Douzo Sushi — Restaurant in Boston

Disclaimer, I am not one to make reviews as you can tell from this being my first, but i wanted to just put forward my opinion on my experience at Douzo: Couple friends and I came up from CT and were able to easily make a reservation and we were even able to be sat early as well as the sushi was amazing! So I came in already expecting a wonderful experience. Super impressed with every piece, excellent preparation and presentation. We had a collection of Tiger, Caterpillar, Crunchy, Phoenix, Sumo, and Dragon, they were top notch, our favorite sushis were the Tiger and Crunchy by far. Best sushi I have had in quite some time. Every piece and part including the multiple different types of fish roe and the sauces were delicious. The only reason this restaurant did not get 5 stars from me (because the food and atmosphere of the restaurant CLEARLY deserves it) was our waitress. I have worked in professional Michelin star restaurants for years and I loved our expreince there. I do apologize in advance for being so scrutinizing but I just wanted to let the management know, and if our waitress is reading this, this is just some constructive criticism and nothing more. Our waitress was not engaging and not very attentive. Something I wasn’t expecting from the atmosphere and efficiency I was presented with when I walked in and when we placed our reservation. Her coworkers were very efficient and constantly picked up her slack. Her unenthusiasm with the job or at least lack of activity with us did really stand out to me. I understand if you do not want to be working that evening because yes it was a Saturday night you’d rather be doing something else but when you work in a restaurant with such good ratings and food you better be just as good if not better. The golden rule that I have learned throughout my years of service in the restaurant industry is always treat your customer as if they were a regular customer. I am not the most important customer you will deal with, but never should you make any assumptions about the customer (I could tell she did with us just because of our age), you don’t know who they could be and with the use of review systems such as Yelp, Google, etc every person has a voice, so if that same demeanor is made with those who could be important especially Boston business professionals and critics that can leave even better tips and reviews behind, you need to always be on the ball. I always remember the name of my servers just as I would remember regular customers at the other restaurants I have been employed with, but she was the first I couldn’t remember, I don’t even know if she told us her name; even if she did I couldn’t hear her because she was so quiet. Excellent food (bit pricey but you pay for the whole experience and sushi preparation is not easy and cheap) but subpar service; however, I still highly recommend it though! I still left 20% because of courtesy as someone who works in the restaurant business as well, and hopefully it is split to her coworkers as well because they deserve it much more in my opinion. Looking eagerly forward to...

I've passed by this restaurant many times but never gave this place a try until January (or February) of this year. Now I am mad at myself for missing out on such great food all these times. Since then, I've been here two times and both times were amazing. Staff is amazing here, especially our waitresses - they are all so genuine and really do care about providing great service to customers.

I don't usually order drinks, but the Pacific Rim intrigued me and it did not disappoint. I will list out everything I've ordered and try my best to remember how all of them were like (highly recommend all btw):

XO Toro - Comes in hot stone so you better get your phones ready or just simply enjoy the moment with the fire :) the flavors were great and I would order this again

Octopus Ceviche - Super fresh and a great starter

A5 Wagyu Beef - I cannot get enough of this - the flavor of the wagyu beef paired with the miso pine nut sauce is just so addicting. I never had wagyu beef like this, so this was different and I love it

Uni Lobster Tail - This is probably my favorite way to eat lobster now. The flavors of the lobster tail mixed with the buttery uni is just amazing

Rack of Lamb - I don't remember too much about this dish but I believe it was very flavorful and thoroughly enjoyable!

Douzo Special Roll - Wow this has got to be one of the best maki I have ever had. There is a lot going on with this roll (Shrimp tempura, seafood salad, tobiko, eel sauce, sriracha, avocado, wrapped w/ tuna & soy paper), but they manage to keep it so light and refreshing. I will be back here to order this as takeout whenever I am in the area! I can eat this all day.

Sumo Roll - This maki was very good, but it was completely overshadowed by the Douzo Special Roll that I wasn't able to enjoy it as much.

Banana Brulee - Hands down one of the best desserts I've ever tried! I am not a fan of bananas, but having it brulee'd is just unbelievable. I need to try making this at home because you bet I am addicted!

Chocolate Fondant Cake - You can't go wrong with a chocolate fondant cake :) This definitely satisfied my chocolate cravings - yum!

Coppa Mascarpone - I will definitely order this dessert again - although I do not remember too much about it, I think I remembered this being so well balanced in terms of flavor.

I've made reservations for all the times I was here, so I am not sure how walk-ins are like. It does seem like the restaurant gets pretty filled. In terms of parking, there is street parking, but if you are unable to find any, there is $10 parking...

Our experience started with reservations. We had originally placed a reservation for 5 people but last minuet had to change it to a table for 6. We called and let them know the day of. They were able to make this modification for us over the phone but let us know we could only dine for 2 hours maximum. I understand the time cap for adding an additional person last minuet, but I didn't like feeling that we might have to rush our dinning experience beforehand.

We parked in the parking garage next to the restaurant. Something cool that they do is validate parking for 3 hours but only if you park after 5pm. This was not advertised on their website, it was just on a poster at the door. We parked at the parking lot only to go to this restaurant and arrived at 4:45, we asked for validation on our way out and they said they wouldn't do it because it wasn't exactly after 5. I understand that we were not there exactly at 5 but we got to our reservation early. That was a pretty disappointing experience because we would have parked after 5 if we knew ahead of time.

They were quick to seat us even though we arrived early and the service was very fast and efficient which was very nice. Our waitress was kind and knowledgably about the menu and was very willing to answer any questions we had.

The food is expensive for what it is. All the food had great flavors, I didn't dislike anything we ordered. But, it didn't taste very much different from other medium grade sushi restaurants I had been too. I thought I was going to be blown away because word of mouth is that this is the best place to get sushi in Boston. In the end, its just a good sushi restaurant with inflated prices.

All in all, I would not go back to Douzo but I am glad that I finally...