Azuma Sushi

100% worth the hype. Visiting here as a tourist from the USA from recommendation of some local friends and I totally understand why. Food was AMAZING. I got the beef teriyaki, which was incredibly flavorful and generous in portions. Come hungry, you’re going to want to leave every plate clean! Seating and ambiance was comfy, and felt very friendly for groups and dates! Staff was helpful and food came out quickly— especially impressive for a Friday night! If you’re stopping through Victoria, this place is a must-go. I’ve never had a better beef Teriyaki than this, and I look forward to the next time I’m here so I can try some more amazing food!

Arrived and had no wait. The restaurant is big and there’s many tables which makes for less likely chances of waiting to be seated.Was escorted to our table and offered hot tea and water right away. Once we ordered the food came in a reasonable amount of time and the service was good. the waiter catered to our needs and made good suggestions on food item choices. The presentation of the food was nicely done and it was tasty. Recommend the spicy tuna roll as it melted in your mouth. Had a good experience and recommend for anyone looking for a sushi experience. A little confused as to why this restaurant is rated so low as it was a positive experience for us.

Feel like this place is Chinese restaurant with Japanese name. Just like the other comments, the miso soup was very salty, tempura is brown that looks like they use old oil, and the rice dish I got was so bland that it doesnt have much taste. We could not finish it even though we were so hungry. Don’t recommend it at all. But they have big space where it can accommodate big groups.

The pricing was super cheap form japanese food and the staff we're pretty nice. The whole place was pretty quiet on a Saturday early evening which I thought was strange but all good. In all good affordable Japanese food.

Sad to say that this is a once great restaurant, at one time the best sushi restaurant in the city, that has gone downhill in a big way. It's not because of the food, which was good, or the service, which is diligent and friendly. It's because it's clear the management just don't care anymore. It's been years since I've ever seen such a poor effort in keeping a restaurant up to standard. I know Covid was hard on places but this place is dirty, unkempt, and poorly maintained while all the restaurants around them thrive. No more draft beer. Lots on the menu unavailable. They couldn't even be bothered to print clean menus to replace the dirty, greasy ones that the server was clearly embarrassed to hand us. Unless huge changes are made, this will just be another once great restaurant that failed due to lack of effort.

Azuma or Assume uhhh? If you want to have a Chinese size wedding but with Japanese food this is the venue for you. It is massive! With a quarter of a block foot print there are lots of hosting opportunities at this restaurant. Azuma has been around for 25 years far before the popularity of sushi. You see the history of the space with it's eclectic combination of Chinese, Japanese and mid 90s and 2000s decoration. Charming. The food, however, is lacking. The rice is not right. They are using a light rice vinegar but no mirin or sweetness to contrast that flavour. The tomago... is of an almost a semi-jello like texture and flavour is wrong... I can't tell what they are doing. Ika and scallops were good but the rest of the seafood was flat in flavour. I hope I was there on a off day. It seems like a restaurant with heart.

Like many restaurants these days, Azuma is shooting itself in the foot by not hiring enough staff and clearly not keeping the staff they do have employed happy or well-paid. The service, as a result, is pretty bad. We got our appetizers a good half hour before the rest of the food. Sushi should be a relatively quick bite to prepare and eat, something you can do with half hour to kill before going to the movies. Our table was not clean when we arrived, which is a pretty big faux pas in COVID times. The taste itself was...fine. Pretty standard. When service at such an establishment is bad, it's not a reflection on the staff but on the ownership and management. In a weird way, I respect the staff more for bad service. Why should they fake a smile and break their backs providing a good service when they're not happy with their conditions and not compensated enough for their work? The waiters were probably covering double the number of tables they should've been covering, and I'd bet at the same rate as before. How could the service not suffer? Don't buy into the lie that there's a worker shortage going on. There's a shortage of jobs you can do that pay enough so you can afford to live in North America, and restaurants, small and big, are part of the problem. Since the pandemic, rents and prices of everything have gone up. Wages haven't. Pay. Your. Staff! Vegetarian options: Standard Veggie sushis and appetizers/salads.

Although this place was one a not so nice locations it came back even greater going there was a beautiful experience. The waitress was one of the nicest person's on earth and the food couldn't get any better . Vegetarian options: They have a verity of dishes

Disappointed with our experience. We were recommended this place from a relative who moved to Victoria. However, although the staff were nice and the place was clean, it wasn’t busy enough for the slow service. Then the sushi was of low standard. It tasted stale and flavourless. From reading previous review it seems like it has reduced its standard of recent. Find a different place if you’re looking for sushi in Victoria :

Absolutely terrible. Zero stars. Very slow service. Very salty soup. Salad was OK and the fresh fruit hard to mess up. Rice was ok but cold. Our medium to medium well hibachi steaks were all rare. The wait was very long for how empty the restaurant was. The prawn and scallops we ordered were rubbery. All meals were cold. Two people were on the toilet, sick the next morning. We paid way to much for a very disappointing meal. Kid-friendliness: They had high chair and booster but the booster came way later. Parking: Street parking. Hit or.miss. or walk from parkade at the mall.