Stopped by for a Sunday lunch. The place wasn't exactly packed with people, just 2 other tables and us. It took about 20 minutes just to get our order in, the service is so incredibly slow. With a name like Ninja Sushi you'd think they'd do flips over the bar and tables to get to us quick, not be snails and avoid us every chance they got. My son and I got ramen, while my wife and daughter ordered a bento box and sushi. The ramen was pretty low flavor (even the spicy ramen that I got). The sushi rolls were overpriced but still good size. So the food was ok overall in quality, but even asking for an extra napkin wasn't going to happen as you literally had to jump in front of the waiters to get attention. Overall: decent food quality, crap service. read more

it's Friday n it was time to get some fresh sushi! we haven't had any in a while so I decided to try this new sushi place out to c how it stacks up against our favorite one in this area, Yuki Sushi. the restaurant has just opened for a couple of weeks I think, but has garnered pretty good reviews so I thought it was worth checking out. Ninja Sushi is located in a small plaza off of Almaden Expressway where the new Mo's is. (Mo's is still under construction.) it's an average sized space with a bunch of tables plus a sushi bar. when u c that the name of the restaurant has the word Izakaya in it, you would expect to find some good small plate items. I only saw some of the more basic appetizers such as Agedashi Tofu n Chicken Karaage. nothing really special. they should either rethink their menu or just take the word Izakaya out of their name. it can b pretty misleading. the service was good tho. the waiter n hostess both came by to ask how everything was. the prices r a bit higher than the other sushi restaurants in the area. plus they don't have any special promotions i.e. happy hour prices or a complimentary appetizer or dessert. most of the more popular sushi places have some sort of special like those. Miso Soup : this came lukewarm at the most so I wasn't impressed. part of me wanted to ask them to heat it up for me, but I didn't want to b rude. Soft Shell Crab : pretty good. crunchy n the presentation was cute. Super Ninja : this is the kind of sushi roll I like n usually order. some crab with a bit of a crunch on top for texture. it was good. they did put a lot of the mayo mixed with teriyaki sauce. it was a pretty plate. Fantastic 4 : the spice level wasn't that spicy. it's just average at the most. it seemed ok fresh. for the most part, their food is good. just not amazing for the price. it's still a new establishment so I hope they work out their kinks n become better in the future. read more

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This restaurant is a nice place to go but it is noisy. It is not a quiet little get away where you can have a romantic conversation. The food is plentiful, our waiter checked to see how we were doing often and since this was a Friday night I would say that the food we ordered came quickly. I ordered the Donkatsu which is the breaded pork cutlet, a bowl of rice and soup and salad. I also ordered the combination tempura appetizer but asked that it come with the main course. Waiter did no problem. My mother ordered the teriyaki chicken dinner and a side of California Roll. The roll came with 8 pieces (most places I've been to serve 6). My father ordered what they call the Santa Teresa roll. I'm not sure as to the # if pieces. I want to say 10 but I know it was no less then 8. The food was served to us just under 20 minutes from ordering. Thus was fine as we could enjoy our soup and salad. The tuna, shrimp and salmon used I the roll were fresh. No after taste and melted kin your mouth. The chicken teriyaki was very tender and moist. The Donkatsu was a thick pork cutlet which was slightly overcooked and because of this caused it to be a bit tough. If they would tenderize the piece of meat prior to cooking this would help thinning the meat and possibly cut the time cooking it. As everything else was very good I'm hoping the preparation was a rarity. We would definitely go back to this restaurant. Ever since Shins closed we have been looking for a local restaurant to replace our Japanese food craving. At least one person orders Donkatsu in our party. This restaurant was a pleasant surprise and with the experience we had enjoying the food and service we will be returning again in the near future. read more

Came here for Date Night on the recommendation of a friend (who said it's better than our local fave). It was pretty busy for 5:30pm on a Friday -- only bar seating or a 20min wait for a table. We happily sat at the bar. We ordered three rolls, edamame, & a bottle of white peach saki. The saki was my favorite part of the meal. Rolls were delicious! Service was a bit slow -- but we were on Date Night and happy to be alone without kids so it didn't matter. We'll likely come back again read more

If you want "genuine" Japanese food, this is not the place. Seriously it's how you prepare rice for the sushi and rolls, and their rice was just not right. Otherwise, atmosphere is great. Good draft beers, good services. Izakaya was ok, but not great. read more

