Jusco Japanese Restaurant
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Delivers: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Alcohol: None
20 Reviews for Jusco Japanese Restaurant
ALL YOU EAT SUSHI FOR THE BALLER ON A BUDGET.
The owner is a really nice guy. He's always quick to get you another order and acts sad when your done...trip out. The quality of the sushi is great for the price, the albacore is top notch (lite soy sauce and little green onion top it off ). The hot food is really good.. the fried calamari is insane..the black pepper beef will make you slap yo momma. All and all a great place to go.....snobs might not dig it so much....feel free to go to mikuni and blow $100 bucks for 2 people. I'd rather spend $30 and have money for beer..I'm ghetto like that
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It's so funny to hear the reviews about this place because I feel the same way! My friend always talks about going to Fuji's for the buffet. He said it's well worth the drive up there. So, on our way up to Tahoe, we decided to stop over at Fujis for lunch. As we drove by, we saw a long line of students waiting to get in. aaargh! we were so bummed out. So, instead of waiting for Fuji's we headed over to Juscos - BAD IDEA!
The place itself doesn't have any character, but i have to admit the old man giving the service was really nice. We ordered from the menu list for the sushi buffet. We got a spicy tuna roll, seaweed roll, some nigri, and calamari. The sushi was horrible! It was stale and had way too much rice. The best part of the meal was the calamari and that was ok. We honestly sat in the restaurant for 10 minutes and asked for the bill. We only ate half the food and they were shocked that we left so soon.
I definitely would not recommend this place to anybody!
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My friends took me here for dinner tonight. I paid $18.50 or so and I made sure to eat as much as I could lol. Among the things we ordered there was:
Dragon Roll (VERY filling)
Panda Roll
Calamari (light buttery taste)
Teriyaki Chicken (didn't like it)
Sweet and Sour Chicken (small bites)
Cream Cheese and Crab Fried Wontons (didn't have hardly any filling)
Philadelphia Roll
Rainbow Roll
Smoked Salmon Nigiri
BBQ Shrimp
Green Tea
Thai Ice Tea (already mixed and not very sweet)
All in all I had a great time and we didn't leave anything extra on our plates ($0.50 charge for each Nigiri rice left). The service was fast and friendly, the food was fresh and we'll most likely come back.
It's closed from 3pm to 5pm
Open everyday for lunch and dinner from 11:30am to 3pm and 5pm to 9:30pm.
And their dessert is, a slice of Orange, optional. And there wasn't any beer or anything but there was a bar right next door lol.
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I think the only way this place stays in business is by taking in over flow from Fuji's, which is across the way, and there can't be too many repeat customers to Jusco's after the first time. Seriously, I'm not a snob when it comes to all you can eat Japanese food or sushi, because simply you get what you pay for.
But this place is definitely not what I expected nor did it hit the spot. I was so hungry for Fuji's that I drove to Davis, yup that's still pretty far, to go eat. When I got there with my brother and his gf, we saw the line and looked at the time. There was no way we could get in before 2 P.M in order to make the buffet. We decided, since we were starving, to go to Jusco instead because we heard from friends that it was ok.
We sit down and order, the guy takes a few minutes to explain the ordering process and what we can order. Turns out sashimi for the lunch buffet, costs an extra 2$ a person and a $.50 cent charge for each rice roll not eaten, by the way they are dead serious about that.
We get our orders of cooked food, yup I literally ordered every cooked thing they had, the whole top 1/3 of the menu. Tasted the teriyaki chicken, the peppered beef, veggie tempura, calamari, crab ragoon, and finally the gyoza. It all tasted bland and ok. The high light was the calamari and maybe the crag ragoon, which comes with a good plum sauce, but the rest was Costco quality or worst.
According to my brother and his gf, the sashimi was just below average. The rice it came with was had too much vinegar and was way too soggy. I ate some of it because I wanted rice, but I seriously thought I was eating vinegar. Gross...Don't get me wrong, I love vinegar with food, as much as the next guy, but this was over kill.
We got the bill and were like $40 for the three of us. The guy charged us $.50 per rice ball not eaten, see I knew he wasn't kidding, unlike most places that let you go because they how to keep the customer happy. We left that place as quickly as we could, and looked at Fuji's and had our realization that we will be willing to wait an hour to eat there, rather than eat at this horrible Jusco's again.
I feel like throwing it all up, just to get the idea of that place out of my head. But I think the irony might be that, as the food comes back up, it might taste better that way then when it first went down. Never again...you hear...Never.
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Honestly, now that we've discovered Mizu (in Roseville), we wouldn't even think about coming here any more.
The last time was Thanksgiving of 2006.....Interstate 80 was like a parking lot, and we weren't going to make it to our Turkey Day Feast in Half Moon Bay. We said "F--- it, let's go eat sushi" (and we made the downtown Davis exit).
