Sushi On A Roll

We celebrated my husband’s 60^th birthday at SOAR. The price is reasonable, the food and the staff were great. It’s a cozy place that fits 75 to 100 people. We were allowed to bring more food or you can even ask Lorna if she can order the food you want. They have a bar– serves beer and wine, no hard liquor though. But you can bring your own wine/​beer, and they will serve them for you.
The chefs were around to prepare and serve sushi which were all delicious!!! Our guests loved them!!! We also have a bartender and a server. They took care of everything!!!
It’s like having 2 rooms. The entrance is big. We were able to fit our photo booth and some displays and decorations. And another room where the actual dining area is. We also rented a dance floor.
They have a gated parking area, also.
Everybody had a great time!!!

This experience was so much fun! Jeff and his girlfriend were amazing. So accommodating and entertaining. Made my friend’s birthday so fun and special! We will be returning :)

Jeff, Lorna and their staff are the best part of this hidden gem! We recently had a get together with friends at Sushi on a Roll.
Some of the things we thought were excellent were
–Jeff and his people really know their stuff.
–They use video really well and the circular bar works well in creating a stage in the middle.
–The vibe inside is well thought out. There aren’t tv’s with Sports Center or CNN. –
–There is cool art and they even have live turtles in one area of the space.
We loved every minute of it. Everyone loved learning how to make several tasty rolls and we also loved the sake and Sapporo beer.

Jeff is an amazing sushi chef very creative, and his food is sooo oisshiii (delicious)in Japanese. I luv all his rolls, his spam musubi, I always see him at all the cool festivals like Pacarts, he will be at he beer and sake festival so I just can’t wait, he also teaches sushi classes so that is amazing too

Sushi on a Roll is a event center and also has sushi making classes. If you want to learn how to make sushi, need somewhere to have an event with sushi, or need catering, this is a great place to go.
Bacon, Surimi (imitation crab), Avocado Roll is a different take on a California Roll. You’ve heard the saying, «Bacon makes everything taste better.» In this case, it definitely does. The bacon adds a crispy, smoky, salty flavor. The perfectly ripe avocado adds a creamy flavor and texture. The surimi adds a sweetness. It’s a perfectly balanced roll. It doesn’t need shoyu, but a light dip in it with wasabi, is just onolicious! Rating: ⁵⁄₅
Spicy Tuna Roll is finely minced tuna with just the right amount of spicy flavor. The avocado on the outside adds a creamy flavor and beautiful presentation when it is cut. Rating: 4.5÷5
Poke Salad is mixed with wakame (seaweed) salad, tuna, salmon, and tako (octopus) and garnished with avocado and burdock root «match sticks». Beautiful presentation on the plate. A little more shoyu and sesame oil would do wonders, but refreshingly good as is. Rating: 4.5÷5
Fuego Roll is surimi, jalapenos, and topped with minced spicy salmon and sriracha. The roll is beautifully presented and slightly spicy. There is an umami flavor play where spicy, sweet, salty, and sour meet all in one roll. Rating: 4.5÷5

The best experience ever! I got the 2 person sushi making class deal on travelzoo. Saké was delicious and smooth! Sushi was hands down the best sushi I’ve ever had. Fresh, delicious and traditionally put together. The master chefs Jeff and Dave are amazing teachers as well as awesome people themselves. They thoroughly went over the history, secrets and detailed traditional Japanese sushi styles — while clearly distinguishing what not/​never to do. Overall, I am very happy with the experience. One downs side, or at least an FYI for future class customers, it’s VERY hard to find the location, it’s discrete; so arrive early for preferred seating at the bar. Highly recommend!!!

Birthday dinner with my fiancé and it was lovely. The ladies serving are super nice and informative. The guys rolling the sushi are best best. And BTW, Big Mike does the occasional Wednesday happy hour. :) Best Sushi chief in San Diego.

All the rolls are incredibly fresh. Must try then chefs board aka Omakase. A lot of the top sushi chefs in town roll at SOAR. Jeff Roberto, Big Mike, Dave Yee to name a few. One thing to remember is that SOAR is primarily an event center vs your standard restaurant. The clientele that would really appreciate this place would be the type that envisions themselves hosting or throwing an event there.

