Azuma Japanese Cuisine

Cozy… This place has been here a long time… long before the oriental culture inundated the area Azuma was making very good consistent Japanese food. The portions are a good size, soup is really good and standard teriyaki and katsu very good. White meat! I recommend. The environment is cozy and represents the culture in décor and atmosphere with classic Japanese style. I absolutely recommend. Selected choice custom sushi rolls as well.

Don’t be swayed by people that leave 2 stars for the sushi when they didn’t even have any sushi or sashimi. It amazes me how many «foodies» don’t know food and rate places low because the place next door had a better «americanized» bullshit roll. Your fuk’d already if you think rolls are Japanese and that’s how you base a restaurant on. Just like I think egg foo young is Chinese. No, this isn’t a 5 star Japanese restaurant. I can name only 1 in the bay area that deserves 5 stars due to the consistent fresh fish. On the other hand this isn’t a place that deserves 2 or 3 stars either. I’ve had almost everything on the menu and I’ve been eating sushi and Japanese food longer than most of these un-​well traveled, un-​experienced «foodie» kids have been alive. It’s good. Like I said, if your idea of sushi is some bullshit american made roll you have a lot to learn about food.

Oh Azuma. I hadn’t heard of this restaurant before as I don’t venture into the Stevens Creek area too often. The décor is lovely, with half the restaurant sporting wicker table and chairs and the other half with cushioned booths and wooden tables. I can see why other reviewers have mentioned that this is a nice place for business luncheons or catchup sessions; the ambiance is serene yet not too casual. Service was very kind and accommodating, which was on par with the environment.
Unfortunately the food here, especially the sushi, was beyond disappointing. I think the kitchen items are somewhat not bad, but for the price point and quality (and with so many Japanese restaurants in the South Bay), Azuma just falls short.
Agedashi tofu and sauce:
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The presentation for this dish was cute, with the little mini-​carafe holding the sauce on the side. Unfortunately the Agedashi tofu, while not bad in flavor, didn’t have a crisp at all on the outside from being fried. The sauce further made the whole thing rather soggy, and while I appreciated the freshness of the adornments, especially the crispily shredded green onion, it wasn’t enough to make me love the dish.
Lobster Roll:
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I forget the exact price for this roll, but I believe it was somewhere around $ 15, which was a severely dissonant amount to charge for what this roll actually was. I couldn’t taste any lobster in this roll whatsoever, the five pieces were sliced extremely thin and laid flat on their side, which was such a peculiar way to present a roll. The sauce drizzled on top was sticky and baked (?) to a tacky texture, and it didn’t lend too much of a taste outside of making the pieces rather heavy with creaminess.
Oyster (mushroom) porridge:
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This was my favorite dish of the meal, and I was intrigued by the interesting combination of oyster mushroom, egg, and rice in porridge form. There were other vegetables thrown in as well, but the flavor was light and palatable without being bland. The portion was also generous for the price, and this may be the only alluring dish that Azuma offers which may make me want to come back for a second visit.
Lunch bento box with saba shioyaki:
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The saba itself was nicely grilled, especially with the crispy skin. The other elements of the bento box were not memorable, although the tempura was overly oily and the batter was strangely elastic in texture.
It’s possible that I may have ordered the wrong things on this visit, especially with regards to the sushi roll, but the fare makes me wary of returning.

Many dishes aren’t as great as they used to be. –1
Service can be lackluster, unless you are constantly flagging people down. Also, is it not etiquette for the server to offer to box your food? Rather than just dropping off the boxes? Especially in this ambiance. How rude –1
Great Ambiance. Has Sushi bar, tables and the Japanese style seating where you take your shoes off and smell people’s feet +1
Great Lunch Deals for the discerning eye +1
I failed Math +/=1
San Jose Sharks +1
Nashville Predators –1

We got there and got seated pretty quick on a Saturday night. Ordered an appetizer and dinner. I had the chicken teriyaki, dragon roll, and lion king. The portions were large. The chicken teriyaki was good, but the rolls were missing something as I don’t typically submerge them in shoyu. Service was good and helpful.

I’ve been here a few times now and although the food doesn’t taste bad, my most distinct memories of this place are the stomach aches that creep up on me an hour later. However, the last time I went, I left with a stomach ache from being hungry.
Let me explain what happened with my last «meal» here.
I wanted a soup so I ordered the Dobin Mushi, a House Special. The server told me it was a soup bowl with seafood and assorted vegetables, which is also what the menu told me. It sounded perfect and reasonably-​priced.
For $ 9.95, I received a small teapot with literally nothing but broth and one tiny piece of some kind of meat floating in there. No vegetables. No seafood. No joke.
Either stick with something basic like miso soup or rice, or don’t come here and risk a stomach ache.

Fresh fish, friendly staff, cute place! Rainbow roll is awesome!

My favorite local Japanese restaurant! They have a great menu of sushi and donburi, and the restaurant itself is so well decorated. It has a very Japanese-​y atmosphere, not too loud or crowded, and you can sit at a western style table or the Japanese style table on the tatami mats, which is super fun if you’re in the mood :) last time I went I ordered the natto maki rolls and the chirashi donburi (sashimi) and it was some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had!

