Kushi Tsuru

Let me say this was probably the first Japanese food that I could say disappointed me! and I’ve eaten in maybe a thousand different Japanese restaurants over my lifetime. In my defense we were going to go to Kappa but found out it was by reservation only, then we decided to head to «AN» but found they only serve seafood which one of my kid couldn’t eat and all those walking around our hunger took over us and next thing we found ourselves seated at this Japanese resto called Kushi Tsuru
We ordered, service was good, nice ladies but when the food came I could tell my calamari dinner wasn’t going to be like the calamari I was used to eating, sure enough it was old, sort of hard, I had to man up and finish it or it would send the wrong message to my kids that wasting food is ok.
Next, my GF didn’t finish her fried/​tempura calamari so I did the honorable thing of taking over her leftover food, and ohh lol it was old calamari. I just didn’t enjoy the food!
I know we should have tried harder to search Unilocal for better alternatives when our 1^st two didn’t pan out, but we were a famished family that made a decision to stop Unilocaling for better food and just go for it! well lesson learn ;-)

So I and my girlfriend was really hungry wanted Japanese food, so we decided to eat at this place and it was okay. Why «okay» I say? It’s because the seaweed salad made up for my meal it was the seaweed salad with spicy tuna it was really good for $ 4.00! So what I ate was chicken with egg and rice. So imagine eating water down rice with really chewy chicken and bland eggs. The chicken tasted old like a fishy taste, the rice was soft and mushy not my cup of tea. Now the eggs, eggs are dedicate foods because they burn easy. (My opinion) I had good Japanese food and having high expectation for quality food coming from japantown it would be good. Overall this place is okay, customer service is good and they give you green tea.

I’m 100% sure that in Anthony Bourdain’s mind, I have gotten everything that was coming to me.
You might think I’m being dramatic when I say that this establishment gave me the most miserable meal I’ve eaten in memory, but I’m going to stick to that anyway.
Like the terrific girlfriend that I am… or, was… I decided to buy my then boyfriend’s Christmas 2015 present on *drumroll please* Christmas Eve! Before you start shaking your head, you should know that I waited that long because I wanted to get him something very particular, a bonsai tree, which you can’t just get through Amazon. (Actually, you can… but… ignore that for dramatic effect) After searching up purveyors of bonsai, I was stuck between Katsura Garden, SF and Grove Way Bonsai Nursery, Hayward.
Realizing that I still needed to buy gifts for a number of other people, too, I decided to stop by Katsura Garden and then buy a bunch of other things in Japantown (yay, efficiency!). It was a cold, windy December 24^th when I parked in the garage and commenced browsing and buying, swiping plastic like the credit card ninja that I am, crossing names off my list faster than the nonexistent Santa Claus (HE DOESN’T EXIST; YOUR PARENTS ARE LYING TO YOU). Ahem.
I finished a couple of hours later and was absolutely exhausted. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have purchased the bonsai first; that thing was heavy and hard to tote around from shop to shop. As I passed through the mall, I decided to stop and eat before I drove home. Hunger really must have messed with my mind and short-​circuited my ability to think rationally (I have demonstrated sanity at times, I swear). Instead of whipping out my Unilocal app and making a wise choice, I swerved to the right and ended up at Katsura.
I was seated immediately and experienced pretty attentive service the whole way through. There were two waitresses that made sure that everyone in the packed dining area had everything they needed. One star for that.
The menu had pretty typical offerings. In the end, I settled on a beef curry rice bowl ($ 10.95) and an order of… dun dun dun… California rolls ($ 4.50)!
After placing my order, one of the waitresses brought me a cup of toasted rice tea and a bowl of miso soup. The tea was good and the miso soup was decent (a tad bit too salty, but what can ya do). Minutes later, the same waitress brought over the rolls and the rice bowl.
I attacked the rolls first.
Halfway through chewing the first roll, my heart sank. They hadn’t even bothered to season the rice at all. Shamelessly hungry, I ate three more before pushing the plate away.
The sloppy presentation of the beef curry rice bowl didn’t inspire much confidence and one bite confirmed my suspicions — utter crap. They really should rename this «lukewarm bowl of curry sauce over a scoop of soggy rice,» and make the description read: «have fun playing the Where’s Waldo? game with the miniscule bits of ‘beef’ swimming around.» But maybe that’s too much to fit on a menu.
I took a couple more bites before asking for the check.
When the waitress asked if I wanted takeout containers I didn’t know whether to burst out into maniacal laughter or glare at her. Seriously?
All snark aside, I think this place is a prime example of what truly disappoints me, that is, restaurants that take zero pride in what they do, places that seem to exist solely to churn out plated slop for profit.

