Taka

Excellent service and recommendations by the chef. The fresh shrimp was to die for. I wish the bar was a little more extensive but the food was great.

I entrusted my Valentine's Day dinner here and want to thank you guys for the incredible white glove service and delicious meal

I came in early in the week with a heart shaped plate, dropped it off with the manager/chef and reserved a specific table.

Day of... everything went PERFECTLY without me having to remind and of the staff when I came in. The head/main chef gave me a nod and remembered me

Ate $300 worth of fresh sashimi and it was the perfect choice. Thanks again

I picked this place because my wife wanted sushi, and she rarely does. Taka had a reservation.

This place is amazing. The fish is so fresh and had a number of things I never have had before.

We sat at the sushi bar with Taka himself as our sushi chef. I ordered the things I like. My wife got what she likes. I chatted with Taka and learned a lot.

The ankimo here is made here. Most places buy it made, Not here. It was excellent. I also had a bluefin sashimi sampler. which was 2 pieces of bluefin, 2 pieces of chutoro, 2 pieces of otoro. Delightful. The Japanese scallop sashimi was also excellent.

The saba was the best i've ever had. it was so incredible. Sardine was suggested and it went well with the saba, with shizo leaf inside. Really good.

I finished with comparing japanese and san diego uni. loved the contrast. both great. Then i had amago, also recommended, as dessert sushi.

Great fish. Prepared very well. Great selection. Given the incredible quality, the prices are fine. It's not ayce or budget sushi. It's super high quality.

The place is small, but it's comfortable. the design is simple, yet elegant. the chefs all wear ties under their outfits. the waiters all wear ties. this is a really great place,

I love sushi, so it was a no brainer when my boyfriend surprised me with a reservation here for my birthday dinner.
From the outside the place looks upscale and modern. I thought this would be a place to get authentic sushi with good cuts of fish. A treat to my usual sushi stop. And while the sashimi was incredible, the service and atmosphere was subpar.
I honestly have no idea who our server was. One person sat us, another took our order, a different person brought the food and someone else brought the check. No one came to check on us during the meal. See if we needed anything. I had to wave someone down twice just to get a water refill. It felt like the business just opened and none of the staff knew their rolls.
On top of that, it felt pretty dirty. Our table cloth was heavily stained. The restroom was nasty. For the price I expected nice chopsticks and cloth napkins. We got wood and paper. Even my chair was torn up.
Unfortunately, the good food only isn't enough to bring me back to this place.

I love love love this place; whenever I feel down thinking of all the nasty places in some ghetto areas of LA (especially one time in valentines ) wow the amount of sacrifice( disrespect)
Then, I come here with my family and friends to cheer up and forget the sad times. Best service, excellent fresh sushi, yum. LOVE IT

I've never done the Omakase at a sushi spot and this was the perfect first time. I got exactly what I wanted, some old favorites and some new exciting and unexpected delicious selections. The appetizer was fantastic, oyster and uni with marinated salmon roe, monk fish liver, jellyfish (1st time), and octopus and squid. The main dish pictured had halibut, Spanish mackerel, red snapper, amber jack, ahi, toro, clam, giant clam, scallops, and for a tasty treat the deep fried the Spanish mackerel bones! So good! Highly recommend. We shared 1 Omakase and also got some edamame and miso soup. And if you're a saki fan or not, definitely try the nigori unfiltered saki. It's so good and refreshing! 10/10. Really glad I walked into this place. Reservations are recommended since it's not very large, but there's plenty of bar space so if it's just 1 or 2 you shouldn't have a problem

Saikō! (最高 / the best)

Amazing presentation and precision

I love sitting at the bar to talk with the chefs. What dedication and pride when you meet a true Itamae.

Live Sweet Shrimp
Live Lobster served sashimi style with the head cooked into your miso soup

Raymond was my sushi chef talked with me about my selections as well as other items on the menu.

This is in the top 5 sushi experiences I've had outside of Japan. Well done you. I'll certainly make this a regular when in SD. I mean after I've had some Mexican food of course.

This was was average, nothing special or spectacular. I found this place through social media so I decided to check it out, especially since it was located in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown, which was where my friends and I were staying. At first glimpse, it was really polished and fancy. There was a chef's counter, indoor and outdoor seating. Since we had reservations, we opted to seat at a table indoors.

Service was really slow. We waited a long time for someone to come take our order, and had to flag down several people to get a waiter's attention. Not sure why that was the case, especially because we saw other tables getting served.

The food was also just okay, nothing remarkable.. We tried ordering a variety of sashimi and rolls to try but honestly none of them really stood out to me. I would say I liked the oysters and the yellowtail and blue fin tuna sashimi the most, but I wouldn't order either rolls again. They were pretty basic, and I felt like the rice was over powering.

I would say for the price and quality of food, this place wouldn't be top of mind since my experience here was just average.

We made a reservation for three people on a Saturday night. My friend found the place so we decided to check it out. It is right in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown. They offer indoor or outdoor seating but we opted for indoor since it was cold outside.

Fresh oyster 1/2 shell (4/5): This was a good appetizer. Of course the oysters weren't the same size but one was noticeably smaller. It had a spicy daikon oroshi ponzu sauce topped green onions. The sauce was a little too salty for my liking though.

Yellowtail sashimi (3.5/5): The fish tasted alright but wasn't the most tender. Nothing wrong with it but just wasn't as good as I have had.

Blue fin tuna sashimi (3.5/5): Same thing with the tuna. It was good but felt like it wasn't the freshest.

Salmon roll (4/5): A pretty basic roll so it was good. The rice however was a bit too mushy. No avocado which I feel usually comes with a salmon roll but that's ok. It came with 8 pieces.

Soft shell crab roll (4/5): Again, another solid roll. Nothing to complain about but nothing amazing. The soft shell crab had a nice crunch.

I will say the service was slow. I saw many servers assisting other tables but it took a while for anyone to take our order. The hostess said she'd send someone over to us but that didn't happen. We had to flag someone down. Overall it was an okay try. I probably wouldn't come back since it was average and there are other spots to check out.

We passed by and decided to give it a try. Our server seemed unfamiliar with the menu. Despite ordering three items, she forgot our yellowtail roll, and it was never served because they are out of it. This disappointed my companion. The sashimi was good, especially the bluefin tuna, and overall, the service was decent with a tranquil ambiance.