This place was absolutely amazing! Fresh and delicious. The service was impeccable. We bought beers…read morefor the chefs and they blessed us with some amazing sake as a return gift. The restaurant is cozy but clean and tidy. We had a special, the "Fresa" roll. "Fresa" means strawberry in Spanish and at first, I was totally turned off because fish and strawberries did not sound good but holy moly! This was the BEST roll I've ever eaten in my life. Would definitely visit again, and look forward to visiting in the future.

Amazing service. They took us in very close to closing time and we felt like family…read more We showed up just before closing after a concert at belly up; instead of turning us away the chef made us two spectacular sushi rolls. Will be going back on our next trip to Solana Beach.

Gonzo Ramen is literally the best restaurant to ever exist. Their atmosphere offers unique decor,…read morenot to mention they have the best food, and the employees there are really nice. I always enjoy dining there with my family because they have good food that we can all enjoy together. Every year for my birthday I go to Gonzo! I simply love eating at Gonzo. First of all, I can't get over how scrumptious their food is, it is so tasty and packed with flavor. If you stand in line to order, as soon as you sit down you will have already been served. I don't know how Gonzo prepares their meals so fast, yet so delicious. Also the fact that they cook their food fresh daily is crazy to me. I've been to many ramen restaurants and no one compares to Gonzo's. My go to on the menu is the tonkotsu ramen with gyoza and chicken karaage. Gonzo also offers a very unique atmosphere that makes you feel like you're in Japan. They have waving cats, a big banana neon light, posters and a floating ball on top of the water station. The ball is so cool but I am still puzzled on how it works. Their decor can not be matched. They also have a TV that is always playing Anime. You can also sit inside or outside so if you feel like sitting inside, sit inside but if you want to sit outside, sit outside. Gonzo also does not offer reservations so there is always a place to sit. If there is nowhere to sit just get It to go, truly there is no other ramen stop better than Gonzo. Lastly, the people there are super nice, and always check up on you, they are very polite, and they always say your welcome. While you wait, you can enjoy your appetizers until your main meal arrives. Also if you ask them for a free ticket to their store, they will give you one, each member of the family gets one. You can go next door and trade them in for tokens, these tokens can be used to play claw machines so you can win stuff. But what tops that off is that all of the employees are welcoming and happy. Gonzo Ramen is the best restaurant in the world. They offer good food, an amazing atmosphere and the people there are super nice not to mention the location is very conveniently located near my house. I seriously think about Gonzo all the time. Gonzo is that go to place for me and my family.

I wasn't sure if this place would be overhyped, but it was genuinely so good! The ramen was so…read moreflavorful, and filling. By the way - the spicy is not too spicy

If I could give 10 stars, I would!!!…read more Blue Ocean is easily our favorite restaurant, and my boyfriend and I make the drive to Carlsbad every single month just to eat here. It's become our favorite date night spot, and after all this time, we've never had a bad experience. Our absolute favorite appetizer is the pork belly skewers. They are seriously unreal--they legit melt in your mouth and are packed with so much flavor. We also love the pork belly bao buns, which are just as delicious. The Brussels sprouts are another must-order. They're hands down the best Brussels sprouts we've ever had, and we can't come here without getting them. We also always order the spicy garlic edamame. The sauce is so good that we actually dip our sushi rolls in the leftover edamame sauce, and it's honestly a game changer. (The pricing is also unbeatable for how good the food is). Every sushi roll we've tried has been incredibly fresh and beautifully made. We always end up ordering way more food than we planned because everything is just that good. For drinks, the Cracked Summer is our go-to cocktail every single visit. It's refreshing, delicious, and pairs perfectly with the food. The atmosphere is perfect for a date night, the staff is always friendly and welcoming, and the quality is consistently amazing every time we visit. Blue Ocean has become more than just a restaurant to us--it's one of our favorite monthly traditions. If you're anywhere near Carlsbad, do yourself a favor and eat here. We recommend it to everyone, and we'll definitely be back next month for another amazing meal.

