Sushi Tozai

While the nigiri was fresh and well plated, my son’s chicken teriyaki lunch plate was horrible. It was bland and tasteless, plus they forgot the rice and he had to ask for it. While waiting, we noticed a highway of ants on the sushi bar. My son complained about the chicken and they took it off the bill. The trivial part was, since it was a combination gig, they added the soup and salad to the total. While I have no problem paying for something that was indeed consumed, I found that to be incredibly petty. Especially after the bugs on the table and omitting part of his meal. I will not return.

Came in 40mins before lunch was closing. Very good friendly staff and the sushi chef was very pleasant. Sushi was delicious and so are the dumplings. Will go back again to try more!

This is our favorite sushi restaurant in West County. The food is always good and we most often find the staff to be attentive and fun.
An area that they could improve upon is to offer Gluten Free options. Last week our friend had a hard time ordering because she is GF free. There are no GF choices. She ended up getting a grilled fish dinner which was good, but not sushi. 3 stars until they add GF.

I recently ate here on a whim after a friend canceled our lunch plans, and I can honestly say that my only regret was not having tried it sooner. It was quite simply the best restaurant experience I’ve had in a long time; everything was wonderful!
Wanting to sample a little of everything, I ordered the executive bento lunch which includes: salad, miso soup, tempura, sushi, and sticky rice. Each aspect was impeccably timed; salad and soup arrived first, and no sooner had I finished them than the rest of the meal was ready.
The soup was just the thing on a cold day– steaming hot and rich in flavor. I’m not usually very enthused by salad, but this one was exceptional; the ginger dressing was so good, I could have eaten a jar of the stuff with a spoon. The vegetable tempura was terrific– loved the dipping sauce!- and the portion was larger than expected. I’d have liked a bit more broccoli, but really, it was perfect as is. Sushi-​wise, I got the sweet potato maki, and, holy cow… delicious! The sweet potato in the center was tempura fried, which gave it a wonderful crisp texture that contrasted pleasantly with the soft, chewy rice. There was also a fresh little cucumber salad included– sunomono, I believe– which made a nice palate cleanser.
The usual wasabi paste and pickled ginger were absent; perhaps they’re not traditionally used for sweet potato maki, but I kind of enjoy putting them on, well, everything… so I requested them and they were quickly supplied.
I don’t usually give much thought to the ambiance, but I rather liked the design of the dining room; the dim lighting and wood-​paneled walls made it peaceful and relaxing– a welcome retreat from the obnoxious modern world.
Service was top notch. There was only one server working five tables, but she was always on the move– a real marvel– and I never felt neglected. She filled my water glass a total of four times and the check and change were both very prompt.
My meal came to $ 15.80 after tax, but, although this is more than I’m accustomed to paying for a lunch special, I did not feel ripped off. The portion sizes and quality of the food itself made it worth every penny.
Tozai is my new favorite sushi place, and I’ll certainly be back.

We enjoyed this authentic Japanese dining experience after an evening at a Japanese spa.
We were seated right away and greeted with enthusiasm by the sushi bar chefs.
We sat at the sushi bar where we received attentive service from several wait staff and the female sushi chef.
The miso soup was excellent as well as the hot sake, vegetarian sushi rolls and salmon dinner. Brown rice option and substitutes not an issue, as well as re-​heating our hot sake– no problemo.
Great dining experience with fresh food and super clean and nice authentic Japanese style architecture and interiors.
Highly recommend!

Just so so. Not enough staff and because of that very slow service. Waiter never came back to refill water or tea. Food was ok. Tempura batter a bit heavy and no wasbi on our sushi platter? For us no need to go back.

I eat a lot of sushi. I’ve only been here 1 time and that was Sat. 11/​14/​2015. The nigiri and rolls could not have been better. We sat at the bar and really enjoyed ourselves. Big smiles from all the people who worked there and the inside of this restaurant is covered in very beautiful woodwork.
Impressive food, service and atmosphere.
I wish i lived closer I’d be there twice a week.

