. The udon wasn’t soggy like many restaurants.
This place feels like a budding business trying to join the sphere of fine dining. However, the pricing was more than we thought it was worth. The ambiance tries to obtain a high class stature, but the waitresses are dressed in sweatshirts and sneakers.
If you want to splurge on a meal, feel free to stop by. But there are a lot of other options out there.

The place is still getting a system down, it is still fairly new and I think they are developing a customer service rhythm. The restaurant sits right on the edge of the estuary and the view is beautiful. The restaurant was not at all crowded for a Saturday night and the customers were all Pacific Islander, Asian, Latino, and African American which is why I believe the food was so good.
The food is delicious. The spicy bulgogi was really good. The ramen was some of the best I have tasted. The sushi was fresh and served as a very large roll. Agedashi tofu was the best I have ever had anywhere. The vegetable tempura was also pretty amazing, cooked at a very high temperature so the oil did not soak into the veggies.
This place is a definite return especially since the crowd there is very diverse and actually goes to the restaurant for the food and environment and not just for the alcohol like so many other places in the area.

I think this place would do well of they lowered their prices then moved to a smaller location.
The space is too big and the food and ambiance does not match it’s potential. I expected so much more coming to this place as it prides itself on Sushi and Steak. The building is about 10,000sf all to themselves.
There’s no décor, they use the same plates and utensils from the previous business. My Wasabi was in a butter cup normally used at American diners. I ordered Udon and they gave me a stainless spoon with wooden chopsticks. Just the little things…
Food: I give the food a 3 of 5. Only because it doesn’t seem to be special. Just OK. The Udon was bland. Plus it was $ 21. We ordered Uni (sea urchin) and my wife said it wasn’t fresh. The lovers plate was $ 77??? It was equivalent to three rolls of regular sushi. Nothing special. Regular ice cream was $ 12. Edemame was $ 9 and they charge for tea.
I hope the owners read this. I am PRO-​BUSINESS, especially in Oakland. And I hope they become sustainable. But I just can’t see it. Please lower your prices and move to a smaller location. Sorry. Unfortunately, we will not be back.

Somewhere between a 3.5 and a 4 star. Their hwedeopbap is mega-​gigantic, almost like a food challenge. But hey! Don’t underestimate me. I conquered the challenge! A lot of it is veggies and that mixed green salad from Costco though, but there is still a lot of fish and it’s pretty fresh! I think if I ever come here next time, I’ll ask for chirashi bowl instead, so I can just be reunited with my raw fish and sushi rice.
A bit of a let down was that this bowl was actually priced at $ 33 and not $ 23 as the waitress explained the typo. You should probably consider to change that menu page since that’s about a 33% difference. But other than that, the service was nice and friendly. The interior of the place is really spacious and nice too.
They also need some kind of advertisement for this place since it was super empty on a Sunday night. It is tucked within the Jack London Square area and a little hard to locate, but the view here during sunset is spectacular since it overlooks the bay. It’s a little sad that they are so empty all the time, and I think they worth a bit more than that!

It’s great that another business occupies the long ago abandoned building, but I’m afraid this restaurant will fail.
First off, this Japanese steakhouse is on the water with a great view and they charge a lot, but that’s okay because you think they’d probably use quality ingredients and offer that fancy, heavyset dinnerware. And the décor definitely looks outdated.
When I came with my family to celebrate a new job over lunch, we were greeted and seated pretty much right away. We were the only patrons throughout the time we were there. The tables were set with disposable, wooden chopsticks!
We looked over the menu, there were many fancy sounding options. They had a variety of appetizers and rolls. We decided on some basics and ventured out a little.
They had chicken katsu that came out with melted mozzarella on top, which was weird. The chicken was over cooked and tough.
Mix tempura because I love tempura! However, these were overdone also and instead of tempura batter, they used panko breadcrumbs.
Assortment of rolls, which all came out with mushy, under seasoned rice and overall lacking in flavor.
Before I visited, I thought it would be like Benihana. I think many customers would appreciate a chef cooking their food in front of them. And I was thinking it could be a nice place for steak, since they promote themselves being a steakhouse also, but they only offer 2 cuts of steak! At least offer different sizes?
This restaurant is definitely family owned. Our waitress was the owner, who I’m assuming her mom helped wait the tables, and father in the kitchen area.
I don’t think this restaurant is ready, and hope they improve. If they do improve, I hope they offer happy hour options to draw a crowd.

