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Cafe Japon - CLOSED
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Garage, Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
Zach H. said: "Popped in for lunch because I had a groupon. When I arrived, there were only 2 cars in the parking lot which concerned me... but I was pleasantly surprised. They have your typical hibachi combos -- NY steak, Filet Mignon, chicken,…" read more »
26 reviews for Cafe Japon
Review Highlights
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"Dave claims "it's the best sushi roll I've ever eaten." In 16 reviews -
"try the "playboy roll" and the white tuna sashimi." In 3 reviews -
"Their rolls aren't too small and are always VERY fresh." In 3 reviews
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26 reviews in English
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Review from Dave and Krystal S.
Long Beach, CA
5/18/2010
I used to work at the Plaza Mall and would go to this sushi place sometimes. When Dave and I weren't married he would come into town and I'd take him there. the best roll is the $25 Buddha Roll. It is huge and it has lobster and many other goodies inside. I know $25 is a lot for a roll but it's worth it! It also comes with a beautiful flower in the middle and a tea light, very romantic!
Dave claims "it's the best sushi roll I've ever eaten."
The inside is small but very modern with multiple TVs and a long bar for you to eat at. they have a great selection of Japanese beer and wine. Their rolls aren't too small and are always VERY fresh. Good appetizers, great entrees, perfect roll selection, and good service. It's not exactly very cheap but the food is great and most important FRESH. -
Review from Cheryl T.
1/12/2011 4 photos
Located in International Plaza, Cafe Japon is a pretty modern Japanese restaurant with an extensive menu consisting rolls, sushi, and sashimi. I'm a sucker for the fruity sushi rolls, so I liked that Cafe Japon had a variety with mango, strawberry, and pineapple.
I didn't find this place to be anything special, but it was not bad either. Everything was just average. I would probably come back to Cafe Japon again if I were in area and in the mood for some sushi. -
Review from Patrick K.
Tampa, FL
11/11/2011 1 Check-in Here
Well it is good. I am not going to say great but for the most part you cant lose. The Sushi is great but a bit pricey but then again if you want good sushi then you need to be ready to pay for it. I agree with one of the other reviews that the Buddha roll is the best because of the taste. The low down is if you are in the mood its worth your time.
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Review from Sally L.
Tampa, FL
5/4/2009
Tampa, Tampa, Tampa. I'm disappointed in you. People actually think that THIS is as good as it gets?! For shame! Clearly you need to open more restaurants like Yoko's, I Ai, SoHo... because that's just sad.
My coworker treated me to lunch here today & while for the most part I enjoyed my lunch, like Stephanie D. I just wasn't wowed. Or even really satisfied. I have to totally agree -- nothing struck me as *fresh*, & while when I was eating I couldn't put my finger on what about these otherwise decent rolls was off, I realize that yes: they were pretty much warm. NOT good. Also, the rice should be stickier -- it wasn't as dry as I've been unfortunate enough to encounter at some places, but it left me wanting.
& this may sound odd to the American observer who's used to bigger = better, but their rolls were too big. They need to be packed down tighter, so they can be popped into the mouth in one bite. Even a small mouth (like mine). My companion's got a big mouth & even he seemed to be struggling a little bit; I managed -- but barely.
In short, it was a decent enough lunch & I sure won't argue with free, but neither I nor my coworker will be returning here if we can help it. -
Review from Carlos H.
4/10/2007
When I came here for a quick to-go meal, the staff was very courteous, going as far as rounding down my price. The California Rolls were so fresh and delicious, I loved it; when I ordered it the waiter modestly said that California Rolls taste the same everywhere, but that is NOT true.
California Rolls are a measure of taste, if you will. Cafe Japon passes the test, with original looking rolls, and fresh food, a clean establishment, with good prices, in a great atmosphere, they have much going for them, and I hope to go there again. -
Review from Lyta T.
Berkeley, CA
8/15/2008
My favorite sushi spot in Tampa. The theme is zen when you go in for a really early dinner. Monkey hangs out at the bar...he was upset to learn that the bar wasn't full liquor, and that his banana dacquarie would have to wait. I enjoy the tea. It is green like nature, it is green like your envy for my time in Florida. I'm trying to remember if Japanese restaurants in San Francisco generally served sugar and cream with their tea...I don't think so. I'm trying to remember if they offered forks at their tables...I don't recall forks. It's the little details that I either enjoy, or am slightly offended by. A fork at an asian restaurant? Cream and sugar in my green tea? That's why we prefer the bar, we never come across a fork or sugar or cream at the bar...they're not invited to my dinner.
