Tsugaru Japanese Restaurant

The sushi here is good, very fresh and the price is quite reasonable. It is not «cheap» as I won’t go to a «cheap» sushi place any way. The ladies are friendly and the food selection is great.

We stumbled into this place of the street. They were nice enough to take our order even though the kitchen was closing in 8 minutes. Oh my god, the food is amazing! And the sushi rolls are bigger than expected. Wish we were local so we could enjoy this place all the time.

This is a nice little Sushi Restaurant. The fish is fresh and they sell it individually. which is a plus for me cause I went there by myself and I ordered almost everything.

Absolutely love this place! I come here twice a week at least an have always had a great time. Friendly staff, yummy food, this is my favorite spot.

Service was kind, FAST, and welcoming. I came in for lunch and ordered 1 piece of uni, lunch combo that came with miso soup, vege tempura, and curry rice. Also ordered a fried CA deluxe roll. Everything was wonderful. Restaurant was cozy and atmosphere was good. I think this is a wonderful part of Japantown. I could definitely see myself visiting soon.

This place was good, we would definitely come back. I gave it 3 stars only because we’ve been to better sushi and Ramen places.

ROTD
While in Japan town we were hungry so of course we had to pull up Unilocal to see what sounded good. We found Tsugaru and were here early so we beat the lunch crowd! The décor was nice with some Japanese artwork and traditional decorations throughout the restaurant. Bamboo, lanterns and even some baby sized Kimono’s.
We were seated by a very friendly woman and had our choice of seats as there were only a few tables taken. Service was great. We were given hot tea while looking over their extensive menu. I love Salmon and my wives loves Saba (Mackerel) … so of course we gave in to our cravings and had these. I’m usually not a big fan of Miso soup at restaurants, my wife has me spoiled with her homemade Miso… But Our Miso soup was very good! You should definitely give it a try. Not too salty, just enough tofu and very flavorful. The salad was typical… nothing to write about, but the lettuce was fresh and crisp.
I am seldom a fan of Tempura but once again I was pleasantly surprised. The green beans, daikon and sweet potatoes were perfectly cooked. The batter was very light which along with the dipping sauce made it perfect.
My salmon was cooked just right, light, flaky and moist and I was glad they did not use too much teriyaki sauce, just enough to add a bit of flavor. My wife’s Saba was also cooked to perfection.
It turned out to be a great choice for lunch.

Cute place in Japan town! Love love the fresh fish! The hibachi Kama had a lot of fish meat and very tasty. This place is authentic and has good fish. Other than that, nothing too exciting

Excellent! Salmon shioyaki was very nice!!! My wife enjoyed the mackerel version. Definitely coming back!

Every time we come, we have such a good experience! Hubs loves the tonkatsu, and I always get rolls. This time I forgot how big their rolls are, and I had to get one to go. So if you usually get three rolls, knock it down to two.

I’m really overdue in writing this review. I love this place, and the deserve some Unilocal love. While I wouldn’t say I have my mind blown every time I eat here, I will say that the sushi is good quality and consistent. What really does it for me is the customer service. The sweetest ladies ever are servers here. I appreciate that they care about their patrons and make an effort to get to know us. I felt like a regular my second time in.
I make a lot to go orders while I’m out walking my dogs, and they always keep an eye out for us and bring the order outside so I don’t have to tether my dogs. I appreciate that the tell the pups how great they are, too. They’re ~70 lb dogs, but they were cooed over as if they were little fluffy lap dogs. When I do manage to eat in, they remember what I like or make recommendations based on what I’m craving.

We landed in SJC with two things on our mind: the first, dinner. The second, sushi. No shortage of either in Japantown, a 5 min drive from the official «airport of Silicon Valley.»
We received complimentary bowls of flavored bean sprouts. A nice touch. Next came an order of the pot stickers, the highlight of the meal. Last came the rolls: dragon and spicy tuna. Both were competently prepared, but left something to desire after such a promising start of pot stickers.

Did you know that Japantown and quality sushi and San José and quality women are sort of analogous?
Japantown: Cool enough area with potential, but doesn’t have a lot of quality sushi options. Thus, you take what you can get.
San José: Cool enough city with potential, but doesn’t have a lot of quality women options. Thus, you take what you can get.
Boom. Boom. Shots fired.
It’s pretty amazing that an area called «Japantown» can have so many bad sushi options. But it’s the truth and the truth hurts.
But of all the mediocre sushi spots in Japantown, Tsugaru is a solid choice. This Korean owned jointed offers some of the better sashimi, nigiri, and rolls in the area. They consistently have a good crowd and quick table turnover, so the supply chain of fish is always fresh. Oh wow. I sound like I am at work or something.
Anyway, please do yourself a favor and avoid the ridiculously awful Kazoo and walk a few doors over to Tsugaru. You’ll thank me later and you’ll be more inclined to return to Japantown even though the sushi choices can be limited and not too appealing. But this place ain’t so bad, and it’s even better after a sake bomb or four. Just like the women of San José.
Boom. Boom. Shots fired. Again.

