Haiku

We were hungry and in the mood for some Japanese food so after reading such cool reviews from Unilocalers we decided to give it a try. We were seated by a women who was really a man and as we looked into other peoples plates we did not see anything in there that even look good. So after we were seated we got up and left. So glad we did not eat here and waste our money.

Look at my reviews. I don’t mark people down. I’m not going to complain about the food. Yes, it was sub par for $ 25 a person but I don’t really mind that. It’s the customer service that it comes down to. I’m not afraid to tip 30% I give people what I believe they have earned. I gave 8% because i thought for $ 25 we would see some tricks or something like Benihanna. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I wouldn’t mind this except two other cooks were doing tricks at the table and engaging the customers. Also, they forgot two items that we ordered.
AGAIN, I could look past all this. The problen came when I have the tip and we were getting ready to leave and the waitress said we had to tip more. She came over to the table and said there is a problem with the bill. I asked what and she said we must tip more before we leave. Now, the only time I have ever been told this is at a massage parlor whos morals I questioned. Any restraunt that tries to force you to tip more is no establishment I will ever go to again. By the way, I am Japanese and understand the culture and heritage.

30% brown rice in the rolls! I’ve only been to the sushi side of the restaurant, so I can’t comment on the teppan experience. I came here for a late dinner on a weeknight, so it was pretty empty on both sides of the restaurant. Haiku is probably one of the only Japanese restaurants on Garnet that feels like a traditional Japanese restaurant, so that was a pleasant surprise.
My friend and I shared some sake and a few rolls, but the food was not very memorable, aside from the amusing signs claiming 30% brown rice by the hostess stand. The sushi chef and the waitress were both super friendly though, so it was a pleasant experience overall.
I would be interested in coming back to try the teppanyaki one day, but I probably won’t be clamoring to return to satisfy a basic craving for a good vegetarian roll anytime soon.

[This review is about the sushi only, we’ve never tried the hibachi side of the restaurant.]
The sushi is gross. Not just «okay» — but literally inedible. We ordered 3 rolls, two of which were made completely wrong. They added shrimp tempura (which we don’t eat) to one of the rolls we ordered and replaced the yellowtail that was supposed to be on the top of one roll with salmon. All of that aside, the rolls were completely bland. The tuna and the salmon were both flavorless and did not have the texture of fresh fish.
We also ordered the red snapper in hopes that it would redeem the other parts of the meal, and as soon as I put it in my mouth I realized it was completely FROZEN on the inside. I had to spit it out in my napkin because I thought I might gag if I tried to swallow it.
I’m sorry, we gave this place 3 tries… but we can now officially say we will not be back. If you do decide to come here, pass on the sushi.

Some of the worse Japanese food ever! Ordered hot sake — it came cold, sent it back, came back to me in a minute llukewarm– obviously microwaved. Ordered the super spicy tuna roll– NOT spicy at all and the tuna was mussy– old.
My husband couldn’t eat his teriyaki chicken and more. Not a good meal and we won’ t be back. Pretty bad for a $ 70.

Shame we haven’t been here sooner! Authentic Japanese atmosphere, good food, very kind staff. We’ll be back.
Looks like they have great specials too most days during the week.

Not impressed. Don’t try to come here on a budget. There will be nothing for you. Literally nothing.
The food was alright, I’d rather go other places. Yea, the chefs, fine, ok, flashy. But. I just don’t need it.

Good sush and when you want Benihana’s with out all the hupla and wait this is a great replacement :)
Go for happy hour if you’re eating sush and there’s always potential for PB people watching, the partiers have to eat too right!!!

Uncrouded alternative to Beni Hannas
We went here on Fathers Day. Short notice and no problem getting in. The Teppan Chef was fun and entertaining on par with Benni Hannas. The prices pretty much the same. The sushi also was good. Not into crowds? You found the place.

This place was delish! I uploaded a picture of the stuff we ordered, which was a lot of yellow tail. Love that fish! :) Also some salmon and tuna. It was kind of sad… it was totally empty and we were there from about 6:15 –7:15 PM, so prime dinner time.
I would definitely recommend this place. The service was super nice and attentive. The only thing is… it wasn’t really cheap. Even with the 20% off happy hour. Oh well, it was worth it.