I can't. The sushi was bad, didn't taste fresh, too much rice compared to the fish, brought out soaked in soy sauce (?? never seen that one before). Teriyaki chicken was rubbery, had shards of cartilage, and pieces were stringy when pulled apart. Miso soup had almost no flavor and was too sediment-ey, even when just stirred. It's also served way too hot, probably to mask the lack of flavor. Had a Yelp coupon for an appetizer at 20% off, so we ordered the most expensive one, the sampler. 4 different fried things, all pretty much tasted the same. Not worth it at 80% of the price. However, we had a great waitress. Very attentive and took the teriyaki chicken off the bill. I didn't use the Yelp coupon because I figured it wouldn't be right since we got soup and salad with that chicken. Decor was nice. Globe pendant lights, gray walls, accent lighting. read more

We were excited when learning about a new sushi joint ten minutes away AND $1.99 sakes after 8PM on Fridays and Saturdays. Sold we decided to give it a whirl. Walking in, the smell of fresh paint was prominent. Granted, they've only been open for a couple months. We stood in the front of the restaurant for a couple minutes before we were greeted, which I find odd especially when you're greeted right away by the hostess and/or sushi chefs at other establishments. We were seated and perused the menu. Our waitress was really nice, but also new so didn't know the menu or about their special. We ordered fairly quickly, but a lot of the rolls were so repetitive. Our food came out fast, but one of the rolls they made incorrectly and when we pointed it out, they remade a new one, but that one was also incorrect and was missing an ingredient. Oh well. Lots of room for improvement, but when you're paying for a $60 meal, I would rather spend that else where. read more

We used to order sushi from this place before and it was good. Today we ordered sushi for lunch and it was really bad. I think they used Jasmin rice instead of sushi rice and the rice was falling apart when you pick up the sushi. It was really bad. I gave 3 star because it used to be good. Not going back there anymore. read more

We have two little ones so we went there early for dinner. We walked in and one of the sushi guy behind the counter told us to sit anywhere we liked. After we placed our order, for some reason none of our appetizers came out, instead my husband got his sushi roll. They gave us another sushi roll that the table next to us had ordered and 10 minutes later they gave our ordered to another table. LOL The tempura was just ok and even though there was a lot of options on the type of sushi rolls, it was nothing really special. The teriyaki chicken that i got for my daughter was the only item that i thought was good. The restaurant was only a quarter filled and they were having trouble with orders. I wanted to like this place but i was left disappointed. Probably my last time here. read more

What a lovely find. We wanted to try a new sushi place and live in Almaden so this was it. Great service, nice suggestions from the waiter as to what to order. The spicy garlic edamame was so tasty, and quite spicy. We had a couple of rolls and the bluefin tuna sashimi. The bluefin tuna was excellent. In fact all of the food was top quality and very tasty. The chef came to check that we enjoyed the food and that was a nice touch. The only negative was the music. My husband hated it; said it sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. The food was such top quality that next time I will get him to wear a hat over his ears. read more

We had a great dining experience here. I highly recommend this place. The restaurant is nicely decorated, clean and family friendly. Our server, Brenda, was very helpful who saw our needs and so tentative. The foods were really tasty. This definitely our new favorite sushi restaurant! Good job! read more

Came to this place they said our order will be ready in about 6:45 it was passed it it was 7:00 that and we were just still waiting I mean come on how long does it take to make sushi I know restaurants that can make it faster then this place not ever again I'll just take my money somewhere else read more

Excellent food and customer service!! I gave 4 stars because we were there celebrating a birthday and had to ask for dessert then she charged us for it. Come on, one should get free dessert on someone's birthday. Let's not be cheap!! read more

