The food was great. Not gonna lie sometimes they'll mess up the order, but they always got you back. It's also by fair the cheapest Sansai around. All the other Sansai charge for sauces. Santa Monica doesn't plus free refills!! Again most places charge now for that. All their sushi is made when ordered so nothing is sushi related is premade. So it might take a couple minutes extra (no more than 10mins if Jenny is sushi, if it's Oscar maybe 13-14mins but no more) Their teriyaki is delicious you can't find it in any other store. My favorite is their spicy pork loin curry bowl. You won't see it in the menu but you can still definitely order. They also have teriyaki salmon with California rolls. But there's a specific way of ordering. Let them know you want the chicken&cali combo plate but then ask to sub out the chicken for teriyaki salmon. It is $5 bucks extra tho. They also put condiments not a lot so if you want extra sauces make sure you tell them because they're not mind readers. Lol Give them a try!! read more

This place has deteriorated over the years. I used to go all the time in St. Louis in the early 2000 but eventually all went out of business. But after coming here today in LA I'll never come back. It is in a run down shopping center and the inside is just old. The "spicy" chicken seems like it was just covered in siracha. It's just sad. read more

SanSai - Spicy Chicken breast plate - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

Got the chicken/steak plate with miso soup and oriental salad as well as the spicy chicken with salad of the day - kale salad. The oriental salad tasted like it had been out for some time, the crispy noodles were no longer crispy. The steak was also too done and chewy for my preference. Lots of seating in a complex where there is plenty of parking. The server was friendly. read more

SanSai - Steak & chicken plate, oriental salad - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

Great food !Great service!Everything is fresh and reminds good quality home food Got combo of Tempura Shrimp Vegetables and Teriyaki Chicken .David and Oscar did a great job!Oscar deserves Oscar for Wonderful Delicious Cooking!Jenny is very professional as well !Thank you,guys,for hard work and dedication! read more

Good service, clean interior average tempura. Nothing unusual or special it's a nice little place.

Delicious my entire office was going insane just on the smell. And it didn't disappoint. Definitely ordering again.

Love. This place! marina and Lupe always greet us with a smile Good customer service , and food is amazing . read more

I always grab lunch from here. Good food, kind staff and reasonable prices. I go for their lunch chicken teriyaki combo with California Roll. Great price and quick service. Recommend ordering online or by phone if stopping by around noon since it can get pretty busy. read more

I typically get takeout from SanSai and David is usually behind the counter. Really appreciate the good food, quick turnaround on orders, and accommodating service! David always gets it right! Thank you!!! read more

I ordered dinner from here the other night when I was craving something on the healthier side. Delivery was quick and the food was still hot when I got it. I got the chicken teriyaki and CA roll combo. It came with my choice of two sides (two types of salad, rice, or miso soup). It also came with rice. I opted for both salads as my sides. It came with a decent sized portion of chicken, 6 pieces of CA roll, the salads, and a Chinese takeout box full of rice. I wish they had included some extra teriyaki sauce because the chicken was a bit dry. The oriental salad was very tasty with a light vinaigrette and some mandarin oranges. The sumi salad had way too much dressing was soggy by the time I got it. For the amount of food, the prices are pretty reasonable. You're not going to get anything amazing here but if you're looking for some decent teriyaki that doesn't leave you feeling unhealthy and gross, then it's worth coming here. read more

SanSai - Chicken teriyaki and CA roll combo - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

I don't live in the area but wanted some "Japanese" sushi food. They are re-paving the parking lot so parking is chaotic and limited. If you even decide to come, which I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND, park on the street. The restaurant is clean and the menu looks great. So many different options from salads, appetizers, soups, sushi rolls and combo plates. We ordered the gyoza, spring rolls, two sushi rolls and two combo steak & California roll plates. Everything was ready at once and we picked up the trays at the counter. The gyoza and steamed rice were the only decent items. The sushi rolls tasted old, the sushi rice was sticky and dense and the steak looked like leather. It was the worst $70 meal we ever had. We gave the leftovers to the homeless man sitting outside vs throwing it away or taking it home. Go elsewhere. The food here isn't good. The prices are great but the food is not good. read more

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I was surprised at how yummy this place was ! I'm always craving some teriyaki and having to find parking for the colony for the blazed and glazed is quite annoying ! Full parking lot, easy access, and really friendly staff ! Portions were insane and quite delicious . Can't wait to try other dishes . Salads were fantastic all this for 13 dollars ! I think I found one of my spots ! read more

SanSai - Chicken Breast Plate - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

I've been here a few times. The food is always fresh and generous in portions. I usually get the chicken teriyaki with the tempura shrimp. Miso soup as a side and an Asian Salad. What I like most is they pay attention to what you said so you're not disappointed. Most places like this have employees with short timer mind set. I've NEVER had to ask twice for anything. read more

