Sushi Kei

Sweetest employees here! They are very attentive and caring! Also, they keep what you like in mind. I must be the pickiest eater when it comes to Japanese food because I don’t eat raw this raw that and basically, just complicated! I love how they’re so patient here and would work around my wants. They’re known for the freshest seafood here, so people usually come here for that! When passing the bar area, they have a display of all the fresh seafood! So mouth watering !! Anyway, they asked if I liked tempura, I said yes, so they made me different types of rolls with tempura ! The chef is so creative here. This place is a MUST try. The décor in the restaurant is really nice as well. It feels like you’re literally in Japan! It’s like one of those restaurant you see in tv shows. Thank you for the awesome food and service !

Sushi is just OK, not really impressed. Although, their O-​Torro and Chu-​Torro are good and taste fresh. Had their sushi omakase and it was just OK.

Been here a few times now, I always ordered their lunch special. Most of the time the quality of the food were great! Eespecially for the Sashimi! they once had Bluefin Tuna for lunch special, @$ 11, it was a steal. I just hope that their lunch specials are not limited to the first 10 or 15 customers who ordered them.

I have been going to Sushi Kei for a number of years. It is our go to spot for any special occasion. Even when we do go for a nice steak dinner, we always say that we should have gone to sushi kei instead.
The sushi there is so good and prepared excellently. This is no a frills place. You will not find overly fried sushi rolls drenched in spicy mayo here (thank goodness). The service is excellent. We love sitting at the sushi bar and watching the sushi being prepared. This is the type of place where everything is good. Everything I have had there has been delicious. This is truly a great find. I recommend this to any of my serious sushi eating friends!

This is definitely my go-​to sushi joint in the bay area and given the number of Japanese clientele, I’d guess the Japanese like it a lot too. It is a pretty traditional, no frills sushi restaurant, so do not come here for rolls or expect a Jiro Dreams of Sushi experience or else you will be disappointed.
Anyway, regarding the fish, everything here is really fresh. Most of the time I order a la carte and the hotate, kanpachi, mirugai, and uni are always good. They also do a seared engawa (dorsal fin muscle of a halibut) and a botan ebi (large sweet shrimp) which are excellent. I love getting the botan ebi since they will also give you a bowl of miso soup cooked with the shrimp head. Everything else, of course, is very good too.
I had to dock one star because they raised their prices after the new year, so instead of being a great value for the quality of their fish, it’s now a fairly priced menu.

Ordered a combo dinner with chicken karage and sashimi. It comes with salad, rice, and a slice of cantaloupe. A simple and delicious dinner.
My rating is probably higher than it should be, but the food here was so much better compared to a Japanese dinner I had the night before elsewhere. I left satisfied.

Ordered two deluxe chirashi to go for about $ 21.50 each. I came home feeling ripoff and super disappointed on the quantity and quality of the fishes. My chirashi has one bowl of sushi rice topped with two small pieces of tuna, one salmon, a table spoon amount of ikura, one piece of eggs, and exactly one other piece of unknown fish, no more no less. I am not sure if the tuna sashimi are poorly cut or simply just not sushi grade tuna because I have problem chewing the tuna due to the chewy sinew (tendon). I had many chirashi from other sushi houses before and certainly this is the worst I have had, poor in quality, presentation, and most importantly, the amount of food. I regret not taking a pic and posting it here. This is my first time there and for sure it will be my last.

Best authentic sushi in the Peninsula. It’s small and a bit hidden, but that’s how you know it’s good. Order the fresh amaebi. They offer the shrimp head two ways, deep fried or in miso soup. Life changing.
*If you usually eat bentos and rolls (too large rolls full of rice and fried shrimp and mayo), go elsewhere. This ain’t for you.

Omg, they used to be so much better.
I ordered a omakasei, the uni and tora are both bad.
Worse is,.customer service is super bad. I asked for additional napkins, the waitress got me an un-​used napkin from the dirty table next to me. Wth???
Totally unaccetable!

$ 14 for a small sushi roll.
We ordered rainbow roll ($ 14), California King crab roll ($ 14), fatty tuna roll ($ 8.50). The portion was only enough for one person. The bill came out to be $ 40. We left hungry. We will not go back.

I was in town on business and found this place on Unilocal.This place is truly authentic and the best sushi I have ever eaten. The selection of fresh fish and shell fish is the largest I have seen… The salmon and tuna were truly amazing.
I ran into several locals who said they come here regularly. They raved about the place. I agree!!!
I will be back soon!

