Cardinal Sushi

Not fantastic, but when you’re ordering sushi delivery at 11pm on a Friday night, you can’t really have super high expectations. Everything probably tastes fine when you’re drunk though.

The worst meal I’ve had in 5 years. Got the chicken donburi, which was rock solid. like trying to eat the bedrock of the Empire State Building. It was fibrous, chewy, and tasteless. The broccoli that came with the chicken was smothered in mayonnaise, which is perfect if you have a toxin in your stomach and want to induce vomiting. Honestly, a chimpanzee after a lobotomy could cook better food. Stay away.

Decent sushi. I’ve ordered from them 3 times via Eat24. 5, 15 and 40 minutes late. All orders that were put in hours ahead of the delivery time. Not ok. There is no excuse for not delivering on time to someone under 2 miles away who orders hours in advance. Now need a new Sushi place, 3 strikes, they are done.

Have loved this place since they opened. They’ve updated their menu and now have lots of fun stuff other than just sushi. Today we had the «Hawaiian Ahi Poke Salad», which was yummy (spicy!), and they have the best seaweed salad in town. Excited to try their donburi bowls!

Terrible sushi delivery via DoorDash. Dry fish and rice, lazily prepared. But DELIVERED by DoorDash on time, and even early.
Felt like yesterday’s sushi. Never again.

The place is too small, service is a little slow and the sushi aren’t that exciting. The sushi lacks taste, their complimentary miso soup is way way too salty. Their chicken teriyaki seems like a plain chicken with overcooked rice.

Great for a quick sushi run. If you’re craving and not too picky, this is the spot. Ordered for pick up and my order was both yummy and on time

Meh. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t really love it. I waited about 30 minutes for takeout sushi (even though there were only 2 people in the restaurant, I guess they have a lot of phone orders) which isn’t too bad but the sushi just wasn’t good sushi. It was good food, but not good sushi. I mean, the rice wasn’t really sushi rice, and the rolls were oddly shaped. The pieces were big, which usually I wouldn’t complain about, but they were too big due to rice, and I had trouble eating them in one bite. I got four different rolls, and they were all sort of sloppily constructed. I’d come back to try it again, and update my review accordingly, but I’ve had better sushi in the area, even with the limited options available.

After receiving royal status at Cardinal Sushi, how can I neglect to review it?
As a Cardinal myself, I have special motivation to give this place business. My sake sashimi cravings have resulted in trying a number of different sushi restaurants in the area. Cardinal delivers on numerous accounts and wins out!
This is not really a dine in place unless you want a really casual intimate dining experience. Don’t come here on a date. It’s a perfect place to order out from. Some things that make it the best take out sushi restaurant in the area are fresh, well prepared and packaged food. They will be generous with the extra ginger or low sodium soy sauce. The miso soup is wrapped in Saran Wrap thereby eliminating potential spills. They provide a small container to mix soy sauce and wasabi in. They also provide chop sticks and a napkin. The container and wrapping are exceptional from a service point of view.
The sashimi, soup, rolls and nigiri are all excellent. The prices are quite reasonable for sushi standards. (This isn’t McDonalds people!)
Another MAJOR bonus is it’s open late! This is a shock considering we are in a college town and one would expect many establishments to stay open late. Not so! Palo Alto is a notoriously sleepy town. If dinner means eating past 8:30 pm, you might be out of luck. Lucky for you Cardinal Sushi is open!
If you’re in the Stanford/​Palo Alto area and have a craving for sushi, make Cardinal Sushi your choice!

Their hours are too confusing! Here is some advised don’t post your hours that way when you say u are open and you are not there people won’t be pissed when they are dying for sushi! Hate this place!

This place is amazing because it delivers and it is also open late, which means I can grab it after work. I was told that their hours are the way it is (opens til 12:30am) because of the students in the areas. Welllllll thank you because I am able to grab sushi at such a late time.
Rolls are not as cheap as some of the places in SJ, which is reasonable considering the area. The workers are nice and the simple rolls are about $ 6-​$ 7 bucks! The Hawaiian Poké salad is great and a bit spicy, which I love.
I’ll come back here as long as I’m working in the area!

Geisha roll is outstanding. Do spicy so nice. I love that they deliver. Service is also very good. So convenient!

Okay. First time ordering here.
They impressed me. They gave me 1 hr queue time ordering for friday night… sometimes friday night is busy i get it. But they delivered in 40… thats called managing expectations.
lets get on to what you cared about if expectation not the only thing u care about. Food. Pretty good. Sushi rice is not… cold… a little warm BUT HEY. when the driver came up even after 20 min ahead of schedule. he apologized.
WAIT. i was supposed to talk about food. Okay i got hamachi and sashimi. both not A grade fresh (straight up I know whats good –been to japan and live on the coast for a bit) but for this inland, they have a good deal (just look at my profile… i don’t rate many places cuz i only rate the places which impress my expectations)
really…u won’t be disappointed cuz lets face it. if you are ordering for delivery from here. you are not sober enough to drive, and this place is a whole lot better than getting pizza if its jes u and your lady friend.
Honestly, was only gonna post if it made good on what it said

Clean, fast, tasty. Pretty straightforward here.
Very nice owner who gives extra to regular goers!

Never done the dine-​in but delivery is awesome. I have ordered cardinal sushi for so many events /​catering and also for my dinner ;) decent sushi and reasonably priced

Very happy with our meal. We ordered spicy salmon roll and a combo which comes with 6 pieces of California roll and 6 pieces pf nigiri sushi. The fish was fresh and the cut was generous. Will definitely come back.

Food quality is amazing! I ordered the Spicy Tuna roll (only $ 5.50÷8 pieces). It tasted fresh and delicious. It was a lot for the price. Taking my friends here for sure.
The only issue, I feel, is the dining space seems confining. But the food quality more than makes up for it.

1.5 stars
The only good point is that they’re open late at night. Oh, and that I guess it’s edible and I didn’t get sick. Seriously, that’s it. For the same price, you can go down the road and get way better tasting sushi.
Honestly, the fish was all meh, but the reason why I’m giving it 1 star is because of the rice and overall flavor. They were just so… blah. I’m pretty sure that none of the sushi I ordered used sushi rice, and just used regular plain rice because it tasted so… blah instead of having that slight vinegary note to it. Seriously Cardinal Sushi? It’s such an easy thing to do. You buy the package, and you sprinkle it over rice, then fluff. That’s it!
So basically, if you want to pay like, 11 bucks for a blah tasting sushi, Cardinal sushi is your place. But personally, I’d rather walk a block down the road and go to Odori instead, or buy sushi from safeway orrr even from the on-​campus place, which is also very very not delicious and blah.

Great, decently priced sushi after-hours…delivered to your door in about half an hour.
Exactly what this area needed!

3.5 stars.
Great selection of bento boxes and sushi combos with options you typically don’t see at most sushi places. I ordered a 3 item bento and chose the spring roll, 4 pc nigiri, and the 3 pc godzilla roll. This also came with miso soup, salad, a small amount of rice, and a few pieces of broccoli. For $ 10 it seemed like a pretty good deal.
Unfortunately I wasn’t too impressed with the sushi. Both the spring roll and the godzilla roll were covered in a weird white sauce that I found to be a bit unappetizing. Not terrible, but it made the food a little bit soggy and didn’t seem necessary.
Each portion of the bento was pretty small and all in all, it wasn’t a very filling meal. Maybe I was just extra hungry that day? For my next visit I will probably order something else.
Take note, there are only a few seats inside and most people order to-​go.
They are also open late and deliver, so if you’re looking for a late night sushi fix Cardinal Sushi might be your best option.