Taiko

Seriously the best sushi in the AZ. I’ve been to over 15 – 20 in the valley. The owner, Toshi, knows his craft coming from Japan. His nigiri is cut exquisitely, as well as the maki rolls. Do yourself a favor and have dinner here in this mom and pop sushi joint you won’t regret it.

One of my favorite mom and pop restaurants in the East Valley. Food is authentic and always fresh. I came in today for noodles. They did not disappoint.

Taiko is a local, family owned business that I like to support. Been coming here on and off for about a year now and will continue to do so. Come here for both the sushi and the Ramen. I love their Shoyu Ramen! Order it almost every time. Have tried the Miso Ramen and wihile it’s okay, it is a bit bland. Thus, the Shoyu Ramen which is soy based. The salmon, yellowtail, octopus, and sweet shrimp sushi are very good. The sweet shrimp is served with the head and the head is fried. Dipped in a bit of soy sauce and it’s delicious! Sometimes order the Louisiana Roll, which I like as well. If I get here really hungry, I’ll order the Spicy squid salad or garden salad with some edamame. Their seaweed is good but it comes as a very small portion so I no longer bother. Overall I have a great experience everytime.

Taiko is your best bet for sushi, as well as Japanese home cooking and soul food. There is something for EVERYONE here. They have your standard spicy tuna, salmon, eel rolls, as well as speciality rolls. They have katsu, fish, chicken teriyaki, tempura, all the bases covered.
Also — *ALL DAY HAPPY HOUR*. The prices are cheap for sushi and if you’re looking to go beyond house sake, they always have a great selection.
The service is really great and the owners, Toshi and Maggie, are usually around helping out, preparing sushi, and are extremely friendly. It’s great to support such a cute, family business. I recommend it to everyone looking for a roll, a drink, or just real Japanese.

If you want real Japanese food this is the place! Great Happy Hour appetizers and sushi all day long. Sushi is always fresh! A variety of authentic Japanese food that’s all delicious! A great selection of Asian beers and alcohol. Sake Tasting party always great time! Service is friendly, Maggie and Toshi always make sure everything is perfect.

One of the few places in the valley I can say I am treated like family every time I come in, and that is saying a lot! Great food, surprisingly friendly atmosphere, and service is always great! My only recommendation is perhaps changing their green tea recipe, as it always tastes strange when I order it. I don’t know if the sushi chef is the owner or just an employee, but he shows a great deal of friendliness to his customers and seems to be a genuinely kind human being.

I still continue going to this restaurant. Best place in town, for sure. The sushi is always very fresh, the food is delicious and service is great. Joshi and his wife, Maggie are very nice people, as is the staff. They no longer play the hectic music I mentioned 2 years ago. I just LOVE that place. Prices are also great.

Waited in two dirty white chairs by the door, looked at two empty tables adjoining other tables with people seated. Patrons at these tables saw us sitting by the door and mentioned to the waiter to separate the tables to allow us to sit. The waiter said no. We passed the time looking at the mock food in the showcase in the front, looked good but couldn’t find the same items by the same name in the menu. Even if they had the best food in the world, it wouldn’t have made up for the service. Besides, who puts white cloth chairs in their dining room? If the front was that dirty, it makes you wonder about the state of their kitchen where the food is prepared. Will not be back. Ever. Spent 30 minutes of my life in this restaurant and left without eating. Disaster.

My favorite sushi place. The staff is incredibly friendly and their rolls are amazing.

My boyfriend and I went here for the first time this week, even though it’s right down the street from my house! I was pleasantly surprised by the service and the sake selection. We had an assortment of food, a couple appetizers, an entrée, and some sashimi. I wouldn’t rave about it being 5 star, but it was definitely good! The menu isn’t huge but it’s enough that we would like to go back. We already signed up for their next sake sampling… hopefully our next visits will be as enjoyable and it will be a new go-​to neighborhood spot.

In town for 14 days. This is my 1^st sushi in area. It’s Easter so it’s just me & two Japanese couples in the establishment. Hostess pleasant enough. She, ala a The Price Is Right model, waved her arm from side to side saying «You can sit anywhere». I elected to sit at the bar. There’s no leg room under the counter so I had to sit sort of side saddle. Japanese music playing & wasn’t overbearing.
I ordered a Boston roll & a caterpillar roll. Each was eight pieces. I appreciated that the chef prepared the Boston first & presented it to me while the eel was still warming up. The Boston was really good. It’s a California roll w/​spicy tuna on top. Now that I think about it the spicy tuna was actually ground fresh tuna w/​a splash of Sriracha sauce added topside. The caterpillar was very good below the eel sauce. The chef just poured it on a little too liberally. I ended up scraping some of it off the sides. Otherwise perfect. There is a photo album that newbies can ask for which both depicts the sushi & a description of the contents.
I’ll try the other sushi town before returning here but could be very happy ordering same as this time.

This place is great! Good, simple, and fast. We live across the street from this place. We always drove by but never stopped. We decided to go one day and we never stopped going.

