Tadashi Sushi

This place is no longer the same. From what im seeing and reading it seems that they have closed.

A bit on the expensive side, but you’re in La Jolla and it is sushi. They don’t have an AYCE option, but the closest thing that comes to it is called the Omakase where you give them a price ($ 26 minimum per person and everyone must agree on ordering this) and a percentage breakdown of sashimi, nigiri, and rolls that you want (example 30%/50%/20%). You give them 3 — 4 different types of fish that you like and the chef will decide how to break it down. It’s a nifty concept and I really enjoyed seeing my sushi placed out so nicely on a huge sushi boat. I will probably prefer to not get so many rolls as I’m not a big fan of the sauces that they put on top of rolls (personal preference, not just for this place). Their salmon and tuna sashimi is melt in your mouth delicious. I was so happy finishing my meal off with it. Delicious, I tell you! Although, it’s not AYCE, it comes pretty darn close. I was stuffed after ordering the minimum pricing.
The service is pretty quick and their chefs/​waitresses/​managers are all very nice. I enjoyed the experience.

I promised to write a review several months ago. I’ve been back twice since then.
Tadashi is one of my favorite restaurants in San Diego. The past couple of years, it was THE go to place for the best AYCE sushi in town. A great place to go for starving athletes with discerning taste buds.
During the 1^st visit a couple months ago, my friend and I went their after a 9 mile run to discover that they no longer do AYCE sushi. I forgot the actual word they used, but the gist is, you give them a percentage of Sushi, Sashimi, and Nigiri you want and a Dollar amount you want to spend. For example, 40% nigiri, 30% sushi, 30% sashimi and I want to spend $ 50. Then the chefs will make a plate for you served on a LoveBoat. Make sure you state what you are allergic to first. I had mentioned I was allergic to shrimp. Overall, the meal was GREAT. However there were a few hiccups.
***One of the rolls had shrimp in it and I gave it all to my friend. Since the Chef’s didn’t see the note on the sushi list, they made me a sashimi salad to make up for it
*** The sashimi salad looked absolutely delicious, however I had failed to mention that I am also allergic to masago (I usually don’t see masago in sashimi salads). I apologized for failing to mention that and gave the salad to my friend (who is enjoying all the extra goodies). However the chef insisted that I have something I can eat so he made me a very delicious oyster half shell dish
Despite not being AYCE anymore, my friend and I left Tadashi very full and promised we would write a review of our experience there.
We returned a couple months later for a second visit. Either they changed what their new special meant or the waittress was new and didn’t understand it. We were patient with her trying to explain what we wanted and what we got from our last visit. However, she just didn’t get it and we ended up agreeing to whatever she said since it was easier. We were both craving sushi and Tadashi’s quality is great. We definitely enjoyed the sushi that was prepared this visit however some of the magic was lost and we were still a bit hungry $ 70 later.
Since Tadashi has been good to me for several years, I will go back again eventually. I would love if they brought their AYCE eat special back or at least clarify what the LoveBoat special is. I love this place!

So this is my second time coming here and I still like it but I guess they got rid of the buffet. The buffet is the reason why I came here, and I was too lazy to leave to another place with a buffet. We had the crunchy roll, the crazy Mexican roll and something else. My only issue was that all the sushi came drenched in Massago and most places a crunchy roll doesn’t have that… and at most has a little eel sauce on it. The quality of the sushi was on point but the rolls were just ok. The sushi chief was nice and so were the waitresses. The place was half full but I probably will not be back. It wasn’t bad, but if I am going to drive to La Jolla I want something better then the million of sushi places I pass to get here.

