Musashino Sushi Dokoro

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

When first trying to locate Musashino, we were presented with a challenge... My boyfriend and I pull into the lot where google says this sushi place should be, but all we see is a sign with neon cursive sporting the title "Chinatown." It took us a while to figure out that Musashino was the lower level of the building--my only dig to the place is that they dont have a sign anywhere! That can add to the intrigue, as new Austinites like me have a hard time locating the place, otherwise it might be even more packed than it already is! I used to hate fish (HATE), and had to give sushi several chances before I took to liking it. My first visit to Musashino was on one of my boyfriends and my first dates. We walk in and the place is completely packed, and smaller than I thought it would be, but in an attempt to make a good impression on my new beau, I shrugged and smiled and asked the hostess for a buzzer and directions to the bar. Ah, THIS was Chinatown. You go up the stairs and to the right to a separate holding area (guess what? It was also packed!). However, while I waited I had my first taste of Japanese beer (Sapporo). Very tasty! After about 45 minutes and many gurgles from my awaiting belly, the buzzer went off and we were seated. The atmosphere is very good for a date--a little candle at your table, and low lighting, especially for dinner. Theres a bar for just sushi-lovers and singles who dont want to get caught eating alone. The sushi chefs are very friendly. They first present you with hot towels (which were much appreciated--I always have cold hands), and we ordered edamame. The portions werent huge, but they were certainly enough for two. We ordered 4 different rolls (Im a sushi girl now, so I really like to experiment with lots of different rolls). All of the fish was fresh, and the spicy rolls were not overly-spicy, which was nice (and you could add slices of jalapeno at your discretion). My boyfriend ordered some sashimi and exclaimed that it was melting in his mouth. It was big eye tuna. Very fresh! We also shared the hot sake, which I prefer to cold sake, but they only carry one type. Luckily its pretty good! When we had gorged ourselves on sushi, I snuck a peek at the bill--and its what you would expect. We got 8-10 pieces per plate and spend 12-14 dollars per roll. Depending on how much alcohol you drink, you can easily drop $80 there. We go back again and again because its just the most reasonable place with the best sushi--bottom line. I like Imperia, but we can easily spend over $100 for just the two of us. If you want more of a bargain, bring friends! You can easily fill up with just as much food, and walk away spending less money, and everyones belly is happy, I promise!

BR

Bryan LaVergne

Musashino is located at the bottom floor of a two-story building. Its adjacent to the feeder/frontage road along Mopac. So dont be confused, I didnt see a big sign or anything! First thoughts when going into the restaurant were "Wow, this place looks fantastic!". The lighting was warm. Theres a lot of dark wood: the walls, the floor, the seating, etc. We went during lunch. Wasnt too busy. Wasnt too loud. Sort of just right. Service was amazing. Our hostess, our waiter, and an additional employee were all quick to offer refills. Employees were very relaxed and nice. We ordered two dishes: Kuro Ton Ramen with pork belly and the Katsu Don. Kuro Ton Ramen was this amazing dish with a heavy amount of garlic in the broth. The flavor was very rich. Noodles were good. The pork belly, though, is to die for. I highly recommend this dish if you go, if you like garlic. Katsu Don was a normal rice bowl with pork and fried egg along with scallions. For the price, you get quite a bit of pork! I was surprised at how much pork there was in the bowl. Tasted fantastic. Rice was cooked well. Again, just as in the other dish, the meat was great. I love how well they do meat here. I ordered the Beni Toro sushi, which is a roll with salmon and scallions. The salmon was fantastic. Curious as to where they source their salmon because it was quite oily. The last salmon nigiri I had in Houston wasnt good as this salmon, even though this is Central Texas. Rice was warm to the point where I was surprised given the prices. Sushi was good quality. Prices are fair for sushi. Beni Toro roll was $7. Serving sizes are very generous. Couple that with the very fair prices, its a great place to eat socially. The websites lunch menu prices were not the same as their current menu, for things are marked up a tad bit. The Kuro Ton Ramen was $15.50 ($12.50 plus $3.00 for pork belly, which is totally worth it). The Katsu Don was $11.50. This restaurant has become my favorite in Austin for Japanese food. I suggest you at least try it with some friends. The food is perfect for a good time with friends!

ZH

Zhang Family

Ive dined here dozens of times all on business expense acct so was able to order basically everything across the menu. I would sit the sushi bar and watch masters make it, taking notes to learn how to make it at home. After years of doing that, comparing methods at many sushi restaurants, I now realize Musashino makes some of the greatest quality TRADITIONAL sushi available outside of Japan. Take one example: Ive NEVER found a sushi restaurant in USA that makes a Rainbow roll as perfect as Musashino. And Ive been to maybe 100+ sushi restaurants across the USA while on business trips. Musashino Rainbow roll so perfectly bias-overlaps the stripes of the rainbow topper that they must prep each in the morning and store each between layers of saran wrap. So when Rainbow roll is actually made they flip the rainbow fish overlay out of the saran wrap onto the roll top. Do you understand why? They are making it to such artistic precision that it takes so long to make the rainbow overlay that they must make it ahead of time in the morning. They are laying down the sashimi rainbow stripes 1/2 overlapped and with pitch so perfectly spaced it is on the order of mm tolerances. The result (which Ive never seen elsewhere) is their Rainbow roll cuts so EACH cut piece is topped with a rainbow layer where all of these are visible in layers above EACH piece (!!): tuna/salmon/shrimp/white fish/avocado I observed this level of detail on all their sushi: Musashino masters have taken the time to perfect sushi to exquisite level When I make Rainbow roll at home, of course I follow the Musashino method precisely (took me many months & about 50+ rolls to learn) because Ive never seen a more gorgeous Rainbow roll than Musashinos

KA

Katie Elifritz

I made reservations here for my friends birthday (we were a party of 10). When we arrived, they hadnt set up our yet and made us wait in the doorway while they set one up. After we were finally seated, We waited 10-15 minutes for someone to come ask us if we wanted anything to drink. After our waitress brought us our drinks she disappeared for 45 Minutes before she returned to take our orders. When the food was finally ready she brought it out so slowly that everyone else was finished by the time I got my food. We arrived at the restaurant at 8:30 and we left at 11 pm if this tells you how slow they were. The quality of the food was below what I would expect considering I paid $18 for a hand roll and half of a rock and roll roll. In my opinion this place is severely overpriced. The restaurant refused to split the bill since we were a large group and the total was well over $200. In addition to this they added in an 18% gratuity when our server did not check on us at all during the visit. Its pretty obvious that we were a group of college students and none of us had this amount of money available to spend. someone in our group had to call their parents and ask them to add money to their accounts so we could pay for dinner. Overall, I had a bad experience because I found the food to be mediocre and overpriced, and the staff to be lazy and unaccomodating.