Banbu Sushi Bar & Grill

Didn’t see a server until 635pm. Got seated right around 630, but won’t honor happy hour… by five minutes

Been here a couple of times and the sushi is pretty good. A little pricey but good. Staff was nice and place has a fancy feel to it without being too fancy.

Yum yum yum. A bit on the expensive side but my husband and I enjoy coming here for a nice relaxing date night with some sushi. I like sitting out on the patio. I haven’t had a sushi roll I didn’t like and my husband got a steak last time that was REALLY delicious.

Don’t get me wrong the food was good. I enjoyed the rolls that I ordered. My complaint is that it’s pretty pricey. I just don’t think that the food warrants the price. I think I’ll stick to places that don’t charge ~$ 20 a roll. Maybe I should try the happy hour?

Go here when you want to have a good atmosphere but okay food. I’ve had way better sushi but I would go back with a group of people. Also a bit overpriced. I did enjoy the edamame!

Came in today for a second time with my boyfriend and man can I say how awesome our waitress was. Her name was Alyssa. She was so attentive from the very moment she helped us out, she was so sweet and even left a sweet little note on our check.
The food as always so delicious too. The cobe style beef roll is a must! Everything about it is so good, I highly recommend that especially during their happy hour.
Thanks again Alyssa!

Omg great sushi! Amazing happy hour (all day) Mimi gave us excellent service! Love this place!

My first here and I got to say I was blown away. First off my sushi chef Dominic was unbelievably friendly and very tentative. He made very good recommendations and his attitude made it very pleasant. After sharing with him that my fiancé and I are getting married next month, he surprised us with a special dessert that was very unexpected and delicious. Thank you for the wonderful service and incredible food! I highly recommend coming here and requesting to sit at the bar with Dominic as your chef.

Really good, but pricey.
We sat at the bar and ordered mostly happy hour stuff, plus one specialty roll. All of it was good. I especially like the salad.
Very clean. There’s a nice area to sit outside.
The drinks are good. Service is good. Will definitely go back.

I always hate to give a not so good review for something not related to the food. Just had lunch with a good size part of 14 which was 4 separate families. This may seem über critical but this restaurant will not split your check. Why? I have no idea because at the end of the day they still took 4 separate credit cards. This was after 20 minutes of figuring out who had what out of a $ 225.00 bill.
Make my experience painless, please. I don’t want to spend the latter part of my meal going through the receipt line by line.
Let me pay how I want to and maybe I’ll be back.

Came on Sunday and found that the Happy hour menu is available most of the day.
1. Albacore poke salad-​good mixture of salad (seaweed and cucumber) and albacore w sauce. Kinda pricey for the amount given.
2. Fried salmon belly-​good deal for the amojnt of salmon. Soft, juicy pieces of salmon w skin.
3. Philadelphia roll-​good sized roll for $ 5.

We come here all the time, and every time we come it seems as if the prices are raised or the menu changes.
Chefs special fried rice used to come with a salad but now apparently it doesn’t…
Kobe beef roll is like $ 12 on happy hour now and fried rice jumped at least $ 1
We also had a not so good experience with the tall
Manager there, he wasn’t nice about our
complaints that the salad portions being smaller than what we had gotten before, even though we had a birthday of 8 people there.

Good (although pricey) sushi restaurant in La Mesa! Customer service is great! Plenty of televisions to watch your favorite sporting events.
Hot Green Tea — Free refills.
Banbu Roll = Salmon, avocado, cream cheese, tempura fried, spicy mayo, sriracha, jalapeño — Good.
Banbu Sushi Burrito = Shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, cucumber, sprouts, green leaf lettuce, spicy mayo, soy paper, served with a side of ponzu salsa — Wow, amazing!!! If a restaurant serves a Sushi Burrito, I will try it! & this one serves the best one. The flavors are amazing & the sauce is a nice treat. No seaweed.
Salmon Belly Nigiri — The best I have ever had yet! Also, the longest! So fresh & I love that they put a hint of wasabi on the belly. Mmm!

My boyfriend and I came here on a Sunday afternoon. This place wasn’t busy at all, and was aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Banbu Sushi has great open space, outdoor seting, nice surroundings, and some TVs above the bar to watch a game or two.
The customer service was pretty average, but the food was good. We ordered the wontons, crispy spring rolls, Dynamite Roll, Hawaiian Roll, Crunchy Roll, Banbu Roll, and Mango Albacore Sashimi. Neither of us ever order Sashimi, but the Mango blended well with the Albacore and tasted pretty good. All in all they were about ⁸⁄₁₀. I personally loved the crispy spring rolls.
Nothing really stood out here, but the overall experience was rather pleasant.
We came during Happy Hour, so that definitely cut down on the cost of the bill. We would definitely come back again.