We had a very nice meal here.......at only $9.50 per person, the quality was good and we particularly liked the tempura, the fried calamari, the shrimp, and the various sushi rolls. Spicy tuna was very very good.
After our Thanksgiving feast, we went to see "Deja Vu" at the Regal Cinemas, on our way back home.
It was probably the Cohen family's most memorable Thanksgiving Day EVER!!! Thanks to "Jusco" for being open that day....we will be forever grateful.
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UPDATE 3-09-08:
After seeing all the trashing reviews, we can no longer recommend this place -OR- the Sushi Boat across the street.
The owners of Mizu in Roseville are opening a similar Japanese seafood Sushi buffet in the Natomas area (about 15 miles east of Davis).
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Seriously, I am willing to bet that 9 out of 10 people eat here only because they want sushi at Fuji's and discover that the wait is 1+ hours.
Well welcome to Jusco, it's located right across the street. The sushi didn't taste very fresh and like most buffet sushi is mostly rice. even though there was a nice choice on non-sushi items like teriyaki chicken, crab wontons, shrimp, and fried calamari, all of it is super salty.
It's also awkward ordering from that paper menu and having to check the boxes. The old man that works here tries very hard to please guests, and is very nice (hence why I gave it two stars)
As far as prices go, it costs a little over $10 for the lunch buffet. Fuji's and even Nobu's is a far better deal.
A couple years back, I would have rated this place a one star. But after new management last year, the place has really improved. I was served quickly. The sashimi is really good, and all the buffet items are pretty good. The tea was very tasty. The only bad thing about this place is that they don't have a restroom in the restaurant. Definitely a place to check out.
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This place is so lifeless compared to Fuji's, which happens to be right across. (I don't even know how they stay in business) Everything from the atmosphere, waiters, etc. Food is mediocre at best.
Someone mentioned it being better after management changed. I wouldn't know because I haven't been there since then. But from what I experienced, it's worth about 2-star at best.
Honestly, I'd rather wait in a long line at Fuji's (across the street) than come here, which is what my friend and I ended up not doing...we just didn't feel like waiting for 30 min. but realized we made a huge mistake! Not only is it more expensive than Fuji's, the sushi has way too much rice, that you end up getting charged waisted food, and may I say STALE sushi. BLEH! The flies kept wondering close to our plates..Not to mention, the orders became confusing; this is an all you can eat sushi but instead of going up to a buffet table, you check off what's available for lunch/dinner on the menu. We were craving for sashimi which wasn't included on their menu (made of printing paper), but when we asked, the waiter said they had it but they charge $5 more--talk about trickery! What a huge dissapointment!
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I'm a cheap college student, but honestly? I would rather stay at home and eat a slice of toast than spend money at this place.
The buffet sushi was partially covered with plastic wrap to keep off flies. Yum!
Also, the fish and rice in the sushi were noticeably dried out and stale even before you brought it to your mouth. Disturbing considering I had only selected sushi from a tray that they had just prepared and brought out to the buffet station. If that was a batch they had just made, I shudder to think about what a batch sitting on their buffet station for an hour would smell/taste like. (Though when they go down the hatches of hapless college students I suppose no one's the wiser.)
The Japanese restaurants in Davis are pretty crappy in general but Jusco is the worst of the bunch. For better sushi make the effort to go into Fairfield or Sacramento; I know it's tough for a lot of students to leave town easily but I would honestly wait for better sushi than eat it here or at most of the other places in Davis.
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I'm not so sure if my review means anything because I visited this place when they first opened a couple years ago. All-you-can-eat actually means All-you-can-eat-if-you-have-all-day. We ordered probably a total of 20 pieces of nigiris. They basically take it out to you 5 by 5. We got the first 5 pieces 20 minutes later, the next 5 pieces 15 minutes later. Hello??? Do you think i can sit here for 4 hours waiting for food??? Besides the time, the sushi wasn't good either. It's one thing if it's delicious, but if it taste like crap and the service sucks. Why would I come here???
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After craving for some all-you-can-eat-sushi buffet, one of the only options available on a Wednesday night in Davis is Jusco among a few others. Jusco sounded like an "ok" place to eat at according to daviswiki.org. The dinner sushi buffet price was $14.99 per person.
My fiance and I stopped by around 7pm and it looked weird with the tall green chairs of the booths. We were seated right away by the old man (which everyone mentioned according to older reviews on the wiki for exceptional service). After sitting down, I noticed that the restaurant was actually quite full but you were not able to tell from just walking in since the backs of the chairs were so tall! Since we've never eaten in a sushi buffet with servers, we decided to order 1 round of everything we wanted to sample; we ordered from the hot food menu as well as the sushi menu. I noticed when we were marking the menus they were slightly re-used; you can clearly see the white-out over someone else's order right underneath. I thought this was tacky....
