Tsuruya Sushi

I really love this restaurant. However today I watched the sushi chef with the glasses blow his nose and continue preparing food without washing his hands. Other than that no complaints.

Location is rather difficult to get to and parking is rather limited. It appears to be in an island in the middle of the street. I really hate San Diego with the over crowding and one way streets and this location just added to my hatred to San Diego. The inside itself is very well lighted and decent seating arrangement. Prices are absolutely the best I’ve ever seen in California. The only reason why this review isn’t a five star is the ventilation is poor and it’s very hot in here will add on once the food has been consumed.

Being on such a busy street and in a crummy area, I was thinking this place wasn’t going to be that good. A friend dragged me in and told me to try it. I am sure glad they did. This place was really good.
We came in during some off hours so there weren’t a lot of people. They were able to sit a large group of us pretty quickly. Ordering was simple and the waitress was really nice. She joked around with us for a while but still got our food and drinks out to us fast.
I forgot what I ordered but between a friend and I, we shared 4 rolls. It was really good and the waitress even split our checks for us. Surprised by the location but will definitely be coming back.

I love this place. It was the first sushi place I went to after moving to San Diego, and I thought I’d found the city of sushi heaven. Relatively inexpensive, gigantic, fresh rolls and fresh nigiri.
I haven’t found another place that compares for a go-​to sushi spot– it’s definitely not the fanciest but for the price you can’t beat it. Their happy hour deals on rolls are crazy (3−6pm).

Well shockingly, this place was mine and my boyfriend’s back-​up plan after our first choice was closing for a lunchtime break. We are down here having a little vaycay couple get-​away for NYE & NY… didn’t want to bring in the NY at home. We LOVED it! The rolls we ordered were great. The service, our waitress {either it was Sue BC of the name on the receipt or Kim from all the other reviews}, was amazingly sweet and cute. She sold us on some delicious Sake, I believe it was unfiltered, and mixed with passion fruit as one of their flavors. She’s awesome. I would drive down here from LA just to eat only their sushi, BC that’s how good it is. Also the atmosphere was quite comfortable, with 90’s & current music playing… as well as TV shows.

This has become our regular sushi spot. We have an 8 month old and every time we come the waitresses are so helpful and attentive. The rolls are great and we enjoy the specials they have each time, just wish this place was closer to our home.

Super bummed at how my family was treated last night by Kim. My husband and I come here at least once a week. My son and his girlfriend are visiting for the holidays and we were excited to bring them here since it’s hard to get good sushi when you’re stationed in Missouri.
We all ordered Sapporos and then realized that my sons gf forgot her purse and ID back at our home. So she asked for a water instead. No big deal. Kim brought three beers to us, leaned against the empty table next to us and told us that if my sons gf took one sip of anyone’s beer she would take the beer away from us, charge us full price and kick us out. Ummm really? You’ve got to be kidding me.
When I asked her why she was being rude, she said she wasn’t and that they have had a problem with underage drinking. Ya, not my problem. She told us that she was required to tell us. Really? Management is requiring that you treat your customers like criminals? There are so many great sushi places in San Diego. This one is just close to our home. Because of the way that we were treated by Kim, we will drive to another one.
Shame on you for treating your customers so poorly.

Came here with a friend and it was nice cause it was walking distance from the hotel. The waitress asked what type of drink we liked right away. I ordered a bunch of ginger and she didn’t have an issue with it. I ordered two rolls and filled me up. I had the «hot lips» and I forgot the other one but it was amazing. I asked if they could add the crunch on top and it was $ 1 extra but they hooked it up. Service was excellent. I would come back for sure. The place is really nice.

Not sure how this place is getting 4 stars. Went here last night, and although I would give the sushi chefs and the servers 5 stars for their pleasant manner and attentiveness during this slow night, I would give their food 2 — 2.5 stars; not yucky, but no good flavors coming out of them either… aka «meh, I’ve experienced better».
We tried a hand roll, plus 3 rolls.
None of them were bad, but none of them were anything that I would ever order again. The main problem with the rolls is that they were «loaded» with imitation crab, which took away from the possibility of getting any other fish flavors. Also disappointing was that one of the rolls — The Sports Arena — came with a fair amount of spicy mayo on the top: the problem is they didn’t list mayo as coming on the Sports Arena, and we really dislike mayo. As this was our last item to arrive, rather than send it back we just scraped off as much mayo as we could.
I don’t see myself ever going here again, but given the excellent service I can’t given them a 2 star rating. I really wanted to like the place given the friendliness of the chefs, but alas it wasn’t for us.