It was our 14 year anniversary and we decided to try a new sushi restaurant close to where we just moved. We were extremely happy that we chose this place the food was delicious and the service was outstanding the server recommended a Japanese beer he liked, he was spot on!!! We will be be back soon!

Admittedly, this is the first and only sushi place we’ve been to. Our son and his wife took us. .. to get us to try it. The food was very tasty. We really enjoyed the experience and will be going back very soon. We ordered the California roll, Philadelphia roll, tempura shrimp roll, rainbow roll and the house salad. Soooo good! It’s not the most impressive restaurant I’ve dined in but that wasn’t important. It was adequate. The prices also seem reasonable for the quantity. The parking lot is a bit tight, but apparently an adjacent lot is available after regular work hours.

Black Hair hanging out of a piece of breaded food in the meal…
Disgusting…
I will never return nor recommend…

Decided to try a new sushi places besides the normal Sushiko and Ume. Place was pretty empty but it was right before the dinner rush so we were seated promptly.
I got a dragon roll and another roll I don’t recall the same for.
While the dragon roll was super tasty (eel, shrimp tempura, avo, tobiko, and sauces), the other roll not so much.
The other roll was essentially scallops with spicy mayo sauce. The scallops weren’t as sweet and sliky as I am used to getting and the mayo tasted like off… Not sure what kind of mayo they used.
I wanted to like it but it was just eh.
My sisters sweet potato roll was tasty as was her carburetor roll.
Service was quick and they were very attentive to our waters (grateful for that).
I’ll would like to try other items on the menu to see if the roll I didn’t like was just a fluke.

I have to say, best sushi I’ve had throughout all of Sonoma County! Fresh fish, great service and recommendations! Our server Eric was superb! I recommend starting off with a Sake box! We will definitely be coming back soon! Thanks for a great night out!

Next to my favorite place Eight Cuisine and Wine is my favorite sushi place. The ambiance is amazing. Service is attentive. Food can come a little late at times, but what else do you expect at an amazing sushi joint in Sebastopol? I will wait longer for the fresh fish and creative rolls. Thank you tozai for all of your years of service. My favorite roll is the Sebastopol roll. Check it out!

The Price points harken back to the 90s! And sit at the sushi bar –the chefs love having a little company!

One of the best Japanese restaurant in Sonoma county. The prawn martini was great. I had several nigiri, which was good. The fish were fresh. You may also try Salmon skin roll, it was so delicious. The chef also offer me one free nigiri with seared fatty tuna, that was nice. If you don’t like the fatty feel, try the seared one. You will be surprised!

They were very happy to help me with gluten-​free and egg-​free options. The chirashi was very good and came with 5 types of fish. I didn’t love the sake (salmon), because it was fishier than most and didn’t melt in my mouth.
The atmosphere downstairs was great. Small dining area was quiet and intimate. The clientele was very diverse. It seems like a restaurant that locals go to.

It was my first time here tonight! This is my first dinner for 2015.
I’m a huge sushi fanatic. I pretty much eat sushi every day. I love it clean, simple, and fresh.
Sushi Tozai is new favorite of mine in Sebastopol. We almost didn’t make it! I called in around their opening time but my call kept getting dropped. We ended up driving over on a whim. I’n so glad we did!
We ordered:
–Salmon Skin Roll: fans of salmon skin rolls, you have to try this!
–The Carburator: I loved it!
–Seafood Udon: The seafood was perfect and the broth, divine.
Overall, this was a great dinner!