Lots of plaza free parking available. Great fast food to satisfy cravings. Rainbow roll is pretty ok and other cooked good options are good too, such as teriyaki chicken. Not there best quality but does the job. read more

SanSai - Rainbow Specialty Roll - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

One of my routine spots during my workweek. Great price and quality food. Love the staff here. They treat me nice and give really good service. The place is clean and quiet especially for dinner. My go to meal is the steak and chicken plate. Great place to grab food and highly recommend. read more

SanSai - Beef Steak and Chicken Plate - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

I have eaten there lately but enjoy the food there. I am a repeat customer . It's clean and tasty it Tony the Tiger gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggreat. read more

This location has been way high up on my list of quick sushi pick up Cafe type restaurants. I would come in, order a roll, salmon dish and a couple of sides, and leave with full belly and a happy face.. Ever since the Coronavirus the experience hasn't been the same unfortunately. For reasons that are beyond me to understand their to-go to orders are always bad news. Doesn't matter what protein ordered, whether it's salmon or beef or anything else, because of the deep containers most of the items are swimming in sweet and greasy sauce. For the first time I finally had to throw their food away. After such bad experience, as much as I enjoyed this restaurant in its glory days I decided to come and leave this negative review. Sorry, not sorry. Looking forward to the kitchen doing a better job hopefully. read more

The food is good I love the spicy chicken breast plate. The service is ok Parking is a little crowded read more

The WORST service and food!! Everything is so ghetto here. Honestly, dont know how they have their rating. I would give them -10. Read the other reviews. The employees know they won't get fired so they are very rude and don't give a crap about the quality of food. They dont have basic customer service skills. Everything from the cashier who rubs his nose before touching product , the girl who was argumentative when the sushi tasted old and spoiled and the manager who is a joke. Apparently the owner doesn't care either. This business should really close down. read more

We stopped here with a friend after a long hike and it was definitely worth the try. We ordered the chicken-chrimp combo plate and it was soo delicious. You can also pick 2 types of salad for it, but I just went for a double portion of the mixed greens-clementine-pecan salad, which was delicious. The only thing is the salads are pre-mixed and since it's a mixed green one, it was kind of soggy, because of the dressing they put on. Also came with some white rice and some grilled vegetables on a stick and everything was soo delicious. And th price was reasonable too. Definitely coming back. read more

SanSai - Chicken-shrimp combo plate - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

The poke bowl here is excellent. The rice is perfectly seasoned, the fish is fresh and very tasty, & the imitation crab is delicious. Would 100% go back to this place, if the poke is this good, I bet the other dishes are good as well. read more

Strip center location, I ordered a combination plate w/ chicken teriyaki, salad, rice, California roll and miso, plus a spicy tuna hand roll. issue #1) They mistakenly gave me a cut roll instead of the hand roll, not the end of the world no buggy they would've exchanged it but I didn't care enough to deal with it. the. #2)) The salad was good but the PORTION WAS VERY SMALL. I mean come on man, it's lettuce! #3) The chicken teriyaki was good but again SMALL PORTION. #4) So here's what you don't get a small portion on here. White rice! if you like white rice this is the place to go. They give you plenty of white rice, white nose, white rice. WAY TOO MUCH WHITE RICE on the California roll and not enough crab. #5) Same exact problem with the spicy tuna roll. VERY SMALL PORTION. But again, plenty of white rice! I noticed how they give you a gigantic portion of the miso soup. probably so you "feel" filled up with all the salt! They should change the name to be White Rice Heaven.... read more

Great for lunch. I ordered the combo plate chicken and tempura. Wow I got lost of tempura (3pieces of shrimp) yummy. You can choose white or brown rice small extra charge for brown . I don't like brown rice yuck. Lol. Sorry my photo I are all the salad just about which you can have two salads! I chose the Sumi Sumi salad. Packaged well. GreT go to place. read more

SanSai - Chicken and tempura combo - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

Excellent lunch including Udon chicken soup and tempura. Service and delivery was impeccable.

Oh Sansai, one of our go-to lunch spots for diet cheat days. I have to say I'm pretty impressed with this place as a fast food restaurant. Prices decent, food is decent (Americanized but it actually tastes pretty good), plenty of seating, located in a plaza with Starbucks lol. Honestly, I usually get the udon noodle soup with tempura combo (~$7.63) and this is enough to fill me up happily. The noodle soup is actually pretty decent, some days better than others (sometimes a bit too salty) but most of the time it's a hit. The tempura that comes in the combo consists of two shrimp, peppers and squash? Goes perfect with my soup. Noodle quality is better than most fast food Japanese places-- if you love noodles get this here! I've also tried the dumpling soup which is also pretty good and filling. My coworkers usually get sushi and salads/chicken combos and they love em. Place is basically like a fast food setup: order, sit down and wait for number to get your order. Parking a bit difficult in this busy plaza during lunch (line can get long around 12:30pm), but overall worth the drive for lunch! Also Starbucks next door so can't really go wrong with that before going back to work. read more

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Service is always great, food is very good and the place is always clean. Love coming for my lunch breaks!!