I had the opportunity to sit across from the incredibly talented sushi chefs...always a delight. Everything on the plate is edible, including the orchid. The uni was the freshest I've ever had. I felt like Timon and Pumba from the Lion King, eating meaty worms and catapillars from my well decorated plate. Every dish, every sashimi rose, every roll, flaming clamshell, was picture perfect. My bossom buddy would take pictures for food pornography from this restaurant...so we can have our sushi and eat it too. I was addicted, for months on end, I couldn't miss a day.
The restaurant would feel almost like the zen of a forrest. I would sit their all day, except Monkey would always need that banana dacquarie. -
Review from Nat W.
8/11/2009
I stopped by this restaurant during shopping at the International Plaza.
They have sushi and kitchen menu just like other sushi restaurants. But I ordered just 2 rolls for me and my husband since it was just for nibbling.
For one of the rolls I had, I had to order customized, since they didnt have something close to what my husband likes which other sushi restaurants usually have. We were sitting at the sushi bar and all the chefs looked very unhappy and pissed off. When I asked one of them to make the customized roll, he was not nice and very reluctant.
The rolls were okay...not bad and the price was slightly higher than regular sushi restaurants.
P.S. I met a girl who used to work at Cafe Japon told me that the sushi chefs got no tips that is why there were not nice and lazy. They do not make orders if they were for the servers they don't like. Even the servers do not get their full tip at all. She said no matter how busy it was, she got the same amount of tips every night. What a horrible owner! I am glad they went out of business! -
Review from Coty S.
12/22/2009 2 photos
If you were like me and stuck at the mall wanting to avoid Cheesecake Factory, then this is a great escape. The inside is a really cute café with Korean music videos playing.
The sushi here is mediocre and can take 30-60 minutes for them to prepare. I definitely do not recommend ordering anything raw here. My roll had raw tuna inside and it was almost impossible to chew at times. However, their cooked rolls and vegetable rolls have excellent flavor and the rice has a good consistency.
I do not recommend any of their appetizers, they are very bland and most of them are reheated frozen foods. My lunch here last time consisted of Agedashi Tofu without dashi, and two rolls. My total was $31.00. Just goes to show you the pricing.Listed in: Japanese & Sushi - GA & FL
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Review from Ryan M.
Tampa, FL
11/17/2007
I'm somewhat of a regular here, so I'm a bit basis, Cafe Japon has the best sushi in Tampa.
I usually like to start off with a Sapporo beer or hot sake followed by the ginger salad.
On the sushi menu I like nigiri: salmon, eel and tuna. For the specialty rolls I like: dragon, playboy & caterpillar.
It's conveniently located in International Plaza. -
Review from Norman M.
Tampa, FL
3/14/2010
- NOT AUTHENTIC -
If you are looking for a real japanese establishment, this is NOT the place. Though most people wont know the difference, the owners, the servers, and the chefs are not Japanese.
Walkin In -
My girlfriend and I walked in here to give them a try because we didnt want to go to the other franchised places (ie cheesecake factory.) We made eye contact with 3 Hostesses/Servers whom did not acknowledge us for about 3-5 minutes. Between this time, my girlfriend, whom is also Korean, overheard the 3 of these girls arguing in Korean who would get to serve whom based on appearance and tip. Finally, one of the girls look at us and greeted us and brought us to our table.
Ambiance:
The dining room is very attractive and clean. They have a few flat screen TV's playing Korean Music Videos (another dead giveaway that they're not Japanese) and the dining room was pretty full of patrons.
Service:
The girl that we had was fairly nice although you could tell she was new to being a server. Her language was pretty amateur to serving standards. She greeted us and brought us our drinks. Then, when she came back, her first question was "Do you have any questions for me at all?" ... which was somewhat awkward because she never asked if we had questions in the first place. Then I asked her what the difference between 3 different sashimi dishes were and she said verbatim " the difference is size. the more you get, the more expensive it is." That was pretty flattering.
Food:
For a whopping (over priced) 25.00 I got the Sashimi/Sushi combo. I will say that the fish was very fresh but again, overpriced compared to restaurants in the area.
