Sushi Banzai

I am glad this restaurant is closed. I had my worst dining experience in my life there which you can read about in another review. I even considered taking legal action against the owner, the most offensive human being I’ve ever ran into. Truly a bad vibe, bad energy family run business. Good riddance! I rarely hold a grudge but I have never been treated so poorly in a restaurant in my life and I have lived in four countries and have traveled to more than 50. The only thing I like about this restaurant is that is now closed and I hope the terrible owners move away and never come back. Their fake hospitality was so obviously insincere
Honto ni waruku to hikui Nihonjin!

Wonderful, wonderful place! Very friendly with great ambience and a homey feel. The food is excellent, fish is fresh and tasty.

Arigatou Gozaimasu Hide. 20+ years of great fish, sharp knives, and the warmest atmosphere! Bonzai is full of wonderful memories and delicious sushi. We’ll see you at the FISH market ;-). D&C

Best sushi ever!!! You wouldn’t see this spot on the regular but it seriously so good! Always really fresh and the sushi chef and owner is hilarious and super nice. If you’re in Berkeley looking for an awesome place for sushi this is a hidden gem!

You know that feeling you get when you paid too much for something that was completely not worth it?
These guys think they’re special to price so high and offer such mediocre food. Like many reviews, avoid this place.
Like another review said, it was like «gas station food.»
You will be in better hands if you choose another restaurant tonight.

!!AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE IT WAS THE PLAGUE!
Over priced, small portions… litterally taste like gas station sushi… our bill was $ 46.87 for edemames, calimari (that seriously looked like frozen fish sticks) spider roll, shrimp tempura (not even fried), spicy tuna… HONESTLY… the worse we habe ever had… I dont know how this place even got 4 stars!!! Im taking the rest TO-​GO… TO-​GO INTO THE TRASH
I do my best to try to find positives in the places that we go to. I couldn’t find any but the service we got.
Oh!!! On a positive note… the water was good.

–They are now CLOSED. :(Happy retirement to this wonderful family! All the best!!-
Quality, authentic Japanese sushi (without all the crazy sauces that a ton of Korean places serving sushi does), fresh, and yummy. The staff are friendly, quiet but if you like more interaction, go and sit at the sushi bar where the owner will chat with you and joke. He’s funny.
Avocado roll, spider roll, futomaki roll (best I’ve ever had!), potato croquettes, cucumber roll are all delicious. Like reggae music? Don’t worry, they’ve got that covered. :)

Bay Area residents have the enviable problem of too much good sushi!
So what does a place do to set itself apart? In many cases, the temptation is to create a trendy atmosphere, complex rolls, drink specials, etc. – lots of local spots have generated lines out the door by following that model.
Sushi Banzai decided instead to focus on a simple, homey atmosphere and a beautiful selection of fresh, flavorful sushi to create its appeal. On a recent visit, we ordered various nigiri sushi including tuna, yellowtail, eel, flying fish roe (with optional quail egg on top), and mackerel, plus their soft-​shell crab «spider» roll (though not the focus of the menu, there are about 5 specialty rolls available). All of the sushi was fresh, carefully prepared, and wonderfully presented – even though our order wasn’t any kind of official meal package, it was delivered on a single, beautifully arranged plate. This kind of personal touch almost makes the experience feel like home cooking.
I like some of the trendier, hipper sushi choices out there, but when I’m craving a more intimate, even soulful experience, I always lean toward Sushi Banzai.
*On my most recent visit in March 2014, there was a notice on the window about a pending change of ownership. I don’t know if this means that the chef and his wife are moving on to other endeavors – if so, you should visit sooner rather than later!

I was really craving Tonkatsu one night so I Unilocaled this place. Cute little place in an odd location. It’s off the main street Gilman and there is a string of other stores on the same back, but it looks like its in the middle of a neighborhood. But the good thing is that there is pently of parking.
When I walked in… Staff members just stared at me in silence. Not a friendly welcome. I broke the silence by greeting them!
Service:
The service lacked in friendliness and approachability. But the service was quick and attentive. Like I mentioned in the beginning, there was a lack of welcome. I felt like they really didn’t want to serve me. It was just a very uncomfortable feeling. But the waitress was attentive when noticing water refills, taking orders, and getting the check.
Food:
Miso soup — Good decent soup. Well balanced and good ratio of tofu and seaweed.
CA roll — The crab was over salted and that really over powered the roll. The avocado seemed like it was going bad, there was that distinct taste and texture of mush.
Tonkatsu — The pork was overcooked and there was to much breading on it. You can tell that it was a cheap cut of pork because of how fatty it was. Very disappointed.
Udon — The soup was very good. The flavors were balanced and complimented the noodles quite well. The noodles were just a tad bit undercooked, but still good.
Tempura — The vegetables were overcooked to the point where you can make mashed veggies with them. The shrimp was also overcooked. But the each tempura was coated beautifully.
Overall:
I didn’t have a great experience here and would not recommend this place to others.

