Mike, my 11-yo daughter Mika and I, enjoyed a nice family dinner at Tsuru Sushi a few weeks ago. We hadn’t gone in years, and we had, overall, a very good experience. It was expensive – very expensive – but we had won several gift cards so most of the dinner was covered. Good thing, as it came to close to $100 for 3, and only one of us actually ordered sushi.
I deciced to make a dinner out of appetizers and ordered the gyoza ($5.75), the fried chicken wings ($6.25) and the beef kushi ($7). The portions are small enough that while I had some food leftover for Mike to share with, it wasn’t much. The gyoza, in particular, were delicious. The filling was full of flavor and I could have gone on eating them forever. The chicken wings, on the other hand, were very plain and monotonous. You probably could do better at Pioneer’s chicken. The sauce helped a little, but grew boring too. I wouldn’t order them again. The beef kushi, on the other hand, was quite good. It wasn’t too different from teriyaki, but without the sticky sauce, and I enjoyed it.
Mika had the combination dinner ($20) with gyoza, shiu mai and a california roll. The enjoyed the roll, loved the gyoza but the shiu mai was sort of plain.
Mike had two orders of unagi ($5.50 each), which we all enjoyed, though it wasn’t a particularly outstanding version. He also had some kind of roll that he thought was very good.
In all, it was a good meal. Service was good and efficient, though they could have done a better job of timing the food.
The one thing I found a bit tacky is that they actually charge you for the after-dinner mints.
Tsuru Sushi
1427 East 14th St.
San Leandro, CA
510-352-3748
M-Sa 11am-2:30 pm, 5-9:30 pm
Su 12:30 – 9:30pm