Average. I don't like giving meh reviews but here's why it's a 3. The food isn't amazing. The prices and the portions are decent if you order something other than sushi. I like their lunch bentos but some of them aren't as good as others. The udon bowls are ginormous but the broth is simple and leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sort of on the fence about this place. I've definitely had better. I've also gotten the hamachi/negi maki here and you can't name a roll after scallions if there aren't going to be enough in them. Kind of weak. read more

Symphony Sushi - Seafood udon and yellowtail/scallion roll - Japanese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Classic staple in back bay for Japanese and the sushi never fails to impress. Recommend ordering online during the lunch rush.

During my time working in the South End, this was one of the more high end, Japanese cuisine options in the area. A Friday Treat, if your will. Fresh ingredients always. Can get busy during lunch hours, but never ridiculously packed. They keep it clean and their prices are acceptable for the service and food. Had my first hand roll here and honestly have never tried them from anywhere else (if you know hand rolls, you know freshness of the fish is key). read more

I love this place! tucked away and best music. their sushi is amazing too! love everything

Dinner at the symphony sushi--interesting menu, wonderful meal for a fair price. Service was terrific and I will certainly come back soon.

Ordered Crazy Maki from Symphony Sushi to go and there was visible hair on top of the rolls that could be seen before even opening the package...very disappointed. Disposed of my entire order which was the rolls and salmon and rice soup. read more

Symphony Sushi - Crazy Maki - Japanese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

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My friends came in during lunch time and got the lunch special bento box. Was only $10 so we had to do it. Food was good, not amazing. Perfect if you just want something affordable. read more

Symphony Sushi - Japanese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Always really good food every time I go. Have never had a bad experience here! Would highly recommend dining here for lunch!

The host was very rude and rushed me to order, this was my first time trying sushi and wasn't sure what everything was. Was pressured into getting something I wasn't sure about. And turns out I'm not a fan I got shashimi when I wanted sushi... never again going back read more

My go to sushi place in Boston, always. Mexican roll, fire roll are to die for. Service is fast and fish is so fresh

Fast and friendly service. The environment was quiet and inviting. Ordered the spicy combo and salmon combo; bth were delicious.

Symphony Sushi has replaced Fugakyu as my regular place for sushi. that is saying a lot! but for the last several months I have eaten there about once a week, sampling a wide variety of items from their lunch and dinner menus and I now feel qualified to give them a solid overall 5 star rating. the reason is simple - quality for price. the sashimi here is on par with any other top japanese restaurant. even without Fugakyu's recent hike in prices, the fish here at Symphony holds up to the competition and may actually be even better! every single time I have come the sashimi has been excellent. and the prices are the lowest I have seen for top grade fish in boston. now Im usually a straight sashimi or nigiri girl, but the rolls here at Symphony are creative and delicious! again, you can sample the menu without breaking the bank, so go ahead and be adventurous! my favorites are the crazy maki, the alaskan maki, and the fashion maki - all very tasty! the lunch specials here include miso, salad, rice, gyoza and sushi! all for under $10. what more can you really ask for? delicious curry tonkatsu lunch combo would be my recommendation. (I am really picky about gyoza but these guys make the best!) for dinner I have sampled many dishes but my fallback seems to be the udon. it is my favorite udon I have found in the city (so far! Im always on the hunt) and it is certainly the most MASSIVE bowl of udon I think I have ever seen in my life. I always get the tempura udon so I cant speak for the others but the broth is heavenly - not too bland, just the right amount of salt. on a final note, the service here is amazing. friendly, attentive. especially for such a student hang out, this place is so great they could really get away with horrible service, but the girls that work here are just the sweetest ever. if you haven't been to Symphony yet, get ready to be pleasantly surprised. there are so many great affordable menu choices so don't forget to bring your appetite! read more

