Masu

I came for the buffet during lunch one day. The buffet offers a decent selection of rolls and a few other cooked items such as tempura and katsu. No sashimi or nigiri though. The rolls are ok.
Location is in downtown San Mateo. Usually around lunch time, parking can get tough. I got there around 1pm, and there was no wait.
When we sat down, I was ready to order a bajillion things, but the server cut me off after two items. If you’re doing the buffet, you’re only allowed two items off the menu upon your first order. If you want to order more items, you can only order one item at a time. We waited about 10 – 20 minutes between each order for our food to arrive. I came here hungry, and was pretty disappointed that we couldn’t order a bunch of things at once. It probably doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but it wastes so much time especially if you’re on your lunch break and need to get back to work within a set time frame.
You’re probably wondering how much sushi can one person really eat. Well, the rolls are pretty small, so I had about 5 rolls before I felt even close to content. They gave a pea-​sized amount of wasabi and about 3 slices of ginger for my group of 4. We asked for 3 refills of wasabi and ginger, and each time we got less and less. Talk about skimpy.
Overall, the food was ok. Nothing special. Small portions. But for $ 15, I think I would go again. If you have time, you can totally get your money’s worth.

Love this place! They have a great all-​you-​can-​eat lunch special that gives you the option to get the majority of the rolls on their menu, including most specialty rolls. They also have fabulous udon soup. I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves sushi and is on a budget!

Pretty good sushi place to eat. ALL-​YOU-​CAN-​EAT at lunch at a reasonable price. However, the lunchtime AYCT menu was very limited. The rolls themselves are very tasty, but they use too much rice. PLUS no brown rice, which is becoming more and more popular.

Man, I am so incredibly disappointed with Masu. They finally brought back their AYCE deal, which I thought was great, but it was absolutely terrible! I came here with my parents for my mom’s birthday, because she wanted sushi. We saw that they had the AYCE deal again, so we all decided to do it. Not only is the sushi kind of slow, but it’s made even MORE poorly than before! I was so sad because, if you read my last review, I had talked with the waitress back in 2013 and she said they wouldn’t bring back their AYCE deal until they made sure their quality was back on par. Similar to how it used to be, you start by ordering two rolls and then order another one after that and continue ordering one by one until you are finished. We ordered our first two each, and we were the only ones in the restaurant. It took quite a while to get our sushi, which I didn’t really understand, because no one else was there! When we finally got it, it was the worst sushi I had ever seen. It was ugly, falling apart, and just really, terribly made (I will post pictures). I told the waitress, and she said that they probably just put too much crab in the middle. Uh okay. If I had not ordered the AYCE deal and came in and got that crap, I would have been so upset that I would have sent it back. I was starving though, so I took some pictures, let the waitress know, and then scarfed it down. When we had to order our next roll, we had to flag down our waitress. I ordered a different roll and she said she’d make sure it was made better. I ordered the spider roll, and yes it was made slightly better, but this time it had a ton of rice and no barely any soft shell crab! There were two pieces with fried tempura batter, but that was it, no crab within the batter. My dad had ordered the spicy tuna and it was so spicy that he couldn’t even eat it. Also, it was once again, very, very ugly and poorly made. We called over the waitress again to explain that this was really disappointing and we understood that it was not her fault, but she should let them know that this was NOT sushi and it’s not what it was being advertised as (how can you have a spider roll with no soft shell crab??). We went so far to ask if the sushi chef was new or was in training. We probably would have gone easier on him if he were new, but nope. Same guy, just really lazy because we ordered the AYCE deal. My parents ended up giving up after that roll, but I was still hungry, so I ordered udon. The udon was good, but they definitely added more salt than they used to and I was really worried that they probably did something gross to it, because we were complaining so much (NOTE: I have no idea if they did something to my food, I was being paranoid). Now you might think that we’re just being rude customers, but i tried to be as genuine as possible in trying to offer feedback. I’m not looking for a free meal or anything like that. I’ve been a customer at Masu since I was in high school (so probably like 2007 or 2008), and I have never been this upset with the quality that was given to us on that day (my mom’s birthday of all days!). They really need to work on their customer service skills (we had to flag down our waitress every single time, even for tea) and their presentation skills. Japanese food is all about the presentation, so this was just very disheartening.
I would not recommend this place to anyone in its current state. If they can attempt to get it together, I will come back and try it again, but until then, I’ll pass.

