Restaurant Murata

Taste still delicious. My family reminiscing as i brag about eating here again. This is salmon season and it melts in the mouth

Great service and food! I felt like I was in Japan. They cook in front of you so one may be sure everything is super fresh.

The tuna nigiri was probably the most flavorful piece of fish I’ve ever had. This is the epitome of fresh sushi.

Wow it was hard to select a legit sushi restaurant in Portland. I was on a work trip and basically had one chance to find something good and avoid all the highly rated sushi restaurants where people based their judgement on spicy tuna and rolls. Yes, I am absolutely judging their judgement.
As a walk in with a party of 9 on a Tuesday night, they couldn’t accommodate. As a walk in party of 3 on Wednesday night, we got a seat at the bar though. Our omakase nigiri consisted of (in no particular order) maguro, tai, hamachi, amaebi, hotatogai, mirugai, unagi, king salmon, smoked salmon, tako, salmon roe, and a seared fish I don’t remember the name of. Of these, the hotatogai, mirugai, tako, and hamachi were so fresh that the flesh was significantly more firm than 95% of the sushi restaurants you usually find. When the chef pulled the head off the amaebi, its muscle fibers and tail moved for a good 15 seconds afterwards. While the unagi and smoked salmon sounds like standard fair at a sushi chain, the way it’s done at Murata is something special.
Oh and we got tomago at the end for dessert. The egg broke while the chef was slicing it and it was sorta meh, but didn’t damage our experience at all. The price after tip came out to way less than I expected. This left me curious though: another guy seated at the bar with a different chef was served toro and despite being hungry still after the 9^th course, we were not served toro when we asked for additional recommendations. Either the other guy was suckered into paying for something subpar or the chef didn’t feel we were worthy of his toro. Oh well, still a great dinner!

Absolutely pinnacle sushi. Weird stuff — check. Traditional — check. White jackets and ties — check. Real Japanese here no doubt!

AMBIANCE: clean, bright, homey. There was the bar, tables and private booths. Perfect and quiet for date night.
LOCATION: located at the foot of some business building I believe. Not too hard to find. Street parking is metered.
SERVICE: amazing service but maybe it’s cause there were only 2 parties there at the time. The servers were in kimonos, very friendly. Very accommodating.
FOOD: amazing sushi. I got 3 rolls and all 3 blew my mind. Flavors were fresh and clean. Coming back for sure
PRICING: it was spendy, personally I would only comeback for special occasions. It was $ 2 – 3 more expensive than your average sushi place. But I could see it being totally worth the quality, flavors, and service.

Fresh sushi from chefs that know what they’re doing.

We ordered Omakase by $ 75 per person. Foods were delivered with explanation of way to cook and materials. Taste is so good and I felt I am in a Japan.

Excellent sushi & sashimi, enhanced by amazing service!
My only wish is that they had more seasonal fish specials and better omakase — great sushi chefs should ask you not to use soy sauce because they’ve made it perfect as is.

A terrific experience. I came here on a Tuesday night at 9:00 pm just as they were closing (putting up the closed sign), but Mr. Endo saw me walking towards the restaurant and reopened the door for me. So nice.
I sat at the sushi counter and ordered all the handroll specials for the day along with a few other handrolls and called it a night. I wanted to finish it off with a Tekka Maki. The chef, rather than cutting up the pre-​made roll, put one together from scratch; not difficult mind you for a trained chef, but it was another sign that they really cared about service and quality.
This is a traditional sushi shop without all the frills. It is old-​school sushi and it is the real Japanese experience.
If you are nostalgic for traditional sushi or you have outgrown the Americanized fluff, come here and be transported to Japan for the evening.

Dissapointment. While perusing the menu, server noted there was a lack of vegetables so we made some substitutes. Server then informed us of a $ 5 upcharge for asparagus (in season)! Moving on from there, I ordered the salmon neck which was good, but poorly presented. Unfortunately, the teriyaki chicken was very stinky and had to be left nearly untouched.
Certainly not worth the trip.

Thank you for treating us so nicely and for a delicious dinner. Mr. Murata and the other sushi chefs were wonderful. The service was friendly and welcoming. My husband had a very delightful sushi dinner to match the cute sushi birthday card I found for him. Our waitress liked the card too, plus she sang happy birthday to my husband when bringing him some AMAZING green tea ice cream. I also highly recommend the Hamachi Don meal! Hope we can bring a bigger group next time we’re back to get to experience the tatami rooms. Lovely and authentic.

Outstanding sushi… I’m in here at least once a month and they never disappoint. Tiny place, but just adds to the atmosphere. Whether you’re at the bar, at a table, or in one of the sitting rooms (the best!), you’ll have excellent service and fantastic, fresh fish.

