Went in tonight 12/26, and the waitress walked by us 3 times while we stood at the front door waiting to be seated. She never made eye contact to greet us and tell us she'd seat us soon. We left. read more

One of my go to sushi places! I love the Martini prawns and the beef wrapped asparagus! The samurai roll isn't on the menu but so good. We've been going here for years. The staff is great too read more

LOVE this spot. My girl brought me here after moving here from Sacramento. We are very spoiled in SacTown with the number of quality sushi joints and to be honest....the other sushi joint in Sebastopol is ridiculously garbage. Sushi Tozai was on point. Everything was fantastic, fresh, and the portions were perfect. My only qualm is since they reopened back up after the pandemic....they haven't opened the sushi bar back up. It's the same fabulous people working there to the same anxious crowds but now the bar is piled up with supplies. It looks tacky and keeps me yearning for the bar experience that I love. Other than that, this place is legit. read more

Tozai is our go-to sushi restaurant in Sonoma County. The food and drink is delicious and fairly priced. They're always busy, so at times their service can become a bit slow, but that's to be expected at such a popular place. A couple of our favorites are the Lion King roll, and several types of cold sake served in the traditional "box". read more

Sushi Tozai always has amazing service and family friendly food. They helped us stay sane during the pandemic, and we love our regular take out. It's predictable, consistent and tasty- and we love that they have kid chopsticks! read more

Amazing portion size, very fresh ingredients, and excellent flavor. We stopped by on our way back from the beach. We felt welcomed the moment we stepped in. Will be back. read more

One of my my all time favorite sushi spot. Dragon roll, spider roll and salmon sashimi tonight. Lots of experiences, will write more soon. read more

Sushi Tozai - Today's specials...aphrodite roll - Japanese Near Me - Sebastopol, California

Really good food!! They are small and fill up fast but if you do takeout it's great. I ordered salmon teriyaki and tempura dinners spicy tuna roll, California roll, side of seaweed salad and mix sashimi. The salmon was a bit thin but still tasty. The tempura was crispy and yummy both came with soup rice and salad with a good dressing not the bottled stuff. and the rolls were excellent. I'll be back every-time I'm in town. read more

We really enjoyed our meals here. Everything was fine. Service was friendly and efficient. Food arrived in a timely manner. Prices are reasonable. Had tempura with teriyaki chicken dinner -- with soup, salad, and rice. Pretty standard Japanese restaurant fair, but done well. It was very tasty. And large portions --- took some home. Also had Teppan seafood dinner (also with rice, soup, salad) . This came sizzling on a platter, much like fajitas. Also very good. We tried a fried apple fritter (or something like a fried apple fritter -- I forget the name and can't find it on the online menu) for dessert -- served with ice cream and whipped cream. It was okay, but a bit heavy. Wouldn't order that again. But we will go back because the dinners were good! read more

Love this place! Their sushi is wonderful. The staff is friendly and it's been very peaceful while we have dined in.

Fresh, clean nigiri. For me, nigiri is the benchmark for evaluating sushi. It showcases both the flavor of the fish as well as the sushi rice. Many sushi chefs hide the lower quality of fish by dressing it up or adding wasabi. I found none of that at Sushi Tozai. I had the Hamachi (yellowtail), Shiro maguro (albacore tuna), and Amaebi (sweet shrimp), all included in the picture. All excellent and priced reasonably between $5-$7. I will definitely be returning. read more