I’d been here a couple of times before and had good experiences so my husband and I stopped in last night for a nice dinner. 3 to 3.5 stars for food taste and quality. 2 stars for service.
There were two things that happened quickly at our dinner. I was seated right away, and at the end when I put my credit card on the table, it was picked up immediately. Everything else was paced far too slowly and things went a little wrong at every turn.
Our appetizers came out in a reasonable time and tasted fine. I tried the shrimp shumai and my husband got the pickled garlic. I also ordered a cucumber salad (sunomono) and asked for wooden chopsticks (instead of the lacquered ones they offer standard). I got my salad but no chopsticks so I waited and waited for someone to come by the table again so I could ask a second time. Though the restaurant had a lot of staff and they were all over the place, no one would meet my gaze and no one checked on our table so I had to wait until our server brought additional food out to us to ask for the chopsticks. He apologized for not bringing them sooner and brought two pair.
Ordering was a bit difficult for me. When our server first came by I pointed to an item on the menu and said «What can you tell me about your honey walnut prawns?» His answer was, unhelpfully, exactly what the menu already said. Fried prawns in a honey sauce. I asked if the honey sauce was made with mayonnaise and he said it was so I passed on it, hoping for something different. Then I asked about their Inari (tofu wrapped around rice). I asked if I could have one order, warm. He said no, it was cold. I paused and then asked if they could please warm it. He was insistent that they could not. How is a restaurant (one that does serve hot, cooked food, unable to warm something? I was sort of surprised into silence.
Finally, I asked if they had something like a crunch roll (typical name of a roll anywhere I go in south california). I described it as shrimp tempura inside, with panko on the outside. He pointed me to two different rolls on their specials page that did not have a lot in common with my request. I ordered the basic «shrimp tempura» roll instead. I asked for no ginger and no wasabi and the server wrote it down (well, it was written on my final bill), but the kitchen served it with ginger and wasabi anyway, which was a concern to me due to the unwanted flavors affecting my roll. My server apologized when he got to the table with the roll. He was sorry they had added the two condiments I had asked them not to. He offered to take it back but I knew they were just going to remove them and not make a whole new roll that hadn’t been brushed with ginger pieces. I declined to have him take it back and simply moved things quickly to avoid further flavor contamination.
I enjoyed my roll, but it would have been better with crunch and eel sauce on the outside. I just didn’t know how to communicate my desires to our server. He was a nice enough kid, but I just felt like we weren’t connecting very well.
Last note, as others have said, the sunomono (cucumber salad) was prepared unattractively, with raw cucumber sliced unevenly and not fanned out in the dish either. One chunk I picked up was 5 slices, all too thick and all stuck together in a giant block. I was just eating an inch-​thick (or more) brick of cucumber. Only one single slice of my salad seemed appropriately thinly sliced. Additionally the vinegary sauce was nice and strong, but settled quickly to the bottom and the top tasted simply like raw cucumber. It would have been very difficult to turn the whole thing over to flavor all of it with the sauce. Uneven, inconsistent flavor and overall I would not order it again. This makes me sad.
Though both my husband and I agree that we’d rather have good food with bad service than eat bad food with great service, I’m still not sure I’d return here.
VERY LAST thing, when I paid, my itemized receipt ended up getting stapled to the *merchant* copy of my signed credit card receipt! As the customer I should end up with the itemized bill. If this had been a business expense I would have had a hard time getting my copy for expense purposes. Not professional, in my opinion.

Three years after my first review this place remains the standard for West County Sushi. We have held many birthday and office parties here as well and if you let them know in advance they seem to staff for it as service has not suffered.

Meh…
I did lots of Unilocal research before checking this place out. I had bought a living social coupon based on the high Unilocal reviews. So, tonight was the night to put proof in the pudding. Oh lord, maybe another night would have been better…
We split the prawns martini to start. That was actually the highlight of the meal, in my humble opinion. I also ordered the cucumber salad as a starter. Big disappointment there, but unfortunately I was starving so something needed to go in my belly. The usual finesse of a cucumber salad was lacking because the slices were thick and uneven. I ordered everything gluten free and the salad was served with fake crab meat. Just shows the inexperience of the staff, no biggie. I picked it out.
I also ordered the Philadelphia roll and Tokyo Tower. They were ok. I think the shrimp that was in my salad and in the tower roll was almost rubbery. I am not sure if it was out too long or just not fresh. It was a strange texture.
My mister ordered the dragon roll and spider roll. Definitely a no on the spider roll, it was sent back due to an overwhelming fishiness.
The staff was friendly and the waiter took the removed roll off the bill, but overall it won’t be happening again. There are plenty of other places to get fresh, quality sushi.