Dai-Kichi Japanese Restaurant

Celebrated my first Mother’s Day here since my husband read that it was the best ranked sushi spot in northern NJ. As expected, the restaurant was packed (probably due to the holiday). We arrived a few minutes early for our 7pm reservation. Had to wait a bit to be seated (again it was packed), and opted to sit at the bar. Ambiance is your typical sushi restaurant, nothing fancy. But despite the short wait, the staff was really attentive to us and tried to seat us ASAP.
Memorable orders were the spicy edamame (I always appreciate a twist on a classic), sushi sandwhiches, and chirashi (which my husband couldn’t stop raving about). Also, surprisingly for a small restaurant in this area was that they served alcohol. Overall, the restaurant is small, but food and service was quality!
PS: we received a 10% discount for paying in cash.

Food — above average
Service — good, friendly
Atmosphere — small place and slightly loud
Food tip: the sushi is really good

Really a 3.5. The sushi and sashimi platters are good. Nice seaweed salad and spinach. Decent saki and plum wine offerings. Some of the unique sushi rolls are good. But so tacky at time of check to say pay by cash for 10% discount.

This place so nice. My favorite sushi place. They are all very polite and smiling. I like the place energy.

I came here for lunch several times over the past year or two, great service quick and sushi is always delish. Very small place so if you’re coming for dinner I got there early. Large portions of negayaki udon was amazing love the egg yolk and always ask for tegarachi (not sure how to spell that) flakes on the side. Every sushi I’ve tried has been Yum.

The service was a little slow but that was only due to how busy the restaurant was. The food was phenomenal, not too expensive. The special rolls are really worth it. I would definitely go again, but maybe do take out instead.

I am at a loss to understand the popularity of this place. The food we had ranged from just OK to pretty awful. As for the service, i felt as if we were processed rather than served. I won’t bother to go back.

Great rolls, sushi, sashimi, tempura, teriyaki, sukiyaki, udon and donburi (just writing this is making my mouth water) but best of all are the fried oysters.
We have been coming to D-​K for years and have never been disappointed. It’s the best Japanese restaurant in Essex County.

Oh hey! I LOVED this place! I will say that it is super small inside but that didn’t prevent them from seating us early on New Year’s Eve. My boyfriend hates sushi but the hibachi selection was delicious and he was super happy with his meal. I tried the Whatever Roll as well some masago and another roll, the name of which I cannot recall. They were all delicious! I had the miso soup as well and it was some of the best I ever had. My only complaint is that the woman’s restroom was out of order but the men’s was surprisingly clean so it doesn’t affect my rating. Also, the service here was incredible! So many friendly employees checked on us throughout the meal that we never were without anything. This may sound intrusive but it totally wasn’t — they were super quiet and respectful while maintaining great service for us. Finally, this restaurant offers 10% off if you choose cash over credit! What a great deal! I wish they would move to Columbus, Ohio! I hope to return next time I’m in Jersey!

Delicious, fresh sushi, excellent service. Great sushi spot! It is pretty tiny inside, but I still felt it had a somewhat intimate ambiance.

It was a good meal, but a couple of things kept it at 3 stars for me. One is that they told me at the end of the meal that if I paid cash, I can get a 10% discount. I’m always wary of places that do this in a secretive way. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning so at least people know. Hopefully they report all sales accurately. But the real reasons were probably somewhat my own preference. We ordered a spicy tuna roll and spicy yellowtail roll. I didn’t like that the seaweed is wrapped on the outside, rather than the rice being the outside layer. Minor complaint, but still, not my preference. I also always use the Spicy tuna roll to compare one sushi place to another — and this roll just was nothing special. It wasn’t all that spicy, and the tuna was just average. Overall, the quality of fish was excellent. The miso soup was good. The ginger dressing on the salad was also good. But when it came to selecting special rolls, we saw a number that had imitation crab meat (boring), and then the rest just didn’t look appealing to us at all. I’ve never had trouble at a sushi restaurant like this — usually I can’t decide because I like too many options. i’ve never looked at a menu and thought that I couldn’t decide because I didn’t like any of the options.
I would go back if I was in the area, but not making a special trip again.

This is a cozy Japanese spot in Upper Montclair that serves both sushi and hot Japanese dishes. Checking in for a table can be a bit confusing at first since there are two entrances. One comes from the parking lot in the back, the other from Valley Rd. which enters to the sushi bar area. We came on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the place was very busy. My gf and I ordered three sushi rolls and all were unique, very fresh and had a nice presentation. I would recommend the roll with peppered tuna wrapped on the outside (sooooo good) and the peanut roll which has peanut butter on top of the rice. I thought that it was pretty interesting and a must try for peanut butter lovers. This is one of the better sushi places in Essex County. Make sure to take a look at the white board for any specials and also this place serves beer, wine and sake!

Our new favorite sushi place. Small, usually busy, but the servers are attentive and the fish is very high quality. Very interesting house rolls. And 10% discount if you pay with cash!

Decent sushi restaurant. Not world changing, but not bad either.
There is a $ 10 corkage fee if you bring your own wine, however, they will heat the sake for you.

