Izumi Sushi

Off the beaten path for the sushi we usually go to in terms of location but turns out this place is cute. Id come back!

The food was better than expected, the creative rolls selection and the simple freshness of the sashimi make this a nice joint to dive deeper into the sushi scene here in town.

Booths are private and the lighting is good.

Love this place for sushi and hot bowls! They have deals throughout the week to save you money! Staff is also very polite and friendly. One of my favs in Calgary!

Yummm i love their KING pork cutlet. It's super big. But very thin so it is not hard to chew. Cant say they have the best sushi though. They had a weird taste to their fish. And their scallops were perfectly round and tasted funny. But it wasn't too bad. The roll we got was humongous! Later I found out you can get it full size order or half size. The portions are huge here. Well it was our first time here so two of us ordered salmon sashimi, 5 piece nigiri, one king pork cutlet, and spicy chirashi and our last choice was the roll and asked the server which one she recommends and we got what she recommended for us. Wish she would have asked us if we want the half or the full size because she was so surprised when we were ordering and said thats a lot of food. More than half of the roll had to go to waste. But definitely will go back for the pork cutlet!

Weekly Sushi Night. We order pick-up from Izumi Yokozuna on a weekly basis and look forward to it every time. The size & quality of their Sashimi & Rolls are priced really well for what you get, and the service is always great. We have no complaints so far and have been ordering for over a year.

Amazing restaurant. This is an amazing restaurant. I've been frequenting Izumi quite regularly and despite some imperfections I have to say this is my favorite sushi restaurant for many strong reasons. Not that I'm an expert of the sushi restaurants of Calgary, but of the ones I've gone to this is definitely the best in many ways. I'll list some of those ways, and then I'll also address some of the "points for improvement". I apologize in advance for not knowing the Japanese names for the foods.

1) The food is soooo good! The miso soup is incredible, warm, and soothing. The Kimchi (a Korean food that most Japanese restaurants add to their menu) just feels good when you eat it, the seaweed salad just feels very satisfying in the stomach. The smoked salmon salad and other salads are delicious. The sushi itself, and the sushi rolls are just sooo delicious and satisying.

2) Besides delicious, the sushi rolls are both exotic and large. A lot goes into each kind of roll. A lot of work and skill and TLC in the preparation.

3) They put more pride and the extra touch into their food. I compared the spinach salad with that of another very expensive sushi restaurant. The first restaurant had the spinach in a regular pile in a bowl with sauce poured on top. I thought it was good. However, Izumi went an extra mile. They arranged the spinach heap into a pillar and then draped on the sauce (which is delicious) across the top like a volcanic eruption. This extra artistic work really adds to the excellence and ambience of a restaurant, showing that they put their heart into what they do.

4) The prices are not that bad, and have been significantly cheaper than the other sushi restaurants that I have been to. But maybe I should pretend it's expensive in case they see this and decide to raise the prices. Kidding. I really hope they don't. Every weekday they have a different deal on, written on a whiteboard as you walk in. It's creative and fun to see a different kind of deal every day.

5) The decor is Japan enough to feel like your escaping the norm and experiencing something different for a change. It's a gentle decor and atmosphere.

6) There is an open kitchen (you see where the sushi-artists work) that even has a bar-style eating counter along the front of it. There is also an upper more closed in level for private groups.

Points for improvement:

1) I think that they should purely keep to Japanese or other Asian art on the walls. Sometimes I've seen some art which didn't jive with the rest of the restaurant.

2) They have a money-saving card/system for people who frequent there a lot, but the savings are so small it takes too many meals to get a free meal.

Matters of opinion:

The restaurant employees are mostly Korean (at least right now). You thought that this means it's less vintage than most Asian restaurants, but actually it means it's more vintage than most! To add to the vintageness (and awesomeness in my opinion) is that those that are hired at Izumi tend to be relatively new immigrants to Canada, or even sometimes exchange students. This can be a matter of opinion because the "downside" (which I actually consider to be an upside) is that there tends to be somewhat of a language barrier, some very strong accents, more time needed to explain things correctly, etcetera. However, this is a matter of opinion and I really like engaging this way. It's more fun, exciting, interesting, and you see the beauty in different kinds of cultures and peoples. Anyone who likes to travel and explore will understand what I mean. In Izumi, it's more like you're in Japan... or Korea. In the same vein, some of the hirees (at least to me) have seemed very young, and so some diners may feel disappointed by the less-experienced work-skills of young employees (hence some of the complaints below about bad service). However, I've found that if you meet people where they are at and help them forward with one small step than you get to experience something many do not care to experience - the adventure of being interested in people and letting them know that there is more to Canada than just a system.

So to cap this all off, this is truly a fun, tasty, comfortable, yummy, relatively economical, and exciting restaurant, and despite the more-than-usual "mishaps" related to a more genuine cultural getaway, I highly recommend this restaurant!

So good. I love izumi, been there a few times. The sashimi is very fresh and I especially like the beef tataki(some of the best I've had!) The rolls are a good portion for the price as well. Staff is also very attentive and friendly, I would definitely recommend. :)