One of my favorite authentic japanese restaurants, really great for lunch. I always get the Tempura Udon which is amazing, and the Chirashi bowl too. Highly recommend. read more

Jinbei - Tempura udon with beef - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

Jinbei was one of the strangest and negative dining experiences I've had in a long time. We came here for lunch today and waited in line before the restaurant opened. They opened the doors 10 minutes late, and as people were trickling in to get seated, the hostess was annoyed and kept insisting that the door remain shut...Ookkaayy... The hostess asked if we wanted to sit at the bar and became visibly annoyed when we asked for a table (there were open tables). When we were ready to order, we flagged down our waitress. She refused to take our order because orders have to be taken IN THE ORDER WHICH PATRONS ARRIVED. So even if they can't decide what they want to eat or not everyone in their party is present...everyone else needs to wait...Ookkaayy... 30 MINUTES LATER-they take our order. Sorry, we are all out of 2 out of the 3 sushi lunch specials. We only make 10 plates of each. WTAF?? Is this a restaurant or did we just crash a small family dinner? So we settled on the rolls. 30 MINUTES LATER-our food finally comes out. It's unremarkable. Quality is similar to sushi you can buy at the food court in a Japanese or Korean market. Nothing special at all. Meanwhile, we have to deal with weird patrons (strangers) who set up their tripod on our table multiple times to take selfies of themselves. Awesome. Time to pay. Asked staff for the bill. It never comes. Tried to wave down a waitress. We are ignored once again. I walk towards staff to ask for the check. IGNORED. Finally, I corner our waitress by the cash register to ask for out bill. She drops the check at our table and runs off. She billed us for food we didn't order. I try to tell her. Wave her down. Say "excuse me" loudly. No luck. I have to get up and chase her down again to let her know. Two hours has now gone by since we arrived at the restaurant. She corrects the bill, drops it off at our table, and runs off. SIGH. Now I have to chase her down YET AGAIN to give her our credit cards. I'm not sure if they want to be known as the "Nazi Soup Kitchen" of sushi, but guys...their food is nowhere good enough to be treated like this. Unless you're into that kind of thing. read more

Jinbei is our Japanese go to. Salmon skin salad and salmon belly aburi is a must order. No frills ambiance.

I wanted everything. But I was too late. No red snapper, no octopus, nooooo I dunno what else but they were out. Ate the carpaccio to start, I loved. Special. Had lots more like horse mackerel, suction cups, that egg thing. Check the pics. Finished with a pasta. I practically wiped the plates clean. While I was waiting I made a heart out of flowers on the outdoor seating area. Included in pics but maybe it's still there so I hope you see it. read more

Jinbei - JINBEI PICS HEARTS FLOWERS SUSHI PASTA - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

I was very impressed by this location, even on the little details they killed it! As I walk in, there were tables of Japanese women in kimonos dining, if that's not legit then I don't know what is! This location was busy during lunch hours, but we were promptly seated. Our server was very nice, and made some good recommendations and informed us on portion sizes so that we didn't order too much food. Lunch time had some great specials on sushi and bento boxes. Uni pasta- so freakin good! I have had uni pasta at a few other locations, and this is definitely one of the best I've had. Nice creamy taste to the pasta, the uni just gives it that seafood edge. Add a fried egg on top to mix in. Karaage lunch bento box- the best karaage I've had, the included side sauce was amazing and pairs perfectly. Rice is simple, but on point. Dressing on the side salad is delicious, makes a plain salad work. Charashi lunch- smaller portion of 8 different types of sashimi (chef's choice). I love this concept, and the bowl was good and presented wonderfully, just wish the sashimi had been a little bit fresher. Overall, great meal and good service. Reasonable pricing during lunch. read more

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In our search for more affordable but still high quality sushi, my fiancée found this gem. With our sushi addiction, it was getting expensive. Jinbei totally delivered. It's a small restaurant and they filled up in less than an hour on a Friday night. We got there pretty much right when they opened. The servers were friendly and informed us of the specials. It seems that they have a different me u each night because they date them. Many items on the daily menu are also in the regular menu. We ordered an assortment of nigiri: amberjack, red snapper, golden eye snapper, albacore, sweet shrimp, sea bream, salmon belly, scallop, and uni. The quality of the fish is good. Nice temperature, good cuts, and fresh tasting. They also served the egg on the side for us also. The egg was delicious. I'm curious to try their special black egg next time. My fiancée loves the salmon skin hand rolls. The highlights of the meal were the salmon belly (seared and regular), sweet shrimp, sea bream, scallop, and salmon skin hand rolls. They fries the shrimp heads and they were amazing!! Shoutout to the chef who gave me 2 extra heads. They were my favorite. All the food we ate--we were STUFFED. Totally worth the price. read more