I was just driving by during lunch time and I decided to stop. Best decision ever. So far the best Japanese restaurant I have been so far. Delicious, I am really impressed. Very cheap by the way I would say $ instead $$.

Came here last night for a much needed sushi dinner with my son and my boyfriend. We’ve been to this sushi spot many times before and each time we come here we always get a waiter or waitress that knows how to provide us with great customer service. The waitress that took our order last night did not need a notepad in hand, but instead she remembered each order on the spot and made sure we were comfortable where we were seated and she brought out our orders in a timely manner and that to me is a pretty awesome waitress .
I ordered the rainbow roll and philly roll. My boyfriend on the other hand ordered the playboy roll, hungry guy roll, and jalapeño poppers. We also added in two miso soups with a side of extra ginger to the order and for our drinks we ordered a Coke, lemonade, and apple juice. Each roll had a bite full of flavor and they are very generous with the amount of fish they put on top of each roll. I sadly did not remember to take a picture of the prices but they have a very good prices for their rolls especially the specialty rolls .
Overall, dinner was great we took home the rest that we couldn’t finish and finished the rest at home. I will be stopping by here again. Great place to go to for lunch or dinner and I recommend everyone and anyone to come by and check this place out.

Came in as a first time diner, leaving as a to-​be regular. Words cannot describe how fresh the sashimi was. The sushi chefs were busy, but still great company! We got the deluxe roll with extra eel. And a month special called Japanese Lasagna. The name is odd, but packed an explosion of flavor. Also got a chef special roll. (Dear, Tsuruya, please add that chef special to the menu. Thank you). Note, rolls are big. ask to have special roll cut into 10 pieces. But i wouldnt necessarily call that a bad thing. I will definitely come back again soon!

5 star for great value. The OkieDokie $ 7, enough to fill me up with a cup of miso $ 1. between 3−6pm, dine in only. Asian waitresses r so sweet and the chefs aren’t intimidating men like some places. Tvs play sport, plus they leave u alone to enjoy ur «tv dinner».

This is my second time but first review. The fish here is consistently high in quality and the service is nice and prompt.
I ordered the ‘Lobster Crunch’ roll — made with langostino, avo,.I asked them to add fresh salmon on top and cut the crunch. Langostino is sweet and I love the texture and would rather not have any interference by that crunchy distracting stuff.
Ok, LMAO; they just delivered a CEREAL bowl full of the crunch flakes next to my custom roll. Haaa!
YUMMOO…this roll is dang good! They only charge $ 3 bucks to add the salmon on top and it’s cut so that it curves all the way around the cut roll… liking that!
The wasabi is super fresh and peppery hot.
Would be perfect with a cold craft beer right about now!
Cheers!

The best thing about Tsuruya is the cost. They keep the sushi rolls at an incredibly cheap price for the value. The sushi is good. It’s not as authentic and quality as places like Sushi Ota or some in Convoy, but it definitely satisfies the sushi cravings!
It’s reliable and not questionable. It’s very tasty and they have a wide variety of creative rolls for you to choose from. Go during happy hour from 3−6pm to get 50% off your sushi roll.

This resturant is located across the street from a burger king. Their parking lot is very small so you might have to park across the street and walk over. They have really good happy hour specials!
Their California and Wow Wow rolls are good. They also have tastytempura with a lot of variety.
I usually get their lunch bentos. Some are good and some are bad. Their chicken katsu is good but their sesame chicken and bulgogi are not. The bulgogi is more like Gyudon (fatty meat) and the sesame chicken is really, really sweet (ask for sauce on side if you get it to go). Bentos come with rice, salad, tempura, 2 pcs Cali roll and miso soup all for around $ 9.50 after tax which is a pretty good deal.
Staff have been friendly for the most part when i’ve come in.

