Asuka Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in St. Thomas

I've been wanting to go here for far to long, good things come with time they say...

I had high hopes for this place, however it was basically a let down. We were seated at our table fairly fast and then waited for quite some time before our drink order came after placing it. I was the one that had to wait the longest and it seemed like an overly long wait when everybody else in that restaurant were being served before me. (It wasn't even busy). It should be noted we didn't do the buffet here, we had a la carte.

I ordered a crispy spicy salmon roll and one piece of BBQ eel sushi. The quantity of food I expected to see was less then what I've experienced in other places for basically the same price. I couldn't believe how small the roll was, did it taste good? Sure, it wasn't bad.

Then my Mom got soup with her meal, some sort of dumpling soup. The soup had two small dumplings in it. $6 for two dumplings in broth. She also ordered chicken teriyaki with rice and veggies. The main dish she had was actually the best thing on the table.

Next up, my girlfriend ordered teriyaki salmon and a Kani salad. I tried the salmon she had and it was good. She had to ask for the salad a second time because the waitress forgot. Again good things don't come with time... The Kani salad was mainly all cucumber in some sort of vinegar/mayo combo, normally there's a bunch of crab on the salad. Not the case here, that salad had about three slivers of crab in it. Just enough to say it was there I guess. Needless to say it was sent back, and they tried to justify it by telling us thats how they make it there. Nobody else makes that salad the way they do.

To me it seemed like there were a lot of corners being cut here.

Sadly the whole experience didn't line up with my...

I brought my boyfriend here for his birthday dinner. The service was slow and the food was not good. We only ordered a few items but waited for what felt like an hour. People who came after us were served before us. My boyfriend’s mom’s food came, then my salmon, then my boyfriend waited and waited. They didn’t bring my kani salad (I think she forgot to put it in) My appetizer was small but “ok” (teriyaki salmon) but the Kani salad was absolutely not a kani salad. I have had a kani salad at multiple restaurants and not once did I send it back. This one tasted like the sauce was water and vinegar and it had barely any visible crab. It is supposed to have mayo and crab on it. When i tried to send it back I asked a younge blonde girl for my server. She advised me that there are no servers? I told her the issue and she argued that the salad was correct. Our actual server came and told me she took it off the bill which I appreciated. Over all the experience was lacking and I have no intention...

I’m giving this place three stars because the atmosphere felt dark and uninviting, and the sushi was mediocre at best. My Japanese wife and I tried the all-you-can-eat option, and while most of the sushi was passable, the mackerel and snapper were outright bad—definitely avoid these if you want to spare your stomach. We eat sushi regularly and even make it at home, so this was quite disappointing.

That said, the appetizers were a highlight. The chicken and tempura vegetables were excellent and worth ordering.

One major downside is their outdated ordering system, which still relies on pencil and paper. There are no images to give you an idea of what you're ordering, which makes the experience less user-friendly. Updating to a digital system, like an iPad menu seen in larger sushi restaurants such as Oishi Sushi, would be a huge improvement.

Overall, it's an okay spot if you're sticking to appetizers, but the sushi quality and ambiance leave much to be desired. Plate display was very...