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Love this place! The wait is long especially during peak hours, but worth the wait. Authentic Japanese food. So many things to love on their menu! Service is tops! The ambience is nice, and very clean. read more

Must try the mentaiko pasta! It's so yummy. The noodles are cooked perfectly, not too soft. The mushrooms are creamy. I love everything about this dish and can use more to the portion. I've been there multiple times, it's a small place so go a bit earlier than when you wish to eat. Never had any issues with service. The sushi always feels clean and high quality. I recommend this place for sure! read more

Great service! The restaurant is clean and the service is spectacular. I got the miso ramen and the noodles are perfect. Love!

Delicious beef udon and mentai cream pasta. Sushi and sashimi selection was diverse and fresh. Priced well. Pleasantly surprised by this hidden gem located in a small shopping plaza next to Irvine suburbia. Service was authentic, prompt, and friendly. read more

Haven't written a review in a very LONG time and thought the experience I had today deserves to be heard. Food - subpar for sushi to be honest if this restaurant was found in LA or even Japanese town it would close down because the quality is no where near what a real sushi/izakaya restaurant would be and definitely not what you would find in Japan, being this is a franchise there and this is supposedly their first US branch. Service - rude and as if I wasn't a customer, before we even put down our names on the wait-list the host/waitress already begrudgingly let me know it will be at least a 20-30 min wait even though she said herself most of the tables are leaving. We still put our names down and she was right 25 mins later we were seated to a 25% occupied restaurant at 1240pm. As she was going to seat us I asked if we could place our order (because we had to do a quick lunch being we need to return to work) the automatic response with attitude was "I'm busy seating people I don't have time to take your order". Honestly, I've never had someone in a restaurant business ever reply they couldn't take my order because their busy seating people, which was just one additional party of 2 after us. Does she not know what kind of business she's working at, where she's not willing to take an order?? But to further this she seated another party after us and immediately took their order first and then came back to our table to say the order party came first, seated first, and so their order gets taken first. What kind of business is set up like that? You take orders based on who seated first, if that was the case our order should have been taken first. She continue to explained she wouldn't have taken our orders first either way until the table who she sat after us ordered first. I mean at this point I couldn't hold it in anymore and started to question her business rational and told her I've never been to a restaurant that didn't let me order until it's my turn. She told me that's just how it is run at this restaurant. Needless to say I will not be coming back - Food - uni pasta - tasted great, not worth the price tag Sushi roll lunch special - not worth writing about, your average tasting stereotypical rolls Honestly if you're reading this review I would not bother with this place unless you have a serious craving for subpar Japanese food with terrible service and high price that doesn't match if that's what you're looking for then by all means run to this place otherwise start searching for other places you can eat in Irvine where the food is great, the price is reasonable, and there's still customer service. read more

I have always liked Jinbei. Last week I had greatest experience of my foodie history here. Service was great, food was awesome, it was totally wonderful. Here is my strong recommendation: 1. If you going to go there on Saturday, make reservations. (Because it's so popular!) 2. If you want lunch Chirashi bowl, order as fast as you can. ( because it's limited) 3. You gotta try lunch Chirashi bowl. It's same quality from Otoro (Irvine ) $100 one and right amount. Sushi chef la and servers are all giving us great service and welcoming atmosphere. This is No.1 recommended place in OC by me. read more

The service in this place sucks. I can't say anything about food because after putting ourselves on the waitlist which is completely meaningless since they sat someone that just walked in ahead of us , we were sat, waited 15 minutes for anything,, water would've been nice! Anyway we got up and left. Bad service kills restaurants and this one won't make it if this is how they operate read more

Visited Jimbei and was quite satisfied with their effort to be a great Japanese restaurant in Irvine. Sushi chefs are all Japanese who seem to be trained how to make sushi right and sanitary and most of stuffs are courteous to customers. Only a problem is they don't have real freshness of sushi fish. They may have to raise the price if they serve what I expect. read more

Food was good but we could hear all the hiccups the staff were having during our dinner which made our experience less pleasant. We also ordered a Togo meal for after dinner with sweet shrimp but we received a normal shrimp instead which was disappointing. Overall, I feel there are better sushi spots and this will not be my first choice when craving for sushi. read more

Jinbei - Sweet shrimp was ordered but we received a normal shrimp - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

Excellent authentic Japanese food. I lived in Japan for years and this is one of the few authentic places in Irvine.

