Shoyou Sushi — Restaurant in Baltimore

I was quite excited to learn of this sushi place! Reading its great reviews and such close proximity to where I live, I had to try it! My friend, who was visiting from California, and I came one night to check out this sushi place. Now, I didn't want to get my hopes up or anything since I haven't really had good sushi in the DC/MD area but I thought why not, I may be surprised. Well I was....it just wasn't surprisingly good....very Americanized sushi with subpar quality.

Salmon Skin Salad - this was the first thing we got. The dressing, delicious! However, the salmon skin, it was so hard that taking it bite literally hurt my teeth. It was much too hard to even chew through. I tried a second piece it was was more manageable. Odd how they cooked the skin, but sure don't do what the west coast places do.

Spicy tuna tempura roll - I had a totally different idea of what this roll was going to be like. IN my mind, I was thinking shrimp tempura, rolled into a sushi and topped with spicy tuna. Instead I got a spicy tuna roll that was entirely deep fried! At first, I thought this may be good, but boy I was wrong! Because it was deep fried, the fish was hot and semi-cooked and the rice pretty much soaked up the oil and made it mushy. Although there was batter on the outside, and it was crispy, this roll was a total miss! A waitress came by and asked me how everything was and I told her how the roll was not too my liking and I just ate the inside fish part, she just said ok and dismissed my critique like it was nothing. Not sure what happened there.

We also got the rainbow roll and the spider roll. These two rolls were pretty good, flavors were there, fish was fresh for what it was. Nothing special but not bad as well.

Miso soup was a miss! First it was forgotten and when we got it, the seaweed hadn't been soaked yet and was still dry. Soup was also lukewarm and only filled up to half of the bowl. I feel like I was jipped a bit!

Overall, it was just an okay place. Catered to the community it serves and not authentic to the Japanese...

Their special rolls are awesome, the flavors are just spot on. We had the big boss the other night and the crunchiness of the tempura with the slight warmth bringing out all the flavors it was just to die for. I had posted a previous review about the handroll being miss-advertised in the menu and they changed it! 😮 Major props to them for that, it shows that they do listen to their customers on here and even though it's not my preferred style of hand roll, it's the way they do it and it's clear on the menu now. I've really loved almost everything I've gotten here. I always get a Japanese burrito, you've got to try it! Go for their specialty rolls, they are so worth it! I had their sashimi salad and the dressing flavor was 👌 The reason I'm only giving it 4 stars still is that their service really isn't great. If you do a takeout order they won't start it until you get there when you call it in, which is the whole purpose of calling it in. If i could call it in I'd probably eat here way more often since theyre walking distance to me and I'm at home most days, but i don't have time to sit down and eat or wait for half an hour to have takeout when im working frim home and need to get back to it.The staff is typically a bunch of kids who don't really seem to care and aren't attentive a lot of times they're just hanging out even when it's slammed. I never really know who my server is so we're never able to ask for anything if our sushi gets there and we want some wasabi or something. The rolls are delicious without but it's a bit frustrating to not be able to get anyone's attention. Edit the service seems to have improved, the last few times I've been in a bearded guy has helped me and he's been really friendly...

My husband and I recently sought out this local sushi spot and we left feeling very disappointed.

A significant issue was the extensive use of "crab mix" or imitation crab in nearly all special rolls. Despite actively avoiding rolls with imitation crab listed in their descriptions as I do not like it, the "Sure Thing!" roll I ordered, which notably omitted any mention of it, arrived filled with the cheap filler. This was particularly frustrating given the high cost of the rolls.

Similarly, my husband's tuna poke bowl contained a surprising amount of tomato mixed in with the tuna, a detail completely absent from the menu. This gave the impression of a cost-saving measure to inflate the perceived portion of tuna.

Service was slow, likely due to what appeared to be a single server managing the entire restaurant on a holiday. When we raised the issue with my sushi, we were informed there was no manager on duty and the server couldn't void the order based on a personal dislike, despite the menu's inaccuracy.

Our total bill for an appetizer, a poke bowl, two sashimi orders, and a single special roll was over $100. The combination of inflated prices, undisclosed cheap fillers, and inaccurate menu descriptions resulted in a poor dining experience and left me feeling that we overpaid significantly for what we received. Do not go here unless you want to overpay...