Sushi Tozai - Japanese Near Me - Sebastopol, California

I called this place to make reservations for my birthday for a party of 3 at 6:00. The answering machine said I would be called back. I never received a call back. So I called to confirm and told the female that answered, she said she would check, then she proceeded to have a casual conversation with a guy in the background. It didn't sound like it was about business so I wasn't feeling too attended to. She took quite a while, probably at least 4 minutes or so while making me hold just to talk some guy about personal things! I wanted to try this restaurant for the first time on my birthday. That was a huge mistake! First of all, we had to wait over 20 minutes for sake because "the sake machine wasn't working". I have never heard that before!! Ever heard of a microwave?! It wasn't busy when we first got there. In fact we were all of maybe 3 tables there. The hostess sat us and I noticed a price tag on my seat. She commented that maybe someone left it behind on their birthday. I said that's funny, today's my birthday. She said Happy Birthday and that was the last time I heard it that night from anyone there. The waiter was as attentive as he could be and apologetic about the delay. He was quite nice. Since I'm vegan, I ordered some vegetable gyoza. It was alright but not very tasty. I then ordered the vegetable tempura for my dinner and my other two guests ordered sushi and a kind of box with rice , sashimi and vegetables. My one friend is Japanese and that dish was something she was used to having. ( I don't recall the name) She commented that it looked nothing like what she was used to and showed us and the waiter a picture of what it was supposed to look like. Even the waiter noticed the disparity. My son had sushi that arrived with carrots sticking out of it! Not common to have big pieces of carrot in sushi either!! We were given some miso soup which was extremely hot and I burned my tongue on it. The salad had some sort of strange thick dressing on it and wasn't at all appetizing. I had some regular avocado roll which was standard flavor. Then I tried the tempura. It was so greasy that I was surprised that the tempura batter stayed on. It tasted like old deep fried oil and not good at all. It was a large plate but I couldn't eat more than 5-6 pieces. Not a fan of greasy food. Despite it being my 55th birthday, no mention by any staff was made of it. I was hugely disappointed. Most restaurants do something for their guests on their birthday!!! I also had a front view of the men preparing the sushi all night. They talked amongst themselves and I never did see any of them smile. They seemed almost angry. The next morning I was sick to my stomach and later that night got extremely sick after I reheated the tempura only because I thought I would see if it was any better. It wasn't. It was the worst tempura I've ever had! I would give them only one star for this but the waiter was nice to us so I can't fault them for that. For getting sick off their food though I would give them a minus rating and recommend that their establishment be checked for cleanliness standards. read more

We've been loyal customers since day one and this place used to be incredible. It's declined over the past several years after losing Manager/chef Patrick and now an endless chain of margional and bad have been over the past several years. Tonight we decided to just try again and see if it ever improved. Sadly it's continuing it's slide towards lousy and consistantly lousy. Tonight the shrimp tempura was way too thickly battered and not cooked through! Not cooked! Pale raw shrimp! Wth? How hard is it to screw that up? And of course some culinary genius decided to add more spices to the dipping sauce. So now we have some other chili as well, which covers the fishy taste but can't compliment it -as it should. The California roll was also bad! Too much undercooked rice, very little brown slimey avacado, too much mayo, rice mixed with the crab to stretch it? Loosely rolled so it falls apart and old oxidized kind of slimey brown wasabi. What a shame to masacre food in such ways. And what a shame so many have no clue that good Sushi and tempura taste like anymore. This restaurant really needs to train it's crew and demand they don't take liberties with their own ideas without a thorough taste and approval. Think of a bunch of kindergartners playing with food. That comes close to what we were served tonight. This was a big step down from last visit six months ago. Maybe we'll try again in another six months. The management is always quick to offer free replacement, but really free lousy food isn't going to help. read more

