Oishi Sushi & Izakaya — Restaurant in Norwalk

It was a busy night but understandable during these COVID times. It was my first time here and I'm very impressed. We good l for seated right away for a Friday night, arrived around 6:30pm.

There wasn't a big sushi menu but the ones we ordered was really good. I'm used to marking with a pencil on a traditional menu for which sushi/sashimi to order. The server was amazing to take in all our orders correct to the T.

My boyfriend and I ordered the spicy edamame as an appetizer. We also ordered the seared salmon belly, yellow tail, salmon, tuna, toro, scallop and mackerel sushi. We added a CT roll as well. Verdict? Everything tattooed fresh and melts in your mouth so good! Top quality fish.

On top of that, the wonderful server gave us fresh wasabi. I haven't had that since I've lived in California over a year ago! Thank you for being the only Japanese sushi establishment in the area for offering that.

Our wait for the sushi was about 40 minutes. Our server warned us about a busy night so we ended up ordering hot sake to help us with the wait :).

This is a place we'll come back again for our date night. Yes, it's a wait for food (a lot of to go others for just 3 sushi chefs) but I'm telling you it's worth a wait so be patient!

*Photo is missing the empty space of salmon sashimi we devoured before I remembered to...

I always focus on reviews to find great places to go and expect some sour posts which I usually discount - however this time I should have listened.

Some things are spot on - the service is really good with friendly staff - the ambience/decor is nice and perfect for a Izakaya.

The Chinese food on the menu was good e.g. pork buns.

The sushi rolls and miso soup were just ok.

The real disappointing aspect was the sushi - just seemed off. But that is very subjective. The nail in the coffin was the salmon sashimi had bones in it. Not just mine but my son’s as well. Not just one piece but three or four pieces.

So why does this kick this down to 2 stars? For any sushi restaurant the whole basis is how you prepare the raw fish. This is the first time in my memory that I have had this experience and I eat sushi world wide at least once a week - including that from supermarkets.

So sorry Oishi but you need to step up your food prep as this was so very disappointing especially given the other reviews. Kudos on the service but the food is the key requisite for a restaurant.

If you are looking for great Sushi I suggest one town over Pink Sumo and for Japanese Izakaya I suggest, again one town...

We placed a close to $400 order days in advance for a party and upon pick up they had no recollection of the order. I asked the front host to atleast ask the kitchen and he refused saying he takes all the orders. After calling around the area to see if maybe I made a mistake of where I ordered and found that I didn’t, I called back again and asked he do some further digging. He called the manager and nothing. We triple checked and called again and they spoke to someone else and said oh we canceled the order and no one notified us. They ended up fulfilling the order and delivering it which is their only saving grace. The food was late and they were wasted our time driving out there. The front staff could have been more invested rather than just dismissing me. It’s a large order and the day of the gathering.

The quality of the food itself was good. If it wasn’t for my sister just wanting the food, I would have not given them my service: what kind of place cancels a large order without notice. Customer service makes a big difference in where I...