Try this place for the first time today, we got two sushi rolls, sashimi and teriyaki and all were great.

good, it feels crowded, but maybe thats a good sign. i suppose if you want privacy, this isnt for you during lunch time. But i feel that the portion sizes are good. not big but not small, enough to feel full. not fancy, but good for causal. okay for hanging with friends who dont mind the smallness of the restaurant. but i noticed that ppl here feel… comfortable. i dont mean big sofas, like ppl here arent fussy. the waitress was super busy but her attitude was super nice and remembered everyones item. give her a raise ppl!

We always love coming to this sushi bar in Millbrae. Tonight, their fish is about 4.5. Most sashimi are mostly farm raised except Ankimo (liver), Miyugi, Uni and Agi. Highly recommended their Japanese Uni. Frequently available. So fresh, sweet and soft. No fishy smell. Service is about 4.

R & I have our go to place for sushi. Sushi kei is situated right across from that place, we thought we go and expand our horizon and try it. Who knows it may be a hidden gem.
So we went it after we had most of our meal at our usual place and had just a few pieces of nigiri.
When they came, the color of the fish looked a little off. As if they weren’t super fresh. And their taste confirmed that. The rice was also stale and not so good. Honeslty it tasted like a stale supermarket sushi.
We were disappointed to say the least. Just skip Kei and go across the street for some great FRESH sushi.

Went Sushi Kei for lunch today but noticed their food quality and quantity had been going down hill compared to before. Definitely we over paid for the food we ordered. We ordered lunch Bento box with 2 items; yellow tails sashimi and beef teriyaki and Chicken Teriyaki Don. Both of our meals came with a bowl of miso soup was pretty good but there weren’t any tofu cube.
For the Bento Box additional to the 2 items, it also, came with mix tempura, salad, rice and slice of orange. The salad only came with 2 drops of salad dressing. Beef Teriyaki we requested medium raw but the beef was full cooked. And we only had 5 strips of beef. Yellow trail sashimi came with 4 pieces but the sizes were small. The sashimi looked like they divided 1 regular size sashimi into 2. The tempura were good.
Chicken Teriyaki Don, I would not recommend anyone order it !! The size of bowl they served the Chicken Teriyaki Don, it was really misleading. The amount of rice I got in my Don. It was comparable with bowl of rice they served with the bento box. Which it was not much rice. After I had one small spoon of rice, it was bottom of the bowl already. That was how thin the layer of rice. Chickens were dry and they only put a small squirt of teriyaki sauce on top of the chicken. My chicken teriyaki doesn’y looked like a Chicken Teriyaki more like grill chicken.
Sushi Kei has increased their price but reduced their position sizes and reduce their food quality at the same time. Increase price is normal but why got stingy with food position even the salad dressing and sauces?! Both our meals costed $ 9.50 per item, which I felt like I got rip-​off. I don’t think I would want to go back anymore.

I’m so happy I just found my new «neighborhood» sushi spot that I can hit up once a week.
Sushi Kei is located in «downtown» Millbrae, which I didn’t know existed until now. It’s basically a couple of blocks of Broadway that’s lined with shops and restaurants, complete with public parking lots, like Mountain View. Cute. Thanks to the public lots, parking was a cinch.
The restaurant was quite empty at 6pm on a Thursday. Fine by me. Seating at the sushi bar is only for people that spend more than $ 25 per person. That’s not too hard if you get the sushi omakase, which is what I recommend if you like fresh and authentic sushi.
My omakase was 10 pieces of sushi, 1 mini uni-​ikura donburi, one tuna roll, and a couple of pieces of tamagoyaki. For $ 35, this is a great deal. The sushi was so so so fresh and the portion for the entire thing is pretty insane. I don’t think the mini donburi is always included so maybe you get 12 pieces total if the mini donburi is not included. But if you look at my pictures, you’ll see the size of it. The entire meal is pretty filling. And this is coming from someone who can eat 15 – 20 pieces of sushi in one sitting.
Variety was pretty good — the chef started me off with 4 different cuts of tuna: yellowfin, bluefin, bluefin chutoro, bluefin ootoro. My favorite was the chutoro. The yellowfin is passable but it’s really there to make sure the bluefin is really the highlight. There was also halibut, snapper, scallop, and shrimp. The scallop and shrimp were amazing. I think the shrimp was seasonal. The chef called it amaebi but judging by the size, it’s a specific kind. It had a very red shell so I think it’s akaebi. In any case, it was damn good.
Definitely come to Sushi Kei for sushi if you’re in the SFO area. Don’t go to Amami, come here instead.

