Three Monkies Japanese Kitchen

Love this sushi bar. Yoshi is the absolute best! Their stinky roll is amazing!

3 Monkies is my favorite sushi bar, and Yoshi is the man. I love this place and have been coming here for years. Best sushi spot ever!
However, 3 Monkies is not for your average customer. If you expect the American business concept that «the customer is always right» this place aint for you… because the customer is not always right.
I love reading people’s Unilocal reviews that are upset with Yoshi and 3 Monkies. They are entertaining. Here is the deal, if you are rude to Yoshi, rush him or have an annoying kid, he will not placate or tolerate your needs and whining.
Yoshi and 3 Monkies is so good that the establishment is comparable to Seinfield’s Soup Nazi episode. And if you irritate him «No sushi for you!»
The people on here who write negative reviews should of never stepped into three monkies to begin with.
If you have the ability to be patient and respectful do yourself a favor and order a stinky roll with a nice cold refreshing glass of beer. The stinky role is like heroin and you will keep coming back for more.

I’ve been eating sushi on a regular basis (that’s two to three times per week!) for more than 20 years and I’m not exaggerating when I say Three Monkies has the most consistently fresh and delicious sushi I’ve had at a VERY reasonable price. The restaurant and sushi bar are family owned, which gives it a cozy feel with personalized service.
I was quite surprised to read some of the negative reviews here, as I have never had a bad experience. Yes, when the restaurant is packed it takes more time to get your food. But it’s worth it. Sushi is not one of those cuisines that you decide to eat before seeing a movie or when you’re on a strict time schedule. If you are, there’s a place in Costa Mesa that has a conveyor belt full of options you can have right away. The problem: it’s garbage.
Yoshi always has fresh, amazing food and delivers it with his own creative style. He’s Japanese, so he knows what he’s doing (fish/​rice proportions and correctly tasting sushi rice, for instance) as compared to most of the other restaurants in the area that are not Japanese-​owned. Personally I would rather sit and watch the chef make my sushi than getting a premade, tasteless roll right away. If it takes longer when it’s busy so be it. Sushi lovers know they’re getting the best fish in town, and don’t mind waiting. Conversely, when I’m in there alone or with a few others, we get our food right away. I’ve always had excellent service at Three Monkies. The servers are always around when you need them, even when the table side is packed.
I love everything on the menu but my favorites are the «magic mushrooms;» yellow tail, salmon, Spanish mackerel, halibut, and red snapper sushi; tuna sliders; stinky roll; lollipop roll; and the spicy sautéed calamari. They also serve the best Japanese beers in frosty glasses.
So if you’re in a hurry and have kids that need to eat the minute they sit down, go get some garbage at McDonalds. Yoshi won’t mind. And I’ll gladly take your seat at the sushi bar.

We love the sushi and excellent service!!! Comfortable dining room for the family. Sushi is always fresh.

Terrible.
We ate here last night and honestly wanted a refund.
My son was hangry so that probably didn’t help this place out. But no care was given to expedite my son’s California roll order either.
Miso soup was not good.
Udon soup was not good.
Garlic Edamame was not fresh and swimming in some oil.
Pork Katsu was three frozen pork patties poorly fried.
California roll was the laziest, sloppiest version I’ve ever had. My son didn’t want to pick up the pieces they were done so poorly.
My wife had another roll that was also terrible with a dab of saracha on top.
Mochi Ball was perfect.
All in all my son and I split a happy meal on the way home just to get the awful flavors out of our mouths.
Don’t waste your hard earned money on this lazy place. You’d be better off smearing Costco fish salad on some rice and calling it a California roll.

love this place! service is amazing and sushi is great!

Please stay away from this horrible place ! The owner is a stupid drunk asshole that stands behind the sushi bar drinking beer and acting rude and drunk. He was so rude with us from the beginning to the end. And doesn’t even know how to make a good sushi. Everything we ordered was tasteless and when I politely asked to take Garlic edamame off the bill because it has no flavor and its floating in oil he said we need to pay for it anyways and he saw me eating it (obviously I need to eat some to realize that I’m getting sick of how oily and nasty it is…)And when we said we will never come back, he just had his mouth full of rude comments and basically made fun of us. I never had a worst experience in the restaurant. There are many sushi places please stay away from this freak show !!!

