NORI Sushi & Izakaya — Restaurant in Medford

Food was overall ok minus the quail shooter which was good. Service was questionable at best, we were sat down by a waiter and then watched as people who got there after us got served before we were even offered waters or drinks. Honestly embarrassing and felt like we weren't worthy of being served or something. We weren’t given any type of service until we asked the waiter at the other table if we were gonna get a waiter at some point. When we finally did get a waiter (same lady who sat us then forgot we were there despite being the only people in the restaurant upon arrival) she seemed confused. Asked if we could get soft crab as a starter so she said she’d ask, had to remind her so she let us know we could, asked her price and she guessed so we asked her to confirm, it was double the guess, we were going to get it regardless but then she just walked away and didn’t ask us if we wanted it until after she had already served the first dish at which point it was useless as a starter. The dinner continued on like this and the service just felt awkward, clunky and like we were the odd ones out. It was only two other tables in the restaurant split amongst waiters so it’s not like it was busy, Im not sure if she was new to waitressing or the restaurant thought we didn’t deserve service? But if it was the former then someone senior should’ve been doing their job and...

Maybe we just caught them on a bad day, but the experience overall was poor. We were sat immediately, but waited almost 45 minutes just for our food and drink order to be taken despite there only being 2 other tables (one already sat and eating)

Our seating immediately left of the door also had a horrible stale pee smell.

Sushi itself was fine, average serving size. The “glass” of Hana Fuji Apple Sake is more like 1/3 glass for $6. See photo.

Overall I’ll just drive the 15 minutes to Kobe for a 10/10 location, extremely high quality ingredients and service for not much of a price difference.

This is a fine place...

Started off with spicy garlic edamame, which hit just the right notes of heat and flavor. The Samurai roll was a standout—perfectly crispy tempura shrimp paired with fresh, flavorful rice, and salmon. The special pressed box roll, with tempura shrimp, avocado, spicy tuna, and crispy rice, continued the trend of perfectly balanced dishes. We finished with the Surf N Turf roll, which was so good we couldn’t even stop to take a picture. NORI is a hidden gem, but it won’t stay that...