We have been coming to this place for 8 years now! This is our gem! Local spot we love!…read more (Not sure why it took me this long to add a review!) Staff is super friendly! Tomi is the best! Super attentive and welcoming. Small cozy and clean place. You can sit at a table or sushi bar. Most of all, food is delicious & fresh. We love coming here! Recommendations: -yellowtail carpaccio -butter in your mouth with a kick from the thinly sliced jalapeño on top! -Lemon Salmon roll - Tangy and fresh.

Absolutely incredible experience--hands down the best sushi I've ever had. Every piece tasted…read moreunbelievably fresh, and you can truly tell the fish is flown in directly from Japan. The quality, presentation, and attention to detail are on another level. The flavors were clean, rich, and perfectly balanced--each bite just melted in my mouth. sake was amazing. it pairs beautifully with the meal and really elevates the whole experience. If I could give this place ten stars, I would. This is a must-try for anyone who loves sushi. I'll definitely be coming back!

I would definitely go here again, but I'll probably order take out next time because the wait was…read morealmost 2 hours. Portions were good, I made two meals out of it and didn't even eat all the sides.

Skip the sushi. sadly you can find better at grocery stores... fish was not fresh, taste was poor,…read moreno chopsticks or napkins provided. Super cheap ingredients and small portions. Threw 2/3rds to trash. Wouldn't not order again and do not recommend.

spicy beef udon - with crispy rice ball. hot soba…read moreshabu shabu udon small wait will be back

This is my 5th time coming back now, and I've noticed the last 2 times the quality and portion has…read morejust gone down. I usually order the spicy beef udon with the fried rice ball with cheese. It usually is really good, but that day that I went, I got about 1 spoonful of beef... ONE for a whole pot of udon, and the cheese rice ball barely had any cheese in it. I noticed the time prior to this, that there was also barely any meat in there and it was pretty fatty. My partner got the pork shabu one and that had a decent amount in it. Unfortunately this craving no longer hits the same for me :( Service is great and the servers are nice. But we paid almost $60 for 2 bowls of udon and a portion of shrimp tempura.

I wished I lived closer!! I would be here more often than I probably should if that were the case…read more My friends and I stopped in for lunch on Saturday afternoon. There was a small wait but it wasn't too bad. The store is in a small strip mall of Tustin. The parking situation seems like it can be chaotic depending on when you visit but it was perfect for our lunch time. The restaurant is very clean, everyone is extremely friendly and quick to respond anytime anything was needed, I ordered the Karaage soba set and it was more than enough food for at least 2 meals. The udon and katsu don combo my husband had was also extremely filling but delicious, everything retained their temperatures for quite some time. I really wished I were closer so I could come here more often

This is an authentic Japanese restaurant specializing mainly in soba and tempura. The wait in line…read morewasn't too bad, but be prepared for another wait after placing your order. There were only two chefs preparing food for the entire restaurant, so everything can take quite a while. Unfortunately, I didn't think the food quite lived up to the waiting time. The udon had a huge amount of noodles but not much in the way of vegetables or protein. The curry was just okay, and the soba was also pretty average. The highlight was definitely the shrimp tempura--it was huge, crispy, and nicely fried. Service was okay overall. If you're coming here, I'd recommend being patient and trying the tempura.

A staple in the Tustin community that I've personally been enjoying since 2008; this gem for…read moreOkinawan dishes is still consistent in their approach on serving fresh and delicious dishes in a setting that always feels grounded and local. I always tend to gravitate more towards their seafood offerings and this time is no different as I enjoyed the fried squid, grilled mackerel, tuna cheek and shrimp musubi but what I love about this place is its constant new offerings and this time, they were offering fried chicken skin, so of course, had to give that a go as well and it was DAMN delicious with its savory bursts of flavor that was seasoned well. This place is small and cozy with a great artist, almost punk rock vibe that I've always loved and the staff, especially the owner feels more like relatives serving you food rather than employees so that's what separates a corporation from a local gem, Support your local businesses folks and enjoy this treasure of a restaurant!

This is a really small location with bar seating and a couple of tables. I'm not sure how the…read morewaitlist works, but it sounds like you can join it on their website. We joined the waitlist in person and waited a really long time, like 2 hours on a Friday evening. We tried the stewed pork belly, pork rib udon, tempura fried corn, sukiyaki bowl, and fried squid. Everything was delicious, I think they are a bit heavy handed with the salt and msg. The tempura fried corn was topped with truffle salt. The sukiyaki bowl was basic and served with pickled veggies or kimchi. I was definitely impressed with the cook on the pork belly and rib. They were both extremely tender. The udon had a light and clean broth, the noodles were not your regular wheat noodles. I will probably return with a reservation or with to dine again and try more dishes.

Great food and service! Everything was fresh, flavorful, and came out quickly. The staff was…read morefriendly, attentive, and made us feel very welcome. Definitely recommend this place and will be back!

Great sushi, fresh ingredients, and friendly service. Everything tasted amazing, and the restaurant…read morewas clean and welcoming. I'll definitely be back!

Beyond devastated Yoshiharu is permanently closed. I've taken so many of my friends and family here…read moreas recommendations, and have not had another ramen that comes remotely close to the flavor and umami level of this place. Literally dozens of other places. I'm so bummed. I don't even know where else to go either. Terrible day for rain..

