Minami Sushi

3.5 stars.
Too bad this place closed down!
It used to be located right across the street from Asian Ghetto. During lunchtime, they had specials. A popular one was 2 rolls of sushi (from a small list) for $ 5 – 6. The bento boxes were also very good.
However, if you’re looking for cheap and not super-​high-​quality sushi, Tako is cheaper.

Overpriced.
Small portions.
Not very nice workers.

Closed.
Expensive, small portions, not that great.

Came here with a group of friends after a Warriors game. We totally got smashed while the owner took pictures of us on someone’s camera phone. but good thing he kept cutting me out. It was the experience of a lifetime and the end of what looked to be a promising night.
Minus 2 stars because there was nobody there and you couldn’t tell if they were open. It felt a bit sketchy on a Friday night.
But then plus 1 star because the owner was hanging out with us.

Came here with my boyfriend while on the prowl for good sushi in Berkeley. We definitely have had better. The toro wasn’t melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious or fresh and the rolls weren’t anything too out of the ordinary.

2-​roll combos are $ 6.50 until 4pm on weekdays.
And really that’s the reason I come here. Anyway, this place is weird. Almost every time you walk in, it will be empty – startlingly empty, and it never really fills up. On the upside, there’s never a wait.
The service comes in two modes: completely detached or completely warm and friendly, depends on who you get. For better or worse, the food is more consistent: kinda bad, but very inexpensive. In general, I recommend to people coming here for the first time to refrain from treating it like a sushi bar. It’s not. Their fish isn’t good enough for that. However, their inexpensive, non-​fish Japanese food items and their saucy, rolled, barely-​fish sushi concoctions are pretty satisfying and reasonably priced. Also, they have super cheap beer for the area (and not a bad selection at that).
Hope you get lucky.

Taste: 3
Value: 3
Service: 4
I came here with a few people from my lab for lunch about 3 – 4 months ago. The place was completely empty inside, save maybe 1 – 2 other tables. Since they were still relatively new, they had a special with all of their specialty rolls being $ 8 – 10.
I decided to go with the Super Crunch roll, and it was okay. Overall, the food wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t memorable enough to warrant 4 stars. The décor is nice inside, and it’s a bit of a shame it’s so empty.

Karaōke, live music, lots of flatscreens playing whatever is on ESPN (you have to go to the manager to change the channel, the waitresses are hesitant to ask). Great evening/​afternoon sushi place with ungodly cheap happy hour beer specials (if you like sapporo, kirin, etc).
The 49er roll was good. maybe a little lighter on the rice, but good. The Explosion roll (I rarely order anything cooked/​baked/​fried) but if you get this without the cream cheese as my date did, it’s pretty good on a cold foggy day (aka every other day in Berkeley).
Great tea, great service, good hot sake, and their sushi lunch boxes are a good deal (i had the tuna, salmon, hamachi sashimi box which was a good deal at 11 bucks for 8 pieces with rice, soup and salad).
I look forward to going back, either for happy hour or lunch.

Outstanding sushi and roll with great live music!
Not only is the food fantastic, the service is friendly as well, and also the live music is really awesome. The atmosphere is clean and roomy, and the parking is abundant. This place is near UC Berkeley. (very convenient for students). Both times I’ve been here, my food has been outstanding. Two thumbs up!

good:
great for large groups. tables almost guaranteed
clean and comfy booth seating
good service
select specialty rolls at discounted prices
bad:
mediocre sushi
slow service
layout looks like a maze
please ditch the styrofoam boxes

I have to say that this place is really decent for lunch hour. We came here with a group of 11 around 4pm and they were still serving lunch specials with $ 8.95 rolls (look for the little colored stars on the menu) and lunch bento boxes. They price was definitely decent. With 11 of us, the bill came out to be around $ 120. Not bad at all.
The food isn’t bad either. It’s definitely nothing to go gaga over, but it’s decent.
The best part is the karaōke. Around late afternoon, the restaurant is usually pretty empty. And this is a perfect time for those people who are usually too shy to karaōke to give it a go. And BOY was I entertained. Who doesn’t love a mid-​aged korean man trying to hit them high notes? It was painful to listen to at times, but overall it added some laughs to my late lunch/​early dinner.
I wouldn’t mind coming back here again.

UHHHHH. I feel sorry for this place. They have such a good location and a lot of room to work with. For some reason, every time i’ve been here, the place doesn’t seem like they attract customers. I wonder why…
The food here is incredibly mediocre. The rolls come out and something isn’t «right». The sushi rice isn’t properly prepared, the fish tastes like it was frozen too long, the proportion of sauce they put on are overwhelming, the list goes on and on. At least the prices are cheap now. Before, it wasn’t worth it. Now its sorta worth it.
Honestly though, the quality here is better than the other terrible budget sushi places nearby. What a sad world we live in.

For the price, it’s not worth it.
I ate here when they first opened and it was better. Not sure what’s happened in the past year but the ramen was bland, the udon tasted like instant soup base…
They get a point for the friendly waitress, and one point for cheap sapporo on tap.