I'd been here a couple of times before and had good experiences so my husband and I stopped in last night for a nice dinner. 3 to 3.5 stars for food taste and quality. 2 stars for service. There were two things that happened quickly at our dinner. I was seated right away, and at the end when I put my credit card on the table, it was picked up immediately. Everything else was paced far too slowly and things went a little wrong at every turn. Our appetizers came out in a reasonable time and tasted fine. I tried the shrimp shumai and my husband got the pickled garlic. I also ordered a cucumber salad (sunomono) and asked for wooden chopsticks (instead of the lacquered ones they offer standard). I got my salad but no chopsticks so I waited and waited for someone to come by the table again so I could ask a second time. Though the restaurant had a lot of staff and they were all over the place, no one would meet my gaze and no one checked on our table so I had to wait until our server brought additional food out to us to ask for the chopsticks. He apologized for not bringing them sooner and brought two pair. Ordering was a bit difficult for me. When our server first came by I pointed to an item on the menu and said "What can you tell me about your honey walnut prawns?" His answer was, unhelpfully, exactly what the menu already said. Fried prawns in a honey sauce. I asked if the honey sauce was made with mayonnaise and he said it was so I passed on it, hoping for something different. Then I asked about their Inari (tofu wrapped around rice). I asked if I could have one order, warm. He said no, it was cold. I paused and then asked if they could please warm it. He was insistent that they could not. How is a restaurant (one that does serve hot, cooked food, unable to warm something? I was sort of surprised into silence. Finally, I asked if they had something like a crunch roll (typical name of a roll anywhere I go in south california). I described it as shrimp tempura inside, with panko on the outside. He pointed me to two different rolls on their specials page that did not have a lot in common with my request. I ordered the basic "shrimp tempura" roll instead. I asked for no ginger and no wasabi and the server wrote it down (well, it was written on my final bill), but the kitchen served it with ginger and wasabi anyway, which was a concern to me due to the unwanted flavors affecting my roll. My server apologized when he got to the table with the roll. He was sorry they had added the two condiments I had asked them not to. He offered to take it back but I knew they were just going to remove them and not make a whole new roll that hadn't been brushed with ginger pieces. I declined to have him take it back and simply moved things quickly to avoid further flavor contamination. I enjoyed my roll, but it would have been better with crunch and eel sauce on the outside. I just didn't know how to communicate my desires to our server. He was a nice enough kid, but I just felt like we weren't connecting very well. Last note, as others have said, the sunomono (cucumber salad) was prepared unattractively, with raw cucumber sliced unevenly and not fanned out in the dish either. One chunk I picked up was 5 slices, all too thick and all stuck together in a giant block. I was just eating an inch-thick (or more) brick of cucumber. Only one single slice of my salad seemed appropriately thinly sliced. Additionally the vinegary sauce was nice and strong, but settled quickly to the bottom and the top tasted simply like raw cucumber. It would have been very difficult to turn the whole thing over to flavor all of it with the sauce. Uneven, inconsistent flavor and overall I would not order it again. This makes me sad. Though both my husband and I agree that we'd rather have good food with bad service than eat bad food with great service, I'm still not sure I'd return here. VERY LAST thing, when I paid, my itemized receipt ended up getting stapled to the *merchant* copy of my signed credit card receipt! As the customer I should end up with the itemized bill. If this had been a business expense I would have had a hard time getting my copy for expense purposes. Not professional, in my opinion. read more

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The best Sushi House in Sebastopol, in my family's opinion. Great ambiance, upstairs seating, parking, good chef, and the food is excellent! We love their Crazy Monkey Cold Unfiltered Saki. read more

Amazing place ++++ deserves more than 5 stars, out car broke down and while we waited for the tow to arrive we are at Sushi Tozai, Diego, our server was super friendly and the sushi was fresh, tasty and very nicely displayed. As unfortunate as having to wear a mask while working all the staff seem friendly and happy to be at work. I recommend the NY roll, Rainbow roll and spider roll read more

Firs timers & we were NOT disappointed! Food was delicious, fresh, & exceeded our expectations. Most definitely will be back! We had the : Sebastopol Roll, Rainbow Roll & The Pink Lady Roll. Martini Prawns & Edamame for appetizers. I'd definitely recommend this place. read more

Sushi Tozai - Sebastopol, Rainbow, & Pink Lady Roll! - Japanese Near Me - Sebastopol, California

I've been enjoying sushi Tozai for years and always amazing sushi and incredible service. I leave looking forward to the next time I'll be coming back! read more

I had a wonderful dinner tonight with a friend here. The ambience was very authentic Japanese. The atmosphere was warm and inviting. The food was very good. The service also matched that. Thank you for a very pleasant dining experience read more

