Momiji Sushi and Grill

The food was awesome. It’s not like all of the half off sushi places. There is quality at this place. The service was great too.

This is a review from a while back that I forgot to post. We have not been back since our first visit even though we lived two buildings away:
Nice people. Bad food. I wish I could say more about this place, since the workers were so friendly and nice. The place is cute. But the food is horrible. The raw fish is mushy and dull looking. And it tastes a bit sour. The cooked fish was extremely overcooked and tough on the edges. The chicken was dry and pounded down to a sliver. The rice was also dry. It seemed as if all the food had been prepared days earlier and then reheated. Ick.

Before you get started: Swing down to the bottom of the review if you want the «Too Long/Didn’t Read» Summary!
The Sis and I stumbled upon Momiji’s when we were out running around last week… we were thinking, «Where should we eat?» The Sis MUST eat soon after she starts feeling hungry or she is liable to succumb to eating chapstick that’s been half-​melted in the glovebox, so I said…
«LET ME CHECK Unilocal.» — Behold, a block away was Momiji Sushi and Grill. This worked out great for us, since The Sis is a mostly-​vegetarian-​sometimes-​chicken eater and I am an unabashed carnivore. Parking was pretty easy, there’s an entire street of 2hr parking (no meters! Yay!) and the street is nice and quiet, mostly residential in fact.
When we walked in, it was very quiet (well, it was Tuesday, late in the day for lunch) with only two other groups of diners. The waitress was SO nice, and didn’t write down our order — at first this disconcerted The Sis; you see, The Sis is a server herself at one of Auburn’s gems, «Katrina’s Café.» You Foothills Unilocalers probably know her if you like French Toast or wicked good potatoes. Anyhoo, She is understandably critical of lazy or show-​offy behavior of servers… this young lady was just THAT conversant with the menu. Nice. She also had no problem making recommendations and suggestions when asked for her opinion; some servers hem and haw, but not her. Plus, after our meal she was nice enough to take a picture of us for our Sisters’ Day Out!
BACK TO THE FOOD! Okay, so of course we have hot tea. How on earth do people ever go to a Japanese restaurant and not order hot tea with their meal? I mean, go ahead — have the beer, have the saki, you deserve it, you EARNED it, but geez, drink your tea! We order and it isn’t but 3 minutes and I have a nice hot bowl of miso soup in front of me.
MISO SOUP… I really, really like miso soup. I like it so much that I know everything that goes into it. I love it, really. And my cousin Chef Gigilicious X even gave me a primer on how to make it at home. I can’t wait to try it out, but I must say, THIS miso soup? Awesome. The tofu was plentiful but not too much, the broth perfect with that mysterious cloud of flavor drifting around in the center of the bowl. Honestly, I could come here and just eat bowl after bowl of miso soup. So perfect. Lovely! But that’s not all…
I had a bento box, The Sis had a garden roll; I’ll post a pic of my meal, as a picture is worth a thousand words. I’ve gotta tell you, «You eat with your eyes first» has never been truer than when you eat at a Japanese restaurant. Momiji does a wonderful job, minimalist and classy and yet not schticky. And then we ate.
It was great! I had sesame chicken and vegetable tempura in my bento box, and I was really happy with the choice; the tempura was just perfectly prepared and my chicken was moist inside, crunchy outside and actually (hold your breath) tasted like freshly toasted sesame! My dumpling was gone in an instant, full of good, savory flavors. Rice, of course, tender but not mushy. Sis said that the garden roll was yum, too.
We went again this week and took Our Mom and my son, The Boy. The Boy is a fish lover and had salmon teriyaki and the salmon sashimi; he said it was just ok, but I think he was just too hungry before lunch because most of his criticisms had to do with portion size. Mind you, this is lunch, not dinner. I think next time I’ll take him for dinner and see if he changes his mind. Mom had the yakiniku, she enjoyed it very much. One complaint was universal, though, this last time we went — too much dressing on the salad. The greens were lovely, but just too much dressing made it impossible to eat this last time. When we went last week, it was perfect, so all I can think is that it was because we had a different server this last time (an older guy) and maybe the server takes care of that aspect of the meal. Oh, yeah, we had the edamame for an appetizer this time, too. SO Good! I love those little nuggets of salty nuttiness.
The dining room is clean and full of tables in very comfortable groupings, not crowded. Nice to know even if the dining room is full during a dinner service on the weekend, it won’t be loud and overwhelming and make you want to hurry up and finish your meal so you can just get out (like a P.F. Chang’s experience). Take my advice, go for a later seating at lunch, you’ll avoid all of the downtown office workers running around trying to cram what should be an enjoyable meal into a 45 minute marathon.
TL/​DR: Momiji is a nice spot, great parking and atmosphere, the food is good, at times brilliant. Miso soup is spot on, beautiful presentation and service, enjoyable all around. To get that last star: a little more brilliance, a little less salad dressing.