I'm in love with Symphony Sushi. Everything's always fresh and scrumptious, and despite it being located in the "Back Bay" area, it's totally affordable! Cheap, actually. Miso soup for $1.95? Yes, please. Spicy Tuna/Salmon for $5.25? Yes, please. And at a maximum of $11.95 for huge, DANK specialty rolls? Yes, please! I recommend the Snow Mountain, Caterpillar, Christmas and House Dragon rolls. I never usually spend more than $20 when I visit this gem (closer to $25 if I get a glass of wine), and always leave satisfied. For a sushi spot in Boston, I don't think you can do much better. Douzo is still the best I've ever had, but it's about twice the price. And Haru is garbage compared to both places - the portions aren't nearly as good and the sushi always seems stale. My only complaint is that I wish they'd be more accurate with estimations for waiting time. It seems as though "15 minutes" is their magic number, but from like 6-7:30 pm it's always closer to 30. Oh well. For the price and location, it's worth it. The service is great: speedy when you're in a hurry but they never try and rush you out. The atmosphere is perfect as well. Great spot for a date, or to catch up with some friends. You won't be disappointed, I promise! read more

Not incredibly impressed with their selection.. and I've tried several types of sushi.. along with the avocado salad and spring rolls. The sashimi lunch special, however, is a fantastic deal. The cuts are super fresh and it's a nice tidy price for lunch. They're really very friendly.. minus the whole.. moving me around the restaurant. 1/2 the time I go in by myself.. they seat me at a big table.. then later move me to fit in a bigger party. I suppose I could say no.. and stand.. well.. sit and stare them down.. but I don't like to cause a fuss when it's really unnecessary. Otherwise, food is timely (for those of us on a lunch break) and the waitresses have everything under control. This place is small, so I wouldn't bring more than a few people. It's usually crowded anyhow... NEC, BAC, Northeastern kids.. along with the business people of the area. It's definitely good for listening in on conversations. PS - Angie.. apparently Jillian is still pissed at you but she's going to your birthday anyway. Girlllll.. I would not wear anything white if I was you.. read more

I have eaten at Symphony Sushi about 8 times over the last couple of years, and before tonight always had a good experience there. The Good: The sushi is good. The fish is fresh, and there are many excellent maki offered. The noodle dishes and teriyaki dishes are also very tasty. The service is efficient and food is delivered very quickly. The atmosphere is very pleasant. The furniture, utensils, and decor are very nice as well. The Bad: My only persistent complaint would be common with many sushi bars around Boston: you cannot sit at the sushi bar and order directly from the sushi chefs. It is important, when eating sushi, to get input on the freshness of the seasonal fish directly from the experts. Like in so many places here, instead you have to order through a server, even though you are sitting directly across from the chef. It also might have avoided the unfortunate incident I am now going to describe. Tonight, my girlfriend and I sat at the sushi bar. Our server very politely took our order of four pieces of sushi. I ordered using the Japanese names of the fish: one order each of sake, maguro, hamachi, and shiro maguro. When our nigiri arrived, it was salmon, mackerel, yellowtail, and white tuna (escolar). I pointed out to our server that we hadn't ordered mackerel, and she had to have her supervisor come over to correct things. Apparently an honest mistake had been made, and she had misunderstood mackerel for maguro. This makes sense, they sound similar. The manager was not entirely pleasant about the mixup, openly saying it was the server's mistake. Oh well. The mackerel was taken away and later, we received four pieces (two orders) of maguro. My date and I took this to be complimentary for the mistake. Later we ordered some maki. When our bill came, I noted to our very polite server that we had been charged for two orders but had only ordered one, and thought that one had been complimentary. She went to take care of it, but once again had to involve her supervisor. Much to my displeasure, the supervisor accused me of lying and saying we had ordered two maguro. I told her that wasn't the case, and furthermore if I had ordered two, wouldn't there have been two mackerel as well? I asked her if that made sense and she responded, without looking at me, "No, it does not make sense." She then admonished the server in front of us, telling her she had made two mistakes, and begrudgingly took the 4.25 off of our 50 dollar bill. Even more distasteful, as we were leaving, the supervisor was still admonishing the server publicly. There was nothing to admonish her for in the first place, and even if so, to do so publicly in any language is bad taste. If I got the names right from the receipt, I want to say first to Dao that I am very sorry that you got in trouble for a simple mistake. And secondly to the supervisor, you were much too hard on her, insulted me and my girlfriend, and it made the business look very bad to me. read more