You can really taste the quality in this sushi. The chef really cares what his customers think. You must come here! Best Unagi I've ever had! Seems like most people are familiar with the sushi place next to the pizza parlor... that place is crap! Unless you're into grocery store quality. read more

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Meh.... I did lots of yelp research before checking this place out. I had bought a living social coupon based on the high yelp reviews. So, tonight was the night to put proof in the pudding. Oh lord, maybe another night would have been better.... We split the prawns martini to start. That was actually the highlight of the meal, in my humble opinion. I also ordered the cucumber salad as a starter. Big disappointment there, but unfortunately I was starving so something needed to go in my belly. The usual finesse of a cucumber salad was lacking because the slices were thick and uneven. I ordered everything gluten free and the salad was served with fake crab meat. Just shows the inexperience of the staff, no biggie. I picked it out. I also ordered the Philadelphia roll and Tokyo Tower. They were ok. I think the shrimp that was in my salad and in the tower roll was almost rubbery. I am not sure if it was out too long or just not fresh. It was a strange texture. My mister ordered the dragon roll and spider roll. Definitely a no on the spider roll, it was sent back due to an overwhelming fishiness. The staff was friendly and the waiter took the removed roll off the bill, but overall it won't be happening again. There are plenty of other places to get fresh, quality sushi. read more

Ive been going to sushi tozai for over 11 year's. I can't express the feeling i have for this place.. Ive never been let down .. Their martini prawns is to die for... And the samurai roll is out of this world.. Best sushi in sonoma county for sure read more

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Delicious pork katsu, tempura soup and salad. The bamboo laminate floors look beautiful but do not absorb noise very well. It's hard to have a chat with so much ambient noise. Food is fabulous. read more

Sushi Tozai - Japanese Near Me - Sebastopol, California

Decided to try a new sushi places besides the normal Sushiko and Ume. Place was pretty empty but it was right before the dinner rush so we were seated promptly. I got a dragon roll and another roll I don't recall the same for. While the dragon roll was super tasty ( eel, shrimp tempura, avo, tobiko, and sauces), the other roll not so much. The other roll was essentially scallops with spicy mayo sauce. The scallops weren't as sweet and sliky as I am used to getting and the mayo tasted like off... Not sure what kind of mayo they used. I wanted to like it but it was just eh. My sisters sweet potato roll was tasty as was her carburetor roll. Service was quick and they were very attentive to our waters (grateful for that). I'll would like to try other items on the menu to see if the roll I didn't like was just a fluke. read more

This is my sushi spot when I'm out in Northern cali...plenty of food on the menu...always fresh

What a surprise! After going to Sushi Tozai many times over the past several years with mostly good experiences, we had a terrible experience. We had an engagement with friends where we were bringing dinner including rice. Well, we forgot the rice all warmed up in the rice cooker and ready to go. It was to far to go back, so we stopped at Sushi Tozai to pick up and order. One or two the waitress asked? Two please. Five minutes later and the order arrives. I had asked for a bit of sweet and sour to go along. The order came in a tradition "KARI OUT" BOX and a tiny cup of sweet and sour. That will be $7.50. Is this two orders, I asked. Yes. Already late for our dinner I didn't argue, but was quite angry. $7.50 for a half cup of rice? What the...? I didn't know that Trump's tariffs had that great an effect. Anyway, that will be our last visit to Sushi Tozai. At 3-4 visits per year that should come to about $300.00 in lost revenue plus tips. Hope it was worth it. By the way, most Asian restaurants charge $2-2.50 for an equal amount. read more

Ordered the chirashi today. This is my 2nd time ever ordering this dish from any restaurant, and I have to say that while it was tasty, it did not measure up to the chirashi I ordered at Ume in Windsor (see picture comparison at my review of Ume). I did get take-out, and of course something will be lost in the presentation, but all the same, I wouldn't order it again from Sushi Tozai. Sushi Tozai is a lovely place, though. I wouldn't discourage anyone from eating there! read more

