Uoko Japanese Cuisine

Great place for lunch. Very fresh sushi. Customer service is wonderful and they have a very reasonable lunch special. Choose 5 items from a special menu for $ 15.99, includes soup and small salad. Only been here during lunch hours and have yet to disappoint

Im craving for some Japanese food around the area and Unilocal brought me to this place. I didnt know there was a japanese joint here as we frequent here for the nearby vietnamese restaurant. Much to my surprise, this place is a perfect tandem of sushi bar and traditional japanese cuisine. I ordered the salmon bento combo and find it really affordable. The salad is very good too. Apart from the bento, I delighted myself a separate order of Tonkatsu Ramen. As a ramen lover, I find it very delicious. The broth is mild and flavorful. No strong soy based taste. Probably, this tonkatsu ramen will be my all time comfort food. I recommend this place to all jap food lovers out there.

Amazing lunch special for $ 15.99. You get to choose 5 items which include sushi (nigiri) hand-​rolls and cut rolls with miso soup. The Chefs are Japanese and they serve quality fish. The rice is on par and the miso has noodles in it which I always like.

Pretty great food for a small hole-​in-​the-​wall joint. Will definitely come back here but be ready for a wait. Super fresh fish and food with authentic flavors.

Updating my review for 2016. This place still rocks and is my #1 go to place for fresh sushi and great Japanese food! The parking lot and the rest of the construction is getting better so the parking situation is improving. Even still, with the parking being pretty hard, we still come here every week because we love it that much!
If this is your first time here:
I recommend any of the rolls, udon, Salmon or Yellowtail collar, Poke bowl, and of course, the sushi!

I would gladly give this place a 5 star if it weren’t for how SLOW the service is. I understand that when its a small crowded restaurant with limited number of staff will slow down the service a lot; however, 1.5 hrs for just two people? Seriously? The server was very friendly. It seemed like he was too busy serving all of the bigger parties and the smaller tables were neglected most of the time. On the positive side, the food was good. There’s a lot on the menu I’d still like to come back and try though. Hopefully my next visit is better?

Came here after trying to brave the Fukada madness which promised at least an hour wait.
This place is tiny. We came at the end of lunch (40 mins to closing) and there were still several people waiting for their table, and some were waiting for their takeouts. We had to wait 30 mins for a table, as expected.
We were only offered the lunch menu. The service here got zero star from this review because there was no service: you order, they bring food. Nothing in between. No automatic refill of water (our glasses were empty). No server coming back to ask if you needed anything. We wanted extra wasabi and ginger and never even had a chance to ask because the server just disappeared after having brought our food.
Would have liked to order other items such as chirashi bowl, poke bowl, or the sukiyaki. Those items were not on the lunch menu. Very very very disappointed with the service.
The food here, however, is good.
–Fried tofu from their appetizers list is absolutely amazing. We ended up ordering two.
–Salad that comes with the meal is very good.
–Soup is good as well.
–Katsu curry: nothing spectacular but it was not bad.
–Teriyaki chicken and tempura: okay
–Katsu and sashimi: sashimi is so fresh!
–Salmon and California roll: really good.
–Rainbow roll: best we have had!
We would probably not come back here again just because we do not want to have to wait in line as the place is so small. Its lack of good customer service makes it not worthy of our time and money. Two stars for the entire experience.

One of our favorite sushi restaurants and probably the best sushi value that we’ve found. We’ve been going there for over 15 years. Table service can be a little slow, but who cares, the sushi and sushi-​mi are great! My wife loves their ramen too!

Love this sushi spot! Friendly service and delicious sushi. Uoko never disappoints! I highly recommend it!

I was fooled by the reviews! On paper, this place should excel. They even have a location in Tokyo, so this place should be legit, right? Unfortunately our experience left a lot to be desired.
When we arrived, we awkwardly stood at the front of the restaurant for about 10 minutes before being acknowledged and led to a table. The waiting area was extremely cramped so if you sit down and someone wants to walk by you actually have to move so they can go by. While waiting we looked at the menu outside so we had an idea of what we wanted to order. When we finally got seated, we were handed menus and we noticed right away that the prices on the menus were all at least a dollar more than what was advertised outside! Right away we felt tricked. $ 7.50 for a spicy tuna roll is unusually pricey. And the food was mediocre too!
When I asked about a substitution for their combination dinners, I was declined in a rude manner. I understand that that can be the policy for certain restaurants, but I felt that the tone of the waitress was very rude. In addition, service was extremely slow. We had to flag down the waitress to refill our waters when they were both completely empty. In fact, we had to flag them down for everything! When we asked for the bill I took my card out right away to pay, but they didn’t even grab it. I strategically placed the bill with my card at the edge of the table so they would notice it but no one took it. I pretty much ended having to flag them down for them to take my money.
Needless to say, we won’t be back.

My favorite hole in the wall sushi joint in Orange County. They own a restaurant in Japan so you know this spot is legit.
They start you off with a hot towel to set the tone.
We each ordered an omakase with no restrictions. Our chef proceeds to keep placing piece after piece until we are full. Each bite was delicious. Thick cuts of hamachi and sake, with a little bit of fat facing up.
Then came the live shrimp, he pulls it out of the tank behind him and serves us the sweet body over fresh wasabi and rice. As we eat, the heads were put into the deep fryer, and served with ponzu sauce on top.
The heads had more meat than expected and were perfectly crunchy.
Next came the scallops, which had the best consistency, not chewy, but more jelly-​fall apart in your mouth.
The clam was a little chewy but not anything like rubber.
We finished off with slices of oranges I’ve been coming here for a while, and every time it’s worth the money!