This review was for an event I threw on ⁵⁄₂₄. We were looking for a fun and cool venue (lounge-​like) to celebrate my daughter’s 18^th birthday and graduation. I was referred to SOAR by Janice from
. At first glance this hole-​in-​the-​wall sushi joint may look dreary but after the food tasting n Lorna’s beautiful explanation of how she would set up the venue to my daughter’s approval, I was at ease!
The place fit all 100+ guests comfortable! It also had space for my photobooth, DJ and donut makers!
I had 2 sushi makers, server and bartender. Honestly, this was the first party where I did not have to lift a finger. SOAR took care of EVERYTHING!
How was the food you wonder?! Delicious!!! I have to admit its been a long time since I had good sushi because my family and I frequent the «40% off your sushi» joints, or buffets. Everything was delicious cause it was freshly made and there was no skimming on the good stuff. Since there were over 100 guests in and out, we had it buffet style!!!
Im actually looking into throwing hubby’s 40^th bday just because its so convenient, reasonably price, and great service!!!

Just had their islander plate lunch wow awesome the kalbi short ribs were amazing they do lunches on Mondays and Tuesday

What a great place to bring people you care about to share a relaxing and fun experience! We brought our music & cocktails to a sushi bar to celebrate Tararrific’s birthday— and had a class on how to make yum rolls before kooky karaōke= AWESOME TIME!!!

Great Service. Professional catering with Fresh ingredients and a clean presentation. Their private kitchen is great for parties. Free parking and nice atmosphere!

My brother was able to rent this space out for his wedding rehearsal dinner. We had two workers rolling sushi as everyone arrived. Everyone was super hungry so every time a plate was put out it was gone within the next minute. Their sushi is great and I loved their seaweed salad. Since the place is set up for sushi making classes, there wasn’t a whole lot of mingle room and getting to and from the bathroom was a tight squeeze sometimes. You can bring additional food, refreshments, booze (must be under a certain %), and entertainment.
The two guys working were definitely put to work and they had almost no time to breathe! Great work ethic but it might have been a better idea to have some more food already prepared so they don’t have to scramble to put together rolls for a bunch of hungry beasts!
Overall, I liked the atmosphere of the place. It held a good amount of people (about 75 I think) with extra room and I loved that you could bring your own stuff in addition to their great food. They have their own parking lot too so you don’t find yourself wandering about in this area!

Review for Sushi Class:
We attended the sushi class on April 12, 2012. As other reviewers have noted, they really pack people in which makes for a less than ideal learning experience.
The staff is friendly and there is a parking lot adjacent to the facility which makes parking easy.
There is very little information that is actually exchanged as part of the «class».
There is a course outline that they print but they didn’t cover most of it. All you learn how to do is make a basic hand roll and a California roll. There were no recipes handed out for the Sushi rice, no pointers on ingredients or sources other than a few brief mentions. No information about cutting fish, presentation, etc.
They don’t have participants wash hands and the setup is not 100% conducive to a clean kitchen experience.
Comparing to cooking classes at places like Sur le Table — I’d give Sushi on a Roll a very low grade. At $ 70 for two people it’s not much of a great value — if we had paid the «claimed» $ 166 retail price we would have been really upset.
At the end of the day we still had a pretty good time though.
Sushi on a Roll– if you’re reading, the experience could be vastly improved with very little effort. Put the rice recipe on a printout along with some local resources, etc.
And do spend some time on picking sushi grade fish and cutting fish as well as on presentation.

My wife and I attended the sushi making class last evening and were both quite disappointed as our expectations did not even come close to being met. The only positive I can say is that the staff was very friendly, but that is about it.
Very little in the way of learning how to make sushi rolls. Too many people were allowed in at once so unless you were the few lucky ones directly in front of the sushi chef you really could not see the technique.
Seemed like it was more of an infomercial for Sushi on a Roll which is not a restaurant at all, but a catering company. The chef owner brags about being the chosen company to provide sushi to the stars and other celebs and talks about events costing thousands and tens of thousands of dollars. But then they have us make one fake fish california roll, one fake fish california hand roll and one spicy tuna hand roll.
No written materials to go home with such as techniques, recipes, cooking methods for sushi rice, local places to buy sushi quality fish, or local sushi restaurants.
It could have been done so much better and the chef could have at least showcased his talents if he is a good as he says he is (I have no reason to doubt that he is a Japanese trained chef), but if you are asking people to refer you business or use your services, why wouldn’t you try to impress them?
All in all poor, value for the $ 69 we paid and I could not recommend using his company for catering given the experience we had.

