Yusan Sushi

This has been one of the better sushi places on the East Bay and we have gotten take out from there many times. Maguro is fresh and delicious. They rarely had uni which was weird since down the road at the Japanese grocery store, Yao ya san, they sell fresh uni for $ 7.50 for a wood slab. Writing this now because we understand that the owner/​chef is ill and that is why Yusan has been temporarily closed. Hope he gets well soon!

Good service, but very pricey.

Ohh, it makes me so sad to write this review because I think the family that runs this place is so sweet. But I owe it to anyone looking for whether they should come here for good sushi. Unfortunately, their sushi and sashimi is very tasty, but they’ve priced themselves out of the market. Everything on their menu — from the rice bowls to the sashimi — is overpriced. This is taking into consideration what you could get in Albany or another Japanese restaurant closer to home in El Sob.
I got the sashimi plate which includes your choice of 2 fish and a side of seaweed salad. Total came to $ 26 including tip. Their oyako dons were priced at something like $ 14.95. That’s way too much. Sadly, the Japanese restaurant had many more patrons when I was there, too, so again, I think this restaurant is struggling and priced itself out of the market for good, decent sushi.

I don’t know why but I keep calling this place «Yummy Sushi». Maybe I think that way for a reason because their selection of sushi is most definitely– yummy! Their Dragon Roll is wonderfully made, especially if you’re the kind who likes «cooked sushi». Yup, there is such a thing! Their California Rolls are average but good. I’ve had better (Happy Sashimi on Pinole Valley Road).
Their lunch specials are worth it and makes this place a great spot to grab lunch or stay and dine. The owners are very friendly and there’s pleasant customer service. The little restuarant is clean. I haven’t visited their restroom so I don’t know if it’s well maintained or clean.
Overall, a must try for sushi lovers. It’s always great to «shop» around for the next best sushi place which you can brag about to your friends. Maybe this place could be it for you?!

I came here during my lunch break around 1pm. They weren’t very busy and a friendly waiter seated me immediately.
They have a limited menu and no lunch specials. I ordered a roll off the menu (salmon with cucumber and avocado) for about $ 8 and the waiter was very accommodating.
As a side note, they had an episode of Maury playing on their TV with the results of baby daddy DNA tests! Of course, I found the show distracting but was also amused because it was being watched in a sushi restaurant.
My overall experience was good. My food was good/​ok and the waiter was very nice but I probably won’t be coming back because I’ve had better elsewhere with larger menu selections.

Lunch-​totally dead. Service still distant, kinda slow. Sushi not very good (nothing distinctive), noodle soup boring.
Also pretty expensive for basic rolls.
Won’t be back … absolutely nothing was inviting about this place.

CLIFFNOTES: Don’t come here! Price and service is terrible. Food is average on good days.
The food here is mediocre at best. We started with the age-​dashi tofu (more about this later in the review), and was disappointed to find that it was not crispy at all. The tempure battered had turned to a mush in the soy sauce. Very unappetizing textures. I then had the chirashi (assorted sashimi over rice) to get a sample of the quality. The serving size was small. Some cuts of the fish were dry (the hamachi and albacore), and the salmon and tuna were only average. The rice served with the chirashi was hot (sashimi slices over hot rice? no thanks). We also shared a spicy tuna roll. It was a traditional japanese style spicy tuna roll (chunks of fish, instead of the spicy tuna paste). The spicy tuna roll was the highlight of my dinner here, so I think that speaks volumes.
So if the food is only average or below, what warrants a one star? The service was terrible and the prices were extremeley over inflated. The chirashi was eighteen dollars, the spicy tuna roll was eight dollars (for six pieces), and 6 slices of appetizer tofu was nine dollars. I’m willing to pay high prices if the food reflects high quality ingredients, but definitely NOT the case here.
Finally, the service was beyond bad. It took us 20 minutes after seating to waive down a waiter who would take our order (with only three other parties in the restaurant). We then proceeded to wait another 50 minutes for our main course. When we were finished with our main course (the chirashi), I told the waiter nicely to cancel our appetizer tofu since it never arrived. She proceeded to say that the tofu i ordered was taking longer than usual to cook (??? what does that even mean ??) and COULD NOT BE CANCELED. Mind you the waitress had an incredibly poor attitude the entire night. The ‘appetizer’ tofu showed up 10 minutes after we were done with our chirashi entrée and functioned as our desert. My date and I were shocked to the point of disbelief when we paid the bill and got out as soon as we could.
My advice? Avoid this place like the plague. This is only my second one star review.

I’ve been here for at most two times, and I can honestly say that it’s not a place I would like to frequent.
Their food is at most okay. I’ve tasted better sushi. Their dinner «A» and «B» were all-​right. Space is a little limited, and atmosphere was too casual and homely.
Overall a passable but forgettable experience.