Boy does this place pack in a crowd! It was just two of us on Wednesday early evening, but we were…read moreseated immediately; no wait time at all. That was a big plus for us because we were hungry. We were seated at the main dining area but when we requested for a table so we could sit side by side versus across from each other (the room was sooo loud that we couldn't hear each other) the waiter (darned we didn't catch his name) acknowledged and rearranged a table nearby so that we could sit beside each other. Another plus! The place was busy busy and sooo noisy. We were fine with the wait to take our order (about 15 minutes), which gave us enough time to peruse the menu. We ordered the Omasake box with side of sushi rice, Salmon Teriyaki entree with xtra veggies and no rice, a side of Kale salad, and Passion Fruit Cheesecake for dessert. No menu drinks; just water, which came aplenty, as our glasses were never empty while we continually guzzled down our h20 (this summer has been such an excruciatingly hot one) - another plus for this continued h20 service! Now for our order: The Box came immediately, and without hesitation my companion dove in with chopsticks already waiting in hand. I picked on his meal, while waiting for mine. The Salmon entree came about ten minutes later, while I salivatingly and happily endulged myself with its delicious flavor. The Kale salad came quite late (almost like an after thought) as we were almost done with our main orders. The salad had an odor that wasn't quite pleasant - as probably most extremely green veggies do smell when grilled. I liked the taste; my companion did not, as he stated it tasted too bitter. I requested a side of ponzu sauce to tame down the bitterness, and I also ended up tossing some shredded white garnished radish noodles (left over from my companion's box meal) to mix in with the kale salad...hmmm, tasted better, but we eventually requested to have our salad to go. My companion was still hungry after his boxed meal; I was not, but we both agreed not to order anything more, a we awaited the dessert. The cheesecake dessert was the best part of our meal here, as the taste really pleased our still hungry palette. And yet another plus! All in all, the meal was pleasant. A little pricey (over $100) - thank goodness we skipped the drinks, less regular h20. Would we return? Sure. Service was great, and food was pretty good. Just a bit pricey... but then again, most sushi and seafood eateries are. There is plenty of parking and a plethora of other eateries nearby. If ones palette begs to differ from sushi or seafood.

This is one of the best sushi places in SD! It's definitely a best kept secret. The food and…read moreservice is on point! It's in a business office complex. The crispy tuna was ridiculously gold! The rice is crispy, the tuna and avocado is so delicious. Has the perfect rice and tuna ratio. This is a must get. All the sushi here is buttery and just melts in your mouth. I loved the salmon belly, toro, and tuna cheek. You can taste the quality and freshness of the fish. The A5 wagyu is insanely good! It's smokey, buttery soft, and rich. This was our favorite dish of the night. The bring the tuna cheek in this cool smokey container. I used my chopsticks to split it in half and it's so soft it just cuts through so easily. For rolls, I really liked the workplace roll. It had a little hint of coconut, crispy, and creamy texture. The ice cream was interesting! I'm not an uni person, but the uni ice cream was creamy and really good! The black truffle is pieces of black truffle with vanilla ice cream. It has a strong truffle flavor, but somehow works lol The matcha creme brûlée has a strong matcha flavor. I thought it could've had a more balanced, creamy flavor.

Not that Ken needs my review or notes AT ALL, but I do have to say it's one of the best kept…read moresecrets of this area for sushi. I consider myself a sushi lover and find myself eating it on a semi-regular basis. After a while, you begin to tire of the go-to spots and that's what happened to my husband and I. So, I took to Yelp to help us find a new place to enjoy and that's when Ken Sushi Workshop popped up! The first time we came, we had our two kids with us (10 and 5 years old) and were seated right away in one of their igloo style dining tables outside. We ordered a variety of nigiri and I have to say how wonderful everything was. The fish is fresh and the presentation of it all was delightful (my husband loves their eye droppers for soy sauce!). We returned again, this time just the two of us, and once again we really enjoyed our experience. Service was welcoming and attentive and we couldn't have asked for a better time. Definitely going to keep returning and appreciate all that Ken does!

