I haven't tried many sushi places but this is up on my top places for sushi. I came on a Wednesday night and was seated right away. The place is very cute and cozy. I shared the sushi meal for two plus an order of uni nigiri. For the sushi meal, more than I expected came out. I thought it would just be our sushi and miso soup. But they also gave me sumo mono with sashimi, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and ice cream. The suno mono was good. It came with one piece of tako and salmon. Both sashimi pieces were delicious. Then came tempura, and it's what you expect from tempura. It was good as well. Then there was the sushi. I've never had sushi that good. I loved every single piece. The only downside was there was a tad bit more wasabi in the sushi than expected and I couldn't handle it. But it was still worth it! I was full by the time I finished the sushi and was ready to go home. But then they told me it came with ice cream. Couldn't pass on ice cream. I tried the sesame and red bean. The sesame was alright but the red bean was sooooo good. I was full but could eat more of their red bean ice cream. The service was great! The waitress was extremely nice and checked on me often. I would definitely come back to this place. read more

Sushi Kei - Suno mono - Sushi Bars Near Me - Millbrae, California

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The outside was nice, as soon as you walk in however the atmosphere changed really quick. However I was practically dying of hunger so we order my birthday dinner and was instantly unsure of the food due to the server being unable to describe the food. I ordered the "Super sushi deluxe" she was unable to tell me what the yellow mustard looking fish thing was. I will admit I was a fool to try it. Instantly disgusted, ruined my whole meal. For a three head table $125. Worth approx $50 10/10 will not be eating here again. read more

This is a 3.5 star review. Yes, sushi chef is going back to Japan for a week so his mysterious back up chef is whipping up some curry. I have to say the curry, although as a back up plan to help the business stay open for the week, was actually pretty good! Comparable and maybe better than places like the Curry House. I had the pork Katsu. The Katsu is very crunchy, the chop stayed moist. The cucumber Katsu is also very good. The curry was not too spicy but also too runny. The price was a little steep I think for a curry plate though. We were given complimentary ice cream since we brought the coupon they gave last time we went. The scoop of ice cream was hard as stone...Don't know how long they have been freezing it... The place was slow. I kept seeing customers get turned away the time we were there. I think they were missing out. read more

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The chef has an integrity and pride. That is what makes this place great in freshness of the sashimi and proper pricing. So happy to have this sushi bar in Millbrae, our town read more

I signed up for Yelp for the first time ever just to discuss how awful it was to eat here, and I've been a loyal customer for a long time. BUT NEVER COMING BACK AGAIN. Ordered a Tuna Poke, and clearly we were given left over strips used for sashimi. It was long like raw flank steak, we complained, and the waitress said this is Japanese style....Poke is from Hawaii morons. Waitress brought it to the sushi chef, they both giggled, and came back and said they wouldn't take it back. Horrible service, rude waitress, and nasty ass food. DO NOT COME HERE. read more

The worse Japanese Restaurant in the world we spend $430.00 in this place every time we order they give you small pieces of sushi and worse tiny pieces of sashimi. Pls. Don't patronize this place they will ripped you off. read more

Sushi Kei is a fantastic spot -- a great option is the "special dinner for two." The dinners are served with much care, love, and experience and the to-go options are really great. read more

It's really simple - authentic Japanese (no stupid fu-fu rolls) sushi at a reasonable price. Awesome!

The Sashimi is super fresh here for those that are worry about parasites. Awesome food, Family friendly atmosphere and great for date nights. The quality of the sushi is definitely worth every penny! Enjoy and let your taste buds tingle! read more

The sushi is so good and reasonably priced for the quality. I come here whenever I can!!