A short walk from our apartment, so the location is perfect for us. Been here twice now and have not been disappointed! We have sat at the bar both times, because we find it fascinating to watch the chefs with how they make everything, its like an art form. Both times i have had the chefs selection of sushi, nice and fresh! will keep coming back here for our local sushi fix :)

This place offers a good variety of sushi and other traditional japanese dishes. I spent 7 years of my life in Japan and i feel comfortable saying the overall quality is very decent.
That said, me and my party felt we have been rushed to pay the cheque at 8:50pm well before the stated closing time (10pm), without even having the chance to order a dessert or some sake at the end of our meal.
I gotta say I was disappointed as I find it pretty rude. With other options offering good quality sushi in town I will not come back to this restaurant.

A surprisingly good traditional sushi restaurant in an office park in the middle of downtown Portland.
They have a great Nigiri-​style selection with some items that you often don’t see at other sushi restaurants. They have live raw shrimp instead of the more common frozen raw shrimp. They also have Gizzard Shad, Cockle, Ark Shell and Squilla.
This is a small restaurant, but they have 3 tatami rooms. The tatami rooms have the holes in the floor so your legs don’t fall asleep.

Visited Murata many years ago when I first lived in Portland and another 8+ times 2012 – 2015. Sushi has always been great and I usually go with the less «vanilla» options-​live scallop, fresh octopus, mirugai (live when possible), whatever fresh/​live calm variety they have including a rare sighting of live Pacific razor clam sashimi, all of the various snapper varieties, all of the belly cuts and any other toro varieties they have, aji, uni, etc. You get the idea.
It’s a tiny joint, and fairly austere, never had bad service. It’s not inexpensive, at least the stuff I order, but it’s good, fairly plentiful cuts and fresh. If you want huge portions, hipster/​millenial trendy/​nouveaux PDX there’s other spots. There’s a bonus if you happen to get in late during lunch and linger a tad too long while sitting at the sushi bar. You can watch them carve up whole fish and maybe even score a few awesomely fesh cuts! Give it a whirl.

Great assortment of sushi. I was brought there by my coworkers and we ordered unagi, scallop, salmon, tenpura, rolls, sashimi and more. Pretty fresh, delicious, and well made. First time I had unagi and it was bomb, def new fav.
We sat in a room that had a recess to hang your feet if your not up for sitting せいざ or when your legs go numb lol. Green tea was great. Polite and professional waiters. They forgot our edamame but we were full so we canceled that.
Gooood fooood ごちそうさま!

Murata’s is hands down my favorite sushi spot to go to. If anyone else tries to tell me otherwise then I won’t bother listening. My family has been eating at Murata for at least 10 years. It never disappoints.
Murata offers select items that you can’t find elsewhere. Every time I go they seem to have a new fish depending on the season. These fishes range from kampachi, to other white fishes such as shiromi or engawa. The aji at Murata is one of my favorites and comes with a sprinkle of scallions and ginger matched with a ponzu sauce for dipping. I highly recommend this. My absolute favorite would be the Amaebi when the season is right. If i’m there with my family we clean out the stock of fresh live Amaebi without a doubt. The Amaebi is so fresh that when you bite down near the tail, your upper lip might get a little slap from the nerve reaction. Of course after eating the delicious shrimp the heads come out fried and are seasoned to perfection. Many other restaurants fail at this part. Either the heads come out too seasoned or with no flavor at all. Its hard to find such high quality sushi cut in thick portions. Murata san does just that. For instance whenever they have Otoro it is sliced generously and melts in your mouth.
Another reason why Murata’s trumps all sushi restaurants is the tradition. The space is small but they manage to keep it authentic with a couple tatame rooms to go along with the regular tables and bar. The servers are always prompt with refilling hot tea, water, etc, and they are extremely knowledgable. Murata san is a very generous person who gives away these neat little sushi lollipops (not flavored) on special occasions or if you just ask i’m sure he’d give one out. I will never forget the time when he made a special menu for a reservation my family made. They brought out apples with the inside carved out and replaced with crab meat inside. The crab meat soaked into the shell of the apple and by the end of the meal you were left with a sweet and savory taste bomb. I guess that day we were lucky because I have never seen that on the menu since.
Murata has been around for a while and knows a thing or two about sushi. In fact, Hiro san, owner of Mirakutei once worked together with Murata. It is interesting to see how the two have paved their way into the restaurant scene in Portland.

I had the exact same experience as Tom — here on a Monday, sat down and asked for the chef to share his favorite nigiri. Was blown away with the fresh variety, and impeccable service too. Are my fill and was expecting something crazy but only came to a bit under $ 40.
I’d definitely recommend Murata to my friends, I’m coming back for sure!