Musashino Sushi Dokoro — Restaurant in Austin

Update Oct 2025

Still one of our favorite sushi places in ATX. Fish is super fresh, served in large portions. Tried a few different rolls this time ad well, also delicious. Desserts are also fabulous! Service was solid, once we got things rolling! Highly recommended for sushi!

Update 01-31-2024

Mushashino consistently delivers first rate sushi! As usual, we started with miso soup and a large house hot saki... both delicious. Our second course, as always, was the avocado kama, an avocado partially scooped out and refilled with crabmeat. Nice sauce on the top, outstanding as always. Something new on the menu this time, fried oysters... fixed wonderfully, and oh so tasty!

Then began the sushi parade... two blue fin tunas, both fatty, one big eye, the fatty one seared... to die for! Next up, salmon two ways, one king, one fatty... Yum! Followed by yellowtail tuna, one belly, one cheek: both delish! We paused a bit... more hot saki!

Jumping back in, first up was something new for us, seared Wagyu, perhaps an odd thing to order at a first rate sushi place, but it was great. We'll definitely get that again! Next on the plate was unagi (fresh water eel), served piping hot... always one of my favorites. On the recommendation of our sushi chef (we always sit at the sushi bar), we had the smoked escolar (mackerel), definitely a Texas-tasting fish! LOL More hot saki...

We next enjoyed a pile of tobiko, served battleship-style, very salty and tasty too. More hot saki... A round of salmon skin sushi followed... hard to describe, just get it if you can... At last, we ordered dessert - a combination of uni and salmon roe, again served battleship-style... heaven on a plate, and a great finish to a deliriously delicious dinner! Highly recommend Mushashino! It's a high price tag, but worth every penny IMHO!

January 2023

We went to Musashino to celebrate a birthday recently. The experience was as wonderful as always! The staff is cheerful, and the service spot on, attentive but not intrusive. We arrived when they opened so we were able to be seated immediately at the sushi bar.

The evening began with miso soup for two and a large hot sake. IMHO, it's the best miso soup in ATX. Our second course was an appetizer called Avocado Kama, which is partially hollowed out and stuffed with shrimp, crab, and a spicy sauce ... served piping hot. It was fantastic!

Our sushi indulgence began with nigiri pieces of the three super fatty tuna and salmon fish that were the specials that night. Incredible! Delicious! We returned to the regular nigiri menu next, and sampled the unagi, salmon and hamachi kama. The fish in this course was great, expertly prepared, and delectable! On the recommendation of our waitress, we went back to the appetizer section of the menu and tried the baby octopus kara age, five fried pieces with fish sauce. A new dish for us, and a great recommendation!

For our next course, we had mackerel and the ozzy roll. The mackerel was divine, a bit fishy, but in a very good way! The ozzy roll included unagi, shrimp, avocado and cucumber, with smelt caviar on the outside. The roll was different, very good, but not really something we would order again with all the other rolls on the menu. For our final course, I re-visited the unagi and my wife had the toro covered in mustard greens. She reported it was very good.

Finally, dessert ... we chose our usual, tanin bune, which is a combination of uni and salmon roe, served gunkan style (battleship-style). The uni was sourced from Tasmania, and was our first time trying that type of uni. It was creamy, lightly sweet, a bit less sweet than the California uni we usually order. The combination of the uni and roe presents a sweet and salty taste, and was lucious. We cannot...

I’ve been coming to Musashino for over 15 years. My family (me, my brother, my parents, my wife, my wife’s siblings, etc etc) and I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars both here and at the former location off Mopac. Birthdays, anniversaries, promotions, etc — it was basically our go-to spot for a special evening. We’ve happily spent countless amounts of hours in the que waiting for a table (that table actually being at the sushi bar, which is our preferred spot) because we’ve always loved coming here. There was a point where we were coming at least once a week for years! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten out of Musashino spending less than $200 on a meal, even if it was only for 2 people and we order almost exclusively off the sushi menu.

