If you love rice with your sushi, and LOTS of it, you would love the "sushi" here! If you love finding bones in your salmon nigiri, you should come here! If you love overly breaded and fried food with little real content, you should come here! If you like being monitored ensuring you do not waste any food, you should come here! If you know nothing about sushi, but like sauces, colors, poor lighting, 100 types of roles (basically California roles with random items and sauces put on top of it with a clever name) and an un-inviting atmosphere, you would love it here! Okay I'm done being sarcastic. My friends opted to come here instead of Sushi on Oracle tonight, which is fine since I have never been here before. I am surprised at the number of positive reviews this place has gotten. While the quality of the fish is fair, there is WAY too much rice on their sushi. Their fried food items are meant to get you full, not for you to taste the food. Their gyoza is filled with vegetables and fried whole, the type you would find in a bag at your local supermart, not the typical gyoza with the thin skin and pork filling which is pan seared that you would find at a true Japanese establishment. The calamari is 70% breading and oil. Unfortunately, it is clearly apparent to me that this restaurant focuses on how to provide quantity over quality, and to maximize their profit at the expense of giving their customers a better experience. Their AYCE selection is mediocore at best, lacking items and options that you would find at other similar restaurants. Also, the setting and ambience is tacky and unwelcoming. Obviously this is not your typical well seasoned "sushi restaurant" like Sushi on Oracle or Kazoku, but in Tucson, it might just survive just fine. Not coming back here if you paid me to. read more

Sushi Cortaro - BONE in salmon nigiri. - Sushi Bars Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

See all

Please see the picture of how much they charge if you leave any rice. Service is totally ridiculous. The food came out in a slow fashion. The albacore taste like imitated chicken. If you like to spend a ton of money on trash food, then come here please! Oh yea by the way, other customers left after the long wait and I had to flag someone down to get my order taken. read more

See all

Ok so my three things I always cover when I go to a restaurant is 1. How clean is it 2. How is the service and 3. Of course how's the food .... So here we go... This restaurant has had great reviews and I gotta say it lived up to them. I went there at 6pm and got a booth... The restaurant had enough coverage and appeared to be very clean... Plates were cleared from the table once emptied in a timely matter ... This leads me to the service. My waitress was very polite and sweet and visited the perfect amount during the meal to remove empty plates and just check if we needed anything. Now the food was wonderful... I ate a ton and was very very impressed... I tried 4 different rolls and loved each of them... I really loved the spicy crunchy tuna roll... Yum! I have not had anything better in Tucson .... Go there the next time you want sushi in Tucson!!! read more

See all

This family owned restaurant has an awesome all you can eat menu! The service is great. The food is good and the beer is cold. The all you can eat menu is reasonable, even if you are a light eater, you will get your money's worth! I had about 3 rolls and an appetizer, which was more than my usual sushi order and still felt that the price was fair. It was about $30 (maybe a few dollars less). There aren't many places in Marana like this, so if your tired of tacos and/or fast food, give this place a try. Happy Eating! read more

The best owners/managers/servers you will ever meet. The head sushi chef Fai is one of the most talented sushi chefs in Tucson as well as the most kind and caring. He excels at making every single person that walks through the door feel welcomed and leave satisfied and happy. He truly cares about his customers and is accommodating in any way possible. He is passionate about the sushi he serves and with one bite, you will have no doubt about that. You will often see his hard working wife, Tracy and their two little girls in the restaurant as well. Mai is the main waitress and always has a beautiful smile on her face as well as a positive attitude. Most days she is there from open to close but still maintains a professional, upbeat demeanor. She has a way of making you feel at home when you are dining in or taking food to-go. She will always make you smile with her infectious laugh while telling you a joke or two. Ok, enough about the amazing staff: the sushi here is absolutely amazing. 1/2 price rolls for lunch, killer happy hour and the Cortaro specials are a must try. The New Mexican roll is my favorite: shrimp tempura on the inside topped with spicy tuna and spicy yummy sauce on soy paper with fresh jalapeños. Don't forget to ask for spicy ponzu sauce as well! They also don't charge for sauces(like Sushi Garden) when you dine in. Anyways if I could give 10 stars for Sushi Cortaro, I would. read more

We decided to try this place before closing on a weekday. The service was good and the staff was friendly. We were a bit disappointed by the sushi selection as many of our classic favorites (like salmon skin) were not available and many of them had added "creamy sauce" or lots of spice. We ordered a few avocado rolls, a yellowtail roll and a salmon roll. Overall, they were okay but definitely not a repeat favorite. read more

