Came here pretty late on Mother's Day and surprisingly there was no wait (though we've seen in packed on non-holidays). It's hard to put my finger on it, but something about the sushi here (especially when paired with a little bit of soy sauce) just had an excellent taste that I'm not sure I've had anywhere else. I really liked the "Ninja & Samurai" roll which is pretty simple, but another family member liked the Aloha roll (which is fried). That being said there are a LOT of options, and the basic California Rolls are quite inexpensive. Josh was very friendly and even made an attempt to learn our names, and he really helped tie off a nice meal with good service. Definitely somewhere I look forward to coming to again! read more

We've been coming to Waraii Sushi in Vista for years, and it honestly never disappoints. It's one of those places that just feels familiar and welcoming every time you walk in -- especially when they recognize you and say hi. That little touch always makes it feel special. This time I ordered the agedashi tofu, ikura nigiri, and a dragon roll. The agedashi tofu was perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, soaking up that savory broth so well. The ikura nigiri was super fresh -- bright, briny, and buttery in that way that just pops when you bite into it. And the dragon roll? So good. Creamy, flavorful, and balanced -- not overly sauced, just done right. My boyfriend got the Alaskan roll and the Korean ramen, and both were great. The ramen was comforting and flavorful, and the Alaskan roll was fresh and satisfying. Also, our server is always hilarious. It makes the whole experience even better when you're laughing throughout dinner. Between the consistently good food and the friendly, funny service, it's easy to see why we keep coming back. Waraii will always be one of our go-to spots in Vista. read more

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Met with a friend and needed a fast item to grab. First time here and will say their menu is a little overwhelming - many and I mean many options to pick from - sushi rolls (two pages) and non-sushi items (two pages). I did notice that half of the sushi rolls did not have descriptions under the picture indicating what is in the roll. I do think for people with allergies or new people to sushi will have a problem knowing what to pick from that selection of the menu. They do have a lunch menu that offers rolls, salad, and miso soup which is always a great deal. Overall the roll (no idea what was in it haha) was good and we ordered fresh wasabi and it was delicious. Staff was very attentive and overall was happy. read more

My family loves this place, one of the reasons is because their menu is so extensive. Their menu includes Korean Ramen, Japanese Ramen, fried rice, Poke bowls, teriyaki chicken, and of course sushi. This makes it very easy for everyone to select the item they are in the mood for. The dishes have never disappointed and the wait time is reasonable. The service is genuine and that's why we keep returning. read more

ordered takeout and it was ready quickly! really enjoyed the california roll. the philadelphia roll was not what i was expecting - it had imitation crab which was new but i'm not complaining. i also didn't read the menu closely so that one is on me! the cashier recommended the aloha roll which was interesting to try but i probably wouldn't order again. read more

Waraii Sushi - California Roll Aloha Roll regular philadelphia roll - Japanese Near Me - Oceanside, California

Went for my daughter's birthday with the family.Great service and awesome food ...I had Dynamite.It was so good

A great place in Oceanside that has great food at good prices. Great for a treat when you're feeling up for it. The staff is welcoming, chill, and friendly; and the place has an atmosphere that makes you feel at home. A personal place I like to go to every now and again. Will be back soon. read more

Charge Ramen Spice Level 3. If you enjoy spicy food, that extra spice adds so much flavor to the already savory ramen. Servers are always helpful and attentive to your needs. As soon as you enter the restaurant you are greeted by the sushi chefs. Music is played in a low volume and they have tvs that typically play sports read more

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Excellent food!! Fresh, large portions cooked to perfection at a reasonable price. My favorite place for Japanese food!