My girlfriends was a whole different story. She ordered the Udon with Tempura (15.99.) Her Udon soup was DEFINITELY not Japanese inspired. It actually tasted like wonton soup with a little more soy sauce. What sealed the deal was the obvious packaging of the Udon noodles. It was 100% just like the ones that you can buy for 1.00 a packet at the Oriental markets. I took pictures of it which I will upload later. Totally not worth 15.99.
Our server was as helpful as her serving capacity would allow her, however her coworkers were complete snobs. My girlfriend said that they were very open in korean about making fun of their patrons. At the end of our meal, I asked one of the hostesses if I could pay with cash instead of card and she walked with me over to the cashier whom had already swiped my card and pointed at it, then walked away, leaving me to grab my own check.
I have no issues spending money but spending 50.00 last night at this restaurant for 2 people was a definite was of money.
ps. there is one last thing I need to mention which effected my appetite. One of the hostesses appears to be pregnant, which also appears to effect her behavior because she is really rude. She also needs to cover herself up a little more then a very light and tight tshirt and an open long sleeve top. Also, her face was very oily, and a wet nap would've helped.
I would like to say that I am "sorry" if I offend anyone who reads this, but I reality, I am not. This is exactly what my dining experience was here and if its anyone that should be sorry or embarrassed, it should be the owners of this place. Then again, the "Owner" wasnt at all ashamed to go up to a table of American clients and say "arigat" as if he was Japanese.
What a Trainwreck.
I wont come back here again and when we were walking away, we made the joke, "Dang, for 50.00 bucks, We should've just went to Cheesecake Factory."
1/5 stars. -
Review from Tad W.
New York, NY
12/10/2009
If you have been to a few sushi places and want to try something new then check out this place. It is well located in a great mall. The rolls are very creative and quite good. The service was fine and the crowd was a pretty hip mix of people.
We had a big group which did not seem to phase the waitstaff. This is not the cheapest place in town for sushi but it is a good night out. -
Review from Brad L.
Marco Island, FL
3/3/2011
This place is closed
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Review from Denise Ann R.
New York, NY
11/17/2009
Last night was my second time here and from what Kim, the sushi chef, made for me last time, we let him wing it and make us whatever he felt suitable.
Don't ask me what was in the Double Whammy Roll but I loved it. And the other party in my mouth was started with a shrimp tempura roll with other stuff in it and a few thin slices of strawberries and mangoes sitting below some roe.
Then it was across the way for dessert! -
Review from Deke K.
Lakeland, FL
6/19/2010
I struggled between rating this a 2 or a 3. The service was a 2, the food was a 4, but some places have to learn that service is everything.
There were 3 ladies at the hostess desk upon my entering at 2 in the afternoon. This is not a high service hour and one would think I'd get instant service. Two turned their backs and one greeted me. She sat me at the nearest chair, wanting an immediate drink order. I prefer to pair it with my meal, so asked for water. This came quickly with a lime wedge full of seeds.
High priced places need to remove their seeds! The waitress never came back after delivering the water. I had to get up and flag her down. That should reduce this place to one star. Zero attentiveness skills--or caring.
I could not find the types of Japanese I ate in Japan. Only one kind of udon, no other noodle types. Few fish dishes. The sushi seemed reasonably priced but I didn't try any. This place was more "fusion" than true Japan. I ended up with a spicy grilled chicken dish. I ordered the macha, green tea. It was very authentic and delicious.
I had a small salad with ginger sauce. Cold and tasty. lots of effort at fancy garnishes, enjoyed using the chopsticks. Salad or soup came with lunch up to 2:30 pm.
The spicy chicken dinner was great, nicely spicy, good but very soft vegetables (not how Japanese cook them). Fine sticky rice. Filling meal. $9. I would come back for a second go at the food, but I'll not have it high on my return list due to the service. That's how restaurants go out of business! -
Review from Darrell D.
Tampa, FL
1/24/2010
I like it here! the sushi rolls have some flavor...try the "playboy roll" and the white tuna sashimi. I was not impressed with the tempura but, it was not terrible.
Prices are not the lowest for your everyday sushi spot but not the highest.
The decor is modern and the service is average. Out of the 4 sushi places I have tried here in Tampa over the last month, this is still the best so far.
I would deffinately retun here. -
Review from david J.
Glen Burnie, MD
2/2/2009
I was visiting Tampa, and I heard about the cafe Japon's Playboy Rolls.