This is sad. I loved Symphony at first, but the honeymoon is over. There was the time I found a giant hair imbedded in my nigiri. Then there was the inedible spicy beef udon bowl. Now they've stopped making the phoenix roll that I used to order on request, and the menu seems flat and uninteresting. On my most recent occasion here, I was disappointed by both the spicy scallop roll and the tempura fish roll. Their interpretation of spicy scallop is a cucumber and avocado roll topped with cooked, chopped scallop swimming in spicy mayo -- not at all the delicate, silky hotate I was longing for. Symphony's tempura is heavy enough to patch a leaky roof, the fish roll drowning in a sugar-sweet eel sauce. read more

I order one beef dom on Friday and said take out. But they gave me one yesterday night rice and hard to eat. And they said I am looks like hurry so that gave me this kind of rice. But I did not hurry anything. This way is so rude for any customers. By the way I am student and I usually go this shop. And I promise I will not go again read more

Symphony Sushi - Japanese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

Not all sushi is created equal. One need only go to Symphony Sushi to see that this is true. I went to Symphony last night to get my fix (I sound like a junkie, and I kind of am when sushi is involved) and left feeling more than a little queasy. Dishes to avoid (is it too easy to say everything?): Spider Maki - After eating this roll, I thought I had consumed an actual spider. That's how it sat in my throat. Mexican Maki - An avocado-laced spicy tuna roll? Sounds good to me...until you smother it in a nearly inedible, tabasco-infused spicy mayo. Idaho Maki - How do you get a sweet potato tempura maki wrong? I still don't know, but they did. I got a couple other rolls as well as a white tuna carpaccio to start, and they were ok, but the meal as a whole kind of gave me the heebie jeebies. read more

If ever you are a group of 3, or a ravenous duo, Symphony has just the cure for your scurvy maladies. The sushi boat is a coherent melody of nigiri: from tuna to salmon to albacore, all flavors of the sea are paid the utmost respect. Accompanied by two standardly delicious rolls (the spider and a tuna maki), this boat offers enough omega-3's to cure even the most atrocious of sailing ailments. But, then, why only three stars? Simply because while it might be wonderful gesture that warm sake flows through ceramic pouring containers that are replenished without request, it's a bit of a nuisance once the check comes and you realize that sake isn't soda...and that refills aren't free. It's also notably annoying that requests for water were ignored until the third drunken hand raise pleading with the waitress for hydration. read more

Update on eating in the restaurant. They no longer offer their sushi through foodler. We walked over to have a late lunch/early supper on a weekday, and it was pretty deserted. Our service was totally fine, contrary to some of the other reviews here, but again, it was pretty dead. First off: the music - loud and obnoxious. I know it's a "college place" but how many college kids these days want to hear Daughtry and "Sk8er Boi"? What the hell. The noodles were GROSS. The veggies were fine, but the sauce in which the noodles came tasted like an old attic trunk. A SALTY old attic trunk. Bleah. The house saki was pleasant, warm, and properly intoxicating. No complaints there. Miso soup has a real MSG/canned taste to it. They may make it fresh, but Ginza's is way better. The sushi. It is the averagest sushi anywhere. The tuna sashimi, while cold and tasty, is a bit dry, as though it's been in the fridge for too long. Same with the salmon. Yellowtail sashimi was great. Shrimp sushi was gross. Dry as a bone. Between the negs on atmosphere, the noodles and the miso, and the "eeeehhhh..." average on the sushi, I would say that Symphony, while not BAD per se, is definitely the least wonderful place I've ever had sushi in the Boston area. Fugakyu, Ginza, Fins, hell, even Jae's beats this place. read more

I don't eat sushi, so this review is all about the chicken teriyaki. I hate to sound so boring ordering this, but it's usually my status quo every time I go out to a Japanese restaurant because I hate seafood, including all types of sushi. However, unlike most Japanese restaurants, Symphony served up a mean teriyaki. Pretty standard dish, but I got two delicious sliced chicken breasts instead of the typical dark meat pieces I'd usually get elsewhere. It was refreshing to NOT have to deal with the fat and gristle. I'd come back if I was ever in the Boston-area again...but it wouldn't be my first choice. read more

