They have good food from sushi to side dishes. My favorite menus are Toro, aoyagi, halibut fin, yellow tail, hickory, mentaiko pasta, fried chicken, tofu, etc. read more

Been eating Sushi almost twice a week for 35 years allover California. I will be brief : Jinbei is simply THE BEST AND AUTHENTIC SUSHI restaurant bar non! Arigato MasaSan ! Robert read more

My go to spot for an early dinner with my husband and two young kids. The menu is limited but everything is so delicious. Sushi is so fresh and they give you a generous cut of fish. Soft shell crab is so good. My 3.5 yr old son loves the niku udon and he's usually a very picky eater. Their uni pasta is good but they could probably give a little more fresh uni for the price. Overall a very solid Japanese restaurant that I would highly recommend! read more

Best stuff here seem to be: 1. Chirashi bowl 2. Uni Pasta 3. Pork Cutlet read more

Good Uni Pasta. Love the Sushi selection. It's sometimes hard to get them to answer the phone. A walk up is often necessary.

Chirashi Lunch. Period. End of story. Simply amazing. Great food, great prices, and great people. What more can one ask for? Absolutely loved this place. It gets crowded quickly and it gets a bit loud, but that comes with the territory. Highly recommend. ありがとうございました！とても美味しかったです！ read more

I called ahead and made rsvp for 2 the sushi bar but when we arrived they said someone just took our reserved seats at the bar and it would be a long wait... Which is what made me write this review today... I can't stand places that don't honor rsvps... what is the point of making rsvp if they don't uphold their end. Pet peeve... but regardless. I always thought this place was overpriced but the decent quality of the food along w the decent service always kept me coming back. But they are almost always out of uni (one of the main things I order at sushi bars) and the yellowtail collar bone... I'd say a good 89% of the time they're out of those 2 things so if that's what you're coming here for, def call ahead and ask. read more

Great quality sushi and great friendly service. It is a quaint little place that has a simple storefront but the food and service and staff makes it a great place to come. It is very clean and up kept well. Definitely recommended read more

The karaage was my sincere pleasure to eat. It was an experience to remember. Wow. Well done.

Went here on a recommendation from a couple worker. The atmosphere itself felt like we were back in Japan! And the fish was so fresh and tasty. Would come back for some of their noodle dishes, but their sushi was well prepared. read more

Really enjoyed sitting at the sushi bar for lunch, good service, great food and prices are fair.

It's delicious. I also want comment on the delicious restaurant. Come again next time

I've seen this place for a while on Yelp and always wanted to try it. Well tonight was the night. I have to say I'm upset I hadn't tried it sooner. It was very good. Good food and good service! I'm a tempura guy and their batter is light, flakey and crispy. One of the best I've had recently. Everything else was good and can't wait to try more of their menu. read more

My Japanese friend recommend me this restaurant. They always go here for lunch. I have dinner with some friend few days ago. Everything we ordered is so delicious. Uni spaghetti is really remarkable. We also have Sashimi salad, chicken Karaage and Creamy crab. read more

Jinbei - Uni spaghetti!!! - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

YES YES YES - it was a Saturday night around 7 PM and my parents and I had just spent the whole day driving from the bay area down to Irvine to move my brother into his new apartment for college. All we wanted was a nice meal to ourselves in a quiet restaurant that served great Japanese food - and this place was it. This place has a rotating sashimi menu with fresh fish from Japan every day, and the entire staff speaks Japanese. I was really impressed with the extensive of Japanese cuisine Jinbei offers beyond sashimi, including but not limited to: udon, tempura, izakaya skewers, etc. Their prices seemed a little steep but for the quality of their food and how fast it arrived to my table, it was worth it. Although I didn't get to try their uni pasta , I did get their nishi udon and that was probably..the best udon broth I've ever had. It even beat udon from Japan. come here for a great and quiet evening eating good quality food. read more

Sushi and sashimi are fresh, and the atmosphere is ok. The restaurant space can feel cramped, but overall a solid restaurant. The servers are curt to the point of being rude, as they did not stop by to refill drinks or check on the food. read more

Went here tonight to celebrate the wife's birthday, and though we had been here before, the food we ate tonight was surprisingly good. Last time we weren't focused on sushi while this time we were, and man were we happy. Some of the more memorable things we ate included the 4-piece omakase (especially the fatty toro and the uni), scallops from Hokkaido, the deep fried soft-shell crab (a la carte), and a grilled fish collar (forgot the exact fish). Wife also ordered the uni pasta, which she said was as good as she remembered it. Service was very good, Charlie the main sushi chef was very attentive to us. Only service flaw the entire evening was that they forgot my Asahi draft beer initially, and I needed to remind them of this, for which they were apologetic about it. Only real thing I could say, which made me ding them a star, is that I wished they would have made the celebratory birthday dessert complimentary instead of charging for it. Though they did bring out a very impressive dessert that was also nicely decorated (it was a fancy ice cream thing as they were out of the apple pie one). This latest experience will probably make us visit Jinbei a bit more often, as it seems really hard to find excellent sushi in Irvine (and surroundings). read more

Just as authentic as you can get it. Lunch chirashi is my go to but get there early. Everything is tasty!