One of my favorite places in San Diego for sushi.
The AYCE deal is amazing. The sushi here is so fresh and delicious. I’ve always been a fan of salmon and albacore and this place does not disappoint. In fact, I have yet to find a sushi place that makes albacore as yummy as Tadashi. Their slices of sashimi on top of the nigiri rolls are thick slices and have a nice, vibrant color indicative of the freshness and quality of the sashimi. I was never a fan of the amaebi, or «sweet shrimp» but my friends absolutely loved it and would make me order a portion for them (there is a limit of the number of orders you can have per person). I always order the agedashi tofu as well because the sauce is divine and they make the tofu in a way that the inside is steaming hot while the outside has a nice, fried, crunchy shell. Yum.
I’ve also ordered from the regular menu on separate occasions and I must say that their rolls are just as delicious. Very flavorful and aesthetically pleasing.
Definitely one of the places I recommend to people who visit SD.
As a disclaimer, this review is based on my experiences here a few years ago (for AYCE) and a year ago for the regular menu. I hope that the next time I go, they have maintained the quality I remember Tadashi to have.

BOOOOOO! My previous higher rated review is now retracted… Tadashi is now under new management and is a far, far cry from the delciousness it used to provide.
I took a couple out-​of-​town work colleagues here to get their fix of local sushi loving and it was so bad I was actually embarrased with my recommendation to dine here. The menu is completely different, the fish tasted fishy and overall it was just such a poor experience. This used to be my favorite, however, I won’t be returning and now I am on the hunt for a replacement.
The service was good, the waitresses new red dress uniforms were cute, however, one of the ladies chose a much-​too-​short style for herself…

The food is not the problem.
The cute little restaurant is not the problem.
The parking, while tough, is not really my problem.
So what’s the problem? Why such a low rating? Here’s why:
Why I go out to eat, I like it to be relaxing. But, who doesn’t? I don’t know a single person that says, «Hey, I would really like to go out and feel tense, awkward and badly for the employees the whole time I’m there.» But, hey, if that’s your bag, I’ve found you your new hide away!
I sit down, order my food, blah blah blah, and the WHOLE TIME, in the background is the manager YELLING, nay, screaming, nay berating his employees for seemingly no good reason.
Now, I know how the economy is, so these people are probably holding onto their jobs with the skin of their teeth. But seriously, older Korean man with an attitude? Seriously, you think this is going to motivate your employees and make your customers feel comfortable and happy? Well, if you do, let me tell you that as both a customer of yours and a manager of another little eatery place in my beloved San Diego, that you would be wrong. So wrong.
I will be telling all my friends to never go there. I will never again go there to eat. And if I find a place that is hiring people with those employees skill sets, I will be telling them so that they can swiftly high tail it out of there.

Great service, great food. Overall, excellent place for rolls. The all you can eat is no more, but the quality has improved as Tadashi’s attempts to rebrand itself. If you haven’t been here in a while, give it another shot.
On our way out of town, we decided to make Tadashi’s our final stop. We were sad to find out that there was no more all you can eat (we had just had it the week before). They offered omakase to the four of us and we left stuffed. That was a one-​time deal, though. Next time, it will be the regular price. Still, when we are back in town, we will be stopping by.

It’s got everything a pretty good Sushi joint should have.
Their customer service is a solid ¹⁰⁄₁₀. There’s nothing I love more than to eat from a chef who believes in his craft and acts as customer service as well by asking us what we think about it.
We came here thinking there was the old menu, which featured rolls like, «dream roll» & «homeless roll» but realized this was new management. The pricing here has dropped significantly.
Presentation wise, we ordered 3 rolls and had it served to us really elegantly, (I’ll save the surprise with a photograph to be uploaded asap) Reasonable starter items and good price. Taste wise, the sushi didn’t disappoint me, but it didn’t wow me. I had a lovely time here, no need to wait in a long line for «average sushi», and the fish wasn’t rusty like they serve at some places *cough Sushi Deli cough: D

ALL YOU CAN EAT SUSHI.
Pricing is pretty average. I believe it’s $ 26 for the all you can eat. The fish was very fresh and they never made you feel like you were ordering too much even though we probably were.
The restaurant itself is very small but it’d pretty upscale and doesn’t get too crowded. A couple downfalls is 1) parking. Parking in downtown La Jolla is never a walk in the park, esp around dinner time. 2) All you can eat have to sit at the bar. It’s not too bad since you can watch the sushi chef make all their food. Dinner and a show! :)
I mainly ordered nigiri sushi but they do have appetizers and rolls as well. I pretty much tried everything and I have to admit, I’m not a fan of sea urchin or the sweet shrimp. But that’s just my personal taste buds.
Service is always friendly even though sometimes they might seem a bit short staffed. There were 2 sushi chefs and 1 server/​cashier. Either way they seemed to have a system down.
Another plus is that most all you can eat places require you to eat all your food or they charge you extra (including left over rice). The waiter was pretty lenient for us but that might have been just because he saw that our stomachs were literally going to explode.
Will be back. :)