I would not recommend this place. Came here for a 14.95 buffet lunch special. Probably one of the worst decision I’ve made in Burlingame. You can only order 2 per time, and one roll after. They take their time and the service is not that great.
Save your time and go to another place.

I remember coming to this place when the All You Can Eat Sushi was only $ 11.95. It was definitely worth it. I heard it is now about $ 15 a person. The food is very good. The way it works is, you can order two items on the menu and then one at a time in order to not waste food. The buffet menu has a lot of different options from rolls, udon, teriyaki, and tempura. Parking is terrible so give yourself some time to find parking. Also, the place is very small and since it is all you can eat, people like to stay at the restaurant for almost 2 hours. Go early to find parking and miss the crowd.

Had the bento box with tuna sashimi, beef teriyaki, salad, rice, and miso soup. The bento box was served with jalapeños on the side, which was odd. The miso soup needs more tofu, and the sashimi was still frozen in the center. Definitely not good – when I go to a sushi restaurant, I expect fresh fish.

I remember coming to this place when I was back in high school. All-​you-​can-​eat sushi at lunch time! I came back this week for lunch with co-​workers. I ordered one roll while my co-​workers ordered all-​you-​can-​eat rolls. The waitress served there rolls on the same plate specifying only they can share and my other co-​worker and I could not touch them.
Both waitresses literally hounded us the whole while to make sure we weren’t eating off their plate. I went to help one of my friends unstick one of his rolls by holding it down with my chopstick. The lady was watching the whole thing and started walking over assuming what would happen next. I took it away once I finished helping him and she just stood there still watching. It was so uncomfortable being vigilated the whole time that I didn’t even enjoy my meal. Sushi was just okay, but the dining experience was not worth it. Don’t plan to come back.

Back in the day, this was the go-​to place for minimum days in high school. At that time, this was a new place that had the infamous sushi buffet so you’d show up, stay for hours, and eat enough to last you for the rest of the day. Dinner not necessary!
Then at some point, they stopped offering this and I hadn’t stepped foot into it for years, until I saw a banner announcing that the buffet deal is back!
I am glad that they brought this deal back — I am assuming that they probably lose money on this deal, but it probably brings them enough traffic that they still end up profitable. Basically, what this place is good for is a good quantity of alright sushi. You aren’t getting the best quality of fish or fancy fusion rolls, but you OK sushi and as much of it as you want. It’s kind of a fun experience to try a little bit of everything, but make sure to pace yourself and don’t order anything that is so far out there that you might not be able to finish — you have to finish what you have to order the next round of rolls! Also, you not only get all you can eat rolls but there are other options, such as tempura, udon, chicken teriyaki, etc that can count as an order!

I remember coming here many many years ago back when the all-​you-​can-​eat sushi lunch special was $ 10.95 and it would be PACKED and you had to wait for a table… then it became $ 12.95/per person… now its $ 14.95. My husband and I were discussing, even at $ 14.95 this is still a great deal. I can order rolls at other sushi spots for $ 20/​roll so $ 15 for AYCE is very affordable. Not to mention it includes raw, cooked, veggie and specialty rolls, plus udon, chicken teriyaki, katsu and tempura. Name another place in the Bay that you can get THAT much food at that price (because I’d like to visit, haha), otherwise Masu you will have to do.
We came in on Sunday at prime lunch time, parking was horrible as always in downtown San Mateo, I even thought about parking at U.S. Bank’s lot next door and risk getting my car towed because I had been circling for a parking spot and was starving– but eventually a spot opened up right in front thanks to my parking angels. I expected it to be packed in the restaurant surprisingly Masu had many tables available inside and was pretty empty.
Service was pretty attentive if you got their attention. It took a while for our initial waiter and even just to get our drinks. I kept telling my husband «put your menu down so they know we are ready»… they would even make eye contact with us but keep walking. hmmm. They are busy and work hard running orders back and forth constantly and with only two servers. The food comes out pretty quickly though but there were a few times we had to ask repeatedly for the same thing and remind our waiter several times because they kept forgetting, ie, refill on water, more tea, napkins, etc. They would disappear and not come back but it is understandable because they work hard. This place is not for the timid. Do not be afraid to ask otherwise your server will skip you. This place is definitely quantity over quality. Some of the rolls taste the same after awhile because even with slight variances in assembly generally some are very similar to one another. Everything is delicious but I’ve had fresher fish at restaurants where the ahi fish was flown in straight from Hawaii before so I can taste the difference. There is nothing horrible about this place although if you are looking for top notch sushi, this might not be the place, and we still gave a great tip because I was stuffed and went into a food coma afterwards and the waiters do work hard. Still love this place after all these years and will definitely be back. Thanks Masu!