Every visit adds support to my initial impression-- this is some of the finest Japanese food in OC.

Nice location in the good area. Beautiful plaza. Good quality food, reasonable price for their lunch menu. Love their tempura bowl, good portion for Asian girl. My husband orders the chirashi, and he loves it. So tasty!! Always come here for Sunday lunch. read more

The hostess who picks up the phone is an idiot. We called to see if there was a wait for 2 people and she said no. We get there within 15 minutes and all the tables were reserved. It's understandable if a rush of people came in, but reservations are something the hostess should have known about. When we called, she should have let us know they don't have any tables, because there are reservations. Due to the dumb staff, I will never come here again. Whats worse is they didn't even apologize or feel bad that we made a trip out there for nothing. No one wanted to take accountability and just say they're sorry they screwed up. Smh read more

If you like to eat authentic Japanese foods, this is the place. The foods are good and prices are good too. I recommend making reservation especially for the weekend. And one of my favorite dish is Uni Spaghetti and I love any small plates cafe style dishes. Oh, the best deal for me is the Box dishes. It comes with miso soup, salad, appetizer too. Great deal! Chefs and staff are very friendly. read more

Finally, we have a good sushi-ya in Irvine too! Uni-pasta was excellent too.

Surprisingly very tasty! I had the beef and shrimp udon. The shrimp tempura is fresh and fried perfectly, the beef, noodle, soup, everything is just right. Definitely coming back. read more

I was craving for sushi pretty late at night and told the boyfriend that I've always wanted to try out this place since a friend of mine who happens to be Japanese told me that it was pretty decent. Called in my order 30 mins before they closed and ordered the spicy tuna roll and one order of salmon sushi. The presentation of even to-go orders are nicely put and the flavors are really authentic. I'm pretty sure it's Japanese owned and we will definitely be back when we have sushi cravings from now on. read more

I ordered the sushi lunch here and let me say how fresh and delicious their fish is! Never would I have thought that such a high quality and legit sushi place is in the middle of Irvine! They do put wasabi underneath the fish so be sure to dip your sushi with just soy sauce only. To top it all off, service was great from all of the servers! read more

Service was outstanding! Food was incredible! A horrible service experience at Zov's next door led us in here and so glad it did! We will definitely be back. Thanks for a crappy experience Zov's and leading us to our new favorite spot for amazing sushi read more

Mentaiko pasta was really good!!! Extremely creamy with plenty of mentaiko in it. The salmon kama was good. Nothing special, but something that I would order again just because I liked the taste and flavor. The sushi though was not great. The sushi rice felt dry and stale. It didn't contain the usual softness, moisture, or texture. Also the yellow tail was not very good. The salmon and eel were fine tho. I would probably come here again and give it another shot in the future. read more

This is our second time at Jinbei. Fresh sushi/sashimi, never disappointed. Definitely recommend Jinbei to all sushi lover. read more

Jinbei - Surf Clam with miso vinegar - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

Best sushi place ever. We come here every weekend. This is the place if you like genuine Japanese food. A+++++. read more

Jinbei - Japanese Near Me - Irvine, California

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We go to Jinbei very often but will never go back because of the older Japanese lady waitress who is so rude. She always looks mad and never replies to you when you ask for something. There were many instances that I wanted to complain and other friends of mine also complained that she was rude but we kept going back because of the food. She needs to be trained on how to serve and be friendly to customers. Today, I went into the restaurant few minutes before opening to put my name in the waitlist. There is an ipad where you put your name and it even says "put your name here." She yelled at me that the restaurant was not open yet and gave me a dirty look. I told her that I wanted to put my name on the waitlist and she gave me such a disgusted look at me and just walked away. I was shocked and my husband who saw the whole thing said that he could not believe that she would do that to customers. We were so upset and asked for a manager/owner and they said that there was no manager or owner and did not care at all. read more

High quality but for some reason I asked for the top chef special toro and the sushi chef at the bar said "we are out of the toro" so okay I make other choices.... a couple sits down next to me and orders toro and it looks amazing - so I politely asked "I thought you were out of toro?" And he found the secret box again and made me a piece of sushi... Am I being bullied because I'm not overweight? What is going on?!? read more

Good sushi - came here again on a week day lunch. Sushi lunch was good, but the service was slow.