Fish is fresh, beer is cold, sake is hot, service is good, staff is friendly, and hot food is great. Good place to eat.

Service was slow as there was only one server for all of the busy tables. Server was nice though.
Good portion of food. The place is small and smells like fish. It started to get crowded and packed around 6 on a Wednesday night.
Complimentary edamame to start.
Combo plates come with salad, miso soup and white rice (they don’t have brown rice :-/​)
I ordered the chicken teriyaki sashimi plate and the sushi was good/​fresh/​melts in your mouth, the chicken was a bit dry, miso soup lacked flavor, salad was basic, the chicken stew with a carrot and potato was the most flavored of all items (I enjoyed it), tempura was too greasy for my liking.
The teriyaki sauce on the chicken tasted authentic/​homemade/​light.
So much food; California roll was ok, rice was plain/​basic, and fruit was fresh!
Overall, it was ok. I’d go back and try some different sushi.

My boss recommended Uoko to me and he said it was his favorite sushi restaurant so I had to try it! Located in a small little (kind of run down) strip mall right next to Buffalo Wild Wings, I came with my boyfriend for dinner on a Monday night and it is pretty dang authentic! None of those ridiculous rolls with a bunch of sauce overpowering the fish.
We ordered the sashimi dinner which had a good assortment of fresh fish and nice thick cuts. Pretty much melt in your mouth fish if you ask me!
Also went for the spicy tuna hand roll and rainbow roll which had little to no rice and plenty of fish to go around!
They have an extensive daily specials menu and even have Japanese curry! That’s when you know it’s authentic!

Server is great in service. great food love here, come eat here, upon is great taste, sushi was superp

I actually like this sushi place a lot. It’s not a fancy sushi restaurant, it’s more like an authentic sushi place run by some older Japanese man. You can see some Japanese family here for dinner and you can tell they been here since they move to california, which makes me feel like I’m at a little Japan village. Their sushi is good and fresh, it’s kinda pricey but they are really fresh. I tried their fried udon noodle, didn’t really like it. But their sushi is good. Make sure you ask about their desert ice-​cream. It’s free! So yummy :)

This is great sushi. Japanese sushiman with 40+ years experience.
Very high quality fish, live Amae ebi swimming in a tank, $ 11.00 toro, real quality and experience
Of course the price was twice as much than so-​so sushi.
If you can afford the best go here.

I love small restaurants like these. While they are not fancy schmancy, the food is good and the service is incredibly quick. Uoko’s is very sparse in terms of décor, so don’t come expecting a visual masterpiece. The restaurant itself is small… Between the sushi bar and table seating, I think only about 20 – 25 people could probably fit at any given time. If you’re looking for a cozier seating situation, ask them if you can sit at one of the booths (there are only 2!).
I had the rainbow roll. The fish was delicious. It was fresh, tasty and the price was definitely right at $ 10.95. My friend had the sukiyaki… Now let me say right now, we probably could have just gotten the sukiyaki and no rainbow roll… THAT is how huge it was. For those who don’t know what sukiyaki is (includes me before my venture to Uoko’s), it is basically a large bowl of soup that includes meat, tofu, noodles, veggies and a sweet/​savory broth. IT. WAS. SO. DAMN. GOOD. The meat/​tofu portions were huge and the bowl comes out PIPING HOT at a ball park price of $ 15.95 (remember, you can DEFINITELY share this!).
Pros:
–Great Food (i.e. fresh fish & delicious food)
–Quick Service
–Great pricing
Cons:
–Sparse décor
Tips:
–Skip this restaurant if you’re looking to do a group event
–Ask for a booth if you’re in a group of 4 or less

The food is a yay, the service is a nay.
I have no clue why, but there was one server for the entire restaurant. The place is pretty small, but there was no way one person could manage to satisfy all the tables’ needs.
The food saves this restaurant.
Rainbow Roll ($ 10.95)
The fish is fresh, and the price is cheaper than other places. I would definitely order this again! Don’t forget that wasabi.
Crunchy Roll ($ 8.95)
This is a Shrimp Tempura Roll, but with crunchies on the outside. The crunchies don’t really do anything for me, but the roll was decent.
Sashimi Dinner ($ 16.50)
Tons of sashimi. This would be awesome to share, so you can get other stuff on the menu.
The fish is fresh, but the management needs to schedule more servers on a Friday night.

I wanted to love this place because of high praises from Unilocal.However, I was a a little disappointed with my visit.
We waited 20 mins to be seated when there was a table available (it felt even longer on an empty stomach). When we did get seated though, we were able to get our order in and food out in a timely manner. Service, hit and miss.
I ordered the Sushi Dinner which came with small salad, miso soup and. a variety of sushi pieces. No complaints about the dinner but the fish was not as fresh and delicious as I was hoping for. The boyfriend ordered their udon soup with tempura. Again, average … flavor and taste didn’t stand out.
Overall, average food with nothing in particular standing out. Will not be a frequent patron but may drop by on a whim if nothing else is available.