Tabu Sushi Bar & Grill

I went there first with a coupon — it was way better than I anticipated — now I am a regular. This intimate excellent sushi restaurant has replaced my sushi haunt in PB. The food is first class, the helpings generous, presentation excellent. The attitude of the servers is also a pleasure. Nothing is too much trouble. Also I always find free parking close by.
I strongly recommend the place

Sushi guy was the absolute SLOWEST ive ever seen. And then when the sushi finally comes its bland. Waste of time. Skip this place, better nearby

They had one server and one sushi chef on a Wednesday night. The waiter was hustling tables AND making some of the sushi.
We had to wait 1.5 hours for our food.
Just bad form all around.
The actual sushi was ok, but nothing life changing. The only good thing was that we had a living social deal so it was $ 25 plus tip.
Others who were there were also getting pissed and rolling their eyes at the lame service.
I wouldn’t go back obviously.

Went in tonight and the place is ²⁄₃ torn down, though they were still willing to serve us at the bar. Err… no thanks. Apparently they’re moving their 3^rd shop to Santee — good for them, because Rancho is always packed… lame for me, because now the closest location is in Del Mar. Sad face.
If you’re reading this much after tomorrow, they’re probably out of business.

I came here once for lunch and once for dinner. Neither time was very busy, but the lunch time had markedly better rolls– flavor, portions of fish, and the rolls didn’t fall apart.
The place is just not up to par for what you pay. The service is friendly but slow. The guy helping us at dinner couldn’t take our drink and food order at the same time, so we had to wait until we got our drinks to put in our food.
Also, both times I was here they served us out of chipped and broken dishes. I uploaded a picture. And the bathrooms were disgusting. And other tables complained about how loud they play their music.
Verdict: not terrible, but not worth what you pay. Find another sushi place in the area.

Came here for sunday lunch with a livingsocial deal. Think this place opens at 11am, but got there at 11:30. Unfortunately the chef had some car problems and was expected to come in at 12:30…
Came back. Our server was… not too attentive or didnt seem to have a lot of energy. Or maybe he is that way all the time, on and off the job, i dont know. My mom and i ordered: 1. Chicken teriyaki bento box, 2. Yellowtail and red snapper sushi, 3. combination rolls that included california roll, after burner roll, and rancho roll. Too much sauce on the chicken. and the salad. But it tasted fine besides that. Yellowtail was relatively fresh. This was my first time trying snapper, and it didnt melt in my mouth… is that normal? The after burner roll also had way too much sauce. And they should go a little lighter on the cream cheese in the rancho roll. Id give service a 1 star also because the server brought out the soy sauce like 3min after he brought us sushi. Food is decent, and good variety menu, so 3 stars for that.

Worse dining experience ever! I came here due to a living social deal. When you first walk in you are greeted with a sign in the middle of the doorway where you have to wait to be seated. So as the host/​server finally greets us, we are asked if we have reservations in this not so busy restaurant (prob about 3 parties at that time). Upon being seated we were never given a menu until 10 minutes later. Never happened before! I could go on and on about our bad experience but I swear I will be writing a 10 page summary. So to cut it short, here we go:
Fried oysters: super small and were not cooked inside. Still cold, we had to send it back
Fried calamari. Very very very chewy. Sauce given was not as described in menu. I swear they just give you mayo and sriracha w every appetizer bc its just that easy to make
Chicken Katsu entrée: super bland! It was like they just dipped chicken in panko and on to the fryer, thats it! I’m not one to add salt or pepper to any of my meals so when I added a lot that def meant something,
Sushi: I actually have to give credit that although pricey for its small portion it was good, but of course I’ve tasted better.
I felt like I was on a prank show due to how bad the service was. Servers were screaming at each other and wrong orders were given to other customers left and right and not mention, very slow service! This restaurant needs a lot of help!!!

Tabu Sushi Bar & Grill gets a totally mixed review from me. 5 stars for food and drink, 1 star for service, atmosphere, and price. I had to average it out to a 3 star rating.
The sushi is actually INCREDIBLY delicious. My favorite concept that Tabu’s menu has are vast options of super healthy rolls — brown rice options, no rice options, etc. The sashimi plates are also really good. If you don’t mind something a little smelly and have an icebreaker on hand for later, get the garlic edamame — it’s ridiculously good.
The cocktails are yummy and so are any of the choices of sake.
As far as the service goes, the staff is rude and extremely dumb. It’s almost like their arrogance is a cover up for their stupidity. I only say this because they’re not even offensive in a funny way. Not acceptable.
Maybe this is why the atmosphere sucks as well — the staff drives out all the customers! Two times that my girlfriend and I have been here (craving Tabu’s skinny sushi sensations) we’ve been the ONLY TWO in the restaurant. At 7:00 PM people. Although it’s romantic having the place to ourselves to bitch about our boy problems, I’d rather have a fun trendy group of sushi goers in the restaurant with us.
Lastly, let’s talk about price. It’s outrageous. You’d expect the salmon row to have been bred with a gold nugget. If you’re looking to save a little and you still want to dine though, feel free to cut out the tip. The staff does NOT deserve it.

