Samurai Express

Fast and friendly service. Lunch special is fairly priced. Got the eel avocado roll and the spicy tuna roll. Not the best quality fish, but affordable and good for quick lunch. May be better to stick to vegetable rolls and fish sashimi/​sushi.

Ordered a quick take-​out combo special of salmon and spicy tuna (~$ 12) during lunchtime, and was unimpressed. The spicy tuna roll was what you’d expect, but the salmon had an odd taste and texture, and didn’t seem very fresh. I’ve walked by Samurai Sushi many times and saw a line out the door so I expected that their ingredients move quickly, but something just didn’t seem right. The dressing on the combo-​salad was just funky, and the lettuce wilted. Service was friendly and prompt, and makes me want to say this may have just been one bad experience.
However, big thumbs up for the low-​sodium soy sauce packets, which are rare in the industry. Other sushi restaurants need to follow your lead!

Quick, simple sushi with a nice taste and good service. Not exactly a date night spot, but definitely a good place for a lunch. I stopped by around 1pm and it was not overly busy, and I got my food quickly (for fresh sushi, anyway). If you like sushi, do not hesitate to do lunch here sometime.

This is my go-​to sushi place near my office.
Some of the reasons I am a frequent client of Samurai Express:
— Quality of their food is always solid and consistent.
— I like that you can order online.
— The owner and servers are very friendly.
— They don’t charge extra for spicy mayo (it’s really a huge pet peeve of mine when restaurants charge 1 – 2 dollars extra for condiment)
— Their prices are very reasonable (under $ 10 for 2 rolls and a salad)
They’re not serving mind blowing food here, but it’s very solid and fresh and sufficiently satisfies my weekly sushi cravings.

I ordered online and it was very easy. Great location being 2 blocks from my job. Didn’t wait long when I went to pick up my food. Food was decent but the customer service was excellent.

If you are looking for a quick sushi fix, Samurai Express is your place. This is our go-​to spot when we are craving some sushi and some quick service. First off, the owners and workers at the place are so incredibly friendly! They always have regulars and amazingly, they remember all their «usual» order — how awesome is that? They started remembering our usual order just after we have ordered from there a couple of times (we do takeout most of the time). Great staff!
The sushi quality is okay but it is made fresh. It comes out quite quickly so that is always appreciated when you are on the run and need a quick fix. Love that we are regulars here!

The atmosphere of the place was calm for a 2−3pm snack-​meal. They played soft rock oldies on a Pandora playlist displayed on a screen.
The sushi is made fresh, though rather small with a diameter of about 1 – 1.5 inches each. I ordered a lunch time special (2 rolls + salad or soup) for $ 9 – 10. My salad came immediately, though it was rather disheartening to get an iceberg lettuce salad, though the dressing was rather delightful — I think it was a mango dressing. I ordered a salmon skin roll and an unagi (teriyaki eel) roll. They were both pretty good. The salmon skin roll was a lot crunchier than I’m used to and the avocado in the unagi roll melted in my mouth like mayonnaise. When you go to pay — I walked up because I was in a rush –there are delicious little guava candies. They’re DELICIOUS!
The service was quick. The staff was polite, though not perfectly friendly and welcoming. It’s a good place for a quick bite of sushi when you’re not too picky about it. Even though sushi is supposed to be Japanese, the staff who run it are Chinese, as with most sushi places in the area.

I had the salmon avocado roll it was watery and bland. I enjoyed the sushi I got at Shaws much better!

Samurai Express definitely lives up to it’s name… they are fast. Despite the look and feel of their website being stuck in the 90’s, the online ordering system is actually pretty efficient and is usually a good option. The employees do a good job of picking up the online orders and having them ready within 5 mins if you choose the «pick up asap» option. The sushi is high quality, I’ve never had a bad experience here and it is cheap, especially if you take advantage of the lunch specials. If you work or live anywhere near the back bay i would definitely recommend checking this place out.

Pretty good sushi, the restaurant is super clean and the atmosphere is super nice, but the servers have to improve. I will definitely come back (but just for take out)

I love it here. The waitstaff are all very competent and while they wouldn’t graduate from charm school with honors, they’re friendly enough (even if you want to split a $ 30 check 4 ways. .. annoying to waiters I know) and feed you fresh sushi. Location is convenient and the prices are decent. Volcano and eel rolls are fantastic. My supermarket’s sushi is much worse. Very happy customer.

The service and the food are excellent. I rarely see this combination at a lunch spot in a busy office building.

I order from Samurai Express regularly while at work on Newbury Street. They deliver to me, which is incredibly convenient and appreciated, and it always comes before their ETA. The rolls are really yummy and affordable. And I love the staff, they are so nice! They always remember who I am when I call, I love that!

This is definitely a great lunch-​style Japanese restaurant. The sushi is very good, lunch boxes are interesting and contain a really decent amount of food, and the prices are some of the best I’ve seen in Boston. The staff is also attentive and friendly. If you want a good-​quality lunch in back bay, at a completely reasonable price, this is the place. I highly recommend the Pork Katsu lunch special, definitely enough for a hungry guy for lunch.

Great to get and head to the Boston Public gardens and eat. Very efficient service, with a decent selection of roles.
You can order from your phone if you use their QR code scanner!

For being in the Backbay, this place is a great value. Great sushi, fast service and a great price. can’t go wrong!

I love this place. The sushi is quality and reasonable priced — the lunch deals are 100% the way to go. The staff is great and the man that’s always there (I think maybe the owner) is always nice and personable. Many people know him and he knows them by name. I love that.
Only gripe is that you smell like fried if you’re there waiting for a bit. Since the turnaround is quick, I usually order and wait — just long enough to leave smelling fried.

«Supermarket sushi» is the perfect way to describe it – the sushi was bland and flavorless. In addition, fish quality was questionable — it smelled super fishy, as in borderline-​bad fishy, not seafood-​fishy. It left a nasty mouthfeel that lingered. Spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls didn’t taste spicy at all — I couldn’t tell what differentiates them from regular tuna and salmon rolls.
Some positives:
–They take online ordering on their website.
–It was cheap. The lunch special, which came with two maki rolls and an iceberg lettuce salad or soup, was just under $ 10. However, I’d rather have eaten a little less of better, more pricey sushi. There are many Japanese restaurants that offer sushi lunch specials for an extra couple of bucks very close to this place.
Completely unsatisfactory lunch. I won’t be back.

Always call ahead or order online, the wait can be inconsistent. However, make sure to check your order if you’re doing take out, they’ve forgotten items on more than one occasion. Yet, I still went back.
The food is decent, nothing special, but the only cheap sushi place in the area. You can get brown rice substituted on anything. I recommend their sweet potato roll.
Do NOT get the eel though. It is so fishy-​and not in the «I’m sea-​food» way. So rubbery, so smelly, so not what I wanted.
The staff are nice and always willing to correct orders if something goes wrong. I recommend them for grabbing a quick lunch if you work in the area.

This place was alright. Its more of a 2.5. The food was alright, not as fresh as you would want when you are eating sushi and seafood but the food was good for a quick cheap bite. The place was super cheap! Great for lunch or an afternoon bite to hold you off when you have a late dinner.