Having tried Ajuzoun several times now and I feel like I can safely write a review.
First impressions of the place– kiiiinda shady place to have a sushi place? The fading sign hanging on Embarcadero telling us that a sushi AND steak place was «coming soon» in a business /​/​condo location seemed fishy right off the bat. But since the bf and I live right down the street we wandered over one night and discovered that it was finally opened, in its soft opening (so 30% off regular price!), and actually didn’t look too bad!
Walked in, saw that the restaurant itself was actually pretty great– lots and lots of space, beautiful waterfront view with the sunsetting right outside the window. Our server Chris was super friendly, sat us down immediately and was great at explaining the soft opening pricing and how the menu worked. The menu still needs to work out some kinks, but basically we had to look at a paper menu to see whats available during the soft opening and reference the dishes with the descriptions in the real menu. After figuring it out, Chris was pretty nice about giving us great recommendations.
First sign that we would love the place– the friendly friendly staff! Chris and the GM Sunah came to chat with us (we eventually even got them both to sing to us!) and when I couldn’t decide between the fried calamari and grilled calamari (ended up choosing the later) Sunah made sure to send out a bit of the fried calamari with my grilled dish so that I could try it! After that, they gave us a pretty nice freebie of their «cookie sushi» which we’ve never heard of before. It was quite delicious and a clever way of advertising their restaurant’s unique fusion appetizer dishes.
Food (even after eating here over and over again) was pretty spot on. The cookie appetizers are unique and flavorful, the rolls are GIGANTIC — the one plate of sushi was as long as the table, and staff are very open to changes if you have small changes you wanted to make to specific rolls to fit your taste. They are one of the few restaurants that stock Alaskan King Salmon sashimi! The fish quality is as good as it gets– totally reflecting the quality of what a waterfront restaurant should be. Don’t be alarmed by the fact that they serve Korean dishes, steak, AND sushi on their expansive menu– I’ve tried both the sushi and the steak and omg the steak. The Ribeye is SOOOO GOOOD. (Medium rare melt in your mouth good)
Overall, with the 30% soft opening its pretty affordable to eat, but I’ll have to wait and see if I can keep going regularly after the grand opening. I suspect that once it gains some traction its gonna be a pretty poppin restaurant. Food is fantastic and with this fantastic staff how could it not be?

Great concept, some work to do on the execution.
Should spend a little more money to tear out the drab carpets.
Price points are slightly too high and menu too sprawling.
Other than that they have a winner here if they can play their cards right. Nice portions, smiling service, gorgeous venue & view, slightly removed from the rest of the JLS soon.

Ok so if you have read my reviews before or if you havent all you need to know is I keep it real and I tell yall whats good and what isnt. Well AJUZOUN a restaurant that has been opened for 1 month is real good and has a lot of potential!
SO the venue is great right on the water looking at the Oakland marina, we had dinner at sunset and my family visiting from Hawaii just loved the view.
SERVICE: Great service, the staff was awesome friendly and very attentive.
FOOD: So since it was a soft opening there were a few things that werent available on the menu, but didnt matter what we had was solid. We started with a nice tofu salad with a soy vinagrette, good start. then we ordered the fried calamari which was huge, the dipping sauce was awesome. But the entrée was what we came for the steak. We all had ordered the ribeye steak which was 12oz and was a perfect steak. The beef was tender and it was grilled perfectly and came with a nice slab of herb butter that melted on top.
Since the menu has a whole asian selection of japanese and korean food I was able to order rice and kimchee with my steak and it was AWESOME!!!
SUGGESTIONS: SInce it was the soft opening there are things that have to figure out. Some of the pricing on the side items (veggies, side dishes) could be lowered a dollar or two. And it will be interesting to see what items make the final menu cut, because it is a big menu.
But I like the blend of asian and american steak. If the staff can figure out how to market the asian menu and the culture of drinking and eating to oakland diners and also the american steak selection then this place will be a gem on the waterfront.
I encourage yall to give it a shot really!

