Friday, 1:10PM. Quickie: +Average food +Clean --Horrible service And then...? Simple, authentic food. Poor service. Will give it a second chance. read more

This is no ordinary Japanese restaurant. If someone is expecting to order chicken teriyaki bento box with tempura or see picture full of different rolls, then this might not be the place for you. I come here for their raw stuff, like mirugai, amaebi, etc. The other thing I like about this place is they have a separate menu full of small dishes that have both cooked and raw food, some of them are veggie dishes. I agree with one reviewer that it's too bad the special menu (where all the special dishes are listed) is only in Japanese. Like Mona P., I can understand a few words since they use some Chinese characters in Japanese language. Don't be afraid to ask the waiter. He's friendly when he explains to me what the dishes are. That's how I got addicted to those little marinated raw squid. They also have the regular menu (in English) of typical Japanse food. Like I mentioned, don't expect it to be any other Japanese restaurant. I must also say, try their tamago. I know, some of you might think I am an amateur eating steamed egg on sushi rice. Believe me, the taste and the size of the egg is double comparing to other places. My favorite drink there is nigori, unfiltered sake. They will pour until it completely over flows to the plate, giving you almost another half a glass. Hey, better bang for the buck, it helps in this economy. read more

How can I not give sushi kei 5 stars? For a reasonable price, you get a whole heartedly authentic sushi experience. Their daily lunch special (if you know how to read Japanese) is a steal for $8.78 you can get chirashi don, sashimi, karage, assorted sashimi..omg! I went to a dinner on August 31 they had a supreme amaebi plus you can choose to get the head deep-fried or miso soup. taste super fresh and yum! what i also really like is the small things - hand cut daikon, best benishoka (pickled ginger) in the world read more

Been coming here 4 times within the last 1.5 month after my Japanese barber recommended it for nigiri omakase. if you like Okina sushi and the price in the city then you'll love Sushi Kei even more. Do the $35 omakase. started with a trio of tuna. maguro, chu toro, otoro tried sanma (pike mackeral) half torched, half raw. a play of textures a trio of white fish nigiri -sea bream, hamachi, aji geoduck cucumber salad fresh amaebi and a fried shrimp head ikura and uni don (rice bowl) torched scallop and sardine 6 tekka maki and homemade tamago miyzaki beef - torched his technique and ingredients are solid. read more

We sat at the sushi bar. The sushi chef didin't say anyting and we were the only family seated. This is the kind of interaction through out: us ordering and him serving. Nothing else. Had varieties and all very fresh and excellent: wild salmon, hotaru squid, abalone, amaebi, uni... One cooked item, Tempura Udon was ordered from the kitchen. Noodles weren't blend like they just boiled and dumped it in. They contained the soup flavor so when you eat both together, the flavor continued through. Very tasty! Tempura is like any other tempura. Their sake selection isn't that great so that was little disappointing. I'm a fan but know better place if I'm spending the same amount of $. read more

THIS IS MY FAVORITE SUSHI RESTAURANT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO* (* in America. I've also had awesome sushi in Japan but now in the post-fukushima era I doubt I'm ever going back) I have been to, let's say, over 30 sushi restaurants in my life and that's conservative, the real number is probably getting up near 50. Why is this place my favorite out of all of them? A few reasons: 1. Quality of the fish. I love sashimi. I like to order a bowl of steamed rice and large platters of sashimi so that I can portion the rice/fish out to myself at ratios I prefer. the sushi is top-notch quality. Of course one expects that any time one goes to a legit sushi bar, but you'd be surprised. Well, no surprises at this place. very high quality. 2. Variety of fish. This is really what sets Sushi Kei apart. Lots of places have high quality fish. Not lots of places have like 8 different kinds of mackerel. have I mentioned, I LOVE mackerel. And it's so hard to find good saba, let alone the other kinds of mackerel (I think one is called Azi?) at other places. Also this place has some of the tastiest, butteriest Hamachi ever. 3. Atmosphere, non-food qualities. Less important, but by no means irrelevant, this is just a nice place to go to. it's very mom-and-pop, although really just pop, here. Sit at the bar and talk to the master chef. he rocks. It's a local landmark as far as I'm concerned. Now that I think about it, there's really only one downside to this place. That's that every time I go in there I order 4 or 5 massive sashimi platters and walk out at least $100 poorer... :( read more