I love sushi but the sushi at Momiji is mediocre at best in my opinion. I ordered the rainbow roll and a crunch roll and they were OK but not great.
I sat at the bar as I normally do at sushi restaurants, and I figured that I might have a better chance of getting something delicious if I asked the sushi chef to make me his specialty. So the sushi chef rolled up cut some sushi rolls then whisked them to the back (kitchen I hope). He then went on to serve someone else. I was a little confused about this move but I trusted that I would be pleasantly surprised.
Well, I was definitely surprised when I was presented with a plate of deep fried sushi. I moved to Sacramento from L.A., and never had I seen or heard of deep fried sushi before! Although the thought of deep fried sushi seemed so gauche and unpleasant to me, I decided to sample it anyway. To my dismay it felt like a hockey puck scraping down my throat before landing in my tummy like a brick. Needless to say, I couldn’t eat the rest of it. Very disappointed.
Call me ‘old school’ but I am a firm believer that sushi should be fresh, clean and light… certainly never deep fried unless you are having sushi at the county fair!

I found this place earlier in the summer 2012, back when it had a 4* Unilocal rating; right now the rating is already 3.5*, and 3.5* is still an overestimate of how good this place is.
I’ve been to this place several times for lunch (in fact, according to Unilocal,5 times). First couple of times, they used to have a waitress, and it didn’t feel all that bad. The last couple of times, however, it was just the owner-​looking-​guy, and some other chef-​looking-​guy. For the whole place!
I like to sit next to the window. Both when they had a waitress, and after they no longer had it, a window table I wanted to sit at was empty, yet it still had dirty dishes on it. Fine, can always happen, right? I can wait or sit at another table, no biggies. I waited, they’ve cleaned it up, sat next to the window.
I came in again next time. Again, the window table is dirty. The place is nearly empty, yet the table still remains uncleaned with dirty dishes. The next time?
Basically, the empty-​tables-​with-​dirty-​dishes situation continued with great accuracy until my last visit. On my last visit, I got so tired of waiting and hoping to enjoy the window table, that I tried sitting at the bar. (BTW, during this final visit, I’ve noticed that they don’t even have any raw fish, or anything, displayed in the bar’s refrigerator aisle, it’s like the most boring and sad sushi bar I’ve ever sat at!)
During the said final visit, when I sat at the bar, I thought to myself, «with no pressure from my side, will they clean that window table by the time I finish my lunch and leave?». To my own surprise, nope, they did not! How could I possibly live with myself if I don’t warn my fellow Unilocalers of such poor service, after giving Momiji as many as five times to make amends and break their cycle? Also, on the last visit, the salmon teriyaki was burnt, probably because they’re understaffed and try to jiggle too many things at the same time.
However, their lunch combo is pretty nicely priced (one item for 7,50), although they do charge a little extra for hot tea (under a dollar).
In Sacramento, Momiji has been the first lunch sushi place I’ve tried five times, then I’ve switched to Zen Sushi (lunch menu) for a couple of times, and then Mikuni (happy hour). I don’t think I’ll be back to Momiji, since Zen (until 14:30) and Mikuni (14:00 to 18:00) have a much better service and lunch experience (although Mikuni’s bar table should long have been replaced instead of being re-​painted!).