2.5 MAX! I had the dumpling soup and found the broth to be way too sweet (who loves sweet soup ?) Also I could SWEAR the pork dumplings were Trader Joes, they tasted and looked exactly the same..seriously, even if I'm wrong here, who wants to go out for dumplings of that caliber? The noodle salad was ok, so that balanced out a little, and my friends plates of chicken looked cafeteria average. That said, the place was clean and presentable, location convenient but not enough of a draw to return for me, it's too bad that was my first impression. I like to go out to eat no matter where it is and feel like there's at least something special about the place versus I could just be eating better at home, you know? read more

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I ordered Udon soup which was huge mistake. The portion was so small and if this place is going to charge $10.50 we'll come on more noodles and veggies please. Think I will pass going here for a while. read more

Great little place. They have plenty of parking due to the lot and the food is reasonably priced. They have a lot of seating areas if you choose to dine in as well. Stop by! I definitely think you'll like it. read more

I ordered from SanSai off DoorDash - and was completely disappointed. The food was very bland and skimpy, I couldn't even finish the rolls I got. They also forgot to add the sauces I asked for. Unfortunately I won't be getting food from them again. read more

Pick up order was incomplete. The sushi rolls were warm. The steak was overcooked - if you like super welldone steak, then this is your place. read more

Good fast food Japanese at a reasonable price. I usually get the grilled salmon plate, which comes with two salads, side of rice and a veggie skewer. read more

Exceeding my expectation. Plenty portion and taste pretty fresh. I never went in even I live near, haha, will be my regular place. Dec 12 at 4:30pm the counter lady were super friendly and efficient, thank you for that. read more

SanSai - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

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Consistently enjoyable quick lunch. Nothing out of this world, however it hits the spot for teriyaki chicken (which for some reason is non existent in Santa Monica). Staff is friendly, restaurant is clean and 100% worth trying. Keep up the good work! read more

I love this place. It is good food at a good price. I have been to other locations and been underwhelmed but I have eaten here more than a dozen times and have zero complaints. The staff is always friendly. My order is always correct. There is a big parking lot that this place shares with other businesses, so parking is mostly a breeze. The chicken breast and California roll combo plate with two salads is my favorite go to. read more

Five stars for easy tasty casual Asian fast food. My friend and I were hungry so we ordered our favorite: Teriyaki chicken bowl with a side of Sumi salad. The bowl is actually on a plate. The teriyaki chicken was tender and the Japanese sticky rice was perfectly cooked. The shredded cabbage sumi salad is so tasty because the cabbage is finely shredded and the dressing is a nice balance. The staff is always friendly and professional. We were in and finished within 30 mins. Free parking in the big lot. read more

SanSai - Teriyaki Chicken bowl ( actually on a plate) with a sumi salad - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

Horrible quality. Rip off. Chemical preserved sushi. Flimsy old salad....Garbage. Also they got the order wrong and took it all back in order to make the sushi roll over and then returned my combo with cold chicken and rice read more

A good basic and quick meal, with easy parking. Kids sized combos are an option, but they don't have healthy drinks, just the regular fountain drinks. As a side note, they use A LOT of plastic here. Plastic utensils, and bowls for their soups. It'd be awesome if they had a bin to collect the utensils and bowls for recycling. I get it, it's not a sit down restaurant, and they don't have silverware, but if they go through as much as they do here, they should try to help minimize the landfill impact. read more

This place is a solid lunch spot during the work week for fast, Japanese food. When I work in Santa Monica and craving bento-style Japanese food with a 11-13$ price tag, this is a great spot. They have both bento boxes, rolls, appetizers, and yakisoba. I usually stick with the combo plates: I usually get the California Roll & Steak plate or the California Roll & Chicken plate. They come with 6 pieces of sushi, moderate amount of steak or chicken, white or brown rice, and your choice of 2 salads. People usually get double salad but I tend to get one portion of salad and Miso soup (instead of going double salad, you can get one portion salad and one cup of miso soup). That way, I get a little of everything. I'm usually full by the end of my meal. All of this for around 12$. Only tough thing is the parking. It usually gets pretty packed around lunch time so come a little after 12 if possible (1pm or 2pm?). I usually don't find it too difficult to get parking. The lot, however, is free. Solid Japanese lunch option at a decent value in Santa Monica. The food will not blow you away but it is definitely good. I will continue to be a patron. read more

SanSai - Chicken Breast Plate w/ double Kale salad. My go-to. - Japanese Near Me - Santa Monica, California

Food was great, a little disappointed with the customer service. It took about 4 minuets before some even acknowledge me mainly because the phone was ringing. They took my order and gave no suggestions even though I let them know it was my first time here. Plenty of parking and the place was clean. I would go back but I know not to expect anything special in terms of customer service. read more