unpretentious decor, friendly service, and fresh sushi made for a great experience if you expect traditional fare. average pricing. my only disappointment was the selection of tekka maki was pretty traditional and i felt guilty for ordering un-kosher selections cuz i went with my buddy matt. (ie he couldn't eat the soft shell crab, the unagi, or any shrimp roll). i realllly wished they had a kamikaze roll (jazzed-up hamachi). small but clean bathroom, too. read more

One word: HORRIBLE! Why? Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) was watered down and lacked flavor. We ordered: -Chicken & salmon teriyaki ($8.50): sauce was not sweet and very water downed, the chicken tasted rubbery, the salmon was hard and we literally had to scrape it in order to enjoy it -Eel & avocado roll ($6) - average -Shrimp tempura ($6): this is usually the safest thing to order when trying a new sushi spot, but this place some how managed to mess it up. The batter was soft and tasteless and more batter then shrimp -$40.00 sashimi plate which tasted stale Service: what service? there was a server? Happy Eating's =) read more

I ordered by phone and picked up my order. When I got home, they forgot to put my order of Kappa Maki in there. For an order of California Rolls (6 pieces) it came out to be $6.00. SIX FREAKING DOLLARS FOR CALIFORNIA ROLL! Even Bennihana is less than that! Food is not that great and I am disappointed. I will not be back. read more

Sushi didn't taste fresh, I had to wash it down with sake. I like supporting small restaurants but the quality of food has to be good. 3 stars since I'll give this place a chance when I'm in the area. read more

Meh... didn't really care for the place much. I liked: - Udon noodle soup (tempura batter wasn't that light though) - Spicy scallop roll (although all they did was put a dab on Sriracha on top) - Hamachi kama Average/Not good: - Boiled squid was bland - Soft shell crab roll, average - Tempura, batter wasn't very light and crispy - Yellowtail sashimi - Their "special" cocktail where you have to juice your own orange. Too much effort to squeeze the juice out and the liquor just tasted like watered down sake. NOT worth the $6! Everything came out to $56 before tip. Server was nice and restaurant was ok - somewhat dated and not modern at all. Food was not impressionable so will not be back. read more

The only good thing here is the original sake from japan!! PERIOD!! read more

Sushi Kei - the tempura & baby squid taste like oil - Sushi Bars Near Me - Millbrae, California

had high hopes for this place, but its super FAIL! I believe its a japanese chef, with japanese stuff but somehow that didnt convert to good shari or good sushi/nigiri. We came early around 6pm on a Friday and nabbed the last 2 sushi counter seats. $25 min. no problem! The fish case and seafood items looked pretty good and clean, so we were excited for our meal! We both ordered the $35 omakase...somewhat of the highlights were the tuna quadro...which included regular tuna, a forgetful tuna, chutoro and otoro. The best of course was the otoro which was buttery but the shari was just really off. not seasoned well and the rice fell apart upon picking it up. The plating presentation of the omakase was just dished out by 4's one right after another, on a cheap plastic dish-- with a abrupt explanation of what it was and literally just pushed onto the table on the bar where we were sitting. Usually omakse comes piece by piece, so we can enjoy it. Here it was treated like ala carte sushi, by the time we ate the 2nd piece, teh rest of the pieces were already in front of us, dished out. For the price I didnt think it was worth it at all, i mean WHO gives IKURA for a omakase?? + They didnt have any Uni, the chef said bad weather, they couldnt get Uni that week. Aside from the chu and otoro everything else was pretty cheap...might as well as order ala carte The rest of the omakase was disappointing: kanpachi, ikura, sea bream, scottish salmon, and I honestly cant remember the rest. The size and cutting of the fish was all over the place, not uniform, didnt taste right, rice was SIMPLY not on point. It was almost as bad as "chinese made sushi" if you know what i mean. That combined with how it was served, in the manner it was served was just no good. We also ordered a fried oyster appetizer, $8.95 for 5 small pieces of sadly fried oysters probably from a bottle. For $9, it was SAD and not worth it at all. Also service was just poor, we asked the waiteress about the fried mackeral and she had no comprehension of what we were asking her when we simply asked her how was it prepared. Completely inept! She also mischarged us for a large beer when we had a small. Hmm For $100+ out the door we felt jyped, disappointed, I will never come back. For those who gave sushi kei a 4 or 5 stars,shame on you! MEH read more