It is mediocre Japanese food. The price is high but not the quality. I have lived in Japan and tried many different Japanese restaurants in and outside Tucson. I probably will not come back here. There are much better options in town: Sushi on Oracle, hands down the best, on Oracle; Obon in Downtown; Ginza on the way side... read more

It's Tucson. You can't expect good sushi. Don't order the fried calamari, it was mostly fried batter. Don't order the gyoza as it's 98% vegetable in it with less than 2% meat. All other appetizers were good. Serving size is not generous. It would have been fine if ingredients were good but it wasn't, just okay. The search continues... read more

If you happen to be near Cortaro and I-10 check out Sushi Cortaro. It is nestled between Chopstix Asian Diner, a martial arts school, and Native New Yorker. It has just opened and has that wonderful new restaurant feel. The decor is clean and bright, modern and pleasant. The staff is friendly and conscientious. Now on to the food. It was my first time dining there and I am always nervous trying out new sushi restaurants as I tend to find one that I like and stick with it. My previous favorite was more towards central Tucson, a good 40 minute drive for me to satisfy a sushi craving, so when I saw that a decent looking place had opened up nearby I thought I would give it a try. They have several non sushi options and I have heard that their lunch specials are quite amazing, but I was there for the sushi. So here it is. There are two ordering options, you can order from the regular sushi menu, which has sashimi, nigiri, and maki sushi, as well as a plentiful variety of rolls. The other option is to order from the all you can eat menu, which offers a majority of the options from the regular menu plus appetizers. I decided to share with my mother and we ordered from the regular menu. I ordered freshwater eel, tuna sashimi, and a variety of rolls along with shrimp shumai and a seaweed salad as and appetizer. The shumai were tender and steaming and well presented. The seaweed salad was delicious, nutty and slightly tangy. The sushi was presented on a large boat with plenty of wasabi and pickled ginger. The tuna was beautiful, red and tender. The eel was done perfectly (and is one of my favorites). The rolls were presented perfectly and wrapped well. They held together and everything tasted fresh. The prices were reasonable, the service was incredible and the atmosphere was pleasant. All in all a great dining experience that was beyond my expectations. read more

Sad to say this place has fallen off when it comes to take out. If you go inside and grab all you can eat, no issues really. ordered a few rolls to go and the portions have dropped drastically. Example: my eel roll was five piece about 1/3 the width of a regular roll. $40 order=waste. read more

I've been a huge fan of sushi for nearly a year now. At first I was unsure of what I liked, what was good, and what to expect. Well at this point, I feel like I have a pretty good "standard" for what I want out of a sushi bar. I've sampled a lot of them in my travels, and for the most part I have liked what I found. Well I knew it was only a matter of time before I came across a poor example of Japanese cuisine. Unfortunately it had to happen while I was on the road and really needed a good "comfort meal." Sushi as comfort food? Yeah, that's me. Anyway... read on to see why Sushi Cortaro was my first real "lemon" of a sushi experience. Service: 1/5 This is pretty much why. I have rarely been treated so poorly at a restaurant, and never this poorly at a Japanese restaurant. We were seated as soon as we walked in the door......... and then forgotten. We had to wait several minutes for them to bring a high chair for our son. Then we waited several more minutes to have our drink order taken. Then we waited who knows how many minutes to actually receive our drinks. Noticing a pattern developing here? Refills on the water glasses were nearly impossible to come by. Getting any kind of attention from the staff here was a total exercise in frustration. On top of that, the presentation of our food was highly irregular. As I said above, I have been to a lot of sushi bars in the past year, and I have never been served like this. Our order came out entirely "piecemeal." Now this might make sense if we had ordered appetizers, or desserts, but all we ordered was sushi. It came out totally haphazardly and without and real rhyme or reason. One roll would show up, then some nigiri, then another. At one point I tried to ask the server if they had forgotten half of our order. It just made no sense and was very frustrating. And all this on top of being absurdly slow. By the time our last ordered roll arrived, our son was totally out of patience and we were already more than ready to leave. Overall it was just a very frustrating experience. Food: 3/5 As far as the sushi itself goes, it was ok. It certainly doesn't compare with some of my best sushi experiences (Tokyo Sushi, Las Cruces, Kazoku, Tucson, and Sushi Tango, Fremont.) Again I wonder how a place can mess up something as simple as nigiri, but these guys manage. One piece of my salmon nigiri had a sliver of wood in it. Thankfully I saw it before I ate it. And the halibut nigiri was absolutely drowned in soy sauce. I get that some people like a little soy sauce, and some people even like a lot. But I've never seen nigiri served with the sauce already added. It always was at the diner's discretion. Not here. It totally ruined the taste of the fish, and halibut is my absolute favorite, even more than salmon, but it's too pricey to indulge in regularly... which made their treatment of it that much harder to swallow, literally. The other rolls were tasty and well presented. I especially enjoyed the Christmas Roll, which was a mix of three types of fish with some special sauces. So they did do a few things right here. Unfortunately the negatives just so overwhelmed the positives that it was difficult to enjoy the few things that they did do well. Overall Impressions: 3/5 Now take this with a grain of salt as you already know I'm pretty negative on this place. But the atmosphere here just feels like they are trying too hard to be more up-scale than they actually are. The decor is very modern. To me it felt more suitable to a modern American style restaurant than Japanese. The place looks nice, don't get me wrong... but the "feel" is just wrong to me. It doesn't say "sushi bar" or "Japanese restaurant" to me. I felt like I should be ordering a rack of lamb or something. As far as value goes, the prices here are actually pretty good. The nigiri is right in line with pretty much every other sushi bar I've been to. The rolls are a bit cheaper than most, although if you're the type that likes a lot of the "fancy" cooked rolls with wild combinations of sauces and such, you won't find much of that here. And to me that is a positive. Much of what qualifies as "sushi" here in the US is a far cry from the traditional preparations. Overall the food is decent, the place looks good, and you'll get good value for your money......... if you get served at all. Maybe your service experience will be better than mine, but based on what I got, I have to advise "steer clear." read more

