Sushi Edomata — Restaurant in San Mateo

Update #2:

Now that Sushi Sam is closed and under new management, I thought I’d give an updated review on the new Sushi Edomata.

Just like Sushi Sam, the quality, pricing, and service is just as good as before! A couple changes are the location and ability to get a seat/reservation.

Location: Parking may be challenging in the area. My recommendation would be to park around the corner on El Camino since crossing the street is pretty hazardous. The restaurant itself is a much more modern take on Japanese design. They have private tables and many counter seats. Overall it’s a beautiful and comfortable atmosphere!

Seating: I wasn’t able to get a hold of the restaurant over the phone. I was told you have to keep calling until it rings. However, getting a reservation right now is easy on a weekday. Also, you can simply walk into the restaurant and put your name down. You will get a text/call once your table is ready. This is a great change from before where it was very difficult to get seating by walk-in!

All in all, I’m very happy that one of the best sushi restaurants in the Bay Area remains open and better than ever!

Update: We came back to Sushi Sam's after a year. There wasn't any outdoor dining, so make sure to come here early to get a seat. We got lucky last night and we're one of the last couples to get seated. The sashimi, maki, and nigiri were excellent as always. The freshness of the fish is one of the best in the bay. The service was friendly and efficient. Sushi Sam's is a must try if you're looking for the best sushi around!

Sushi Sam's is open for outdoor dining and it's fantastic! We were seated right away and the service was extremely quick. Even though they had many takeout orders, they had dedicated servers who were very friendly. The sushi of course was out of this world. Nothing compares to sushi in Tokyo, but Sushi Sam's blows other restaurants out of the water! It's sad that it's not as busy as it used to be, but more of a reason to support this...

It's always weird writing a subpar review for a restaurant that's highly rated. TLDR: Great Quality, $$-$$$, meh everything else.

Let's talk about that wait. You can save yourself the time by making reservations ahead of time or maybe chance it by going at an off-hour? But like most other people that visit Sushi Sam's, I decided to wait. And wait I did for 2.5 hours. It is what it is and I can't fault them for being popular but be warned, the wait is real.

If it makes you feel better, the line at the ice cream place next door is just as long and sushi is definitely more worth it.

Sushi. I thought their fish quality was great. You are getting excellent fish quality here but I felt this got lost in the pool of dressing they used for each fish. My favorite piece was the Uni hands down because they left it alone, perfectly undressed. That was an amazing piece of uni OMG. Aside from the uni, all the other fishes were overdressed. The toro tasted like lime and salt (I was so so sad because toro is my favorite), the salmon like lemon, blue shrimp also tasted like lime and salt, and one of them basically a pool of sesame oil. I couldn't taste the fish. It felt like I was getting dressing with a side of fish. IMO, Dash Sushi gives a better omakase experience for the same price point.

The wagyu didn't come with Omakase when I got it so I decided to get that. I get it, wagyu is $$$ but I didn't think this was worth it. The beef was supremely chewy in the worst way and it was not seasoned well at all.

I did get their dragon roll and spicy tuna handroll and they were both great.

Service. Not the most attentive but got to give them credit for quickness and efficiency. They hustle.

Overall, my expectations were too high and I ended up being disappointed. It wasn't a cheap meal and I felt like for the same price, I could have gone to a...

This place is always super busy, in part due to their reputation for excellent sushi. They are known for their Omakase sushi (I'll leave it up to you, chef) experience. Today we went to celebrate me getting a new job. We opted to try the Omakase Sushi, which is 8 pieces of chefs choice. It was excellent! Easily the best sushi experience I have had in the Bay area thus far. I don't remember what all 8 pieces were, but each was fresh and presented very well. They came out in 2 sets of 4. The Uni was the best I have ever had. My wife and I were a bit worried when we saw it on the plate since our past experiences with Uni have been less than impressive. In the past we must not have gotten fresh Uni, for this was creamy in texture and not rubbery, and almost melted in the mouth and the flavor was great. The fatty tuna was another favorite. We coupled the Omakase with seaweed salad and kaki agedashi (fried oyster with dashi sauce, which was explained as a tofu base. Kind of like a soup to me). Both apps were excellent. We rounded out with a Philly Roll, Negi Hama (Yellowtail, green onion), and rainbow roll. All 3 of those rolls were 6 pieces, and all excellent quality. The Rainbow Roll was large pieces of yellowtail, tuna, and salmon atop a California roll that had real crab salad.

It was a great meal and we would definitely return. This was our third attempt to eat here. The prior times were more peak hours and days of the week where the wait was over an hour for a table. Evidently Weds after 7 is a good time as we...