Samurai Grill & Sushi Bar

Ate there last weekend, it definitely didn’t meet expectations. Food was average but priced very high. The waitress came by about 3 times in over an hour. It wasn’t her fault but she was completely swamped. They need to hire more people! The inside is tacky and cheap. Will not be back.

Disrespectful cook. I asked for smaller portions & the cook gleefully loaded my plate with portions that 3 people couldn’t eat. He made a big joke about finding a place for my meat (normal portion since it was an expensive protein) but piled on the rice, veggies and other sides. He even flipped the onion tower onto my plate & the pieces slid off the tower of food onto the counter. I wish I had the nerve to dump my plate back onto the grill. We were there with friends to celebrate our son’s birthday and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone. I threw all 5 pounds of doggie bag away since no one wanted to eat it. Never, ever again. Well, if I have to go again I will reportion my plate back onto the grill. The manager just nodded her head & laughed & nodded, clearly not understanding that I was upset over the cook’s behavior. She thought that the amount of food should have made me happy. My husband visited the bathroom 3 X, luckily I escaped since I ate so little.

We’ve been to quite a few hibachi places. This is the first one I’ve been to in Albuquerque. The décor is pretty cool. My son loved the bridge and fish pond. There were also quite a few cooking stations so it looks like it can handle a large crowd.
The chef was pretty good. He was able to accommodate my wife’s dietary needs (no dairy or eggs) and the steak was cooked as requested. He put on a good show for the kids.
The waitress was also very nice and was able to cater our food with our children (ice cubes for the hot soup, Styrofoam cups to prevent spilling, etc).
My wife did complain the chicken was a little fatty but she absolutely hates any fat on her meat at all.
I’d recommend this place and would definitely come back.

I love sushi and have tried nearly every sushi place in abq. This place definately ranks near the top. They dont have a large selection of rolls or any special rolls, but the sushi they have is done very well. Its extremely fresh and each roll is unique and flavorful.
They dont skimp on the wasabi and ginger either, which is a complaint i have with most of the sushi places around town.
Their grilled items are also very good.
Very reasonable prices as well.

I came here just for the sushi, so my review is based on that experience. The waitstaff was very helpful and friendly, the plum wine was excellent, but the sushi was very disappointing. I got a chirashi bowl (typically rice, sashimi, and a few raw veggies) and it was not very good. They put a huge handful of salad greens over the rice instead of the usual daikon, cucumber, etc., which was not specified on the menu. The sashimi was cut into weird cubes instead of the classic cut and didn’t taste that great. Also, it came with a «spicy sauce» that was really just spicy korean barbecue sauce with a bunch of sesame oil dumped on top. I am not impressed and will not be back.

My husband and I consider ourselves connoisseurs of sushi. This was our second time at Samurai for sushi.
We sat at the sushi bar for dinner. Our server was right there with menus and a smile. We ordered drinks and went right to the amazing two page sushi menu. My husband and I got two rolls and two pieces of sushi. The sushi chef got our order from us and made our food right before our eyes! It was beautiful to see his talent in action. We got our food, which was beautifully presented, and were checked on by both our server and the sushi chef.
Our food was fresh, beautiful, and delicious.
We split the tip between our server and sushi chef, since our server got our drinks, and the sushi chef got our order and gave us our food.

I would definitely recommend this place to my friends. It was my second time going to Samurai restaurant. Me and my boyfriend ordered a roll (love triangle), sushi dinner 9pc with california roll and a Chirashi bowl. The roll was decent sized, the ingredients were fresh and the roll was very very tasty. Sushi dinner was awesome as well. I’m not a big fan of california roll so i just took that one to go but the nigiri pieces were big and fresh. We had a little issue with our chirashi but our friendly server was able to help us with our issue promptly. Service was amazing, sushi was good, I would definitely go back to this place and would recommend this place to my friends.

This place is starting to show its age. Dirty brass, nasty tile and smelly carpet. Time to invest in the business. Food was OK. The rice for the sushi was very dry and tasted old. Seaweed salad was slimy as I do believe it is bought and not made. Must have been two years since we were there and I remember it being so much better. Can not comment on the Grill side as we were not there. Sushi bar only. Guess I should have got my buzz on first with some Sake Bombs!

Horrible service! I cannot even leave a food review because our party was never served! We got seated and it took about 10 mins to get our drinks served. Then 30 mins for our soup and salad. We sat there another 20 mins waiting. At that point we decided to leave. We spoke with I am assuming is the assistant manager and told him, «we are leaving». Then he responded «Yeah, whatever.» After that the manager approached us and said «Why are you leaving?» Are you kidding me? The place was not at peak hours, nor busy. First and last time. Simply ridiculous.

