Nozomi

YUM. My Bf had told me about this place months ago and while staying locally, I decided we should try it out. I love the bright green building. I had always thought this place as well as the Thai place were little dumpy places tucked away behind the freeway. I was wrong. They have their own lot to park in. As you walk around the deck, you pass the Lotus Thai place which I heard has really good food also. This place is very large and totally not what I expected. They have a dining area downstairs with tables around a turtle pond. So many turtles, even cute babies. Great to entertain the kids. We ate upstairs where the sushi bar and more tables were. Also a tv to catch the sports. They have HH menus on the tables and the only thing on their HH is ONE beer! No food, just one beer. So funny. The prices are like most others, maybe a dollar or two less. We had a few rolls that were good. Not amazing but good. Our service was good, even though our waiter just started. He was kind and helpful. We got our food quickly if not because there was really only one other table which we dined. All in all, we were satisfied but not amazed.

Very fresh! Delicious sushi and presentation great. Asa our sushi chef was beyond fantastic!

First time and will be the last time.
Sashimi not fresh, not a lot of selection of roll. Over price for the food quality.

Went to this restaurant last Sunday…
On vacation and got a list from Hilton of restaurants that we could receive discounts for and Nozomi was one of them (20% off). However, Unilocal also said if we check in that we get free California rolls. Bummed we couldn’t use both. But it get, I suppose (even though it wasn’t written this way or disclosed). I asked this question when I first arrived to our waitress. She said she’d check if we could do both. Upon her return, she asked «Can I start you with appetizers?» I said, «Well, that depends if we can combine the offer.» She then tells me, «Well, my manager is busy» and paused expecting me to just order regardless. Sorry to say, but your busy manager isn’t my concern. The answer to question however is. Wrong answer to use in customer service. Maybe saying, «Oh, ok, one moment and I’ll find out» wouldn’t have irritated me. However, their hostess was very friendly and helpful.
As for the food, we ordered fried oysters for an appetizer. They cost $ 10 for only 3 fried oysters. Once again, slightly disappointed being that one of my favorite sushi spots back home have about 6 fried oysters for $ 9.5 and personally I thought they were much better at my spot up in NorCal. But still, they weren’t bad, I’ve just had better. They were also oozing of a high amount of green «oyster gunk». I’ve been eating oysters since I was 5 years old. These oysters seemed to have an unusual amount of green «oyster gunk» in it. A little unappetizing. I had to close my eyes while eating it to avoid being grossed out. But as I mentioned, they didn’t taste bad, I’ve just had much better.
For the main course, we ordered Ramen (my kid order miso style, my hubby Shoyo style, and I ordered spicy garlic). They took a little longer than normal, even with a practically nearly empty restaurant.
The Shoyo Ramen was OVERLY salty. Unbearably salty. I sent it back asking them to remove it from our bill. There was no way I could bare eating it. The spicy garlic was also very salty, just not as bad as the Shoyo. Luckily, my kid was very happy with the miso ramen. The eggs in the soup tasted strange and were grey in color (probably due to all the soy sauce absorbed into it). The pork belly in the soup was actually delicious (crispy and enjoyable).
They brought me a second bowl of soup and it wasn’t as salty, but was still too salty. I’m sure I’ll be thirsty all night long after having dinner at this place.
Bummed I picked a spot in wasn’t happy with on my very short vacation in So Cal. Would definitely not come back a second time even with a discount and free California rolls. This place will give you a high blood pressure spike!!!

Stopped by after work on a late night for happy hour. I think we spent way too much that night, but hanging out by the bar with the chef and ze coworker was totally worth. The chef was very knowledgeable about the different fish and cuts, even offered us a light and refreshing Chef’s special. Memorable experience.

If i could give a zero I would. This place changed ownership. Used to be the best place around. Now is garbage. Like others said they sat us in corner. No one else was at the sushi bar the entire time but they said it was reserved. One sushi chef at 730 on sat night. Hair in our rice a hair in our wasabi. The waiter messed up order they argued about it. All around terrible. N dont waste your time. Find another place. Flies as well.

I won’t eat sushi anywhere else! Try Nozomi out (sit at the sushi bar) and get your mind blown!