YUM! My friend bought a Living Social deal for this place, otherwise I may never have visited, but I am glad I did. Everything we had on the menu was fantastic!
Garlic edamame
Sushi burrito — one of the best things I ate all night. It crab mix and avocado wrapped up in rice paper and served with my favorite — spicy mayo.
Stuffed jalapenos — also, very yummy and great to share. They give you several pieces. These are stuffed with crab mix and cream cheese and then tempura fried.
We ordered three rolls which are big (10 and 8 pieces) and all of them were delicious. The food came out pretty fast and in shifts, which was perfect since our table had so much food.
The plum wine was a good choice and though it wasn’t busy, we weren’t the only ones there on a Monday evening. Our server checked on us often and was nice. The meal turned out to be about $ 25/​person which included drink, appetizer (s) and rolls. I think for sushi that’s a pretty good price. It’s a little out of the way for me, but if I’m in La Jolla I will keep this place in mind.
It’s right on Girard and we were easily able to find parking across the street.

We had heard that this was the new «place to be» ever since Jack’s closed… and perhaps it was, but when we walked in on a sleepy Tuesday to the reddish room, Vegas club music circa 2009, strange outhouse looking holes on the sides of the booths (perhaps they once held flower pots), and the poor service, we realized this place was on it’s way out. They have an extensive menu, and, unfortunately, three of the items on the menu (the ones we happened to order) they did not have. Further. my cousin asked for sashimi, and it came sitting on a bed of rice. The food was OK… nothing special, but the experience was a downer.

I’ve been trying to find a good sushi place for months now, and I’ve finally found it! I live down in chula vista but this place is worth the drive!
Their happy hour is amazing, and the staff is very friendly. Overall good atmosphere. This place is officially my favorite sushi bar down here in SD :)

YUM and a great spot if you want to avoid lines and carbs. Why? Because it doesn’t seem to get overly crowded here and they cater your sushi to your liking, aka no rice and w/​soy paper wrap. Plus the service is awesome!

Still just okay.
We went again to enjoy a night in La Jolla and while Able, was serving the entire restaurant, he was personable and enjoyable.
We ordered saba hand rolls, not on the menu. The saba was good. But they charged us same as the lobster hand rolls, and whil saba is great, it isn’t the market price of lobster. I thought $ 8 each was too pricey.
We had the Sashimi Platter; the yellowtail, tuna, albacore and snapper, were GREAT, truly melt in your mouth good. The Salmon, while it had a good flavor, came along with a couple of bones. SO NOT what one wants with Sashimi! No adjustment was made for this faux paux and the joke from Able was that it assured it’s freshness if you get a bone. I’m just spoiled I guess as that is a BIG no no where I’ve come up in the sashimi world. Also the plate was not as beautiful as I’m used to with good sashimi artists. And the price was on par with Kazumi’s.
We also enjoyed the Sweet Thang, for desert. It hit the spot and again were glad we had a coupon. Their service was attentive, but nothing over the top. I’m used to Japanesse restaurants giving edamame, or miso with all meals … so was a bit disappointed with that .
But it was filling and enjoyable for the most part, minus a couple of bones.

This place was AMAZING! we went on a saturday night and it wasn’t too busy. It should be packed because the service and the chefs are amazing!
sushi is the best part! sit at the bar