Unfortunately, tonight’s experience really calls in to question our continued patronage, as much as I hate to say it. Shortly after arriving at the restaurant not long after they opened (about 5:40pm), my wife and I got a spot on the end of the sushi bar. We went about our normal ordering — a couple of cocktails, miso soup, gyu tataki, house salad. After that, we ordered a large hot sake (which we order no matter what time of year) and the nigiri/rolls/sashimi we usually order. We eat our food, talk about what we want to talk about, drink our drinks, etc. We finish said drinks and food. The waitress asks us if we want anything else and we do, but we aren’t sure what yet. After a few minutes, we decide on a few more things and another sake. The waitress then asks, about 15 or so minutes later, if we’ll be ordering any more food and we say no, we won’t, and that we’re happy to pay the bill. Bill comes, card handed over, bill paid. Before we can even finish the rest of our drinks, one of the servers (not our server) comes over to us and bluntly and sternly says the sushi bar has a long wait and tells us we need to leave. We’ve been here less than 2 hours and we’ve spent almost $300 and we weren’t finished with something we already paid for. We weren’t lollygagging, either. We weren’t being loud, we weren’t being slow, we weren’t being anything, really. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve patiently waited for a spot at the sushi bar in the past 15 years where you had people just sitting around well after their meals and drinks and bills were finished and paid, and the servers and staff did absolutely nothing. We just waited and we never complained a single time. We have never, ever complained. But this little bit tonight, how rude this server was, enough to make us feel stupid and embarrass us in front of other dinner patrons (noticeably enough for the woman next to my wife to look over with a somewhat surprised look)? Not acceptable. It was such a poor display of customer service, it effectively voided 15 years of previous enjoyment and however many more might have been on the horizon. There is absolutely no excuse that if for some reason they needed something or needed to move diners along to accommodate other customers it couldn’t have been conveyed politely and with respect. We would have understood. We didn’t need anyone to tell us that, we were already about to leave. It seems you guys have too short a memory of your regulars, especially ones who have been excellent customers for well over a decade. I suppose it would be appropriate for myself and my family and friends to reciprocate the behavior and just stop coming here or recommending you to anyone...

I've dined here dozens of times all on business expense acct so was able to order basically everything across the menu. I would sit the sushi bar and watch masters make it, taking detailed notes (and photos of their sushi) to learn the art from the masters so I can make it for my family.

Now after years of my making sushi at home, and comparing methods at many sushi restaurants, I now realize Musashino makes some of the greatest quality TRADITIONAL Japanese sushi.

Take one example: I've never found a sushi restaurant in USA that makes a Rainbow roll as perfect as Musashino. And I've been to maybe 100+ sushi restaurants across the USA while on business trips. Musashino Rainbow roll so perfectly bias-overlaps the stripes of the rainbow topper that they must prep each in the morning and store each between layers of saran wrap.

So when Rainbow roll is actually made they flip the rainbow fish overlay out of the saran wrap onto the roll making the rainbow topper. Do you understand why? They are making it to such artistic precision that it takes time to make the rainbow overlay so they must make it ahead of time in the morning. They are laying down the sashimi rainbow stripes 1/2 overlapped and with pitch so perfectly spaced it is on the order of mm tolerances.

The result (which I've never seen elsewhere) is their Rainbow roll cuts so EACH cut piece is topped with a rainbow layer where all of these are visible in layers above EACH piece (!!): tuna/salmon/shrimp/white fish/avocado

I observed this level of detail on all their sushi: Musashino masters have taken the time to perfect sushi to exquisite level

When I make Rainbow roll at home, of course I follow the Musashino method precisely (took me many months & about 50+ rolls to learn) because I've never seen a more gorgeous Rainbow roll than Musashino's

What about Hotate? Musashino has great Hotate nigiri but also offers spicy Gunkan style with the "battleship" made from gorgeous nori strips exquisitely shaped around a bed of perfect rice, and carrying two half-slices from silver dollar sized, spectacular scallops, placed with artistic balance alongside just-ripe avocado slices, all with a little drizzle of spicy mayo (into which they've mixed the correct amount of fresh fish eggs that pop delightfully in your mouth). I copy Musashino's Gunkan style when I make spicy scallops sushi at home, because it is the BEST ! I could go on and on and talk you through the artistry of every item on their menu.

You go to Musashino for the exceptional experience, and also for the personal HONOR of supporting a great institution that is practicing a beautiful art at its...