Samurai Sushi Rest

So let’s just say I have had sushi all over the world. I lived in San Antonio for about 18 years and moved away about 10 years ago. I have family, friends and colleagues in the are and ALWAYS go to Samurai every visit. Kim does an amazing job caring for the top quality fish he imports everyday. I am about to board a flight and was just checking the hours and thought I need to add my two cents. Definitely try the Sashimi Salad, it’s amazing and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere on the planet. Kim actually made the «salad dressing» for me last visit so I could take a bottle home for my own version. If you like joy ask Kim for something very HOT behind the counter. Be prepared and warned. Bön appetit!

Overall a disappointment — my sashimi was totally predictable, and a couple of the pieces has a smell that was less than too drawer fresh. Miso soup was lukewarm. Service was civil but not friendly. Three stars because Spouse liked his California roll — hey, his opinion counts too! ;-)

Not a big fan! Taste different! I didn’t even bother taking a picture of the sushi coz it didn’t look that pretty! Not going back

This place was okay. The quality of the sashimi was good, not great. The miso soup was okay, but felt like it was missing something. We went during lunchtime in the middle of the week and it was pretty dead. The waitresses were trying but there was a bit of a language barrier. Then, there was a mistake with our bill and we were overcharged. It took 10 – 15 minutes to get this fixed. So… not a great experience overall. We probably won’t be back.

Reviews have been mixed but since I’m looking for a good sushi place in the med. Ctr, I decided to give them a try and was not disappointed. I ordered the lunch special combo with 6 pieces of sushi, salad and soup for $ 11.00. The sushi was very fresh, packaged beautifully to prevent spillage of soup and I loved the salad dressing. The staff was all very attentive even though I was getting take out. I will definitely be back to explore their wide array of rolls.

Lemon Roll and Tempura Ice Cream. All my cravings were satisfied!
The service is extremely polite and respectful. There were only 3 tables on a Saturday around 6pm, which is kind of a bummer for them but great for me. The servers were very thorough and constantly checking on me.
The prices may be a bit steep for some rolls, however, I usually do not mind paying a little more for sushi if it’s good.
Interior: Not so much a modern sushi place but the food and service make up for it.
It was pretty obvious that the place was once a bar & grill before and a few of the lights kept flickering here and there. Neither of which bothered me much or affected my dining experience.
Will definitely go back with friends!

This place is sliding down hill a bit :(

Ever since I moved to the medical center, I’ve been meaning to come by here. I’m a huge fan of sushi and have always heard about this place, and my boyfriend comes from the Bay area and has very high expectations for his sushi– so when I remembered this place I thought surely the time had come for a visit and this place would blow him away as it had so many other people I’d heard from!
And yet we were both underwhelmed.
The fish was fresh. And the service was okay. The menu was pretty Americanized, which isn’t necessarily bad OR good, since I prefer rolls anyway. But this place just didn’t have the «awesome! wow! amazing!» factor that other reviews reference.
I’m surprised I don’t even remember what rolls we DID get– usually I remember them very well and once I’ve tried the ones I want, I remember what I like and stick to it. But here we took our time ordering because nothing really stood out, and none of them really blew us away.
As others have mentioned, the service could use improvement. We had one server for the first half of our visit and another for the second half– but neither one of them was particularly good at noticing water glasses or realizing they’re supposed to be refilled once emptied.
I will say that the photobook of rolls was a nice touch– it always drives me nuts to see the menus with a handful of rolls pictured, which are never the ones I’m truly interested in, but here there was a large selection of photographed rolls and I appredciated that the food we recieved actually matched the expectation!
I don’t know if we’ll be back– maybe we caught them on an off night?

Overpriced 2.5-star sushi (really tiny rolls) and terrrrible service. It is so ridiculously slow here, even when there are only 2 – 3 tables with people. The servers just never come to your table. No water refills ever. And it takes about 30 minutes just to pay for the meal because they never come to pick the check up. The only real plus side I can think of is that they have a booklet with all their sushi rolls and pictures of each.
I’ve been here twice and last time I went, they charged us a few dollars more on a couple of our dishes. We pointed it out and they didn’t believe us until I asked for a menu and showed them the listed price. They told us it must have been a mistake and grudgingly changed our bill…
During that same visit, a man at a table next to us started shouting really loudly. «THERE IS NO [bleep]-ING WAY I AM PAYING FOR THIS FOOD! THERE IS PLASTIC IN IT!!! NO I DO NOT WANT YOU TO MAKE IT AGAIN! THIS IS ABSURD!» Seconds later, him and his wife and kids stormed out of the restaurant.
Awkward…

I must have passed this place a gazillion times, but never stopped. I made the mistake of judging this place based upon their exterior vs getting on Unilocal and reading the reviews. I won’t be making THAT mistake again… EVAR!
I went for lunch, and had a couple of rolls and house salad. Everything was yummy. End of story. The food matches their pricing, and the service was outstanding! I love it when I don’t have to ask for an iced tea refill.
I realize this is quite short, and while I’d love to tell you about the rolls I had… too bad. You’ll just have to drive your happy tushy to Samurai, and experience the fabulousness for yourself.

Overpriced, Gamey, and Mushy.
I ate lunch here the other day and was extremely disappointed. We had the Sashimi Combo, 2 orders of rolls, and some yakisoba. The price of the sushi for what you get is not comparable at all. The sashimi was cut razor thin and tasted like it had sat out for a few days – very very gamey tasting. The salmon tempura rolls should be renamed the mushy tempura gamey rolls. The Samurai Rolls were wrapped in a rubbery cucumber and filled with more gamey/​old sushi. Lastly, the yakisoba noodles were WAY over cooked, which told me it came from a larger batch and was simply reheated.
That food with 2 drinks totaled a little over $ 50. Not worth it and I will NEVER be back again.

