Manpuku

Hooray for cheap sushi! Usually, you’d think a place with sushi rolls for under $ 3 would be terrible. I love the value here. The food is not gourmet by any stretch, probably just a tad above buffet grade. But you’re looking for a decent spot with passable sushi that won’t break the bank, this is a good place to try.

Food here is tasty, generous portioned, and most importantly SUUUPER CHEAPPPPPP! Almost everything on their menu is between 5 – 10 dollars and there are even some special sushi rolls that are only 4 bucks! What amazes me the most is probably the variety of different japanese food that is offered here. They have sushi, ramen, rice bowls, curry, bento boxes, and even cold soba noodles!!! Although the food isn’t of the highest quality, it is still tasty and filling. I love leaving Manpuku with a full belly AND wallet. I am a big fan of this restaurant and I will definitely be back to get my sushi fix.

What the (insert expletive)!!! They have some sushi rolls that are under $ 3. Huh???
I had to read the menu several times to make sure that I was understanding it correctly. I thought the rolls must be ridiculously small, maybe they were just hand rolls? Nope.
I ordered three rolls just to be safe, because I worried that they would be too small. I got a deep fried California, New York, and rock n roll.
The deep fried California was actually quite large, while the other two were a bit smaller. I was able to eat all three rolls (however, keep in mind that I can eat a lot — i usually eat a full sized special roll and then an entire smaller roll like a Cali or a spicy tuna).
Deep fried Cali is my staple roll, and I wasn’t disappointed by this one. All of my rolls had avocado and the avocado seemed very fresh, YAY.
Presentation of rolls was on par, served on thick wooden trays. Ambiance was equally on par, décor covered the walls and the sushi restaurant FELT like a sushi restaurant.
I will be going back. I can hardly stop thinking about it. C U Sushi, i guess i’ll C U later, i’ll be at Manpuku.

I’ve been here many times before when I was in college. There really is no wow factor. The food is good and the price is reasonable. What more can you ask for?
Whether it’s sushi, ramen or even a bento, you really can’t go wrong. I will say this though, the portions they give you are pretty decent in size. If you have a craving for Japanese, Manpuku will satisfy.

I honestly love this place. Went here for the first time about a year ago and now come about once or twice a month. I live out in Walnut Creek and make the drive to Berkeley just to get sushi here. It’s affordable and really good quality.
Got me some sushi take out last night!
Typically, we go to sit down spot now since it’s been open, but sometimes opt in for the «garage» if there’s space.
They have a really great selection of different rolls and meals. My favorite it is the red dragon roll, along with the unagi don bowl and the unagi maki rolls.
The maki rolls are inexpensive and delicious — simple little rolls, you can easily eat 3 or four different maki’s to your face.
i love the unagi don bowl — it’s a warm BBQ unagi over warm white rice.
The ginger here is NOT PINK but ACTUALLY white — which i appreciate.
Will always come back!

My boyfriend and I ended up here because Manpuku was near the popular Ici Ice Cream.
This place offers a variety of Japanese food such as sushi, maki, bento boxes, donburi, noodles (zaru soba, yakisoba, ramen, udon), curry, etc. There’s also a grab and go section with other foods like kimchi, seaweed, prepackaged sushi, and other goodies. I got a red dragon roll, which is a crab roll with shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, masago, green onions, and pickled jalapenos. It was yummy. I just think any roll that has spicy tuna in it tastes good. My bf got his usual chicken terriyaki bento because he’s basic. We both agreed that this place is good for the price, so if you’re looking for some cheap and decent quality Japanese food, I recommend coming here.

This place is still pretty cheap for their food! Sushi, bento, ramen, and udon all in one spot. Service is quick; the food gets to you within 5 min depending on how busy it is. There aren’t a lot of seats in the place, but you’ll be lucky if there’s an empty table for you! The people really help you out to find one. They have so many kinds of sushi and they all taste soo good! And the portions of ramen is pretty huge.