I really want to love this place like I used to but unfortunately I can’t say that I do…
Growing up in Cupertino this was my favorite spot to go to for birthdays in my family. It was the closest «authentic» Japanese food experience we had around. A lot has changed since several years ago, and although the restaurant still looks the same and the quality of the food is not quite as amazing as I remember. This may because the original owners from when I used to go have changed.
The agedashi tofu used to be my favorite appetizer but it’s not the same anymore. The sauce you poor over is bland, and the tofu doesn’t quite have that texture that makes this dish so great.
As for the fish it is still decently fresh, the last time I went we had the sashimi omakase and for $ 23 for 16 pieces its a pretty good deal but the cuts are a bit too thick, and doesn’t have as much variety as I had hoped.
I’d say that in comparison to other «traditional» Japanese restaurants this place has become just mediocre as the flavors are not all there. The prices are reasonable but not cheap either.

The food here is good. They have a variety of sushi and entrees. My favorite is the agadashi tofu. This restaurant has gone from traditional Japanese food (with the original owners) to more main stream American Japanese food (new owners). If I had written this review a couple months ago I would have given this restaurant 4 stars but the last few times I have come here the service is terrible. If you are not in the waitresses section she clearly ignores you and gets the other waitress. I’ve been told by a waitress at this restaurant that they cannot help me because I was not seated in her section. If you eat here don’t let them seat you in the far right room of this restaurant, your waiter will leave you there and never come back.

This has been our «go-​to» Japanese place, given there are so many in this area. The prices are reasonable, the tables are many and easier to find one, there are tatami (American style) area for more authentic feeling.
We generally go for a Sashimi plate and they rarely disappointed. Sukiyaki (beef) was also a regular order.

Beautiful Japanese interior, delicious food, and great service made dining here a very relaxing experience. Their nabeyaki warms the stomach nicely and their sushi rolls come with generous portions of fish. The food can get pricey but it is worth it considering the quality of food and service. I will be coming back.

I’ve been coming here pretty consistently maybe once every 1 – 2 months for a few years now.
This place has gone over renovations and ownership within the past 2 years, so things have changed a bit. They used to have tatami mat booths, where you take off your shoes and sit on cushions at the table. That has now recently been removed, and the tables are now just regular tables. I’m a bit sad about that, since the whole taking-​off-​your-​shoes thing made the dining experience a bit more fun.
On to the food:
Appetizers: Hands down, this place has the BEST agadashi tofu ever. Like seriously, THE BEST. I have not been to another Japanese restaurant that comes close. Definitely get it if you like tofu. The beef tataki here is pretty good as well.
They have a wide variety of food here– skewers, sushi, udon, donburi, bento sets, the list goes on. One of the more popular orders with my family is their dinner set– you get to choose a main entrée (my family likes the grilled saba and teriyaki beef), and you get to choose a side to go with it. They usually like getting the sashimi, which I think you get 6 pieces of. Each set comes with rice, a salad, and miso soup. All that for ~$ 19, which is pretty good.
I have also gotten their chirashi bowl, which is beautifully presented. The sashimi is really good quality, tastes fresh, and they aren’t stingy with the slices like some other places are. The variety isn’t as much though– my bowl came with 3 tuna, 3 salmon, 3 yellowtail, 3 red snapper, 2 imitation crab (which I feel a bit ripped off, at least give me real crab?!) and 2 tamago. I wish there would be a bit more fish variety; I can do without the imitation crab. It is slightly less expensive than other chirashi bowls I’ve had before though.
I am also a mushroom lover, and often get their shimeji mushroom dish. It’s on the last page of their new menu, so it’s easy to miss. It is soooo good though over rice. The mushroom is cooked in this buttery broth, I’m pretty sure I can taste a bit of sake in there as well. But the broth is delicious, and flavors the mushroom perfectly. Definitely recommend if you’re a mushroom lover!
All in all, a solid dinner place. Service can be a bit slow when they’re busy. I only come here for dinner, and never had to wait.

I recently had lunch here after attending an Ikebana show at the local community center. The Bento lunch boxes are a great value $ 10.95 for miso soup, a small salad, and your choice of about 8 classic dishes like pork tonkatsu, tempura, chicken teriyaki, saba shioyaki, etc. This is the kind of Japanese food I grew up eating in San Francisco Japantown and I miss it. I can’t speak to the quality of the sushi since we all had Bento boxes but the tonkatsu was hot and crispy and came with real tonkatsu sauce, the tempura was a huge service and also hot (although did not have the superlight breading I look for) and the chicken teriyaki well seasoned.
The ambiance is really pleasant — 2 large fountains as soon as you walk in, large paper white floating lanterns, and tatmi mats for seat cushions. The service was a little rushed but efficient and there were regular water refills.
The lunch menu is a very good value and the food is good quality. I understand it is pricier at dinner, I wish I had looked at a dinner menu to check it out. But my lunch experience was great and my (elderly) lunch group was very pleased.