This place has descent sushi but the service is terrible. Whenever we go to this place and have a meal, we always have shitty and slow service experience.However, this place in the Orchard Hills neighborhood where we live.. so we ended up going there. This place deserves 0~1 start at best for their service. The servers here are extremely slow and inefficient. Waiting time on your order can be extremely long. I've seen many times the sushi and dishes are on the counter and sitting there for long time until the server picks them up and serve it... they really need to hire better servers... so horrible. read more

We decided to come here for lunch as we were in the area and the reviews appeared to be good. We walked in to find a single female server rushing around frantically to an almost full restaurant, will multiple tables/sushi bar still dirty from previous guests. There was also an odd smell at the entrance too, I'm not sure where it was coming from, but almost like dampness/wet dog. Anyway, we were in a hurry so we told her we'd just sit at the sushi bar, as we were about to be seated, one of the sushi chef's told her we couldn't sit on certain seats, but the seats he wanted us to sit at were still dirty, so we again had to walk back and wait at the entrance. We ordered the lunch combos, I had the niku udon with california roll and my husband the sushi lunch with california roll. We also ordered 2 scallop sushi. The food came quite quickly. The chef's were quite heavy handed with the wasabi so we didn't enjoy the sushi quite as much as we would've liked. Presentation was pretty and we admired the sushi plates. Apparently the scallops came straight from Japan, however we've had scallop sushi elsewhere which tasted alot fresher and "melted" in our mouth. Unlikely we'll go back again, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great either, read more

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Jinbei is quickly becoming my favorite sushi restaurant in Irvine. I've been here three times now and every meal has been delicious. I love that their menu changes daily and their fish comes fresh. I would recommend the sweet shrimp sashimi with the miso soup for the shrimp head...it's amazing! You can't go wrong with their soups here as well. I'm so happy to have found this spot hidden in the Orchard Hills plaza. read more

One of my co-workers introduced me to this place. It was close to our work so we decided to go there for lunch. Hands down the best Japanese restaurant I've been to. The food is delicious and fresh and the place is kept clean. Great atmosphere overall. Price-wise, I think it's very decent considering the amount of food you are getting. I ordered the Teriyaki Bento Box, which came with a small bowl of rice, miso soup, two side dishes (daikon radish and eggplants), 6-7 pieces of tender teriyaki chicken, salad, pickled vegetables, AND a plate of fresh sashimi (6 pieces, 2 of each variety) all for under $14. I've had more expensive Japanese food before but it wasn't as tasty or fresh as here. I can't wait to come back and try their dinner menu. The only negative thing I could think of is the service. The staffs were very friendly but they pay very little attention to you. We waited around quite a bit for someone to come take our orders and to give us the bill. Wished they were a little more sensitive to the fact that we were on our lunch break. Was glad we didn't have to wait too long for the food to arrive. read more

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Best Japanese in OC so far. On par if not in some ways better than anything but the absolute best in LA and Torrance... And within walking distance from our house is a dang bonus. read more

Sashimi platter - BOMB! came with salmon, snapper, halibut, albacore, yellow tail and tuna that all just melted in your mouth. Uni Pasta - bomb (and i don't like uni regularly) - the pasta noodles were al dente and the sauce was savory balancing out the uni with a creamy sauce. Chirashi bowl - bomb; the bowl looks small but the portion they gave me, i could barely finish. i think it's a really good deal. Udon - looks pretty good and heard its pretty good by fellow Japanese friends, but have not tried personally Karaage Chicken - no thank you. it was way too bland and soft. the skin/batter on the chicken looked very crispy but was soft as soggy tempura flakes. the chicken was very juicy though! I like my chicken karaage a little bit more on the crisp side to balance out the juiciness. the sauce for the karaage was alright as well. Service - definitely needs work. I've been here twice and the food never comes out at the same time. there's always some sort of lag and sometimes workers seem a little lackadaisical. I was hoping that I'd get my chicken karaage at the same time as the sashimi plate so i could mix between flavors and textures to make my meal a little less boring, but it came at the very very end of our meal and wasn't as appetizing for such a wait. the first time i was the last one to eat my meal at my table. Besides that....the food is worth it. I would recommend this spot. read more

OMG, this place is awesome for genuine Japanese food! Their sushi is delicious and fresh. I just took my Japanese friend here and she loved it too. Their maguro (tuna) nigiri sushi is so flavorful and just melts in your mouth. Their tonkatsu is crispy and cut thick. Their menu is very extensive so you're guaranteed to find something you like. I grew up eating a lot of Japanese food so I'm constantly looking for quality Japanese restaurants. I was very impressed with the food here, you can tell they really take pride in the food they serve. I know I'll be coming back again and again. read more