This was her first time coming here. We've driven by this place so many times on our way to other…read moreplaces that I never realized it was here but yesterday when I was looking for a sushi place in our area, I sorted by the top rated, and this was one of the top ones so I thought it would only be fair for us to give it a chance when we arrive to the parking lot I realized that it shares a parking lot with a motel so parking can be a little bit tricky. We had to park down in the far end in front of a Starbucks that looked closed, so I'm sure there are some peak times that this shopping center is very hard to park in so just a heads up. The restaurant itself is very beautiful inside the bar looks really great. They've got some beers on top and there's also a sushi bar that you could sit in front of. I don't know if they take reservations, but we didn't have any. It was just the two of us and we were seated at a high top right away. I think they were a little bit busy so it took a moment for somebody to come by and get our drink order we ordered a couple of beers and a little bit of sake and a couple of waters. I do want to add a sidenote that those waters never appeared, but I realize that everybody was a little bit busy that night so I'll always forgive a slight oversight. Onto the ordering, we started off the evening with the Hamachi with jalapeños over a cucumber salad, and that was delicious and then we had some sashimi, which was really good as well. My husband had ordered the crab croquettes when we got there, and it was at the end of the meal when our waitress came over after I asked about them that she said that the kitchen had just informed her that they no longer have them so a little inconvenient when like 30 minutes had passed I realized they weren't coming so it wasn't too big of a deal, but my husband was very excited about those and he didn't get them lol. My husband, I think had their namesake role and he really liked it. I had their salmon skin handle. It was all right. I really liked their avocado maki roll, but I like that everywhere. I think it was the owner or maybe a manager who came by and asked us how everything was. I let him know. It was our first time and they were gracious enough to give us a free dessert which was deep-fried Biscoff cookies with vanilla ice cream many other delicious things that I'm sure I'm not naming and everything about it was really good. Five stars for the overall experience I think we'll be back another time.

Came here on a Sunday evening in a group of 3. The restaurant is in a plaza so there is plenty of…read moreparking. When we got inside, we were able to pick our seats. The restaurant has bar seating, where you can see the chefs prepare the sushi rolls in front of you, or regular table seating. It's spacious and clean, and they have some TVs on the wall where they were playing golf and soccer games. They offer traditional sushi offerings, such as nigiri and sashimi, and rolls, but also have hot appetizers, ramen and rice dishes. We opted to get sushi rolls this time. We ordered the spicy salmon roll, the rainbow roll, dragon roll, limitless roll, truffle shuffle roll, karaage and the 3x3 sashimi combo roll. The rolls didn't have too much rice on it and had a lot of the ingredients inside. There were about 8 pieces per roll. Our favorite ended up being the truffle shuffle roll. The fish was fresh. The karaage was lighter than I'm used to, I believe they used white meat instead of dark meat and it wasn't as oily. The staff are very friendly and attentive. They came by to ask us how we liked our food and brought us water refills. Would come here again to try the other rolls!

3.5 stars We came here because they're closing at the end of…read morethe month. So, Yes it was a bit pricy but i wanted to try it before it closed. Made reservations online for the tasting menu $225. The place is in the middle of nowhere, from the outside you'd never guess it was fine dining. We started off with a trio of little bites, a tile fish gungakn roll, fried mochi threads, and an acorn cracker filled with camembert cheese. The raw tile fish gunkan was ok, the mochi threads were nice and crunchy, the camembert cheese was too pungent for me. Hamachi/Raspberry - slices of Yellow tail and raspberry in a ponzu sauce. The ponzu stood out most and gave it a salty profile i couldn't really distinguish between the hamachi and the raspberry as the textures were similar. Artichoke Kohlrabi gyoza with a bri sauce. This dish was very good though i thought it was more like ravioli than gyoza. It even looked like ravioli. I think they just called it gyoza to make it fit the Japanese theme. Shrimp tempura was delicious! it was lightly battered and fried and put in a shallow bowl of shrimp broth. They said it came with dynamite sauce but i think it was just kewpie mayo. Very good and one of my favorites of the evening. Chicken wing stuffed with scallop, part of the wing was deboned and stuffed with a Hokkaido scallop. It was very tasty, the scallop was very sweet and tender. I wish the skin of the chicken wing was crispier. It was quite charred but did not crack when bitten into it and a little rubbery. Tile fish had a very crispy skin and came with a beautiful sauce of i think apples and apricots and a walnut butter. I really liked the sauce that was spooned on the plate. another one of my favorites of the evening. Duck done 2 ways; roasted and a fried tsukune meatball. They both came in a light carrot sauce. The fat on the roasted piece was nicely rendered and the duck meat very tender. The tsukune was nicely fried and crispy and still rare inside. The palate cleanser was a pine ice cream with Aloe Jelly, The pine ice cream was quite refreshing and smooth i thought the aloe jelly was a bit strong tasting. I think flavor came from the geranium but something had a strong taste to it. The dessert was also one of my favorites White chocolate with hokkaido milk powder on top of miso ice cream and slices of tangerine. It was supposed to be reminiscent of a creamsicle. The Hokkaido milk power was magic on the shards of white chocolate, the miso ice cream was very smooth and dense and when eaten together with the pieces of manderin orange did remind me of a creamsicle. They gave us a trio of finishing dishes a trio of bites; Castella cake, Kokuto jelly and raspberry mochi. The castella cake didn't really stand out, it wasn't the sweet dense cake that im used to. The kokuto jelly had that deep brown sugar taste but was too stiff in my opinion. The raspberry mochi had a strong raspberry flavor which i loved and had a good chew to it. Service was exceptional, water was filled many times almost every time the water glass went down 1/4 it was filled to the top. Each course was preceded with the proper utensiles and were cleared after each dish. i must have had at least 4 forks and 4 spoons. Definilty 5 star (Michilin style) service. Food was very good maybe 4 stars. Value was ok maybe 3 stars. If you divided the courses by the price it came to $25 per course. If you looked at the ala cart menu, many of the items were there and could be had for less than $25, of course not all the dishes on the tasting menu were available ala cart. But i feel if you sat at the bar and ordered a cocktail and maybe 5-6 dishes you't still pay a hefty price but it would be much less than $225. I feel like thats the way to go instead of the tasting menu. Come here if you want exceptional service.