As much as I like to support local businesses, I like to not feel like I'm a burden when I'm frequenting an establishment. JinBei was a go to for pickups during Covid. While we supported them regularly during the shelter in place to ensure this local eatery would survive, post Covid management has been appalling. One can no longer order to go in the same day, only dine in. There is no reservations, just a waitlist. And even then, the wait is longer than expected due to the lack of staff. So tables are not bused timely, turnovers are lower. Yet, by 12:30p the three lunch specials are completely sold out as they only prepare 10 portions per day chirashi, nigiri, and rolls. In other word, they either can't or won't buy enough fresh fish or they are pre preparing the lunches. Either way, the food purveying needs an overhaul. Service - the two waiter/ waitress do it all. Pls consider hiring more staff. Otherwise, one worry what other corners are being cut. Ok. I could go on. But hopefully the owners/ management got the memo. Going next door to Zovs... read more

4.5 STARS FOOD (4/5) Their lunch special roll combo is affordable and is a good meal that leaves you satisfied without being overly full. You choose 3 rolls (4 pieces per roll so a total of 12 pieces for the meal) out of the specified rolls for the lunch special. The lunch special comes with a side salad with a Japanese onion dressing (similar to Daikokuya's salad dressing) and a miso soup. Will definitely come back to try other dishes/specials they offer! Roll combo: Each bite is a little small but the fish was fresh tasting, garnishes were fresh as well and I enjoyed the variety of options you could choose from. Salad was refreshing and a good bite with the sushi. Miso soup was also really good, not salty and served piping hot. SERVICE (5/5) The staff are Jinbei are so incredibly sweet and hardworking. Although it was lunch rush when I placed my order and they told me approximately 20 minutes, they ended up getting my order out in 10 minutes. As I was sitting out on their outdoor patio (socially distanced by the way and they do offer indoor seating as well!), the waiter brought out a cup of iced water without me asking. Super kind and efficient service! read more

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We came to check out their chirashi bowl (lunch only). It definitely doesn't disappoint us. The bowl was very packed with both fish and other seafood such as shrimp and octopus. It was very filling. We wanted to try their blue fin toro but it was sold out the night before so no picture this time. The karaage plate was for my daughter which she enjoyed with her miso soup and edamame. It was very nice to see 2 additional side dishes. Both were very tasty. read more

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3 types of sashimi (~$25): the chef-selected 3 types of sashimi included tuna, salmon, and yellow tail. The sashimi was thick-cut, not exactly the way how it's normally served in Japan but it was fresh and delicious nonetheless Santa Barbara uni sashimi (~$35): tasted fresh but looked slimy and watery Uni spaghetti ($22): very heavy and creamy. I would not have been able to taste the uni had I not added $35 to mix it with fresh uni sashimi read more

Jinbei - Uni spaghetti ($22) + uni sashimi (~$35) - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

Get there early to get seated right away or there's a 2 hour wait! It's a Small place so seating is limited. Big parties even take longer to leave. Sushi is great and prepared using Japanese technique! Definitely worth the $$ and wait! Enjoy your meal and experience the freshness of each piece! I did! read more

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Very authentic Japanese Izakaya. Waited about 20 min. for a party of three this past Friday night at 6:30 pm. Service was fine. The food overall was, while tasty and well presented, way too salty for my wife and my taste, which my rating reflects. Hopefully the proprietors read this and adjust their dishes accordingly; otherwise, I don't see myself returning anytime soon. read more

We came for lunch on a Saturday when they opened. They only serve ten sushi lunch and chirashi bowl a day so we got there early to make sure we could grab them. They were both presented well and arrived about ten minutes after ordering. We had their delicious green tea while waiting. The miso soup and salad came first and were nice apps before our meal. Once the sushi and sashimi came we started and both the dishes were fresh and had good variety. We also added some sashimi after to round off our lunch. Overall it was a good experience and the food was fresh and priced correctly. Would definitely come back again. read more

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My most favorite sushi restaurant in Tustin. Authentic and fresh and most of all, yummy! read more

