Was craving sashimi so I googled a bunch of places and settled on this place due to walking distance from my hotel. Ambiance is casual with soft music in the background. Upon entering I'm greeted with a smile. You seat yourself. Behind the counter two highly skilled sushi chefs are busy making amazing art. I ordered garlic edamame, jasmine tea and tuna sashimi. High quality ingredients and edamame was delicious. Jasmine tea could have used hotter water. read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Tuna Sashimi - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

See all

Awesome food and friendly servers. We tried the Kai Roll, the spicy garlic edamame and the chicken katsu. All were great! They had the best spicy edamame I've ever tried. read more

Food very delicious and all ingredients taste fresh. Sushi is prepared upfront and is very appetizing. The udon soup was plentiful with flavors and would recommend to anyone looking for a nice relaxed dinner this is the place to go. The service is very good kinda confusing when we wanted to pay. read more

We mostly order carryout or interaction with someone directly is whoever answers the phone and whoever hands the food to us. If I had an opinion of the ambiance, I'd say it's simple but clean. I really don't go eat inside for the ambiance - we go for the good food. The food IS very good and the fish is fresh 99.99% of the. The sushi and other entrees are well priced versus other Santa Fe sushi establishments. read more

Rolls are $15 and TINY. Some of the servers aren't the friendliest I won't be coming back. read more

Not much to say that hasn't been said here already, but here goes. This used to be my favorite restaurant in Santa Fe. I've been a loyal customer since Pak owned it and was there the day Zola took over. Great service, great food, nice ambience. I stuck with them during the pandemic, ordering online and having it brought to the car which is now a necessity as I can't walk very well. The last time I went inside, it was for Happy Hour which ended at 6:30. When I got the bill, I was charged full price because "Happy Hour now ends at 6:00 and you ordered at 6:10". Nice. Today, I ordered a Bento Box online. When I got there, it took 10 minutes to reach them on the phone. They said they were really busy but my order was ready. There was no parking anywhere so I pulled up at the front door and after another 10 minutes calling them, they finally answered the phone and told me my order wasn't up yet. After another 10 minutes (total 20 minutes parked at the front door in a fire lane), they brought my order out and told me they couldn't promise to bring it out next time as they were short staffed. It was cold, of course. If a restaurant is that poorly managed in the front, who knows what is happening in the kitchen. I can't eat there again. I texted the owner, Zola, and wished him good look. read more

Best Sushi we've found in NM, don't let the strip mall location fool you. Fresh ingredients, carefully prepared, innovative roll selection, friendly and efficient service. Seaweed salad, gyoza, Kai roll all are items we order every time. read more

Absolutely love this place! Very fresh fish, generous portions and the Chef always has specials and great suggestion! the Chefs menu on the back board is to die for, certainly recommend ordering from that but the menu has great options as well! read more

Friendly service and ambiance, the take out food was a B minus. Im still looking for a Japanese restaurant in Santa Fe that I can call my favorite. read more

We ordered a to go meal and it was delicious. I've never ordered sushi to go before but it was quick and tasted good when we got home. Also, the staff was friendly and it seemed like a nice spot to dine in. Maybe someday we will go back! The dine in area was open for limited capacity, but I'm not yet comfortable going out to eat because of COVID. However, for anyone who is, it seems like they're taking lots of precautions. read more

Wow. Me and my wife visited around 1:30 Friday afternoon ready to scarf down some sushi. Waiter cleaned a booth and sat us fairly promptly, which we thanked him for. We looked at the menu for about 5 minutes while the waiter passed us by without so much as a word. After a few more minutes we thought we should close our menus to make sure they knew we wanted to order. Didn't have much of an effect, as the waiter spoke to each table around us, cleaned a few off, and still did not speak to us at all. We left hungry and upset. Word to the wise, if you need sushi in the area, skip this spot. It is overpriced and you'll probably be ignored if you show up an hour before their midday closing. Heck who knows, they may ignore you every other time of day! read more

I have been here several times before and have had great service and great food. The waitress is always on top of serving everyone in a timely manner. No problems with her service. It's the guy making the sushi that did not make one of our sushi orders .He was to busy chatting with friends that came in after us and got served first . Then a to go order came in and he made their sushi first It was very frustrating so we just canceled thasushi order and we left still hungry. The waitress did tell him something but he could careless he was more concerned about talking and serving his friends. read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Showed up at 832 on a Saturday night and even though they close at 900, the host told us they were done for the evening. Still several tables with people at them. Couldn't even get take-out. That's bad. Even for santa fe. read more

Sushi is quite good. Chefs not generally friendly. Space needs a complete overhaul. Very grimy.

