Sushi Miyazawa — Restaurant in Worcester

Because of the pandemic, small restaurants are going through a very hard time. With inflation, groceries are getting expensive and it's the same for dining out. It has been awhile since I visited a decent sushi place, so I decided to take a visit here to celebrate my family member's new job.

As the only Japanese-owned sushi-ya in Worcester, its authenticity is guaranteed. There are limited seats (even less than before the pandemic started), so you want to avoid peak time or make reservations ahead to avoid waiting.

Unfortunately, ramen and lunch menu are discontinued as the restaurant only opens for dinner now. Sushi rolls (Americanized/modern sushi) are served here just like other sushi restaurants but omakase sushi set and kaizen chirashi are pretty good here. People can bring alcoholic drinks (BYOA) if they want. Next time I will bring some warmed sake to pair with my dishes.

The only slight problem is that the shop is changed to serve more Americanized dishes and fewer authentic Japanese dishes. I loved when it felt like I was in Japan last time I visited (you know it's an authentic Japanese restaurant when there are Japanese customers). I wanted to eat uni but it wasn't available at the time of my visit. Next time I will call and ask as I often get cravings for certain fish (such as uni and hotate).

The atmosphere is not so great because everyone sits close to each other. I had to listen to a loud middle aged woman's personal story as she was sitting right next to me. I could hardly hear what my family member was saying. I recommend this place for the top quality dishes, but this place is not really where you can bring a guest or date to take time and have...

Been there twice, not impressed by either the food or environment. I don't understand why the reviews are overwhelmingly good.

Food: Sushi is subpar for the price and here's why: salmon and tuna are OK, but their texture is on the feeble side, in other words, not super fresh. Besides, the chef applied too much wasabi in the nigiri which made my tongue numb as many times as the number of nigiris ordered. No tempura! But this is understandable b/c there's only one chef.

Service: 1st time the waitress was wonderful, explains every type of their sushi wonderfully. 2nd time, a different waitress who was indifferent about us or what we order. However, both times it took super long for the sushi to be prepared(30 mins).

Environment: I usually don't care too much about a restaurant's environment but it's like a warehouse. For their price tag and marketing I was hoping for a little more than what I saw since I might be bringing a date or client. Also, the bench along the wall is too short for the table which makes dining a little uncomfortable.

So all in all, there are definitely better options for Japanese food. You can either get similar quality sushi for better prices or much better food quality and more options, Oga's for example. I would probably not visiting again. Still, I'm curious why all other reviews...

I went here with my family for my sister and mom’s birthday and we are SO happy we came here. We came for the 95$ omakase (chef’s tasting course). It was incredible. Chef Tsukuda has been in the food industry for a long time and it shows in his food. You can tell he takes pride in his work. He would tell us where each fish was sourced from, and the quality of all the ingredients was undeniable. He gets his fish super fresh, even some shipped all the way from Japan. We savored every minute of it! We were talking about it for the rest of the day because it was so delicious. Everything was amazing! The service was awesome - both Chef Tsukuda and the hostess were so gracious. We got lucky that the restaurant wasn’t too busy during our meal so it was nice and quiet. The omakase is honestly a steal for what you get - if you went to NYC for this it would easily be 500$. If you have a special occasion to celebrate, I cannot recommend this enough. It was perfect!! Everything was so good! We are all so happy we came here!

I’ll update the post with photos once I upload them...