Izumi Sushi

My bff took me here for a belated dinner and OMG it was amazing. The restaurant wasn’t too full we got a table right away. The waiter and waitress were friendly.
Now the food… Come hungry or bring a friend! We order the katsu ton don and it was this crispy pork chop in a light gravy served with cabbage salad, rice and miso soup. The pork chop was bigger than my head!!! AND it was only $ 15!
We also had a side order of spicy tuna roll. The rice was soft and the fish was fresh. I definitely will be coming back to try other dishes and sushi.

I work in this office building and have eaten here many times over the last 2 years. It’s fine, as far as the food goes. It’s reasonably good and affordably priced. However, as of this week, they have been closed down by AHS for «extreme unsanitary conditions». I won’t be going back. For reference to food inspections here, simply google «ahs restaurant izumi calgary».
Edit: AHS has revised their original report, withdrawing their more inflammatory language. I have e-​mailed to find out the reason for this retroactive edit.
Update: I had meant to update with the information from AHS, and then promptly forgot since I’m getting old or something. AHS advised that the original report was not withdrawn. It’s just that only a certain number of current reports are available online. All of their original findings stood at the time it was then inspected. We still don’t go there.

My initial thought at Izumi Sushi could be something to inspire me as Japanese restaurant. The sushi giant roll was cut unevenly some was big some was too small into bite size. :S But, I still need to give them a credit for freshness of the seafood. Services was okay.

Very nice soba dish, cold with side of hot tempura, (2 shrimps and veg)
Gyoza so so, not really cooked (5 pieces)
Gomae was nice, sesame was sweeter than usual but went well with the spinach and Chinese broccoli
Lunch for 1 with tea, $ 31.00
Waitress spoke no Japanese but some Korean

My very first visit to Izumi was on a Monday. All this time, I’ve never visited this sushi restaurant or its predecessor Tokyo Garden, even though its just around the corner from me.
I’m very happy I finally did, because it was some of the best sushi I’ve had in the city. The menu is large, overwhelmingly so, as I wanted to try everything. I settled for some ebi (part of the $ 1 specials on Monday) the veggie Yama roll, which had shiitake mushroom carrot and egg, along with a thin covering of rice. It was crazy delicious and a nice change from the usual cucumber/​avocado rolls most menus offer. The gomae was amazing. Just the right amount of sauce, having the perfect amount of peanut taste. The seaweed salad was a surprise. It looked like thinly sliced green peppers, yet gelatinous at the same time, but turned out to taste crunchy and a little bit tart so good. The crunch roll was my final dish, and it had just a tiny amount of raw fish, which I usually don’t go for, but was so fresh I plowed through that real quick. I have to admit, there was a topping on it that looked a bit like tiny rabbit turds mixed with baked beans. It was very spicy, so I took that off, and it left a nice heat to the roll.
Seeing as I can walk to Izumi, I will be back to visit in a jiffy.

I like that they have daily specials… kinda like a pub! lol.
I like that they have a fair amount of cooked/​hot food items on the menu (great for those who don’t eat sushi).
but…On a busy night, service is slow, though still with a smile! ;-)
I think it’s a nice option for the south… though I can’t wait for Kinjo to open in millrise! (oops can I say that?)

Since my best friends can’t NOT drag me for sushi, despite the fact I generally have no love for Japanese food and loath sushi, I wound up in here last weekend.
I was cranky, sore and exhausted after moving, so I was ready to find EVERYTHING wrong with this place.
And yet, I found a quiet, calm place where the portions of the foods I wanted to eat (Goyza and yam tempura, as usual) were MASSIVE and pretty damn good.
The sauces may have needed a bit more strength, and some of the yam strips were a tiny bit undercooked. Yet, for the most part, it was a good meal. AND it came, with tax and tip, to under $ 18. Which, considering i was leaving absolutely stuffed, was a pretty sweet deal.
Although I didn’t touch the sushi, the girls said it was great, and it was beautifully presented.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re back there very soon!

Two words: Chashu Ramen. The absolute best ramen I’ve tasted – ever. And I’ve traveled around the world eating ramen. Be sure you give it a generous sprinkling of tongarashi.
YUMMMM!

Sweet juniper, I am still thinking about the meal I had here. The sashimi… was oooh so good.
When we came in here, it was fairly empty and quiet, but not uncomfortably quiet. We tried a few different rolls and some sashimi. Generous portions and the quality is oh so amazing.
This is some of the best quality sushi I have had in calgary. Delicious. Pricey but worth it in my opinion.

We were shopping down south and stumbled upon this place by chance. We knew that Tokyo Garden used to be here but did not know that this place replaced it since we really do not come to this part of town as much as we used to.
On the day there we came (a weeknight), there was a special on their Special Sushi Rolls so we ordered a few plus a sushi boat. The amount of food that we ordered definitely was more than what we could eat because of the large size of the special rolls. The size difference between the small and regular size special rolls were not that big. I recommend ordering the small size and just order more rolls if your party is small.
Overall the sushi rolls were good and innovative. The sashimis were fresh. The server was Japanese but was helpful to us even with her limited English. The next time I find myself in this part of town, I will definitely consider coming to this place again.