I tried playboy roll and tropicana rolls, and also the Kinky Rolls. Well all three Rolls were fantastic and with my wife Bonnie ordering Shrimp Yakisoba was excellent also. Service was pretty good, but since it was friday night, too busy to be attentive al the time, but i was satified by the freshness of the food. The owner Vincent assured me that the all the fishes are delivered from True world foods, which is the most reputable sushi distributor, who also delivers to most famous names like Nobu, and Morimoto restaurants. The owner also was proud to say that, he gets deliveries of fishes 2 to 3 times per week, which is a must for the sushi fishes which needs the rotation of the fresh fishes every two to three days to be fresh.. Well, I will be visiting cafe Japon again, when i am in town again. -
Review from John C.
Daytona Beach, FL
4/10/2011
Was great!!! Close Jan 2011.
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Review from Amy N.
Metairie, LA
10/26/2010
Meh. I've had better sushi. I was visiting Tampa. This restaurant is conveniently located in the International Plaza. I ordered lunch take-out. I did not blow my mind. I asked a few simple questions about the menu items to the waiter and he could not answer me.
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Review from Stephanie D.
Washington, DC
8/21/2008
If this sushi was the best in Tampa...I'll pass. We tried the spicy tuna, catepillar, crazy roll, and dynamite roll. Nothing really tasted "fresh." In fact, the raw rolls were downright warm. We had better luck with the dinner entrees, which were not bad, but not spectacular.
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Review from Aimee R.
8/1/2009
I shared a sashimi boat with the rest of my family. We all thought that the fish was very fresh and they gave us a really good selection. All the varieties of fish chosen were very tasty! The only thing that I didn't really like was the soy sauce. Out of all the things but really it tasted even lighter than a low sodium soy sauce which I normally use. It almost tasted like tempura sauce. Other than the soy sauce, overall I think that the restaurant is in a good and in a great location. Save room for gelato right across the way.
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Review from annie k.
Los Angeles, CA
4/7/2007
High quality fish, better than average nationally, much better than you would expect in Tampa. In fact, strangely, a bigger problem than fish quality was adeptness at putting maki together--though good, they were flimsy and kept falling apart. Nice setting--love Bay Street.
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Review from Meghan P.
Birmingham, AL
12/6/2009
I had a crazy roll (4 kinds of fish with cucumber, avocado, and masago) cherry blossom (tuna and salmon, with masago and a cherry). They were pretty flavorless, and the texture was kinda mushy... but I was super hungry (I'd been traveling: had breakfast at 4:30 am, and no lunch...) so I ordered another, the sakura roll (salmon and white tuna ontop of a spicy tuna roll).
The sakura roll came with three kind of sauces squirted all over the plate: a white horseradishy one, an orangey hot mayo, and a red chile paste. The spicy tuna was super spicy- and really had no flavor except chile. It overpowered the fish on top and so the overall flavor was chile and mayo.
On the plus side, they play Japanese pop videos on TV, and the staff are quick and good about filling up your water glass. They aren't unreasonably expensive. -
Review from mike m.
Traverse City, MI
12/7/2009
i went back two times for the playboy roll that week.
took my boss the second time and he loved it too.
go check this place out. -
Review from David H.
Sarasota, FL
10/28/2009
Dishwater-like miso soup, tough Teriyaki chicken, ok noodles, mediocre sushi. Waitress said nothing is made fresh there and that seemed to be the case. I used to enjoy the Bamboo Club that was a few steps away at the International Mall. Next time we will go to the food court and avoid this place. A big disappointment.
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Review from Desiree T.
Waldorf, MD
5/25/2010
SUSHI HEAVEN!!!!!......i love sushi and have tried a few places here in Tampa and since I've been to this place a few years ago this is the only place I ever want to go to for sushi.....The DELICATO omg!!!! DELICIOUS ....my husband and I order that and the playboy rolls every time we go there and they are gone in about 2.5 seconds! lol...took off a star b/c service here SUCKS....horrible, border line rude, don't expect to get checked on or get any refills....I don't really get it, it's common sense that being a server includes providing customer service but sadly enough these people just don't seem to get it....if it weren't for the food i would NEVER go back there again BUT at last i do LOVE their SUSHI!!!!!!! YUMMY!:)
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Review from S G.
Chicago, IL
3/21/2010
Stopped by for a quick lunch. Really fast and friendly service. The ambiance is more upscale, like the mall it is attached to. The sushi is pretty good although there was a lot of rice on the sashimi rolls.
I had the teriakyi tofu lunch special which was excellent.