It was very high ended nice looking restaurant. Enjoyed everything they offered us tonight. Had good tender steaks, salmon appetizer, very unique nice rolls and wine.
Hopefully people can find out about this place soon. gets busy. still soft opening…
Will make sure bring friends over soon and often.

Ajuzoun takes over the long vacated Zazoo spot. came here decades ago when it was a nightspot. something has changed. didn’t recognize it. of course then it was in the dark of night.
had an opportunity to peruse menu day before so i knew what i wanted. menu is loosely organized. didn’t know what some entrees were. (no descriptions). everything priced high
end. ($ 15-​$ 30).
eats: Sashimi Moriwase-​combo platter ($ 38, 23 pieces)
–hamachi, butterfish, suzuki, sake, tuna, makereal, tako, hirame, albacore?
one or 2 fish fresh, rest just above average, i.e. the usual korean fare at sushierias.
*none had refrigerated taste, so that’s a plus, none super fresh either.
*slices only slightly bigger than usual.
–pot of tea (2)
hot, faint tea flavor
–miso soup (2)
lots of green onions and cold cubes of tofu.
no msg, just a taste i can’t place.
temaki:
–food came out in 30 minutes
few minutes after that soy sauce came out
request for soy sauce dish brought a butter cup, later a coffee cup plate, didn’t ask anymore.
–3 patrons in eatery, 3 sushi makers at sushi bar.
30% off during soft opening. (2 weeks?)
–waitress obviously doesn’t know what she’s doing…
*beware of recommendations, will recommend priciest item on menu, not necessary the best item available. (i.e korean shaved ice, $ 20)
recomended sushi rolls to me, told her i don’t eat rolls.
very good at asking «do i want anything else», just smiled and say «no».
–big parking lot, few spaces in front…
being generous with 3 stars (for the food, service not rated)
–looking at a polluted waters/​poop on window didn’t excite me.

I had just got done talking my Random Drug test and my Renewal Physical for the Work Release Program .
I also had a Fresh Charge On my Ankle Bracelet.
So I was quite Happy!!!
So I figured I would Celebrate by treating myself to a Sushi Lunch.
So I checked my Unilocal Bookmarks and up popped Ajuzoun !!!
So i jumped into my Whip Black Beauty and rolled to Ajuzoun .
Ajuzoun has a Huge Parking lot to Park your Whip in.
Which I did.
I was Impressed with the Size of Ajuzoun .
Theres a Huge Stained Glass window above the entrance. .
I strolled in the Front door and theres a Hostess Station on the Right .
I was Greeted and Seated and Presented a Soft Opening Menu.
The Soft Opening is for 2 Weeks and Features 30% off the Listed Prices on the Menu.
The Soft Opening Menu features items that are High Lighted in Pink.
The Views are Panty Droppers .
Great Views of the Oakland Estuary and Girls out Paddling Kayaks around the Estuary .
I was Seated at a Window Table.
The Restaurant is so new, I had the place to my Self– Baller Style LOL.
I ordered a Pepsi .
Ajuzoun Carries Pepsi Products for their Soft Drinks.
They serve Beer, Wine and Sake for their Alcoholic Offerings.
For Lunch I Ordered Sashimi Moriwase –Combination Platter.
They also Brought me a Half Portion of Hamachi Carpaccio and a Polynesian Sushi Cookie. Which was Very good and Very Fresh Fish .
Nice Presentation.
My Waitress was very Nice and Attentive.
She kept my Pepsi Full .
When my Sashimi Moriwase arrived it was a Nice Presentation and the Fish was Fresh .
The Sashimi Slices were Good Sized and had a Great Taste !!!
Portion Size was great.
The Sushi Bar was Very Large and Impressive as well as their Oval Bar.
The Interior Décor has a Classy Feeling and Look to it.
Ajuzoun would make a Great Date Joint.
They take all Major Credit Cards Including Discover .
Their Point Of Sale System also Prints a Tipping Chart and Overall Total based on your Bill on Your Tab. Very Convenient .
My Prediction is if they Keep their Quality Up — Ajuzoun will be a Very Busy Place when the word gets out.