Masu

07/16/2008 Posted by ikenatr

In from out of town I gave this a try on a sugestion from hotel staff. The fish was nice and fresh, but I'm used to having some reparte with a sushi chef when sitting at the bar. There were two chefs who were buried in order tickets from tables. These guys were working in such a fury to get stuff to the tables that I was pleasently suprised to receive a greeting after sitting for a couple of minutes. Stone faced throughout, with sub-par knife skills, chef served me large hunks of relatively tasty but unweildly and uninspired sushi. I think this place would be much improved if a third chef was added to staff. If these guys had time to breathe they just might rise to the occasion.

Pros: fresh

Cons: poor service

05/07/2008 Posted by kerriann77

Husband and I came here for dinner. Loved everything! Prompt service and great setting! We were by the window. Loved Masu! Deff will be back! Thanks so much!

04/04/2008 Posted by djgregarious

Anytime I need to take someone out for a special night (usually, my girlfriend), this is one of the places I go. Always great food, immaculate service and great staff. The Lotus is amazing!!!

03/25/2008 Posted by samsigphi

I have gone there at least 5 times, each time the service getting worse and worse. The sushi is quite good, probably the best in portland, but it's not always worth the unfriendly, femaledogy, attitude they have towards their customers. For example, we called them a quarter until one am asking if their late night happy hour was still going. They said yes, and that we would just have to get our order in before 1am, and that if we got there in 5 to 10 minutes, it'd be perfect. We ran the 6 blocks there in about 4 minutes only find the doors locked. We called again, and they said they waited until 1am and then just locked the doors. According to the 5 cell phones, 3 watches and the elapsed time since our previous call, it was at least 10 to 1. They claimed all their clocks said 1am and that we made them wait past when they wanted to leave. Needless to say, I will probably go again because the sushi is good, but it will be a few months before I'm not poed enough to go.

Pros: Sushi, Style, Cucumber water

Cons: Service, TimeZone

03/15/2008 Posted by chefsaifir

I checked this place out last summer and it was ok.. figured I go again.. the second time was awful and the water tasted like chemicals. The plates were dirty and the staff seemed high.. I dunno don't think I'll go there again.. really love the decor and ambiance.. perhaps the teenage sushi chef should go back in the kitchen and be a prep cook for a few more years? I mean the dude looked 15 y/o WOW!

Pros: ambience

Cons: uhhhh

02/29/2008 Posted by rennspeed

After a late day some friends were craving Sushi so we decided to sample Masu. I had just recovered from the "three week crud", so with my appetite fully restored I was excited about testing my new found desire to eat. The decor was sloppy Skylab ripoff, but I smiled when I realized the space was formally what Portland insiders once knew as the "Red Door". And yes the JDM hand dryers are a novelty to behold Cucumber slices in the water were a nice touch, but the minuscule taster of Edamame really should have been an indicator of things to come. After looking over the Menu I decided to forgo Masu's $16 dollar specialty rolls for a plate of vegetable yaki soba and fried OTA tofu because I wasn't sure if my body was ready for sushi. All of the food arrived quickly, but when I received my $13 dollar noodles the reaction at the table told me I wasn't the only one who thought I had just gotten the short end of the chop stick. The portion was what I like to call "Skimp Chic" or in other words I'm going home hungry. Once I jumped in to what should have been the most remarkable Yaki Soba noodle I have ever tasted I realized that the Tofu must have been playing hide and go seek under the garnish of shredded ginger. After a short search and rescue effort I accepted that the Tofu was M.I.A..and quickly tracked down our waiter to explain the oversight. He disappeared into the kitchen to liberate the Tofu P.O.W. & Upon his return I had already inhaled my uber noodle, so I was left with a precious after dinner "bite" of OTA. I'm sure my first mistake was not ordering Sushi, but if they can't get .75 cents worth of noodles right do I really want the fish?

