Imasa Sushi — Restaurant in Davie

My boyfriend and I visited this restaurant today and ordered the sashimi set shown in the photo. Right away, we noticed something strange with the tuna — it had an unusually bitter and spicy aftertaste. We asked the server about it, and she said she would check with the kitchen. A few minutes later, she came back offering us a different batch of tuna to try. I was honestly too scared to eat it again, but my boyfriend gave it a try — it tasted exactly the same.

The server said they wouldn’t charge us for the tuna portion. However, I saw her speaking with the kitchen, and it seemed like the chef didn’t agree with removing the charge. Instead, they offered to replace the tuna with salmon, which my boyfriend accepted. We’re not picky people, and we would’ve let it go — but what happened next was unacceptable.

The entire sashimi set lacked freshness. The fish wasn’t sweet or firm — it just didn’t taste fresh. Still, we paid and left without making a fuss.

What’s most disappointing is that this wasn’t our first time here. I first tried this restaurant last year, and everything was amazing. That’s why I came back this year, full of excitement and high expectations. In fact, at the beginning of my vlog, I expressed how much I had been looking forward to this meal — I even praised the restaurant highly. And what did we get in return? A huge letdown.

About 15 minutes after leaving, I began to feel lightheaded. At first, I thought I was just tired — even though I had plenty of energy that morning (I’m a vlogger and I have footage to prove it). Then my face began to feel hot, like I was flushed from alcohol, and my heart started racing. I had a strong gut feeling something was wrong.

I looked it up and found out that bitter or spicy tuna can be a sign of scombroid poisoning, a foodborne illness caused by improperly stored or spoiled fish — and the symptoms matched exactly. Five minutes later, my boyfriend experienced the same thing. We both had diarrhea for hours and didn’t feel okay until later in the day.

We’re lucky we recovered. But the restaurant should be thankful things didn’t end worse. I even have video of the interaction with the staff. What’s unacceptable is that the kitchen didn’t taste or test the tuna — they served the same potentially toxic fish twice.

If this had happened to someone else, there could’ve easily been legal consequences. Honestly, the health department needs to inspect this place immediately. It’s dangerous, careless, and completely disappointing.

Terrible experience. Never...

I LOVED this place. The service was impeccable at every level. The food was excellent. I tried two appetizers: the Hamachi Jalapeno and the Scallop Carpaccio. They were both amazing. The cucumber lollipop and the sake avocado looked interesting as well. I was able to order Toro (tuna belly), which is really hard to find in South Florida. It was excellent. When I say the service was impeccable, our server, Shirley even took the time to offer different types of soy sauce. I’ve been eating sushi for 35 years and have never been offered a series of soy sauces to choose from before. She couldn’t have done a more perfect job. I changed my mind about something we ordered, a bus boy recognized the expression on my face, asked me if I wanted to get my server back and went to get her. That was a first. At every turn, the staff was on point. One item they could address is this: We were there around 8:30 on a Saturday night. It was very crowded and had the din of a high school cafeteria. While I love ambient Japanese music, I think whoever is driving this place should consider playing loud dance music to transform the noise into something that feels like a party. The acoustics of Japanese décor reflect lots of sound, so why not turn it into something appealing? This, of course, would require a more developed and distributed speaker system but I think it would be a big plus. In my opinion, the management should be looking at the space next door because this place is so good that the current square footage won’t be able to manage the volume they will...

It was, OK. We eat sushi, typically once a week. We have explored a number of places in the area around Cooper City, Davie, Pines, etc. Our normal spot was closed tonight (I think they are on vacation, family owned spot), so we tried Imasa. There is a big communications gap between the person who answers the phone when you call and the hostess you meet when you arrive. They need to fix this because we received bad information from the person on the phone who claimed they were packed and she couldn't give us a wait time, but, we were close by and decided to try it anyways, 5 minute wait...she also said they didn't take reservations, well, apparently they do as people showed up to claim their time slots. The wait staff and hostess were very pleasant and attentive. Unfortunately, the sushi chefs and kitchen give priority to the take out business and leave the dining room customers waiting a very long time for their food. At least that is what we experienced. We order pretty normal stuff off the menu, so we figured it would come out quickly. It did not, but the take out and delivery services were getting their orders cranked out in record time. The food itself was just ok, nothing special or different other than everything tasted very dry. The rolls are priced a few dollars more than they are worth to be honest. The place itself is very nice, trendy, clean and buzzing with energy. Maybe that is what people look for these days in a Sushi spot? I'll go back to my regular spots and leave this one to the people that want to be seen at the trendy places in...