Azuma Sushi

Good sushi, reasonably priced. Love their rice with sesame sauce!

I wouldn’t recommend eating here unless you’re comfortable with poor service and dirty dishware.
The food isn’t very fresh and regardless of the time of day you visit (I came here a few times over the course of a month), I’ve found the servers to be less than welcoming. The quality matches the atmosphere. It’s unfortunate this place isn’t any good considering it’s around the corner from my apartment, but frankly I’d want walk the extra five minutes for decent food/​service. Avoid coming here at all costs, there’s much better sushi available down the street.

The sushi here is pretty alright — nothing super special. The service is a little on the slow side, and they seem to have a problem with the timing of getting dishes out for a table. My boyfriend got his food about 15 minutes before mine, and I thought they had forgotten my rolls. Also they just set the food down, without explaining wich rolls were which.
Nice place but don’t expect exceptional sushi or service.

This used to be my favorite spot when it was a small, narrow restaurant many years ago, before its major expansion/​renovations. The main reason was the exceptional service by the consistent waiters, including the owner. They were incredibly warm, friendly, and attentive.
Ever since the expansion, I have found the service to be very poor, including tonight when I went with my daughter. Overall, I find the staff unfriendly & disinterested. Sometimes it feels like they only give decent service to the young «in» crowd. Tonight, the cutlery was filthy with caked on food remnants. When I asked the waiter for cleaner utensils, he returned with the same ones, saying he just washed them by hand! Since this is far from food safe and they still looked dirty, I asked for a completely different set of utensils that had been through the dishwasher/​sanitizer. It was like I was asking for the moon and clearly this young man had no training in food safe. I was never offered a refill of my Japanese tea and the waiter offered another table the debit machine and left me to wait and ultimately flag him down to bring me one, even though he had given me the bill many minutes ago.
The staff are borderline rude (or clueless) and make you feel like you are a bother to them, particularly the hostesses.
The food is generally good but their timing in getting dishes out at the right time has been consistently bad over the many years since expansion. For example, the yakitori chicken app takes forever to come out. And I sometimes haven’t received the rice until late in the meal (a horrendous faux pas for a Japanese person!).
After all these years of giving them way too many chances, I think I am now no longer going to be a customer at Azuma.

Quick, friendly service, tasty food, and clean setting. I have eaten a lot of sushi and experienced many good and bad restaurants around Canada and the United States… this was perfectly delicious and more than acceptable — but will not go down in my memory books. So, what am I saying, exactly? If you have a sushi craving, you’re in the area, and you want some «pretty decent» sushi, then check it out! The sashimi is fresh and the tempura batter isn’t too heavy.

This is my favourite sushi spot in the city, and for good reason. More accurately, for 4 reasons:
1) Location. Barely a block from Bay Centre mall, it’s easy to get to if you work downtown.
2) Ambiance. With the large fish tank in the centre, the layout of booths, tables and sushi bar… and the large TVs broadcasting all the major league games, it’s the perfect combination of Izakaya meets sports bar.
3) Price. The menu offers a wide range of Japanese cuisine… from sashimi and small starters, to maki rolls, to don bowls and bento boxes. The weekly drink specials are equally diverse, and a delight to anyone who enjoys a drink with their meal on a weeknight. ($ 5.00 double highball, anyone?)
4) Service. The servers all seem genuinely cheerful and accommodating. However, the hostesses can sometimes come across as downright rude. last time I was there, One in particular didn’t speak a word to us, and instead scowled as she plopped the menus down and walked away.
As for the food itself: my favourite meal is the baby Octopus, cooked in a sweet chili oil but served cold ($ 4.95). It’s full of flavour, and pairs beautifully with a bowl of sushi rice ($ 1.00). It’s a great alternative to those who love the chewy texture of calamari, but don’t like the greasiness of tempura batter.
Their don bowls are MASSIVE. I ordered the vegetable don once ($ 8.95), and it was pretty good (could’ve benefitted from the addition of mushrooms, which they sadly don’t have at Azuma.)

I wish there was a lower star rating to give this place. I’ve been there twice and the food was terrible both times. Service was alright though. Sushi wasn’t fresh and the chicken was dry (even though it was covered in sauce). I think they didn’t use japanese rice for most of the dishes I got. I’ve tried many japanese restaurants across north america (especially in vancouver), but this is definitely the worst. If you do end up going here, don’t get their ramen. You can get better food by making instant noodles.

Just had lunch here– and it was amazing. Friendly staff, reasonably priced items, and just a delish meal overall. Def try the agedashi tofu!

Visited for happy hour. A good deal. Food was good. Prices were good for happy hour. Service not as attentive as it could have been and the place could have been a little cleaner.