I am a regular customer coming to this restaurant weekly for more than 3 years…read more I just came here twice for the past 2 1/2 weeks and they were closed during business hours. Are they still in business? Or closed for good? They don't pick up phone calls, by the way.

My girlfriend and I are regulars at Hondaya, and honestly, everything about this place is…read moreincredible the food, the staff, the atmosphere, all of it. Coming from Hawaii, it's so special to find a restaurant that gives us that feeling of home. Hondaya really does. The food is consistently amazing, and the service is always attentive, quick, and genuinely helpful. There is honestly nothing bad I can say about this place. It's one of those restaurants where you leave already looking forward to coming back. We're so grateful to have a place like this nearby. Truly that good.

This is a very popular Japanese place in Old Tustin. As you can see the menu is enormous. They have…read moresushi, skewers, ramen, udon... You name it. I had the salmon and avocado handroll as well as the crab handroll. Both were good. I also had the OC roll and grilled salmon -- also very good. Some Asian places tend to overcook their meat. The salmon was cooked well ... I would have preferred a tad more rare, but it was good and not dry. My son had the salmon sashimi as well as lamb chops. He wanted a little more seasoning in the lamb chops but says they were cooked well. I think Japanese food tends to be conservatively seasoned in general. Other dishes also looked good. I thought everything was good but didn't think anything was amazing. My wife particularly appreciated that just about all of the menu items had pictures! Service was good and friendly even though they all seemed a little harried.

I recently came to Oshima Japanese Cuisine for my very first omakase experience, and it was…read moredefinitely a memorable one! My date and I went with the 13-item omakase dinner and sat at the sushi bar right in front of the chefs, which I think is the way to go for an experience like this. It was fun watching everything being prepared and having each piece served throughout the meal. Of everything we tried, the black cod was easily my favorite. It was so good that I had to order another one at the end. So technically, I guess I had the 14-item omakase. No regrets! Oshima is a pretty small and intimate restaurant, so I would recommend making reservations in advance. We booked ours through Yelp and were seated practically right away when we arrived. Parking was also easy. The restaurant is located in a small commercial strip center with plenty of parking available, so that wasn't an issue at all. Overall, I really enjoyed my first omakase experience. The sushi was fresh, sitting at the bar made the meal more enjoyable, and that black cod alone is enough to bring me back. If you're an omakase regular or, like me, looking to try it for the first time, Oshima is definitely worth a visit.

Top shelf fish, extremely fresh. Omakase is their specialty and the menu items are all delicious…read more The yellowtail collar delightful. Just be prepared for a very large check; you get what you pay for in this case. The service is a bit frantic, but good considering the tight space. Expect a wait, resto is very small, but worth the wait! Or Make a reservation.

HIDDEN GEM. Always impressed with the service, food and…read moreexperience. Tonight we sat at the teppanyaki grill & celebrated our anniversary. Once the whole party was seated & our order was taken, we received our delicious ginger salad and miso soup quickly. When our chef arrived he was ready to put on a show! He was so fun, engaging and very genuine. All of the food was amazing. I got the filet mignon steak w/ fried rice and my husband gets the sumo steak. The filet mignon is definitely worth it but if you prefer more meat, the sumo steak is the way to go. The drinks are affordable and compared to other teppanyaki places, the food is affordable and absolutely worth it. They also offer a happy hour in the dining room only - does not include the teppanyaki grill area. Truly one of our favorite places!!

3.5/5 Stars - Nice Experience, But Some Service and Timing Issues…read more We visited Tabi-Ji Teppanyaki for my husband's birthday and had an overall decent experience, though there were a few things that would make us think twice before returning. We chose the dining room seating rather than the teppanyaki tables. The staff did offer us the teppanyaki experience, but since we don't eat red meat or chicken from certain places and weren't sure how the food preparation process worked with mixed ingredients, we opted for a regular table instead. One downside was the seating arrangement. We were seated away from most of the other guests, and it often felt like the staff forgot we were there. Our original host/server was attentive and friendly, but once they were busy with other tasks, it became difficult to get assistance. It was also not busy for a Tuesday evening. We found ourselves waiting for long periods or having to wave someone down, which wasn't ideal, especially for a birthday dinner. As for the food: * Crunchy Spicy Tuna Roll (4/5): Fresh, good quality fish, and a generous portion. A solid sushi roll. * Garlic Edamame (4/5): Flavorful and exactly what you'd expect from a good appetizer. * Lobster Duo with Miso Soup, Salad, and Fried Rice (3/5): Unfortunately, the lobster was quite chewy and seemed overcooked. The miso soup and fried rice were both enjoyable and helped make up for it. * Unagi Donburi (4/5): My husband's meal came with white rice, miso soup, salad, and fried rice. It was his first time trying eel, and he really enjoyed the soft texture and flavor. He said he'd definitely order it again. Our biggest disappointment was the timing of the food. The Unagi Donburi arrived significantly later than everything else. By the time it came out, we had already eaten most of the appetizers and other dishes and were pretty full. It's unfortunate because it seemed like a dish that would have been much better enjoyed fresh, but we ended up taking most of it home. Overall, the food ranged from good to very good, and being able to reserve through Resy and use our Amex dining benefit definitely helped offset the cost. However, considering the price point, we expected more attentive service and better pacing of the meal.