I have to say if you are looking for good sushi in a small place this is the place to go. Yoshi is the owner and only sushi chef so don’t go in thinking you are going to have rolls flying at you every 7 minutes. And have a sense of humor for Christ sake!!! He likes to have a good time and if you think your a Kardashian and expect to be waited on hand and foot go some place else. He has the coldest beer, great tuna sliders, stinky roll and all his fish is always fresh. Oh and he is Japanese not like all this other places run by Koreans like niko niko or kabuki!!!

Two words: STINKY ROLL
It’s what keeps us coming back here, even to this fairly remote location of south Huntington Beach. Do a Unilocal search for garlic albacore sushi, try all those other locations’ versions, and you won’t find anything that compares with the stinky roll. Flakes of garlic perfectly fried to a brown crisp are drizzled together with a buttery sauce over fresh albacore. And if that’s not flavorful enough, there’s a tangy vinegar-​based dipping sauce that complements the roll perfectly. It’s a shame that one order is only 8 relatively small pieces, which forces my wife and I to get 2 orders every time. Last time we tried sharing and my wife handed me the shorter end of the (chop)stick. Laugh with me please. =D And it’s doubly shameful that each order costs close to $ 12 including tax. But, you won’t find that holding us back.

I’ve lived in this part of Huntington for 3 years and have never tried three monkeys and look them up they got pretty good reviews and I’m all about garlic so my son and I went over and we tried the stinky roll and that’s why they’re getting 5 stars from me an amazing yummy roll so yummy a little pricey for what it is but very very good I’d buy it again I can’t wait to try other stuff there

Sushi is super fresh. My fiancé and I usually sit at the sushi bar, good quick service and Yoshi is very aware of when we’re ready to order and ensures we’re satisfied. Very surprised to see the negative reviews. Come here on a regular basis and have never had to wait, nor seen disrespectful service. Visited Japan last year and this sushi bar is no different than standard sushi bars in Japan… just much more spacious.

Great service and definitely great food. The miso soup here is especially good, and I die for their California roll. The service is always friendly and food delivered timely. It wasn’t speed lightning fast but it was long enough to know that it was fresh ingredients being delivered when they were done cooking. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard any of the staff yelling or berating customers for reasons described in other reviews, or any reason for that matter. I have really good hearing too. Anyways, love this place!

My friends brought me here for the first time. They all recommended the Stinky Roll so I gave it a try. I died and went to sushi heaven after trying that roll! This roll is definitely a must for any garlic lovers out there! I also tried the spicy yellowtail hand roll which was very tasty. This will be my go to sushi place from now on.
I read other reviews about the chef being rude; however, I did not experience that. He was attentive and quick with taking our orders. The waitress was also very nice, and refilled our waters often.

