Tiny place with no air circulation. I guess I should've ordered sushi because steak teriyaki wasn't very flavorful.

The first time I ate here, I was excited and thought the sushi had potential, though the slabs of fish on the nigiri were just too big. The second time I went back, both the appetizer hamachi and the maguro in a roll were fishy. A total turn off, forever, there is no third chance after that. read more

Food quality was comparable to Japan for the price point. Decent pieces of nigri. Love that it's so close by. This is our new East Bay sushi spot! read more

A great "neighborhood" sushi spot! Fresh ingredients, a homie "family" vibe, attentive service, and good prices. Sure, the tables feel a little cramped, but overall a great place to go for a casual meal with family, friends, or neighbors. read more

Love this place! I've been here a few times now and the service is always good and fast, and the fish is fresh and delicious. I found this place one night after trying to find an alternative to Kirala since we wanted to make a res for 4 for sushi somewhere (and kirala doesn't take reservations) and have been coming back ever since! We always get a bunch of rolls, nigori sake, and have tried the plum wine and the sake sampler (all great) and end the meal with the tempura green tea ice cream. So so good. Prices are about the same (maybe slightly cheaper?) than Kirala, and I've always had a reservation so never had to wait but it is a much smaller restaurant with not very much seating. Recommend sitting at the sushi bar for a great experience. read more

A great restaurant that we discovered recently and have returned to over and over again. Whether you are looking for Sushi/sashimi or prepared Japanese food, try this place. Their prices are reasonable for the the high quality of their food and it is a charming neighborhood restaurant that is also worth the drive if you aren't lucky enough to live nearby in North Berkeley/Albany. read more

Very friendly, caring service. Fish pretty fresh the 2 times i went, but not extraordinarily so. i got the sushi special both times. 1st time at least one piece of fish was tough to bite through; 2nd time one piece i couldn't chew at all -- all sinewy. yuck! will give them one more chance. read more

It may of been because it was New Years Eve but they were very unorganized. The place is very very small with no where to wait but outside. On cold nights this typically means you're standing in the door way of this tiny restaurant trying not to bother people who are already seated. There were two couples that were seated after us but had their orders taken long before ours. There was a couple that came in and complained that there table wasn't ready when they had reservations. Why you would allow reservations in a place that has maybe 8-9 small tables? We ordered a few different types of rolls including the Spicy Tuna Roll. While the other rolls we ordered were fairly good, the Spicy Tuna Roll literally had a small mound of spices sitting on top of each piece of sushi. I've been eating sushi for years in the bay area and this is the first time i've experienced a Spicy Tuna roll this way... needless to say it wasn't very good and we ended up tossing that particular roll. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh and maybe I need to come here during lunch instead of dinner but I would advise people to take the trip to Oakland instead of eating at this place. All in all I think this place is highly overrated on Yelp. read more

My brother just took me here today. One of the best sushi I've had! I had the Sushi and Sashimi Combination. Both were great. I also got the Spicy Tuna Roll and the Spider Roll. The Spider Roll was good, the Spicy Tuna was just okay in my opinion. The service was fast. They were polite and they greeted us when we left. When the food was brought out, the waitress named everything out for us. I thought that was nice. We also got the Sampler Sake. We got 6 shots of 6 different sake. It was placed in the order of less flavor to most flavor, in which the waitress advised us to try starting from the less flavored sake. The only con I would give is that there could be a lack of parking during busy hours. I went at night near closing time, so there were parking spaces, and the restaurant was about half full. read more

Loved the dancing bonito, crunch and rainbow. We had the blue shrimp it was pretty good. Service was a little slow but very friendly.

Our go-to sushi place. Small with slow service, but part of the charm. Probably the best value in the East Bay.