I will never go back! Food was terrible!!!
First, I tried the scallops in which the big pieces were raw and the little pieces were burnt, all unevenly cooked with a strong fishy odor. I wanted to spit it out but didn’t. The shrimps were tart overcooked and slightly fishy… Finally, I tried the lobster. the back of the butterflied smashed lobster tail was brown but the inside of it still had this jello like jiggly texture to it. Once I tasted it, I wanted to throw up. This was the worst tasting lobster I have ever had. I didn’t eat any of my food.
IN fact, it was so bad that the other guests also complained. Five of us didn’t eat it. Two from the table decided to have it boxed, but they had chicken and didn’t want to stay any longer… The three that stayed had their order remade by a more experienced chef versus the very new rookie chef we had.
I told the nice manager that it smelled fishy and tasted terrible. She apologized and handed me a check for 57. 90 (for the two of us), after a generous, 20 percent off from 71.90 for any inconvenience. My friend and I Left FULL plates at the grill! I was shocked and told her I couldn’t eat any of the food and and was afraid to try more.
This was by far the worst performance I have ever seen. I should say lack of. There was no flying shrimp into hat or rice made like beating heart. There was zero entertainment just stress!!. It was nothing but a very stressful event that I felt obligated to sign up for Unilocal so I can post a review for the first time. I heard this place was once a lot better but a new owner took place. Next time, I will have ramen noodles

Everything about this place is awesome! Kinda pricey but hey, treat yourself and your family from time to time! We decided for a quiet night, so we sat in the sushi bar for some sushi, well to our surprise– it was even more amazing!!! I’m not a big seafood person, so I tried the New Mexican roll-​omg! Sooooo good (look at my pic) but wait after a few Kirin beers, we got oranges soaked in plum wine – yummmm! I want to eat here everyday :-) lol

first visit was to the sushi bar.
– 3 star
good fish, good chef, good service.
second visit was to the grill.
– 1 star
chef was in training, good food, bad service. will not be returning to the grill.

This place is so good! I always get the sushi. It’s fresh and amazing. It’s presented beautifully as well. They also carry my favorite plum wine. The sushi was pretty reasonably priced. The eel is delectable and so tender. The tuna is also one of my favorites there. Their seaweed salad is good, but it’s not fresh. It’s pre-​packaged, but they do tell you that on the menu (which is considerate).
My fiancé always does the grill, which is entertaining. It’s always fun to watch them make the food and do the tricks. It’s always cooked and seasoned well.
The staff is nice and friendly. I have never had a problem with their service– even if my food got delayed during a busy time, they have always been good at being attentive and making sure I am still okay.
Since they cook at the tables, it can be a little loud during busy times, but that is part of what makes it fun.

It’s so goooooood omg it’s so gooooood if you have not bin got to come try it out and if you have bin come on back

Sushi/​sashimi was good, teppan was good… service was TERRIBLE. Our server was outright rude and kept «forgetting» to bring us drinks when we ordered them. A friend of mine organized the dinner and when making the reservation had it noted that it was my birthday. It seems that everyone else in the restaurant received special treatment for their birthdays except me (which I am sort of thankful for since it is usually pretty embarrassing). We had a table of 4 people, so it’s not like it was a difficult time to serve us either. It was laughable how rude our server was though… so that was interesting. It just seemed to add insult to injury that they conveniently «forgot» it was my birthday and we received awful service on top of that. The food was good, so I would return but I would definitely move tables if I saw this gal was our server again.

Entire experience was amazing. The chef at the teppan grill was very engaging and entertaining. The food was perfectly cooked and they have sake bombs and tempura ice cream to people with birthdays. Great experience!

One of the best restaurants I ever been to. Japanese food in New Mexico! Pretty awesome. Good food, great service, and awesome price. I will definitely come back again.

If you come here I would recomend going with getting a table with a teppan chef that will cook you steak, seafood or chicken at your table. I always get the steak and shrimp. Kids get a kick out of the show the chef puts on flipping his cooking tools and adding fire to the show. Comes with rice and salad.

The sushi and sashimi are awesome! The fish portions are generous and the fish is fresh and melts like butter in your mouth. It’s beautifully presented and artfully prepared by the chefs. Definitely recommend it!

I’ve had off and on success with Samurai since they opened, my most recent trip was last week and we decided to do the Teppan Grill. I had the Filet Mignon, the better half had chicken and shrimp. We also got an order of California rolls which I asked for no sesame seed but instead smelt roe (masago) the waiter had no idea what I was talking about and had to clarify multiple times to make sure I was getting what I wanted which isn’t necessarily bad but I’d think working at a sushi restaurant you’d know something about sushi.
A few years back they switched up their Miso soup recipe and I’m not at all a fan of the new one… it doesn’t have the bean paste so far as I can tell and seems to be more a water broth with some mushrooms in it.
The California roll was however very tasty but was $ 7.95 which is quite expensive for a California roll, in fact it’s the most I’ve ever paid for one and had I known the price I would have passed.
Our Teppan chef was quite boring, when I go for Teppan I go for a show, I want the corny jokes and the flying spatulas. The steak was great (19.95 for a good cut of steak and a plate overflowing with food is pretty cheap compared to a lot of other places I’ve eaten), the chicken was chicken, and the shrimp was a bit chewy but not excessively so. The noodles were fantastic and if you usually get fried rice maybe you should switch it up a bit, I’d never had them before but did enjoy them quite a bit.
Overall I still like this place even if it is hit or miss, but honestly it’s not going to be at the top of my list for «hey lets go to XYZ tonight!»