The (lunch) Bento box is definitely NOT worth $13! It came with a limp iceberg lettuce salad; rice; two pieces of "Unidentified Frying Objects" (fish?) ; two pieces of fried zucchini and three pieces of tempura. All-in-all it amounted to about three dollars worth of actual food. Sorry. Won't be going back. read more

Service was really off. Server did not know we were in their section. Was apologetic but proceeded to forget part of our order despite it showing up on the bill. It was late so we just paid and left. The sushi is incredible here which is why 3 stars too bad service was not even adequate read more

Only thing saved it from one star was the shrimp tempura since it wasn't heavily battered. Poke salad wasn't even the right tuna for sashimi. Bento greens was flat iceberg lettuce. Amazingly tables were full that we overflowed to the sushi counter. read more

See all

Got there at 7:00pm and was served immediately! I have been a waitress before and this customer service was superb! Our waitress, Joree, was very polite and knew the menu off the top of her head. She even gave us an appetizer on the house. Very good and fresh Sushi. I usually react to Sushi because of maybe the veggies mixed with some wasabi which is tradition in some restaurants. I enjoyed the atmosphere which was peaceful and quiet. I shall return again. I highly recommend the California Rolls and Spicy Tuna Rolls! read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Spicy Tuna Rolls with my fiancé! So so so delicious - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Forgot to get a picture before I devoured my food. I had the crunch 2 and the green chile 2 in soy paper and both rolls were delicious! Quick service and reasonable prices too! read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

asked for squid salad and gave the spicy one also the cucumber is not fresh at all... however changed but squid is not fresh at all. Besides of that the waiting time is super long! After sit, no one talk with us in first 15 minutes. After ask for check it asked me to wait at least like 5 more minutes! This is the worst sushi bar I have ever been. read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

The quality and variety were surprising considering how far from the ocean Santa Fe is. Service was a little slow, but likely because a bunch of people came shortly after we did. read more

Inconsistent sushi. Good sushi when it is good and really messy and missing ingredients when not so good. Bummer it is NOT consistent. We order practically the same thing every time. We do not eat inside not inviting at all. Service is ok, keep in mind we always order, to go. read more

Are used to love Chi sushi but I ordered yesterday and got the baked salmon roll and the texture of the salmon was disgusting I said it to my dog and my dog threw up never coming back to Chi sushi again that they were quality but they are gross there's better sushi places downtown Chi sushi really fell off there the new san q read more

I was super impressed with the quality of the poke tuna salad that I ordered. The portion of tuna was generous; the ingredients seemed fresh; and there was a good mixture of flavors with the salty and sweet in the dressing and the touch of bitterness from the sprouts. It was also a good sign to see that past 8pm on a weekday, there were still several other parties there! Since I was by myself, I didn't get to try many of the rolls or the sake (had to drive home), but I definitely want to go back. Unlike others, I didn't have problems with the service, whatsoever. The staff checked to see if I needed anything a couple of times, enough to be attentive without being intrusive. read more

See all

Very busy. Low on staff as many places are these days so I was patient. So excited to get the beef bento box. And a specialty roll. The bento box was a disappointment. I'm used to bento boxes (in Colorado Springs co) being full. Having more than I can eat. The specialty roll was good. I had planned on taking it home for later, but ate most of it there. I'll pass on this place. I expected so much better from Santa Fe. I'm here on vacation for 2 months and have had African, japanese, Vietnamese pho, Mediterranean, Thai, italian, Mexican and American cuisine. I was Expecting way better food than back home. Only the Mexican (the pantry) and Mediterranean (Cleopatra plate at cleopatra cafe) have been superb. The Mexican food trucks are great here too. Yeah I'll pass on asian food here. read more

Terrible food and terrible service. This wasn't the first time I'd been to Kai Sushi and I enjoyed it before, which is why I went back. This time it was awful. Went in on a Thursday evening to order takeout. we waited 40 minutes for our food. when we got it home it was awful. The sushi was dry, meaning no sauces were put on it at all and none were put in the bag, making it flavorless. The chicken fried rice also had no flavor. They were very busy, which could be why no one was paying attention to quality. It was so bad I couldn't even eat it, I spit it out. It was a waste of money and I won't be back. read more

Saturday around 6:30pm and the crowd was thinning out and I was told to take any seat. After being handed a menu I sat there for 30-mins and didn't even receive any water. With everybody being short staffed these days, I try to make every effort to be patient and understanding. But, after watching other people take their seats after me and receive beverages and place their orders, I figured it wasn't my night. Will I go back..probably but, never on a Saturday... read more

Sushi Kai is a great place to find delicious sushi at a great price. We come here as often as we can. The Kai Roll is one of our favorites. Really reasonably priced, many simple rolls (including salmon, tuna, yellowtail...) are only $6. Even their special Kai Roll is only $14. The Las Vegas Roll has the tendency to go on special for $7 which is a bargain for this fried Roll. For dessert, you can't go wrong with the fried vanilla & green tea ice cream. read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - The Las Vegas roll - $7 The Baked Lobster roll - $13 Super delicious! We love Kia sushi. - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

