Kabooki Sushi

This is hands down the best sushi in Orlando. If someone tries to tell you another sushi place is better then just ignore them because it’s simply not true. They have an option where the chef just sends you whatever, but we haven’t done that yet. It is also pretty fun sitting at the bar and watching the chefs make rolls. Hint — make a reservation. This place is tiny and always packed. However I never really have to wait very long for my food to come out.

I decided to give this place another shot and was sadly even more disappointed than the last. Trust me, I wanted to like this restaurant so bad. This time I sat at the bar and watched the chef prepare my sushi, which was interesting and fun to watch. I just wished the sushi chefs were a little more friendlier and conversed back when spoken to.
Now, I feel that if you have a great enough piece of fish, you should not have to mask their wonderful flavors with lemon and lime zest. Simple and light amounts of wasabi and soy is enough for me. I ordered the nigiri moriawase when I went. Sadly the chef squeezed lemon juice all over my sushi masking the natural flavors of the sushi. If it was any other restaurant, I would have told him not to do that but I did not want to disrespect him. Too bad, I really wanted this place to be my new favorite.

This is a prime example of an overhyped restaurant.
The food is very good and you can expect quality, don’t get me wrong (not head-​explosion good, though, as some of the other reviewers would have you believe), but there are so many things that take away from this business.
You will really enjoy your dining experience if you’re looking for comically small portions offered at a steep price while seated in an uncomfortably small restaurant located in a strip mall outside of downtown Orlando!
I love a good hole in the wall, and I don’t mind paying top dollar for a good meal, but you just can’t demand the prices they do for the portion size and location of the restaurant. I have seen other reviewers chastising those whose reviews knock Kabooki for the price and size by noting that similar restaurants in San Fransisco and New York are also very tiny. Expect we’re not in New York or San Fransisco where real estate is at a premium and commands higher prices for food. And this isn’t even located in Downtown, Winter Park, or Dr Phillips — It’s across from a mall, and sandwiched between a gold buying store and a shoe store… Let’s have some persecutive here. Also, tiny can be fine! I dined at a restaurant in Paris with 5 tables and it was perfect. Kabooki is not that, instead it’s tight and uninviting.
The service is seriously lacking. The first time our server looked like she was in pain having to serve us. I did not feel welcome AT ALL. I’m not sure why she behaved that way — we had made reservations, were polite and friendly, and ordered an appetizer, alcohol, three meals, and desert. Things did take a while to come out, but things happen! so we’re totally understanding. We gave her no cause for an attitude. But I would not base a review solely on one poor experience.
The second time (and our last), our server made it very clear she was not going to continue attending to us once it looked like we were finishing our meals. We were absolutely being rushed to make way for the other customers waiting (again, the space is so tiny that anybody who is not seated is basically hovering over you while you dine). It appears like they may have a problem managing reservations, but that does not equate to us having to make up for their lack of it. If this is supposed to be an intimate dining experience, nobody should feel like they can’t enjoy their meal in leisure. And when you’re dropping a decent amount of cash on dinner out, you made reservations days in advance, and have not even been seated for more than 45 minutes, you do not want to feel like you are being rushed or that the other customers are more important. For the money, there are other restaurants with equally good or better food, a better location, a better ambiance, and far better service.

I’ve been to Kabooki several times and always enjoyed the experience. Last night my partner and I went for a somewhat special occasion and had an amazing experience.
The restaurant is in a small strip of about 3 or 4 businesses at the intersection of Colonial/​50 and Maguire Blvd. From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but don’t let that fool you. The space is compact, but nicely done in a way that makes me feel like I’m at a bigger city establishment. Pink walls, white string/​globe fixtures and white booths make for a cool interesting vibe. They are almost always full on busy weekend nights, so definitely make a reservation. You’ll be glad you did.
We had a reservation and were seated quickly. Our waiter Jordan greeted us and took our order for some Sake while we decided. They have a wide range of Sake from affordable to quite expensive. They also have beer, wine and specialty drinks.
We’d looked at the menu online earlier in the day so we had an idea of what we wanted. We ordered: Wakame Salads for each of us, a «tasting» from the daily specials and shared a Sushi/​Sashimi Moriawase. We had never done the Moriawase before but it is approximately 15 — 17 pieces of a combo of sushi and sashimi that are chosen by the chef. The tastings are small, but full of amazing flavors. Ours had Japanese Snapper with compressed pear, Marcona Almonds and some amazing sauce. The tasting had 6 pieces total so each of us had 3 (I always hate it when something comes out in an odd number that we’re trying to share). The wakame salads were reasonable size and tasted great.
Our Moriawase arrived on a very large plate… some ceviche with a sauce, several pieces of Nigiri and a bowl with a selection of sashimi on ice. All of the elements tasted great and and the presentation was beautiful. I had not had Japanese Snapper before (as far as I know) and it was probably my favorite as it was in our tasting and our Moriawase.
We were both trying to keep an eye on what we ate so we declined dessert, but walked away quite satisfied.
Our willingness to try some new things and the perfect service from Jordan made this experience excellent. As I mentioned earlier, the restaurant is very compact so seating can be tight when it’s full. Don’t let that put you off. It’s managed well and an intimate setting gives you an opportunity to make some new friends and see what amazing things the people beside of you ordered.