Manpuku … I have avoided the place for years, but then deciding to be nice and try eating here. I am also taking in account this place is less than frills (no table service), and expect the basic level of food presentation being pretty much less than impressive. Arriving almost around 4pm, there were a lot of people inside.
I ordered spider roll and my experience resulted the food presented was small and super unimpressive. Then I order Anagi with a variety of other sushi, and equally sad to say it was also small, poorly presented. I also ordered the spicy red chili ramen soup, which ended up being nothing more than watery lacking flavors, significant lacking ingredients of all levels in it. I hate to say it, but I really thought for the same cost you would get pretty much a better dish anywhere else. The penny pinching ingredients while the restaurant runs to the bank needs to stop.

If this restaurant was rated purely because of its affordability I’ll give it a 4.5 stars.
We had the charashi and dragon roll. The quality of the charashi was alright particularly the white tuna and salmon, wasn’t too excited about the rest of the raw fish. I guess with a price tag of $ 10 you can’t have too high of an expectation.
The dragon roll didn’t had avocados evenly spread throughout the roll and the tempura prawn wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked. But as I said taste wise it was passable. I would come here again just for the price but not so much for the quality of the food.

This rating is for the ramen, specifically the champon ramen. The prices here are very reasonable and perfect for broke college students. Their ~$ 10-​$ 12 combos for ramen and assorted rolls are hard to beat. Although the sushi isn’t the highest quality or the freshest.
Now, moving on to the ramen. The champon has a super sophisticated and flavorful taste, but light broth. What I mean is it doesn’t taste fatty or heavy, but still contains a delicious soup base. I think it’s because the seafood and vegetables are stir fried in a wok on high flames before they are put into the pork broth. This results in a special flavor that only a wok can produce. They use thin, chewy noodles that work perfectly for this dish.
The restaurant is self-​seating and quite small, so be sure to be aggressive or be ready to wait. It can get a bit hot there as the restaurant is small and not very well-​ventilated.

This is the go to sushi place for me and my friends when we want something quick, simple, and not too pricey. I always get the sushi here but my boyfriend always gets the ramen. I like their avocado rolls and anything with spicy tuna and salmon.

Love this place for the prices! The quality you get for the price is pretty good, especially compared to other places in the area.
I’ve tried the katsu, ramen, and rolls, and they are all decently delicious. Nowadays, I just get the salmon avocado roll or the Philadelphia roll.
Manpuku is also in a pretty nice area, so taking a nice stroll in Elmwood after the meal is lovely. Also, Ici is just a few walking minutes away, so you can top off your meal with some dessert!

Love this place, not so much for the quality but for the great prices.
The combos are a really good deal and the reason why I keep coming back. Ramen and a side of California rolls for around $ 10? Yes, please. When it’s hotter outside, I also like getting the soba noodles with tempura combo. Very refreshing. Sometimes a part of the combo will come way before the other, but it’s really not that big of a deal.
Pro tip: Manpuku is situated in a great location with other places to venture to afterwards. Ici’s ice cream is across the street and makes an awesome dessert.

Affordable, mediocre sushi is what you’ll find here. Though we like it fine, and come quite a bit.
My boyfriend enjoys the shoyu ramen and the bento boxes, and I generally get the crunch tempura or another sort of maki roll. Though I’ve had to send rolls back before because the shrimp has been sitting out for awhile and gets chewy, so not always great quality.
There can be a bit of a wait on weekend nights, but it always seems to go by quickly. They have green tea (for free) and super inexpensive saki. I enjoy the atmosphere, a cozy space with contemporary paintings and warm lighting.

Great prices, good portions and decent quality for the price.
You order at the register and then seat yourself. Keep your receipt on the table. What I didn’t like was the fact they don’t bus their tables enough so as you walk thru… some tables are filled with dirty plates.
I ordered the sashimi app, tempura veg app and we also ordered a few bento boxes. The food was ok. Not bad for the money. If you want fast food Japanese that’s good, this is your spot.