I’m not going to lie. On the whole, I really like the chain of Tabu restaurants. A coworker introduced me to the Rancho San Diego a few years ago and I LOVED it. It saddened me that the location was a bit of a drive from where I lived at the time (Mira Mesa). I loved it, craved it at times, but never enough to drive out that way. Then they opened a location in Del Mar and I drove out there for sushi more often than I’d like to admit.
However, I was thrilled when they opened a location in DT La Jolla. I really liked the location (much better than previous sterile strip mall locations). I ate at the La Jolla location a few times before they started running Sign On San Diego Daily Deals, Living Social Deals, etc. and I never had a bad experience. Service was good, food was just as delicious as the rolls served at the other locations and I generally had nothing but good experiences at the La Jolla Tabu.
So, I was pretty surprised to read on Unilocal that other people had less than stellar experiences here. At first, I chalked it up to one or two off days, but the negative reviews were significantly higher than the positive. I had purchased a Sign On San Diego deal, so luckily for Tabu, I HAD to give them another chance.
Walking into Tabu, I immediately began to see why so many bad reviews had been written lately. For those unfamiliar with the setup at this location, you have to seat yourself. I noticed one of the waiters sitting at a table with what appeared to be a group of his friends. He told us to go ahead and sit where we wanted. I mentioned to him that I had an OpenTable reservation and that i was a little early. He told me that he’d check me in, and to go ahead and sit. Then he sat back down with his friends. I was confused and wasn’t sure if he was on a break, actually working, didn’t care, etc. Luckily for us, we had a different waitress who was actually really nice and attentive during our entire meal. Our orders were taken within ten minutes and we got all our food and finished in about an hour, without feeling like we were rushed.
Turns out, the waiter WAS on shift. Every so often, he’d get up and assist one of the the other tables. It was definitely disconcerting to see him blatantly hang out with his friends while in between waiting tables. I noticed that some of the people he waited on looked annoyed. I guess I lucked out this time around.
All in all, the food was delicious and you should definitely try it out if you’re in the area. The specialty rolls are all wonderful and the yakisoba portions are huge. As for me, I wouldn’t go out of my way for this location. I’ll take the sterile strip mall vibe of the Del Mar Tabu any day. The food is just as delicious and the quality of serve you receive there is consistently high.
*Also* He never checked us into OpenTable and actually canceled our reservation! I had to call the next day and the manager fixed his mistake but blamed it on the «new waitress».

Not too bad. Monday night, we went to Tabu with a Living Social deal.
After eating dinner at Tabu, we walked down to Gelateria Frizzante for dessert. It’s pretty relaxing. The town is not very busy and with very nice breeze.

Woot Woot!
Walked in and the place was a little empty but the sushi I had was great! And really quick service!
My bf and I had a spicy lobster roll — Ok, it was good, nice and sweet… BUT I’m positive that it was NOT LOBSTER. I looked at the sushi roll more closely and realized that it was imitation crab meat. No wonder this roll was only $ 8. Maybe it wasnt imitation crab meat, but it sure wasnt lobster. So note to management, if its not lobster, don’t say it is.
Other than that, their sushi was pretty satisfying! We had the makenzi, and two other ones I can’t remember. delish!

Love the red, white, and black modern décor! the ambiance and feel is really nice. Makes for a good date night spot!
We got in at 6:30 on a Friday night and it was empty, we got one of the four booth seats. People started showing up slowly after, but it never got packed.
I ordered a sashimi salad (which is the same almost everywhere we go), a crunchy roll, soft shell crab roll, and a berry mojito. The soft shell crab roll came in 6 pieces, wrapped with soy paper. Kind of defeats the purpose when there’s so much rice in it already, but it was good! The crunchy roll came out really small. This place is good, but we tried is because we had a gift card. The fish was fresh and yummy, but everyone’s right! The menu is kind of limited.

Five hungry girls from the Midwest rolled in at around 3 PM on a Fri. after our flight since some fellow Unilocalers recommended this place to me. We had the place to ourselves! The sushi menu was huge and there was tons of amazing and unique appetizers and rolls to choose from. Lots of seafood rolls, tempura and spicy ones, and some rolls even had salsa in them. Their veggie roll was the best I had ever tasted too (check out my pic). All of us were very happy and satisfied with our sushi. We will definitely be back if we’re in La Jolla again!

Intended to replace the La Jolla nightlife that was lost after Jack’s closed (whether they succeed, I don’t know). This place is supposed to be a restaurant by day and club by night with bottle-​service and live music.
But I came here for sushi, not to paint the town red. I went for an omakase and it was surprisingly very good in quality and fish-​cutting.
Sushi omakase:
Seaweed, maguro (poke-​style), and avocado salad was fresh and delicious. Again, it was fresh (i.e. the poke wasn’t drowning and soaked in sesame seed oil and soy sauce.
The sushi (from left to right) started with maguro and ended with unagi (unagi should always be one of the last nigiri items you eat). Fresh buri (yellowtail). It was like eating a stick of butter since the fish was so smooth and buttery. Hotate was cut beautifully from a sushi Jedi and did not smell «seafoody». The shiro maguro? You could taste the two parts to it: the barely-​seared edge and the flavorful raw meat instead of the cold confusion you taste at other places. (And it continues…).
This sushi experience seemed like a one-​off success since the menu (rolls galore, teriyaki this and that, etc.) and clientele (let’s have cosmos with our sushi, etc.) aren’t characteristic of top-​quality sushi restaurants.