Absolutely love this place. If your new to SD there are 2 sushi places I would refer you to. This is one of them. Located in Point Loma. This place is very easy to find. It’s just off of the 8west freeway. Going to this place doesn’t seem much. But once you walk through the door. It has a huge space with Friendly welcomes by the host, chefs, waiters and waitresses. It’s has a modern atmosphere which I don’t mind. I prefer sitting at the sushi bar. No wait for a table unless you have a large group. Also watching the sushi chefs is an art work itself! We place in our orders. My boyfriend loves sushi/​seafood. For him to rave about this place is one for the books. We ordered:
Veggie Tempura Roll on Soy
Cucumber Avocado & Cream Cheese Roll on Soy
Tuna Roll
Uni
White Tuna Roll
Salmon Roll
Seaworld Roll
Crispy Salmon
Blue Fin Tina (Limited. I would call in to see if they have it).
Yes we indulge in our foods but if you love food why not! We got our food and it’s freshness is amazing! The sushi chef –Sean is very courteous. I’m allergic to seafood. So when he was preparing my rolls. He cleaned/​sanitize his station and utensils. Making sure there is no seafood on it. I never once feel so impress with this. Not many sushi place would take their time or either listen to you if you say you’re allergic. His service and the place itself has gotten me as a life time customer. If you’re ever near by try this place out!

Lunch date at «Tsuruya Sushi» today was awesome. From the moment we entered the restaurant our waitress KIM was fabulous. She greeted us, showed us to our table and provide incredible customer service. This was the best experience I have had here.
KIM was so polite, courtesy, friendly and helpful. She pointed out specials on the menu and made several recommendations.
One of which was to come back for the Happy Hour, Monday-​Friday 3−6pm.
Of all the wonderful customer service she provided the one most impressive thing she did was to not interrupt my husband and I when we were blessing our food. We had received our appetizers and was in the middle of blessing the meal when she had returned with our drinks. Instead of placing our drinks on the table she stood off to the side and waited until we were finish with our blessing. How cool is that?
Awesome job KIM!
The food of course was amazing as always.
The combo lunch special was light but filling: baked tuna, sashimi tuna, potstickers, a salad and rice.
I ordered a Lobster Crunch and Shrimp Tempura sushi rolls. The flavor was amazing.
The atmosphere was relaxing and comfortable a fabulous lunch date.

I have been coming here now frequently for lunch the last year or so. I have come to the conclusion this is one of the best sushi spots in town. I know food is open to interpretation and everyone has their tastes but personally the fish has always been fresh with the rolls here (I’ve eaten everything from their rainbow rolls, baked salmon rolls, Alaska rolls, Philly rolls, etc… look at my pics of the rolls I’ve tried). The staff here has always been friendly. The sushi chef appears to recognize me and what I’ve usually ordered. The hostess/​servers also appear to be up on recogizing regulars. They don’t have to do that but the fact they do shows they go that extra step. 5 stars.

3.5 stars
It happens every so often — I’ll be chatting with one of my colleagues at work, we get on the topic of sushi, and I’m instantly craving sushi for dinner. We always say we want to try different sushi restaurants, and this one has been on our radar for a while.
Though they were pretty busy when we arrived, we were shown to a table right away. A waiter came by to get our drink order (green tea for both of us), and then left us to peruse the menu.
We knew we were getting sushi, so we focused on that. I found one of the golf pencils on the table, but no sushi menu, or anything — other than the butcher paper on the table — to write on. So, write on the table I did. Hey — you’ve got to improvise sometimes, right?
The waiter came back to take our order, and we told him we’d be getting four rolls to share. He said, «Four rolls!» all loud like we had asked for one of everything on the menu, and let out a big laugh.
Now that I felt like a pig…
We ordered one each of Hot Lips (spicy scallop and cucumber inside, spicy tuna on top); Konami (spicy tuna and cucumber inside, salmon and avocado on top); Fuji (shrimp tempura, crab and avocado inside, yellowtail and avocado on top); and Lobster Crunch (langostino, avocado and cucumber inside, crunchies on top), then settled back to wait.
It took a long time for the sushi to come out to us. Granted, they were busy, but we waited for almost half an hour for the food to make it to our table. Once the rolls were delivered, I understood why: they bring everything out at once, instead of bringing it out as it’s ready. At any rate, the waiter came by with two plates, dropped them off and scurried away.
The rolls were decent, but only one of them really made me make the yummy noises (that would have been the Fuji roll). The others were well made and good, but again, nothing that knocked my socks off.
As we were making our way through the rolls, my tea cup sat there empty. Oh — and the tea? Celestial Seasonings tea bags. I don’t understand Japanese restaurants that provide *that kind* of green tea, but whatever. Anyway — the cup sat there empty while the waiter went back and forth to other tables around us. I spent about five minutes or so trying to wave him down to get more hot water in my cup.
I mean — it wasn’t terrible, but certainly not the best experience I’ve ever had. Their menu prices are probably the best thing about it all. The rolls are inexpensive, and they have some creative ones on offer. But will we go back? I honestly don’t know.