Never, ever, ever dine at this restaurant! After my husband and I had our daughter three years ago, we started coming here, as its close to my mother-in-law’s house. It made for an easy date night! We dined here numerous times without incident. About a year ago, we came here and sat at the table in the sushi bar. The (scared) waitress made it clear that the table wasn’t part of the sushi bar. That was fine! We just wanted sushi, regardless of where we sat. Service was slow, but the sushi was okay, so we were fine. We were about done and decided to order one more roll. Now, it was well before closing time. We told our waitress we would like to order a spicy tuna roll, and she meekly turned towards Yoshi, and eyed him. Yoshi threw his hands up in the air and yelled (yes, literally screamed): «you are not sitting at the sushi bar! You think you get faster service here? You aren’t at the sushi bar! It will be a long wait for you!»
People at the sushi bar proceeded to turn around to see our reaction and were clearly in shock at how incredibly rude Yoshi was.
The waitress turned to us for our reply. My husband and I were so surprised I stuttered…“okay?“
After sitting for a while, I could tell my husband was seething at how disrespectful Yoshi was. He was standing up to say something but I managed to calm him down and we just vowed to never come back.
Well, fast forward a year. We wanted quick sushi and close to where we could drop our daughter off for an hour. We decided to give Three Monkies another try. How bad could it be… Right? We said we wouldn’t sit at the sushi bar so we wouldn’t have to deal with Yoshi. Well, we got there at 7:30. We were told it would take 20 minutes to be seated, but it only ended up being about 15. Good start. Things quickly went downhill. It took about 10 minutes to put in our drink/​appetizer order. It took another 20 – 25 minutes to get the apps (soft shell crab and edamame). We quickly ordered our meals: sushi and teriyaki chicken. About 20 minutes later the chicken came out. We ate some chicken and waited for the sushi. And waited… and waited… and waited. Over 30 minutes later the first roll came out. My husband was about to cancel the other roll, but as he was canceling it, the other waitress brought the second roll out. At this point it’s 9pm. So much for a quick dinner. The place wasn’t busy, but it’s obvious the regulars get preferential treatment. The waitresses are scared, the food was mediocre at best, and the service was insanely slow. Do yourself a favor and go to Matsu, Ikeda or Tsunami. All of which have much better food and much better service.

This place is the rudest place I’ve ever walked into. I actually gave them 3 chances and every time we walked out. The sushi chef hates that a family of 4 might actually sit at the sushi bar, and was so extremely rude 2x that I vow to never go back. I also make a point to tell everyone I know how horrible this place is and to never waste their time.

Just moved to the area a few weeks ago and already I’ve been here several times. It’s seriously amazing, kind and fast service with a smile. The food is great, the servers are always kind and care about your experience. Prices are cheap and you can’t beat the crunch roll! I will continue to frequent this establishment :) Dont listen to people’s negative feedback, clearly they were the ones being rude, I’ve only ever been treated with respect and amazing service

Definitely so many better sushi places around. Not only is the quality really so so, service was way worse than that. We ordered a pitcher of beer and sakes for the table of 6. Then ordered 6 rolls and 8 pieces of sushi. We finished the drinks pretty quickly and throughout the next 2 hours, they didn’t ask us for any additional orders or even filled our waters.
The 6 rolls came out sporadically over the next 55 minutes. Then we asked for the sushi pieces along with 3 additional rolls at that time. The sushi pieces came 15 minutes later and then another 25 minutes later, we ended up canceling the 3 rolls because they still had not started making it yet.
This whole time, we were only one of 2 tables in the restaurant with a party of 3 at the sushi bar.
We could maaaaaybe (probably not) excuse it for good food but this was far from the case.
Disappointing night out. Wasted on poor food and even worst quality of service.
Don’t bother coming here. Take the extra time to find a better place on Unilocal

If you love garlic and sushi, here’s the place! They have a roll called a Stinky Roll!

***DO NOT COME HERE***
The chef is an absolute prick. The chef doesn’t understand that we have a choice on where we eat and common courtesy is not his fortay. My cousin had a horrible experience with the chef berating her kids and I wanted to make sure I get the word out. Again, if you don’t believe me. Read the reviews, food good, chef is a prick. Find another sushi spot!
***DO NOT COME HERE***

When I sat down, there were two other parties that were at the sushi bar. They were both regulars. When I left, two other parties sat at the bar and were also regulars. Yeah, this place is that awesome. The owner is also the sushi chef and if you plan on sitting at the bar long, make sure you share some of your beer and/​or sake with him.
The stinky roll with all that garlic is awesome. The lettuce roll is awesome though really different from normal sushi. The kobi burgers are awesome. The sashimi is quite possibly the best thing though, it’s super, super, fresh. Just ask the owner to make you either a small or large dish of sashimi and he’ll give you the freshest fish of that day. Just understand that it takes him time to make all the sushi for the entire restaurant, but you can just drink more sake while waiting!
Finally, just like any great restaurant, if you purchase a bottle of sake, they’ll hold it for you until next time.