This is an affordable place for college students who would like to get sushi (as if sushi can be affordable). We came at around 2pm on a Saturday. Since its a small place and had a 20 – 30 wait, we decided to go to the «garage» restaurant that is affiliated with the main restaurant. From what the server told me, the «garage» restaurant had more appetizers, can serve alcohol, and was less busy than the main restaurant.
Server was alright. She was not rude/​sour but she wasn’t nice either. She was probably tired so it’s alright
We ordered the Sushi Combo C, the largest sushi combo there, and the Aloha roll. We had 3 people, so we shared these two dishes among us. The price turned out to be ~$ 11 each when we split among us. Not too shabby. The food was good for its price. We left the restaurant with not empty stomachs. My friends said they were full. Honestly, I think I could have eaten everything by myself. But hey, I’m a hungry person at a sushi place.
One complaint is that we got one miso soups since we ordered one combo. We had to pass the soup around. They were kinda stingy of their miso soups, but it’s understandable since we only ordered one combo.
Overall: would come back again when I’m in the sushi mood and I feel adventurous to go to the College Ave area
Update: the food was alright. Now that I think about it, the quality would be on par with that of Safeway sushi. Similar to Safeway sushi, I felt like the food was somewhat safe and clean. The food was not fantastic, but it was not bland either.

Been here many times now, and I still love it. The fish is fresh, the staff are friendly and attentive (and some are very pretty! lol) and the quality is always good.
Definitely not enough space for large groups unless you don’t mind sitting separate from each other, but worth visiting often.

Yummy and cheap, can’t ask for more! This is our to go place whenever we are in Berkeley. The place is a little crowded, and you might need to try and find a seat yourself (no waiters), but the food tastes absolutely amazing.
Favorites:
— Bento box 2 item combo ($ 12.45 or 13.45)
~ chicken teriyaki
~ tempura
~ pork katsu
~sashimi
— Tempura Udon ($ 8.95) — soup based
— Beef Yaki udon ($ 7.95) — stir fried noodles
— Sushi combo A ($ 11.95)
— Sushi combo C ($ 22.95)
— Ramen combo B ($ 9.95) — with sushi
— Spider rolls ($ 6.95)
Dislikes:
NONE!!!

One hectic Tuesday afternoon, I decided I would treat myself to sushi instead of making lunch at home. Unfortunately, my experience at Manpuku was the opposite of relaxing.
Manpuku chooses not to have table service so you have order before sitting at your table. At noon, I can understand the rush of people and the long line, but that wasn’t the only problem.
You also service your own tea and water, which is equally understandable, but I was disappointed to find the tea hardly luke warm.
If you order anything the have prepared, you have to get it from the fridge yourself. I didn’t know, so I neglected to fetch my own box of edamame. When I asked a waitress, she informed me of their system, but proceeded to get it for me anyways, which I appreciated.
With that said, edamame is pretty straight forward to prepare and it’s a favorite staple for me when I get sushi. Let me also preface this by saying that I’m not AT ALL a picky eater. When I got my little plastic box, I was disappointed that it was cold, but could understand why. Something I couldn’t understand was why the beans were an odd olive shade, instead of bright green. When I bit into one, it was mushy and the pod was falling apart. From the texture and color, I could only assume that it was either: a) overcooked, b) several days old, or c) both. I usually eat a whole bowl of edamame myself, but after struggling through half, I gave up on it.
As for my caterpillar roll, I was happy to find the abundance of avocado slices and decorative placement of sauce on the tray. It had great presentation and a good flavor, even if it was overwhelmingly avocado.
Overall, this place can make a generous caterpillar roll and has polite service, but their tea is cold and the edamame is old. (Ah! That rhymed!)
Back to the point, I don’t think I’ll be back unless I want something quick to-​go.

We were heading towards Gordo and detoured towards Manpuku after walking by.
Thankfully, the place wasn’t packed yet and we had no line. Sushi is super affordable here. You can get a roll for a few bucks, a huge sushi combo for $ 22, and nigiri for under $ 2.
Is the fish of super awesome quality? No… but it wasn’t bad either. The sushi here is above buffet quality. Everything is made fresh to order. Order from the register, grab your tea and water, have a seat at the counter or one of the tables. We ordered a massive amount of food and paid a little over $ 30. I couldn’t even finish what we ordered and had to take the rest to go. Sushi rice was done well. Miso soup fell short as it tasted like water.
So they have 2 sides to this place. The left side is a restaurant. The right side is more of a café/​to-​go spot. I imagine this place getting super packed on the weekends.
It’s the perfect spot for college students looking for some cheap, decent sushi. Also great for the rest of us looking for a quick, no frills spot for a few basic rolls and nigiri. I’ve been to quite a few sushi restaurants in the EB and was disappointed while leaving with a high tab. This place was almost of the same quality for a ¹⁄₃ of the costs. I’d come back again.