Sumo Japanese Steak House

This might have been the most tasteless food I have ever had. When you go to a buffet you expect bland food. NOT a sit down restaurant.
Atmosphere–
Love the decorating. Little pond inside. Wood. much like the garden in Karate Kid.
Staff–
Kind of short with us. Not overly rude but just didn’t seem to care.
Food–
So disappointing. So bland. Was really sad because this place is near my house and I was hoping I would find a new go to place. With all the options in the area like Stix I haven’t been back. Don’t need to.

Took our daughter and niece to dinner tonight. After having our order taken and served lukewarm soup and blah salad, we had to wait almost 45 minutes to have a chef at the hibachi grill to cook our meal. With a 2.5 year old waiting to eat, this was unacceptable. Very, very disappointed in this dining experience, especially considering the price. Could have/​should have gone to Highlands for the opposite service experience but same price. Lesson learned and won’t be forgotten. Bad service is unacceptable. Period.

Always a good time at a Hibachi grill, especially for birthday celebrations. Service was swift and the cook was very entertaining.

My husband and I come here regularly for the hibachi grill. We always choose the share option and find that it has always been enough for the both of us. Nice big portions.
The only downside is that you don’t get to choose your chef, so the taste is always different. The fried rice might be too salty or too bland, just depends on the chef.
The indonesian chef is pretty good. His fried rice was delish, veggies were seasoned well and salmon was cooked right.
Would recommend coming here, but like I said could be hit or miss.

The hibachi grill is amazing. Need to come back weekly :)

We came to Sumo for dinner before a movie. There wasn’t much of a crowd and we were seated right away. The best part of our entire experience was the guy who cooked our food. He was very pleasant and funny. The negatives about Sumo was the food. The noodles were Alfredo noodles, which confused me. The rice, noodles, and vegetables were burnt and left an unpleasant after taste. The steak was not very well seasoned; however, the shrimp was decent. I will never come back here.

A friend and I went here for sushi, so we obviously sat at the sushi bar. Our waitress was not that great, but the other waitress in the section seemed to be helpful. The food was rather good, our sushi was made very quickly (perhaps too quickly considering the appetizer came after the sushi), but normally if you have a complaint about sushi its that it is too slow. But it was tasty and quick. The edamame was decent and the beef tataki was good (though perhaps a bit too thickly sliced for my preference).
My problem comes with 1) our pretty unhelpful waitress, and more annoyingly 2) the hostess station. Please, please, PLEASE invest in a pager system or some other method other than having the entire crowd of people waiting in a very small space while the hostess yells out party names written in pencil on on a piece of paper. Not only does it force you to sit near the hostess while waiting and thus be in a very crowded and cramped small uncomfortable space with limited seating (which can be a big pain on weekends) but when sitting at the sushi bar, all you hear is SMITH PARTY OF 2 SMITH PARTY OF 2 over and over and over. Its unpleasant and I will have no desire to return to Sumo as long as this constant yelling takes place.

Quick service very good food and entertaining! We also had the sushi which was very good and our grandchildren went and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I had a very good lunch today, and I thought I would share information (and a photo) about my nice Maki combination.
The sushi combination #2 on the lunch menu consists of a Tuna roll, California roll, and Crunchy Shrimp roll. All three rolls were excellent. The rice was cooked perfectly and the ingredients were fresh and flavorful. The Tuna roll was my favorite of the three. It had nice slices of fresh ahi tuna that were bright and firm. The Crunchy Shrimp roll contained tempura shrimp and the light batter was a good complement. The California roll was rolled well. It contained cucumber, avocado, crab, and fresh orange roe. The wasabi had a uniquely spicy and horseradish-​y flavor, and the pickled ginger was crisp and tasty. Everything was expertly prepared and precisely presented on a white plate.
Sumo’s has a fairly extensive lunch menu on the sushi side. In addition to three sushi combinations, there is a variety of soup choices and bento box options.

Some of the best sushi we have found in the Birmingham area. We used to go at least once a week when we lived there and go back every trip when visiting. The spicy Yaki Udon is incredible too!

We arrived about 3:00PM on Saturday and the place was fairly empty. We were seated immediately. The service was okay but not stellar. Although not problematic, it took a little longer than expected to get water, get to order, to get food, get refills, etc.
I ordered the sushi delux platter, which was okay but not stellar, once again. It seemed like the tuna wasn’t quite as fresh as I would have liked. Like most sushi, it was overpriced.
The child with us got the steak dinner, which was huge and quite a good deal. The cook came in and did a fantastic show of cooking. He was quite a conversationalist and funny. Very good experience with the cook.
I think this place is overpriced.

Despite other reviews, I had a great experience! We ate at the grill for dinner. The service was excellent, food was delicious! I couldn’t eat it all so I had it for lunch the next day! Will go back.