Lunch time was poppin'! Staff accommodated us even though we were a few minutes min before lunch ended. Definitely a great time to order delicious sushi on a discount. It is almost impossible to find these prices for restaurant sushi. The lunch special I had to try consisted of 2 house specialty rolls, a salad & miso soup for $18.99! I ordered the baked mountain roll (without the cheese) & the lovely Gloria. These two very popular rolls lived up its hype. Quickly prepared and nicely presented. Definitely returning to try more of their specialty rolls! read more

Waraii Sushi - Part of lunch special - Japanese Near Me - Oceanside, California

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One of my favs for sushi , the 2 specialty roll combo is a great deal , my fav is the aloha roll and the that very hot roll ..service always good read more

Great lunch experience on a Monday! Attentive service, great quality ingredients and fair prices. Tiny place but huge on flavor and authenticity. Will be back... read more

Everything's is excellent, will definitely come back for more! Get the Beyond Roll and the Big Island Roll read more

Waraii Sushi - Big island roll is the bomb! - Japanese Near Me - Oceanside, California

I love that they had a board on the wall Listing their top 10 sushi rolls. They have excellent lunch deals. I had a Lemon flash roll and a rainbow roll. Everything we tried was excellent. The restaurant has a nice seating arrangement with both booths and tables. Our server was friendly and efficient. read more

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Good and fresh sushi! The staff is great and professional with quick service. And they always great you on entry and exit.

Tonkotsu ramen Broth is good but why is the egg not seasoned? Typical tonkotsu ramen has a soy sauce seasoned eggs. Based on the review pictures the eggs used to be seasoned but not anymore. This makes or breaks ramen for me. read more

Love love love the sushi here! Happy hour is awesome and the service is always my favorite! Absolutely amazing

Best house fried rice we've had in North county, hands down! Had the perfect amount of seasoning & perfect ratio of rice to protein (chicken, shrimp, and beef.) I ordered a crunch roll and she was juicy & delicious. All I could ask for in this dish. Happen to come during happy hour so we tried the $5 sake and the $5 large Sapporo. Great date night meal. Would recommend! read more

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We decided to stop in on a Thursday night for some sushi. We have been on the hunt for a new place since moving from Hawaii; it's very tough to find a place that isn't mostly crabbed based rolls. To say the least, we will be back. Sushi was great and reasonably priced. The extra options such as the bento box was delicious. Service was good and they seemed to have many to go orders. Great casual dining for all ! read more

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Amazing service, food, and prices! The waraii boat is a steal! Our waiter is amazing as well we don't even have to order anymore he knows exactly what we want down to the extra sauces. Five out of five for sure. read more

I wouldn't go out of my way to come here, but it's my favorite in this area. We've been here probably a dozen times now, so we've had a chance to try a variety of rolls and narrow down to the ones we truly enjoy: albacore delight, marine boy, and lemon flash. Pre-pandemic, it would be 4 stars. But nowadays with staffing shortages, this type of service with kindness and competence is rare, so they deserve an extra star for that. And I love that they're family-owned. read more

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It has been over a year since I had food from here. Yesterday, I ordered take out. I wasn't disappointed this time. Everything I ordered was delicious. I ordered 1 scallop handroll, 1 dynamite roll and 1 spicy tuna roll. The rice was vingery sweet and soft, not mushy and wet. The scallops were good chunky pieces and not diced (or almost minced). Lastly, the price point for food ratio was worth it. Hope this continues. Good job, Waraii. read more

Ordered about $51 dollars of food for two on a takeout order, ramen and sushi. Unfortunately the pork chashu was black/burnt around the edges so we were not able to finish that. The nigiri sushi I ordered was unlike any that I've eaten at sushi restaurant before the salmon did not have the usual fresh buttery flavor and was thick pieces of meat that didn't look like typical nigiri. The tuna nigiri was the worse part it was hard and stringy when taking a bite you had to tear and chew at it for a piece to come off. Not the typical experience for sushi usually fresh sushi can be eaten in small clean bites and doesn't need to be chewed toughly like steak. I was unable to eat my sushi due to the quality of the fish. We waited 30 minutes for our food to be made and I tried getting a refund but haven't heard back. read more

