Sushi Fresh

And time for a third review to follow up. This restaurant is a great example of learning and improving. Over the years it got better and better and now when I head back to Camarillo (finally moved away from cost-​prohibitive SoCal) I always have to go here. The best fancy rolls in town, great service, and a fun atmosphere! I suggest this spot to everyone I know!

Being loyal fans of Masa Sushi for nearly 10 years, we didn’t think this would measure up and we were pleasantly surprised. Excellent service, really unusual rolls, and very fresh fish, all coupled with a good pricepoint! My new favorite sushi place — after Masa.

Hey Guys,
I’m used to going to this place only for Sushi and I haven’t really had a bad experience prior until now.
I tried their $ 12.50 dinner combination. I got the Mexican roll and the Teryaki beef as my entre choices. The beef was dry, tough and didn’t even really have a teryaki flavor. It wasn’t really even warm when I was served so after trying it, I sent it back. 15 minutes later, they pretty much served me the exact same thing but a little on the warmer side and definitely more on the rarer side. I don’t think they get a lot of beef orders so maybe they just aren’t really prepared for those.
I’ll still keep giving their sushi a try but its still not the best I’ve had.
The secret Camarillo joint for good and personal Sushi, Mongolian BBQ (yeah I know it sounds weird).
–Josh

I think most of the reviews here have Sushi Fresh as having average, to a little below average Sushi as far as taste, freshness, and quality goes, which is about right for all of the different cuts of sushi I experienced at this place. Nothing really stands out as being good, but the fish isn’t terrible either.
I had some BBQ Beef Ribs during my AYCE session which were surprisingly good, but other than that the meal was just so-​so.
I had a Sashimi Salad which had way too much lettuce and other greens and not enough fish. A Sashimi Salad at most places is probably 75−85% fish (sometimes 100% fish) and the rest greens, this however was the reverse. I also tasted something pungent in the greens, like it had been sitting out in old, mildewy water. I immediately spit that piece out.
Even after all that, I think I would stop here for Sushi, but not AYCE, if I just needed a fix for fish and didn’t care too much about the quality. However…
The service is very poor, and they DO purposely pace your sushi if you are doing the AYCE deal. I went there mid-​afternoon and there were only 2 tables seated at the restaurant with only a few people at the sushi bar, and service was slow. We were waiting 10−15mins in between plates and ended up having to be there for 2 hours because of how slow the food was coming out.
We also had a rude waitress who was crossing things off our order because she felt we were ordering too much! We had ordered 3 different variations of dynamite rolls and she said «You’ve never been here, right? These are big rolls, you can’t finish this!» and she crossed off 2 of the 3 rolls.
I understand that these businesses need to protect themselves from the crazies that are ordering everything on the menu, but I felt our order was very much in reason for a party of four. If the waitress really wanted to «manage the meal», there are less rude ways to do so than just blatantly crossing it off our menu.
I think I would have eaten here again if I was really craving sushi, but the poor experience from the waitress had completely turned me off to this place. Sushi Fresh will not be getting any more of my business.

I’m a little torn about this place. The first time I went I thought I enjoyed it a lot more than tonight. So I went with a few of my guy friends. We all go the all you can eat. Almost all of the nigiri came out first. The size of the fish was nice. Unfortunately the qualify of the fish was very inconsistent. The yellowtail that we got at the beginning of our meal was the color of the albacore and the yellowtail that we got at the end of our meal was much much better. Also the rice was oddly seasoned. It was missing the vinegar taste. It almost tasted like plain rice instead of sushi rice… I was VERY disappointed in the service. They would server us some food be it sushi or a roll or two and then we would end up waiting like 10 minutes for the next dish to come out. While we’re waiting we can see that the sushi chefs are laughing it up and watching the baseball game going on behind them… What the heck? Also, it was a little shady how we asked for some of our rolls, specifically the flower sushi roll and they kept telling us it was coming and 30 min later we still don’t have it and finally give up asking. Be sure to know what you ordered to make sure you get everything. umm… what else. The spicy tuna is VERY spicy, but has an odd texture, like it might have been chopped a little too finely. Lastly, I got the soft shell crab appetizer. I was amazed at how large it was *thumbs up*, but disappointed that it was cold. =\ Overall, the meal was satisfying as everyone left stuffed to the brim. This is probably one of the better ayce sushi places around Camarillo/​Thousand Oaks, but I am much more tempted to drive out to the valley for Midori ayce sushi. It is definitely better than fujiya, which is right across the street.
ps. they charge $ 2 for tea! ouch i would have stayed with water if i knew i was going to be paying $ 2 for warm tea.

