Sushi by Kazu Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Freehold Township

Met Kazu and his wife many years ago when they were in a dead shopping strip in howell by Hwy 195. Really nice couple from Osaka, Japan. After talking to them on my many visits to the restaurant about Osaka, I went to Osaka. It is a lot more amazing than they described. I have now traveled to Japan over 6 times for sushi.

I moved out of the area for 7 years and just moved back to monmouth County. When searching for a sushi place, I found a familiar name and told my daughter about Kazu and his Mrs and how nice they are, and if we are lucky we can sit at the sushi bar and enjoy great sushi. We arrived at 6:15, in the middle of the terrantial rain, walking in the restaurant had 4 tables of 4 occupied, basically empty and 1 person sitting at the sushi bar. Stood at entrance waiting for a few minutes, Mrs Kazu walked over and said oh so sorry we have 1 hour wait, sushi chef very busy, she looked at me in shorts(85 degree day) and looked at my 7 year old and decided we are not good enough to dine at her restaurant. I saw similar reviews about rude and dismissive behavior, but today, I experienced it first hand. It almost felt like discrimination, I'm Asian, I only saw Caucasian guests, I wonder if it's true, felt like that to me.

I would avoid this place if you are making plans you may be disappointed. If you dont fit the profile, you will probably be told we are busy with an empty restaurant. They don't take reservations, do no excuses there.

The silver lining is I found a great Japanese restaurant in Farmingdale, NJ with amazing sushi, one of the best I've had in NJ along with very polite and attentive staff. The Restaurants...

Sometimes reviews don’t need to be about the food… They need to be about the service. I have always had excellent food at this place. Yesterday, went to make a reservation on Google for two people at 6:00 PM. Google couldn’t accept the reservation and kept trying all day. Finally, we went to the restaurant at 6 PM only to have a very rude, and inexperienced young hostess look at us and say there’s an hour and a half wait and begin to walk away. I said wait a minute… I kept trying to make the reservation and nobody called me back to confirm. She simply said oh we don’t take reservations to which I said well… Then you should fix it online to not let people think that you do. While talking to her and looking around, I noticed almost 6 empty tables and one right in the middle of the restaurant for two with a few flower vases on them. I said very politely, none of those tables are available? And she said no, they are all taken. Well that’s odd. If you don’t take reservations, and nobody is here, how can the tables be taken. Mind you nobody was outside waiting. Didn’t try to accommodate, certainly didn’t apologize for any misunderstanding, and basically turned her back and walked away. So, to this restaurant, if you want someone to properly represent your brand, your passion, and your quality, that needs to start with the front of the house. They do represent you when you aren’t looking. I most likely will not go back as a result of this and for the silver lining, we found a brand new place, not far away that we had never known of that was excellent:...

What is going on at this restaurant? I had the same issue as Boris. I called, no answer. I go to the restaurant with my girlfriend, there are three open tables, and 4 open chairs at the sushi bar (No one is sitting at the sushi bar), and there no one is waiting in the restaurant or outside.

There is a sign that says 60 minute wait. I approach the women at the counter and ask if we can sit at one of the open tables, she says "60 minute wait". I then ask, 'can we sit at the sushi bar'? Rudely she say's "60 minute wait"! I then asked if she could put our name on the list for 7PM (It was 6PM). She said "No list, no reservations"!

Now keep in mind, there is no place to wait at this restaurant for 60 minutes (Bar, seating area) and it was 34F and windy so standing outside for an hour was not an option.

I have been eating sushi for 35 years and have been in over 100 sushi restaurants in 5 different countries. I have never encountered anything like this before, not even in Manhattan. Lets take it a step further, I have never been in any restaurant in 40 years where I ran into this nonsense. Shame on you Sushi by Kazu, not the way you should treat your neighbors/potential patrons!

Lets be clear, I will never go here again, there are too many Sushi joints in Monmouth county to go some place and be treated this rudely; but I would like to know if anyone has been here since the last good review (1 year ago). How did you get in, and was the Sushi worth the attitude from the staff?

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