I wish I had kept up with my violin lessons so I could attempt to join the orchestra at Symphony Hall and get my lunch at Symphony Sushi every day. I would really enjoy a more regular dalliance with their affordable (and quite delicious) lunch specials that have got to be among the best bargains in the immediate area. It's not over the top gourmet quality and the service can be delayed, but it is super affordable and much better than other places that offer a similar menu. Call ahead for take out or find yourself a seat in this comfortable, clean and sunny restaurant, where you can have fresh sushi, sashimi, raman or teriyaki, accompanied by miso soup, all for under $10. When I have ordered take out, it is always ready when I arrive, wrapped carefully so things do not fall apart on the T. My personal favorite is the Sushi Lunch which has six pieces of assorted sushi (very fresh for me each time) and three pieces of California roll. (And don't forget the obligatory miso soup.) What does this set me back? $ 8.95. I have paid twice that at other places for less food. And in some cases, less quality. Their large menu features something for every member of the family, including vegetarians, vegans and meat eaters. I would even bring my Granny here for dinner as she enjoys spring rolls, red snapper and crispy duck, all on their dinner menu. She would miss her whiskey sours, however. They serve wine and sake but none of that good hard stuff. Whenever I go to hear some fine music at Symphony Hall, trying not to display my envy of the violin players, or find myself in the area of the Hynes, I also aim for Symphony Sushi, especially when I want a bargain for lunch. read more

5 years later & I still love this place for a casual dinner and take out during the week. Despite one little blip with customer service a long time ago I have enjoyed great food at reasonable prices time after time at Symphony. Classics I almost always order: Calamari salad Hawaii Roll Ocean Roll Idaho Maki Spicy Tuna Roll Yummy extras: Mexican roll Eastern roll Caterpillar maki Spider maki You can get a ton of delicious food here for a low price- and that's hard to do at a sushi place in the city. It might not be the fanciest and you'll probably have to wait for hoards of college kids to get up and leave but it's worth it! PS: & yes I know four reviews is intense- but this place is consistently is good & deserves props! read more

Experience: The staff is friendly and accommodating, but can be forgetful when busy. The place is very popular so depending on when you go there can be a long wait. Food: The food is amazing and they have good quality sashimi for the price. I recommend the following: 1. Sushi Pizza as appetizer 2. Spicy Beef Noodles in Soup (not spicy) 3. Sashimi Deluxe Overall: This is my new sushi place! I don't mind paying a little extra for quality sushi since it's raw you can definitely taste low grade seafood. read more

My review is based solely on ONE dish (that isn't sushi) - their lunch zarusoba. Soba isn't one of those things you can mess up. Even regular store-bought soba + store-bought mentsuyu = decent. So how is it that Symphony Sushi fails to deliver even a DECENT soba!? For one, when my bowl came it was full of cucumber slices(???). So mountainous was this heap, I had to dig deep to find my soba. Also included in the pile of veg was some chikuwa (yay!) and katsuobushi. Nice. The HUGE disappointment, however, was the crab sticks sitting at the very top. Now, I don't like crabsticks, but it wouldn't be such a huge deal if they advertised it as crabsticks. But no, Symphony Sushi has chosen to call it "crabmeat". This mixup (or blatant lying?) is baffling and unforgivable. Misoshiru was sad. I make miso soup often at home and it's not very difficult at all. Their miso soup kept separating way too fast, and was extremely bland. I know Japanese cuisine isn't the most explosive, flavor-packed, but this left MUCH to be desired. And it was just miso soup! *wrings hands in agony* Now the dipping sauce. Mentsuyu is usually made from soy sauce, dashi, mirin (and sometimes sugar). I don't know what recipe their chef follows but it tasted like plain soy sauce to me. With a VERY tiny dash of stock. Not even the thinly sliced scallions floating around could save the fact that it was just... soy sauce. As for noodles, they weren't too bad, but slightly overcooked. Noodles aren't chocolate, I don't expect them to crumble and melt in my mouth. I expect to be able to CHEW them. I will be back, Symphony Sushi, in the near future, and I hope to be able to give you an equally fair and better review of your sushi. But plainly speaking, your soba sucks. read more

