Minato Sushi

It has been a few years since I have been back to Minato’s. I have tried a few other sushi places locally over the years, but that is coming to an end. My wife and I were happily surprised it was open on a Sunday
We sat at the bar and had the lunch special «buy 2 rolls and get one free.» We each ordered our favorite rainbow and Hawaiian rolls and added the «X factor roll» and Volcano roll. We were also treated to many special little free dishes the chef kept giving us. One was a sashimi mix over cucumber salad we also had a cooked Albacore and mushroom dish. But the best was this cucumber frozen drink for desert. We told the chef as a joke it would be good with vodka. The next thing we know he’s making another and pouring some kind of Japanese liquor in it. It was awesome! We were glad we didn’t get the all you can eat, because we couldn’t finish it all.

Came in around 8:30. Placed smelled toxic. Like bleach. It was strong. I walked right out. They need to use bleach after the patrons leave.

Ok so this pretty insane … Just visiting from San Diego but seemed like a great idea all you can eat sushi!!! How can this go wrong ??? After you get seated all the rules are on the menu and the waitress lays them all out .A break down of how much you will be charged for each item wasted !!! Ok I get it … If you’re wasting is like sashimi it can really rack up and I get it, but rice … Like the small piece that comes under the salmon you will get charged a 1.50 ??? So sorry I didn’t snap a pic of the long list !!! I paid 25.00 for the all you can eat but on the non all you can eat price off everything we actually ordered would have saved us money:(I was so nervous about all the rules that I can honestly say that I didn’t even enjoy my meal :(the waitress was super lame and disappeared after our initial order which makes no sense because it’s supposed to be all you can eat, which means you place an order and her A*s is supposed to bring it to you :|

This was my first time visiting this restaurant. The service was good. The waitresses were friendly. The sushi was fresh and tasted very good. They have a wide selection of appetizers, rolls, hand rolls and sushi to choose from. They even offer 4 or 8 piece rolls. I really like this option. My only complaint, they could go a little lighter on the rice in the hand rolls. The all you can eat price was average. I would recommend this sushi bar if your looking for good food.

This place keeps getting better and better. They have added many great items to their all you can eat menu. TOTALLY worth it. Ask for the dinner menu if you go for lunch. More to choose from m and only $ 5 more. :)

Overall decent sushi. I think the price was fair for the thick slices of salmon sashimi I received. Staff is kind without being overly attentive. I enjoyed myself very much and will return in the future.

OK, so after you finish reading the warning sign about what will happen if you don’t finish your AYCE order you question whether or not you should stay or leave while you still can. No Sharing. No Children. No Take out. You will be charged if you leave rice. You will be charged if you leave toppings. No Fun Allowed. Enter at your own risk. I’m getting carried away here…
That being said the sushi was very good. The service was very attentive and friendly. We forged lightly with our order in fear of what was mentioned above.
We shared tempura shrimp and vegis and gyoza. The gyoza was amazingly good. The spicy tuna hand-​rolls were the best we have ever had. No shortage of tuna and amazing flavor. We ordered three spicy rolls and found that, while the flavor was good, they lacked heat.
All in all the experience was good. For the price I will return but not for AYCE. We most likely could have ordered the same a la carte off the menu for less.

Went here last night for the first time. Very good quality and I don’t know why someone below bashed the baked mussels, but they were excellent! We really loved everything we had here. The sauces they put on the sushi are so mazing. We like the atmosphere of Zenko better, but this place has as good of sushi as Zenko. Highly recommended.

Been eating here for past 5 Years. sit at the bar and enjoy some Sake if you can as the chefs will get down with you also if you just tell them what you like, the creativity (sake) juices flow and you get some pretty amazing dishes at a really fair price! Mmmm

Not worth all you can eat. Just buy the rolls. They get super confused if you have to change your order. Waitress almost had a hard attack when my 7-​year-​old asked for a piece of edamame but didn’t have all you can eat. Bless her heart.

It has been almost 7 years since my original review and I am proud to say I am a weekly returning customer! According to my calculations (and amount of times I’ve checked-​in here), I have spent close to $ 5,000 here and I am not ashamed!!!
I love Minato :)

Albacore Tataki rocks. Made to order all you can eat options include desert. Killer deal.

Only problem I had is that I can’t rate higher than 5 stars.
Took my son here for his Birthday dinner. Everything we ordered was fresh and delicious. We’ll definitely be back!

