Samurai Blue Sushi & Sake Bar — Restaurant in Tampa

To be honest, mainly the reason for my 1 star review is regarding an incident which should not have occurred in the first place, but was left abandoned without resolution after serveral calls made and speaking to Lila (not sure if thats her name, but she usually works the night shift after 4pm to close) the closing manager which was rude to me during every single call.

I was charged an extra meal on my card and I noticed a few days later when I checked my bank statement, so I called the restaurant. I was then told to wait until the charge posted to resolve with a refund. When it finally posted and I was charged for BOTH, I called back and the manager told me I needed to send proof to her, so I did. I sent a screenshot of the charge to her personal email which she provided to me, which has her name and picture, and I believe is not a store email, and had me send it there. I sent and waited, with no response. I called back a week later after no response, to a very dismissive and rude manager telling me she hadn't seen my email yet and it needed to be send to merchant services. I asked if she had sent it, and she proceeded to continuously dodge my question saying I should call my bank and have them dispute the charge, and I qoute she said "at this point shes doing me a favor". After telling me she would fix it in the first place. When really, this should not have happened in the first place. Our waiter Brandon seemed nice but if he or someone else made a mistake when putting in my order and charged my card twice, the restaurant clearly made the mistake, and it should be fixed by the restaurant. I was charged extra for something I did not consume. Finally after another week and a half I called back and she said it had been sent to merchant services. My visit was about a month ago....and I haven't gotten any refund, only dealt with a rude manager. That makes me feel uncomfortable to even call to speak to her to ask about my money which is rightfully mine.

As far the restaurant and food, the place is nice and looks clean. You expect to be blown away when you enter, but the food could honestly be alot better. The food was overpriced and quite small and bland for what we expected and what we are used to. Our bill was nearly $70 for two rolls of sushi, a ginger salad and two rounds of $5 car bombs. (Not including the incorrect extra charge) The rolls are small and barley have any fish in them compared to other restaurants, the lack of fish and surplus of rice made them taste bland. Ive had much better sushi at Sushi Sake or even Publix!!! Neither I or anyone in my party were satisfied with our meals or the experience. But honestly, that's the least of any concern. I can deal with those things, not theft.

Beware if you choose to dine here and check your bank statements afterwards. If possible use cash. These people are not the most honest and will not be helpful with a resolution but be rude as if the mistake is yours & they're doing you a favor, and then they will steal your money. Or maybe its just the manager I dealt with thats this way (I don't know the owners). Unfortunately I'll never know, as I will not be going back.

My advice, don't take the gamble and use cash to protect yourself.

Or go somewhere else for better Sushi. The rolls were quite small, barely have any fish in them, and...

Bad Kitchen, Unprofessional Staff, Incompetent Management

The only thing good about this place is the sushi.

I went here for my birthday dinner a few months ago and I had a mixed bag of an experience. The reason why I am writing this review now is because I have revisited this place while attempting to pick up a delivery from this place.

Back when I ate at Samurai Blue I had an overall ok experience. The service was slow but that was because there was only one waiter working. The problem happened when our appetizer of dumplings was brought out. They were cold on the inside and after eating two we decided to send them back. After a 20 minute wait another order of dumplings was brought out and to our surprise, not only were they more cold than before, but they were all FROZEN on the inside. I brought up the concern with the waiter and he said that he had just taken them off as soon as they were on the counter. I then realized that the kitchen had not checked to see if the reordered dumplings were good and had just served them despite waiting 20 minutes for the new ones. The sushi we ordered was good but took a long time to get to us. When we got our check we were unpleasantly surprised to find that we were being charged for BOTH ORDERS OF DUMPLINGS. After asking the waiter they were promptly taken off.

My second experience won’t his restaurant was when I was doing deliveries for Uber Eats. I received a delivery for this place and was curious to see if things were better when I went to go pick up an order. Upon arriving I first noticed the good amount of staff working in the restaurant and had hope that it would be a good experience. It was in fact not to be as when I walked up to the counter I heard a waiter use a plethora of profanity at another staff member and then proceed to call a group of guests “bitches” in front of other staff and guests. I then turned my attention to the orders that were in waiting. After 20 minutes of not getting my order or even being acknowledged by any staff, I asked how long it would take to which the bartender (who I had just realized was in charge of the 10-12 online orders AND making all the drinks) how long it would be. He then listed all the orders that were being made and not even started. It wasn’t the fact that my order hadn’t been started that bothered me, but the fact that I watched incomplete orders that were either supposed to be hot or cold sit on a counter for a very long time not being completed. It was a this point I realized that despite being fully staffed, the restaurant was clearly in over its head and the staff were under immense stress because of it. If they were to limit or stop taking online orders the kitchen or sushi bar might be able to sustain a good pace for getting food out but at the moment their either isn’t enough staff or space to accommodate the volume Blue Samurai is attempting to take on.

Overall, this restaurant would be a nice lunch spot when there are not online orders or a dinner rush. Whatever is happening at Blue Samurai needs a...

I’ve visited twice but only ate here once. Our server the second time was absolutely horrible, quite possibly the most unkind waitress we’ve ever had. Took our drink order and disappeared for half an hour. Showed up with cold “hot” saki that had travelled several tables before it got to us. She took our order 45 minutes after we sat down and we told her we had a show to go to in 30 minutes and couldn’t wait any longer (we’d been sitting for close to an hour before receiving our food while other tables came and went). Our food arrived with her thumb in it and both of our entrees on one plate, to which she and the manager replied “did you ask for your food on separate plates”? That is completely bonkers to me. Which restaurant do you go to where you have to ask for two entrees of food on separate plates?! The manager replied by implying we should have ordered on separate sushi tickets which is nuts because we explained that these were two separate meals and WE WERE ONLY PROVIDED ONE ticket for our table.

Never received our appetizer which was just a bowl of miso. It must be hard to pour soup in a bowl and bring it to the table just like the saki. The tea tasted metallic as if the container was unclean.

Excuses. Claimed to be short staffed, but everyone else ate a full meal. We know because we saw them come and go. More excuses. No ownership of the problem or the waitress’ attitude. If you’re truly short staffed, don’t seat a table until you can serve them properly.

They tried to make us pay for the food on top of everything even though we didn’t take a single bite of anything. we will never return here again and we will actively warn people to avoid...