I have a great sentimental attachment to Azuma. I tried my first sake here years ago. I always loved the steak teriyaki and salad. The sushi is always fresh and beautifully served.
A few days ago, I decided to try something different. I had the Pork Donburi and it was a mistake. I will say this, there was a lot of it. I was expecting a hot crispy golden pork cutlet over rice and a glaze. It was served as a massive bowl of tan paste. Very mushy and remarkably unappealing. I only had a few bites. I think the servers are really nice but perhaps they should ask if there’s a problem. I will never ask for a replacement dish in a restaurant. I have never been served anything remotely like this but I won’t let it stop me from trying new things.
On the plus side, the udon soup and tempura were amazing. The sake served piping hot and the beer icy cold.

I visited Azuma for the first time yesterday to enjoy a nice dinner with some friends from high school. Overall, I thought the combination of the ambiance/​setting with the quality of the food made the experience quite enjoyable.
The first thing we noticed is how HUGE the menu is. They serve a wide variety of dishes that could definitely be confusing to those who aren’t familiar with Japanese food. On the back of the dinner menu contains a list of regional specialties which included some dishes that I had never heard of which surprised me. We ordered a number of dishes, trying out their salad, famous miso soup, and agedashi tofu to start. The salad was on par with other restaurants, but the miso stood out as noticeably more savory than others I’ve had before. The agedashi tofu comes with the bonito/​dashi stock separately so each person can customize how much soup/​sauce they want, which was interesting.
Afterwards, we had an item from the back of the menu, which consisted of a yam jelly marinated in a spicy bonito stock. While one of my friends found the texture too chewy, I really enjoyed this dish, and couldn’t even tell it used yam since there was no sweetness at all. In addition, we had the Stanford roll, shrimp tempura roll, unagi donburi, and a tuna/​salmon/​yellowtail sashimi plate. Overall, the rolls were on par with others I’ve had in the past, although they are quite large which is nice. The unagi donburi was tasty but was served with wasabi and ginger which was strange. Lastly, the sashimi platter was quite good, as you can tell the fish are fresh.
All the dishes were served within a reasonable amount of time, and the plating was quite pretty to look at. The pricing was what I would expect from a Japanese restaurant, especially if you come to eat and get full (kind of pricy). I would definitely come again just to meet up with friends and especially for a special event.

When I was a teenager we would come here for family dinners, since then it’s undergone significant remodeling and changed owners. Currently, the food is good and the staff friendly.
The tatami seating just got redone so you don’t have to take off your shoes. But there’s still one room that’s kinda hidden for larger parties (maybe you need to reserve this area?) where you need to take your shoes off.
Now for the food. I’ve been here a couple times recently, once I got the jungle roll– not that spicy to me and my friend got the chirashi– huge portion!
Today, I got the chicken sukiyaki. It was great, good balance of shoyu and sugar flavors! Others I was with got the soba salad– dipping sauce was a little salty– and chicken udon– the noodles were thinner than I’ve seen before. We also got the agedashi tofu and calamari tempura… both equally delicious!

The service was quite laggy because the only waitress who was servicing our area was old and forgetful. We had to ask for refills of our tea multiple times before she came back — and only at the end of the meal when we had already finished all of our food.
It is kind of pricey for dinner, but I think it is well worth the money. I ordered a dinner bento box which came with a side of miso soup and a light salad. For the entrees, I chose the chicken sukiyaki and the pork katsu. Maybe a little heavy on the sodium, but both were fantastic options and the portions were huge! My meal was definitely big enough to share with one other person. I was impressed with the pork katsu, which was really well done, and super crispy, just the way I like it!
My mom ordered the chicken donburi which was also really great. When I was younger, all I would order at Japanese restaurants were the donburis, and Azuma’s did not disappoint! As with my meal, soup and salad were included, and the serving size was also extremely generous. We ate our fill and still had a bit extra to pack home!
I wouldn’t mind coming back here the next time I’m home. (:

I came here for a reunion dinner with friends and family. We were greeted promptly by the friendly hostess. Really like the tatami seating here! Makes for an interesting experience!
We ordered the agedashi tofu, calamari combo. omakase dinner combo, lobster roll, and tonkatsu. The prices were reasonable and the portions were good. The fish was fresh and thick cut. The lobster roll was a winner as we had to extra since they went fast. Service was spot on and we got everything we asked for.
We were stuffed but decided to get the green tea ice cream. I loved that the green tea ice cream is super creamy. I don’t know where it comes from but I want to know! I prefer it over the Haagen Daz rip off. It’s not super icy like most places and melts like ice cream should. Thanks for a great dinner, Azuma! Definitely coming back here!

Great Japanese food!
We ordered the tofu appetizer, BBQ Roll, and Salmon and Beef Teriyaki dinner combo.
The tofu appetizer was lightly fried, and was a great starter since it wasn’t too heavy or filling. The BBQ roll was very good. The sushi was tightly wrapped, and the torched beef gave the sushi extra flavor. The miso from the dinner combo came out hot and tasted perfect. Both the beef and salmon teriyaki tasted great since they were not too heavy or salty.
Overall, it was a great meal. The staff is friendly and the restaurant is clean. The waiters could’ve been a little faster, but the food made up for it!