This is your standard sushi place in Boston. It's quite decent, and the prices won't burn a hole in your pocket, but not too much adventurous here. Entering will reveal dim lighting and a long hallway with seats on the side. It's used for the waiting area which is appreciated since you can wait pretty long as things get busier. The menu is large enough that everyone can find what they like, even if it isn't sushi! Prices are pretty standard for a casual sushi restaurant. I'm not in love with their cut of sashimi, or their maki rolls, but they'll hit those carvings. The waiters usually seem quite busy, so you don't always get the best service. I'm not too concern over that unless they start to get rude. I wouldn't normally go here, but it's just so close to campus so everyone goes here for sushi. read more

*New decor is very nice and more upscale!!* By far my favourite sushi restaurant in Boston. I have been going here for the past 6 years and have never been let down. The price is right and they have AMAZING sushi! They have such creative rolls... My Favs: Mexican Roll Crazy Maki Christmas Maki Spicy Tuna Tempora Roll Seaweed Salad Mochi Miso Soup Ginger Salad Dressing So So so good. Wish I could go there right now...... This just made me hungry. *Ps I am not a Northeastern Student.... :) read more

Symphony sushi has a variety of different options. I ordered the spicy kimchi fried rice and a side of edamame. It was flavorful and just enough spicy! I'm defi coming back again. read more

Decent. Not great, but solid. Not cheap, but not expensive. It's... fine. Nothing to write home about. If it's close to your school or apartment, it's worth it, I guess. Just one of those middle-of-the-road sushi spots. read more

I'm definitely a Symphony Sushi fan. I came here for the first time this past Friday with a group of 14 people. I made a reservation for 7:30pm and was seated at 7:45pm. I don't blame the restaurant for the wait though since the large party before us took way too long figuring out the bill. We would've been seated on time if it weren't for them. I didn't know what to expect from this restaurant especially with these Yelp mixed reviews. My friends and I were very surprised when we realized the sushi was better than we expected. Every roll we ordered was delicious. My favorite was the caterpillar roll. It was made with such silky yummy avocado that I had to order another one for my side of the table. The only reason why I give this place 4 stars instead of 5 is because of how they roll their sushi. It's not tight. When you pick up some of the rolls, they completely fall apart. If they could only get that right, this place would be amazing and would earn the 5 star rating. Overall, I HIGHLY recommend this place for the sushi! read more

Sweet potato maki ftw. I came here a few nights ago, not expecting much from the side-street sushi spot in a highly trafficked college area. And was pleasantly surprised. It was fairly busy, with a 20 minute wait, which I had expected. What I did not expect, however, was the eclectic, dimly lit interior (hello, cool twine lamps) and speedy service. The sushi was yummy, too. I had the expected philadelphia and tried the idaho roll. Awesome. My friend tried the deluxe plate and had an assortment of rolls for around $15. Symphony, I never knew you well enough to like you, but now I think I love you. read more

Ordered take out from here this week and was very excited that I like most of the rolls! I am not a huge sushi (or really seafood) fan but Symphony Sushi catered to that fact. The cowboy maki was amazing. It came with seared beef and then this really yummy brown/sesame sauce. My other favorites were the hawaiin roll, and Idaho maki which was sweet potato sushi - yummmmyy. We did opt to order all of these with brown rice and were a bit dissappointed. It's always a bit of a risk ordering brown rice sushi. It didn't really hold that well and a lot of them fell apart pretty easily - not good for my horrible chop stick skills. Will definitely be back! read more

Symphony was neither here nor there in any respect. It's basically sushi purgatory. The quality of the fish was mediocre, and there was nothing memorable about the atmosphere, but certainly none of it was bad. I tried about five types of sashimi, from some tasty hamachi to surf clam that was reminiscent of chewing an old piece of gum. Overall, everything evened out to "eh." You wanna make a memory? I do, as does Bon Jovi, but I just don't think that's going to happen for either of us at Symphony. Eh. read more

