Tsunami Sushi New Orleans — Restaurant in New Orleans

Went in for a friends birthday on a Tuesday night. Made reservations for 10 people, wound up being about 16, and that's when the everything started going sideways..

It's a Tuesday night. You'd think that 16 people walk in interested in a lot of booze and food would be appreciated and bring at least a "B game"....well, you're wrong. We spent about $300 or so just at the bar...but that didn't stop the manager coming up to my wife and start complaining that "If we'd known, we would have done a minimum price contract....you should have let us know." Wait, can you not handle large groups? And why is it OUR problem? We actually did have reservations for 10 already, sorry it was a bit more. And who signs a contract for dinner? I have NEVER signed an agreement for dinner with a restaurant unless they are privately catering an event. Her attitude was insulting and basically made it seem like we were putting her out.

Then when we were seated, they told us "don't crowd the people sitting in the same section." Wait...it's an almost empty restaurant....we don't care where we sit and why are you assuming we're going to be jerks? They didn't try to put any tables together, and the service still sucked even though they added an obligatory 20% gratuity. We weren't demanding, but for the prices that they were charging I would think the waitress would know what seasonal beers are on tap and not have us wondering "hey, did she forget about us?" when she left halfway through taking drink orders at our (separate from the main table) table.

Food itself: so so. The appetizer was good, but the actual sushi was mediocre. The unagi nigiri was something like eel jerky, and the spicy tuna itself wasn't actually spicy...just jalapenos.

We spent about $1000 overall. Did we get our money's worth? Absolutely not. If you want sushi in the CBD...I'll have to say that you have to go somewhere else.

NOTE: Emailed the owner/manager who basically said she was working that location that night and didn't recall you. She tried to defend signing a contract to (paraphrase) that they have experienced servers on hand and the "kitchen doesn't get overwhelmed." If that's what they consider a small kitchen, I'm stunned and don't know what to say and have to question their size standards. That kitchen is open,...

If I could give this location zero stars I would.

Let me start off by saying, we are huge fans of Tsunami, but have only ever patronized the Lafayette location. We were excited to find out there was a New Orleans location, as my husband was in town for work. Based on Lafayette’s unbeatable service and food quality, we had high standards when we booked a reservation for my husband’s birthday, on March 13. What a let down that was!

The Hostess was welcoming and seated me immediately, and my husband joined 10 minutes later, due to parking issues at our hotel. When the server arrived, I ordered drinks and an appetizer for our table. It took 25 minutes for us to get drinks, then I had to ask another server for a straw, because our server dropped drinks and walked away immediately before i could even ask. The server ignored us the whole night, not really sure what her problem was. She never asked if we needed anything, wanted a drink refill/another drink, if we were celebrating anything, or even check to see if our food was ok, nothing at all! The sushi was disappointing! It wasn’t the fresh flavorful sushi we normally get in Lafayette. Honestly, it tasted like it had been sitting in a refrigerator for a while. If We wanted grocery store tasting sushi, we could have saved ourselves a lot of money and went to Rouses. Needless to say we left most of it on the plate, which we never do with good sushi. Asking for dessert was a huge inconvenience for her. We initially wanted the chocolate tsunami, only to find out it’s been discontinued. We settled for the bread pudding, which was another mistake. It was old, cold and dry. The sauce they put on top was cold and still crystallized. It had to be the worst dessert we ever tried to eat! After waiting another 30 minutes after our horrible dessert,that we didn’t eat, we were finally able to get our check and leave. This location ruined my husband’s birthday dinner and our date night! I would NEVER recommend this location and had this been my 1st experience with Tsunami, I would never...

Miso soup and seaweed salad were both excellent, would definitely order both again. Seaweed salad has a glass noodles texture and is a little sweet.

Black and gold roll got great reviews and I wasn't disappointed. Not normally a baked roll kinda guy, but I'm glad I made an exception. NO style flavor profile, with a little kick. Sweet to balance and a large portion. Would order again.

Tuan roll was good but paled in comparison to the black and gold roll. The roll pieces are very large, and they were tasty, but I would probably try another fresh roll before coming back to this one.

Father Calais was excellent. Deep fried roll with Philly cheese is the highlight with some chili sauce as kick. Good choice for the heavy roll, would order again.

Big tuna. Big to the point of being hard to eat. Great flavor but a little unwieldy. Would pick a different fresh roll next time.

Munchy roll: basically a philly roll with Doritos crumbs sprinkled on the outside. I enjoyed it as a philly roll but he Doritos didn't really add anything aside from novelty. Would just order the philly roll next time and save $2. Maybe have them add some cucumber for crunch.

Cajun roll wasn't my favorite, but GF liked the crunchy gator. I wouldn't order that again either.

The lava roll is close to the black and gold (minus crunchies and a little smaller portion). Not a bad choice, would order again.

Green monster was ordered and got good marks from the gf, I'm allergic so I'll have to take her word for it.

Fried rice is very pepper heavy. Ordered as a filler without meat. It did have lots of fresh veggies, but the pepper overpowered anything else that might have been in it. Might be better with a protein, but I would just get something else at that point.

Atmosphere is quieter casual, the room has an industrial modern look, they use real candles, large parties could dine here, the service was good. The prices are reasonable for sushi and they have a happy hour that seems like a good deal too. We...