Make sure when you here you read the fine lines or you will have a problem. Me and my son went to eat here for the 2nd time and orders several sushi rolls, and didn't finish it because we got full. I asked for to go box and was refused one because I was not aloud to take it home because it was 1\2 price. I have already paid for it and he wanted me to pay full price if I take it home. Worst experience I have ever had anywhere. These people are out to get you for every little bit they can get. Food was great Customer service sucks! read more

Very friendly service and relatively fresh food. Great happy hour and late evening specials. I recommend sitting at the sushi bar--you get a bonus little sunomono salad before you order, and all of their sushi chefs are friendly and make good suggestions. Your meal always comes with miso, as well (no matter where you sit). I'm giving it 4 stars because it's good, but not excellent. The sushi is good, but not the freshest I've had. (Their Treasure Island made me change it from 3 stars to 4.... that thing is TASTY!) The service is good, but not excellent. The place is clean, but not immaculate. The happy hour is good, but they've had the same "Chef's Specials" up on the board since February. I'll definitely go back because I live and work on this side of town, but if I move somewhere else I probably won't go out of my way to come back. read more

Recommended by a local and it was absolutely amazing. Delicious drinks and fresh tasting and creative sushi. I posted pics of our huge selection!!! We couldn't decide so we ordered like 6 rolls. Would definitely recommend and return read more

Sushi Cortaro - Lots and lots of sushi - Sushi Bars Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

Place is a little far from where I live, but I was in the mood for AYCE and this place seemed to have pretty good praise. Came on a Saturday, and hubby and I got the AYCE. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. Nigiri: Unagi - can't really go wrong with this. Very yummy and only 1 order per person Spicy Scallop - nice amount of heat and very creamy. Delicious. Normal Scallop - not as nice as the spicy scallop. Mine had way too much mayo, I tasted that more than the mild scallop. Salmon - very yum. I really enjoyed it. Mackerel - knife work was a little messy, and was a bit more fishy than other places. Yellowtail - it was okay White fish - I have no idea what happened. It didn't taste like typical white fish, I actually wondered if I got the right fish. It was dry and a bit fishy. Least favorite of the bunch. I hope that was a fluke. Rolls: Rainbowroll and catepillar - dunno cuz that was hubby's and I didn't eat any. Standard fare and 1 order per person. Philly handroll - didn't realize we can turn any of the rolls into handrolls. I liked it. Ikasansai roll - marinated squid with mountain veggies. hubby ordered that, and I took one bite. It was nice. thought the squid would be chewy but it wasn't and nicely seasoned. Overall, it was enjoyable and quality of the fish wasn't bad. Because some of the nigiri I ordered wasn't as good as I thought, knocked it down to 4 stars. Will definitely come back again, and maybe try out some of their specialty rolls. read more

See all

Wow was thrilled to find this tucked in the chaos just off 10and Cortaro near Silverbell ..everything we had was terrific... Wonderful crazy spicy tuna with peppery Tuna on top, yummy scallop nigiri , great cuts of salmon, beautifully served squid and seaweed salad and comfy decor. Wait staff very pleasant ! I will be back read more

