Ganko Sushi

Bummer– after 25 years of eating here with regularity I will miss this place. They have officially closed their doors. I miss Ganko Sushi.

Small, and i mean SMALL, sushi restaurant in downtown San Carlos that offers lunch specials if you’re in the area
special rolls range form 6 to 8 pieces depending on which one you order
—Special roll we ordered that day was good! loved the salty unagi paired with the sweet papaya which added great texture
—Salmon nigiri: not bad, came with a sliver of lemon on top which was a nice touch unless you’re all about the straight raw fish, then you’d probably be offended
wouldn’t go out of my way for this one, but i used to work a block away!

BEWARD!!! My coworkers and I have been going for awhile now. Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back. One of the restaurant worker is fraudulently charging our credit cards for thousand of dollars. Happens to three of coworkers recently. Called the restaurant owner and he refused to handle the situation.

I’ve been here three times now and ordered my usual fare. Spicy tuna roll, white tuna sashimi, tempura roll, and chicken donburi. The sushi is reasonable and the donburi is standard. Nothing exceptional, but decent food. I still think Hotaru in San Mateo is one of the best sushi options on the peninsula. But for those nights when staying close to home is in the cards, Ganko fits the bill.

Love the quality of the sushi. Run by Husband & Wife. They have a simple menu, however everything is done perfectly. If you are looking for fancy rolls & stuff you won’t find that here. You will find good quality simple sushi & good service.

4.5 stars. I brought my family — a very picky 7 year old who used to cry when we went out for Japanese, and an even pickier 4 year old who will refuse any foods that do not look familiar. They actually ate every crumb and asked for more. My salmon nigiri was very fresh, and my husband enjoyed the unaju bento box. This is a tiny place, and the menu has seen better days, and the offerings are not the most innovative or expansive, but the tried and true are reliably good. Better than Shiki Sushi down the street.

This is now my favorite sushi restaurant in San Carlos. Some new fancy ones moved in, quickly shrinking portions while increasing price. Ganko is not pretentious, has excellent quality fish, prepared properly, with great quality rice (and real ginger, leaf green tea). Love the blue and white rabbit decorations along with the Japanese paintings. Tough for them being off the main street, but good for me to enjoy a peaceful dinner.

One of our favorite date night spots! The owners are wonderful and the food is always delicious.

This is my favorite sushi restaurant! Hiro and Lisa, the owners are the best! I’ve been going here for 12 years now and the quality of their food has always been top notch. The fish is always fresh and portions are big, Hiro does not skimp on the fish! I recommend this sushi restaurant to anyone looking for great tasting, fresh sushi prepared by a Japanese born chef :)

Not the best, but not the worst sushi spot around. I order to-​go when I’m just too hungry and tired to go anywhere else. As a hungry and tired person, the meals that I order from here will usually suffice.
I’ve ordered different rolls, appetizers, and bento boxes from Ganko. The bento boxes are really good, but come in tiny portions (and that’s coming from a girl who barely finishes any of her meals!). The sushi rolls are pretty good, but don’t offer the freshest fish in town. The appetizers are usually tasty, but again, come in tiny portions. Tonight, I ordered the poke and I was very disappointed. It was covered in spicy, heavy sauce, and it sat on a few tears lettuce. Their food is usually of better quality than this.
The service is decent. My food is rarely ready on time but the server always rushes to get it finished when I arrive.

The sashimi plate was pretty succulent and fresh, even on a Tuesday night, when sometimes it is not the freshest time of the week 4 sushi. So I was pleased. The 12 piece sashimi assortment included salmon, hamachi, tuna, and not sure about the last delicious delicate fish but it was a hitta. The place is nothing special inside, but the take out was speedy and easy and I was happy. I will be back! But get at me if you know of a better sashimi place in San Carlos or Belmont!

This is a nice family run restaurant with fantastic sushi and awesome lunch bento box meals. I like going here for sushi.

Grabbed takeout from here for lunch. They have a few lunch specials, but no roll specials for lunch, which is unfortunate. I only like to get rolls for lunch if I’m craving sushi. Their rolls are actually pretty expensive for the quality they’re providing. They price spicy tuna roll at $ 6.50 and it was very mediocre. I would’ve only paid maybe $ 4 for it.

I came here for lunch today and it was very enjoyable. I haven’t found too many sushi restaurants where I’m impressed by the quality and freshness of the fish.
Lunch for 2 came out to $ 40 without tip. We got 2 green teas, a sashimi platter (12 pieces), nabeyaki udon, and a spicy tuna roll.
The sashimi platter was delicious — the pieces of fish were thick and tasted great. The nabeyaki udon was one of my favorite udons I’ve had in a while. It had chicken, egg, shrimp, little tempura flakes. It was flavorful, the noodles were chewy, and it wasn’t salty. I definitely would get this again.
I wasn’t too impressed with the spicy tuna roll — there was more spicy than tuna in the roll, and it was a little overpowering. The size of the roll was a little small.
Slightly pricey for lunch, but it’s sushi and it was delicious. The restaurant is small, but it was not busy at all during the lunch hour. Service was fine, nothing exceptional. It seemed like our waitress was annoyed at us when we asked for extra bowls, etc to share food. Overall, it was a great experience and I would come back.