yay for all you can eat sushi, my favorite place for all you can eat sushi. Thank goodness they pace you because we marked up the list all crazy.
Try their monkey brain, it’s like cooked tuna with other stuff, I forget, but it was pretty good.

This is one of those gems that you know towns have, but that you must wait patiently for the information on the place to materialize when its ready to be found.
And so the recommendation for Sushi Fresh came from some business people from Moorpark, and it turns out this little eatery is totally close to where I stay when visiting Camarillo. We heard it was in the Lewis area and drove round and round, totally ignoring some dead end ghost town strip mall. Turns out, that’s exactly where it is, just across the street from the post office.
Walking in there, it’s like harps are playing as you enter into another dimension and are transported from Camarillo strip mall hell into a fun, colorful little shop and all the smiling people behind the counter greet you enthusiastically.
For that, I’m already sold. I loves me a good inviting atmosphere. But then they have yummy rolls, and the Sin Sen Lunch Combination of 6 pieces nigiri and 1 california roll for about $ 8.50 and my wallet is happy, too. Pay $ 3 more and you can upgrade your California roll to a choice of others. I got the Crunch roll that had shrimp in it, coated with crunchie something and drizzled with a sweet sauce. Yum.
Tea is hot and green and nutty, water glasses are big and frosty and icy, the people there are really really nice, I couldn’t ask for much more.
But I did get more: the smoked eel nigiri was the best I’ve ever had. I’m normally not that crazy about it and usually eat it first (to get it over with) or last (maybe I’ll be too full to eat it by then), but theirs was delicious.
I do wish the rice was a little more seasoned. It seemed, well, totally unseasoned to me. And I did look under the fish in my nigiri and there was no little pat of wasabi, which I like, too. So perhaps it was a little bland to me, although that was very easy to rectify by adding more wasabi myself. Perhaps that’s how they want it, letting the customer decide what additional flavor to add. But I do know the wasabi could have been twice as strong, or I needed twice as much.

Running low on new lunch places to check out in Camarillo (it is, by the way, a small city), I ended up at Sushi Fresh right across from the post office and right nearby the new frozen yogurt joint Rockin’ Berry. I wasn’t expecting too much, and in return, got what I expected.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s nice and quaint and it has your regular lunchtime customers and lunchtime deals and it’s definitely a decent enough place to add to your lunchtime rotations. With that said, it’s not going to blow your mind.
I tend to be a stickler when it comes to seasoned sushi rice, and it’s gotta be seasoned just to the right amount to make a harmonious junction with the piece of fish that rests on it. Here at Sushi Fresh, it seemed like they just skipped the entire step and offered plain white rice beneath «kinda fresh» fish. It’ll make do in a lunch combination, but as a feature item, it needs some improvement.
With this lunch combo that I ordered, I got miso soup (nothing special), a salad that I didn’t touch at all, one fried gyoza piece and one vegetable egg roll. Also included was my other item, tonkatsu, and a well-​portioned portion of steamed rice garnished with black and white sesame seeds. Honestly, that mound of rice was more flavorful than their sushi rice.
This place isn’t bad, and for $ 7.50, a lunch combo is sort of a nice deal. I just hope they fix their sushi rice and actually make it taste like SOMETHING rather than NOTHING.