So disappointed! We came to Sushi Kei due to the ratings on YELP. Do yourself a favor and head elsewhere. Our biggest complaint took place when we found a bone in our sashimi (Blue Fin Tuna) and we notified our waitress. She didn't only seem to not care, but it seemed like she is use to this taking place. She said that she would inform the head chef, but can't confirm whether that took place or not. In the end, we had to request that the blue fin be taken off of our bill. She said that she couldn't do that, but finally said she would ask. They did take it off in the end, but never seemed concerned what so ever. Plus their chefs do not know how to take care of the fish. Each piece seemed like it had been beaten up. I eat sushi all of the time. Go elsewhere if you want quality. read more

Good fish. I really enjoyed the uni and scallop. The price to portion ratio makes this place a little more expensive than other places, but the quality of the fish makes up for it. We came on a Friday night and there was no wait. read more

Very small Japanese restaurant serving up excellent sashimi and sushi. The Japanese sushi chef (owner) has top quality sashimi and he creates the sushi with care and delicacy. Each morsel of sushi is perfectly molded and topped with top-grade raw fish which makes this the best sushi place in Millbrae and its surrounding areas by far. They also have bento lunches and dinners for those who do not like raw fish. Prices are good for the quality you're getting. read more

Nice little restaurant filled with authentic flavors from Japan. Chef showed such superior craftsmanship in his preparation. Every bite was to the perfection! I absolutely loved the abalone nigiri! It's unbelievably hard to find restaurants that serve raw abalone fresh from the water!! The waitresses were both very friendly and food came quickly. We were in and out of the restaurant within 45 mins. If you love fresh raw seafood, you must try this restaurant. Be ready for the bill, as you get what you pay for. No complaints there whatsoever. I am so thankful my sister recommended this restaurant for our dinner night. Pure bliss in my tummy~~~ read more

My Japanese coworker said the sushi and cooked food were good at this spot, so I decided to check it out, while catching up with a good friend. The ambience is nothing to speak of, but the sushi and the grilled Kurobuta pork we got were very tasty. As others have mentioned, the sushi slices are smaller than you usually see, but I was satisfied. I'd definitely try more items from the specials menu, or maybe just do omakase next time. read more

Nice place with authentic Japanese atmosphere. They have nice authentic Japanese dishes too. I had Hasami-Age-Renkon and Yakitori and they were great. However, their sushi isn't the freshest. Maybe I went in the wrong night? I don't know, but I'd stay away from those not-so-fresh stuff. read more

Had teriyaki chicken (so I can't comment on the quality of the sushi), which was a bit on the fatty side, but acceptable. Staff was helpful, though had to work to catch their eye once. They got busy, and we already had our food. read more

not bad. I like their Gill selection. Warning one: no english. I am a chinese, not Japanese. When I looked at the menu which only listed in Japanese...... ar.... I can only guess by a few of the chinese words in each name. The waitress was not that helpfull.... either too many usual customers to deal with, or we were just seems like not those "big" customers? Anyway, food was nice. Just hope I could have more help in ordering next time. read more

Decent lunch bento box. The tempura and miso soup were standard fare. Salmon sashimi tasted fresh. The chicken teriyaki was very light in flavor, definitely needed a stronger teriyaki sauce. It's pretty inexpensive to eat a bento box ($9-11) though, so I think Kei is a good place to stop for a quick lunch. UPDATE: came back one year later, would recommend the hamachi Kama! Very good. read more