I finally realize that my all Sushi reviews are not fair. It's because all topics in my Sushi reviews are coming from the Japanese Sushi Chef's complains, express dissatisfaction or annoyance about JiveAssRolls. I have been trying to open my mind and go to JiveAssRoll Sushi places but I still just can't get the right texture Sushi done by the Non-Japanese Sushi Chef. I think i just can't trust them dealing with raw fish. It's really uncomfortable. Some times I get creeps when I am in those places. Makes me sick. Actually it did, made me sick. Don't we all get sick after Sushi? SonOfaBitch. It creeps me out. I hate the YoYo imitation amateur sushi places. The CREEPY YoYo Imitation Amateur Sick-Sushi Places in SF are: You'll see many Caucasians there, means "b a d". Domo, on Laguna St. What a crappy sushi! Go FXXX your self. Tataki, on California St. It really made me vomit. Wasabi and Ginger on Van Ness. no Nigiri. Wasabi Sushi on Noriega, it wasn't sushi, it was SuShit. Naked Fish Sushi, on Chestnut St. what a joke. Sakana Bune on Geary Blvd. Never been there but I won't go there even they pay me. Iso-Bune Japantown. like Beni-Hana, all Non Japo cooks. I'll bet you there are more in SF. "Obake Maki-mono" The Sushi Chef said, I was laughing out loud, means equivalent to JiveAssRoll, more like... Bogy Roll in Japanese. " Well, we have those in the menu too! I gotto keep my business going." But, I didn't get them. I ordered as following Nigiri: Saba Aji Katsuo Tataki Maguro Ika Kohada Hirame a small Asahi beer +tax= 38.50 Neta (sliced-fish) were Good but his Nigiri was very small. Small Nigiri is BullShit. I am Small-Nigiri Hater but I like the place because when I asked him to make his Shari (Sushi-rice) bigger, he just nodded to me very politely and gave me Nigiri with bigger Shari. Good! That is professional. I think 1 big difference between western dining and Japanese-Sushi dining is that western dining is go to dinner with a group of people, is really fun, i like that too, but Japanese Sushi dining is NOT for a group of people. Because,............... Nigiri have to eat as soon as it served on the "Geta'= sushi serving tray. It's may not be so much different, but it is, for me anyway. Japanese Sushi Chefs don't like seeing Nigiri left on Geta, not more than 40 seconds. So, if you are with a group of people eating slow, that ruin the Nigiri and pissed-off the Sushi Chef. So, in the way, Sushi isn't good for a group dinner at all. i like eating Nigiri right away. And I can say that all Japanese Sushi Chefs are really stubborn dick heads, having or showing dogged determination not to change his attitude or position on Sushi. But I understand them. It is true that there are rules to follow at each Japanese-Sushi-Bars and the rules are a bit different at the each sushi bars. I only eat sushi in my way but I never had any problem with the dick-heads. They have a right to kick you out so don't go. I've never even thought about writing reviews to bring more customers to the Sushi place that I wrote. That's not my intention. That's why i think my Sushi-reviews are not fair. read more

i sat at the sushi bar and had a very good sushi offering this night. hotaru ika (baby squid) was a unique item from japan. topped with a dollop of miso sauce, this was an incredible sushi dish! this baby ika is only available 3 months out of the year. so take advantage of it now before it's over. every other item I ordered was very good quality sushi - hamachi, unagi, toro from Spain, bonito. this is a must try for sushi lovers in the peninsula! read more

Sushi Kei - Sushi Bars Near Me - Millbrae, California

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I used to come to Sushi Kei for lunch at least once a week back in the 90's. It always had a lunch special that was very popular. After moving back to the Bay Area a few years ago, I have not gone back to Sushi Kei until now. The restaurant is still run by the same Japanese chef who is always doing preparation work behind the counter, the waitress is the same nice lady, and a lunch special is still offered! The funny thing about the lunch special board is that it is either all in Japanese or sometimes with English spelling of the Japanese words. If you don't know Japanese, at least you can pronounce it and still have no idea what you order.. haha. Anyway, the food quality is still as good as I remember. Lunch special really is a great deal to sample a couple of different dishes of food. My wife ordered the special which included soup, sushi, and chicken kara-age. I ordered the curry which is not your average box curry like the Curry House. The lunch brought back fond memories! After the initial lunch at Sushi Kei, my wife and I have gone back 2 more times in 2 weeks. It seems the lunch business is not as good as before, but the quality standard is still held high by the owner. We will definitely go back many times! read more

R & I have our go to place for sushi. Sushi kei is situated right across from that place, we thought we go and expand our horizon and try it. Who knows it may be a hidden gem. So we went it after we had most of our meal at our usual place and had just a few pieces of nigiri. When they came, the color of the fish looked a little off. As if they weren't super fresh. And their taste confirmed that. The rice was also stale and not so good. Honeslty it tasted like a stale supermarket sushi. We were disappointed to say the least. Just skip Kei and go across the street for some great FRESH sushi. read more