So I’m in San Diego for a few weeks on business and stumbled on Haiku. I’m sad to say that I’m very sorry to have gone there and in retrospect would have preferred Denny’s.
The good:
The sushi chef was nice, very personable, and prompt. He even offered me some advice on good sushi places to try and apologized for the lack of selection.
The Bad:
Everything else! The quality of the sushi (with the exception of the Uni) was only «OK» at best, often times it was bland and dry. There was no real selection to choose from outside the very basics, and I had to use lots of Wahhabi and ginger to cover up the taste and I had a lot of tea. Finally the price was in my mind appalling after the experience I had, nearly $ 85 (no alcohol at all). I don’t mind spending over $ 100 for a good experience, some of the more exotic fish, etc, but this was pathetic.
My recommendation is to avoid this place at all costs.

Ok so the sashimi was really good what was really bad was the price and service. I came here with a friend and let me tell you that 4 pieces of sashimi and one cup of miso soup is not worth $ 20. Next time Ill just drive to Genkai in Dana Point (OC) and pay $ 10 for sushi and sashimi.

I love that Haiku offers their happy hour menu to go. And the happy hour is more like a happy day: 12PM — 7PM. They have select items offered at 20% off, beer/​sake specials on certain nights, and rice bowl specials. The sushi here is pretty good. The salmon can be phenomenal if you’re there on the right night. I’ve also eaten on the Teppan yaki side of the restaurant and haven’t had any complaints. It’s always fun to watch the chef make your food and perform some fancy tricks.
The staff here is always friendly, gracious, and accommodating. I’ve never had problems with getting a table here (it’s never that crowded). Parking can be difficult (it is PB), but they do have a small lot behind the restaurant (a few parking spaces) where you just enter in the back of the restaurant to get in.

Probably top 5 Sushi in PB, obviously not number 1; but when you can’t get a reservation or you don’t want to break the bank, this is a great option. Had the standard fare, nothing super exciting as the toro was running at $ 36 that day haha. Everything was tasty and fresh, just what we needed on a hot day in Southern California.

We came here on a Thursday night and the place was pretty empty, but it was early, around 5:30pm so I wasn’t really surprised. Also, the Miami-​Dallas game was on so I’m sure a bar would be where the people are lol!
We came here to celebrate my daughter’s 6^th grade promotion… I know a celebration for 6^th grade promotion, really? Well I guess these days we have to find any and all things to celebrate right? So hell, why not. Gives the husband and I an excuse to skip cooking for a night so that’s a plus :)
We were seated immediately, they took our orders quick, and very shortly after our chef came out and greeted us. The chef was very entertaining, skillful, and the kids were amazed so that’s all that really mattered. The price wasn’t too bad for a teppanyaki place cause I know it can run a lot higher since you’re getting a show with dinner.
Now the food, my husband and I shared the love dinner which included steak, shrimp, and chicken. We also opted for the friend rice. I have to say everything was surprisingly tasty and if you like sauce, the two dipping sauces they include were also very tasty.
If you want a show along with your dinner, this isn’t a bad place to go and I’m sure it’s at least somewhat cheaper than Benihana ;)
Next time I think I’ll have to go back and try the sushi since it seems most people Unilocaled that they were yummy.