Location: this is a small restaurant with limited seatings. Nevertheless, it is cozy and comfortable. Definitely not for a huge party though. It doesn’t take me long to figure out that this restaurant is family owned.
Service: Our waitress was nice and attentive. She was very good at checking up on our orders and explaining the happy hour menu. On our way out, the owner behind the sushi bar smiled at us to say goodbye. I thought that was very nice.
Food: the Arizona roll is excellent! It is spicy but yet favorable. However, the tofu appetizer is not what I expected. The sauce is great but the fried tofu is a bit chewy. The egg rolls that we ordered was just ok… Caterpillar rolls were awesome. I highly recommend it
Rating: I’ll probably come back to try other roll. Overall, I think this restaurant is average.

Good quality sushi. Smaller portions, but they are nice and fresh. I got my usual smoked salmon nigiri, and it was excellent. The yellow tail was great. Service was attentive. I would go back for sure!

We get the Philadelphia and crunchy California rolls mostly as they are reasonably priced. We have had the Boston and Las Vegas rolls as well. You really cannot go wrong here, the happy hour prices are really great as well.
Service is always on point and friendly. The place is small and cozy. It is a solid go to for us.

I enjoyed our lunch here and will return. My sushi combo lunch meal was good and enjoyable. The fish was fresh. I didn’t feel it was melt in your mouth eye-​rolling fab, but it was solid, decent sushi. The tempura mixed veggies were a winner too.
My husband ate some kind of freshwater eel rice bowl with an egg on top. Sounds interesting but it wasn’t. He coupled this with a salad of spicy? and that too was boring.
The service was excellent and the restaurant busy with two groups descending at the same time. We will come back for some sushi and sake another time. Love the the mom and pop, neighborhood vibe.

I haven’t been to Taiko for a while decided to stop by for dinner on a Saturday evening. They have all day happy hour on certain rolls but prices listed on the sushi menu were a bit confusing. They have the regular price and hh price next to the selective rolls. If all day hh, why list the regular price? It’s probably listed so you know how much you are saving on a roll.
This might not be a place for you if you are expecting fresh fishes. Stick with the cooked sushi or fried rolls. I had ordered the rainbow and Vegas rolls. Vegas roll was loaded with too much sauce that made the roll soggy. Rainbow was decent and pretty standard sushi.
I am a huge fan of ramen. I was extremely disappointed on their tonkotsu ramen. It was one of the blandest broth ever. You might be better off making it from an instead noodle packet.

The food is sooo good:) I love love the pork kasu don. The presentation isnt great but dont let the look deceive you!
The service is good too. Tbe girl was new and didn’t know much of the menu but she did her best to find out and explain it to us.
Im one happy customer:)

I wanted sushi AND happy hour one fine evening. So of course I had to go to Unilocal.
My friend and I came here this past weekend. We ordered the Philly roll, Vegas roll, Avocado roll, & the spicy salmon dynamite. I liked the Spicy Salmon Dynamite. Everything else was mediocre, nothing special. We washed everything down with some Cabernet.
The thing that did it for me was that they have happy hour all day everyday and they have very reasonable prices. Their drink specials are also really good and I heard they even have Sake tastings here. Not to mention it’s like down the street from my house. If you go to their website they even have coupons where you can get 20% off your bill. (doesn’t apply to hh though).
It wasn’t anything amazing but I’ll definitely be back when I’m in the mood for some sushi and happy hour since we’re neighbors. =)

I don’t know
What Taiko’s got
But it plays with my emotions (and stomach)
I want so much
«Sake», I want to hold you near
Want the taste of sweet and tender sushi on… my tongue
Can’t stand the thought of it in somebody’s mouth
Got to have your taste, got to have it all… to myself
I say yeah. yeah…yeah yeah
Want to go to Taiko’s, Taiko’s mmmm
Want to go to Taiko’s, Taiko’s, Taiko Restaurant
Want to go to Taiko’s, Taiko’s, Taiko Restaurant
(Billy Ocean — Loverboy lyrics)
Taiko is located off Cooper and Ray in South Chandler. I love this mom and pop shop simply because I enjoy supporting our local businesses. The also serve up some great food and fun.
At least once a month Taiko has a sake tasting gathering. At happy hour prices and shots of exotic sake; what’s not to like? Maggie one of the owners travels to sake conventions and orders them from all over the country to get these delicate drinks. For $ 15 a head, you’ll get 5 shots of the Sake of your choice all laid out on the table. They have everything from filtered sake, nonfiltered sake, canned sake, box sake, and sparkling sake. What does that all mean? I really don’t know since I’m not a big sake connoisseur. However, I do recommend you try it at least once to experience it.
Along with your sake tasting, Taiko offers happy hour dishes that are super affordable. This doesn’t mean their food quality sucks. It means it’s cheap and good! This was the first place I ordered a fried fish head. Yep, eyes and lip still attached. Needless to say, I’m in love with this dish. If you don’t know the tenderest meat comes from the cheeks. Also, I was a virgin to Uni until I came to Taiko. My first taste of Uni, well let’s just say it was like my first kiss; awkward! Can’t say I’m a big fan of Uni, but if you put it in a shot of sake and quail eggs — we’re golden! Yum! As you can see I go for the exotic ingredients.
Service here is tops. Maggie and her staff is very friend and will treat you like family, literally. Maggie is amazing since the time I first attended; she still remembers me by name and welcomes me! During sake tastings they always have live entertainment. Kevin one of the musical performers always brings along his violin or guitar to serenade you while you enjoy your sake and food. Such an awesome atmosphere! — Enjoy!