Seemed like an authentic menu - they have ankimo! Ankimo, for those who haven't heard of it, is a Japanese delicacy - it's monkfish liver. I can't describe it too well for fear I wouldn't do it justice. The menu has much variety. Mostly classic options - nigiri, rolls, bento box/combinations, and particular appetizers. Not many "creative" rolls but you'll find dragon roll, spider, that kind. My favorite name for one of the rolls is the "cholester-roll" which seemed delicious except that it reminded me that, well, by not ordering it I would save $18 (price of the roll) and also reduce cholesterol intake... Not the best kind of reminder but it did sound like a delicacy. I ordered the squid thinking it's the squid some mentioned it here. Oops! Also, if you aren't familiar with this location, it's in a business district so walking up and down there's some look and see into shops/other restaurants/people so it's not in the middle of nowhere. The inside is cozy and service was great. Oh and they looked like they were serving fresh clams! There was a box of them where they were keeping them fresh by the entrance. AND I saw a sign for ALL YOU CAN DRINK SAKE $6 (If I remember correctly) on Monday nights! read more

Just. No. This place is lucky I'm rating it 2 stars even. #sorrynotsorry To start off with, the service or lack there of, really started me off with a bad vibe. With only one other table in the restaurant, the waitress did not even greet us when we walked in. We had to be ones who yelled loudly "THREE" to her in order for us to get seated. Not only that, she was really unknowledgeable. Is that so hard to answer one simple question as what appetizers do you recommend? She just looked lost and pointed to the pictures on the wall -_- I'm sorry. What's the point of asking you then? If you're looking for a sushi place with more emphasis on rolls, this is not the place for you. They only have the more basic rolls and not the more Americanized rolls. We ordered a Chirachi Delxue, Sushi Deluxe, and a spicy tuna roll. The only thing good was the spicy tuna roll. All in all, I really do not recommend eating here. There are far better sushi or other types of restaurants to try on this street. read more

$14 for a small sushi roll. We ordered rainbow roll ($14), California King crab roll ($14), fatty tuna roll ($8.50). The portion was only enough for one person. The bill came out to be $40. We left hungry. We will not go back. read more

What an unexpected find. With 3 Japanese restaurants in close proximity to one another we chose one of the best little finds in the Bay Area. We sat at the sushi bar and our sushi chef was the owner Ryo. He prepared unique delicacies including white tuna which melted like butter. We also sampled baby squid, baby sardines, amber jack, and monk fish. Here to run the Bay to Breakers race tomorrow morning we are satiated! We'll be back again! read more

When I was little, I used to hate, and i mean HATE raw fish. I thought the texture and everything was disgusting! Now that my taste buds have matured and I've become more of an adventurous eater, I've begun to venture out and try different stuff, including sashimi I don't really know the ins and outs of sashimi in terms of quality, what to look for etc. But I love the sashimi at Sushi Kei. I always get one of the sashimi combos and every single piece is buttery goodness! In our most recent visit, le bf wanted to try amaebi (sp?) or the raw shrimp, we substituted that for the cooked shrimp in the combo for a few dollars extra! They also serve the head fried which is so.darn.good. I would eat those as a snack at a movie theater. yumm! The service is really friendly too. I like how there are always groups of Japanese people, families, business partners etc. eating here. Always a good sign. read more

Really? Describing this place as a "sushi place" is like describing Lady Gaga as a beautiful, fashionable woman... It just doesn't feel right, and the wordsjust sound plain wrong coming out of your mouth. Honestly, the best thing here was the rice. THE RICE. That should tell you something. The salmon sashimi was a really weird color and tasted really off as well, so even though I'm not much of a culinary expert, I'd bet goooood money that it was frozen. The beef terriyaki was super dry and tasted pretty much like cardboard... Apparently they think that tons of terriyaki sauce dribbled over the top will fool you into thinking the beef is fresh and tender. Hmm. And the portion sizes? Come on. I eat sushi all the time and I have NEVER seen smaller pieces of sashimi. The price was ridiculous for what you actually get, both portion wise and quality wise. An overall terrible experience, not just with the food but with the service too. Maybe they were understaffed tonight, who knows, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. But the food was terrible, no excuses for that. Yuck! :( read more