I've dined in and ordered food for takeout multiple times, but am finally posting a review on Yelp. I've never really had major issues with this eatery. The staff have always been generally friendly and considerate. Now that things are slowly opening back up, my husband and I decided to dine in. We ordered a lot of food as we were both pretty hungry. I'd say Waraii sushi is probably the better sushi choice to go over the other Japanese sushi joints in Oceanside. The sushi is fresh and delicious. I'd say they have a good variety of rolls too. Normally my husband and I order sashimi and nigiri, but we like the rolls here also. We love the hanoi roll, ninja and samurai roll, lemon flash roll, and the baked rolls are delicious too. This place hasn't disappointed us yet. If you're looking for good sushi with decent prices, Waraii would be a great choice for you. The servers tonight were very attentive and courteous, which is always a plus in my book! My apologies for some of the photos... We started to devour the food forgetting to take photos just prior! Will definitely be dining here again. read more

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Best sushi out there! Servers know us by name because we go so often! We can walk in and say "The Usual please" and shortly after... absolutely house the amazing food! Awesome atmosphere to eat... exactly what you would expect at a sushi restaurant! (Edited) Definitely recommend either the bento box or the green tender roll! read more

Food was great as always. Service was quick & friendly. Love that they have the menus in hand back! Much easier to decide on what to order & keep our faces out of our phones. "See you tomorrow!" The new Beyond was so refreshing! read more

Waraii Sushi - Menu - Japanese Near Me - Oceanside, California

I was very happy that they had a lunch menu and also knowing that I can get the lunch special to go! I got the 2 special roll lunch for $18.50 plus tax and tip. The rolls (lovely Gloria and White House) were very full and fresh. They packed the eel sauce and ponzu sauce separately which was nice because it kept the rolls intact and not soggy. The only thing I wish is that they told me what the packaged sauces were. I thought it was soy sauce so I mixed my wasabi in it and did not realize until I ate the first piece. Packaging was nice and also the price was great! Came with a small salad and small miso soup. I would come back again! read more

Waraii Sushi - Special Roll Lunch Combos - Japanese Near Me - Oceanside, California

WARNING: if you order food for delivery from Uber eats or somewhere, even if you call them and request extra soy sauce, chopsticks, etc (I'm staying at a hotel)...don't expect it in your order. I ordered 3 separate sushi orders in 1 delivery and got 1 chopstick, 1 soy sauce packet and 1 napkin. I even called them after ordering to make sure I got some utensils extra soy sauce and they DO NOT CARE. Every sushi place should ALWAYS put 2 soy sauce packets in for each dish. And at least a few napkins. It costs you NOTHING, but it's an awful customer experience...especially when you call and ask them directly. Come on guys. Get a new bag stuffer who understands the restaurant business. read more

Great service, good food and not overly packed. We missed the happy hour but it was okay, the server was very attentive and on top of everything. I cannot complain. It was very clean inside. read more

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Horrible!!! First, I have a pet peeve...I absolutely HATE when places give you a QR code and don't have an actual menu available. But that was just annoying. This place is filthy. I mean gross filthy. EVERYTHING was sticky...the tables (the paper napkins stuck so much they tie trying to get them off), the floor, and the torn wrecked banquettes...everything. Also, since when are diners not to be trusted with the usual small cruet of soy sauce? We were given soy sauce dishes with a small dribble only...like literally measured out with a dropper so it didn't even reach the sides of the small dish. Then the food came out in completely ridiculous order. The sushi combo Hot the table first. Then several minutes later the appetisers arrived. It was another several minutes before the last entree hit the table. When we asked if the last entree was coming, the waiter rudely just barked at us to wait. The edamame were cold. The tempura was soggy like it had been microwaved and was utterly devoid of seasoning. The gyoza (both steamed and fried) were limp microwaved little pockets of blandness. The fish was so poorly cut half the pieces had sinew running through them that we couldn't chew through at all. It was also so large it took three bites to get one piece down. The nigiri was a ¾ inch thick 3 inch long slab over what looked like a measured teaspoon of rice. Speaking of rice, the sashimi didn't come with any. The rainbow roll is advertised on the menu as a California roll with a variety of fish on the outside. What came was on the inside a grotesque mix of imitation crab, cream cheese, and mayonnaise with more giant slabs of sinewy fish piled on top. No one could eat it. The table next to us .. regular from the familiarity they enjoyed with the staff...stuck with the garden salad and sharing a noodle dish. We should have taken that as a warning. The final insult...when we decided to take the cold edamame home, we were handed boxes. Can no one actually big things for diners anymore? What is the point of offering half-table service? Why am I boxing my own leftovers and busting my own table and you still expected to throw down a top dollar gratuity??? Really truly...stay away from this place. It sucks. read more