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besides a little seating challenge for our larger group of 6, we had an amazing dinner at jinbei. we tried everything from appetizers to set meals to sushi and sashimi, all were made with quality ingredients and presentation. we also got to try the uni spaghetti, two thumbs up! very patient servers even dealing with our large group. jinbei prides itself with 10 locations in japan, and we are lucky jinbei chose irvine to have its first store outside of japan. how blessed we are! albeit small, but mighty. will definitely return to try out the limited lunch offerings! read more

Most authentic and delicious Japanese restaurant in OC! The service is always amazing, they are very attentive and respectful. The environment is always very welcoming. I come weekly for their great lunch specials!! read more

Jinbei - Chirashi Lunch Special - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Jinbei is a surprisingly great choice for some authentic, quality sushi in Irvine. I say surprising because considering its slightly secluded location inside the Orchard Hills Plaza and the unassuming name, I initally wrote them off to be just another generic Japanese-American restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised when I was treated to not only some traditional and high quality nigiri, but also a nice rotating selection of fish flown in from Japan, all served by a friendly and skilled chefs. Don't let the large menu of bento boxes and cut rolls fool you. Stick with the sushi specials and a few izakaya items to get the best experience. The prices might be a bit stiff and it does fall short of some of the best sushi spots the OC has to offer, but this is still the most authentic Japanese cuisine you'll find this side of Irvine. Certainly good enough to deserve more attention than it currently gets. read more

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A hidden gem in Irvine. I've visited a couple of times and each time the customer service was great from both servers and sushi chefs at the bar. The menu provides a lot of options and the quality of their fish is phenomenal, can guarantee that any of their sushi and sashimi options will be satisfying. Personally I recommend ordering: Uni Spaghetti Bluefin Tuna Toro (THE BEST!! Melts in your mouth) If you're looking for authentic food and a great experience I recommend this location. I would also suggest trying to get a seat at the bar for a party of 2 or less for a better experience. It's a small restaurant, so I wouldn't recommend it for large parties, but it would be great for smaller groups and date nights. read more

I'm quite shocked this place has the stars and reviews it does. The quality here is not that good. About what you would expect for a strip mall sushi restaurant. It's 3 star sushi and some dishes you should absolutely avoid such as their Uni which was very bitter. The chefs their also seem to put some weird topping on some of their fish as well. I think they do this to mask lower quality fish. I've been eating sushi for over 30 years here and in Japan, I've never seen whatever this was. Whatever it is, its disgusting. But worse than the fish is the service. We waited 20 minutes to get our order. They had many excuses. "Your order was all sushi", (excuse me, everyone in here is ordering sushi) "It was too big". (It was 8 orders of 2 piece nigiri) "It's taking a long time because we're busy" (Ok, then you should have some of it ready now, bring it to me) It took another 5 minutes to get 8 pieces of sushi. It was all bull shit. People who sat down 10 minutes after we ordered all had sushi. They were basically making excuses and lying to us to cover their ass. If it were just the fish, this is a 3 star place. But when servers lie to customers to cover the fact they forgot the order, it's one star and should be zero. read more

Food is good but service is terrible. Waited for 40 minutes for udon. Nothing else to say

cute spot with very nice workers and decent sushi. portion size might be on the smaller side to price ratio but is normal for japanese cuisine read more

It used to be one my favorite sushi places in Irvine. But this time..."NO" As usual my wife and I ordered chirashi bowels. But they were not same as before.. In fact, it was not even close to the last chirashi we had. Maybe they are under new management? However, the quality of fishes on the chirashi bowels were bad. We both got sick after we got back to home from Jinbei. My wife had to take a medicine. I was better than my wife because I ate only half of the bowel and I did not eat the most of fishes on the bowel. The way a sushi chef cut the fishes for the chirashi bowel is unusual. It is so chunk and not even fresh. They should be cut same as sahimi.. How do I know that? I was also chef and used be a owner of a traditional Japanese resturant. Junbei definitly needs to upgrade their quality of fishes and controls of kitchen as well. read more

Sushi Lunch ($18.8) They also do amazing Chirashi Lunch ($23) and Tekka Donburi ($15.5) read more