We were starving and happened to be in the neighborhood, last week. The Yelp rating caught my eye. First off, the place looks nice inside and the ladies restroom was very clean. There was also a young man who was working his butt off serving tables, but he wasn't our server. We started off with 2 miso soups and the Hamachi sashimi appetizer. The miso soup simply did not taste good. It tasted like the soup had boiled down and they just added more water to the pot. Although it wasn't disgusting, it was very unsatisfying and I couldn't force myself to finish it, like I normally do. The Hamachi appetizer tasted and looked like mackerel...it was white and had that silver looking skin sliver on top. That wasn't totally bad, but it wasn't what we ordered. The fish was also kind of warm. The Unagi special #2 was ruined because the avocado slices were totally hard! That texture completely changed the whole roll. How does the chef not know that an avocado isn't ripe yet, when he slices them up? Once you took the avocado slices out, the roll was just okay. The accompanying sauce on the plate had a weird taste of a sweet and slightly burnt flavor. The Temptation roll was also just okay and the temperature of the fish was not right. Some pieces had scallop inside and some didn't, but it definitely wasn't 'spicy scallop' as described. The only spicy thing about that Temptation roll was the sliced jalapeno also inside, so maybe the description on the menu needs tweaking. The sushi rice did not have the correct formula and tasted like a plain, sticky rice. It seems like everyone in the place knew each other, so maybe this is just a locals spot and that is why there are so many good reviews(?). Perhaps if the chef took more pride in making sure the fish is kept at the right temperature, the sushi rice is prepared properly and that the other ingredients are ripe (instead of drinking beer with no gloves on), the food would have been more palatable. Perhaps we just came on an off night? No complaints about the service, but the food was all off and we have no desire to give it another shot anytime soon. read more

This was a great food experience! This place had Very fresh sushi with good Happy to have tried it. Service was good. You can tell they take pride in their food read more

Great place to meet and tasty options. The wait staff was a little distracted / inattentive, i.e. getting drinks, etc.

Finally got a chance to check out Ninja. Very good!! Will definitely be back. So many rolls to try. I had a little bit of everything, tempura, a handroll and a specialty roll (I will not be eating for days!). Everything was really good. Their spicy tuna is awesome! Service staff is friendly and the owners want very much for you to feel like you are their guest. read more

First off I'm going to start by saying that this place is located a little bit out there ways from the mainstream areas which makes it a little hard to find at first, but don't let the location fool you. the first thing that I want to start off with it is customer service. I feel like customer service is everything when it comes to a business, and a business that is able to demonstrate outstanding customer service earns customer loyalty. the young man who was working there was very helpful. he explained a couple of new changes that were made to the menu, and those changes actually worked out in our favor. after we received our order the waiter continuously attended to as to make sure that we are receiving great service and that our food came out to be just the way we expected it to be. on top of that, that later also made sure that we were always topped off with their drinks which I think is crucial because that shows the customer that the business is really there to earn the customers loyalty and it also shows that they really care about their customers while they are dining in. the interior is very nicely thought out. It looks really offended like a real Japanese restaurant inside they have these really cool looking LED light bulbs which actually look like 19th century light bulbs and they have 2 big screen TVs with shows the games and other things that are going on which I think is really cool. okay and now to the food. I must tell you that the food here is absolutely outstanding quality. The portions here for their Bento boxes is really decent and you really do get quite a bit of food for the money but not only that it's just the quality of food here is really good. For example, I ordered the salmon teriyaki with tempura and usually I can tell the quality by the way that they cook the salmon and hear it cook the salmon to a point where it still stays moist on the inside and the outside is not really hard and crispy so that shows me that the shuffling knows his stuff and on top of that it's important was individually nicely better for station like to text you everything and it's not all pumped up like some other places to shop so again reinforces the fact that the chef is an expert at this type of food. So I hope that this review help you out to make your decision about this place. Solid 5 Stars. Cheers! read more

Bamboo Fish - Salmon teriyaki with tempura - Japanese Near Me - San Jose, California

New Japanese sushi restaurant. The restaurant is bright open and spacious with a large sushi bar. They offer a great variety of special sushi and sushi combos which are delicious and filling. Their prices are reasonable. Their regular Japanese food menu is the standard Terriyaki chicken, beef, salmon with or without combos. They offer tempera, donburi, noodles also. There serving porticos are good size - above average. Overall a good selection of Japanese food and Sushi. Check it out read more

It is a good sushi spot. Like other sushi places, if you are looking for large portions definitely not happening. Sushi-wise it is good at least when I tried it. Sashimi was on point, I did not regret it. Servers were providing just the right about attention. The ambiance I enjoyed mainly because I have a thing for low lighting (a chill party atmosphere). read more

I've been to other sushi restaurants in san jose but this ninja sushi has been my fav.spot to have a dinner or perhaps lunch as well. Main chefs steven, jay, they are very professional about what they explained to me about sushi. And they served me couple of specials that go well with my appetite. They were shy in the beginning. But i gave a try to ask them questions and talk to them about the restaurant and they came up very polite and kind. This kind of service? Whether the restaurant is busy or not i think they can handle customer service as well as food. Food wise, i ordered salmon sashimi dinner. And, nigiri / sashimi (fish in general) were very fresh. Presentation wise as well, they tried really hard to serve me good dishes. Servers are very kind. But only concern 'if' i have to say, then.. It would be... I wish servers could smile to greet us little more. It isn't like they are rude. (They were very helpful) but wish they could understand that having a smile is part of customer service. But overall, i would come back here for sure to try more food here. read more