Went here for the first time today, on a mission to introduce my friend to sake bombs for the first time!
First off, we were put off by the numerous signs posted both inside and outside that advertised sake bombs for $ 2-​$ 4. When we asked our server we were even more confused by her answer, which consisted of the words ‘sake’, and ‘bomb’, and not much else. So we managed to get our order in and just decided to see what came of it.
Turns out, their advertised sake bomb $ 2-​$ 4 is 1 order of a pre-​prepared sake bomb (and when I say pre-​prepared I mean, our server literally not just brought the drinks to our table, unwrapped our chopsticks, placed them on the cups of beer and furthermore, placed the shot of sake on top for us). Our server was also very eager to show us how to do a sake bomb, although I knew how and repeatedly implied that, our server still came around several times and in the end, chanted with us as we took our sake bombs. A little too invasive but I suppose I appreciate the effort.
My friend and I shared a Blue Crush roll which wasn’t bad but wasn’t amazing either. We were both pretty full to begin with so…
But what spurred me to write my first review was because after we had finished our drinks and paid and everything, a server came and gave my friend and I two free Soju Cocktails! for I don’t know what reason (could be because we were the only customers left in the restaurant) but they were amazingly tasty and that topped off my day :]
I have to say though, the place is HUGE and my friend and I made up like 95% of the customers they had =/​Idk how they manage to stay open…
Oh and on the way out, some guys who were trying to order take out said, «aye, you’re cute» to me. NOT the way to holler at a girl!!!

A few questions for Minami:
1) Why do you have such a large dining room? Have you even gotten to full capacity?
2) Where are your servers? My friends and I have been standing here for 3 minutes already…
3) Your servers don’t know what flavors of Tempura Ice cream you have??? WHAT?
FOOD
Berkeley has a TON of sushi places, but only a few of which are walking distance. Tako, Joshuya, Minami, etc. If you’re looking for convenience and pretty sushi, this is the place to go. They have a great variety, and for those who can’t make decisions solely by looking at the words on a menu, have no fear… MINAMI HAS A TON OF PHOTOS! :D Their food is a better caliber than Tako around the corner imo.
BANQUET STYLE & GROUPS?
Also, if you’re looking to hold a banquet /​group dinner, Minami is the best place to go. They have a backroom which can accommodate 20+ folks.
ENVIRONMENT
They have a huge restaurant floor with tons of tables. Wait time is almost zero. The bathroom is legit, and clean. Something that is very scarce within two blocks of campus (man… even campus bathrooms suck!) FAIR WARNING! MINAMI SUSHI’S FLOOR IS VERY SLIPPERY!!! Girls, hang onto someone’s arm because you will slip and fall if you’re wearing heels.
Overall, I’d hit up Minami if I wanted to have fun with a group and eat sushi that’s edible. Plus, I heard they have awesome deals on sake & karaōke! Gotta try that one of these days…

This place is okay. There are better sushi places around the area, except they can be a little pricey. This place is inexpensive. We went on a Friday night and it was pretty empty. Service is okay too. Sometimes attentive, sometimes MIA. The food was decent, but of course, I had way better.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to come back here.

The customer service is absolutely horrible, and this in itself, makes me never want to go back again. There are two waiters. The husband and the wife of this place. Since the place is always empty, it’d make sense that they’re always ready to service you… no. Not the case. When you finally get recognized as a customer, you’re directed to a seat, not, ‘welcome!’ or ‘please sit here.’ nothing. next, the menus are pretty much thrown at you. Absolutely inappropriate. Midpoint during your meal, it’s good that you’re asked how the meal is or if you need anything, but this doesn’t happen here. One time, I wanted extra wasabi, and they forgot… i asked them FOUR times.
When I tipped 5% for the bad service, they chased me out the door asking me ‘was something wrong with the food? why so little tip??‘
This shows no class at all. Would not recommend at all. RUDE service.

I come here once, sometimes twice a week for lunch.
The sushi and bento boxes are bit pricey but the food is usually very good. The complimentary miso soup is a nice touch, but it’s obviously from powder and sometimes tastes funny.
I like their sushi rolls more than the bento boxes because the beef usually comes out red in the middle. The Cherry Blossom roll is good, as are most of the rolls with eel.
My sorority had an event here a while back and they were very accomodating and affordable for our party.

Great lunch specials — the portions are quite large and filling. I had my fill on a Japanese vegetable curry and their 99-​cent unagi nigiri (which was really pretty!) for $ 10 flat, including tax and a generous tip.
One of my friends got a crunch roll and it wasn’t what you usually expect of a crunch roll, but it tasted pretty good still. She also got a spicy roll and it was quite spicy. ;) Speaking of rolls, it always amuses me to read what kind of names sushi restaurants give their rolls. Here, there are Shattuck Rolls, Durant Rolls, Sexy Sexy Rolls (or something like that)…
The restaurant is really big (it’s rare to see such a large restaurant in Berkeley!) and looks really nice. I think there’s a special banquet/​meeting/​group room too in the back. It’s not really busy so it seems empty at lunch when there’s only a few people. I hope they hold up under this economy… I’d hate to see this place go!
Pretty good deal for lunch at a sit-​down restaurant. It’s owned by Koreans, so there’s a bit of a Korean feel to the place, but it seems like the owner speaks Japanese too. Anyways, I’d come back again! [in fact, my friends and I are coming next week for sushi and KARAOKE!!]

It’s a decent place, but for the price you should just go to tako sushi instead. 100% Korean run place, they are not ashamed of it. The tea is barley and they advertise bulgogi on the menu.
I got the negihama and the poki. My girlfriend got the spicy scallop roll but it seriously tasted like spicy tuna, the sauce was so strong.
We got a soft shell crab appetizer but it was literally 4 small pieces for $ 8. Not getting that again.
Negihama + poki + rock ‘n’ roll + spicy scallop + soft shell crab + tax/​tip = $ 36. Bleh.
P. S. moshi moshi is what you say when you answer the phone, kids. When you walk into a Japanese restaurant, you should be expecting «irasshai-​mase!» (Which they were saying when we went. I’m sure a kind Japanese person corrected them.)