This was my second time at Yusan earlier this evening.
I ordered Dinner Combination B, as well as the Shabu Shabu.
The Combo B was pretty disappointing, aside from the California Roll that was included. Many of the vegetables were either bitter, or bland in taste.
As for the Shabu Shabu, they brought it out in a nice looking kettle-​style pot. It is basically Asian family-​style eating, where each person takes a little vegetables /​meats from the pot and eat with rice. It came with two sauces, which were okay. The actual Shabu Shabu was pretty mediocre. You are supposed to dip the Shabu Shabu into its respective sauces. But, like I said, the sauce wasn’t very good either. The vegetables were okay, similar to how my mom makes it.
But then there is a problem… the levels of MSG salt is outrageously high in the food. I am sure of it. It caused me some normal symptoms, diahrea, some jumpiness, and the feeling of emptiness after an hour.
The service was good. The waiter came by our tables at the right times to help, and to refill our cups. She was also pretty helpful in questions we had.
So, I would say, yes, while you eat, it would be somewhat satisfactory. For that, I would have given this place a 3.4. But, the MSG drags down the ratings enough for me to rate this with a 2.

certificate patrons… It was OK. Sushi was good, nothing to write home about. I’ve had better and I’ve certainly had worse! Teriyaki beef? Don’t do it!!! BF had it and it was the worse ever! They made up for it with the fresh sushi though.
Overall? High price and small portions. Even with the coupon, $ 90 for 2 adults and 3 kids and we were ALL still VERY hungry when we left. Sorry, a bit pricey for a «snack» in my opinion.

This place surprised us when we went in. The place was nearly empty except for a couple people waiting on a takeout order, but the place looked cozy enough and we did arrive kind of later in the evening. We ordered the chicken terriyaki and vegetable tempura. Both dishes were really good. The chicken terriyaki was grilled to perfection with the grill marks and ends of the meat having those slight burnt parts that makes grilled food so yummy. They didn’t go overkill on the overly sweet terriyaki sauce that other places tend to drown their meat in so you could really taste the true chicken flavor. We also ordered spicy tuna rolls and california rolls. They used large chunks of tuna in the tuna rolls and the california rolls were decent.
The service was friendly and there was a tv playing behind the counter that had «Norbit» playing at the time we were eating there so we found that kind of funny. But all in all, it was a good experience and I’d go back again.

I really don’t know what all the negative energy about this place is. Came here with three friends last night and had a very good meal. The menu hasn’t really kept up with the times or sushi trends, but they do serve quite a few rolls. We tried the 49 roll, the Rainbow roll, and the California roll (real crab!). These were all delicious. I wish we had tried the croquette, per Chang L.‘s review, but this was not the night.
Service was good, though the place was not terribly crowded. I liked it. A neighborhood sushi joint worth visiting if you are in the neighborhood.

Seems like a family owned restaurant — with the TV playing Scrubs and some kid show playing in a back room. I wish I could give this more stars because I like supporting the family owned places. We found Yusan via a
coupon. I guess they must be getting a lot of new business from
cause they seemed to expect to see our print out.
I asked the server for her recommendation between the sukiyaki and the shabu shabu. She recommended the sukiyaki only to come back saying they were out of thin beef so I could get neither. FAIL. I ended up asking for the sukiyaki with chicken. Fred got a breaded pork over rice dish which he said was pretty tasty. We shared the ebi-​su (shrimp over cucumber) as an appetizer. The food itself wasn’t bad — although my sukiyaki was a tad on the salty side — and for me to say something is salty means it’s REALLY salty. Grade B on the food.
What was frustrating was how long we had to wait for our food. I know Fred was really annoyed and he usually has a much higher tolerance than me. While we were waiting, a party arrived, was seated, ordered, and got at least 3 of their sushi /​rolls orders filled before we saw our food. I guess this place is more about their sushi — as I’ve learned from reading more of the Unilocal reviews … unfortunately it’s so downplayed on their menu that I chose not to order any sushi.
I also hope they don’t get their sushi from the grimy fish tank in the front hallway. It’s particularly obvious because the water level is about 2 inches too low and there is a crust on top.

A gift certificate from
prompted my visit, and I’m glad I came. The sushi was quite good and I especially enjoyed the breading on the chicken pieces that were part of the combination dinner. I was also very happy to see and savor the red bean ice cream. Prices aren’t cheap, but are reasonable.
Décor is typical, though having 2 tatami room tables is not; those would be worth a return visit. I found the big-​screen playing cable TV behind the sushi bar to be distracting; old Japanese movies on mute would be a nice replacement. They also desperately need to clean the fish tank by the front door — having that as the first and last impression of a sushi restaurant was rather disturbing.

I forget how much I spent, but it was pretty standard.
First, this place is mother effing hard to find. I had a map with me, drove to the little marker on it, and still had to call them to figure out where in the hell they were located. It turns out that they had a street-​facing, nondescript door with a burned out sign. I would have never guessed that this was the location. Fortunately, I came prepared with map and navigator.
Second, this is maybe the most average sushi I’ve had in CA. I had the sushi dinner, which was a set of nigiri and CA roll. The selection was perfectly uninspired: hamachi, maguro, sake, shiro maguro, tai, unagi, blah, blah, blah… The strange thing about it was that for every slightly lower than average cut, there seemed to be a slightly better than average cut to balance it out. It’s strange, but I’ve never had so little to say about food.
Third, and most importantly, Yusan gift certificates are available at
. This is the real reason that I even decided to try them out. $ 25 off of $ 35 is a pretty good when the gift certificate only costs $ 5 (check
for the sales). OK, that’s enough free advertising for other websites.
The interior is a little dumpy, with an awkwardly placed tumor of a dining room. The service was reasonable to good. I’ve been meaning to go back to give them a fair shake, but I might be too lazy.
Go try it… or don’t.

