Tsukiji AYCE Sushi & Hibachi — Restaurant in Sacramento

So the place is under new management and i think it is now called Harumi. My sister and I went today on a Saturday for the Lunch Ayce. We were surprised that lunch ayce is no longer offered on a saturday but only dinner ayce which is $40 per head including tax. My sister was so hungry that she said we are already here so might as well but I was kind of hesitant. At this point we still did not realize it is under new management. We ordered our usual firsts - the fried items. The shirm tempura is heavily battered and the shirmp was so tiny you can hardly taste it. The tempura sauce was extra sweet to our liking. The calamari was the same, heavily battered and tasted like frozen boxed food. The gyoza were fine. I ordered the tuna tataki. They do not look like tuna tataki. They were super thinly sliced I felt like eating tuna flake douched in ponzu sauce, it was terrible. We ordered 2 rolls, the dynamite and lady pink. The amount of rice was a lot in their rolls, overpowered everything. It was painful to finish. Their hand roll did not look like any handroll I have had before! Too much rice! It also looked like a taco. The seafood ramen has one crab cake. This used to have a lot of seafood in it. The unagi(eel)sashimi was fully cooked and had a lot of bones, was super dry and thinly sliced. Normally this was not dry and was just smoked.. The short ribs was fatty and overly sweet. The food were heavy and overly sweet far from the old menu were it was lighter and the portions were smaller but that was the beauty of it because you get to eat different items without getting full quickly. I think the new managemnet trick is to get you full quickly so you can get out of the door early. We never felt loke this with the old menu. The servers were promt but we were given our bill without asking for it so felt like we were rushed and we were there for less than 60 minutes. By the way they have a max of 90 minutes dining time rule. They had fruit/lettuce bar which was okay. We did not bother to try the ice cream. I did not take any photos because my mind was occupied with disappointments. We asked one of the servers if the restaurant is under new management and he said yes and so the menu is new. He asked if it is better from the old menu and we were honest to tell him it was not and were disappointed. He apologized. We are not definitely coming back to this...

Update from 6/30/24

Pictures are from our first visit didn't bother taking new ones this time as the presentation was lacking.

Staff is friendly both times we came here so nothing negative there but I don't know if it was an off day but the food quality was not great. We ordered sashimi and it was just slapped in a pile on the plate and cuts of most of the fish was so thin it just didn't have the right texture for sashimi. We ordered fire nigiri and no matter how many time we asked if they could put a light sear on it so it is still raw they still arrived fully cooked all the way through. It felt like we were just eating grilled fish instead of lightly seared raw fish. It almost seems as though the fire fish was prepped elsewhere like the kitchen and the sushi chef just sears it with a torch after the fact to give it the seared tastes because even when they barely torched the fish it was fully cooked all the way through. I'm talling not a bit of raw left and the rice! The rice is just way to overwhelming it was huge above the average amount of rice other AYCE spots in Sac normally use. Unfortunately there's to many AYCE spots in Sac that this one is low on our list of sushi spots hit up for the price.

Original review

Been wanting to try this place out and it didn't disappoint. You won't find to much speciality items for sushi but their menu has a lot of choices and is pretty good for an ayce. Well worth it for the sashimi and fire nigiri. I did have to ask our server to see if the chefs could lightly torch the fire salmon as the first couple orders were pretty much cooked all the way through and seared nigiri has a much better texture with a light torch to draw the fish oils out but if they do it to much it burns off all that and taste more like fried fish.

Spicy salmon handroll reminds me of a sushi restaurant I use to go to in the early 2000's in the bay area so I ordered a few of those. BC roll salmon avocado and cucumber also a fave.

Their salmon and hamachi sashimi was good. Hamachi collar was good they cut it up though I'm use to it being left whole it makes it easier to separate the fish from the collar bone.

Would go there again if...

Came to watch a movie, decided to eat here for dinner. It was a great choice in the end, but I think we came when they were in a shift change as the service in the beginning was struggling a little. We had to wait awhile for someone to finally come sit us down. Our server, Helena, was a champ, though! She powered through 9 tables, including us, as best she could until the next shift arrived. The girl was taking orders, refilling cups, and cleaning tables nonstop. The kitchen staff was also amazing as our food consistently came out within 2-3 minutes of us ordering.

The food was pretty on point as well! The miso soup appetizer was a white miso variation which was nice and light and also served as a nice palate cleanser midway. The Salmon Fire Sushi was lightly torched to bring out the flavor of the salmon without drying it out. And the siu mai tempura! It just hit differently, especially with the tempura sauce! Mm, chef's kisses! The salmon sashimi was also very fresh, and the 10-piece version even came in the shape of a flower! Very pretty! The Red Tuna Fire Sushi was also pretty good, which was torched at just the right level to bring out the fatty goodness of the tuna. I think my rice underneath got a little too much torching, though. The Yellowtail Fire Sushi didn't sit as well for me as I think mine was slightly too torched. It was a little dry towards the end. However, the salmon teriyaki was bomb as it had just that perfect ratio of flavor and sauce! Mm~! 🤌🏻 The beef sirloin was also very nicely flavored, it left a good impression on me. What surprised me the most was the seafood ramen! The soup was actually pretty light and it tasted pretty good! The Beef Fried Rice wasn't too heavily seasoned but it was at the right consistency to ensure one wouldn't get tired of eating it midway. The tomago sushi was also pretty balanced on the sweet versus savory as well! Overall, while it still falls short compared to my favorite spot for sushi, as an AYCE sushi and hibachi spot, I definitely would come back again! Just, maybe not when they're doing a...