Sutra Sushi at Barcelona

This is a great Sushi place to go to but prices a little high. I’ve never been there during discount price hours and days but I hear you can get a pretty good deal.
The Tazmanian Salmon is great. I even tried the Ama Ebi which was pretty good for pre-​frozen shrimp. (the best way to have Ama Ebi is to find a place which has live sweet shrimp)
Selection of cold Sake is great.
People there are interesting. Lots of Asian hookers and white Cougars competing for old Scottsdale douches. Have fun! :)
UPDATE:
The Sutra Sushi web site says Happy Hour is Tuesday through Saturday 4 – 7. Not many places do Happy Hour on Saturdays…

Been here from 1^st day opening. { att. (and owned by) barcelona}. Service is prompt, amazing happy hr, luv the pear tini & spicy beef Udon noodle dish (GR8 2 share). Plush interior, unique & sexy patio, (which does NOT face a busy road, HTF). Luv it, will continue to frequent :-)

So I went for Raven’s Event mixer thingy so I could bump into Gabi & Dottsy and get some sushi in my tummy. I did not know what this event was but I had a great time I was sad I didnt get to make a late night of it. I cant remember the names of the rolls we had you can thank that Traditional Manhattan I ordered but I thought they were good not THE best but def not THE worst. Our server was excellent the people at this event were surprisingly friendly for Snobbsdale and I suggest the martini’s here since this was a martini bar before you cant really go wrong. I left happy and I’ll be back!

I went to Sutra to attend the mixer where Unilocal was being featured. After soaking in the cool «sceney» vibe, I decided that I was hungry. I asked the waitress for a menu. When she came back she told me that the right hand side of the menu was half off and made a couple suggestions. I love the names of the rolls that Sutra has. There were selections like «Cougar» and «30k millionaire». I had one of each. As if the rolls were made to live up to their namesakes, they didn’t impress me; they merely annoyed me. The lack of freshness and flavor were the biggest factors in Sutra’s failure. I ended up leaving plenty of sushi on my plate, but I was relieved that they were half off, otherwise I would have returned them upon first bite.
I would not eat at Sutra again if I had a choice. I would advise you to eat elsewhere and come to Sutra to see and be «scene»!

I am not a frequent visitor to Barcelona, but I AM a big fan of Raven and of Unilocal (obviously!). Thus, we headed out to Sutra Sushi on Wednesday night for Raven’s mid-​week mixer, for which Unilocal was the featured guest. It was a «two-​fer»!
First off, Raven knows how to throw a party. Friendly and engaging, Raven is all about «fun» and the event was just that. Raven seems to know everyone and takes the time to welcome and speak to each guest as they walk in the door. I have no doubt that she is the reason that Sutra was so packed on a Wednesday night.
Sutra Sushi is everything you know Barcelona to be. It definitely caters to an upscale crowd and the patrons were dressed to kill. The «all night» happy hour was an INCREDIBLE value. I still can’t believe how cheap the drinks were and our sushi bill was so low that I reviewed the slip twice to make sure it was correct. Our favorite roll was the «Big Buddha», which was… well…big. It came with four different dipping sauces!
We will definitely be back to Sutra Sushi soon. You can’t beat the value for your money, and if Raven is sponsoring the party (which she does every second Wednesday), you know it’s going to be a great crowd!

I went to Sutra last night for Raven’s mid-​week mixer event. I hadn’t been since their grand opening party last January. Back then, I remember enjoying the sushi but thinking it was a little ‘sceney’ for my taste. I did enjoy it though. Not sure why it took me so long to return.
Last night was so much fun. It probably helped that Unilocal was the featured guest at the event so I had tons of people to talk to and tell about Unilocal.In addition to Raven being amazing and the crowd being friendly, I found the staff extremely attentive. Nicki was my waitress and took amazing care of me, and the rest of the staff had her back as well. My drinks stayed full all night long thanks to the staff. A few hours into the event, my stomach started growling a bit — dinner time! I opted to go with the Chilean Sea Bass entrée instead of sushi. Chilean Sea Bass is my favorite fish! Sutra’s version did not disappoint. It was maybe cooked a tad too long but it was still delicious, and each bite melted in my mouth like butter… Served with sticky rice and bok choy, it was a big portion and I pretty much licked my plate clean.
Although Dottsy said she didn’t love the sushi rolls she ordered, I’ve heard it’s decent from some other friends. In addition, they have half off Tuesdays for everything on the menu (double check that fact) — you can’t go wrong with that!
Sutra may be sceney — it’s at Barcelona after all; what do you expect? I have a feeling I won’t wait so long for my next visit — maybe I’ll even go for Raven’s event again (the 2^nd Wednesday of every month). If you go to Sutra, just know it’s a place to see and be ‘scene.’ Raven’s events draw a different, more comfortable crowd. Either way, t’s all about setting appropriate expectations!

The «sushi chefs» are cackling, blond inexperienced chefs. Despite that, the sushi is decent. The sashimi is pathetic. And the nigiri is pitiful.
The drinks are also decent. The décor is what you would expect for a higher-​class Scottsdale establishment. But this is yet another place where you need to have a drink or two, be seen, then go elsewhere for the food.
One star for the adequate pour on the drinks we ordered.

I was really looking forward to eating here. I went online and salivated over the menu. I got there and this is what I ordered.
Spicy Tuna-​Super fishy and the rice was oily. The sea weed was tough too
Beef Skewers– It was very Tender but not very good flavor. Certainly not worth the price
Rangoon– This was actually really good but the sauce was terrible and Im sure from a frozen package. I would bet money they dont make the sauces or the rangoon in store.
Save your money, this place is the worst sushi I think Ive ever eaten. The tuna was so fishy it actually scared me.