We tend to come here quite often, especially since we live 5 min away from Japan Town.
Always have good service and all the ladies are super nice!
Their Dragon Roll is on point! Typically my fiancé will get the three item bento box with tempura, Cali rolls and either teriyaki salmon or teriyaki beef. Either way, it’s definitely a winner! I go back and forth between the dragon roll and two item bento with Cali rolls and teriyaki beef.
Overall, really good establishment and always has a very good flow of clientele coming in and out. And the bonus… Had the Hawaiian shaved ice establishment just two or three doors over!

I was with the roommate’s family and we were in Japantown. They were craving sushi, so we dropped by Tsugaru. It was around 1:30pm on a weekday.
August 2014
*Seaweed salad
*Nigiri: Spicy scallop & Hamachi
*Spicy tuna roll
I kept my order simple since I wasn’t very hungry. Just got the seaweed salad and nigiri. The salad had nice sesame and vinegar flavor balanced with some sweetness. I like mixing in wasabi to add a little kick. The nigiri was simple which was just what I was looking for. Sliced hamachi and a good spicy scallop mix. The rest of the party ordered rolls which I didn’t try, but everyone was happy.
Misc rolls:
1.
2.
Service was super friendly and attentive. Our server was very accommodation since we had one baby and two toddlers. Lots going on at the table trying to feed everyone. They were very nice about it.
Great place in Japantown for sushi!

Located in japan town and parking is limited !
Came here for my grandmas 72^nd bday.
We got seated immediately and the waitress is super nice ! You can tell she has been working here for a long time or she’s prob the owner lol
I ordered the tamago. Omg the tamago was perfect. It was so delicious ! ⁵⁄₅
The chirashi bowl was good. Not the best I had but it’s good. The raw fishes were thick and fresh. It doesn’t melt in your mouth when you eat it but you can taste how fresh it was. The rice was ok. It was plain and not sweetened. Def made the overall dish a 3.5÷5
We also ordered the salmon good stuff roll? It was okay. Nothing special about it and the roll itself was very big. Personal preference … I like my sushi roll bite size ! 3.5÷5
My grandma also ordered the fried tofu and fried shrimp head dish. Both were ok 3.5÷5
I would come back to try other dishes !

Treats me and mine with great care always and for over 20 years now! The east and west and mamas boy… oh yes and the sunrise I dream about!!!

Tsugaru is satisfying, but it’s satisfying in the same way as McDonald’s because you know the McDouble is always going to taste the same – never amazing but never wrong.
That being said, the service is not much. Our waitress didn’t understand much English and scowled at us for existing. There’s not much variety on the menu. They didn’t even have the lion king roll. She glared when we asked for that.
The soft shell crab appetizer was average. They gave plenty of tempura sauce.
We had the deep fried salmon roll. It had cream cheese and a ton of salmon. It was hot and nice to eat. It felt really heavy and the pieces were enormous.
What made this meal was the agedashi tofu. We thought that we’d be getting a few cute little squares but apparently this restaurant didn’t get the memo that it wasn’t Costco delivery. They brought a humongous bowl filled with 12 pieces of agedashi tofu. It was good. Not the best that you’ve had, but it definitely completed our meal and left us satisfied.

The craving for fresh fish hit me once again, and trying to meetup with a friend for dinner, we mutually decided upon Tsugaru as neither of us had tried it before — both of us preferring Kaita as our go to.
At first, I was confident with this decision, as Kaita was understandably packed to the brim. Much larger than Kaita, the menu is also a lot larger, with a number of bento/​combination options, decent appetizer menu, and they give you some banchan to nosh on before the real meal.
My friend and I got an order of hot sake, each an Asahi. She got a special roll, and some pieces of nigiri, and I went with the Tsugaru Deluxe. Prior to ordering, I asked if they had any special fish of the day, and the waitress pointed to the special chicken teriyaki bento.
This was a decent deluxe — from my picture you can see that those are thick slices of Albacore, Salmon, White Tuna, Hamachi, and Bluefin, with surf clam, shrimp and roe, and the really thick avocado in the California roll. Hard to describe, but so thick I had to bite in half rather than try to force into my mouth, and that was highly appreciated. My friend enjoyed her roll as well.
So for a casual, easy sushi and Japanese menu, Tsugaru is a solid choice — and looking at the bento boxes at other tables, you get a lot of food. But as I now prefer to experience catch of the day or seasonal fish, I have to stick with Kaita.

I decided to branch out from my J-​town staples of Kaita, Minato, and Gombei and stopped into Tsugaru. It is Korean owned and operated (not that there’s anything wrong with that) with some Korean items on the menu like bulgogi alongside more traditional Japanese fare.
I ordered the Chirashi and they start you off with some miso soup and sprouts (
). Soup was pretty standard, but I didn’t care for the sprouts which had an off taste.
The chirashi looked decent (
) There were 2 sake, and one each of maguro, ebi, ika (squid), tai, hamachi, shiro maguro, and hirame. The maguro, hamachi, and hirame were all fishy tasting and the squid was really tough. I was pretty disappointed with it and I didn’t finish all the fish which hasn’t happened in a while.
I got a Spam Musubi from Hukilau on the way back to my car.