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Too bad. I was hoping for better. The fish is decent, although the rice is poor. It ruins the sushi. Unless you have an educated palate, you likely wouldn't even realize it. For those that do have appreciation, avoid it. Nothing is more important than the rice. The other dishes are mediocre. I did like the salad dressing. Beer options are the same as everywhere else. I do wish this would change. The interior was nice. They are trying, just work on the food a bit more. read more

Came in on a Sunday afternoon & it was pretty quiet. Me & my fiancé sat at the sushi bar, and ordered the jalapeño bomb & some veggie sushi. It was really good ! They plated it beautifully and it was super tasty and fresh ! The server made sure our waters stayed full & was attentive. The menu is large as they have all type of sushi to offer ! Give this place a try you won be disappointed! read more

So good. Tried everything from their cucumber salad, gyozas, teriyaki salmon and specialty rolls and have not been disappointed. They have a J and R special roll that is one of the best sushi rolls around. Great food and top Almaden valley restaurant. read more

I was so excited about the new Japanese Restaurant in Almaden. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the rolls. My daughter ordered a roll that had more rice than fish. I had a roll which had more avocado inside than the tempura shrimp. My sisters enjoyed the bento boxes though. If this restaurant would like to be competitive with Almaden Sushi, which always has a queue, they really need to have thicker slices of fish on their rolls. I have to feel that what I ate was worth what I paid for. As an Izakaya Restaurant, I typically expect Japanese finger foods, as in Japanese tapas. I asked the waiter for their Izakaya menu, and he replied that Izakaya means "drinks" in Japanese. My point being, if you serve drinks, appetizers should be served with it. read more

The sushi was pretty good at the restaurant and it came out quickly. Unlike some other restaurants, our gyoza actually came out first rather than our entrees. The gyoza was crunchy because we requested it fried, me and my girlfriend love crunchy. I ordered the rainbow row and the lion King roll, we didn't finish the lion King however both rolls were good for the price. My girlfriend ordered Sukiyaki. We both liked it, the portion was huge for me. Overall the place looked amazing and the food was good. read more

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I honestly hated the sashimi here. They were way too warm to even be considered as sashimi. The texture was horrible. It wasn't chewy or had the fresh feeling to it as well. As I said, it's not fresh and doesn't taste good at all. They even charge you extra just for another bowl of miso soup by few DOLLARS. I had to eat my rice with the soup because the sashimi itself was absolutely terrible. I am only giving this horrible "sushi" place 2 stars because the waitress was somewhat nice and the miso soup wasn't bad as well. Other than that, I don't recommend you going here for a nice Japanese meal. You people who work there, you are lucky that my whole group didn't decide to give 1 star reviews about your restaurant. read more

You know it's bad when you leave wishing you listened to your kids and went to McDonalds instead. We originally planned to go to Cha Cha sushi, but given the hour wait and some hungry kids, we yelped and decided to give this place a try. The staff are friendly enough. They are Korean owners and opened in December. We were excited to try and ordered over $100 worth of rolls, nigiri and appetizers. Here is how our meal turned out: For $15-20 dollars per roll (!!!), we were expecting high quality rolls. Unfortunately, I've had better rolls at some "all you can eat" sushi places. The read more

It was really cold outside today, and it was only one degree warmer inside the restaurant. I froze my ass off inside! So we ordered miso soup, spicy garlic edamame and gyoza. The spicy garlic stuff was just like Siracha and garlic. A lot of it. We thought too much and we sent it back and got the regular one. The spider roll was ok but very large. There is really no polite way to shove that in my mouth. The soft shell crab had a mushy texture in the middle of the roll. The coyote roll was great. I wasn't blown away with the food or the atmosphere. Probably won't return. read more

The Showgi restaurant in the Bloomsters complex (in Almaden) was sold to new management 2 months ago. We were pleasantly surprised at the renovated place when we walked in, very modern and upbeat - its happening and was packed last night! They have a wine and beer bar, extensive menu and the food was incredible! Their food is Thai Garata quality good - everything was tasty, waiters were responsive and friendly. The place looks very trendy now! Yes, they are more expensive than the old place, but the food and ambience was worth it. We even met friends there we had not met for years, a great ending to our family dinner out! We had a great experience last night. We'll be back! read more