Every time this year, the posse gets together and goes to Haiku for our boys bday dinner, its been the same place the last 3 years in a row., So they know we have a large party with over 25 people who love to drink some sake and eat some foods, get loud and have fun in the Teppan Room. This year was the exact same. with the exception that this year I actually went outta the box and got something new to eat.
They got a Sake Bomb Special right now, its pretty cool– A large (21oz) Asian beer of your choice and a Large bottle of Hot sake (aka rubbing alcohol). So Sake Bombs galore and I think we ordered at least 20+ of those specials in our group! Kirin Light was crisp and wonderful the hot sake I’m not a huge fan of, but drank down the shots that were poured for me. Oh yeah its only $ 9.95 for the beer and sake, which is pretty reasonable.
I kept saying this is a lower class of a Beni Hana’s and boy was I right! I think our chef wasn’t having a good night. No Onion Volcano was made for us, no really good jokes told, he barely spoke English, but understood me talkin shit in Spanish, not that a Mexican cant be a Teppan chef or whatever, but, Yo at least have a personality! Isn’t that part of the whole experience. I mean shit, for as much as I’m paying for a fried piece of NY steak, say something funny. I was already saddened that I didn’t have a fat Buddha or ceramic geisha to drink out of .
The chicken fried rice that you pay an extra $ 2.50 for is — ho hum –OK. he used not enough garlic and waay to much soy sauce. I didn’t order any Sushi, but alot of the posse for their Sushi on, It was well presented, looked creepy or really pretty. Since we took up 2 grills, the other chef was way entertaining, so I went over there to watch his song an dance of a show, we pretty much gave our chef the boot and told him he got served by the other chef. Leave it to my mouth to piss off a chef, thank you Sake Bombs for that!
When you have a Sushi Chef as a friend and at your table all you are gonna hear about is fancy fish this and fresh oyster that, I told him his Oysters looked gross, he said they weren’t fresh and not well prepared. So I took his word for that and let him mack those down. Others said their Sushi was pretty good. I really liked the grilled veggies best. But how do you mess up grilled fried veggies?
Bottom line is I only go here 1x a year and its all for Paco’s Bday! If it wasn’t for the Sake flowin and my kick ass posse of friends Id never roll into this joint ever again! And I’m stoked I didn’t have to figure out the bill for all those drunken boys, I got this year off! So yey to that ! But when I got home, I got über sick, and yakking up Steak isn’t fun, so thanks Haiku for a horrible ending to a great fun night!

Went here for lunch after a day at the beach and it was the perfect thing to have for lunch.
Went with a friend, and we were the only one there since we went at an off peak time. We sat at the sushi bar and the sushi chef was very funny and entertaining.
I had the TYS (tuna, yellowtail, salmon) and the sashimi was very good. There wasn’t a fishy taste to it that you sometimes get if the restaurant uses lower quality fish (gross!)
I also had a roll but I forgot the name, Baja something roll. It was a huge roll with a kick to it. Very spicy. I liked that they didn’t have to cover up their fish with a ton of sauce or other things like other places tend to do. I could actually taste the fish in my roll and it was delicious.
I will definitely be coming back with more friends, and hopefilly get to try out the grill side

I’ve lived in PB for about 3 years now and after having driven by here hundreds of times finally made my way in.
This place is easily comparable to Benihana but you don’t have the overcrowdedness, the long wait time or the loud and boisterous diners… and did I mention that the prices are a lot cheaper than Benihana?
The food was delicious, plentiful, decently priced and the «show,» although rather similar to that of Benihana, decent. This is a good place to go when you want Benihana food but don’t want to pay the huge price and wait…
This place is like Benihana «light,» except that the food is about the same quality, the prices are lower and everything else is on a lower level.

Decent. I’d give it a 3.5, but we don’t have that option.
Went here around 7 on Saturday and sat in the steakhouse part (versus the other room devoted to sushi and other meals).
Presentation was good, servers were attentive, no complaints. Of course, we’re in PB, so I had to constantly hear an overweight kid in a track suit do Jersey Shote impressions and yell «Natalie!!!’ at the table behind us (which they graciously reciprocated, vs. telling him he was a PB DB.).
Honestly, it’s a cool place for PB and kind of hidden (right next to Chiptole). it seems fairly free of the typical PBDB’s… which is a great thing. Honestly though, it’s just ok, so I’d give it a 3.5 if I could, but I can’t ;-)
About $ 45 a person for food + two beers.

I came here about twice in the last few months.
They are located away from the main bars on Garnet so parking is a bit easier to find for this place, but nevertheless its still PB, haha.
Service here isn’t the best as they aren’t too attentive, and we waited at least 5 mins or so each time we were here for the server to bring out our menu checklist thing to mark what we wanted.
I have not seen this place crowded yet, with only a few small groups of people chillin’ out eating, so thats minus one star based on service.
They have a good selection of sushi and sashimi, more than others in the area. The fish quality here was also very good from my last two experiences. The fish is firm and has a nice color to it and doesn’t smell or taste like its been sitting around for too long, so thats a plus.
Rolls are made nice and firm so it won’t break apart easily for you chopstick noobs: P
Pricing here is about average with other places but you get way better quality stuff here.
The drinks here are quite ok, sake is about 5 or 6 bucks, you can get house sake for two people.
Overall, I give this place a 3 star, for their decent quality sushi and rolls but minus one for their below average service.