Omg, they used to be so much better. I ordered a omakasei, the uni and tora are both bad. Worse is,.customer service is super bad. I asked for additional napkins, the waitress got me an un-used napkin from the dirty table next to me. Wth???? Totally unaccetable! read more

This place is great. I haven't really had Izakaya before, but I thought all the dishes were pretty good. I left the ordering to my friends since two of them had been here before and the other is Japanese. We shared about 10 dishes between us and left room for dessert down the street. I wish the Japanese menu had pictures on it. I'll just describe what the dishes if I don't remember the name. Spicy tuna roll - The only maki roll we ordered. Pretty good, although it didn't seem like they used spicy mayo. Chicken karage - Delicious! Crispy on the outside and tender and juice on the inside. Hamachi Kama (yellowtail collar?) - Pretty good, but a little overcooked. A little bland. Grilled Butterfish - Mmm, this was one of my favorites. Very tender and flaky. Beef stew - Good flavor and really tender meat. Ochazuke w/ salmon - I really liked this dish. Rice in a seasoned tea based broth with cooked salmon. Simple and delicious. Katsu oysters - Pretty good, especially with the katsu sauce. Agedashi tofu - Standard fare and delicious. Seaweed and cucumbers with various fish - I really liked the slightly pickled seaweed and cucumbers. On top, there were clams, mackarel, octopus, and shrimp. Potatoes with bacon - The key here was the bacon and the delicious sauce at the bottom. My advice would be to break up the small potatoes to soak up the sauce. Sharing a large bottle of Sapporo, it was only $21 each including tax and a generous 20% tip. Not bad!! :P read more

I enjoy having to ask what things are on the menu. I enjoy learning the japanese words and eating the little plates. This place you can do just that! Hole in the wall-ish, and across the street from a "trendy" place. This eatery provides a little local authenticity and well made food. Excellent sashimi, an amazing tamago, and unique fried plates! We will be back again. (No crazy monster rolls and pictures. . . . maybe they have them, but I think if you dislike that kind of place - come here instead! ) read more

I have since returned with S to Sushi Kei many many times. It has become our go-to spot in Millbrae for sushi. I know that is not saying much, but I think I overlooked how good some of Sushi Kei's offerings are the first time around. First, the staff are great! There was a waiter there who started getting to know us and was really helpful with making selections on the menu or accommodating us when we didn't know they were closing in just 30 minutes. Second, their chef's choice sushi selection is an AMAZING deal. For $35 you get a lot of sushi -- and the many times we have ordered it, it always includes uni, toro, scallop, and other specialty items. It is well worth the price. We frequent this place a lot, and it is consistently good. Solid sushi in Millbrae and definitely better than the other options on Broadway! read more

I've been here at least a half-dozen times with my from out-of-town coworker. I'm in agreement with a lot of the reviews that the Chef's choice sushi selection (omakase) is the way to go. For $35 it's a bargain, especially since it includes amaebi, uni, scallop, and toro. read more

otoro and uni is very good but for sushi deluxe, the rice tastes so bad that it is making my tongue numb for over 3 hours. i ordered takeout. read more

Favorite authentic Japanese place in town. I've lived in Japan and really missed Shioyaki & good tempura. This place has it all. Brought my Japanese friends here & they enjoyed it as well. The place feels traditional and yet they have returning customers who have eaten here for years! Overall a very cozy, family friendly place. Also good for a quick bite alone after work. read more

This is definitely my go-to sushi joint in the bay area and given the number of Japanese clientele, I'd guess the Japanese like it a lot too. It is a pretty traditional, no frills sushi restaurant, so do not come here for rolls or expect a Jiro Dreams of Sushi experience or else you will be disappointed. Anyway, regarding the fish, everything here is really fresh. Most of the time I order a la carte and the hotate, kanpachi, mirugai, and uni are always good. They also do a seared engawa (dorsal fin muscle of a halibut) and a botan ebi (large sweet shrimp) which are excellent. I love getting the botan ebi since they will also give you a bowl of miso soup cooked with the shrimp head. Everything else, of course, is very good too. I had to dock one star because they raised their prices after the new year, so instead of being a great value for the quality of their fish, it's now a fairly priced menu. read more