When it comes to ambience in sushi places in East County, Banbu definitely takes the cake. If you want to have sushi somewhere that isn’t a total hole in the wall (don’t get me wrong, some of them have fabulous food) then Banbu is your best bet. The restaurant boasts an ample outdoor patio, semi-​private rooms, a bar area and a curved sushi bar.
The fish is always fresh here and they have an array of specialty rolls to choose from. They also serve ups some beef and chicken dishes if seafood isn’t your thing. If you like Benihana’s fried rice, I suggest you give theirs a shot too.
The one downside that always seems to come with ambience is of course a higher price. While I do feel that some of their stuff is a little pricier, they do have a pretty great happy hour selection until 6:30pm.

I have been wanting to stop in this place for quite some time as it is pretty close to where I live. I must say that I was really blown away to find such a nice Sushi restaurant in East County. The atmosphere is sophisticated and lively. It’s a tad bit loud, but I’d pretty much expect this from a crowded sushi bar during Happy Hour. They have a lot of patio seating too, which I would have preferred because it probably would have been a bit quieter (I had just gotten off from work, long stressful day) and warmer… My goodness! Their AC is soooo COLD… I’m sure that their sushi won’t be going bad in that place! LOL!
I had the spicy tuna roll and another roll… I forgot the name of it. but it had seared teriyaki chicken and pineapple. Three things that stood out about the food– both rolls were plentiful! Not whimpy like a lot of other rolls that I have had at other sushi restaurants. Lots of food… The price was exceptional… (I paid under $ 15 for two large rolls, one was a specialty) and everything was fresh and tasty! The rolls were also wrapped well… didn’t fall apart. Presentation of food was outstanding as well.
The drinks on the menu were very reasonable as well… Many selections at $ 4 if my memory serves me correctly.
Our service was exceptional. The restaurant was so crowded, that I was sure that we would have a long wait for the food but that wasn’t the case. The waiter was friendly and attentive during our entire visit and the food came out quickly… we didn’t have to wait long on the check either.
My husband quickly said, «This is now my favorite sushi spot.» I would have to agree that it is now mine as well.
Happy Hour is the BEST here. Don’t sleep on it if you are a sushi lover… especially if you live in East County! It is really quite an impressive place.
PS: Added some photos of my first visit and my second visit yesterday. Their appetizers are really good too– fried oysters and spring rolls. Also added happy hour menu. I noted the name of my second roll– Hawaiian. Husband’s rolls– were great. Their California roll was notably good considering it is known to be a pretty standard roll. His crunchy roll was also very tasty.

Friend brought me here claiming that this is one of the best sushi restaurants that she knows. Coming in, there wasn’t much of a Japanese vibe but more modern and American. Still, it was very nicely decorated and very large. We were seated in the patio which had a nice water fountain outside providing calming sounds.
Baked Mussels — my friend loves these and they are quite delicious. Probably some of the best baked mussels that I ever had. You get three half-​shells which are perfectly baked in delicious sauce, topped with a slice of avocado and two kinds of roe! MUST ORDER.
Lobster Roll — WOW. this is the first place I have ordered lobster on sushi and have gotten ACTUAL lobster. They basically fried an entire lobster tail and placed it inside sushi. Most excellent. The pieces are quite large so you may need to awkwardly bite into them.
Spider Roll — One of the better spider rolls that I have had. The soft shell crab didn’t taste out of place compared to the rest of the sushi roll. The pieces were about as large as the Lobster Roll.
Protein Roll — very good. the pieces were light but filling too. The plating for this dish is excellent. Very colorful and picture worthy.
Banbu Volcano + Tempura banana — this is a custom order because my friend wanted to try both the volcano and the banana split. Turns out that this is a GREAT combination and Banbu should add it to their menu! The Banbu volcano is their take on a chocolate volcano cake that isn’t too sweet! It pairs excellently with vanilla ice cream and just to add some awesomeness, the tempura banana. Ordering the tempura banana did cost $ 4 extra so just fyi. I will say it is worth it if you want to try two desserts in one!
Overall this place is probably one of the more unique sushi experience that I have had. This is not your traditional Japanese restaurant. it is definitely more American. But, food is very good, service is excellent and the plating is detailed and delightful. I recommend trying out this place if you would like to try a unique take on the sushi dining experience!