02/27/2008 Posted by alice110

I haven't lived in Portland for very long and I had only eaten at Mio sushi, which is not very good, until recently I had some friends in town visiting and decided to try Masu, and it was definitely really good. That being said though, its expensive, and the service was so slow. We were there for probably about 20 minutes before the waitress came over to take our drink order, and we drank two rounds of drinks before she took our dinner order. So I would only recommend this restaurant if you are in the mood for a seriously leisurely dinner. They do have really good drinks, so that is a plus, and it was happy hour when I went so they were fairly inexpensive.

Pros: fresh fish, creative menu, creative cocktails

Cons: pricey, slow service

02/02/2008 Posted by AnnaBat

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Portland. My husband and I try to go at least once a month, and it is our go-to place for birthdays and anniversaries. I frequently find myself craving Death by Sushi, the Mt. St. Helens roll, the Hello Kitty cocktail, and the Seafood & Vegetable Tempura. They used to have an amazing Calamari salad, but it must have been taken off the menu. The wait is occasionally long, so we always make a reservation now. We have never experienced any of the snootiness or rudeness that others have been mentioning about the servers. From my experience, the servers have always been warm, pleasant, and accomodating. We have always been checked on frequently, drinks refilled promptly, food brought out quickly, etc. The last time I went, I mentioned in advance that it was my husband's birthday, and they brought out a special dessert with candles that was not even on the menu. The music is great, and I love the atmosphere. We have also gone to Masu on weekends just for cocktails and the DJ. I would highly highly recommend this place. (I also love the crazy hand dryer in the bathroom! :)

01/21/2008 Posted by trenton1971

We ate dinner at Masu on Friday, January 18. We ordered death by sushi, vegetable tempura, miso soup, udon curry with steak, hamachi roll with green onion and the unagi roll. Compared to other sushi restaurants we’ve eaten at (Sinju & Koji), we were unimpressed. Death by sushi had too much cream cheese, vegetable tempura was just okay (didn’t like Masu’s version of the dipping sauce), miso was fine, my wife didn’t like the curry noodles (but the 5 small slices of steak were tasty), hamachi roll was tasteless (I couldn’t even taste the green onion that was supposed to be on it) and the unagi roll tasted like dirt and there was very little unagi in the roll to speak of. The unagi was comped since we complained about it. This was a very disappointing $56 meal.

Cons: service and food

12/15/2007 Posted by tigerkitty07

We had been to Masu for a company party several months ago and found the sushi and the atmosphere amazing. So, we were exited to try them for dinner. We were seated promptly and our server greeted us right away. He gave helpful answers to our questions about the menu. We took some time to consider the numerous sushi options, then handed in our ticket and ordered a bottle of Saki. The Saki came, along with a dish of Edamame. But FOREVER seemed to go buy before our order arrived. Others who seemed to order after we did were already being served. The hostess was near our table, so my husband inquired in the most polite way possible, saying we'd been there 45 minutes and were wondering the status of our order. She went back to check, and her answer was "it will be just a few more minutes. I checked the computer, and it's only been 30 minutes, not 45. You should have ordered appetizers." I was a irritated that she felt the need to correct us, but let it go. When our order finally arrived, we were missing the "Death By Sushi" that we were really looking forward to. A few minutes later the waiter came out with an entirely different dish. I told him that's not what we ordered. Again, we were corrected. He said "this is checked on your ticket. I can get the ticket if you want." I said that I knew what I ordered and if the dish he gave us was checked on our ticket then I made a mistake. I was certain this was not my mistake but wasn't going to argue about it. He took away the wrong dish, and moments later delivered it to the table next to us! Clearly he had the tables confused, but there was no apology. Our "Death by Sushi" came a few minutes later and it was great. We really did enjoy the Sushi. The quality of the food saved the evening. But the servers' need to be defensive and blame the customer for their own mistakes left a bad taste in our mouths. We'll keep searching for another great sushi place before returning to Masu.

Pros: Great sushi, atmosphere

Cons: Server's attitude, difficult parking