Sushi Tozai - Chirashi from Sushi Tozai, Sebastopol. Sorry, not sure why it's auto-rotating like that. - Japanese Near Me - Sebastopol, California

Pretty disappointing food last night. First of all, I was ignored at the front door by two employees, one of whom was on the phone. I walked over to the sushi bar and saw a sign saying it was closed. When I attempted to ask the guy behind the bar why, he basically just barked at me and went about his business. No idea what he said. I was there at opening, 5pm, and my order took surprisingly long to be delivered. The wakame tasted old and was quite flavorless. The Hamachi Nigiri was nice, but then it all went downhill. I ordered a scallop handroll ... it was dripping with sauce and the scallops were cut into very tiny pieces. No daikon, no shiso ... just a little tobiko. Very bland. But the most disappointing was the spicy tuna handroll. It was so strange ... the tuna seemed ground, as though it was beef? It was very strange. The only favor was the sriracha and that was overwhelming. The tuna itself was dry and flavorless. I sent it back. I won't be returning ... $40 for that meal was wasted money. read more

The best sushi place in Sonoma county and most definitely west county, the staff have always been so helpful navigating the menu

Great food. Fresh and presented well. The manager Alina is very accommodating and extremely pleasant. I recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a great experience! Love it! read more

Soooo good. We moved to Sonoma County 2 years ago and hadn't found our sushi place yet... well, this is it!. Great sushi. Had the Lion King, the Redwood Roll, and the Veggie Dragon. Everything so fresh ad tasty. Avocado and mango perfectly ripe. Awesome attentive service. Food came quickly. And side note - this place is CLEAN . Even saw someone in the kitchen cleaning and scrubbing as we were leaving. Sad to say but I am not used to restaurants being this clean. What a welcome change. We will be back!! read more

Food is delicious but lately the service has been terrible. There seem to be a high turn-over with waitstaff. When we've come in, no-one has greeted us, wait staff just walks back and forth with no acknowledgment. The past few times we have gone our order has been messed up, long wait times for food, hard to find our server, etc. so while the food is delicious, a big part of a dining experience is service, and for whatever reason, it has been seriously lacking as of late. A disappointment as we are regulars, and this has been a favorite spot of ours ... but it's quickly losing it's charm when one is treated rudely at the door than has to wait nearly an hour for food to arrive with no acknowledgment from server. Service -- a generous 2 stars, food 4 stars- average is 3. read more

This awful place after I ate dinner there and left a cash tip charged me an additional 20 dollar tip that I did not leave. Avoid this place and watch out for the the waitress in a brown bun read more

This place has decent enough sushi but there's not much flavor and the prices are super odd. Very limited menu. Overall disappointed.

We visited last night and absolutely loved everything we ordered! Especially the martini prawns!

My fiance and I love it here! They have tons of unique vegan options. Everything is always delicious. They even have vegan spicy mayo!

So, the Unagi Nigiri is biblical good. You ever eat something so good you don't actually want to stop chewing? This was seriously, quite possibly, the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. Really. Ever. Really. I don't think I can ever eat other eel again, now. I'm Minnie the Moocher, they've got the Gong. OK, real review stuff: PROS: -Larger sashimi and nigiri menu than most of the other sushi places around (at least almost all places in Petaluma). Everything we ordered on the menu (and we ordered sashimi, nigiri, rolls, sunomono...) was as good or better than we expected. -Their rolls are a lot longer than the competition's. -Beautiful wood decor, rice paper curtains, fresh flowers at the table, elegant tableware. -real tea leaves in the green tea! A big sign of quality. CONS: -Despite all the effort they've put into making the place visually beautiful, there's really only one crowded dining room to eat in. It;s noisy, and you can hear your neighbors clearly. Not romantic. -Slightly pricier than nearby restaurants, however, the quality also seems to be slightly higher, and they do give you more pieces per roll. read more