Well, it's hard to give a one-star rating, but I have to say that the experience was really disappointing. We dined there a few days ago, sat at the sushi bar. The food is not bad for a place like this, but the problem of the chef and staffs are not deniable. First of all, there were a lot of customers at that time, but the staffs were just chatting on the side, I tried to hard to get their attention. In addition to that, which is the most unbearable, it's the CHEF, while we were eating, HE STARTED TO COUGH!!! He was working BEHIND The SUSHI BAR, and when coughing he didn't even cover his mouth, I am not saying that would help, but all his working tools were there, and all the sushi material were there too, I didn't see if there are sliding windows on the glass meat storage box to protect, but it definitely made me feel terrible. I was sick the next day after dining there, I don't know if there are any thing to do with the coughing, because he was prepare our dish then. That really was a terrible experience. read more

Overpriced food where you can find almost at any other japanese restaurant. Service was poor and waitress was extremely rude. My bf ordered a karagi appetizer and a bowl of rice and the waitress snickered loudly. When the karagi came it was literally 5-6 of burnt popcorn chicken. Sooo not worth the price. I had an Udon and some yellowtail sushi. Udon was below par and the sushi was just so-so. We definitely will not be coming back and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. If I could rate this 0 stars, I would. read more

I love to go to Sushi Kei for their lunch special. Honestly, everytime I walk in, I don't know what I will be eating because they always write their lunch special menu in Japanese. But I also trust them enough to just order "LUNCH SPECIAL" and always feel very excited by not knowing what I will be eating. I'm always satify with my food! They also have $5 per person all you can drink saki on Monday - Wednesday. I haven't tried it yet but I do plan to have a dinner meet up with my dinner group sometime next week. read more

This place is okay but doesn't go beyond that. Ordered the Combo Dinner Bento Box with Beef and Chicken Teriyaki and a California Roll on the side. Chicken teriyaki was really plain and lacked flavor. Beef teriyaki was better but still not great. California roll was good, better than the whole combo meal. Also: Don't know why they charge a $25 minimum to sit at the counter....not like the view there was any better than the tables. Probably won't be back, just too "meh" overall. read more

We always love coming to this sushi bar in Millbrae. Tonight, their fish is about 4.5. Most sashimi are mostly farm raised except Ankimo (liver), Miyugi, Uni and Agi. Highly recommended their Japanese Uni. Frequently available. So fresh, sweet and soft. No fishy smell. Service is about 4. read more

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Did you all even check the health score for this restaurant? 43 out of 100 folks! I didn't know this at the time. Unacceptable for a Japanese restaurant with supposed quality raw fish. Waitress should be more pleasant. She was rude and unapologetic. My rating is actually 2.5 stars. read more

Come here if you know what traditional sushi is like ! You won't regret it!! The omakase is super good. The beef stewed is super good. Hamachi Kama!!! read more

Sushi Kei - Top 10! - Sushi Bars Near Me - Millbrae, California

This is my first time here. The service so bad. The soy sauce so salty n we asked for the light soy sauce n we ask for the soy sauce dish. She answer with attitude. N we asked for one more of sake glass. She said, " I already gave u 6 of sake glass" and I try to explain let her know how we missed one of sake glass. " she said, I hear you with so bad attitude. Just let everyone know this place have so bad service. And the food not that good. So I'm not coming back again read more