Ambiance: 5 stars
Food: 5 stars
Service: 4.5 stars
This is a great sit-​in restaurant in the Peninsula. The people who own the restaurant are very friendly and courteous. For food, I ordered the nigiri chef special, which was quite plentiful for the price. The fish was very fresh, and it was put together very well, unlike some places where the rice falls apart right when your chopsticks touch it.
Since it is a small sit-​in, there are not too many tables, and parking is a bit difficult when the lot is full, and if you do not know the area. However, the seating and the tables are not too terribly close to each other and it is quite comfortable. I definitely recommend this place to those seeking great sushi in the Bay Area.

I’ve been going to Ganko for years, since I was a kid, though I hadn’t been in about 10 years, until last week. It was as good as I remember. It’s a relatively quiet, family-​run restaurant. I remember when it was the first sushi place in San Carlos.
I’ve never seen another place with a macadamia nut roll — it’s my favorite sushi roll of all time. It has eel, macadamias, and avocado and the combination is truly amazing. It was just as good as I remembered. We also enjoyed a shiitake roll, Lisa roll, maguro, unagi, and Alaska roll. All were lovely.
I actually really appreciate how modest-​sized the rolls are. Many places make huge rolls, but they are so much rice! I much prefer less rice and very flavorful fillings, which Ganko has.
It’s not a place for people looking for an incredibly hip sushi joint. If you’re here for the food and not a party atmosphere, you won’t be disappointed.

2.5 for all around and a 5 STARS for the great service!
There were two people working — a chef and an EVERYTHING ELSE. They rocked it! Service was timely and the place was fairly full of patrons on a Friday night.
The menu wasn’t really what I was expecting for roll selection and the place has that fishy odor that makes me a little trepadacious to order my favorite thing… the Sashimi Platter. So, I stuck with the basics and we split a few of their rolls and had Miso. Zak ordered their $ 9 Specialty beer. It was «ok» he said, but he didn’t order a 2^nd.
that’s about it for this place, really.

3.5 to be more accurate…
Food: Delish!
Prices: a bit high… and the charge for tea… cuts the scoring by .5. The upside to the tea is that it’s damn tasty and if you look at it, it’s ACTUAL tea leaves and such. It’s not a tea bag.
Presentation: A+
Quality: A+
Service: a bit slow.
The chirashi has a great assortment of sashimi and all of the pieces were well put together. The size of the chirashi was a bit small IMO BUT the quality of the fish made up for it. I really enjoyed the salmon and Ika… Both were super fresh and oooh so yummy. I could have done without the spider roll. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as I expected it to be… same with the spicy tuna.
I think it’s a good place but considering I have a place that’s closer to me and has quality sushi… it may be a while before I come back here.

Meh. I’d rather drive 15 minutes North to downtown San Mateo than drive 10 minutes south to San Carlos for Ganko.
Appetizers range around $ 6-​$ 9. Donburis $ 7 – 15 (for the unaju, which i thought is quite pricey).
I ended up getting the cheapest bento box, chicken teriyaki, for $ 13.95, which is still what I consider pricey. But, it did come with 3 pieces of gyoza, choice of tuna sashimi or California Roll, miso soup and salad.
The chicken was dark meat, thank goodness, smothered in teriyaki sauce and in the same compartment as the rice, which made it easy to mix my rice with the sauce.
I opted for the tuna sashimi, and was surprised with 3 pieces of yellowtail and 2 pieces of salmon. I was looking forward to tuna, but the waitress said that was the fresh fish they had available.
My friend opted for California Roll and got 8 decently sized pieces.
The salad dressing was mayonnaisey.
MY ISSUE WITH GANKO: when asked what you’d like to drink, you would assume, or at least hope that hot tea is complimentary. For good measure, I checked the menu for a price and did not see it, affirming my assumption that it was complimentary. WRONG. HOT GREEN TEA IS $ 2 A PERSON. That is ludicrous, and robbery. After we got the bill, I drank up all the tea for my money’s sake.
I give them 3 stars because they’re a decent restaurant, and not terrible that I’d slap them in the face with 2 stars. Despite that, I most likely won’t be back.

Yes, good sushi here that’s worth eating.
Japanese run, in San Carlos. It has this «yes, this is good sushi» flavor. The next closest place to go for that is Kabuto in SF. I’m not kidding. Or Kirala in Berkeley. We go to Ganko pretty regularly, and haven’t had a bad night yet.
Frankly before I found ganko I just hadn’t been eating sushi much because it’s a big drive to Kabuto, and if I’m in San Mateo I’ll sooner order «chicken teriyaki» than eat sushi that’s just OK. (actually I end up at Kokko. If I’m going to eat Japanese BBQ’d chicken it might as well taste right.)
Owner and his wife were very nice. Hamachi, Suzuki, snow crab, tamago were all tasty. The saba is particularly good here – he balances the flavors very well.
Am happy to have somewhere nearby to go for sushi.