It’s a shame Tokyo Garden went under, it’s been around for a long time and I’ve literally visited it 5 times every year since I’ve discovered it 10+ years ago.
Having bought the restaurant directly from the owners, Izumi has the same décor. They could be working on getting a new one, but I have no complaints about the old Tokyo Garden look.
Their menu is quite different. I’m sad that they didn’t replicate the Sukiyaki hot pot I always loved getting but I’m impressed with their rolls and look forward to trying their RAMEN.
The rolls and sushi portions are quite large but I agree with the consensus here, it is a bit pricey. Then again compared to the hole-​in-​the-​wall joints (Wa’s) and the fancier Sushi restaurants (Sukiyaki House) Izumi falls in the middle. Fish are prepared well (let’s not kid ourselves THERES NO WAY STRAIGHT FROM THE OCEAN SUSHI COULD EVER GET HERE) and their hot food menu is amazing.
Considering it’s the best sushi joint closest to my area, I like Izumi.

I was a little disappointed when I walked into this restaurant this evening. The entire staff has been replaced, and none of the interior space has been renovated.
Essentially all that has been done is the nameplate on the exterior, and the menu and has been reworked.
As for the the menu yes they obviously still have sushi, hence the name. I also had a beef teriyaki dish. I have to say with all honesty the teriyaki sauce was tasteless, or lacking the sweetness I have grown accustomed to when eating teriyaki flavored dishes in other Japanese restaurants.
I have to say the portion are a little larger then when it was Tokyo Garden, but it is reflected in the prices as well.
we also tried a few selections of sushi which compared to any other sushi bar in Calgary. Which consisted of a chicken teriyaki roll, and a california roll, tamago sushi, and ebi sushi.
In summing up our dining experience at Izumi’s, I would have to say I was expecting a little more when I walked through the doors.
Will I be back? maybe in a couple of months, to see if they continued the renos inside the place any further. At this point, I really don’t see anything that jumps out at me that says hey this place sets me apart from any other Japanese resto.

I was quite sad to hear my beloved lunch time staple Tokyo Gardens was going out of business. When they said a new sushi restaurant would open in their stead, I was skeptical, but was willing to have an open mind. Tokyo Gardens had a great lunch menu and a very affordable price. Many a times I forgoed my packed leftover lunch for their lunch bento, it was that good!
Well enter Izumi Sushi. The décor was pretty much kept the same as it was when the resto was Tokyo Gardens. The servers were quite friendly and actually Japanese. I was excited to see that they also offered lunch bentos, at exactly the same or close enough price as Tokyo Gardens. I had the bento c which was quite large for around $ 13. it came with soup, salad, and a choice of main (I chose sashimi) and california rolls.
Here’s where Izumi actually surpassed Tokyo Gardens for me, their california rolls were made with real sweet crab meat. Not that «imitation crab» which was what Tokyo was using and the reason why I never ordered their cali rolls. The salad was made of mixed greens which was a pleasant surprise, many sushi places usually have the good olé romaine or iceberg. The dressing was not the tasty creamy dressing as Tokyo but more of a vinaigrette, which was just as good. My sashimi was fresh and very tasty.
My one colleague had the teriyaki chicken bento (bento a) and gave her enthused approval at around $ 8.95. The bento was huge and came with soup & salad as well. Another colleague had bento c which was pick 2 cooked items (around $ 12.99), she had tempura & ginger chicken and was very satisfied.
Izumi’s menu is defintely bigger with more fusion type sushi than Tokyo G’s. one of my colleagues who actually doesn’t eat that much actual sushi, only the cooked stuff, was quite intrigued by the different sushi rolls pictured on the menu. She said that she would actually try some of them since they look so deelish on the pics! I am excited to try them out for dinner soon!
All in all, although I will miss the food, the service, and the value I got at Tokyo G., Izumi Sushi is a worthy replacement. Great food, reasonably priced, and very good service. In fact, i might even like them better than Tokyo Gardens!
Til next time,
Jules

Wow– restaurant prices are skyrocketing in cowtown…
and sushi prices have gone up astronomically.
I used to go here 10 years ago when it was Tokyo Garden and they had $ 1 salmon nigiri.
Now the prices are about double to triple… and roll prices have gone insane… there were $ 20 rolls…
Okay, then we saw some of the rolls and they were HUGE with lots of fish…
but I like my rolls «normal» size– futomakis are a PITA to eat as it is, and these are like 4-​bite megafutomaki and not my cup of green tea.
I’ll give them 4 stars though, cuz everything was fresh and tasty, and they had a kids menu and were super good with them.