I ordered takeout from this place last night for myself and several friends. We ordered both sushi rolls and shrimp shumai.
The sushi rolls were less than stellar — and by that, I mean I’d never go back if just for the sushi. All of the sushi rolls had TWO layers of rice — we filled up, easily, on one roll each (without being able to really taste what was inside of the roll).
I’ve also never seen a shrimp tempura roll with JUST shrimp tempura in it — no avocado, no cucumber, nothing else in it but a small piece of shrimp. The grade of smoked salmon used in the Philadelphia roll was borderline poor. I’ve never tasted a Philadelphia roll like that, and my friend wouldn’t even finish it for fear of becoming ill (another friend commented it tasted much more like raw tuna than smoked salmon). The Valentine roll, $ 17.25, was supposed to be lobster tail tempura and a few other items — the rolls were literally too big to eat without being deconstructed, mostly due to the two layers of rice. Otherwise, the rolls were inventive (though the choice was limited), but the taste was nothing to write home about. They weren’t bad — they just weren’t that great.
The shrimp shumai, on the other hand, was DELICIOUS. They’re pretty much the only reason this didn’t get one star.
Overall — for the price you’re paying ($ 7.25 for a simple Philadelphia roll?), you’re not getting the quality you deserve. I probably won’t be returning here, if only because I can’t afford to pay that much for substandard sushi.

Really disappointed by their staff and management… Placed an order for delivery tonight. Not only did it take over an hour for the meal to arrive (even though they had told us 30 – 40 minutes), but they also got the order wrong. And then when we called to tell them about it they gave us a hard time!
First, they told us it would take about 30 minutes to get the correct protein to us (amazingly they only offered to replace it with an appetizer size!). Then when I told them the meal would be over by the time it arrived and that we would like a credit instead they didn’t want to give it to us and then haggled regarding how much they would refund us! Incredible!!! Someone needs to teach them about customer service. The first thing they should have offered was a refund. Experience left an incredibly bad «taste» in our mouths and ruined the meal. They’ve lost a long time customer.

Nice place. We arrived late on Sunday and the place was crowded. We were seated quickly. The service was quick. The food was very good but the soy sauce tasted a bit sweet to me.
The price was comparable to other sushi restaurants in Montclair. I was impressed. I wish I knew about the 10% discount for cash beforehand since I don’t always carry cash.
I will go back.

This is the first sushi/​Japanese place I’ve tried in the area so I have no basis for comparison relative to nearby places but I have been to quite a few restaurants elsewhere.
The location is excellent being adjacent to a municipal parking lot in Upper Montclair (with a rear door that leads to it) and the interior was very well decorated and clean. I even saw the staff vacuum clean after every customer left a booth. I think they made very good use of the floor space they had and while I wouldn’t call it spacious the tables were not crowding each other.
I had some maki (sushi rolls) and split an appetizer for dinner on a Saturday night. My vegan/​pescatrian dining companion ordered an entrée which came with salad and rice but was not sure if the ginger dressing (which was white colored) had dairy and/​or mayo in it so I had it for him.
I don’t expect much from a side salad and it was pretty standard. I will say that it was plenty fresh and well dressed.
The appetizer was the sauteed spicy spinach. I was kind of expecting a chilled dish like the standard ohitashi I’ve had in other sushi joints but it was indeed sauteed and hot. The spice is there but it is pretty mild. I imagine you may be able to ask for more heat. I would definitely suggest this simple but tasty app for garlic lovers (very similar to Cantonese style sauteed veggies).
I had the oshinko, double special (tuna and salmon), eel and avocado, and spicy tuna rolls. They were all very good with excellent tasting fish. I especially liked their recipe for spicy sauce (in the spicy tuna, spicy salmon, etc.).
The main negative I came away with was that the rice was not to my liking. I think it was the texture of the rice which I am guessing was a result of how it was chilled and vinegared. Sushi masters can explain it better but there is a very particular process for making traditional sushi rice. All I know is the rice reminded me just a bit of the texture of refrigerated pre-​made sushi but when it warmed a little in my mouth it seemed to go away (judging from the rice that wasn’t chewed initially).
Regardless of the rice temperature I am definitely going back to try this place again. The prices were very reasonable and there are some kitchen items I’d love to try. Until then it’s a fine sushi restaurant at 3 stars in my book.

This has been my go-​to sushi spot for the past three or four sushi cravings. The service is shy of excellent. Hot teas and waters are always refilled without question. There are times where I find them a bit pushy and eager to take your order, but I presume that many patrons who visit Dai-​Kichi are mostly regulars.
For the most part the sushi roll specialties are plenty, although I find high end rolls a bit pricey for no reason. The rolls are constructed very well; each one has just the right amount of rice, not too much like you bought them from a supermarket (which is blasphemy sushi), but not too porous where you can see the seaweed paper. I would highly recommend the SPICY SHRIMP TEMPURA roll and the SAKURA roll. The miso soup is probably the best around.
Contrary to BYO label of most Montclair restaurants, THIS PLACE HAS A LIQUOR LICENSE! (They share the same roof as Upstairs). There is a cork fee for those who BYO.
And yes, you pay cash, you get 10% off your overall bill.

I am in no way an expert on Japanese food. But I do like it when I have it. I have had it here many times.
This small space has been open in (Upper) Montclair for at least 10 years, maybe 20? Its great. They have booths and tables both. A front and back entrance, depending on where you find parking. The lot in the back is usually a god place to look for parking.
The servers seem to all be Japanese. The owners, a couple, run a pretty tight ship so the service is well done.
The menu covers the Japanese basics, sushi, sashimi and the like, tempura in various forms, and other options. Ive stuck to the sushi and tempura, along with an app or two over the years. Ive been pleased each time. My dining companions are like me and stick to those along with a few salads and soups. One has been to Japan often and finds the food here tasty enough that it keeps him coming back. That’s a good sign I think.