Mini me love things Japanese. From the food to the toys, animé and the trinkets she is just one of those kids who are so into it that whenever you say you’re going to any place that resembles a touch of Nippon she would literally lit up from her usually cranky-​hormone driven self. Having this in mind, I know she would love to go to Japantown and would love to have dinner in one of its restos. It’s like a done deal, give mommy a pat on the back — but no. It wasn’t what I would have expected.
She enjoyed Japan town alright but coming to this place left us feeling dissatisfied with the food and especially the service. Why did I felt this? Let me count the ways…
1. The place is small the it couldn’t accommodate our party of eight. We were told that we can have separate tables. Which we agreed since we were starving already.
2. We needed a high chair for my friend’s baby and they gave us one– a broken one. My friend questioned why are they giving us a chair with broken straps. They just shrugged and told us that they only have two and the owner has not fixed the chair yet. My friend insisted that they should fix it before some child falls off from their chair. We got no apologies.
3. Time of taking our order after we complained about the high chair. 10 minutes.
4. Time of getting our orders. More than 15 minutes.
5. Minutes waited for spoon and fork after our meal was delivered. 5 mins and it was only spoons. I guess when they say one moment, it meant 5 minutes of wasted expectations.
6. Minutes waited for the forks. 5 more minutes (seriously where are they getting it???) Did I say we were starving?
7. Did someone asked us how we were doing? No… Not until minutes before the bill arrived (however they were checking in with the other tables who came later than us). Seriously I felt like we were being ignored if not «just» tolerated.
8. Food — I am being nice when I say that their food was mediocre. The miso soup was way salty. The bento box we ordered were comparable with cheap food court stalls. The karaage chicken has a very sour special sauce and the meal was just– ehhh… Tho my brother said that the beef teriyaki was good while my friend’s calamari was sub par.
9. My daughter who decided to eat in a different table shouted to our side that she can’t finish her food grilled salmon because it’s making her dizzy and with the blunt innocence every honest kid has, she said, «I didn’t like the food! «…I seriously don’t know how to react… yet somehow am proud of her braveness of telling it as it is — down right loud and clear… ahhh youth… Is a bliss!
10. My daughter’s order of California roll never came.
11. When we got our bill it included a 18% tip. Which was appalling for the service we receive. My friend gave them a piece of her mind and met into agreement in the end. They still got a tip but not by their terms.
If you have to eat Japanese food, try somewhere else.

It’s ok. An for all the restaurants nearby in the hall of Japantown. This is the best one for the variety, price and service I need when I am with my kids AND I can count on the consistency. My kids just want Udon and the other Zaru Soba and for me it’s something like a bento. The prices are really good and they have ok sushi. If you want sushi I wouldn’t recommend here, but for the kids who want Tamago it’s fine. It’s not overly big to where you can’t get help like other places and their Miso tastes good. My kids actually always ask to just eat here.

My friends and I were starving; it was past 3 pm and we didn’t have food all morning. We decided to eat at Kushi Tsuru and had to wait to get seated since most of the tables and booths couldn’t fit all 6 of us. After everyone got their orders, I was still waiting for my Teriyaki rice plate (very basic). The server said it was taking a while, but clearly they left out my order because she asked if everyone already got their plates. I ended up getting my food a lot later than everyone else (they were almost done with their food) and the taste was very basic. However, she gave me a can of soda on the house for the delay.