My wife and I «dined» there tonight. We were immediately seated. Our waitress Nika (?) took our drink order and our sushi menu. No problem there. I always order filet, shrimp, and scallops at any Japanese restaurant that I go to. If it is not on the menu, it is a small upcharge. I asked our waitress about the upcharge and she said she would ask. 10 minutes later she asks for our order. I AGAIN ask her about the upcharge and she vanishes again. She appears after some time and says that it would be a $ 1 upcharge from the standard steak. No problem. Sushi was delivered. Average to slightly below average quality. Table chef was very good although they skimp on the fried rice. He cooked well and engaged the other diners. Now for the check. It was brought out. She overcharged us for the meals and charged us for an extra beverage. We called her attention to it and she hurried off. At this point everyone else at the table has left. Another group is seated at an adjacent table. We ask that waiter to check on our waitress. Several minutes later they send a front-​house worker to us to explain that our waitress was new and that the upcharge would be $ 2 per person and they COULD NOT change that. Really? She gives us the bill. The extra beverage is still on there. We brought it to her attention. She hurries off. 15 minutes more elapse. Finally, a female manager comes to us. She gives us the check, apologizes again, and says that they CANNOT change the upcharge. They are adamant about a total of $ 2. Ridiculous! We just took it out of the gratuity. We will NOT be going to Sumo again. There are FAR better places not too far away. Go here if you wish to spend your money on bad service and lots of excuses.

Good food but very noisy. Hard to have a conversation here over dinner.

Sushi was decent, but it certainly won’t set the world on fire. The salmon’s color was a little off, but at least the hilariously shaped clam provided entertainment for us.
I used to eat here a lot before I moved, and it’s always been a solid place. It’s not the best in town (Ichiban gladly fills that role), but it certainly gets the job done. The only thing is that the number of people here celebrating birthdays borders on the absurd. I’m happy for them, but when your meal is interrupted for the 7^th time by a drum line of hispanic/​asian men, you want to stab someone with a chopstick.

Ate on the hibachi side for New Years Eve. I ordered lobster and shrimp and my wife ordered filet and lobster with an order of sushi to start. The maguro was ok, but the eel tasted like it had been frozen. The «crab» was terrible (bad imitation crab should probably be listed as such).
My wife ordered her steak medium rare and it was served medium well. Both of our lobsters were overcooked by a few minutes (as we were watching it happen). Not surprisingly, the lobster was was too tough and somehow had gristle added to it from the grill. Both my wife and I had shell in our lobster meat that I actually had to spit out.

Pretty good! I had stopped going to Sumo years ago and I don’t remember why. Went today for a company luncheon and the Food was very tasty. I had the Hibachi grilled salmon. It wasn’t fancy. Cafeteria style plastic cups? Plastic water pitcher? And the Ginger salad dressing was gloppy. But other than that, the food was very tasty. I especially liked the Teriyaki Sauce on the salmon and the seeds. Service was brisk, efficient, and friendly enough for a casual lunch. I would go back. Especially for the price.

We chose sushi for my birthday dinner. Well we sat on the sushi side where you could see the men slicing and dicing. Décor was a little dissapointing for what i expected a nice sushi steak house to have but just more casual i suppose. I was a little overdressed but thankfully the business men kept me from being too out of place lol!
My husband ordered fried rice with meat and made the mistake of puting some awful sauce on it that ruined his whole dish but he tried to suffer through. Still wasn’t worth as much as they charged, but he agreed it was good before the sauce :)
I ordered the spicy tuna roll and the eel roll. Basic rolls and they tasted about equivalent to Publix sushi. Not overly impressed with the rice preparation on the seaweed but I didn’t get sick. Our waitress was busy and never filled up our waters and I had ordered a side salad that I never got, then when i was still hungry and didn’t want to wait to order more sushi I told her to go ahead and bring it. The salad was a salad dressing soup with a splash of watered lettuce and they charged like 3 or 4 dollars for it! Dressing was the typical hibachi ginger dressing and was good, but not as a soup! I think we just went on an off day, but I don’t really care to ever go back. I guess it satisfied my sushi crave although I’ve been to a lot of places that have way better specials and prices.

Wide sushi selection, friendly staff a little expensive but high quality and

So I found myself in Birmingham AL on a Friday night on the way to the Alabama LSU game. Most of the restaurants I came across were chains and had at least an hour wait, Sumo had immediate availability so I was a little concerned, but being hungry I figured I would give it a shot.
I sat on the hibachi side so I could enjoy dinner AND A SHOW, the reality of the experience is that it was like all of the other Japanese steak houses out there, same corny jokes and decent portions of food that doesn’t really leave any type of lasting impression at $ 22 a plate.
Would I go back? Probably not because again– it’s Birmingham and I have no reason to go there.