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Food tasted good --- but the constant gnats at our table made for a horrible dining experience. My wife was constantly waving her hands to keep the gnats away while we dined , which was driving me nuts and a constant distraction as we chatted. We did mentioned it to our food server but what was she able to do about it ? Spray our table with insecticide ? Stay at our table and wave them away instead of my wife ? This, needed to be addressed when they first noticed this gnat infestation. There were so many gnats, no reasonable person would believe they weren't aware of the problem before we started to complained about it. Right? In my mind , there is no excuse for this horrible dining experience . our tab was $61 for two. Is it asking too much to ask for gnat free dining experience ? Then, when we got home, a gnat came out of our to-go food bag! This gnat horror just keeps giving a bad taste in my mouth. And am i to believe there were no gnats in the kitchen? I bet if i stuck around i would have seen them in the kitchen area . The kitchen area was right next to the food prep area . Yuck! The more i think about it -- the more disappointed I am. read more

Great food and environment. Service was quick. Order was perfect. Need to clean menus better

It looks like your typical hole-in-the-wall sushi place, but it had a good atmosphere. The server was so helpful and kind. We ordered Bulgogi for my grandma and it was good. The presentation was the star of that dish. I loved the Baked Salmon appetizer. Small portion, which I appreciated because it left more room for sushi. We ordered the Dragon Roll and the Lemon Flash Roll. Despite not being a huge fan of raw fish, my Mexican grandma enjoyed the lemon roll. The dragon roll was good but not the best I've had. Since the matcha ice cream came for free with a check-in, I indulged (asked for no whip cream). The glass it's served in was adorable. read more

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Best sushi! It reminds me of a sushi bar called Sansai in Maui. Their rolls aren't packed with a lot of tice, the ingredients are top tier, thr rolls are unique, the service is superb and the price is right!!! Happy hour daily with awesome deals!! Chsck it out! My personal favorite was the sunshine roll!! To die for!! read more

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Great place to have sushi and Bento boxes! So much variety and good prices. Been three times and will go back soon.

Came here and there was only one other table in there besides us. It took the waitress 7 mins to come to the table to even ask for our drinks. It took them so long to bring our ramen we had to tell them to make it to go because we had somewhere else to be. The golden California roll was ok and the salmon maki was good. Will not be coming back here, service was bad. read more

See you tomorrow! That's what you'll want to reply back when they say it to you! Very fresh sushi, expertly crafted, delicious! Friendly staff. And, close! (For me) read more

This is my first time here. I'm actually intrigued since I only ordered several things. I was craving a Sapporo and hot saki and decided not to go to my regular sushi restaurant. I actually feel like I'm in the islands. So that tells you, I'm coming back. Lol I had the 4 piece salmon sashimi. It was perfect. I loved how they were sliced.. thick. I had a salmon hand roll. The seaweed wrapper was crunchy, not chewy and that's my make or break when it comes to hand rolls!!! I topped it off with my usual unagi nigiri. It was perfect like butter. So, as a first timer... I ordered conservatively. I will come again and try more of their specialties. I'll keep you posted!! read more

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Great spot in O'side. They already had some great signature rolls. I'm glad they added more new things to the menu to try to change it up.

We gave Waraii another shot after a long break. The waitstaff and sushi chefs are super nice and outgoing. The sushi quality has really improved, I think. The yellowtail (hamachi) nigiri we received was closer to yellowtail belly and they gave us a bonus piece (!). The mackerel nigiri and escolar nigiri was both excellent as was the protein roll. Everything was very solid. I'm glad we went back! read more