Azuma Japanese Cuisine — Restaurant in Cupertino

2025 Jun visit Went for lunch with a colleague to try again to try their sushi. I chose to have their 12-piece Sashimi combo. As before, the fish pieces were fresh, good size, and aged eell for tenderness. Tasty! This time, the order came with soup/miso, salad, and rice, whereas the Nigiri and Sashim item didn't come with a salad last time. I wonder if they changed the menu to include the item. Anyway, one suggestion is to have an option to replace the white rice (simple carbohydrates) with either brown rice or vegetables for those who try to minimize intake of simple carbohydrates

Service was attentive, and the value was good. Will likely return in the future.

2023 Perhaps I had too high of an expectation from both the higher Google rating and a few recommendations. As appetizers, we ordered grilled whole calamari and fried chicken. Some of the chicken were slightly undercooked, and all the pieces I had had that smell when the chicken was double cooked or less fresh. The grilled calamari was dry, burned, and slightly overlooked, making some pieces hard to chew. The main was Sushi and Sashimi combo. This was more acceptable with larger fish that seemed well prepared. However, it was a bit disappointing that it didn't come with a simple salad...

I am a long time fan of Azuma. My mom and I used to go there almost every Friday for years. We knew the owner and all the staff. Our life changed a bit but Azuma didn't. The staff is different of course but still wonderfully attentive and caring.

And the food is simply as stellar as it ever was.

Highly recommended: Seafood Tempura, an awesome and generous combination of seafood and veggies in a great breading coating with light but flavorful tempura sauce. Probably one of the best made tempura in the South Bay. Enough food for 2! Agedashi Tofu: cubes of tender tofu breaded with the same coating as the tempura and deep fried.

The sushi and sashimi are superb. The fish is so fresh and tender it is firm, yet melts in your mouth. The rice is never ever dry and slightly aromatic.

This is a true family style restaurant with warm service and substantial meals but with the superior quality, a wide variety of plates worthy of high class locales, yet with reasonable and affordable prices.

The atmosphere is pleasant and relaxed, with a choice of Japanese style booths, exclusive private booths, or open seating tables. Some areas are brightly lighted and others more muted.

My all time favorite Japanese restaurant...

Maybe it was an off night, but it was one of the worst restaurant experiences I had in a while.

Also, I'm told there has been change of owner.

I was expecting a mediocre service, it being an Asian restaurant. It turned out my expectations were too high.

We got a private room because there were 8 of us. The waitress who served our room was not good. We had to remind her several times what we ordered through out the night. A couple of people showed up a little late, you would think the waitress saw this and bring extra utensils and ask the late arrivals what they wanted to drink, or at least bring extra water. Nope. One of the dishes we ordered arrived after everyone in our group was done eating for a while.

At one point, someone from our party had to go out of the room to ask for more tea.

Now on to the food. Their sushi was not good. I had better sushi from wholefoods. The fish wasn't very tasty, they ran out of uni, not very presentable.

There are way too many delicious sushi restaurants in the area to give this place another chance. I'm just glad I didn't get sick from their sushi. I'll be afraid to go back...