Kazu Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Jacksonville

for those of you with short attention spans, the TL;DR version of this is "their food is an overpriced travesty that mocks your taste-buds and mercilessly assaults your wallet in a thinly veiled attempt to pass off low quality food as anything else." the only reason I gave them one star is because zero stars, or a fraction of a star, isn't an option.

for those of you who'd like to know why I feel that way, Gather 'round, boys and girls, its story time.

I received a gift card to Kazu Sushi in December at the "Christmas in Avondale" raffle event as the only part of a "gift" basket of any perceived value (why that gift basket sucked is another story entirely). Kazu is clear on the other side of the river from me, so it was weeks before we made our first attempt to use it. when we arrived, they were closed in the middle of the day to prep for dinner hours. this is a fairly common practice in sushi restaurants, but was not posted on their literature that we received with the card, or their google business bio. our first trip there was a bust, as we had to turn around and go home to meet other obligations that evening.

our second trip out had to wait until tonight. upon examining the menu, the prices ranged from average for a sushi joint to outrageous from any restaurant. furthermore, nearly every sushi item contained cucumber, a flavor I hate and a tactic that smacks of adding cheap filler. my wife settled on the Unagi-don at $15, and I decided to have the steak, a 10 oz ribeye for $17 which still felt pricey to me despite the gift card. both came with soup and salad. we also both had tea, hers sweet and mine unsweetened.

when the soup and salad arrived, the salad had cucumber in it, despite me having made clear I dislike it. no big deal though, my wife eats it, so I give it to her. the ginger salad dressing tastes and feels "watered down," with a faint hint of a mayo flavor. I felt like the kitchen was cutting corners, but the salad, while disappointing, was inoffensive enough to get a pass.

my wife comments to me about the soup. we both ordered the clear soup, but before us sat a dark brown concoction. one of the greatest pleasures of clear soup is the tempura batter bits, and the medley of green onion and mushroom that dance on the surface of the soup. I notice an immediate lack of the green onion, and the tempura bits look like plain old panko bread crumbs floating on the oily surface of what appears to be (and we confirmed by taste to be) primarily beef broth. hidden in the murky depths of this "clear" soup were a sad and scant few shavings of mushroom, literally 2 tiny, paper thin scraps of mushroom, and something chewy I bit into that I immediately regretted. it tasted like burnt cooking oil and artificial onion. it was rubbery and hard. I spat it out. when my wife found the same in her soup, we theorized we had been given something the kitchen either completely screwed up and attempted very unsuccessfully to salvage, or they were cutting corners.

when my second glass of tea came out murky and sour-tasting, I asked my wife how she felt, and made it known I'd like to leave. she agreed. we notified our server and said simply we'd like to cancel our order and pay for what we'd had (and not finished). for the 2 soups, 2 salads, and 2 teas, we were still charged $14. I was appalled. my wife handed them the gift card. the hostess ringing us up seemed to roll her eyes at the gift card, but ran it and handed it back to us. my wife took the gift card and remaining balance receipt, and promptly deposited it on the nearest table, giving another couple of diners $11 off their dinner, and we left, sorely disappointed with Kazu's performance.

so yeah, judging by how badly they'd failed with the meals openers, we didn't stick around to find out how badly they could screw up Eel or Steak. Clear soup is a staple of Sushi and Oriental restaurants all over, and if this place can screw it up that badly, I'd hate to have felt the results of...

It’s a small and busy place. We had reservations and only had to wait about 10 minutes for our party of six. It does get crowed. The food for the most part was good. The buffalo chicken dumplings and spring rolls were good starters. The entrees came out quick, but the server forgot to bring three sides of rice for three of the entrees. After waiting a bit thinking they were on the way we had to ask for them. One of the steak dinners was so rare that it was raw/red, barely cooked (not the way it was ordered). My biggest concern though is that one person in our party had a gluten allergy. We were told that there were gluten free options. The salad dressing that was supposed to be gluten free was not. Unfortunately the person in our party had already started eating it before the server came back to inform us that it was NOT gluten free. She apologized but it was too late. When we were leaving the gentlemen at the front inquired about the gluten free person. I explained what happened with the salad dressing not being gluten free and that the person had started eating it. He stated… “oh they’ll be fine”. There was no apology or concern about what happened. I’m very disappointed in what appeared to be a careless attitude. I would not recommend eating there if there are any allergy concerns. Allergies can be a serious issue and I’m not sure how informed they are and with such an attitude I won’t be back...

Will not return here. The "manager" is someone I never want to deal with ever again. Never have I been to a restaurant where a "manager" is so unwilling to fix a situation. With my last bit of money I currently had I ordered some food to go. I pay, they swiped my card, and then they ask to swipe again saying it didn't seem to go through. They swipe again and it says declined. I check my account on my phone and it shows the charge went through. They have my money. The girl calls the manager over and he immediately starts telling me that it must be pending and therefore they didn't take the money so nothing can be done. Telling me all sorts of things that could cause it to show the charge on my account. None of which made any sense.

I go to my car and decide to call my bank to check if maybe some sort of error happened that they can fix. The person informs me that the charge did happen and they would happily provide the information to the restaurant in order to help me get what was paid for. The "manager", however, decides that he wants no information and tells me I should dispute the charge instead. So instead of giving me what was paid for and accepting the proof, he would rather smile sarcastically and make me go through the headache of disputing a charge to get my money back that was clearly taken.

Horrible customer service from the "manager". He should be taught how to better handle...