I revisited Kai the very next night after my first review. Valentine's Day dinner was getting under way and Uni was still on the board! Straight off I ordered an oyster shot, an uni shot and some uni sushi. A familiar face sat down at the end of the sushi bar (he had been at Kai the day before as well) I greeted him and we both sat smiling, waiting for sushi delights to pour forth. The couple in the booth behind me joined in the light conversation we were having at the bar, they were lovely and happy to be having a delicious sushi meal on a chilly Valentine's day evening. Before I knew it all four of us were ordering shooters and raving about the taste. Another couple came to the sushi bar and I noticed that the dining room tables were filling up. We were all laughing and chatting in between bites of GLORIOUS UNI! The couple to my left are sipping wine & planning to watch a Woody Allen film; the couple in the booth behind us is gushing over their beautiful spread; the gentleman at the end of the bar is asking owner Pak for an uni shooter; an elegant, older Korean woman has sat beside me at the bar- I'm offering her her first bite of uni and I am cavalierly ordering another round for myself. I laughed, I languished in the Uni and then I got teary eyed when I saw Pak erasing the words "Uni Shooter" from the dry erase board. At no time was it disappointing to be alone on Valentine's Day. I was with my one-and-only true love- Uni (and some delightful souls who also enjoyed Kai that evening!) read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - poki tuna from Kai - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

See all

The food is amazing. Literally anything you get you cannot go wrong with. The only cons I have are 1.) I wish they had a bigger sushi selection with a bigger variety. 2.) kinda slow, so make sure you have time. Other than those 2 minor things everything's been wonderful. read more

See all

Darn it .. food used to be so good here . What happens ? When a place gets more popular and successful .. sometimes they don't stay as good . Mushy Poke Salad.. no scallions .. no radish sprouts even though it says that it comes with those . And then they overcharged me for it . It was 19.99 but they tried to charge me 21.99 . I also had a roll .. yucky and dry .. no flavor . The Sapporo was great though and the servers very nice so I left 2 stars read more

The sushi was fantastic, the service was horrible. My boyfriend and I decided to check this place out on a Saturday night. We were seated quickly but it took 15 minutes to get water and menus ... There were 3 waitresses working and it seemed like they had absolutely no idea what was going on. Orders were getting messed up right and left and they would have to come back 2-3 additional times to make sure they had entered it right because they weren't communicating with each other; it totally ruined the whole experience, especially because it wasn't a very busy night. We ordered sashimi, tempura and 3 rolls; everything was fresh and very delicious. Too bad the service was so poor that we might not go back. Food 4/5 Service 1-2/5 read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Sashimi Appetizer. - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Must be hard during this Covid crap to keep a restaurant up and running. Food was fresh and on point. Service friendly, thank you Michael, and on top of the whole dining process. Recommend! read more

The sushi happy hour here is great!! $5-$7 rolls. Sushi is big and delicious. Vegas roll is one of our favorites. read more

Kai Sushi & Dining - Sushi Bars Near Me - Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Food was great and Fresh! It was My first time trying Kai and was quite impressed. The staff was very nice as well, they had a funny Covid Mask sign necessity on the front door too. Great Experience! read more

Well, it's cheap and tastes alright, but certainly unimpressive in the sushi department. The amount of fish per roll is quite meager, and the dishes tend to be packed with fillers (guac, cucumbers, cream cheese) to keep the prices down. The staff seemed nice, if a bit slow, but this is not sushi done right. read more

Kai Sushi is DELICIOUS! I highly recommend the Chirashi if you feel overwhelmed by their great menu. The Chirashi has a bit of every fish (of what's available at the time) and it's not skimpy and the fish is fresh! This meal is sure to fill you up and leave you satisfied! I'm excited to go back and try the specialty rolls (if I can decided on the ones I want!). read more

I thought the food was great but one of the sushi chefs was so rude...he treated the nice waitresses so awful!! I heard him making racist comments to some customers. Him being employed there is a bad sign. I don't want to give money to a restaurant that employs people like him. read more

Stopped by for dinner during happy hour and ordered the cream cheese spring rolls (awesome) and three sushi rolls. The California and spicy tuna rolls were fine, but the star was the Baked Salmon roll. Mango mochi ice cream for dessert, and the overall meal was just what we wanted. Our waitress was wonderfully nice and even had recommendations for cool things to do in Santa Fe. If you're looking for a good meal, I'd recommend here :) read more

Super rolls. Good service. Kai roll was a favorite. Location is in a shopping center by Smith's grocery so lots of parking.