Yes, I've experienced way better. Sure, it's easy to say, "Well, I lived in Los Angeles so of course it was better there," and change my standards, but really... I think Boston should expect better. My family walked in for lunch right when it opened on a Wednesday, around 11:40 a.m. Only a few other people where there. By 12, the place was PACKED! We all ordered from the friendly server. First, I got my miso soup. Can you say, "salty MSG water"? Wow. It was bad. Everytime I eat something that is overly salty my lips get inflamed and totally itchy... after one spoonful of their miso soup, my lips were on fire! And by the way, what is up with the spoon for the soup in Boston? You're not supposed to drink the miso soup from a spoon folks! Pick up the bowl and use your chopsticks to slurp the soup down! About 5 minutes after the salads and soups, everyone got their dishes... except for me! I ordered the pork katsu. You'd think the server would notice that everyone got main dishes except for one person at the table and check on the order. Nope. I got my katsu bento box about 10 minutes after everyone else, after I called over one of the servers. Sheesh. I also got the spicy yellowtail roll. Eh. Nuthin memorable about it. And that sums up Symphony Sushi - Eh, I've definitely had better! read more

This is my favorite sushi takeout spot and I've placed orders more than 7x. The area is convenient location for pickup and they're usually smart about organizing the orders. Like they've kept raw separate from cooked, and I was surprised whether agedashi tofu would be ok, but they cut the top of the container, and smartly covered it with a dipping dish to vent it. Sushi is always fresh and good. Our favorite Maki rolls are the Ocean, Caterpillar, scorpion, rainbow, crazy and Christmas. We also like the smaller Idaho, spicy tuna, and Alaskan maki. The Fancy Sake don is generous with the salmon. ***11.30.17*** On second thought, I'm changing the perfect review. After another takeout night some of the tuna/salmon didn't taste as fresh as the other times. It was still ok, and the other stuff seemed normal. Maybe it was a fluke compared to all the other times. read more

Symphony Sushi - Japanese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

3.5 stars. Your typical Chinese-run Japanese restaurant. Portions were generous. Perhaps most important -- the kitchen was still open at 10pm, when we got out of the nearby orchestra performance. read more

The portions here are HUGE. I honestly didn't expect much from it and my expectations coming here were initially low, so maybe it's a good thing to set low expectations first so you don't get disappointed! I ordered the snow crab cake, it tasted very sweet and flavorful, better than other crab cakes I've had in the past. The crab cake came with a salad too which I didn't initially expect. Overall, I thought it was prettty fresh. Then, I ordered the eel ramen. The portion was absolutely huge. I quite enjoyed it because it wasn't the typical pork ramen and they didn't skimp out in giving the eel pieces. read more

Five motha freakin' staaaaahs khed for the lunch bento box. Best deal in the hood, hands down! Large piece of salmon (or steak or chicken or or or )- check. Rice, check. Salad, check. Dumplings, check. Fruit, check. Miso soup, check. How much, prey tell? Under 10 buckarooooos! Hell yes., count me in. read more

So while talking to my good friend at work today we got on the topic of sushi. We then realized we HAD to have it for lunch. We got delivery here on her recommendation. I enjoy delivery orders that I can place on Foodler because I hate awkward order phone calls, so that made me happy. I ended up getting the Alaskan salmon roll which was delicious. You can tell it was good quality fish. I also had the spicy yellowtail which I am a sucker for. It was tempura style and it was spicy and flavorful without tons of that spicy mayo, which I appreciated. My friend had the salmon sashimi which was a beautiful cut and a good size along with a Philly roll which looked to-die-for. The delivery man showed up early (always a treat) and though he seemed confused about delivering to an office building (I work in the Christian Science Tower and when he called I said I'd be down in a minute. As soon as I step off the elevator I see a very confused man in the lobby holding a paper bag and looking generally lost) but he was very kind. read more

I recently had the spicy beef udon at Symphony Sushi, and I was satisfied but not wowed. Though the food leans a bit toward the pricey end (for supposedly a college eatery), the serving sizes are quite large. My udon was in a bowl that was probably 10 or 12 inches in diameter! That said, the size was a bit deceptive in that there was a lot of soup and not as much noodles. Still, there were several (more than expected) decently sized chunks of beef, which was cooked incredibly tender - almost too soft for my liking but fitting well with the dish. The udon was delicious (but I may be indiscriminate as I love all noodles). I was disappointed that the noodles were not spicy at all though I was under the impression that I ordered *spicy* beef udon. Overall, this was a very run of the mill restaurant experience, both in terms of food and in terms of ambience/service. Would likely come again, but it hasn't become my favorite restaurant by any means! read more