4 stars because our waitress was so sweet. But the rolls were falling apart. Fish was fresh but less than scrumptious rolls. Heavy on the avocado (top and filling) and rice wasn’t rolled evenly against the seaweed paper. So most of them fell apart. Wish I could say it was better.

You definitely are getting what you pay for when you come for the AYCE sushi. You pay $ 15 a person for AYCE and you can order two items for your first around, and then 1 item each round after that. It’s definitely quantity and not quality. I wouldn’t say it’s horrible, but it doesn’t compare when you’ve been eating fresh and well-​made sushi rolls on a consistent basis. You can definitely tell that they don’t make them as fresh and the rolls are just nothing special. It fills you up and does the job, but I didn’t feel like my sushi craving was fully satisfied. I tried the udon noodles as well and it was just okay.
The service was okay, not horrible but it could be better. When I got a refill on my hot tea, it was basically cold. The server was nice and did a last call before giving us the check, even though it was a few minutes past 3– which was nice. But all in all, if you want quality sushi but also AYCE, this probably isn’t the place :/

Masu is kind of a nostalgic place for me. I used to go all the time back in the high school days (woot woot Aragon kids!) and get the AYCE lunch special. I remember my friends and I would try to out eat each other in rounds of sushi. Pretty gross, but hey– you gotta get your money’s worth right? Recently the boy and I had a craving for sushi, but we wanted to a place that would give you more bang for your buck. Masu came to mind as its 15 bucks for all you can eat.
As it has been a while since I’ve returned here is the low dow:
How it works for the AYCE: Seat yourself anywhere. You may order off the first 2 pages of the menu consisting of sushi (cooked and raw) as well as kitchen items. You can order 2 items for the menu initially for the first round. Every round thereafter you may only order 1 item.
We ordered a variety of the «special rolls» to kitchen items. Everything was terribly made. I understand this is an AYCE place, but please have standards. I’ve been to AYCE sushi places much better than this. The sushi rice was flavorless and hard. Fish was alright but probably not fresh, rolls were mostly falling apart (I could probably roll a better roll). All in all nothing to say but lack of quality. Obviously you come here for the quantity and not the quality but when the food tastes worst than lack luster than it is not worth your money. Even the udon noodles I tried were terrible. The frozen udon from the grocery store tasted better than Masu’s. The frozen vegetables in the soup tasted just that. Frozen.
The service was not bad. Could have been better. They refilled waters (slowly but then again my boyfriend chugs water like its beer) but the tea they served us was lukewarm.
All in all. I would not spend my money here again. I’d prefer to dish out a little more for sushi thats better.

The customer is always right, right?
Sunday dinner, not a busy day for business so I decide to come with my family. My sister brought her baby so I asked our server if they could bring out the white rice first. Did they? NO they brought it out with the rest of the food. Thanks, he was crying for everyone’s entertainment.
I ordered a Dynamite Roll and it was not what I expected and so I asked to change it for the usual California Roll.
Anyone who has worked in the service industry knows that YOU DONT ARGUE WITH THE CUSTOMER, simply replace the item and keep the customer happy right? Why would anyone try to argue with me? I don’t mind paying extra…
WAIT! Here’s the best part: D
Once the girl saw me Unilocaling she decides to bring out a California roll «at no cost». But why? I had to argue with her forever, given the fact that I couldn’t understand half of the things she was saying. She still reminded me that it was my fault & I should had paid for it?!
So what does it take to get good service around here? A nice, long, Unilocal review.

We ordered 3 sushi rolls for $ 20. And Korean beef for $ 20 both came with a soup and salad. First we ordered a large beer and a large sake, $ 6/​ea. Since the drinks were brought first we clearly could have ordered more but we’re not asked until we were nearly done eating. The food was average, nothing special. If they are short staffed and cannot afford more servers on a Friday night then they should get a server who adds more sales on. We probably would have ordered more beer and sake had we been asked in a timely manner.
Food just okay, service less than okay.