Supremely mediocre lunch experience all-​around. 2-​item Bento box (I got Chicken Teriyaki & Spicy Tuna Roll — $ 9.50) comes with miso, rice, and salad, all of average quality. The salad was quickly hand-​torn iceberg with a small squirt of dressing. Rice was room temperature, though the miso soup was pretty good.
The teapot we were given when we sat down had tea-​scented hot water in it, but not what appeared to be actual tea. Our waitress never brought the waters requested (maybe she thought we meant the tea we already had), even with a manageable number of people in the restaurant.
$ 10 credit card minimum (BEFORE tax and tip is clearly stated on tacky signs all around the place), with prices that seem more bent on achieving that goal than reflecting the quality of the dishes being served.
All around meh experience. I’d go again if I absolutely had to, but won’t be going out of my way to return here in the future. Zen right across the street is a much better bet if you’re looking for Japanese food.

I haven’t tried many sushi places but this is up on my top places for sushi. I came on a Wednesday night and was seated right away. The place is very cute and cozy. I shared the sushi meal for two plus an order of uni nigiri.
For the sushi meal, more than I expected came out. I thought it would just be our sushi and miso soup. But they also gave me sumo mono with sashimi, shrimp and vegetable tempura, and ice cream. The suno mono was good. It came with one piece of tako and salmon. Both sashimi pieces were delicious. Then came tempura, and it’s what you expect from tempura. It was good as well. Then there was the sushi. I’ve never had sushi that good. I loved every single piece. The only downside was there was a tad bit more wasabi in the sushi than expected and I couldn’t handle it. But it was still worth it!
I was full by the time I finished the sushi and was ready to go home. But then they told me it came with ice cream. Couldn’t pass on ice cream. I tried the sesame and red bean. The sesame was alright but the red bean was sooooo good. I was full but could eat more of their red bean ice cream.
The service was great! The waitress was extremely nice and checked on me often. I would definitely come back to this place.

In a way, going to Sushi Kei is like punishing myself. I’ve long wanted to finish my review, but I get discouraged whenever I think of all the dishes I’d have to cover (and how many photos I’d have to find). While I could simply go elsewhere until I’m done, it’s hard because they’re the best Japanese restaurant in the area! First world problems, I know. Actually, more like anal Unilocaler problems…
Given how many things I’ve tried here (for better or worse), I’ll skip the details to try to keep this short (er). Plus, I honestly think how they look reflect how they tasted for the most part, so the photos almost speak for themselves.
— CHICKEN KATSU BEEF CURRY RICE PLATE
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A lot of beef curry, but not as much katsu. Grill Aka Fuji (around the corner) gives you more katsu, but the overall taste is comparable (although these tables aren’t nearly as sticky).
— NIGIRI COMBO PLATE (8 Pieces)
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It featured the usual mix (shrimp, tuna, salmon, hamachi, etc.) and the cuts were fair. However, every piece was very fresh, so kudos for that.
— HAMACHI NIGIRI
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Fresh and tasty, but the cuts aren’t consistent in size.
— SPIDER ROLL
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Not too shabby and a good rice to crab ratio. Honestly though, I find soft shell crab innately good, so it’s more imporant that places just not screw it up.
— SPICY SCALLOP ROLL
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The scallop was really fresh, but it wasn’t all that spicy or notable.
— SALMON SKIN ROLL
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I only ordered it because I was curious to see how they do theirs. I was mildly surprised — not only was the skin nicely crisp, it included some meat too.
— TEMPURA SOBA (Hot)
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The texture of the soba was perfect, but the broth and overall taste was pretty standard. Not great, but not bad.
— TEMPURA SOBA (Cold)
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I don’t normally go for cold soba, but this one (and the whiteboard version) has converted me. The tempura batter did turn out a little soggy though.
— LUNCH BENTO BOX — Chicken Teriyaki, Tempura, Tuna Sashimi
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Pretty standard overall. The tuna was really good, but the teriyaki was rather pedestrian. The mixed tempura was pretty typical.
— KATSU DONBOURI
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Really flavorful, but I wish it included more pieces of katsu!
— WHITEBOARD SPECIALS (price averages about $ 10.00)
It’s written in Japanese on the wall towards the front. It changes daily, but the offerings are pretty varied:
***Chicken and Vegetable Stew with mini-​Chiraishi Bowl
(no picture unfortunately)
***Fried Squid, Hamachi Sashimi, and Chicken and Vegetable Stew
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***Cold Soba with Mini-​Tuna Donbouri
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The one knock I would have about Sushi Kei is that while the workers are all pretty nice, service can be slow even when the restaurant isn’t that busy. Plus, while nothing missed the mark, a lot of what I’ve tried wasn’t exceptional (although the stew was awesome). Still, if you stick with their whiteboard specialties and the sushi/​sashimi, you just might be as pleasantly surprised by this neighborhood gem as I am.