Grabbed a groupon and came here for lunch one afternoon. What a great place to get fresh tasting sushi. Garlic edamame was delish too. Will definitely be coming back here.

Good spot, great lunch deals. Service was outstanding. Only been once but will be back without a doubt. Will give an updated review at that time

One time on Youtube i saw 3 old white ladies make fried rice. Nozomi’s fried rice tastes exactly how i imagined Old white lady fried rice to taste like. The chefs in back were probably old ladies too. My table ordered some Karaage, Teriyaki beef and fried rice.
Between each plate was a 15 – 20 minute wait. Adding more salt to my wounds was the price and portions of the teriyaki beef bowl.
It was basically a bowl of rice with a palm sized cut up steak. FOR SIXTEEN DOLLARS.
Didn’t matter if you chose chicken or beef. The price is the same.
Our waitress was pretty dumb too.

We discovered Nozomi’s on Christmas day a few months back. We decided we wanted sushi for our holiday dinner, called in the morning, and they put together an amazing dinner for our family of 6 by late afternoon. They even offered to deliver to our home! Customer Service was TOP NOTCH, and the platters they prepared were of highest quality!
We’ve been back a few times since. ALWAYS excellent customer service and excellent food. During one of our visits, they even opened a bottle of champagne for the birthday we were celebrating.
My entire family loves this place. It’s pretty much the only sushi place we will go to now.
Thanks for the great food and the great service Nozomi. Keep it up!

Came up here from PB on a day of due to a great groupon deal. Discovered that when we got here the lunch deal of 20% off is actually better than a groupon.
We were pleasantly surprised by this establishment. Normally I would not have given this place even a look because it seems too convenient off of the interstate and next to a gas station. I stand admittedly corrected.
We started with the Octopus nigiri. Great portion size, tender, and lots of flavor!
Our entrees were 3 shared rolls between us:
King King: By far my FAVORITE of the day. A good mix of flavors and the salmon was extremely succulent. Would absolutely order this again.
King Krisp: delicious little surprise. I wish I started or ended with this as the flavors were powerful and popping, good presentation on a plate to keep the pieces crisp.
Surf-​n-​Turf: As a pescetarian who eats absolutely ZERO red meat, would you believe me if I said I ate half of this roll? I certainly did! Delicious!
Why not 5 stars? The service was extremely sloooowwww. There was only 1 other table in there and we were there for a good 2 hours. Our server was pleasant, but seemed like she just smoked a doobie out back and English could no longer agree with her mouth. Questions we asked were quickly followed by an «uhhhhhhh…»
We did however meet the charming and welcomin chef. I can’t let the service hold me back from returning here. The food was excellent!

This place is awesome, just had a incredible meal. I can’t belive they do $ 3 Sculpin all day everyday. This is a untapped gem without a wait. Cool layout as well. Didn’t come here to drink but enjoyed the tap selection.

I Love Nozomi. They’ve been around for a long time, but changed the menu and we love it. There’s a crispy rice appetizer, I forget the name, but it’s a homemade rice cake with spicy tuna, avocado and a yummy sauce on it. I could eat this as a meal! They also have fabulous rolls– try surf and turf and dynamite roll.
It’s in old Carlsbad but just off the freeway, so no crowds and plenty of parking.

We came in on a Tuesday night. Not a busy night to come so I recommend going in and asking for Ace. We ordered the Twisted Vegan, Green Room, King Krisp and the Kung Fu-​all of which were amazing and his presentation was outstanding. Will definitely come again.

Delicious this place was gorgeous had a lounge area downstairs with leather black couches a small bar. A pretty little pond like area and a nice dining area on the top (2 level restaurant). Got a free California role for checking in on Unilocal.One HUGE fried ROLL I think it was called the Lazy roll not sure. Customer service was AAA+ waitress and sushi cheif @ the sushi bar. Place was clean and large enough for family gatherings. Not too busy when I came on after lunch hours. A little confusing to find tho there was a noodle house connected to it.