2.4 for a completely underwhelming lunch.
First time here, bookmarked for a year. Bartender at Kirala highly reco’ed this place. I think our mistake may have been not ordering a complete sushi lunch.
Tonkatsu was horrible; flat, stale, barely any meat… petite portion. no good. His salmon teriyaki was waay overcooked. no good either. We both were quiet while eating. Service was extremely lacking and slow. Things had to be asked for (to order, water, check, etc)
Unagi nigiri was plenty good, however. next time, we’ll just try sushi alone.
Do appreciate and deeply respect the small family business model.

High-​quality sushi. Small sushi selection, small ingredients list, tiny sake list. Mediocre ambiance. I was appalled at how dirty and grungy the hallway to the bathrooms was. It was nice to go somewhere off the beaten path. This restaurant could stand to market itself as the secret, hidden gem of Berkeley restaurants.

Second time we went. If you beat the dinner rush and go close to five o’clock the sushi is fresh and piping hot. Both times we have went the sushi was delicious and worth the price. 60 – 80 dollars for two depending on how many rolls. We ordered 4 – 5 rolls each time and some appetizers. The owner stopped by our table both times and explained the 100 roll selections and checked up on us. Our new sushi place.

Kamakazi roll. steamed clams.fried oysters. those were the top 3 choices for us. this small family owned restaurant is tucked in a dark neighborhood but its a must try! They play hawaiian music which I LOVE and they are very friendly! I came all the way from Newark to try this place! I will definitely be back!

I had just got done with a Unilocal Field Trip and was Craving Sushi. So I Checked my Trusty Unilocal App and Sushi Banzai popped up. So I jumped into my Whip Black Beauty and rolled to Sushi Banzai .
Sushi Banzai is tucked away in a old Brick Building. I was able to park Black Beauty right in front.
I rolled in and was greeted and seated at the Sushi Bar. I was amazed to hear Reggae Music. .
I perused the Menu and Ordered Chicken Karrage, Soft Shell Crab and a Unagi Hand-​roll.
Then I perused the Specials Board and ordered Nigiri — Hamachi, Tuna, Bonito and Spanish Mackerel .
I ordered the Tamago because it was made in house and was very fresh.
Fish was fresh. Prices are a little higher than average. But you get what you pay for.
I would eat here again .
Paid by Visa and rolled out.

Each item I had here was simple and delicious. No crazy combinations or overcompensation here. it’s just simple classic appetizers, a few rolls, sake, and really great nigiri. the location is a tucked away spot nestled on camelia street. the owners– husband and wife team from japan– were very pleasant to us, and we enjoyed sitting at the sushi bar. i’ll be back.

This place was awesome! Found this place on Unilocal and decoded to try it out. The GPS had trouble finding it, it is definitely off the beaten path but totally worth finding. We sat at the sushi bar which was being worked by one man who was great. The sushi was fantastic! There are only a few rolls on the menu but we asked him to make rolls that we saw on the website and he made them gladly. Everything was amazing and not super expensive as far as sushi goes. The décor is not great but the atmosphere is very good and friendly. The service was great despite the fact that there was only one sushi chef making sushi for about 16 people. I highly recommend this place it is excellent! Go there!

This place may be good for things other than sushi such as their lunch special. However, I went here last Friday for lunch and had sushi but was less than impressed, especially for the high prices being charged. I had maybe 3 dishes of 2 piece sushi and one dish of California roll and the bill was $ 25.
It wasn’t even that great sushi. I’d be willing to pay that much if the sushi was better but for the quality I got, it was more like a $ 12. meal.

Very accommodating to our little kids, with special cups, plates, and utensils. Good food — I had tempura and good service make it a winner in my book!

I really wanted to like this place. It’s family owned and off-​the-​beaten path. And the glowing reviews make it sound like it could be really good.
The honey and I ordered a tempura appetizer and each got the chirashi. The tempura appetizer was fine – nothing to complain or write home about.
The chirashi on the other hand… the fish was not very fresh, and for the price, the quality and variety were very iffy. Iffy is not the word I would ever want to use when describing raw fish that is going straight into my mouth and stomach.
The search for quality sushi in the Berkeley area continues…

This place is a good little sushi joint. There was five of us who came here for dinner and we all left happy. The restaurant itself is tiny, but we didn’t have to wait on a Saturday night.
Two of the people in our group come here quite a bit, and had some really good suggestions. We started of with edamame & veggie tempura, as well as a tofu appetizer, which was AMAZING! It’s fried and is served in a broth with mackerel. Just thinking about it now makes me me happy :)
As far as sushi goes, this place pretty much sticks to the basics adding just a few specialty rolls here and there (my friends who comes here often said that if you sit at the sushi bar the chef will improvise but since we were at a table and our waitress didn’t speak English all that well we stuck to the menu). We decided to try a couple spicy tuna rolls, a rainbow roll, and a yellow tail roll. All were very good and tasted fresh. The only «speciality» roll that we decided to try was the the B-​29 roll (don’t quote me on that name). Quite honestly, I can’t remember everything on it, but is was deep fried (I’m not always a fan of deep fried sushi, but this roll actually tasted pretty light) and had eel in it.
I honestly can’t remember what the prices were like for sushi, but we ate a lot (and I’m not gonna lie, we drank quite a bit of sake as well) and the damage wasn’t all that bad. it’s family owned, which I like and the service was friendly. I’d come back for sure…