I went to this location few times when they had a different name/ owner. I thought o give it a try again last night. It was hard to decide if I want to give 3 or 4 stars but since they are new I would like to give them the chance so I am going with 4. I use to love the lighting and cozy atmosphere of the old place, but they did do a good job with remodeling. The only thing I would suggest is to lower their ceiling lighting since its super bright for having a relaxing dinner and not fun having those very bright lights above your table. Other than that it's a very clean place and everything looks new. The sushi that we ordered was good but the salmon bento box not that much. The salmon was very dry and overcooked. Same thing with the brown rice. Very good service with friendly staff, that's why I decided to go with 4 stars for now :) We will probably give this place another try in the future. read more

Simply Amazing. After tiresome day, I wanted to try new sushi restaurant in Almaden. I had try many other sushi restaurants but Ninja Sushi and izakaya is better then all sushi places in Almaden. I ordered Super Ninja, SF giants, and unagi special #2. All the rolls were way above average especially Super Ninja was so far the best roll I've tried. With the crunch fried onions on top of the roll and all other ingredients mixing together well gave me fulfiling taste in my mouth and it was far superior then any other rolls I tried on different restaurants. Also for the appetizer, the chef recommanded the spicy edamame which was different from any other edamames and it was mindblowung. I had no idea that edamame with spaciness could get along this well. If you want to try different type of edamame I will definetely recommend spicy edamame. Also The restaurant is spacious and very simply well designed. Also the chefs and the servers were very kind. They knew how to serve the customers. Don't worry about the parking lot! There are alot. Ninja sushi and izakaya is the goto place for sushi in Almaden. Great sushi restaurant! read more

We are there 1-1/2 wks ago; there at 11:00 when they opened Sun. morn as we had play tickets. Only ours and another table in the entire place, yet it took 35 min to be served. HOWEVER, went back yesterday, when the place was almost full, and we were served in less than 10 min. QUITE A DIFFERENCE! Cottage Pie and Monte Cristo sandwich were excellent. Great addition to Pacific Commons! Keep up the good work! read more

Delicious food. Lots of options. Nice atmosphere. We had a large party of 7 people and they were great at catering to all of our different needs. read more

Bamboo Fish - Japanese Near Me - San Jose, California

First time here. I'm not a sushi fan so I'll have to comment on cooked foods. I ordered Spring Rolls and the Tempura Prawns, teriyaki chicken rolls and California Rolls. The service is really good and when I asked the difference between two menu items our waiter was knowledgeable The Miso soup was one of the best I've had in quite a while. The least favorite was the chicken, not that it was bad but all the rest surpassed it. read more

Hubby and I were excited to try this new place out. We ordered $90 worth of food to go. The nabeyaki udon was pretty good but the sushi rolls were subpar. After a few bites we knew something was off but couldn't put our finger on it. All of the sushi rolls tasted super bland. It was towards the end of our meal that it dawned on me that the sushi rice was missing rice vinegar. I added a few dashes to the last few bites and things were significantly better. Not sure if the omission was an accident or that's how they make their sushi rice. I'd give this place another shot but after dropping $90, I'm a bit hesitant to go back anytime soon. read more

Went here when it was still Showgi Sushi. Didn't realize it was changed, but since we drove all the way here, we just tried it. Ordered croquette, which was like mashed potato patties covered with Pablo bread and fried. I like potato so of course I liked the croquette. We got the hamachi Kama, which was the salmon jaw. It tasted less oily when it was still Showgi. Also ordered three sushi rolls - but the flavors weren't really there. Definitely not the same as Showgi for some reason even though the staff seems to be the same. May be we went there on an off day. I may give it another try if I'm in the area. But I would not drive here just for the food. read more

Food taste great and the service is awesome! One of the best sushi restaurants in san jose.

Great place. Excellent service and friendly staff. The menu is extensive and quality is great!! Been two Sunday's in a row now. No wait and great bar to sit at. They have tables as well. Two big screens to watch playoffs. Love it!!! read more

Nice casual sushi place. Took the family here. Good food, friendly. Place was a little loud for dinner but not obnoxious. A little high on the food pricing but due to it's location, I'm sure they're getting charge a boat load for rent. Definitely recommending this place if in the area. read more