Got omakase here and loved it!! It's not the fancy smancy kind, it's a bit more casual. I ordered omakase for my table and it comes on a plate altogether which is fine for me! But I know other people will comment on it because it isn't the usual/standard omakase. The fish quality is amazing and delicious and so worth the price. Amaebi was delicious! Got both the fried heads and shrimp head miso soup! My friend ordered the unagi don which was also great. I'm going to be trying their donburis next time. read more

Best sushi I have had in Northern California hands down. All of the sashimi tastes deliciously fresh and I would be willing to try just about anything here. I have gone to hundreds of sushi places because it is one of my favorite things to eat and I have yet to find a place that can top this one! read more

Ordered chef's choice for sashimi and also got a variety of rolls. Super authentic Japanese, super high quality food and craftsmanship. SLIGHTLY on the higher end price wise for this type of joint, but food quality is truly top notch. Service is also excellent. All fish sampled was extremely fresh, highlights were the scallop and the regular tuna. Generally those have average at best quality. This being said, ALL OF THE FISH eaten during this meal was excellent. Ikura was impressively done, having really quality ingredients (salmon roe and quail egg), and also artfully put together. Atmosphere was casual and comfortable, not pretentious despite it having some of the best sushi in the bay area. I am going to give this restaurant a $$$ instead of the $$ because we ordered the more expensive items. Have never tried the cooked food, but that also looks excellent. But I would like to state again this place is very reasonable for the quality of food. read more

I've been to Sushi Kei many times. It's solid. I have not found this level of high quality sashimi anywhere else on the peninsula. The sake menu is very impressive. This time, we started out with Kampachi and Sake sashimi with Onikoroshi sake. I like the way they pour - overflowing into a small dish. Fresh abalone sashimi was next. Monkfish liver. Hamachi Kama. squid salad. blue fin tuna sashima. Fresh sweet shrimp miso soup. Otoro nigiri. Soft shell crab. And a couple of sticks of savory yakitori to top it all off with some quality Hakkaisan sake. Needless to say. It was expensive, but absolutely worth it. Out the door $220. However, we definitely splurged. It even has an authentic grumpy lookin' Japanese chef - Don't think I've ever seen Kikuchi-san ever smile. You might get a smirk, but that's it. However, staff is very friendly. read more

Came here on a quiet Wednesday night with the hubs and thoroughly enjoyed my meal. I've been wanting to try this place and I'm glad we tried it on a not so busy day. Parking was a breeze. Seated quickly. I'm the type of person who studies the menu and bases whatever selection I choose to loosely represent how the restaurant is. So sushi restaurant equals sushi. I ordered the Hamachi Toro nigiri, the best by far compared to other places I've tried, and two other rolls I can't remember. Not that it's not worth mentioning but I really forgot what I chose. But equally good as you can taste the quality of ingredients and how the rice just fell apart in your mouth. It is a bit on the pricier side but if you enjoy quality versus quantity, this is definitely the place for you. read more

I wished this place was better especially since it's own and operated by a japanese family and it's conveniently in my hood. But we were disappointed with the service and the food. The hamachi sashimi dinner we ordered consisted of 8 thinly sliced yellow tail. It wasn't fishy but you can taste that it wasn't super fresh. My guess is because there were only 3 party in the whole restaurant on a friday night and must have been overstocked on their inventory during the week. The service wasn't friendly, but they were responsive i guess. The izakaya items were in only japanese on the wall with no description. I love izakaya and living dangerously, but I'm a daddy with a 3 year old daughter......so it would be helpful to know what I'm ordering (i.e. non-spicy and not too many raw items for the kiddo). read more

Lunch special sushi sashimi was tasty. It tasted "right." Fish was fresh. $7.95 not bad. the cuts were on the small side though. Rice tasted good. The sushi guy is non-verbal. The waiter was nice. The place was really quiet at lunch, a little too quiet. Time stopped in there. Was thinking the sheep man might come out to say hi, but alas he did not--thus 3 star vs. 4 star. read more