I hate to knock a local ma/​pa business, but my dinner was eaten with a side of prayer that I don’t get sick. I ordered 2 Momiji specialty rolls, one of which was the rainbow roll because I consider it a pretty standard barometer for quality.
To start, the entryway of the restaurant is pretty dirty, you can tell the front doors don’t seal and water leaks in. The staff was very friendly, but when my sushi rolls came, the rice was old and overcooked to the point of being mushy white paste, and the tobiko smelled and tasty sour.
As someone who actually enjoys raw fish, I order a rainbow roll for the clean flavors and have never received it covered in sauce… until now. I can only assume the sauce was either to cover the old fish, or to overcompensate for mikuni-​induced insecurity.
All in all, although momiji is closer to me than Mikuni or Zen, I don’t think I’ll be returning, as I truly love sushi and would hate to get sick off of spoiled fish or tobiko…
I feel bad for blasting a local small business, but this was truly unacceptable, and horribly disappointing.

one star reviews aren’t a joke.
AWFUL, AWFUL FOOD!
we went here based off of a recommendation and were told this place had amazing sushi. that was incorrect!
we arrived at 9:30 on a friday night and there were literally no other customers in the restaurant. that should have been a sign.
we ordered the spicy tuna roll ($ 13) as a tester and were horrified with what we got. this fish was so old it triggered my gag reflex when i tried to swallow it and the entire time i was chewing it i was praying we didn’t get sick. i can honestly say the freshest thing on the plate was the pickled ginger.
we quickly paid and high tailed it to taro’s in arden where our sushi chef, johnny, made us some of the tastiest sushi we’ve had in a long time. he even apologized for our bad experience at momiji’s.
needless to say, we will never return here.

The 4 stars for this restaurant on Unilocal is really misleading.
I
F YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GOOD SUSHI PLACE, GO TO MIKUNI (it’s just around the corner)
The first sign of a bad sushi restaurant is the crickets hopping around. We walked in around 6 pm, and it was a ghost town. There was one lady eating a bowl of udon. We should have walked out at that point, but the 4 stars on Unilocal kept us there.
The owner/​server seems really nice, but the food was disastrous.
*The salmon sushi was something you would find in the corner of an AYCE chinese buffet.
*The fried foods were a dark color because of the old oil they used. It’s economicall I guess because of the lack of customers
*The presentation of the food was that of a sushi chef that went through online traiining courses
This place was horrible.
Do not come here. If you disregard this post and decide to eat here… I TOLD YOU SO!!!

Let me preface this by saying I just moved to Sacramento from LA and maybe this is normal for sushi places here, but I have never experienced anything like what I experienced at Momiji tonight.
When we walked in at 6:30pm, we were the only customers in the restaurant. The waitress quickly took our orders. I ordered a spicy scallop hand roll, an albacore cut roll, and 2 pieces snow crab nigiri. I was stoked to see they had snow crab at the restaurant. It’s usually a good sign. One of my friends ordered baked salmon nigiri and some other stuff.
After we ordered, about 10 – 20 mins later, three other groups of people arrived. We waited. And waited some more. Then the owner (?) came out to tell my friend that «nobody orders baked salmon nigiri» and asked him if he wanted a cut roll instead. He was like sure whatever. And when the owner walked away my friend told us that «baked salmon nigiri» was on the menu, which is why he ordered it that way. Then we waited some more. About 30 mins into our wait, a second man came out from the back looking very stressed out, and started making food behind the bar. Our food finally started coming out a little after 7:15pm (appetizer and miso soup only), over 45 mins after we had arrived and placed our orders. Then the rest of the food came out all at different times.
Terrible wait and mediocre food aside, the most bizarre thing that happened was when my «snow crab» nigiri came out. Now, let me preface this by saying, I am a huge snow crab and blue crab fan. If they have it at the restaurant, chances are I’m ordering it. I hate fake krab and would never order it on purpose.
I took one look at the overflowing nigiri and knew it was fake krab. I said to the waitress, «Is this snow crab?» and she said Yes with a smile. I said are you suuuure? giving her a chance to get it right, or at the very least double check. And she still said yes and shook her head up and down emphatically. I knew it wasn’t. I took a tiny bite just to tell and of course it wasn’t snow crab. When she came back, I looked her dead in the eye and said «This isn’t snow crab. It’s krab. With a K.» She looked confused and then understood and went to get the owner.
He comes out and I tell him that it’s fake krab and I ordered snow crab. He tries to tell me that that’s how they serve it. I say, do you want me to get the menu? It says SNOW CRAB. He says that this is how it comes and I say well I ordered snow crab, not fake krab. He then begins to explain «well real crab is very expensive so I’m going to have to charge you more». I say, I know, I ordered it! I don’t care. He says he has to charge me 6 bucks (a whole dollar 50 more…) and I say fine! I just want what I ordered.
Eventually he brought out the snow crab nigiri, and it was really good. Duh. It’s snow crab. The waitress came back out at some point and apologized, and I was just like yeah I mean, you just can’t put «snow crab» on a menu if that’s not what it is. It’s like if I walked into a place and ordered a hamburger and they brought me a soy patty. She was like, I know what you’re saying. She knew she lied to my face. It was pretty clear they were trying to pull a fast one on me. Fake krab and snow crab taste worlds different, so that’s pretty funny.
While I was talking to the waitress, the owner came back out and thought I was giving her a hard time. I was like no she’s fine, but man you can’t put «snow crab» on a menu if it’s not real crab. I grabbed a menu and pointed out to him that there was a California Roll on it that specifically said «mixed crab» (aka krab), so clearly they knew the difference. He finally ended up giving some weird excuse, saying «well we’re changing the whole menu». Ummm okay?
The ironic part was that they had snow crab the entire time, they were just trying to pass the fake krab off to me as real.
Needless to say I won’t be back.