Unilocal describes three stars as A-​OK, and that’s pretty much how to sum up this restaurant. Though I’ve heard a lot about it, I’ve never had their sushi buffets, as I’m not really one to enjoy those sorts of things, anyway.
The large glass and downtown La Jolla location probably do help a lot to attract people here, and it is somewhat pretty. The tables are a bit small and close, though I suppose it’s never been all that crowded, at least during my visits. Reading through their menu can be relatively fun, as there are some wacky (and somewhat derogatory) named rolls on the menu.
Their sushi quality, in particular, is about what you’d expect, factoring price and neighborhood. It’s not bad, certainly, but there’s no melt-​in-​your-​mouth awesome freshness to be had here. They have, I believe, a buy-​3-​get-​1-​free roll offer, which I did partake in once, asking to have two, to-​go. They were happy to do this, but failed to remove the avocado as requested — my dear friend is allergic! This struck me as particularly odd, as one of the reasons for the delay in receiving our food was actually because… the chef accidentally put avocado in, and remade the roll. With avocado. But whatever. We just took it out on our own.
The service isn’t amazing, but isn’t bad at all. Once when I came and ordered a round of sake with friends, I suppose I gave a funny look at the size of the cups. Though I didn’t intend anything by it, the waiter, seeing my face, upgraded our sake, on the house. A very nice gesture.
Bottom line: if you’re in downtown La Jolla and you’re hungry for sushi, this isn’t a bad place at all. But don’t expect to convert any sushi haters here!

Lunch specials from 1130am-​3pm
Great lunch specials. This place is great for lunch. If you’re coming with a group don’t expect a lot of sitting cause this place is small. But their food is good. I usually get the chicken bento box for lunch (comes with a lot of food). And they do have a tv for ESPN.

I love AYCE specials and I LOVEEEE sushi. Who knew AYCE + sushi would = the WORST sushi experience ever?!
My roommate and I came here a few weeks ago prepared to eat as much nigiri sushi as our stomachs would allow. Unfortunately, we left the restaurant unsatisfied & still hungry, with a to-​go order to last us an entire week (our desperate attempt to to avoid the charge for leftovers).
First of all, it technically isn’t AYCE (you can only order up to three times). Second, the sushi quality is HORRIBLE. Their nigiri sushi is almost inedible and the rolls are no better. Sadly enough, the highlight of my lunch was my miso soup.
You’re definitely better off paying the extra $$ at another sushi restaurant.

Sushi was okay. I enjoyed my company better though. :)
Service was decent, and the spot is located right on prospect. Still, it seems like it has some stiff competition in the area. Sushi on the rocks and roppongi are both nearby and I didn’t find anything here that distinguished it from the rest of these sushi-​joints-​by-​the-​sea.

Ehh, it wasn’t that good. I had better. Got the bento box… not the best, it was freaking hot in there (it just opened). My friend got the cucumber wrapped roll, she said it was ok.
There are better sushi places. Service was friendly though.

one word: WOWWWWWW!!!
I came here to get the all you can eat sushi with some friends, and it was just spectacular! The fish was really fresh and served in a timely manner as well (some other places take quite a while to make) even with our huge order of nigiri sushi (I went with 5 friends and we all LOVE sushi so we ordered quite a bit). The ambiance is really nice, a chill place but still very aesthetically pleasing.
For the all you can eat sushi, at other places even for lunch, it’s at least $ 25 probably more, but here it’s $ 22.95 which makes a big difference after tax and tip. The service was really good as well, the waitress came around to check on us pretty frequently and it was just a really good experience.
the only bad side about it is, that it’s at the bar, so the seating is very limited, but definitely somewhere that you should try. I will for sure be returning again for the all you can eat sushi! :)