Once the food started coming, the hot food came out first. The old man was really nice about bringing out the food quickly and tried as hard as he could to say the names of the items he was placing down in front of us. Although his English is not great, you can tell he cares for the customers who eat at the restaurant. The amounts ordered came in small sushi plates (equivalent to a nigri dish). I thought the calamari and chicken wings really hit the spot for me since I haven't had good salt and peppered foods in a long time. The sushi on the other hand was not that great. All of our rolls came on 1 single larger plate and the salmon nigri was weird looking; they did not appear to be cut correctly to be called "sashimi", the edges were all uneven, thickness varied from one end to the other....(weird...right?!) While we were shoving our faces with food, I noticed that the door to the right side of the restaurant kept opening and people from the bar kept coming over to order food.....I found that to be kind of distracting to the ambiance. (The bathroom for the restaurant is also the one being used for the bar right next door.....)
We were presented with another menu to order more food after we cleaned their dishes off and I finished off with more chicken wings. I thought that they sushi rolls had too much rice which filled me up pretty fast (and they have a sign right next to the booth indicating a $0.50 charge per rice ball left behind). Overall, the food took much longer to come out than expected but was good to the point that I would probably go back....maybe for lunch to see what the difference is like.
Service from the old man was great but not the case with the younger man. He rarely spoke to the customers and I heard him asking the old man when other groups were seated in Cantonese whether or not he had taken their drink orders yet. He was also the one in charge of the cash register; he got our bill and change to us quickly.
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The all-you-can-eat -but-not-a-buffet concept is yet to hit my hometown, so I was very excited to eat at Jusco. The sushi is average, but I can feast on my favorite, ikura, again and again and again. All I have to do is write down how many I want and they make the sushi to order. How nice to know that my sushi haven't been touched, poked and rejected by other patrons at a buffet . The made to order sushi is mine . . . all mine!!
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Ok, Fujis is bad but this is worse. The fish they use isn't sushi!!! (Note: just because it's raw and it's fish DOES NOT make it sushi). They served me pieces of god knows what part of the fish that tasted old. I was just happy that I did not get food poisoning.
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Ugly Green Chairs. Let me tell you that the back of these chairs cover every single customer in the entire restaurant. It looks empty most of the time, but once you walk in, it's generally crowded. One thing that sucks about the place is that you have to go next door into the G St. Pub in order to use the restrooms. Blech.
Besides the ugly decor and the lack of bathrooms, the sushi is just average. I mean, if you're in Davis and too lazy to drive out to Sacramento for Arigato's, then this is the place to go. My friends and I usually pay close to $20 per person for dinner including tax and tip. You fill out a paper form saying what rolls and hot dishes you want. From what I've noticed, they don't make everything you order. They just put a million rolls onto a plate and by that time, they hope you have forgotten that you ordered that one roll.
My friends and I like going and getting this one waiter. He's a really frail, old man who tries his best to speak English. I think this is my number one reason for going to Jusco's. He mumbles the dishes that you ordered and you can't understand anything he's saying. Haha My friends and I try our best not to laugh, but he's so awesome and adorable, I'd pinch his cheeks at the end of dinner if I didn't think he'd fall over if I did! At the end of dinner, you get those Japanese chewy candies and they also sell them by the door for a decent price. Give a shot. You may love it, you may hate it.
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To quote Joe Dolce:
It's-a not so bad
It's-a nice-ah place.
The couple that works here are just about the nicest people I've ever met, and come around lovingly with trays of hot dishes like teriyaki chicken skewers for you to try. While I prefer the self-serve sushi buffet style available at Fuji across the street, the great service at Jusco and the long lines at Fuji make my choice pretty clear.
Also, given how inexpensive the buffet is, Jusco doesn't skimp on their fish - each nigiri has a relatively generous slice of fish on it. I sometimes feel badly when we're the only ones eating at Jusco when Fuji across the street is packed, so I try to make a trip here pretty often.
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They have all you can eat sushi... for $10... how can that fail. well i can tell you that it rarely does. They have a pretty small place (especially compared to the other sushi buffet across the street), but they make up for it with better service and WAY better hot food options. Their garlic shrimp and garlic chicken are freaking awesome. If you get dragged out to a sushi buffet, go to Jusco.
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granted this review was from 3 years ago, but still I've never went back to that place since. Friend and I opted for this place because line at fuji's was too long (we didn't know better back then). Saddest thing was that the "tempura" was actually the salt/pepper shrimp that you get a chinese restaurants (hence it still had its shell on). Unless you know the people working there and the quality of the food, go next door to katmandu and get your money's worth. not sushi, but still fills u up.
This restaurant is very inconsistent. At times they are better than Fuji's and at times they are worse. If you don't feel like wasting your time waiting in line at Fuji's, go to this place. I use to go to this place all the time until they started going cheap on you since they weren't doing so well. But then last time I went they were good again. So its a flip of a coin with this place.
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