I first discovered Kushi Tsuru when I came to the annual Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival. I came back because of lack of options of genuine Japanese food in that area, according to my two chinese friends I was with. They claim that a lot of the food in the area we were in is Americanized so we decided to go with what I was already familiar with — Kushi Tsuru. I enjoyed the first and I enjoyed it this time. My friends and I all went with Ramen. My wife went with two sushi rolls. I believe this place is legit because my two chinese friends who know a lot about asian cuisine thought it was pretty good. They also taught me that you usually don’t eat a dish with rice (sushi) and a dish with noodles (ramen) together. The service was also great. I think I’ll be back during the next cherry blossom festival.

We never got a chance to eat. Waited 20 minutes for a table for two at 3pm on a Saturday. Finally got sat, ordered two bento boxes and two cokes. 30 minutes after that still no lunch or cokes. Had to leave and eat hot dogs from the movie theater (ugh). No one even apologized or thanked us even after I left a tip (we had tea). Forget this place.

The food here is very average. It isn’t very high quality and doesn’t taste amazing, but it’s clean and edible. I had the Shoyu Ramen with sake bomb ($ 9). The ramen broth was a very basic soy sauce base, which was definitely too salty. The content of the ramen wasn’t bad: a good heaping of noodles, two tender pieces of pork, and a lot of seaweed and menma (which didn’t taste very fresh). The highlight of the meal was actually the sake bomb combo, which was only $ 9, but included a small carafe of sake (good enough for 3.5 shots), and a large bottle of beer.
Bonus for good service when we misordered — for some reason we asked for 3 bowls of ramen when we only wanted 2, and they just took the last one back and didn’t make an issue of it.
I don’t think I would return here unless I really needed to have a meal in Japantown — from what I’ve had inside the center, the food is all around the same caliber. Kushi Tsuru isn’t any better or worse than the neighboring restaurants.

Honestly, I’ve had better Japanese food outside of Japantown and so I wasn’t expecting much when I came here. We were in a group and they did split the bill up for us individually which was really great! But the two rolls my boyfriend and I shared fell apart too easily because the rice was too soft. They were just rather average rolls. Nothing very special about this place other than they do provide 2-​hour parking validation! Which is actually the only reason that I went here. Might come again if I can’t find another restaurant that offers parking validation.

Review for the lunch bento of korean shortribs, vegetable tempura and 3 pieces of CA roll. Small place with a few tables, quick service… food was tasty but CA roll seemed a little mushy.
Overall, good lunch value the whole week with a few small pieces of shortribs… i would say 1 strip cut into 3 sections but still filling… good way to get your parking ticket validated.

Food was alright. Bento box gives you a good variety.
Mainly touristy. We had a large party like 15 people and were in the back room. Chairs were hard wood and uncomfortable on your back.
Would be better if they had air conditioning, was stuffy. they had one very strong fan blowing, but it did not help too much, and the person sitting in front of the fan was too cold.

Yeah, the 3 star rating here is about right.
I wouldn’t recommend sushi here. The fish tasted FROZEN… ~let it go~ let it go~~ oh sorry…
Every place around was busy… I settled here. I wasn’t expecting much and it was just that.
Staff seemed chaotic running around all over the place.

This restaurant is located in Japan centre in the area that looks traditional but more of that cheesy tourist japan look that caters to tourists. Which also gave us hints that the place wouldn’t be that great, also it just didn’t seem or feel authentic when you walked in. We were really hungry in the moment so we just decided to do a Unilocal search and go to the nearest decently rated place. (YAY FOR Unilocal!!!)
Anyways, our assumptions were true because the food we ate was mediocre at best. The miso soup you could see msg and salt particles or whatever powder they used for there miso soup. It really turned me off because I could feel the particles of the miso soup, usually it’s suppose to be more dissolved than that.
For the main course, we got the chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura bento box that came with salad, rice and california rolls and we got the donburi, which is like rice with beef, onions, egg, and some sauce to give it some flavour, most likely fat from the beef. The beef was alright but not as great quality as I’ve had at other really good donburi places (This place literally called Donburi in Richmond Hill, ON, Canada) where the beef would literally melt in your mouth and would be super tasty. And yes the sauce felt like it was just fat /​oil secreted from the beef. The California rolls were pretty tasteless as well but shrimp tempura was alright.
I wouldn’t go back, but I’d love to try somewhere new in JapTown and see.