I tried the 14.95 all you can eat sushi with a friend.
For the first round, you get to order 2 plates per person. After that, you can only order 1 plate per person.
I would not recommend getting any of the maki rolls as the fish is tasteless and I just ate it so I could order another round of food. I would also recommend not getting the udon. My friend said the soup tasted sour. Thankfully, it was his last plate so he didn’t have to finish it to order more food.
Overall, you got what you pay for. It’s such a low price because the sushi is made out of poor quality ingredients. The fish are not fresh and the rice on most rolls were hard.
Also, the service was pretty terrible. We had to repeatedly remind our server for more ginger and wasabi as they give it out in such small portions. We had to wait an unusual long time to get our check and for a server to come pick up our check so we could pay via credit card. We were there for roughly 2 hours and our waters were filled once.
Overall, I would not recommend their 14.95 lunch special to anyone.

AYCE LUNCH SPECIAL FOR 14.95!
My boyfriend and I were supposed to go to B street and Vine for brunch but it was closed so we walked around looking for something else to fill our bellies. The «All you can eat sign» on the window immediately caught his attention and the 14.95 caught my attention.
For the AYCE, you each start out being allowed to order only 2 rolls each and then 1 each after that. We only got through 9 rolls:
–Super salmon skin roll (Salmon skin was crunchy but spicy salmon was lumpy)
–Oh! Yes roll
–Masu Roll
–Mango Salmon Roll (Spicy sauce does not mix well with mango…)
–Spider
–Climax
–Cracker
–Salmon Skin Roll (Crunchy and flavorful)
–Dynamite
Our favorite roll was the Masu Roll (Salmon, Avocado, and unagi) and least favorite would be the mango salmon roll. The sauces did not mix together on the tongue. The fish here isn’t very fresh and it can be easily seen by the color and texture. Some of the rolls weren’t held together as well as others. We were filled that day be we weren’t satisfied, but it’s decent for a $ 14.95 all you can eat.

Had the AYCE deal for $ 15/​person I wasn’t expecting much but at the end of the day if you look at the deal you’re better off not doing the AYCE and just getting a few rolls somewhere else especially if you’re looking for variety.
Service was good! The people helping us were nice and could always be found. They did explain to us the rules for the AYCE deal which was that for your first order each person can pick 2 items, after that you can order 1 item at a time per person after you finish what’s on your table. This is limiting if you want to eat quickly you won’t be able to do it here since you have to wait until you finish what’s on you table before you order the next item. Let’s say you order a cooked item you’d have to wait for it to be cooked.
You can pretty much order any roll off of the menu, however most of the rolls are some variation of a California roll. For example Yellow California roll is a california roll with eggplant on top, the Masu roll is a california roll with unagi an avocado. So think of any ingredient that is served at a Japanese restaurant and put it on top of a California roll and voila you’ve added 10 new menu items. To top it off the filling of the California roll tasted a little different kind of fishy, could’ve probably mixed it with more of the Japanese mayo!
I didn’t really delve into the raw fish rolls. I don’t eat raw fish much to begin with especially if it’s AYCE because I don’t trust the quality. I had a couple pieces of my boyfriend’s order including the tuna roll and the mango salmon roll. The mango salmon was good mostly because of the spicy cream sauce on it but the mango tasted pre-​packaged it was frozen upon eating it.
Probably wouldn’t return again if i’m really craving sushi I don’t think this would satisfy the craving as it’s so limited in option and while I love California rolls I don’t think the California roll tasted as good as usual ones i’ve had elsewhere.

I like to come to Masu when I’m craving sushi and don’t want to spend too much. They have this deal where you can get 2 rolls for $ 17 or 3 for $ 20. Needless to say, we always get the 3. The rolls on this menu are the «fancier» rolls too. Not your simple ones. So it feels like a good bargain. Their baked rolls are really good and our favorite is the Lion King. Yummy!
They’re never too busy inside so you can always expect to be seated right away. The service is also always good. They are always sweet and attentive. There was only one time when I had a bad experience here so I’ll just assume that the waitress was having a really bad day for whatever reason.
As for the cool little things, they always serve you this sweet crunchy snack while you review the menu and after your meal, they give you half an orange with some whipped cream. The orange is usually pretty sweet. Nice little touches to the restaurant.

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!! You can’t go wrong with the 3 rolls for $ 20 deal because it comes with one soup, one salad, sweet crisps and «dessert». My friend and I usually split this order and ask for two salads instead of the soup.
The salad dressing is heavenly! One day I will ask them where they buy it or make it.
We have tried different sushi roll combinations but our favorites are:
Dragon roll
Caterpillar roll
Baked scallop over California roll
I don’t understand why this place isn’t more popular. Whatever… at least my friend and I never have to wait to get seated :)