Harumi Sushi — Restaurant in Cupertino

Serves us right for straying from our usual sushi haunts.

The restaurant was so hot we had no choice but to sit outside where the tables were filthy. Not only was there a ton of built-up dirt and food residue in the cracks of the tabletop, someone had spilled soy sauce all over the menus, napkins, and even the ground. When the waitress came outside, I guess she assumed we had done it and made a tsk tsk noise as she bussed the table. We tried to tell her that it was like that when we got there, but she did not respond. Thus began our negative experience.

Sushi rice was hard and flavorless. Yellowtail was ok but not great. Either the uncured salmon was salted or they gave us smoked salmon that had no smoke flavor/aroma. Maguro was so fishy I couldn't even swallow it.

Agedashi tofu was made of medium firm tofu instead of soft or preferably silken, and was drowned in a sauce that was so sweet it didn't taste like normal agedashi sauce. I could only eat the top piece of tofu that hadn't soaked up the sauce.

Even the iced green tea was not great. I wasn't expecting Sushi Gen in Los Angeles level iced green tea, where their regular iced green tea is real matcha green tea and comes with free refills (for less than they charge here), but Harumi's iced green tea tasted like they just dumped ice directly into their hot tea, which is of low quality to begin with (One Piece in Millbrae has poor quality tea too, but at least there it's like a buck - and we're regulars and get our tea free there.)

We were going to try other things on the menu like the fish katsu, yellowtail collar, and tempura, but all the food thus far was so bad we cut our losses and got the check. With tax and tip it was ~$50 for 3 pairs of nigiri, 1 appetizer, and 2 teas.

There are only 3 sushi restaurants in the Bay area that we can still stomach. One Piece on the cheap end (most nigiri are $1.75 per piece), Kaisen Don in Oakland in the middle (but it's a hike), and Sushi Jin in Mountain View on the expensive side (price fixe and reservations required). There's also Taki Nori in San Mateo but it's a hand roll-only place so I'm not sure it counts. So 4 if you count...

Not the greatest sashimi or beef teriyaki but good variety of sushi and rolls. The sashimi wasn't as tender as I'd like and the beef teriyaki was okay but was a different type of beef I'm used to. Though it was tender enough, it just had less of the grilled flavor steak I've had from restaurants in Mountain View. The vegetable and shrimp tempura were excellent and the rolls were unique. My wife says this is one of the best seafood salads. We came about 20 minutes earlier than the opening time of 1130 but got somewhat irritated looks because we honestly didn't know. So we came back. The first server wasn't as friendly at first and forgot my water. All in all the prices weren't too bad considering the area. We spent about $64 for a family of three (no beverages just water and tea). The server who came later was more attentive and refilled our drinks and gave my water. Parking was okay and can be difficult...

I ordered 2 Bento one is teriyaki salmon and one is teriyaki beef, added $2mix for sashimi for each Bento, each order is $20.99 used to be $13.99 plus add sushi a for $1.5 and the food was much better . Inside the Bento box every item is much smaller than before , no sushi roll at all, the salted ginger on side smells like antiseptic can not eat, wasabi just given little, salads dressing is almost non have to add whatever I have from home. Tempura are very soggy and old oil smell. No soup No Edamame!

The restaurant inside looks older and dark. Staff at not wearing mask and tables are not sanitized on this covid and flu season, I was afraid to dine in. On one staff to service TO GO, taking odder, packing food, collecting money, pretty easy to pass virus and germs ..

$20.99 for this Bento is getting crazy compare with others and precious . Food and customer service wise I...