I’m not sure why this place isn’t rated higher, but everyone that I’ve taken to Tadashi has raved it to someone else. First of all, you come here for the all-​u-​can-​eat sushi. Yes, a little pricey (lunch $ 22.95, dinner $ 25.95), but well worth it! The sashimi is very fresh, and we always end up with more uni than we can eat! That’s how big their portions are! They are very generous with their sushi, and even if you’re not a fan of uni, there is plenty of other fish to choose from. :)
Now, I can’t even step into another all-​u-​can-​eat sushi place because I know what I COULD have with Tadashi. The service is also really great! I came here once to celebrate a birthday, and although they usually have all-​u-​can-​eat only at the sushi bar, the servers were very accommodating and allowed us to sit at the tables where we could interact with our friends more easily. They had to call in another sushi chef, but we left extremely happy thinking about when our next visit would be.
The only thing is they try to make you finish your food before you reorder because you have to pay extra for any leftovers. Of course, they were pretty lenient, but you might want to bring extra napkins when you go.

So I’m following Eric L. up with my review, because we were in the same group.
Tadashi has always been one of my favorite places to get AYCE sushi in San Diego and La Jolla. It’s a nice little place that is located right by the cove. Great place to go after a long day of Flag Football and Softball for my friend’s bachelor party.
The Good:
Salmon was melt in your mouth
Yellowtail was sweet and succulent, I could have eaten this the WHOLE TIME.
Amaebi (Sweet Shrimp) — Limit of two orders per person — twas sweet and fresh, and came with the shrimp heads nicely deep fried.
Seared Albacore — came first, fresh, thick, and tender:
The DECENT (not gonna say bad, because it was honestly decent, even after being so full):
Service was a bit slower today because there were so many others in the restaurant, and there was some lag time between our plates.
The oysters, Uni, and scallops came as our last plate, and by that time, as MUCH as I love fish and the ocean, it was hard to really enjoy uni for the first time and have such strong flavors towards the nearing of maxing out stomach capacity.
My two cents, order the Amaebi, uni, oyster, all up front with some salmon just to round it out.
The mackarel — by far my least favorite, just kind of mushy and didn’t have the strong sea flavor I always loved.
The conclusion:
8 People, $ 500+ sushi consumed but paid about half
They take reservations, so go with a large group, go ahead and call ahead.
Great sushi, good thick cuts, HUGE rolls, so stick to just sharing those and get your bang from the Nigiri.
Their sake bomb (large sake+large beer) is enough for 3 sake bombs, which is a great deal.
Love this place, will be back soon.
Bön Appetit!

There’s something about all you can eat sushi and all you can eat establishments that just sucks me in. Usually it’s the fact that I can get completely stuffed for one low low price. This time it was because we were celebrating my old apt mate’s bachelor party.
The skinny:
8 people @ $ 26 per person
4 people per order sheet
Eat at the Sushi bar to get the AYCE
The fat:
Our group of 4 ate over 50 orders of Nigiri + 4 rolls + 2 hand rolls + 2 Agedashi tofu + 3 bowls of miso soup
Had it been normal price, our $ 100 for 4 of us would have cost $ 286
2 orders per person limit for Ama-​Ebi
2 orders per person limit for Uni
Salmon was by far the best as in melt in your moth good.
Large Sake + Large beer for $ 10
The okay:
They served the Uni/​Sweet Shrimp/​Oyster/​Scallop Nigiri last so it wasn’t really enjoyable.
They say they’ll charge you for all the uneaten food including rice (We didn’t test this)
The hand rolls are great but too filling
It’s by far my favorite place in SD to eat AYCE sushi. Now I just have to get the lady friend to try it out. Also, word of advice, make a reservation. We had the luck of watching a group of 7 wait outside b/​c we had a reservation.

If it was possible, this recent visit was even better than in the past. The sushi chef working Tuesday evening did a superb job on presentation — every dish was done with care and beautifully.
Thank you!