AMI Japanese Restaurant

Reviews 5

JA

Jason Karuza

Summary: Great food, huge selection, solid quality, reasonable prices. Students get 15% off with Bruin Card. The happy hour menu looks amazing, though I havent partaken yet. Large beers are $4 each. Service gets worse the more crowded the place gets, so come at non-peak times for happy hour. Parking across the street. Will definitely come back again. I went here for the first time last night (Thursday) for happy hour and sushi with a buddy that had been a few times before. When we arrived at around 5:30, the place hadnt really filled up yet, though the happy hour prices were in effect. We got started with a couple of beers (large Japanese bottles for $4) while perusing the sushi menu. I noticed that the happy hour food menu had some amazing deals on some really cool looking fusion foods like tacos, burgers, etc. with an Asian twist. But those would have to wait for a second visit, for sushi was the goal of the evening. I let my friend make the selections while I provided some feedback about personal preferences. He pointed out some interesting items on the menu and a sign posted on the wall for a "Name Your Own Roll" challenge. You get to build a giant roll (way bigger than a Chipotle burrito) for $38 and if you eat it all in a certain amount of time its free and they give you a certificate with the name of the roll on it. Interesting concept. Another day. Spicy Tuna roll - Despite this being a pretty standard roll, and one I consider a filler, it was actually a little enjoyable than the standard spicy tuna. Maybe it was the quantity of tuna, the use of cucumber, the quality of the ingredients...I cant say. But something about it stood out from other spicy tuna rolls. Spicy Albacore roll - Similar to the spicy tuna roll. Very tasty, and just a slightly different color. A solid roll to be sure. Heart Attack roll & Jalapeno Tempura Roll - I dont really remember which was which since they have similar ingredients in the description, but I remember that the one that came with the tempura slices of jalapeno on the side was particularly enjoyable. It had sweet sauce (eel sauce?) accompanying it, and was really tasty. The other one was good, but didnt stand out compared to the first one. Hungary roll - According to my friend, this roll was not as it usually is. I concurred that it had a particularly fishy taste, and though the quality was solid throughout, it slightly hampered the overall enjoyment. After a while, the restaurant got busier and busier. Proportionally, the service got poorer and poorer to the point where we were suddenly not being attended to at all, and had to ask for the check and ensure that we could depart. Based on many of the reviews, service seems to be the greatest problem here, something, I would think, that could easily be remedied if desired. That said, the food was still excellent and a bargain (especially with a Bruin card). Will definitely come back, but hopefully at the beginning of a happy hour so as to get good service.

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EL

Elizabeth Trejo

UPDATE: Ive been here so many times! The sushi is just too damn delicious. Since my last review Ive seen some consistent improvement. Some of the new waiters are very attentive, which I appreciate. That was my biggest complaint from my last two reviews. Im glad they took attention to this problem. My new favorite roll is the Fire Dragon Roll. It is so delicious!!! Please try. Also, I found out today that there is a secret menu??? Waaaaaaaa. I need to know more about this! ------- 3 star: Lawd do I wish I could give this place a 5 star, but I just cant find myself to do that with the service provided there. Ive been the duchess of this place for quite some time now but certainly not for the service. There have been plenty of times where I tell myself, "Lizz, you gotta stop coming here!." I get so irritated with some of the waitresses there. Some are great tho! Maybe I should stop tipping. Hhhmmmm. At least the ones with the bad service. Maybe theyll get the hint. Anyway, what keeps me coming here are the delicious rolls! I salivate every time I think of my favorite ones, which include the Baby Lobster Roll and the Ex-Girlfriend Roll. I pretty much get one or the other every visit. I recently tried their new Ex-boyfriend roll which is pretty tasty too. Ive tried several rolls (or stolen a piece from a friends plate) and I dont have any complaints at this point. I highly highly recommend the Ex-girlfriend roll if you are into fresh rolls. Of course, I cant have my rolls without their delish spicy mayo and ginger, with some water to drink or Sapporo. I do wish they would re-establish their student discount (oh yea, I still use my old student card for any perks I can get). It would make me go more than my once a week routine.

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ST

Steve Cha

I came here a few times back when I went to UCLA a couple years ago. Once for sushi bar and two times for lunch specials. For their lunch specials, I had their assorted tempura, beef teriyaki, and sashimi. And for dinner, it was straight-up a la carte sushi. Although its solid stuff, its definitely not one of the best sushi places. The quality of the fish is just okay good, not melt-in-your-mouth fresh like Urasawa or Sushi Gen. Their cooked foods are okay, although I wouldnt say its anything particularly outstanding. Its pretty obvious from this alone that Japanese people do not own this place. Yep, this place is Korean owned. As for the sushi, it was solid, although not anything spectacular once again. I had just about every fish that night. I do, however, give props to the sushi chef for hooking me up with a free order of halibut sashimi that night. Anyways, this restaurant is good to eat if youre in the neighborhood, but please do not drive out and look for it. Its not Nozawa material. If you want decent sushi in Westwood, head about one mile down south on Westwood Blvd to a place called SUSHI MASU

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ME

Melanie Huynh

I came here for dinner with 2 other people and we chose to do all-you-can-eat ($25 per person for dinner). The hostess tells us to head to upstairs to be seated. I thought it was a little strange that she didnt lead us our table. We were directed to a table in the corner and the only waitress working the upstairs portion gave us the all-you-can-eat menu. After making our choices, it took us a while to flag down the waitress even though the upstairs portion wasnt even busy. When our sushi came out, there was a disproportional amount of rice to fish. I understand that restaurants want us to get full off of rice so we eat less fish, but the amount of rice in the sushi was overkill. Uni is usually my favorite sushi, but Amis uni was so disappointing. It didnt taste fresh at all. The Baked Lobster Roll was disgusting. The "baked lobster" on top of the California rolls tasted like overcooked, tasteless, tiny shrimps. Everything else I had was just meh. I wish I just filled by stomach with sushi instead of their rolls.

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A

A Private User

I went to this restaurant on Saturday because my boyfriend saw the good comments for this restaurant. So we went, we were seated promptly and we were given menus. We ordered and a man brought our Miso soup. We asked for spoons. They told us that all the spoons were in the washing machine! They instructed us to sip the soup since they did not have any spoons in the restaurant for patrons! I was ticked off because they should have told us that they did not have spoons way before we asked two waitresses for spoons. So we were ticked off, so we asked them to wrap up our food to go. They wrapped everything up and when we got home to eat it, I saw that they didnt include any plastic cutlery in our bag( including a spoon!!!). I called them to complain and they told me that Japanese people dont use spoons and that is why they dont give them out. Needless, to say I wont be coming back to their establishment. They are liars and they obviously need some lessons in customer service!

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