Dropped by for dinner last night, and I was very pleasantly surprised. My wife and I had been looking for a good sushi place in the Millbrae area. Little did we know, there was one right in our backyard. I've walked by this place many times, but always when it was closed. From the outside, I thought it was just a dirty tiny hole in the wall place, but it turns out to be a very homey, very-deep, hole in the wall place. I love the ambience here. It's almost like a subway car; a long narrow seating area that goes very deep into the building with a sushi bar in the back. It's the kind of place you can sit and enjoy some hot sake with an old friend and talk the night away. We were there on a Tuesday night, so I guess we missed the loud drunken crowd. We had our 1 year old with us and it was a very pleasant atmosphere, even with the baby. Like everyone mentions here, the telling sign is the number of Japanese clientele. Must be pretty authentic. And they have an extensive menu written in Japanese... wish I could read... We had the chicken/beef teriyaki combo, a deluxe sushi plate, kampachi sashimi, and korokke. The teriyaki was nothing special, just so so. At least it gave the baby something to enjoy. The sushi and sashimi were outstanding. It was very fresh, and it wasn't the oversized monstrosities you usually find at Japanese restaurants here in the US. Just the right amount of rice and wasabi to accentuate the flavor of the fish. The sashimi was also sliced thin in manageable sizes, which allows me to really enjoy the flavor of the fish, rather than having my cheeks bursting and my mouth full with raw fish. For that reason, I usually don't order sashimi here in the US, but this was just perfect. I wish sushi chefs here will learn that sometimes less is more. The korokke was also very good. For those of you who haven't tried this, it's basically a battered and deep fried potato salad. This version had some ground meat and diced carrots also. It was very flavorful, and would go down wonderfuly with a cold beer. No complaints about the service either. We had no problems grabbing the server's attention, getting recommendations (the kampachi sashimi was recommended by the server), and getting refills of tea. Again, this was a pretty quiet Tuesday evening, so I'll have to see how it is on a crazy Friday night. So, aside from the just average teriyaki (and that's not really authentic Japanese food, is it?), everything else was wonderful. Even the green tea was very good. I am looking forward to going back to try the other menu items, especially from the Japanese menu. Hopefully I'll find some hidden gems there. But for now, I am very glad to have found a place to enjoy great sushi and sashimi so close to home. read more

I took the family here for dinner last night and this is what found. Ken K. is absolutely right! Stay away from the rolls, or what nobu k. refers to as "JiveAssRoll", and focus on the nigiri. I ordered most of items on the nigiri menu. Good quality fish! The abalone was pretty decent, though not as good as those I caught and immediately sashimi on the rocky shoreline of Sea Ranch. (Come to think of it, nothing I tasted so far rival the fresh caught Uni rinsed in fresh Pacific sea water, either...Such a memory!!!) The Shari (Sushi rice) was also pretty decent. My order of Salmon skin hand roll was ordered, forgotten, reminded, then reminded and finally eaten. Should have let that order be forgotten! Let me re-iterate once again, stick to the nigiri and your dinning experience will be exponentially better. =) read more

I was in town on business and found this place on Yelp. This place is truly authentic and the best sushi I have ever eaten.. The selection of fresh fish and shell fish is the largest I have seen... The salmon and tuna were truly amazing. I ran into several locals who said they come here regularly. They raved about the place.. I agree!!! I will be back soon!! read more

This sushi place is kind of expensive because some of the food is come from Japan. I tried it but I can't tell the difference that compare to another sushi place that is not using food from Japan. The rolls or sushi is small. Food is soso. read more

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Nice "real" Japanese chef-owner and ambience. Went there twice. Entering I was welcomed by a container with fresh clams and prawns. The prawns are served as sushi only thou you have a choice of how the head is cooked. First time did the bar and had omakase and an order of that fresh prawn sushi. Excellent sushi and sake choices. Great for sushi and sake lovers but you have to seat at the bar and order omakase to truly appreciate the best chef has to offer. The price is average for a good "authenthic" Japanese restaurant. This will definitely be my go to sushi bar in this area. read more

I love this place based on price, quality and service. The staff are really nice and do their best to bring you your food fast and apologize if they can't which is only when all the tables are full. The bento's at lunch get you out for under $10 and that includes a 20% tip. Based on hard economic times, this is theonly place I know of to get a great meal for this price. The fish is always fresh and I only eat here for lunch. The only down side would be that they always seem to leave some skin on thier nigiri pieces, which weirds me out. read more

I avoid going here because food was so-so and waitress was always rude and unpleasant. The food quality is getting worse honestly and the waitress is terrible. I will never go back there. read more

One of the most underrated sushi places in the bay area.

Grace loves sushi. And has high expectations of it. Sushi Kei is now our #1 sushi spot on the Peninsula and we're here at least twice a month on average. read more

Sweet and cozy place for wonderful Japanese food. Sashimi is my favorite. The price is very reasonable for fresh food like this.