My first time here and based upon so many of my other friends reviews. I was in the area and it was lunch time so stopped in to check them out. They are located in a small strip mall with very limited parking. Kind of a detractor but after having dined there, it’s worth the parking hassle.
I came during lunch and it wasn’t too busy so I don’t know what it’s like at night or if you need reservations. I was dining alone and decided on the sushi bar. The hostess took me right in and I was able to pick my seat. As with most restaurants, I was greeted by the sushi chef as soon as I sat. The hostess took my drink order and I started to peruse the menu. They have more than just sushi but I specifically wanted to try the sushi so I decided on a few things I would ordinarily order at a sushi restaurant and one of their signature rolls.
I started off with a seaweed salad which was a bit different than most places. They serve it in a bowl similar to what you would get a shrimp cocktail in and it had the traditional light green seaweed but also a darker green seaweed all atop a type of cucumber salad. The traditional light green seaweed was excellent but the darker green lacked flavor and I would have preferred to do without it. The cucumber salad at the bottom also lacked the traditional vinegar flavor you would typically taste with a cucumber salad. There was a slight taste of some type of dressing but only in the pieces at the very bottom that were saturated in the dressing at the bottom. Overall, the presentation was very nice but would have preferred just the traditional green seaweed.
Next I had an order of Yellowtail and Tuna Nigiri. They serve larger than average pieces of the fish atop small pieces of rice. The fish is very fresh and excellent tasting. Next I had a Philly Roll, one of my all time favorites. The Philly Roll here was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. The salmon was incredibly fresh, nice pieces of cream cheese. It’s funny how it can vary so much from place to place, but honestly, this is one of the best Philly Rolls I’ve had out of any sushi restaurant. Last, I tried their Seared Jalapeño Ahi Roll. Again, this is one of the best sushi rolls I’ve ever had and I highly recommend this one, but it does have a little bit of a spicy kick to it so beware.
Overall, great place and I will come back. A bit pricey and I was quite surprised when I got the bill and that’s what might make me think about other places before coming back. I know many excellent sushi restaurants that aren’t this expensive, but the fish is quality and the service is good. I am looking forward to trying some of the other rolls, but I’m sure anytime I’m here I would have at least one of the ones I ordered on this visit.

Came here for happy hour on a Friday night. We were seated with maybe 5 – 10 minutes ’til happy hour ended, but our waitress was attentive and suggested she take our orders right away so we could take advantage of the deals.
The crab wontons we ordered as an appetizer were good! Nothing special (your standard crab wontons), but hey, crab wontons are always delicious!
We ordered the salmon skin roll, the kobe beef roll and the crunch roll. The kobe beef roll was so good — i loved the grilled beef taste you normally don’t get with sushi. The crunch roll was delicious as well. We could’ve done without the dried bonito flakes on top of the salmon skin roll. The salmon skin roll by itself probably would have been my favorite, but the dried bonito flakes dried my mouth and it was all I could taste.
The service was great and they brought our food out in no time. I might come back to try out their other rolls — I hear their ceviche roll is pretty good. But for now, no more dried bonito flakes for me.
I’m knocking this place down to 3 stars because although the food and service was good, my happy hour bill here was still pricier than my bill at my usual sushi joint.

This was my first time at «Banbu Sushi» bar and grill. The restaurant had just opened their doors so it was very clean and neat inside. This restaurant has a very cute design. The sushi bar is located in the center of restaurant and the dining area forms a circular design around the sushi bar. So pretty much any where you sit you are able to see the chefs preparing sushi.
The atmosphere was calming and relaxing until two small children came in (with their mom) doing what children do.
They are pricey compared to other sushi restaurant and the portion sizes are average. I went there hoping for a «great lunch special». I ordered the Shrimp Tempura Lunch special and it came with a soup or salad and I ordered the Organic Jasmine Peach Tea. The tea was refreshing, the soup was tasty and the shrimp tempura was not bad but it didn’t have much flavor or crunch.
The shrimp tempura got lost in the rice, cucumber, lettuce, seaweed wrap. I would have preferred more shrimp tempura and less lettuce, and cucumber.
My «great lunch special» came to $ 17.00

Muy rico el sushi, mi hijo comio pollo a la naranja si no mal recuerdo y le encanto, el lugar esta bonito muy agradable ambiente.