We were heading off to a road trip in the morning and wanted to grab a nice dinner before leaving town. Both of us were craving sushi, so off we went. BIG MISTAKE!
Can even barely remember what rolls we got (They weren’t memorable at all). Did not trust to get the sashimi here after looking around (Space is too comfortable for a sushi place imo, reminded me of a phở place). Gyozas and Agedashi tofu were weak as starters and that just set the pace for the entire meal.
To make things worse, there was this random guy sitting across the street staring directly at us for a better part of the meal.
This whole experience was bad. Overpriced and low quality food.

Fairly traditional sushi place, aside from all the extra sauce they use.
There is one sushi chef, one server, and an additional worker. Momiji is located on a corner, so don’t miss it like me because I was half expecting a big sushi joint. With that said, Momiji isn’t the biggest restaurant, but there was a good sized party enjoying themselves when my friend and I came in. We were seated right away and given menus. Shortly after our water came out (and so did the refills the whole night). The server was friendly making sure to ask us if we needed anything.
We had the Poki Delight, which was a tuna based Poki salad on top of some seaweed salad. The amount of oil they used topped it off just the right way. We also ordered the Queen, Rainbow, & Flamin’ roll. The most memorable roll for me was the Flamin’ roll — it was filled with spicy tuna and topped off with more tuna, what more can you want?! My least favorite roll was the Queen roll — which was deep fried and didn’t have as much raw fish (you might like this roll if you aren’t a fan of raw fish). The crispiness of the roll however was different, almost as if it was breaded and then fried. The rainbow roll was typical of what you would find anywhere else.
My overall experience here was good.

Went here about 15 min before they closed and ordered take out. The man who helped me was legit. this place has good food and the service is pretty fucking sweet cause they are never really busy.
If you want some real food and a chill spot this old man can hook you up.

Momiji is pretty yummy. Service ranges from average (like during lunch hour rush) to great. I’ve never had a bad meal there. Like their sushi rolls, love their bento boxes, liked their tonkatsu in particular. Consistently good food, polite staff and an aesthetically pleasing environment.
I guess the only thing keeping me from giving them 5 stars is they’re not particularly… memorable? It sounds weird to say– I’ve never been disappointed by Momiji but I’ve never had one of those stellar, memorable experiences either.

I’m definitely freaked out by this place. Not because of the qualify of the food — albeit expensive for the amount — it’s more about the weird vibes and stale atmosphere. At first, I was really impressed with the exposed birch wood panels and intimate, Pacific Northwest feel… but then, the night went stagnant and awkward.
Although we were laughing and having a great night out together– the staff killed any fun we were having.
Beers were out, the minuscule amount of sashimi was placed in front of us and our waitress was crying in the corner. WTF!?! Why was there an argument taking place 20 feet away from our table.
I finally get the term «cut the tension with a knife» because I was chugging my beer in order to get the hell out of there.
I’ll tell you this — while the food was ok, I can get more fresh slabs of fish at Nishiki or Akebono with a much better atmosphere and no one crying in the corner. Nobody puts Rachel’s waitress in the corner! Nobody!

Walk in and noticed sushi fridge only had 2 kinds of fish. Friday evening with barely any customers. Then, walked right out.
Pictures on Unilocal must be fake. There’s no way the fish in the fridge would make sushi show in the pictures.

