Nikai

Stopped in for a great sushi fix and boy did we get it! I normally enjoy nigiri or very simple sushi that allows me to get a taste of the fish without any distractions and Nikai certainly have top quality fish!!! I had Red Tuna roll, a Yellowtail roll and a Bonzai Roll. My wife had the Spider roll and the Dagwood Roll… All of it was and is so good!
Of course, with top quality fish, expect to pay a proper price; no matter cuz it was worth it!
It seems like a common denominator that customer service isn’t great BUT we actually had a great experience. Cooper, our waiter, was super attentive and made sure we were always enjoying our meal. He also made sure to set expectations up front if food was gonna be late or take too long; luckily our food came out swiftly and correctly! When I asked if we could change the TV to a channel for a soccer game, he didn’t hesitate and switched it right away! He also, RAN down stairs and caught up to us in street to return something I forgot at Nikai!!! Not many people would do that!
My wife and I really enjoyed our dinner there!!!

We had dinner at Nikai during a recent vacation and were very pleased. The young man (from Valdosta, GA) who seated us was extremely friendly and had great recommendations for food and drink, as well as outdoor activities around Jackson Hole. Nikai has a great cocktail menu; we decided on the unfiltered saki, which paired great with our sushi. We had 4 pieces of excellent and very fresh of hamachi (tuna and snapper). We also had the lavish roll, which was very good. The show stopper was the truffle tuna roll; my wife and I eat sushi about 5 times a month, and we have never had such a unique roll. It was excellent. One minor criticism is that the rice in our rolls wasn’t sticky enough, so it broke apart when we dipped the rolls in any kind of sauce. Even then, this was a great dining experience.

We live in Jackson used to love Nikai. We went last night and had terrible, pre– frozen sushi! Also, there was zero A/​c! It was so hot and not one person would tell us why… Just say «our A: C isn’t working … Slow service and very expensive. King Sushi is far better. I do not recommend Nikai to anyone!!!

Really slow service really really slow sushi. And marginal at best food. Sad this use to be one of my wife and I favorite places. They tried to reimagine themselves a few months ago and failed miserably.

Bad food, worse attitude. Meanwhile, Expensive. don’t come to this restaurant!！！！！！！！not too much options.

Wanted to like the new Nikai but it disappoints in so many ways. Lost the vibe I loved before. I don’t know anyone there anymore, I felt like robots were employed there. King Sushi is more intimate and has great quality fish. It’s unfortunate that this used to be one of my favorites to send clients but no longer :(

Food never came. Waiter had head trauma and misplaced our ticket. Walked out after an hour

It’s reopened! Yay. I love Nikai, and was sad to see it close, but… it’s now open again!

I just read that Nikai has closed and was replaced by another restaurant. I wish chef Laura good luck in the future, as she was the only bright spot in our evening. Hopefully, the new restaurant will replace the previous staff with more professional service personnel. Although with the same ownership, I doubt it.

Excellent high quality sushi. Only two sushi chefs so be prepared to be patient. Ambience is ok but food more than makes up for it. Unique and interesting rolls as well as standard sushi.

This place was amazing. Quick service and fresh sushi. The server was very nice and made some excellent recommendations for us. Which were great ones because we loved them all! It had a good atmosphere with lovely décor.

Had a great experience here with good friends. Cocktails were yummy and the quality of fish was on par for any nice sushi bars in the big city. The scallops, of any style are a must. I did not try much of the cooked menu items but I will be back, soon, I hope!

Most disappointing meal here. I will not go back, nor will my two local Jackson friends. I’ve eaten at Nikai every time I’m in Jackson. I have a friend in Jackson, so stop by on my way to and from East to West coast, which is quite often. I looked at my calendar & see 26 times i ate here in the past two summers. This time, after specifying a booth not in the bar (which has tv going, and I hate that in any public place, and it gets loud and rowdy always). We arrived within 5 minutes early of our reservation. The hostess walked us t a table. I clarified I had reserved, and we needed a booth for a specific reason. She smiled condescendingly and told us the booths were reserved. I said, «Yes, I reserved one, please check the names». She didn’t look at her list. Said she’d check the manager, but didn’t find us a table. I wish we’d left then. It never improved.
Food was incredibly SLOW. I saw in today’s paper they are hurting/​hunting for staff, so clearly they are not prepared for the number of tables they are seating.
Our table was three people with no alcohol had a bill f $ 73, which is pretty typical of every time we go there for sushi. I’d get wine, but they pour a 3 oz. glass and it’s $ 9.50 for house wine.
three of our sushi rolls came out on a triangle shaped platter, which caused them to put a very sweet sauce on the platter, but that was not appropriate for one of the rolls. I’m not sure what the chef was thinking with this, other than, «These people have been here so LONG, I better get them their last three rolls NOW»!
Next time: trying another sushi place in Jackson. I will never go back to Nikai.

When you sit down a Nikai Sushi, don’t be surprised when the waiter tells you they like to serve family style. What this will really mean is, «We are underprepared to serve sushi, and will serve you painfully slowly. This is our excuse to not awkwardly only serve one person at a time».
I can’t even speak to the quality of sushi here because we were so famished by the time each roll came I wouldn’t have known good from bad. It got so slow at one point we decided to time the gap between each serving and were shocked when it took over 15 minutes between rolls, making our meal well over 2 hours by the time the last item came.
If you’re thinking about stopping by, absolutely pass and go somewhere else. There are too many good places in Jackson to waste your time here.