I learned that Matsu will be closing at the end of this month and possibly reopening at another TBD…read morelocation. We decided to come for a weekend dinner. To my surprise, there were plenty of time slots available for this fine dining establishment located in a former neighborhood corner bar and grill in Oceanside. There was a small parking lot to the south of the building which had dedicated spots reserved for this establishment. A copy of the tasting menu was posted outside next to the entranceway. I took a picture for future reference because little did we know that we would not be seeing a list of the preset offerings during our visit. The inside was a dimly lit open dining space with a bar in the back left corner. The decor was minimal with some greenery and figurines along a couple of the walls. After mentioning that I had made a reservation, a worker guided us to one of the round tables in the middle of the room. The reservation required that we pre-pay the cost of the entire meal plus tax. Our server asked if we wanted any enhancements like caviar or wagyu. After declining that and any wine or sake pairings, the staff began to bring out a procession of courses in the following order... * Otsumami - Gunkanmaki, Mochi Fry, Acorn | Camembert * Kanpachi | Raspberry * Artichoke | Kohlrabi | Brie * Ebi Tempura | Dynamite | Tentsuyu * Chicken Wing | Imo | Scallop * Tilefish | Apple | Walnut * Duck | Carrot | Wasabi * Pine | Aloe | Geranium * White Chocolate | Miso | Tangerine The dishes were each beautifully plated. The chicken wing was partially deboned and stuffed with a mix of potatoes and scallop. That was my favorite item of the group. The dessert was also very good with the citrus from the tangerine paired with the pieces of white chocolate. Locally caught tilefish was the replacement protein for the pork neck course. The fish was cooked well, however I would have liked to try the pork preparation as it had been listed on the tasting menu. An aspect that confused me was the number of courses for the $229 price. I had expected ten, but when we declined the wagyu upgrade for the beef course, there was no lower tier of meat served as a substitute. Therefore, we only received nine courses but still paid as if there were ten. That should have been explained by the waitstaff because the value of the dinner became less with one fewer protein serving. Not providing the actual menu for the evening was a major faux pas and oversight. Every high-end restaurant where we have enjoyed a pre-fixe dinner always furnishes the menu du jour. The top-notch service was the reason why I rounded up my rating of our Matsu experience to a four star level.

Ambiance, service and food was all amazing. First time trying the ramen here and I absolutely loved…read moreit! Had the spicy tantan ramen with the karage steamed buns that were delicious! Loved the strawberry sake cocktail too. Ko was our serve and did a fantastic job. Will be back again!

Marufuku is one of my favorite ramen spots and honestly some of the best ramen I've ever had. I've…read moreeaten here multiple times and also order it for delivery pretty often -- it's consistently delicious. I also really like their combo with ramen and chicken. It's a great amount of food for the price and everything goes so well together. I've tried other items from the menu too and have always been happy with the food. Great flavors, good portions, and very reasonable prices. Definitely one of my favorite spots when I'm craving ramen!