Staying at nearby DoubleTree Berkeley Marina. My wife was craving sushi and read Yelp reviews for this place. One word description = disappointing. Ordered Shrimp Tempura Roll = tasted like it had nutmeg (??? used for pie) Ordered Spicy Tuna Roll = they drowned it in cayenne pepper Ordered Spider Roll = devoid of taste. Ordered Hot Tea = they had to boil the water (?) Ordered Edimami = good Ordered Chicken Teriyaki Dinner = average Service - average but kind Wait Time - long due to small place with 3 rows of 4 seating tables (3 x 3 x 2) Ambience - small, cozy Price - pricey Meal - dinner You can do better by taking the drive over the bridge to Japantown in SF. For comparison, our go-to sushi restaurants are Matsuyama in Discovery Bay and its sister restaurant in Manteca. We used to go to Matsu Sushi and Little Madfish in Dublin. We've been to sushi in Pleasanton, South Bay, Livermore, etc. If we're in the City and want something authentic we will go to Japantown. read more

This is my first time here and it will be my last time coming here. Service is horrible. Didn't serve tea Until we ask 2 times. The waiters don't know how to smile and they are rode. I ask them politely for napkin because of my allergy I don't want to blow my nose on to their cloth napkin but they never came back with it. Food are ok they are not all that great. I don't know why they get 4 stars rating. read more

We had a superb sushi experience last night and it did not kill our pocket books

The restaurant is super small so not ideal for large groups or kids (unless well behaved and quiet) ! Great quality fish and good customer service :) read more

Great location, love that little neighborhood. Small place but not too cramped. Very good Miso Soup, most of the rolls we had were great. I got the Chef choice platter, they gave me lots of california rolls which are a tad boring and not too much flavor. I had the baby Tako and it was perfect! This is a great solid sushi place, everything seems fresh, friendly & quick service. read more

The sushi here is decent. Food = 3.5 stars. However I value good service, and the service here is just non existent. It seems to be a common trend amongst the other reviewers reviewing this place. Definitely just order take out and enjoy your sushi over a nice glass of your self-served wine at home! No service like your own service :) read more

Always fresh and delicious! Service is amazing as well!! So far my favorite sushi spot in the east bay.

Awesome sushi! Great people. Order the sabagari Maki for a great flavor for the money.

Waited @45 mins for our food. There wasn't a lot of people there. They seemed to have a huge takeout order. They never told us it would take awhile. Never apologized, or anything. Very disappointed. read more

The food was good, but nothing special. The restaurant is pretty small and gets packed. Street parking is easy. Pricing is average. I would go back only if someone really wanted to go here, but have other places higher up on my list. Service was good. read more

Fish quality was good but everything else was not. The sushi rice was crumbly and fell apart. The fish was not cut well. The eel sauce was the worst I've had. The shrimp tempura in the dragon roll was soggy. Service was slow. The restaurant was crowded and noisy. read more

Tiny place--make a reservation or you will be waiting. All the sushi/sashimi was good; nothing was great.

My new favorite sushi joint. Reminded me of the sushi my friends mom from Okinawa used to make. The only down point was the tobiko wasn't great but huge cuts of fish for nigiri and just super good! And the staff were amazing!! read more

How lucky for us to have a quaint sushi spot right here in the neighborhood. Mind you, we've visited several times already. We had high hopes for our dining experience after we sung Kiku's praises to our friends visiting from out-of-town. You would think that Wednesday night would be low-key, but it was busy! The service was spotty and painfully slow. Our orders came in between huge gaps of waiting. Apparently, we weren't even on our server's radar. Not cool when you've got two hungry 6-and 9-year olds. Edamame is not hard to plate and send out. Sorry Kiku, you were a huge disappointment this time. It'll take more than the Hamachi Crudo to get me back in here. In the meantime, I'll go to Tokyo Fish for my sashimi fix. read more

I had the spider rolls, which had crab, and usually I get California rolls but tonight I decided to try something new; I enjoyed it very much! They weren't too expensive for sushi ( around $30 cash) for two of us and the waitress was very nice. My friend enjoyed her sushi and beer as well. Definitely will take my boyfriend here and come back. read more

I went back again last night, after searching for area reviews for alternate restaurants that I might prefer to try for the first time. Kiku again did not disappoint, with scallops that were LITERALLY twitching as they were being cut and albacore that was delicious and santa barbara uni. Some of these other reviews complaining about waiting ten minutes for service, a perceived slight from a hostess or the relatively small seating area seem pretty ridiculous. If you're going to a sushi bar because you want great sushi and not because you want tempura or to get a "warm fuzzy" from your server, I absolutely 100% recommend that you try Kiku if you haven't yet. read more