Overall we had a great experience at Kabooki Sushi. We went on a Friday night and didn’t have reservations but were able to grab two seats at the bar. Most of our food was excellent. We really enjoyed the maguro truffle (seared tuna), foie gras nigiri and shishito peppers. The first roll we ordered was One Night In Bankok because the description was intriguing. Unfortunately the menu wasn’t clear that the roll was topped with COOKED fish in curry sauce. As a standalone curry entrée it might have been okay, but we weren’t a fan of the curry as a sushi topping. The roll ended up being just a bit too adventurous for us but our server was super nice and offered to get us an alternative instead. I don’t remember the name but it was a more traditional type of roll and much more to our liking. The meal ended on a high note with the C-​4 chocolate lava cake. I wasn’t expecting a sushi restaurant to have such good dessert but the presentation was lovely and the taste blew us away. Kabooki is too pricey to be a place I’ll visit regularly but it’s definitely an excellent special occasion restaurant.

I went to Japan for a mini food tour… And now I have an addiction to authentic Japanese cuisine.
I ordered the special: ocean trout dragon fruit and the kampchi, yucca chip with Asian pear.
The ocean trout was so tasty with the dragon fruit. Such a great pair and awoken all my palate. I can’t say the same about kampchi dish…
The kampchi dish didn’t have the Asian pear, so I felt as though I didn’t get the proper tasting effect… they gave me radish instead? Or if what I ate was a pear, I am not impressed. And I’m not sure why it was served on paper??? It wasn’t pleasing to the eye, nor was it good. The ground pepper on top was an over kill and did not enhance the fish’s taste.
Next time I’ll order something off the menu.

Décor: ⁴⁄₅
–Limited seating that can accommodate parties of up to 8 (or more)
–Highly recommend making a reservation by calling
–Pokemon was playing on the TV
Service: ⁴⁄₅
–Made a reservation for 9pm and got seated immediately. Our table was ready.
–Derek, our server, was great.
–Our sushi rolls took a good 30 mins to get ready however
Food: ³⁄₅
–We ordered about 9 rolls, of the 9 my favorite were: Coconut Lobster, Gundam, Louis Vuitton
–If you want a roll with texture and taste — get the coconut lobster and gundam roll
–If you want cooked beef, go with the gundam roll

I love this place! It was absolutely my favorite sushi in Orlando. I love getting just pieces of nigiri and sashimi just because everything is so absolutely fresh. The rolls are great too, even the veggie rolls for those who don’t eat fish. The drinks are fun, as well. And the desserts are great, and I love that they’re always changing and adding new, creative ones!
The staff is friendly, it’s clean, and seriously, so, so good. Go!

To be honest, I didn’t really give Kabooki much thought. It’s a small location in a small plaza next to a Jet’s Pizza. Every time I drove by Kabooki on 50, I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. It seemed like another average Orlando sushi restaurant.
Browsing through the Orlando sub-​reddit, Kabooki was frequently name dropped as one of the best sushi places in town. Hm, maybe I shouldn’t ignore this place. Then I started seeing reviews from some my most trusted Unilocal friends, almost all of whom were raving about Kabooki. Ok, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.
Life tip: If you love food but are not a football fan, Super Bowl Sunday is the best night to go out to eat at a non-​sportsy restaurant. The streets of Orlando are nearly empty, and the restaurants have a small turnout, mostly from the fellow Orlandians who don’t give a crap about football but want to take advantage when three quarters of America is at home watch an endless series of time-​outs and beer commercials.
So, a few friends and I decided to head over to Kabooki for our, «Sportsball Whatever Sunday» dinner. Yeah, the outside doesn’t look like much to write home about, but inside, the place is immaculately decorated. Definitely feels like a step above your average Orlando sushi joint.
Let’s get to the real reason why anyone is reading this post: the food. Quite simply, this is some of the best sushi I’ve ever had in Orlando. The portions are relatively small compared to other sushi restaurants, but they make up for it with super fresh ingredients and excellent taste. Their sushi rolls are a notch more pricey than other sushi places, but it’s well worth it. Order two rolls, and you’re good.
It’s a small restaurant, but I never felt like I was cramped. Even though they don’t have much space, you still feel like you have enough space to where you don’t feel like you’re constantly in someone’s way.
I had an order of chicken satay (grilled chicken with curry spices and peanut sauce) and a «chill» roll. The chill roll had salmon, yellowtail, avocado, smelt roe, and chives, but I didn’t order it for the ingredients. I just liked that it was called the «chill» roll. I want a sushi roll that’s chill and doesn’t stress me out. That’s the best kind of sushi roll.
On Sundays, they have a special ramen dish. My friend got it, and it looked and tasted pretty good. I never thought you could make a dish so delicious out of those things we used to eat in our dorm rooms.
Very much looking forward to coming back here.