Sake Nigiri= kinda thin sliced but delicious Spider Roll = 4 stars. It was a little thick and bit too crunchy. I felt like I was eatting fried chicken wrapped in rice lol Udon = So I can't really rate udon because I don't really like udon. But my friends said that they are pretty good. I also tried the california roll and the shrimp tempura roll and they were actually amazing! The ingredients tasted so fresh and we could see the chef who was preparing the food. The space is pretty small, but I personally love that. It feels intimate - probably a great place for a date. However, it took FOREVER for us to get our food. We probably waited over 45 minutes. A table who had come in after us got their food first! I'm not sure if this was just an oversight, but I'd be prepared for slow service just in case. It's TOTALLY worth it if you have the time though. read more

one of the best sushi places in the bay area. Really fresh sushi. Would definitely return. The baby squids and the chef choice sushi were my favorite. I love places that are owner operated. Quality control is so much better. read more

I'm so torn! On the one hand, the quality of the fish here is GREAT. Most of the cuts of fish have a great mouth-feel, and the sushi rice is just right. However, the size of the sushi you get here (and yes I am talking about nigiri) really leaves you wanting more...Our hamachi nigiri came out and was PAPER THIN. I mean it was good, but c'mon i'd appreciate if you weren't dressing my sushi rice with a near-translucent slice of fish. We ordered the sushi dinner special for 2 which was around $60 and came with 18 pieces of nigiri (9 diff ones, 2 pieces each, very standard: maguro, hamachi, sake, ebi, ikura, unagi, hotate, mackerel, and tai), it also comes with 2 miso soup (and i have to admit, i really really liked their miso soup, it was perfectly balanced, no bitterness or being overly salty, lots of freshness from the green onion), a starter of cucumber and seaweed salad with a mackerel and salmon tataki, tempura, and 2 chicken yakitori skewers (which i barely touched, the chicken was dry and overall subpar quality). It also came with 2 scoops of ice cream for dessert (which we got green tea and black sesame) at the end. The black sesame was delicious, very fragrant and light. We decided that with all this, it didn't seem like quite enough food, so we ordered a sushi special, which included uni this time, as well as otoro. Again the pieces were great quality, but small... but at least this time around we were close to getting full so it ended up being enough food. The fish here is quite excellent, but perhaps we should've gone with the omakase. Idk that I'd go out of my way to come here again for sushi, but if you're in the area, this is a good bet. read more

This is a lovely little (seats about 10 parties and a sushi bar) Japanese place with a homey feel to it. My parents and I eat there mostly on Friday nights when we don't feel like cooking or when there's a special occasion. The make a modest effort with decor; little Japanese crafts hang on the wall. It's a dimly lit room with the flights focused mainly on the sushi bar. We usual order a small appetizer of grilled fish, a combination dinner entree, and individual selections of our favorite nigiri. For three stuffed adults, the price usually comes to $50-60. Tempura and Seafood Tempura - always lightly fried and just right! The regular tempura comes with two pieces of shrimp and assortment of vegatables. The Seafood comes with two shrimp, two ika (squid), two fish and assortment of vegetables. The vegetables are all delicious with the exception of the broccoli, since they usually fry a large flower after you eat the fried portion you're left with bland broccoli. Chicken Terriyaki - sometimes more delicious than other times. I've also had it in the Lunch Bentobox and the Dinner version of the Chickent Terriyaki is way better. The chicken is tender and isn't overwhelmed by the sauce. Chicken Kaa rage - loved it in Santa Ramen and it tastes just as good here. Just wish the portion was larger for $5. Sushi - the fish is super fresh and the saba is one of the best we've ever had. The only way they could make it better would be if he cut larger pieces per sushi. I'm not sure why this place is getting really mediocre reviews because the food is really great. We've tried some stuff we didn't hugely love like the Tonkatsu, but we took it home and used it for our udon lunches and it worked great. Everytime we go, there are at least two tables that have already been reserved and usually by the local Japanese. read more

Always been curious about this place. Finally ventured here and got some rolls to try. They are small but adequately sized. I hate HUGE rolls. The rice can be a bit more tart and less mushy. Otherwise...I think it's run by authentic Japanese people. A hint of "smoke" inside the restaurant when walking in which was not good. Do people smoke in the restaurant? $4.00 to $6.50 rolls. Spider roll $9.50 Spicy Tuna $6.50 read more