So so utterly disappointed. Attempted to go to Ebizo Japanese Restaurant on B.C. Day only to find that it was closed. Okay, Plan B… we walked over to Foo. My friend didn’t want to eat there because we setup the expectation of sushi and was taking him to an Asian fusion place without sushi. We didn’t have a Plan C or cellular service so we decided to try a random sushi place that we had walked by.
There were so many people eating there and it was a big space, looked promising. No wait, we were seated immediately. They had wifi so, of course, I Unilocaled the place. Oh, shit… two stars and bad reviews. Do we get up and leave? No, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and lower my expectations. We were given complimentary tea so I asked for water instead. I opt to pass on the sushi due to the review and wanted to see if they would do a seared salmon and unagi donburi for me. The server told me they can’t put salmon and unagi together because one was raw and one was cooked, that they «probably» can’t sear my salmon – don’t say no unless you found out for sure. Um, I’ve had chirashi bowl with both those things in it before. Why can’t they be put together? My friend got the unagi donburi and it was just a filet (not even sliced) of unagi on a bed of rice with two pieces of pickled ginger on top. I ended getting the Pork Tonkatsu dinner. It came with miso soup and a not so great salad, the dressing was diluted not very flavorful but I just needed veggies so I ate it. My rice came out with some kind of weird, super salty gravy poured on top. I ended up asking for just rice and server goes «you don’t like?» No… I not like.
The Japanese restaurant has Chinese décor, which made sense because most of the servers were speaking Cantonese. Service was poor. I don’t know if it’s the quality of the food or just having too much greasy food, my stomach was upset and I ended up throwing up later. Would not come here again or recommend it to anyone.

Food was pretty good, service was quick and friendly, and pretty reasonably priced also, they even got us a cab.

Very poor!
Sushi and service
The rice was undercooked and there was barley any stuffing.
The service did not make up for it.

Ordered delivary via Dine In Victoria.
My bill, without the delivary, was around $ 30.
I got the 10pc Salmon/​tuna sashimi, an avocado hosomaki, 4 nigiris and a miso soup.
I was more than dissapointed when I got the food.
The nigiri was tiny, like the width of my finger. Avocado roll was broken open at the seem, very poorly rolled. The sashimi was so flavourless, just by taste I couldn’t tell the salmon and tuna apart.
I will not be ordering from here again, not with other sushi bars minutes away.

Sushi was OK. Not exceptional. Sashimi was not amazing like I’ve had at other place. Ambien is nice, clean, contemporary. Server was nice and helpful. Meh. in my opinion. Nice place to hang out but don’t expect exceptional sushi.

Great service, great quality food. I recommend the nigiri or chicken katsu! You can’t go wrong.

Good food, friendly servers but hosts are brutal!!!
Azuma always seems to pick the worst hosting staff. Currently (Feb 2015) there is a woman who hosts during weekday lunches that is just awful: super unfriendly, rude on the phone, NEVER smiles and seems completely put out by our being there. We mentioned this to our very awesome sever and asked if she is always like that (every time we have come in she is) and were basically told yes, they receive a lot
Of complaints. Why does she continue to be the host? She is the first face of the restaurant. I almost feel like apologizing to her for coming in and if I didn’t know the servers are usually lovely, would turn right around and walk out.
There was another host in the past who was similar, we were happy to no longer see her there but the replacement is worse!

Had the Teriyaki Beef Bento Box for lunch for $ 8.95! What value! It was tasty, good size portions, fresh fruit and salad and a nice big bowl of sticky rice with Japanese sauce/​gravy on top. Unfortunately they have changed this sauce, which used to be the best I’ve ever had. It is now darker and not as good. Had 2 ok pieces of Sake nigiri for a very reasonable $ 1.50 each and one average piece of toro nigiri for $ 2.50. The nigiri was good, but not great and not even close to the same league as Ebizo. The service was Average and not very fast. Used to be a lot better but is okay if Itami or Ebizo are too busy to get into. The room is large, clean and nicely appointed. The large fish aquarium is also a nice touch.

Solid sushi at a reasonable rate!
I love that their salmon roll is now made with wild salmon. They also did a great job expanding the space with the reno last year.

I’m surprised by all of the negative reviews. Azuma isn’t the best sushi place, but it’s still pretty damn good. We’re spoiled in Victoria that’s for sure. Their bento boxes are solid, salmon is wild and tuna tastes fresh. No complaints here for a mid range sushi place.

When visiting Victoria this is a place I always visit. The price is hard to beat and the service is above average.
With a very large menu offering sushi and many bento boxes Azuma has something for everyone. Even my very picky mom found something she liked on their menu.
When dining here I always have a bento box. Usually going with the katsu chicken. It offers a large portion of rice with sauce, fresh fruit and a light salad. All for under $ 10 including some green tea!
While I haven’t had their sushi I’ve heard many great things about it!
Azuma is a great place for those on a budget looking for a nice place to enjoy lunch with friends. They can accommodate large groups as well.