This was a saving grace for me the night I stayed close by.
There isn’t much around once dinner comes around. It’s in a residential/​convention center area. I was the only one in the night I was here. So it was like my own personal sushi chef. Very nice and very attentive.
Salmon Skin sushi roll. It was the best I have ever had. The skin was VERY crunchy and yummy saltiness was perfect! Spicy Tuna roll was spicy enough for me and tasted ok. I also ordered Inari and you can’t really mess that up. I also ordered Vegetable Tempura appetizer — that was super yummy and I could of eaten all of that.
My meal was about $ 20 and I was stuffed and happy!

Lately I’ve been craving for Japanese food constantly. I Unilocaled for a place near by, and with good pictures and decent average ratings, and came across Momiji.
Unfortunately I was disappointed. The restaurant was so quiet, only one table of people dining — bad sign. We went in anyways because the pictures of their sushi rolls looked really good.
The guy who served (probably the owner) was pretty friendly. They serve edamame and iced water instead of hot tea. There’s a TV behind the chef’s station, and the restaurant is really clean. Let’s cut to the chase and here’s the food critique:
HIYAYAKKO TOFU: Don’t order this, unless you like cold tofu straight outta the refrigerated isle, with a side of grated ginger.
QUEEN ROLL: Huge portions. I swear it could’ve been two orders there. there’s more than a dozen of slices. It’s a deep friend roll drizzled with black sesame and a nice sweet sauce.
RAINBOW ROLL: Wasn’t like any other rainbow rolls I’ve had in the past, in a bad way. And they put tobiko and sauce on top of the fish? Hmmm not what I would expect for this type of roll.
CHIRASHI: Here’s the disappointment. We paid $ 17 for 6 slices of raw fish, one slice of eel, one cooked shrimp, a spoon worth of salmon roe, some seaweed, a tiny scoop of rice, and a few pieces of ginger, all put together on a soup-​bowl-​sized dish. ARE YOU SERIOUS!!! Besides the most basic selection of fish, there’s no advocado, no egg, nothing.
It’s not a horrible place for a quick meal of fresh raw fish and sushi rolls, just nothing fancy nor does it stand out among so many Japanese restaurants.

OMG this has got to be the worse sushi experience EVER! Where do I start.
1. The minute I walked in I felt overwhelmed with the lack of air circulating in the restaurant. It was so stuffy and hot.
2. The sushi chef and the waiter/​owner was fighting in front of us. They took their fight in the kitchen and we could hear them yelling at each other. Very unprofessional.
3. The sushi chef’s ghetto friends kept rolling through. I thought we were in a crack house. The gathering of his ghetto friends continued outside.
4. The fish in our poke special or whatever its called was not fresh. The rice was sour and some parts were sweet. The dynamite roll was disgusting. The rice was slimy. The dragon roll was tiny and lacked flavor. I’m had better rolls from Raleys.
5. The waiter kept forgetting what we ordered. The service was slow despite of being 1 of 2 tables.
This was all for $ 65. I will just stick with Kru next time when I feel like driving to downtown again otherwise its Mikuni in EG.

I came here around 5:10 PM and they were closed. So I called and asked them when they were opening, and they said «right now.» «Right now» took them 30+ more minutes to actually open up their restaurant. They opened about an hour after their business hours said they opened. And this isn’t the only time they’ve done this.
Service was kind, but slow. With only a few patrons in the restaurant, you’d think they’d be more prompt.
The Poke was awesome. The sushi was ehhhh. And the tempura green tea ice cream was awesome. For the price we paid, I’d expect more fullness and a more satisfying meal. Momiji drained the BF’s wallet but left us… lacking.
Frankly, there was just no chemistry between us two. I don’t think there’ll be a second date. No offense, Momiji. You’re just not my type.

Before you judge from their ghetto looking awning, step inside and check it out for yourself. Tamaya in midtown looks legit, but Momiji was definitely a star ahead.
The waitress and owner are so nice. They were really open to modifying my meal. Plus, she hooked it up with free hot edamame and miso soup!
The sashimi, while expensive, was fresh — you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg like you do at Kru for sushi and sashimi. The beef and chicken cutlet bento boxes were surprisingly generous. The only thing I want to mention that the area looks kinda shady at night, bring a whistle.
Haha, kidding! Kinda…