Azuma Sushi and Teppan

We went with a party of 9 in one of the private rooms for lunch on a Saturday. It was not busy. I and one other were the only non-Asians in the party. At first the service was acceptable. We all ordered and 7 of us received our meals in a timely manner. However 2 people who ordered the same thing (chicken with steamed rice) did not receive their lunches until we all were done. Also they were informed after 30 minutes of waiting that they were out of steamed rice. What kind of Japanese restaurant runs out of rice?! We all agreed that we won’t be back. This restaurant is fairly close to where I live and has been our go to place for sashimi and sushi for the last few years. However, they have nosedived in quality. The last time we had sushi there (2 months ago) the tuna was not fresh but had been obviously frozen, and my Japanese wife commented that they don’t know how to make sushi rice anymore. Or any rice apparently (see above).

The food was fine. The service was good. I’ve noticed the past couple time though the food has been very oily. I’m pretty sure I could have poured oil off my plate. I noticed the chefs are using a generous amount of oil to cook basically everything. It could definitely be cut back.

Great food, always a favorite! However the staffing seems too low, the last couple visits we ended up waiting around 45 minutes for a chef at the grill to be available. Otherwise everything was excellent and you get more than enough food for your buck plus a fun experience.