Shilla Teriyaki & Sushi Bar

My daughter’s turned me onto this place a few months ago and I can’t get enough! From the food to the hospitality to the price it’s a trifecta 5 Star experience! For starters, we debate over the deep fried jalapenos or bbq albacore and usually settle by ordering both. My daughter’s prefer nigiri which is always fresh, tasty and top notch… I prefer rolls and haven’t tried one that wasn’t enjoyable. If you’re traveling to Apple Hill, Lake Tahoe or are just in the Placerville area, this place is worth checking out!

Great sushi place! Fresh food, chef personally delivered our food… Where do you ever get that kinda customer service?! Ample seating with outdoor patio with a great view. Not to say this happens all the time because I don’t know… But we were even given a free appetizer sample & mochi ice cream dessert– made us feel like VIP’s!

I know what you’re thinking. Really? Sushi off the freeway? Yeah. Me too. But curiosity got me, so I tried it. Décor is… different. Hodge Podge maybe? I almost left. Twice. Until my order came! So glad I gave this place a chance, cant wait to go back! Staff was very friendly. Try the Sake! The owners actually work here, and they remember you, by name! Food was fresh, incredibly yumm-​o!

It’s not too often I have to give a 1 star review rating, but this Shilla Sushi Bar really does deserve it going by my last experience here. I’m no sushi snob from the Bay Area or anything, hell I even love all you can eat sushi in Reno. I was just returning from Sacramento where I just had the most awesome sushi experience I’ve ever had in my life. I was headed back up Highway 50 on my way back to Reno, when I decided on a whim to stop in here at Shilla to see what the sushi was like. I’d seen this place for years driving back and forth between the Bay Area and Tahoe, but never stopped. I pull in and park.
Entering it looks pretty slow, actually I think I may be the only one in here in the middle of the lunch hour. (bad sign?) I’m seated at the bar for sushi. Looking over the menu, I see the nigiri sushi selection. I’m not really interested in rolls, I want nigiri style where I can really experience the quality of the fish, rice and the knifeskills of the chef. No hiding with nigiri style, behind rolled rice, spicy sauces and deep frying, like you can with rolls. I want the read deal. Looking over the menu, I see a selection of all the usual suspects of common sushi fish, hamachi, maguro, albacore, ebi (shrimp) and ikura (salmon egg caviar). The prices are a little elevated above most of the Sacramento sushi places, I guess it’s tourist pricing of around $ 5.50 per 2 piece nigiri order. Not bad if the sushi is wonderful. Sadly, such was not the case here, … by a long shot.
The chef was very approachable and spoke English just fine. While placing my orders with him, my first negative aspect of my visit rose it’s ugly head. The chef wreaked of cigarette smoke, like not just a whiff, but geeze! dude, you a chain smoker or what? The stench was strong enough to make the whole being there for me, a non smoker, a quite unappetizing experience with that smell surrounding him and now me! His attention was more on the monster truck show on TV than it was on me the customer.
Well, OK, I’m here, lets just order. I start with Hamachi (yellow tail), and an order of Albacore. Watching the chef make his cuts of fish, I’m thinking, hmmm, not that generous of a cut here and a pretty big rice ball for the size of fish slice. I receive my 2 orders and taste. The Hamachi is first, hmmm OK, not too bad, the fish is not the buttery melt in my mouth experience you get with real fresh and high quality sushi fish, but OK. The albacore rates not so high. Gristly tendons seem to run throughout and the dryness of the fish tell me of it’s age, along with the thin cut and old rice texture, this was not a good experience.
Well, OK, I don’t wanna seem like an eat and run away customer, so I order 2 more orders. One each of the Salmon and Ikura (salmon eggs caviar). I try the salmon first. I’m used to a buttery smooth melt on my tongue experience, but this is sooo not that. It didn’t taste bad, but the taste really wasn’t even there and the fish was very firm, telling me of a low grade fish. Even the fish in Reno at an all you can eat bar is better than this, by a long ways. I actually spit out the second piece in my napkin it was that bad, just to be polite and not spit it out right on to my plate in front of the chef.
Ikura is normally one of my fave sushi items. When I received this order, OMG, what happened to the poor little salmon eggs here? The usual fresh plump glistening eggs were, in this case, old wrinkled and deflated poor little excuses for Ikura sushi. Coupled with the bad grainy rice, I’m sorry I had to spit this one into my napkin as well! I have never in my life ever had to spit out sushi cause it was sooo bad! See my pics, as they are worth a 1000 words. Well, shit, there was a waste of a little over $ 20 bucks!
If you know good sushi and what the actual fish is supposed to taste like, you’d be best to avoid this place. You may have better luck if you’re happy with rolls deep fried and sprayed with a sweet mayo sauce and then drenched in soy sauce and wasabi … you won’t have to taste the fish here at all! OMG, this was one for the record books as the worst attempt at sushi ever. And don’t sit at the bar unless you like smoking cigarettes.

Location is terrible, given how the establishment is between two freeways which gives you little time to stop. Our party arrived at 7:30pm, but as we entered, employee asked of us to leave despite the fact their hour says it is open until 8:30pm, and gave us a blatant false excuse of tables being full when it can be clearly seen that was not the case.

Great sushi! Don’t judge a book by its cover! Lots of seating, TV’s if you want them and very good sushi! We got the love roll, hole in one and so thing spicy. They were all fantastic!