The sushi here was actually really good. They tell you at the beginning they do it «family style… rolling one piece at a time» and that’s why it’s slow… I don’t buy that. I think it. Isn’t just take a while for them to make the rolls. They do look very pretty though. Appetizers and menu is good as well. Staff was very friendly and accommodating. The rolls were very good, I can’t remember all the names but the cowboy, surf and turf, shrimp tempura, Philip (okay not the best I’ve had), funky salmon, spicy salmon, veggie tempura roll… Really it was all wonderful. It’s just slow… Expect to be there for a bit…

Didn’t have a reservation, but the spot was not busy. We were seated at the bar in about 5 mins. Server took quite a while to greet us. We figured out that all you have to do was fill out the sushi checklist and hand it to the sushi maker to get things rolling. Food was very good and tasteful. The service was bad. I had to ask multiple times for a refill on my soda. My sister never even got a refill on her soda. Our server never once asked how we were doing or if we needed anything else. This is sever 101. Simple and easy tasks.
If it wasn’t for the good food, this would have been the worst dining experience in a while. Service was Horrible and therefore even with the food being good, I will not go back.

One of the worst dining experiences ever.
Waiter forgot many items from our order, charged us, never came back to the table. No water refill or asked how anything was. My husbands food came out at a resumable time, our sushi, 30 min. Later, than he never put in my other sons order. Waited 1 ½ to get his sushi. Some of the rolls r fried in tempura batter. The oil was not fresh. gross really. I talked to the manager, he comped one dish. Would never recommend or go again.

Surprisingly good sushi for being in Wyoming. I was, honestly, a bit suspect, but we had a grand dinner and just ordered everything on the menu.
Their rolls (we didn’t order any proper sushi or sashimi), while interesting and generally tasty, I thought were outshined by their appetizers. I will say that I was a bit caught off guard by the spiciness of many of those dishes, but then again I was probably not paying attention as I’d mop up the chili sauce with the piece of tuna.
Solid wine list.

You can never imagine a place as small as Jackson Hole, WY having a sushi place with tastes as big as this. l It will blow your mind.
Got in early (it fills up fast!) and sat at the bar. My first mistake was not asking the chef what his recommendations were, that would have saved me a lot of time and money and would have been a lot more satisfying.
I sort of started with standard fare, but was so in love I didn’t realize there was better. I wouldn’t have believed it if you had told me anyway! Cooper, the fabulous chef, not the fabulous waiter, was quick and on the ball. He has a serious way with sushi and knows his stuff.
While I’m thinking about it let me tell you that the waitstaff here is the best you will ever find. I kid you not. I’ve eaten at some serious places (Ramsey at the London comes to mind), but this place designates EVERY waiter as your waiter. You can ask anyone for anything and you will instantly have it, the only wait time is the time it takes to go get what you need. I personally did love Cooper, but he was the one around the most (and certainly the cutest!), but they were all spectacular. Whew. Great service.
Started out with the maguro sake poke which is cubed red tuna in a sesame soy, seaweed salad, topped with macadamia nuts. You must try this above all else. I have never had such a sweet mix of flavors in such a simple dish. The fried wonton to dip with added a nice texture and crunchy saltiness, but it really could have stood alone. Delicious.
Next up was chefs choice of sashimi. It was two pieces of tuna, two of salmon and I forgot the other one. This fish is FRESH. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s like they went out in the back and caught it themselves. Yum.
Added some delicious sake to the mix and it paired well. I, again, don’t remember the name, but pretty sure you can’t screw it up at this place. It’s ALL good.
My friend had the funky tuna tempura roll and it was really good. Nicely fried with a tangy sauce that was light and easy on the palate.
Had the inferno roll which wasn’t that hot, but still had a nice kick. Added some ghost pepper sauce to liven it up a little. Didn’t really do much for it, but I loved the heat!
The absolute highlight of dinner was the miso glazed black cod. It was sitting lightly on a bed of rice soaked in coconut milk and if your taste buds don’t explode then you are obviously missing them.
Had some strawbeery mochi, in staying with the sushi theme, but they had desserts that far outshone that, I’m sure. The outer shell of it was really bad. Would not repeat.
But, don’t let that hinder you in any way from going to this place. You will LOVE it. I miss it already! Ask for Cooper Squared! :)

Sneaky Nikai… VERYYY sneaky.
I know why your service was so very slow, because you wanted me and the rest of my party to keep on ordering while we were waiting and working up an appetite! Well your ploy WORKED… Much to my wallet’s dismay!
We got to Nikai RIGHT when the restaurant opened, actually we got there 5 minutes early and the doors were still locked so we had to wait outside in –10 degree weather… When we were finally allowed inside, we were seated immediately. It seemed as if the service was going to be relatively quick because there was no one else in the restaurant, ha, that’s a laugh.
As the minutes ticked on, more and more people arrived and I swear everyone else left before we did — Even the table with 10 people, seems to be in and out in under and hour… And they ordered more food than a pro-​NFL team would.
My sister and I ordered sashimi boats and I swear they had to go fly to Hawaii (and/​or Alaska), catch the fish, fly back to Jackson, freeze the fish to kill the parasites, thaw and then thaw it, and then slice it up, organize it on a plastic boat and then FINALLY walk it on over to our table… That’s how long it took for them to bring us our order! And don’t even get me started on our salmon skin hand rolls…
Don’t get me wrong, the food is quite tasty (apparently the pork belly burgers were so good even a pig would want to eat one), and I have been to Nikai before when the service didn’t take years (I swear to god, I walked out of there sporting a few grey hairs), but this time around it just didn’t leave a good impression on me and the rest of the people in my party. The next time I am in Jackson and we are discussing where we want to go out to eat, I am going to have to really think about whether or not I want to risk going to Nikai again for fear that the service will take an excruciatingly long time… Perhaps I should eat a snack before I go — Ha!
The quality of food is quite good at Nikai though, so if you’re looking to REALLY CATCH UP with the people you bring to dinner and eventually eat a few good bites of food, Nikai may wind up being your favorite dining establishment in Jackson!