Kushi Tsuri was located in the center of the mall (s), and probably has the most traffic on the outside because it’s located where all of the restaurants are. Looking at the lunch specials, we were pretty interested in the bento boxes. For $ 10.95 each, we got the bento box and the beef don for $ 9.95. The bento box included two options of thins we wanted in the bento box. We chose Chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura. In addition, there was salad, rice and California rolls.
I thought the rice was overly wet, so it kind of ruined the California rolls, the rice alone and the beef don. The salad was a little unJapanese like. The sauce wasn’t the normal chopped carrot sauce that many Japanese restaurants make themselves, it was normal Caesar Salad Dressing. The shrimp didn’t taste very fresh, nor was it fried very well. The chicken was pretty average. One of the good parts about this meal was the egg and the beef in the don buri. I thought the beef was very flavourable, the egg was on the slightly good side, though it wasn’t amazing.
There’s many restaurants in JapanTown, I would recommend walking around because there are so many food shops that look really good!

It is in Japan Center. The environment is nice and the waiters are so kind. We ordered Kushi bento. I choose vegetable Tempura and Mackerel. I love the Tempura so much. There are fried carrot, broccoli, eggplants, sweet potato inside. And the sauce tastes really good.

Had the bento box with the Calamari and Beef Teriyaki options.
Presentation was nice and so was the beef, but the calamari was chunky and tasteless covered with a greasy tempura. Two small Califora Sushi pieces were served with wilted ginger and NO Wasabi!!! Isn’t that the point to cheap Sushi? A small bowl if Miso Soup was served first and that was really very good. I may go back for soup or noodles someday. Almost everyone else there was eating out of bowl.

This place is fairly average. We were served water and miso soup after being seated. The place is a little lacking in service as others had mentioned, but we at least got a refill on water without having to ask.
I ordered two rolls and was content with the turnout. Worth the money in my opinion since the flavors were good for both Mango Crunch and Godzilla. It just took a bit longer to come out compared to the boyfriend’s Unagi Don.
Food wasn’t mind blowing but again, worth the price in my opinion.

We randomly selected this restaurant for dinner one night, and while there seems to be a fairly equal amount of recent good and bad reviews, I thought dinner wasn’t bad.
I ordered the Combo Entrée with gyoza, chicken katsu, and california roll since I wanted to eat a bit of everything. Gyoza was a bit hard on the edges but the chicken katsu was crunchy and tasty. I mistakenly ordered a Nabeyaki Udon when I wanted soba, but I actually liked it. Big bowl filled with udon, an egg, tempura, tofu, fish cakes, and other vegetables. Broth was good, overall satisfying.
I definitely wouldn’t mind coming back again.

One of the many restaurants to choose from in «Restaurant Row» AKA the dark little tunnel of food in Japantown with the windows of delicious-​looking food displays that you can’t. help. but stare at.
…and so that’s how we ended up in here!
We were seated and provided with hot green tea and miso soup immediately, which was a nice surprise. The menu consisted of the typical Japanese fare, such as sushi, udon, and donburi. It was nice to also see the option of udon or soba for all of the noodle dishes.
The quality, however, was nothing too special. I ordered the beef udon and the cuts of beef were none too visually appealing, nor was the broth very flavorful. It wasn’t bad but not particularly amazing either. While prices were fair for the amount given, I don’t know if I could say the same for taste.
Service was passable and fairly quick but not especially friendly. Overall, a decent option if you happen to be in Japantown and all of the other restaurants are crowded.

Whaou… Excellent ! Tout les plats étaient excellents, le service nickel… Un vrai bonheur… Nous avons enfin pu manger autre chose que des sushi et gouter une autre cuisine japonaise ! MERCI !