Rude rude rude old man, we walked out. Got treated like we a nuisance. It was our first time here and we were completely unfamiliar with their menu, he didn’t need to cop and attitude. Now he’s lost a loyal customer for good, I get sushi at least once a week.

I live up the hill for about 3 years before I tried this place. had a hard time eating raw fish from a tiny little hole in the wall on the side of 50 not near any major town. Well, after hearing tons of people rave about this place, decided to give it a whirl. Older interior, but clean and super friendly staff. Sushi is fantastic, seriously rivals anything in Sacramento, and service it off the charts. Prices are on par for sushi. Love this place and try and go at least once a month. All my friends that visit from out of town get hooked at this place and cant say enough good about it.

Just got through a 4 hour traffic jam coming out of Tahoe and walked into this restaurant STARVING! It didn’t disappoint. Yummy dumplings, udon soup and fresh, inventive rolls. Nice, friendly owners and staff. We are all super happy and satisfied.

Hidden gem half way between someplace else. The husband wife team have owned this place for 10 years. The sushi is surprisingly fresh! Worth stopping by if you need a bite … Especially after being stuck due to snow

Yeah I know, sushi in the foothills!?! How good, authentic and fresh could it be?! After many years of flying past this restaurant and thinking this my wife and two 7 y.o.‘s stopped in. Thanks to Unilocalers positive reviews because it was really good! A VERY friendly and hospitable Japanese family run the place and the interior walls have traditional Japanese paintings on them. Several locals were there or picking up their to go orders so obviously it’s a favorable place amongst them.
Traditional Japanese dishes and sushi. Miso soup was very good and contained the most pieces of tofu I’ve ever had in this soup. We shared three different rolls, few appetizers and a bento box. Everything was very fresh and good! Female owner even gave us several pieces of moshi (Japanese ice cream) for free.
Great find and we’ll certainly be back!

We have been going to Shilla sushi for over 13 years. They have always been welcoming and happy that we come, even with our three small children. The food has always been good, although at times depending on how busy they are, they try to be timely.
Margot if you can’t afford $ 44, go to McDonald’s. Two rolls could easily been $ 13 a piece, plus your chicken which is $ 9, plus drinks??? I think you got a deal at $ 44.
Randy S. …that is not the «manager» of the restaurant, must be a staged photo of one of your drunk friends! There are no «waiters» there, the waitresses are all women, and the «managers» are the owners and neither would conduct themselves in an unprofessional manner such as being passed out in a booth. I question the valitidy of your review and hope that others will not pay any attention to it.

We have driven by this place on highway 50 so many times and after being referred by the nice bar tender at Knotts bar we thought we would give it a try,
She was right, it was the best Sushi I think I have ever had. So fresh and the rolls are a good size to fit in your mouth. The price seemed high at first but after seeing how big the rolls were and how good they tasted it was well worth it.

So I’ve driven past this place many times and thought to myself, «No way I’d order sushi out here.» I was wrong. I heard a good review from a friend so we tried it out after going to Apple Hill for the day.
The menu is actually really good with variety and creativity. The fish is fresh, the rice is tasty and the rolls are not over sauced. The staff is friendly however the service was a bit slow. We didn’t mind as that we aren’t in a rush when we’re in the area.
Their back porch is awesome. It’s probably the only sushi place where you can eat with a grand view of the forest.

I have got to say at first I was a little cautious at first from some of the bad reviews but once I got inside I realized I had nothing to worry about. The owners were so wonderful and quite polite to us. The food was delicious, I had the salmon teriyaki. The salmon tasted like it was slow cooked and the teryaki sauce was scrumptious. They also brought out mochi ice cream with the bill and that too was yummy. All in all it was a wonderful experience and I would defiantly go back.

Umm… AMAZING!
I have searched for the perfect teriyaki chicken around. I grew up in LA, so I was spoiled with great teriyaki. My husband & I tried Shilla’s today — he’s a sushi fan, I’m the teriyaki girl. Both of us thought this little gem exceeded our expectations. I’m already thinking about the next time I can go back.
Try it! You won’t regret it!

Decent sushi– but not worth the price. I go here when I am REALLY craving sushi and need to get my fix.

The service was horrible and the waiter messed up all of our orders. The food took about 30 minutes to get and was all cold!!! We wanted to talk to the manager about it but apparently he was passed out…

Fresh seafood in Placerville/​Camino? YES! This place is SO good. Local’s and visitors alike, make this a planned stop for a meal. Owners are fantastic, the restaurant is clean, and the view on the back deck is out of this world.
Simply, as a local, I bring visiting friends here to eat, and they’ve never left unhappy – in fact, most want to go again when they come back to visit.
Lovely sushi, perfectly delicious bento boxes with teriyaki, and their vegetable udon is perfect. Not to mention the homemade flavored saki’s they share with you at the end of your meal. ]
Feels like your eating in their home, they make you so welcome.

This damn restaurant did not take our party of 13 because we didn’t have a reservation! This was in the middle of the afternoon! They only had 3 tables of customers. If anything, you’d think they’d be elated to have 13 people bringing them business. What if we were 3 individual parties of 4 – 5! Kids asked if they were in the boondocks!
Btw, too bad can’t post this without a star! This place doesn’t deserve one!