It’s recently gone through a menu update that trimmed down its offerings. It’s primarily a sushi bar but it does offer a couple options in ramen and udon. There are a few small plates as well.
I’ve been coming here for about a year– I’ve tried a little bit of everything. Frankly, the happy hour sushi is of the Krab variety– nothing that I would consume on a regular basis. The Omakase can be very nice– there are often very exotic fish offered– varieties of octopus and eel, etc. Of course if you take this option, be prepared to spend a fortune.
I’ve had the udon in the past, which was decent and recently the ramen was a fresh take on the traditional. (it included two thick slices of grilled pork roll which gave the dish a more meaty, smoky flavor compared to the typical thin slices of pork).
The happy hour has been revamped– now it’s 4 – 7 and 9– close each night.
I’m curious about the turtle pond that has been mentioned– each time we’ve come to the restaurant, the upper level is open, but the lower level is completely closed.
Overall, I would call this an california-​japanese fusion style sushi restaurant. It’s not run by a japanese family, but a number of the dishes seem to have an authentic flair.

I want to actually give 3.5 stars. Only because of the smell. Upon entry it smelled incredibly fishy! Like really bad fishy! It kind of turned me off but honestly the place was beautiful & I was already there so I got used to it. I loved the interior & exterior décor and the little waterfall inside. So cute. The bathroom was in a really strange spot, you kind of had to leave the restaurant to get to them. Also the signs were slightly hidden, I walked into the men’s-lol.
But anywho, I ordered the shoyu ramen which was really good! And a huge portion. Had some for the next day.
The host & server were both really friendly. There’s not much they can do about the bathroom location, I’m sure. But I’d definitely add another star if the smell was taken care of.

I dont understand how this place has four stars. Let me start off by saying I don’t get how this place is fusion. From what I saw on the menu, the options were pretty much clearly Japanese. Every single server, chef (with the exception of one), manager, and host, seemed to be Caucasian. It feels like they just slapped the fusion name on just to justify a non asian owned asian restaurant.
I digress. I didn’t like the atmosphere of the restaurant, seemed like a weird place, it shared a building with a thai place downstairs. dingy and unappealing interior, parking lot is dark and unwelcoming… seems to me like much of San Diego is not well lit at night? meh on to the food.
between the gf and i, we ordered the panko fried oysters, the ahi poke salad, seared tuna salad, chirashi and nigiri. the oysters were good. the sauce it came with was pretty sour and did’t really need extra lemon… the ahi poke salad was pretty tasteless. came with a decent amount of tuna. the seared tuna salad was the better of the two but only had four pieces of tuna. meh. both were in very small portions… probably wouldn’t pay more tan $ 5 for it by itself. we waited for about another 40 mins before our entrees finally came out… an hour total since we sat down, for our main entrees to come out… ummmm… when it finally did, I was sorely disappointed. the nigiri was really just 8 pieces of nigiri. some of the fish were too firm and had a fishy taste. meh. chirashi was just salmon, tuna, and yellowtail (two pieces of each) and some uni. ummm. yeah. can we say small portions? For $ 20 you can definitely get way more than what we got… our meal was probably worth $ 15 at most… The server seemed unfriendly, she interacted with us maybe two or three times throughout the meal… I overheard four other tables or more complain that something wasn’t right with their order or that their food was taking too long… I feel kinda bad for the manager cause he seemed like an alright dude but I feel like this restaurant week «special» was not worth it at all. I’ll stick to the places at home… and we thought we were splurging on higher quality food down in SD… sigh. perhaps next time.
EDIT:
I still can’t get over this. I essentially paid $ 25 for 8 pieces of nigiri. kill me.

As most people have pointed out, the ownership has changed. From what we were told about three years ago (from today). The service was pretty good. The sushi was very good. I would come back for the sushi. Looks like Chef David is the «rockstar» and it shows in his preparation of the sushi.
A couple of things. The butterfish is not actually butterfish, it is Chilean sea bass. For people out there that are familiar with Japanese cuisine, there is a big difference and although we were told that the Sea bass is better; I personally think they are just different. All of that to say, it isn’t authentic and although I am sure it probably tastes good enough it isn’t that buttery, rich, wonderful, Butterfish (or Black Cod) that I have grown to obsess over. Also, their ramen, to me, is no longer the bees knees. The broth lack flavor as well as the pork, which was chewy and not of the melt in your mouth variety that I had grown to love from Nozomi. Lastly, they no longer have sukiyaki. Bummer.
I would come back from the sushi, but not at a hustle.