Sushi Friend — Restaurant in Phoenix

I chose this place due to the reviews. Instead of Sushi Friend it should be called Sushi Faux. We walked into the door and up to the kiosk to order our food. Not a friendly face from any of the staff. The prices are outrageous for the quality of the food, the atmosphere, and the chintzy presentation. When ordering from a kiosk they have the audacity to ask for a tip! You have to provide your phone number to get notified when your order is ready. The estimated time is a joke so if you dare take your chances eating here, be prepared to wait beyond the time they text you. The drink choices are dismal (one choice of beer, sake, tea, soda, and maybe something else) and they are in a tiny glass case. Everything in that place is small-scale. The rolls are the size of grocery store sushi and they are served on the same kind of tray-type container. The self-serve water glasses are tiny. There are no napkins, but you can tear off a paper towel by the self-serve station. Nope, I'm not kidding! The tables are approximately 24'' square and the stools are about the same in diameter. There is no way two people could each order combo plates, have drinks, and comfortably manage it on the small surface. Speaking of "tables", there are only 4, seating 2 peeps on hard, metal, backless stools, in the whole tiny place. I ordered one scallop roll a small salmon/avocado roll and a coke. My total with the suggested tip was $32. My sister's two rolls, tip, and self-serve water were $40. The bill is the only thing not tiny! Let me spare you this experience. Find a better sushi joint. Spend your hard-earned dollars somewhere else with people who appreciate you, serve you better food, and treat you like you matter. ...

My sister and I went there today right at opening, drawn in by all the reviews. No idea how they have so many high marks but prepare yourself for paying top dollar and a tip for bland, small rolls and zero service.

If you make your customer stand in line to order at a kiosk, like fast food, and have zero service, your prices should reflect that.

The estimate on the kiosk for two rolls was that it would be ready in 9 minutes. Over 30 minutes later we still hadn't gotten our order. Meanwhile there are 4 tiny metal tables with 2 metal stools at each to sit at and wait. There was self-serve water and plastic forks and chopsticks against the wall that we had to find for ourselves. And no napkins to be found. Instead they had a roll of paper towels! Seriously??

Then when the food did come out, it was served on flimsy plastic grocery store trays that grocery store sushi comes on. The rolls were thin and even though we each got a torched roll with our orders, we had to drown everything in soy sauce to have any flavor. I've had better looking and better tasting sushi out of a grocery store.

And even with lowering the tip manually to only only 15% (the kiosk defaults to 25%!!!) for them to actually not serve us in ANY way (you even get to buss your own table) the total for two rolls and no drink was nearly $40!!!

The three people behind the counter didn't engage in any way to help us figure out where to get what we needed and while they were working, they looked unhappy.

Do better or drop your prices to what's appropriate for what this is.

There are SO many sushi options in the Phoenix area that serve a better product and a better experience for the same money. We encourage you to spend your...

First off don't let the area disway you from eating here, the money saved from owing a upscale location is all put into the food. I've eaten sushi in Japan and California enough to know good sushi and bad. This was some of the best and though I try not to include this as a bias I think the fact that this is in the desert is all the more impressive.

I ordered the Toro plate and 3 specialty roles to share with my brother. Came out to 110$ just for the food so I could see price being a complaint but, for me the quality was well worth it. The rice was well cooked and seasoned, the fish was fresh and everything worked together in the 3 rolls we had. The toro was 60$ of the 110 and i would get when i come back so worth it. Bit on the small side but, thats to be expected. Always leaves me wanting more like a wagyu steak. After that another customer recommend the Ube creme brulee, which was a perfect end. It had that great crack from the hardened caramelized sugar layer, and the Ube was just the right amount of sweet and creamy.

The service was, well not really there they make sushi and they are damn good at it. Everyone works together like a well oiled machine and it's so cool seeing them make the rolls. No one was rude but, the servers do move with a purpose.

In the end well, worth the drive from Casa Grande...