Samurai — Restaurant in Tucson

I'm back in Tucson and on the hunt for another Sushi place since the disappointment of Shogun Sushi. We were on the way to a different Sushi place on Oracle, and my wife saw the signage for Samurai; a quick look at the google maps reviews and we thought we'd give it a try and pulled in to strip mall. At first glance as you enter, it resembles any other walk in restaurant, not really authentic or particularly themed with wooden benches and fast-food restaurant tables. But....the smell emanating from the kitchen was incredible. We sat down and had a look at the menu, and from wanting sushi, we quickly changed our choices. I decided on the "spicey ramen" noodle bowl and my wife went for the "volcano tuna don" bowls. As I was up at the order point I saw the sign for "pumpkin karokke", we didn't actually know what that was, but my wife was intent on tasting it. I was really glad we ordered it. What came out was generous portions of freshly fried sliced pumpkin covered in a beautiful thin batter. The pumpkin was soft and sweet and the batter was thin and crispy. Just visiting Samurai for this starter alone is definitely worth it. My ramen was fantastic with the right amount of spiciness to it, but my wife's volcano tuna don was even more beautifully presented. The flavour and texture of the food bowl was perfect. We've paid a lot more for this dish elsewhere and it didn't taste half as good. Compliments to the chef !! Samurai is definitely worth a visit, don't be put off by the decor, you're there for the food, and I'm sure you'll go back again and again. I noticed a lot of repeat customers coming in, known personally to the lady taking the orders, and that is a good sign of consistently...

I've driven past Samurai for years and decided to finally give it a shot given the reviews on Google and as much as I hate to say it I cannot recommend this restaurant to anyone. Samurai's website does a really good job of portraying a nice well kept restaurant that serves beautifully crafted sushi rolls and various other Asian dishes, the reality however is that Samurai is a small hole in the wall with limited seating and looks like it could use a really good deep cleaning. Samurai's staff was very friendly and helpful and I loved interacting with them but the food and atmosphere leave a lot to be desired. I ordered a spicy salmon Don, a Mexican roll, a deep fried Las Vegas, a catapillar roll, a plate of salmon sashimi, an order of chicken yakisoba and, some miso soups. I initially felt ok with the $112 price tag until the food arrived, I was surprised to see so many paper plates and couldn't believe how small the rolls were or how poorly cut the sashimi was with bits of skin still on the fish; the yakisoba had no flavor and the miso soup is clearly just an instant packet. There are so many amazing sushi restaurants in Tucson that I can comfortably say you should pass on Samurai and spend your money elsewhere for a quality good tasting well...

This very unassuming Japanese restaurant is not fancy. It's a bit quirky on the inside and tight booth style seating. There's a full menu on the wall for you to look at as well as pictures of multiple dishes so you get an idea of what you might be getting if you're unfamiliar with that Japanese food you may want. The woman that took our order was very friendly and helpful. The kitchen looks pretty small but again the restaurant space is pretty small as well.

We ordered Tan Tan ramen, spicy tuna-don volcano style, a California roll, and gyoza. The Tan Tan ramen was pretty good, better than I expected it would be, as it's hard to find this ramen in Tucson that comes anywhere close to the flavor in Japan. The spicy tuna-don volcano style was pretty good as well according to my wife as was the California roll. I think the gyoza was not as good as it could have been but was okay.

As far as the location goes, if you're not using some type of a map you may have a hard time finding it as it's tucked away in the back of a strip mall that is mostly out of business and right next to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu place. There's plenty of parking since most of the strip mall it's located...