This is my favorite sushi place, period. I few years back Sushi Hana was at the top of my list, but since the change in ownership their quality has gone downhill quickly. Consistently serving high quality fish with efficient service, Sushi Tozai is the best around by leaps and bounds. Sure, sushi is always a bit more pricey than the average night out, that's to be expected. But as far as value, Tozai is unbeatable. I've never had a negative experience with the food, and have been coming here for years. The fish is always soft and tender. The fresh salmon is great, and the smoked salmon is to die for. It's not on the menu, but I like ordering the spicy smoked salmon roll along with a bowl of hot miso soup and smoked salmon nigiri. The prawns martini is fun to start with as well. As far as saki goes, I prefer the unfiltered nigori sake. It's served cold in a wooden box. Slightly sweet, but very refreshing. Tozai is as good as it gets. read more

Good eats are where you find them, and I'd bet a pocketful of Yen that I've discovered one of the best Japanese restaurants this side of Tokyo in Sebastopol. Sebastopol? That's right, Sebastopol. Here's what I found at Sushi Tozai: AMBIANCE: The dining room is the perfect place to enjoy a delicious Japanese meal. The décor is in the stark Japanese style warmed and softened by the extensive use of natural woods. It's a calm setting that relaxes and frees the mind to concentrate on the deliciousness before you. It is also worthy of note that there wasn't a Kikoman bottle in sight. Instead, soy sauce is dispensed from attractive ceramic pots that were as pleasing to the eye as the rest of the décor. SERVICE: We were seated promptly and our server wasted no time in taking our drink and food orders. Throughout our lunch she was close at hand, seeing to our every need. That's why it saddens me to say that our server was also one of the two reasons I didn't give Sushi Tozai the five-star rating it otherwise deserves. More about this later. FOOD: Tozai's lunch and dinner menus include sections listing appetizers; soup, salad and rice; Udon and Bento specialties; Sashimi and Sushi options; along with dinner or lunch specials. The lunch specials included eleven traditional Katsu, Teriyaki and Sukiyaki items involving chicken, beef, pork and salmon. The dinner special list expands this to eighteen items. Lunches and dinners include soup, salad and white rice.. My lunch partner ordered grilled saba (mackerel) from the day's lunch specials and I chose pork katsu from the regular lunch menu. We also chose two maki sushi rolls. First to arrive were our salads and miso soup. At first the ginger and miso salad dressing seemed too strong, but before I'd finished the salad, I was wishing they'd used more. The miso soup was a blend of flavors that were as delightful as any I've tasted. Our sushi arrived next. We chose a California roll (snow crab and avocado) and a Philadelphia roll (smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado). They were nicely prepared and attractively presented. There is no room for improvement here! Our entrees and rice came next. The mackerel was subtly seasoned, resulting in what my lunch partner described as a "buttery" flavor. My pork katsu was tender and tasty with just the right amount of crunchy coating and a nicely flavored sauce. The rice, I might add, was perfectly prepared. It was even sticky enough to survive a dollop of soy sauce. VALUE: Here's the surprise. The two lunches, plus two sushi rolls, a Japanese beer, and twenty-percent tip came to $40--a fair price for good-sized portions of excellent food. I said earlier that two things prevented me from giving Sushi Tozai a five-star rating. The first reason was a broken toilet handle in an otherwise clean, attractive bathroom. The second reason was an error in our check. Our server failed to include the beer. I asked her to correct it and she did. Some might feel I'm being too picky, but my rating philosophy is, if there is ANY room for improvement, the most they get is four stars. Standards are hell. read more

Best sushi in Sonoma County for sure. Fish: Super fresh salmon and shiro marguro. Pretty much all their fresh fish is awesome except I wasn't a fan of the blue fin. Their Lotus Roll and Bodega Bay Roll is the best especially if you like lemon on your sushi. Service: The more you come the better they treat you. They practically treat us like family. They can be a little slow at times but it isn't ridiculous. The waiters know what we usually order which is nice. Price: They are a little more expensive but if you like fresh fish it is worth it. They have a wide variety of Japanese and Chinese(ish) food items so there is something for everyone. We drive from Windsor just to eat their sushi its that good. read more