We ate here by accident because the beer garden was closed. Boy did we luck out. I had no idea how not fresh the sushi I have been eating has been until I had sushi here today. I ate there with four others and each of us had a different and delightful. I recommend going there for lunch as I did. The room is simple and beautiful as well. read more

We ordered the sushi combination for dinner and I was pleasantly surprised at the size of the seven pieces. Well worth the money. The eel special was also delicious. It is a smaller place without a ton of seating but we had no problem getting in on a Thursday evening. Also, bring cash. You'll get 10% off your bill. read more

I wish Kiku was in my neck of the woods! Tasty Yakisoba and kiku vege roll is awesome. Clean dining room, pleasant staff and Real Coke cola. Kite festival is last Sunday day in July as usual so whenever I fly kites at Cesar Chavez marina, Kiku is mosdef an option! read more

This place is pretty fast and has good service and I love that they're open late! I ordered take out and got my order within 10-15 minutes which is not much of a wait at all! The sushi has good taste but wish it had a little bit more flavor. Definitely a must try! read more

Staff is friendly love the location. I ordered my favorite chicken teriyaki. It came with soup and salad (peanut sauce) so flavorful and fresh everything tastes yummmmmy read more

Review is based on food. Service is OK. I've come here many times because the quality of their fish is better than most other sushi joints. They've messed up my order a couple of times but it wasn't a big deal. Place can get packed pretty quickly because of the small space so if you're starvin' like Marvin, there's a beer/BBQ spot literally the next block over that's also pretty fuckin good. read more

Great tasting fresh sushi. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. The green tea is good, not too strong. The teriyaki salmon was well flavored and cooked to perfection. read more

The place was decent. My boyfriend and I ordered tempura squid legs, salmon sashimi, fatty bluefin tuna and a dynamite roll. The salmon was fresh but not the best salmon sashimi i've eaten. The fatty bluefin tuna was very good although quite pricey - you can definitely taste the fattiness of the fish. The dynamite roll was really good with a good spicy kick to it. Overall, I would only come again if I am in the area since it is a bit on the pricier side and the size portions were really small. Also, they don't advertise this but apparently if you pay in cash you get 10% off your bill. read more

Great sushi place for good service and great prices would highly recommend!!!!good for date night and small groups.

Got take-out from here on a Sunday night because our usual sushi place was closed. Ordered a rainbow roll and a sashimi dinner. Everything was good and seemed very fresh, but it wasn't outstanding. Also, it's pretty expensive. Almost $20 more than we usually pay for the exact same thing. It wasn't bad at all, I just really love our usual spot. I'll probably try it again, but order something different next time. read more

We went to have sushi last Saturday in the late afternoon. We were pleased to see that it was open and in fact after 5:30pm, it became full. It is a popular place! The food is very good, even the miso soup or the sea weed salad beats anything I have had in the Bay Area so far. The sushis were great, among the best fish I have eaten. We will come back! read more

We went here because a featured review compared this favorably to Kirala. Bullshit. We were pretty disappointed. Now, granted, a Kirala comparison is setting an extremely high bar. But this place, for all its local neighborhood joint, full of families, big portions, value-priced menu charm, delivered pretty average food. We had an eggplant app, gyoza, tempura udon soup, and sushi. In all cases, the defining feature was the clarity with which one could taste the fact that the ingredients were not top quality. The (cheap) oil came through as a dominant taste in several dishes, rather than supporting simplicity of the main ingredients as good japanese food should. Maybe we didn't order well, but we picked a couple of the servers favorites, and had a broad enough sampling that I am not tempted to try again. Sorry, I don't pan places like this very often, but our experience here really was just OK. read more

This is a nice and cozy sushi restaurant with a nice small selection of Sake. They had some completely delicious and fresh selections of fish, but some fish was mediocre. Plus, we sat for an entire hour without having any food brought to us. At least we had Sake... Sure, they were very busy, but that was unacceptably long to sit with nothing to eat on our table. I had to press the server to give me an ETA, too. All was forgiven after I received the Moriawase Sashimi dinner with hand ground wasabi with a delicious and fresh selection of fish. However, my husband got the Chirashi, which had a huge chunk of Mackerel and other mediocre pieces of fish. In my opinion, Kirala wins hands down. If I go back, I hope it's when they aren't too busy :) read more