It’s a Korean face but it’s a Japanese sushi restaurant.
Service was so so after I sat at the sushi bar.
No experienced server so everything has to be asked even the to go box.

So yum/​fresh/​clean. Glad I tried this gem of a place.
My friend knows the owner and we got hooked up nicely. Service was quick and awesome. Sushi chef was friendly and knowledgeable. Pretty sure he was amused that I was trying to learn Korean while I was there.
We started with miso soup which hit the spot (not too salty… did lack tofu though; there was only 1 small piece)
The Minato roll is a must try! So yum. I think the crab is grilled with onions in a delicious light ponzu sauce so the roll is warm and has sashimi salmon, avocado as well as white rice and seaweed in it.
Sashimi salmon plate is fresh and comes with sautéed onions and cucumbers (not pickled/​sour like I thought it would be) everything was light and fresh (the sauces were on point)
Ahi tuna was fresh but very basic/​flavorless, melts in your mouth as it is so delicate; the garlic ponzu sauce is a must on the Ahi otherwise it doesn’t taste like anything! It came with a daikon/​radish noodle that didn’t taste like anything but the chef insisted it had major health benefits so we ate the crunchy flavorless strings.
Ono (white fish) was refreshing. I don’t know how it’s prepared but it was cold, crunchy (like a water chestnut) & slightly salty.
There is a secret spicy red sauce my friend got which made my mouth dance with excitement. The ginger has a kick to it too. I didn’t dare touch the wasabi on this adventure.
Overall, I really enjoyed the quality of the food and service. I would definitely go back again (but would would probably want my friend there who knows the owner and was speaking Korean with the chefs!)
Second time around I tried the deep fried shrimp appetizer and it was too oily for me :-/​I tried the Minato roll with smelt eggs instead of salmon and I truly missed having the fresh salmon on it hah don’t modify the Minato roll!

Came here with the wife for the AYCE sushi.
Compare to Zenko in Mission Viejo, I like their choice of sauce on the sushi rolls. We felt at Zenko the rolls are all drizzled in sweet soy sauce and eventually everything tasted the same to us. This is not the case at Minato. They have variety of sauce on their rolls.
Don’t get the X-​man roll though. It sounds cool on paper but it was just a bunch of stir fried veggie and cooked salmon that goes on top of a salmon roll.
I like both places pretty equally since Zenko does make better nigiri sushis. I guess I will come again if I don’t want to drive that far to Zenko’s.

We have tried this place so many times because we live so close and its ALWAYS a disappointment! unless you are a regular customer and you sit at the bar & they know you well THEN they will treat you different. We ordered takeout rolls .they were both overstuffed with rice and imitation crab (Ca, roll style.) I mean REALLY… If I wanted Ca roll IMITATION CRAB I would have ordered it… no soup… no condiments… yuk. skimpy on the fish… not very fresh.
AND I wanted to give them a trip advisor review but they are not listed anywhere… why?!

I’d like to update this review since revisiting the restaurant I came back to check and see if they made any improvements. The rice to fish ratio has definitely improved, there was more fish to rice on the plate. The tuna was very fresh, and did not taste fishy at all. The rolls felt a bit too basic, standard crunch and spicy tuna roll. The menu is very limited for lunch and alot of the good options are on the dinner menu. I was also told that escolar (white tuna) was only served at dinner, that was disappointing.
I am taking 1 star off because the quality was just good, it was not excellent. I will still frequent my usual sushi restaurant Sake 2 me in Tustin. This place did not blow me away. Also the orders took a good amount of time to come out and the shrimp had brown/​black tails along with one containing a vein that I had to take out myself (did not help my appetite).
The chefs here are very friendly and they did an excellent job presenting and plating the food. If this place served their dinner menu at lunch, had white tuna, and a little faster service I would’ve given 5 stars, keep improving minato and I will return again to see if you’ve gotten even better.

MINATO IS A GREAT SUSHI RESTAURANT!!! The sushi was fresh and all you can eat you can’t beat the quality and the price.
I have to give it 5 stars, today I went with my friend Brandon for lunch, James was our chef and he was very entertaining.
Tip: buy him a drink and he gave me his special. Thank you MINATO. I will be back!
Mike G

My hubby and I come often. We love it. James, young, and Lucy are great! We were recently sad to hear young left. :(. Anyone know where he went?
The new chef Joseph was super nice. Entertained my kiddos at the sushi bar by making them this fish out of oranges