Well, Sutra Sushi is perhaps the epitome of dining in Snottsdale. It is more about the looks than the food.
This used to be an Oxygen bar, with red swirly sofas and ottomans. As that fad faded, why not try sushi? This really isn’t a sushi bar, it is a bar that offers sushi. The back wall is 18 feet high stocked with every kind of trendy fruit flavored liquor in clear and colored bottles of exotic shapes.
The sushi chefs are both Caucasian, and in typical Barcelona style, Danny (of Danny’s car wash fame and fortune) has a legion of staff, including the obligatory blond bartender in push up gusseted body corset, two bouncers in black shirts doing nothing, and several waitresses in black tops looking for a good tip by blowing in your ear.
Starters include Edamame, Miso Soup ($ 3 ea), Squid or Seaweed Salad ($ 5); Cold «Tapanese» (cute play on Tapas and Japanese? not really!) of Poki, Chicken Salad, Sashimi Salad (all $ 8). Hot Tapanese include Veggie Tempura. Crab Rangoons. ($ 6 ea) Calamari ($ 8) or Yakitori/​Yakuniku ($ 12). They also have Donburi «your way» with your choice of curry, chipotle or mushroom ragout sauce. (Now that is what I call Japanese! Not!)
Most sushi are in the $ 5 — $ 8 for nigiri, $ 10 — $ 12 for sashimi, so not outrageous by any means. Rolls are $ 4 (Tekkamaki) to $ 12 (Rainbow).
The sushi actually isn’t that bad, and I have had worse in Snobsdale.
This is really a good place to invite some friends for some food and fun and lots of booze before you go next door to cruise and booze some between dances.

Great atmosphere and wonderful food. The sushi was very fresh… the freshest I’ve had in Scottsdale. They also had a really fun martini list.

Okay, so I am between the last two reviewers. We started out at Barcelona’s for a happy hour drink. (before it becomes a scene). The drinks were very good and inexpensive. We then went next door for the sushi. We ate off the happy hour menu. The sushi was good and fresh, although they were out of octopus. The guy making the sushi was nice and spent a lot of time making the food look good. The only strange part is that I’m from San Francisco, where people making food in Japanese restaurants are actually Japanese…

Sutra Sutra Sutra.
Well unlike the previous review, I am a SUTRA LOVER. Service yes it sucked, waitress didn’t know tuna from wasabi. That’s saying something. But the food… well it was amazing. From the first dish i had «9Th position» down to the Fruit spongecake dessert with chocolate mousse and blackberry sauce drizzled over kiwi fruit and spongecake. Delightful. The restaurant was 99% empty and it still took forever to get anything, but again I am a sushi lover and finding great sushi is hard so even if the service lacks I am going to go back again and again for the food. especially during happy hour because the whole menu is 50% off including big rolls and martinis. Worth a try. Worth the service.

Wow… where to begin with this place? I call up the night of going there to see if a reservation was needed. They tell me they always suggest a reservation… so i proceed to see if they have anytime available for 8 o clock that evening. They do… Great! I head over to Sutra which is the «new» sushi place to go to in scottsdale. Excited to try some new sushi in town we walk in to an 80% empty restaurant wondering why they suggested we make a reservation? The restaurant looked identical to the previous lounge that occupied this space, La Rouge. There were minimal changes and the same furniture remained which i thought was disappointing. I thought they would have given Sutra its own identity. They might as well had called it La Rouge and told people they now serve sushi. The next disappointing thing about Sutra was the service… BRU-​TAL! Im talking painful to sit through. The waitress came over and introduced herself and asked if we wanted drinks. We wanted to see their wine list along with the martini list. She had to make two seperate trips to find both of these menus. Finally she delivered the menus to us as if they were the only menus in the restaurant and we were lucky to have received them. Then, after looking over the sushi menu for 20 minutes and finally deciding on what we wanted, the waitress came over to look over our order and make sure she was aware of everything we wanted. After she looked it over she asks, «:Oh, did they tell you what the deal was tonight??» We all looked at each other and said, «No, whats the deal here tonight?’ She says, «We are not serving any hot food tonight and any of the sushi that contains tempura (a fried breading) is not available, however, edamame and miso soup are still available. Hmmm…“Why didnt they mention that when i made a reservation» I pondered. And why didnt the server mention this the first three times she visited our table for that matter. Half the items that we ordered were immediatly eliminated and we had to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we wanted. Finally, we decide and the waitress takes our order. As the night progressed the service and experience just got more interesting. The food was brought out by runners and the waitress had no clue what had been brought out and what hadnt. She was asking US what still needed to come out. Kinda weird… thought that was her responsibility to know what still needed to come out? So after eating a few mediocre rolls of sushi we all decided that we were full and couldnt eat anymore. We asked the server to cancel the last two dishes that hadnt arrived yet. She looked at us like we were from Mars and said, «Oh, you guys didnt get everything?» She canceled the remaining dishes and proceeded to talk to us for literally a half hour. «About what» you are wondering. I have no clue… all i know is that i felt 1000 times dumber after she was done. So, I think you get the idea. This place should live about as long as La Rouge did… and hopefully not that long. This was a painful dining experience. Very disappointing coming from the people that own Barcelona and Danny’s car washes. This dinner was more annoying than the guys at the car washes that ask you if you want your windshield repaired everytime you go to fill up! SUCKED… Dont go!