Sushi Cortaro - Sushi Bars Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

See all

First time at this little Sushi spot. I didn't even know you could find sushi in this part of town! Friends and I were looking for somewhere to eat close to an event in Marana and happened upon Sushi Cortaro. The decor is a little boring and stark. I've gotten progressively annoyed at Sushi places in town that feel the need to have televisions everywhere in the restaurant. I honestly don't want to see infomercials for hairspray while I'm paying $50 for sushi. Just not appetizing or inviting. Have some actual decor and make give me an experience instead of distracting from the food. THE FOOD! I ordered the all-you-can-eat (AYCE) sushi mostly because the rolls I like are usually fairly expensive and would be well over the $19.95 cost of the AYCE. My husband had the Beef Teriyaki teppan, and my other friends ordered bento boxes. The bento boxes seemed like they were filled with very yummy things and my friends seemed to enjoy them quite much. My husband wasn't super pleased with his Beef Teriyaki. He said that the temperature was way too cold, and there really wasn't much to it volume-wise. This is what he orders everytime I drag him to a new sushi restaurant so he has quite a few versions to compare it to. (note: he never sends food back because he's always worried what they'll do to it, lol). Now, my Sushi on the otherhand was positively delicious. I had the spicy scallop nigiri, salmon nigiri, eel nigiri, dragon roll, and salmon skin roll. Each were really really great. The freshness of the fish and brilliant flavor/texture combos were out of this world. The service was great. We were seated quickly and the drinks were rarely ever empty or even close to empty. I would love to give this place another shot, maybe without my husband (shhh). read more

I am a frequent visitor to Sushi Cortaro and have never had a bad experience. The staff is friendly, the service exceptional, and the sushi is fresh. And speaking of the sushi...oh yummmm!! I can't help but overindulge each time I visit! Try the New Orleans roll with real lobster - delicious! And my favorite Lollipop rolls - they melt in your mouth. The presentation is always beautiful and the flavor is phenomenal - it awakens your senses and makes your mouth happy! read more

This time I ordered outside my usual tried the Temptation roll and the Fantasy roll. I will order both again from now on. Generous with the lobster tail! The baby octopus this time was better than ever, great freshly marinated octopus. read more

See all

Sushi was just ok, not the best quality. It was pretty expensive too. Have definitely had much better sushi.

Came here for lunch with my colleagues and the service was great. They have a good selection for sushi and also amazing lunch deals: half-priced sushi rolls! Worth it! Parking is not tough, plenty in the lot. read more

Went Thursday and again on Friday. Sushi is okay. Bento box not so good. Chicken teriyaki was overcooked and dry. Tempura just ain't right. Batter more like bisquick than p a n k o. This place is very noisy. The a y c eat is what they do. read more

At 2 pm, it appears to be not too crowded, given I've heard it can get very busy. I think 2 pm is a good time to go. Nice and friendly staff. Good service. I got a chicken teriyaki bowl. Was tasty. Good job, sushi cortaro! read more

Sushi Cortaro - Sushi Bars Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

This is quickly becoming my go-to local place when I'm on the northwest side of Tucson. This town is crowded with sushi places as of late, but Sushi Cortaro keeps it simple with high quality, thickly-sliced nigiri (I always end up ordering "just one more salmon"). Their rolls are also not skimpy on the fish, which I appreciate. The lunch specials here are excellent, as is the happy hour -- a true half-price list of many of the popular maki and nigiri. And the beer is $2, can't go wrong. While this is not a fancy place, it's solid in quality for the price, and WAY better than driving twenty minutes for an iffy experience at Foothills Sushi Garden. Recommended. read more

Always fantastic food. Today we had the tootsie roll, crunchy spicy tuna roll, and two las Vegas rolls. Lunch special has these rolls for half price. Two fountain drinks and everything for the wife and I was only $25 after tip. I would get any one of these rolls again. Also, from previous experience, I would highly recommend the pretty boy. Tracy served us today and was very sweet. We love this place and look forward to our next time. read more

This is my favorite spot for sushi, and it really does seem to come out as a better value & experience than Sushi Garden.

