Kay Sushi — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Excellent.

Me and my gf have been looking for a Japanese place that serves good tempura. I think we found one here at Kay Sushi.

Veggie tempura here is what we Japanese would call "kakiage" - veggies cut in Julienne style and expertly fried in Tempura batter. What we had was crispy, airy, and light. It is very easy to mess this dish up (heck, you would never see veggie tempura done this way anywhere else in Phoenix to my knowledge), but kudos to their kitchen staff doing it right.

Cucumber sunomono had a nice touch of originality - lighter on vinegar instead a bit sweeter, and had a slice of lemon and white sesame seeds liberally sprinkled on top. It had a few layers of flavor with nice texture. My gf was very pleased.

Their version of veggie rolls has no rice - instead, had five-six different ingredients (plus for detailed work done by Sushi Chef - tiny bit of grilled onion was toasty and sweet, complemented crunchy burdock pickle). It was like a very thought-out salad dish put together with skills. We loved it.

I also had a spicy salmon roll. I liked that their salmon was finely chopped and tossed with spicy roes, rather than being ground up and mixed with spicy sauce like million other places do. I know a few other places do spicy rolls their way. I enjoyed the texture of the salmon, and I could confidently say that was well-treated and fresh.

All the while, our server was attentive and kept us going on drinks without us having to nurse an empty glass.

We left full with nice buzz going - all for some 50 bucks. A must go for happy hour.

We will come back :) ...

This restaurant is all over the place with a menu that includes indian samosas, thai soup, korean bbq, and other oddities that aren't generally found in a sushi restaurant. I can't tell you what to order because most of the sushi rolls were just fine but none jumped out as anything I ever had to eat again. What I can tell you what to avoid. The soft shell crab roll was burnt and absolutely disgusting. Skip the garlic chili edamame (they drown them in oil and seasoning) and get the regular ones. Also pass on the veggie tempura which looked and tasted like they made a ball out of shredded salad mix and deep fried it. Service was not particularly attentive so it was a long wait between drink refills and they tried to clear plates that still had sushi on them to make room on the table. They also ran out of Miso soup and forgot to tell us until we asked where it was but they still put it on our bill. The other thing we noticed on our bill was an automatic 20% gratuity which was definitely not warranted but why provide service if you are...

After reading previous reviews I was excited to try this restaurant. However, today's lunch was less than inspiring. I ordered vegetable tempura, and the menu indicated it was julienned, so I had no idea what to expect. Basically the vegetables are shredded, coated in tempura batter, and then shaped into discs/patties. The result was more batter, less of the vegetable. If you are looking for traditional tempura of thinly sliced vegetables, this is not it.

I ordered the nigiri lunch special which provides 7 pieces. The pieces were small with thin pieces of fish. And the sushi rice was formed too loosely. When I dipped the nigiri in soy sauce, the rice disintegrated into individual grains. The sushi restaurant I usually go to puts thicker cuts of fish on nigiri.

The service was very good, as noted by other reviewers. Everyone was friendly and food came out quickly.

So all in all, an adequate meal. Just not as good as I had hoped...