After my manager showed me her fabulous 7 course dinner photos at Marimoto’s in NY, I was craving some sushi on NYE. I had my trusty fiancé look up some local sushi joints on trusty Unilocal,and he found Yusan Sushi. Although not frou frou like Marimoto or even Ozumo, Yusan was authentic and the sushi was fresh.
We sat down at the bar seats and were a bit irked while we stared at the sashimi for 10 minutes with no menus in our hands. Finally, I flagged down a busy waitress and said «Can we get MENUS?» (While drawing air squares like she was deaf). The guy sitting next to me, chatting up another couple turned and said, «They’re really not assholes here, it’s just one chef was a no show — obviously partying it up somewhere else — but I’m sure you guys will love the food.» I felt like crawling into a hole after he said that.
We ordered the Sashimi Moriawase, a Dragon Roll, and a Neki Hamachi Roll. Our sushi chef Sam’s Sashimi Moriawase came with 3 slices of Hotate Sashimi (Scallops), Tako Sashimi (Octopus), Sake Sashimi (Salmon), Himachi (Yellow Tail,) and… one more sashimi that I can’t recall right now. Every single piece was a generous fresh cut. I was in Sashimi heaven.
Chatted up some really friendly «El Cerritans» who were obviously ballers — talking about some 50k double pane glass replacements. Maybe one day we’ll have something to contribute to that conversation.
I dub this place our Sushi Kazu of the East Bay. Thank you, Sam and the friendly El Cerritans, for making our last day in 09 delicious!

First the good.
Very nice staff of real Japanese people (sometimes a rarity at local Japanese restaurants, go figure). The only Japanese restaurant that I have been top where the tea wasn’t watered down, big plus.
The atmosphere/​building is small and cozy, somewhat traditional style with a tatami room featuring the usual cheat drops where you can put your legs under the table hanging.
The food was just ok. The sushi was mostly good but very overpriced. All in all I don’t think I would go again due to the high prices and mediocre food, which is a shame since the staff was such a pleasure to deal with.

Can’t figure out why this place doesn’t have a better rating. We had dinner here last week and the place was very nice! I like the atmosphere a lot, it’s warm and inviting. For a Thursday night, Yusan Sushi was not that busy. We had an attentive and friendly server and did not have to wait too long for stuff to get to our table. I ordered a seaweed salad, miso soup and veggie rolls, everything was tasty and just the right portion size. The seaweed salad was especially good, I usually don’t order it but really liked it. I also munched off my friend’s side order of edamame, which was also yummy.
Price-​wise, I think I fared at just under $ 20, that’s including tax and tip.
Not bad.

I am an asian female — 5’4 ½″, with black hair and green eyes. I enjoy baking delicious delicacies, scouring the world for taro treats, and banging out my frustrations on my drum set.
I am looking for a croquette. Applicants must be golden in color, and round in shape, fried and piping hot when you enter my mouth. Croquettes must be made of high-​quality potato ingredients — a teriyaki glaze is optional, but strongly desired.
…
I was first introduced to the croquette as the beautiful patty of fried potato perfection that accompanied my salmon bento box, along with warm edamame, a california roll, pink pickled cucumber, and a sprout and shredded lettuce salad. All six pieces of the california roll was made with real crab and soft, chewy rice, with the sharp tang of vinegar contrasting nicely to the richness of the avocado. The salmon was lean and flaky; perfectly cooked, with the crispy skin still sizzling hot.
After a few bites of each item in my bento box, I approached the foreign croquette with caution. My first bite was an orgasmic experience, and I drifted off into a land of ecstasy as each morsel reached my mouth. The sweet teriyaki glaze was the perfect touch, leaving me shamelessly licking my plate as I finished my last bite.

After passing by this neighborhood sushi restaurant many times and reading the Unilocal reviews, we decided to give Yusan a try.
We ordered a variety of sushi and the fish was extremely fresh and the pieces of fish were large. The tamago had just the right amount of sweetness to it and the miso soup was flavorful.
The menu claims that Yusan is the inventor of the California maki roll, which is entirely possible since the restaurant has been around since the ‘70s. I inquired with our waitress about the validity of the statement and she laughed and said that the owner (Yusan) says that he is the inventor, so it’s a true statement. She didn’t seem very convincing, but we ordered it anyway. It tasted like your typical California roll.
There were two sushi chefs working and they seemed to know each person seated at the bar and carried on conversations and joked with the customers as they made everyone’s sushi.
It’s not cheap, but I’m of the thought that you pay for better quality sushi and I’m ok with that.