Great service, sushi, and prices. Love this place! Highly recommend. Their happy hour is really well priced

Didn't think the sushi was that great it was okay and the service was terrible there are actually rude

I really enjoy this Sushi place, the Yellowtail is absolutely phenomenal, the Sea Urchin is great, really an all around friendly and great atmosphere. I come here often for delicious Sushi and great staff, does NOT disappoint. There is also a bar, so when I turn 21 I definitely plan on drinking Sake here. Can get busy on weekend nights causing the wait to be long. But that isn't a downside really because the food is so good, of COURSE its gonna be busy. For a Tucson Sushi place, its pretty fantastic. read more

This place was surprisingly good. Everyone at my table of 5 loved their food. The wait staff was on it! Maybe because we were the only group in there. Sushi was great, and the portions were good for the price. The octopus salad was awesome! read more

The sushi here is good, but the service has always been very friendly and prompt. Parking is a limited but the lunch specials are on point! Don't deny by yourself and Give them a try today! read more

This is a gem , we ordered the spicy crunchy tuna roll and the new Mexican roll, we absolutely loved them, the staff are so friendly, this is a absolute stop if in the area read more

My wife and I are strictly Sushi Garden ppl for the most part but tonight we decided to stray from the usual and try something different...As always for a new place I go online and check out the menu, prices, and reviews. The AYCE price on their website said it was $21.95 and when we got there the menu said AYCE was $24.95; When I asked about it our waitress replied they had just changed it a week ago. We ended up going with something else. To the food - we decided to go with the $40 sushi platter; It came with a dragon roll, spicy tuna roll, and a cali roll which we subbed with a philly roll for $2 more, and 16 pieces of assorted sushi nigiri. The menu didn't say anything about the nigiri being assorted or "chef's choice" so we assumed we could pick what we wanted, however it came with a mix of salmon, yellow tail, tuna, octopus, mackerel, clam, and 2 others. We also had Miso soup and a cucumber salad before the fish came. The food was good and the rolls were nicely made. The rolls however fresh were not cold when they came out. The fish was almost room temp. The service was extremely slow and there were only 6 other parties there, none with more than 3 guests. Our food took close to an hour to come out. With the check ending up at $52 we were disappointed knowing we could have spent slightly less at sushi garden for 2 AYCE meals. Moral of the story, the staff was very friendly and almost always had smiles when they were helping us. The sushi was good, but very slow and warm when it arrived. I'd say the prices were a bit high for the quality of food and service. I will most likely NOT eat here again, but will be returning to our tried and true Sushi Garden/Takamatsu/Ra. read more

Best sushi ever. I am pregnant and my constant craving is sushi. I eat here constantly. Never had bad service, or bad food and their 1/2price lunch option makes it very affordable to indulge in my craving. I'm happy and baby is happy;) read more

Sushi Cortaro - Las vegas roll, yummmm - Sushi Bars Near Me - Tucson, Arizona

My favorite Sushi place for Happy Hour. Very well attended by waiters and have had overall positive experiences here. Clean environment and sushi tastes decent. Portions could be a bit larger but can't complain for the price offered :) read more

My friend recommened coming here because it received good reviews. I wasn't too pleased with my experience. The parking situation can be disastrous. The restaurant shares the parking lot with other dining restaurants. Walking in to the establishment, give you a nice modern look. We sat at a table next to the wall partition. They have over-sized plants on the wall that poked me in the face every time I tried to turn my head. On to the food- The food is decent, not great. $19.99 for all you can eat sushi. I was drawn by the appetizers they offered. We ordered some calamari, egg rolls, and gyoza. The appetizers were not very consistent. We re-ordered some and they were either over-cooked or under-cooked from the previous dish. Sushi was average. Nothing outstanding or special. I ordered a Margarita. It came in what can only be mistaken for a toddlers sippy cup. The drink came in a plastic green cactus cup. Nothing sounds classy more than that!! The quality of the margarita could not have been better than the sushi. The waitress spilled water on my feet while refilling the drinks. She was apologetic, so I forgave that aspect of the experience. All in all..pretty disappointed. Probably won't come back. It's been fun, Sushi Cortaro. read more

A little pricey. Do t order the Dynamite it's horrible otherwise the food is pretty good

I've eaten at more sushi establishments than I can honestly keep track of. I am not picky about quality, price, or location. That being said, I'd put Sushi Cortaro in the top quarter of them. As far as the quality of the food, I enjoyed it. I ate it all. That being said, I had the distinct impression that, while their technique was very good, certain ingredients might have been of the lower quality. The crab was a little fishy, the avocado was a little dark. Hence the 4 stars instead of five. The other reason I docked the star was that, while I definitely received attentive service, it was, at times, a bit too attentive. One of the waitresses was, at one point, just kind of standing at the end of the counter while I was eating, grinning at me with a pitcher in her hand. The establishment was spotless, though, and very very well decorated, the food was good and cheap, and I would definitely go back.. read more

We liked the sushi very much. The music was a little loud for me but I'm getting old. We were seated immediately and the wait for our meal to be prepared was not long. Even round two when all tables were full didn't take long. They have plenty of staff to take care of the croud. We'll definitely be back. read more

My favorite sushi restaurant in town. It's close by and every visit the sushi is always excellent and presented well. I highly recommend!