I have been wanting to try this place for months and finally had the opportunity to do so last week. I wanted to lo-​lo-​love this place, but instead, I just kinda liked it. I am 110% sure it was because of our roll choice and I will almost certainly be back to try more items, but my review is based solely on my 1 dinner there.
First, this place is tiny! I don’t know why, but the vision I had in my head was this massively large building with super tall ceilings. I was wrong. It still had the trendy NYC vibe I was expecting, but it was maybe 20 ft wide by 50 ft long. Small.
I’m glad I made reservations (using the Unilocal Seat Me function — yay!) because we’d have had to wait otherwise. Or server, Laural*, was awesome! Super friendly, she knew the menu, and she made great recommendations. My date always asks the server what their favorite thing is and we usually get a blanket «everything is good here and I love it all,» but not Laural. She was like, «On the hot bites I like this, on the cold bites I like this, on the raw sushi I like this and on the cooked rolls I like this.» Boom! She walked us through the menu and gave us her faves along the way. Loved it! She did tell us when we got to the rolls that some had 8 pieces and some had 5, but she didn’t specify which.
We started with the garlic and salt edamame and it was perfect. The flavors were balanced, it wasn’t overly salty, and the soybeans had the perfect texture. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ for sure.
We each picked a roll and he picked the Gundum (tempura shrimp with veggies and spicy mayo) and I was torn between three (two were raw and one was cooked). The one that I was leaning towards was also tempura and I didn’t want two fried rolls, but that’s what was jumping off the page to me. So, that’s what I ordered — the American Lover. Now, at that point, it would have been great if Laural had jumped in and told us that the American Lover only has 5 pieces, because I definitely would have changed my mind. It was small, fried, and $ 14. Buuuut, she didn’t and that’s what I ordered.
The rolls came and I was very disappointed. Not only was mine was small, but it was also flavorless. All I could taste was tempura and oil (the whole roll was fried), and their tempura wasn’t very good. It was heavy and chewy and not appetizing at all. His roll was a little better. Only the shrimp was fried, so you could still taste the veggies, sauce, and other fillings. His roll had 8 pieces but they were still kind of small. Good thing we shared everything because I would have been bummed if I was stuck only eating my roll for dinner.
We ended up ordering dessert and we decided on C-​4; a chocolate lava cake with a caramel center and vanilla ice cream. It was sinfully delicious!
The overall experience was very good, but I was disappointed in the rolls. I’m sure their raw ones (which is what I normally get) are better and I’ll have to give them another shot and order those next time. It’s just hard to want to go back when the portions are small and their prices are a little high.**
*Laural was so awesome that I had to jot her name down so I could remember it and give her props in my review!
**Most places specialty rolls are $ 10 – 15, so no biggie on the price, but I’ve never had the portions be so small (5 small pieces) for that price. They are usually pretty big and 1 roll is enough for a meal. It wasn’t a good cost-​to-​portion ratio, in my opinion. Especially since it wasn’t even that great.

Services was amazing, and food was good/​ok. I had very high expectations when I walked in, and left slightly disappointed. Food looks amazing, but the taste is not any better than other sushi restaurants in the area. Your paying the extra cash for the presentation and uniqueness, but the taste was average in my opinion.
Pros– Amazing service and presentation
Cons– Food was good but not amazing, small cramped seating

{Take Out Review}
This will be my go to sushi spot till someone can top this ultra hip and trendy place.
Parking: A challenge. Even during the week.
One Night In Bangkok: Spicy and salty. Still flavorful.
American Lover: Delicious! I don’t really order many rolls that have been tempura fried but glad I did with this one. Not soggy. Very good.
Can’t wait to try more rolls! Any roll that has Krab that you can upcharge to Lump Blue Crab — DO IT! The crab was delicious and excellent quality.
Advice for restaurant: Please add more rolls with fresh salmon. Please.

Came here on a Friday night at 9pm and the place was packed. I ordered the $ 55 preset menu which had a variety of fish from Japan. We also ordered a bunch of the recommended appetizers. All of the food was amazing, and is the best sushi i’ve had in Orlando and beats most of the sushi i’ve had in Los angeles and New York. All of the dessert choices they had were home made, but a notch below how good the sushi is. This restaurant also has a wide variety of sake, of which we ordered a really good sake that has the Bamboo cover on it. All in all, if you are looking to get sushi in Orlando, this is the place to go.