This review is for their sushi making class.
We saw this deal on groupon for sushi making class and were super excited to go. After reading all the great Unilocal reviews, I was even MORE excited. However, though the class was interesting, it was far below my expectations.
Pros:
–informative: they gave a bit on sushi history, and taught you how to make sushi, and had 4 – 5 chefs and a few waitresses to guide you through the process
–rice was AMAZING. best sushi rice ever. Made the simple spicy tuna and california roll taste SO much better
–wasabi was AMAZING. I normally never eat wasabi, but tried it there just b/​c the chefs were talking about how their wasabi is freshly made daily. I guess making them daily DO make a difference. I loved it!
–appetizers free if you get there early (6:30p)
–had a bar, drinks on sell. The husband had a beer and liked it, said it was a type of beer they sell in Japan.
Cons:
–info on sushi history was brief… I didn’t care too much about it
–the tips they gave were good, but few — and they kept on repeating it over and over again (cooking rice takes a long time, please book us for your next party, buy your sushi chef a drink. blabhlabh). I totally agree with all the tips, but I must’ve heard it 10 0000x by the end of the 2 hours
–the day we went to had ~70+ people, they split us into 2 groups, and crammed ~40 people per room. This would’ve been okay except, I honestly don’t think their «classrooms» were designed to accommodate SO many people. We had to squeeze 4 people /​tiny table. Right away this was a major turn off for me. It made me feel like they were just there to make money. Even though I know it’s true, I don’t want to FEEL like they’re just there to make money off of me.
–they limit how much sushi you can make. For hand rolls, they limit how much nori (seaweed) they gave you. For california rolls, they only gave you enough to make 1 roll
–we only «learned» how to make 2 things: spicy tuna and california roll. I was a bit disappointed cause one of the old Unilocal review said there used to be 3 types/​classes!
–again, disappointed b/​c I read the old Unilocal review where she said you get free sushi rolling mat at the end… we didnt =(– I wouldn’t count this as a con though, just my expectations
–one of the chefs was difficult to understand at first. I feel as if he were one of those people who are GREAT at what they are doing but cannot teach others.
Overall, it was a fun experience for us because it was our first time. But we would not go back.

Absolutely the best Sushi you can get. They use only the BEST products, and ingredients. Jeff and his crew are knowledgeable, friendly and passionate about their food and presentation. I have personally worked with Jeff on several wine, Sushi, and fund raising events. He is professional, courteous and the Sushi is amazing. That from someone who knew very little about Sushi a year ago.
Be sure to book him for your next event. Your friends and family will be impressed!

SOAR to the rescue!
after a last minute onsite sushi catering cancellation, i called SOAR 2 days prior to my event and they took care of me. they didn’t have available sushi chefs to come, but they were able to provide great sushi for 15 people. i was speaking to jeff on the phone and he was extremely helpful.
at the day of the event, lori delivered the sushi on time. given the time frame that they had to work with… they really pulled it off! the sushi presentation wasn’t the best (shifted around during the delivery), but it was okay. they gave us enough chopsticks, soy sauce, ginger, etc…
the sushi was good. the cutrolls were a little small. the spicy salmon/​tuna handrolls were great. the tuna wasn’t the normal mashed up kind… it was hand cut like the salmon.
my only suggestion for next time is for them to label the sushi containers. we had people at the event who were allergic to shell fish and we didn’t know what roll was what.
overall…SOAR was great! i would recommend them for any event.

Cool, unique, fun, tasty, informative…
What a great place. I recently attended a private event at Sushi On A Roll SOAR and loved it.
These guys generally are found catering most of the events and hotels in San Diego with Sushi. When they are not catering, they are holding private events at this location and teaching people how to make sushi! The sushi chef has been in the industry for 20 years and has trained most of the sushi chefs in town as well.
I highly recommend them for your private party needs. Everyone has such a good time and it is so laid back.

Apparently, the Monday all-​you-​can eat, $ 15 special is like a different restaurant. I was excited to try this place, and was ‘soar’ly disappointed.
So I felt obligated to lay out some ground rules for anyone out there who wants to offer an «all-​you-​can-​eat» special at their restaurant.
1. Serve food that would normally be on the menu. Customers are coming to your buffet expecting food that you’d typically sell at your restaurant.
2. Keep buffet items stocked; after all, it’s not truly a buffet if the trays are empty.
3. Have a reasonable variety; all-​you-​can-​eat sushi implies more than just a couple different rolls.
Sushi On A Roll’s buffet violates all of my rules. And to boot, it’s located across the street from a row of homeless tents.
If you really like low quality fish in rainbow rolls (which is the only «decent» roll they serve), and don’t like to eat much at buffets (they only have 1 chef making sushi for everyone so rolls come out 1 at a time), and like to go to dark streets at night with tents of homeless people, then you’re in luck!
To everyone else, don’t be enticed by the price. Based on these reviews, you’re better off going to their normal restaurant.