Jinbei - Sushi Lunch $18 - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

If you are searching for an authentic Japanese restaurant, Jinbei is one of the best choices in the area. I especially appreciate how they have their fish shipped fresh from Japan so the quality here is above average compared to your typical sushi restaurants. Their menu is printed daily to reflect the items that are fresh that day and the red items are more recommended items on the menu. I took my cousin here on a Friday night after we did back to back Yoga classes at Be the Change Yoga Studio nearby. We had quite the appetite. Luckily we were able to score 2 seats at the sushi bar area and Ken-san was great! For our sushi we had Blue Fin Tuna Toro ($14), Uni ($13), Kinme Dai ($8), Shima Aji ($8) and Seared Salmon Belly ($6). All of the sushi was delicious and my cousin commented that it was one of the best they ever had. We especially loved the Toro!! It was so fatty and flavorful. For our entree we both decided to get their Shrimp Tempura with Poached Egg Udon ($11.80/each). The udon noodles were fresh and soft and the broth was really on point. There were two big pieces and Shrimp Tempura and I love the floating Tempura flakes in my udon. You can tell that the oil used to fried the tempura was also fresh since it did not make the soup oily. The egg was perfectly poached and the yolk was still runny. It really enhanced the soup base. This is a restaurant I would visit if I am already in the area, but not somewhere I would go out of my way for. Since the restaurant gets pretty busy, the service is definitely on the slow side and they are not good at refilling your water or clearing up your empty plates and bowls out of your cramped space. Also I can see the experience getting a bit expensive if you are only here for sushi. If you are only interested in sushi, I would recommend Ohshima or Shunka over Jinbei since they both have a superior fish selection and better value. read more

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Yesterday 2/19. Saturday Lunch time with my wife Visit to jinbei. I order chirashi and my wife had sushi lunch. Overall, fish is not much fresh and one of sushi man uniform is not cleaned. all most make me throw up. of course, pretty crowded at Lunch, but service is rough. Way different than last week. I hope they listen my complaint and wish they changed it. read more

Jinbei - Jinbei chirashi bowl - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Living 5 minutes from this restaurant... having eaten here more than 10 times in the past couple of years just because its the closest japanese restaurant from my house... will never visit again. Rude staff. They have this attitude of, i dont care if u dont like our service or food because there will be others who will come regardless. No business ever survives with this attitude. Time will catch up to them. read more

Jinbei is average at best. I came here with a friend on a Friday night and the restaurant was half full. The host quoted me a 30 minute wait. But why? The restaurant was half empty! We ended up waiting 10 minutes before she sat us. Now here's the kicker: once we were seated, we had to wait 25 minutes for someone to come take our order. And by 25 minutes, I was losing my patience and had to flag down a server to take our order. 1 star for service. I ordered the uni pasta and the toro nigiri (2 pieces). The uni pasta was A-OK but nothing spectacular. The uni pasta at EMC and Miyabi Uni are 100x better than the uni pasta at Jinbei. The toro nigiri, on the other hand, was excellent. The nigiri was soft and buttery and they give you a decent sized piece of fish. I enjoy when the fish to rice ratio is 2:1 and that's what it is here. I appreciate the small nigiri rice ball and the large piece of fish. For this type of service, I'm not sure I'd come back. I am curious to try more sushi and see how that experience fares. Maybe the 4 and 5 star reviews are for the folks who sit at the sushi bar and don't have to deal with the servers (or lack thereof). read more

Jinbei - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

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Have been coming here for years as it's my favorite sushi destination in OC. The staff there are friendly with minimal annual turnover which tells me they take care of their staff. read more

They are the real deal. Probably the most authentic Japanese in Irvine these days. A good place to try something unusual. You'll probably find a new favorite. read more

I have not even been to the restaurant and I am already turned off by this business. After reading a big number of negative reviews, I didn't even want to try it. But, because my husband saw the information that they get their fish from their own fish wholesaler, he was curious. I called to make a reservation and it took a whole minute for the phone to be answered. Put on hold for 10 minutes so... I gave up! Yup, you don't deserve to be still in business! So we went anyways and the food was decent . We ordered yellowtail sashimi, scallop sashimi, fish collar and two tempura bowl. Sashimi was ok fresh. Nothing to rave about and tempura was quite greasy. Their one plus is that the cold food was very cold and hot food was very hot. Service was friendly but we constantly had to wave them down because they didn't bring any ginger, tempura sauce and a fork for me because I have an injured right hand and so could not use chopsticks. We never got our tempura sauce. Will we go back ? Maybe. And the noise level was annoying. read more