I have been several times. Every time I leave full and happy. I love this place. It is very laid back. I love the lemon roll and rainbow roll. Both are just to die for. The dragon roll is pretty good. However, the eel sauce is too sweet for my liking. I ordered it on the side. Other then the eel sauce, service is always fast and friendly. Also, I have been in on Saturday nights around 7 and 8 pm and the place even though was busy didn’t feel crowded. I would recommend to anyone in the San Antonio area that loves Sushi. By the way they have a frequent visit card. For every $ 10 spend on sushi you get a stamp. After 10 stamps you get a free roll. I know that isn’t a lot but it is still nice.

Samurai Sushi is the best!

The Sushi Rolls at Samurai are so fresh and cold, just the way I love them! The dragon Roll is packed with flavors and the Rainbow Roll (my fave) is Awesome. The 1 Roll doesn’t fix my craving anymore, I always want MORE since its sooo GOOD! The Baked Mussels are Freggin Amazing and I definitely recommend The Tempura Ice Cream!
The atmosphere can use an upgrade, but it doesn’t really matter when you are with Great Company

I’m stuck between rating this place 3 or 4 stars, but if I could, I’d give it 3.5 stars. But, due to certain limitations, I’ll give the place the benefit of the doubt and give it 4 stars simply because I do plan on going back and I enjoyed the food I got.
First off, this place has very reasonable prices that come with a great portion. Second, there’s plenty of seating available, friendly and informative waiters, and appetizing Japanese cuisine!
I got to try a few sushi rolls and one of the entrees here and some were a hit and some a miss. I guess lets start off with the good dishes. I got the Oyako Donburi which my fellow diners and I thought was «on point». The chicken atop was moist, the rice was cooked perfect underneath, and the teryaki sauce complimented and tied the whole dish together without being overly sweet. A very savory and appetizing dish. Only downside was the fried egg on top was overcooked, but didn’t really hurt the dish overall.
Lets talk sushi now. I tried the Las Vegas Roll and the Seafood Dynamite Roll and one was a hit and the other a miss. For me, I found the Las Vegas roll to be a complete disappoint. It was bland, lacked flavor and depth. With a name like «Las Vegas Roll» — it should deliver in presentation AND taste, but it fell flat for me in both categories.
As for the Seafood Dynamite — wow! It was a flavorful roll and you could taste every ingredient in there. I especially like how they torch the ingredients on top because it added a baked taste to the roll.
Here’s a quick recap:
Oyako Donburi — ⁴⁄₅
Las Vegas Roll — 1.5÷5
Seafood Dynamite Roll — 4.5÷5

I love the fact that this place:
is chill
not packed on the weekends
has outstanding service
is inexpensive (rolls = 8.50−14.50)
crave-​worthy fried ice cream, sushi and salads
great drink selection
They offer a «rewards card», spend a certain amount of money and get a free roll on your next visit.
def recommend this place… try the lemon roll, sashimi salad and for desert, their vanilla fried ice cream.

I absolutely love this place. Intamate and relaxing enviornment to enjoy wonderfully prepared sushi and thewaitstaff is friendly but dont hover (i hate that).
so if yopu are looking for a good place to eat with some friends or family or maybe a romantic date, i suggest samurai sushi!

Perfect date place. Perfect big birthday party place. Perfect lunch place. Really just perfect all around. From the fresh oysters flown in from Washington State covered in roe as an appetizer to the fried ice cream for dessert, Samurai never disappoints.
The Amaebi is sweet, fresh and the fried shrimp head that comes with always a treat. The menu offers your traditional fare with some specialities unique to Samurai.
For the non-​sushi lovers there are plenty of options. Teriyaki steak or chicken. Udon. Much much more.
And did I mention the fried ice cream? Trust me, it’s worth it.

I will start by saying I am relatively new to eating sushi (approx my 9^th time). That being said, I really liked this place!
From the outside, I will admit, the place looks pretty dumpy. Inside, it’s nicely decorated and totally not super crowded even on a Friday night, which I like. Since there were less people, that kept down the noise level.
As for prices, they seemed high but, sushi is always super high. They seemed comparable to sushi zushi. They had nice wine specials (I got one that was like 3 or 3.50 a glass). I mean, I doubt they were super fancy wines but, at least they didn’t charge ridiculously high prices for all of them.
The sushi was good. I got the lemon roll (tastes super fresh), dragon roll, and eel roll. All were very good. We also got some edamame on the house since my friend is a regular. P. S. apparently regulars get their own set of special chopsticks that they bring out for you each time you dine there).
Service was a bit lacking. my water was empty for a while but, I was too drunk to notice until I was SUUPer thirsty. They brought out samples of wines to try before we got a glass, which is always a plus. Overall, good. Besides, where else can you go and chat with the sushi chef as he makes your roll and have him hand you his huge sushi knife so you can look at it up close.

The sushi was pretty fresh here, but the rolls lacked creativity in an authentic way… the one roll that we ordered was possibly called the volcano roll… it had something I can only describe as cheese whiz in it… lol. Not joking. The edamame was steamed correctly and came out fast.
I might come back… but I will be searching around to find my sushi niche in SA