Tsubame Rotating Sushi — Restaurant in Vineyard

UPDATED FROM 2 to 4 STARS I came back today since my sister said she was going. They already fixed most of what I was concerned about in a day which is SO impressive. There’s sushi on the conveyor belt, they have a waitlist system and when my sister called they got her name to make sure they had a table for her. Such a better experience!

This review is based on opening day. The staff was so sweet. With more time and experience, this could have a lot of potential.

My husband and I got there at 6 and were told it was a 45 minute wait and were put on the waitlist. They did not put down our number to call/text us to notify us if they had a table open up sooner. We went back half an hour later and saw walk ins getting seated immediately while us and another group of two (who had called in an hour and a half prior) barely made it as they said they “luckily” had two tables left to seat us. Definitely wish they would’ve planned that better and prioritized the waitlist by texting or calling us. Despite this, the girl at the front was super sweet and handled the craziness really well. Kudos to her!

We sat down at 6:45. No sushi was on the conveyor belt due to how busy it was, so we had to order what we wanted. My husband had a work meeting at 8 and was hungry, so we were a bit disappointed with not actually being able to experience what the conveyor belt had to offer (my photo shows how the empty conveyor looked the entire hour plus that we were there). I ordered a single nigiri plate that didn’t come until 7:15— 30 minutes later. Then the sushi my husband ordered came 15 minutes after for a total of 45 minutes of waiting. He luckily was able to Zoom into his meeting.

The food was good but nothing to write home about. A bit pricey for what it is. The best thing was the Oreo tempura mochi - it only comes with one mochi ball that’s pretty small. The okonomiyaki had nice flavor but wasn’t the best I’ve had. Sushi was good - my husband liked the wagyu and I got what I believe was a garlic ponzu roll. The rolls do come with 4-5 pieces of sushi as opposed to the 2 pieces I’ve gotten at other conveyor belt restaurants which I think is where the price comes from. I’d prefer smaller portions and lower prices so you can try more options.

Another review mentioned the plate pricing was incorrect but it seems like they will fix it (see photos for the aburi cheese salmon). The servers have to manually count the plates and I saw it taking quite a while for the table across from us. Other conveyor belt places I’ve been to had a machine that counted it which I think could be a good investment.

Not the best experience, but I genuinely hope this place does well. We will be back one more time to test it out in another month when it’s hopefully not as crazy and we can actually experience what a conveyor belt is like in Utah County. Having a better waitlist system instead of writing down our names would be a great idea. The servers counting the plates manually is rough when there’s a lot of plates and a lot of customers. With more time, I think this will be a great...

Giving this place a solid 4! Here are all my family's thoughts on the experience. My husband is allergic to shrimp and not really into seafood in general. My younger son is picky and my older son will try anything. I like cooked seafood but will eat things with a smaller amount of raw fish in it.

Atmosphere: 5 stars!! The place is bustling with tons of signs of popular Japanese shops. I've visited Tokyo and other than the American pop music, it definitely had the busy, exciting feel of eating in the city. They even had a gashapon machine up front! However, it was in Japanese and there were no instructions on how to use it/what coins you can use with it. The kids LOVED the conveyor belt and "bullet train" that brings the food you ordered from the app. The belt was always full and running pretty fast so you had to make quick decisions! I'm so glad they had descriptions for each of the plates on the belt so you could make more informed choices.

Service: 5 stars!! Prompt, friendly and thorough service from our nice server Emily. She covered all the bases, kept our waters full, and did her best to answer any questions. When we talked about a dish we didn't like as much, she got us a free dessert plate!

Dessert: 5 stars!! Beautiful presentation, delicious flavors and unique things to try. We tried the cookie butter (Biscoff) Taiyaki and ice cream, the oreo mochi, strawberry mochi, and tempura banana sundae. The last one was our favorite but they were all charming and tasty!

Food: 4 Stars. So they are definitely going for the more authentic Japanese sushi with a lot of things involving raw fish. I had a couple of the raw salmon on rice nigiri and the salmon tasted very fresh which was good for Utah! My husband struggled to find dishes that would suit his non-seafood-liking tastes. There was a wagyu nigiri but it was rubbery and inedible which is why our server treated us to a free dessert. He ordered 3 of the spam and egg sushi plates and says that the seaweed was chewy. I really liked the tempura shrimp and wagyu sushi that was deep fried and covered in yummy sauces as it had the most flavor. Most of the other sushi plates I tried were kind of boring. Most of the plates have 2-4 pieces on them and we ended up getting a huge stack to get full which ended up costing about $20 a person so it's definitely going to be on the pricier side. Our family of 4 paid $105. That's with two free desserts and two that we paid for, all four of us got water to drink. You will pay about the same amount at Umami on the other end of the complex and get more flavor out of it in general. All in all you are paying for a truly unique experience here in Utah Valley and a little mental trip to Japan so definitely...

I am always excited to enjoy any location that specializes in sushi, so when I heard of a relatively new location that had a conveyor belt that rolls sushi out for people to grab, I grew excited. As a Mother's Day/ Christmas/ Birthday treat, I treated my mother out to a visit here, and needless to say, I was satisfied with just about everything here.

The sushi here is amazing, and even with two items I ordered that I didn't find myself loving, they were solid pieces and put together nicely, and I can see others loving them. They really go above and beyond to make sure each roll and each dish are as satisfying and filling as possible. They do also have a house roll named after their business, and I can safely say it's one of the best rolls they have here. I HIGHLY recommend getting it and trying it out.

The service is amazing, as with how small the restaurant is, it's easy to get a staff members attention in the off chance the easy-to-use tools and tablets they have here aren't working properly. Speaking of the building, he interior design is amazing and does such a good job giving a good Japanese dine-in experience. In all honesty, the only real complaint I have is that it would be pretty nice to see on the tablets a list of things we have already ordered, as it can help for both budgeting and remembering which rolls and items we've already asked for instead of having to resort to browsing the menu to figure out which one we got (quick context: the items you order don't all come at once; they arrive as they're made and plated).

Now with all of this said, you'd think this would be a nice small place to have a nice quiet time with someone significant, yes? Well, while that can absolutely work, I found that with the design of the conveyor, it's actually a much better idea to come eat here during busier times (like a nice summer Friday evening), as the more people there are, the more rolls will be presented on the conveyor for grabs. Sure one can always order the rolls they want from the menu, but I think the experience is greatly amplified if you take advantage of this cute design choice, sort of giving a buffet kind of feel to the place without actually being a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet.

Overall, Tsubame is an amazing place and I cannot wait to rotate my friends and family in and out of this place in the future. As a general lover of sushi and seafood in general, this place is high on my list of places to...