Midori

This place had (and always will) a special place in my heart. Yes the food was just okay but the service was great.
This was the place where my now husband and then boyfriend (2006) first said «I love you» to me. So I was a bit tipsy from the sake, but not that tipsy because I still remember that moment and of course the place.
Midori, thanks for the memories.

So sad that this place closed down! =[
The sushi here was alright, but the environment of the place was really why I kept coming back. Loved its late night hours and Jeff is honestly the BEST host I have ever encountered. I have never felt so welcomed in a place until I came to Midori! It will be missed!

Drove by the other day to have dinner here since we haven’t been here in over 7 years. Looks like it is no longer Midori — there is a Phở Restaurant sign out front. The new place doesn’t look to be open yet.
We’ll miss you, Midori!

I feel a little bad for giving them only 3 stars. My family and I have been coming to Midori for almost ten years now and I kind of have a soft spot for them… but things have gone WAAAAAAYY downhill.
I have no complaints about the food. Rolls are great, fish quality is good, portions are just right, and they have this Butterfish dish that is AMAZING. It’s melt in your mouth delicious!
The real problem is the waitstaff. Service used to be spotty but now is downright awful. You may want refills, or to order, or tell them they brought the wrong food… good luck finding your server. I’ve seen them sitting and eating in the closed section of the restaurant. Ugh. But on the other hand, if the super-​overenthusiastic host notices that you need something, he will stand by your table and flag down someone like air traffic control until your needs are met.
Now I mostly order take-​out instead and the same guy always recognizes me and throws in a free Sprite. Thanks, guy!

I’ve been coming to this place for about two years now. The food has always been good and the service has improved over time. I used to joke with my then-​fiancé that we got slow service because we were not Asian enough! Ha! Well after observations I can tell that it’s just luck of the draw and in the last year or so I would say the service has been consistently good.
My 5 year old daughter loves it here, and she only eats the white rice. But, she loves the staff, the gregarious guy who SHOUTS in Japanese (can’t spell it, won’t try, but I assume it means hello or welcome) as soon as you open the front door, then proceeds to sing «Happy Birthday to You» to my daughter in a super-​loud voice. This cracks us all up! The main waitress is also really nice and talks to my daughter and even tries to get her to try new things. We only come once a month or so but we get treated like «regulars.» Nice feeling. :)
We only get the rolls, the gyoza, sometimes sashimi, and miso soup, but I’ve never had anything bad here. Also, this place does not smell fishy, like –ahem – Ariake (blech), which is a total turn-​off in a sushi restaurant.
The bathrooms and the comfort level of the seating could use a little improvement. But that won’t stop us from returning monthly.

Sushi here wasn’t too horrible but the décor was bad. I almost never complain about the décor unless something is wrong.
The seats and tables were all pretty worn out. I felt slightly uncomfortable dining at such a run down restaurant. This is not a place to take your date to! You had been warned.
The food was okay but there wasn’t anything to be excited about. Most of the nigiri and rolls were just standard fare. The portion was very generous. If you want a quick and fulfilling Japanese meal, Midori might be the place to go. Just don’t expect a nice fancy sushi dinner.

I am surprised this place got such high reviews. I am not trying to be a debbie downer here giving this place a one star, but hear me out on this…
I only been to this place once, never tried the food, but I am never going back there again. So around half a year ago, my dad, sis, and I decided to check out this place. It is pretty close to where we lived and the reviews aren’t bad. When we got to the restaurant however, the first thing I noticed was a stench that smelled like piss. The place was empty because they just opened for lunch. After we got seated, I heard some rattling noises and banging in the kitchen. Then for the first time I ever, I saw a LIVE RAT running in the restaurant. I didn’t know what to say, I couldn’t believe my eyes. So I didn’t say anything… then a second later, the manager came out and told us that the gas pipeline wasn’t working. Which was bullshit because I am Taiwanren and I heard them talking about trying to find the rat… The manager gave me a can of sprite and hurried us out the restaurant. I mean, it could be that day a rat just happened to run into the kitchen and through the restaurant who knows… But the fact the manager tried to cover it up makes it seem a bit more suspicious. Sometimes I wish they have those health safety ratings like socal restaurants up here. Trust, I love the Disney movie Ratatouille. But a real live rat in a restaurant is scary as f*ck…

My boyfriend and I dropped by this place after hearing rave reviews from a few of his coworkers, but we should have known that something was amiss when we pulled up at prime dinner hour and the parking lot had three cars. Upon entering the large restaurant, we saw three or four tables with customers, and the rest of the restaurant largely empty. The flat screen TVs were a nice touch, and the hostess was very friendly in seating us.
Now, about the seating. You can sit in these booths with tatami coverings — the first booth we sat in smelled like pee. I’m so serious. Overwhelming stench of dried, putrid urine. It was so bad I had to move seats. Once we moved seats, we were given the menus. Large selection of food, very colorful, and we ordered a ton. In no particular order, here is how the food fared:
1) Hamachi sashimi — this was not fresh; a few slices had a weird fishy taste, it was slightly spongy, and I just didn’t feel comfortable eating more than 2 slices of the 6.
2) Fried onigiri — my favorite dish here, I really loved the fried rice shaped into a triangle. If I could only eat one thing from here, this would be it.
3) Futomaki rolls — Came with avocado (most don’t), and wasn’t very tasty.
4) Tamago — flavorless
5) Yakisoba — My boyfriend was not impressed
To top it off, I was listening to the staff talk in Chinese and they were talking smack about a large family with lots of children who were asking for a lot of things (like forks, more California rolls, etc). Granted, the family was being a tad obnoxious, but still, the staff should know better than to shout mean words in Chinese.
Finally, that night, after eating dinner, my boyfriend and I had to use the toilet like straight away, if you know what I mean, and we hadn’t eaten anything prior to our meal there. You get the picture. Not coming back.

The sashimi here is pretty fresh, very limited selections. The tuna tataki is excellent. I would recommend ordering their specials, just ask the sushi chef. The chef is so nice.
This place is a bit pricey, but good to try. I haven’t really tried their rolls.

yum.yum. give me some!
fresh fish. solid service. can’t really ask for more. ok, you can. but let’s be realistic.

Going out for Sushi, at its best, is an experience as well as a meal. A good sushi restaurant has atmosphere, character, variety, and quality.
Midori has all this and more — delicious food and a staff that is warm and bracing. Jeff is a fantastic server! He knows his regulars and gets to know the newcomers with the same aplomb; from a raucous shout of greeting to a generous hand with the hot sake, he made our trip into an event. The kitchen staff is no slouch either! The menu is hugely diverse, and everything I tried was delicious and arrived at the table fresh and at the appropriate temperature.
An attentive and embracing staff, delicious food, and a pleasant atmosphere — Midori is my new favorite for Japanese!

After stuffing myself the night before at Morocco’s, I decided to go for something a little lighter…
We chose Midori based on past experiences. Something was wrong from the very beginning. We were seated almost immediately and were only given their kabob menus. The hostess insisted that the menu were on their way. They came 20 minutes after we sat down.
It took another 20 minutes before we finally got a chance to order our food. Granted there were only 3 waiters/​waitresses working on a hot Sunday evening… but we were hungry…
When our dishes came out… they came out one by one.
Overall, we were really disappointed with their service. Their food was good. We also got free red bean ice cream for the poor service…

Either the managment changed or something has.
Not the place it used to be. Different menu, different customer service, mediocre sushi. Did give us free ice cream after our meal though.

Food is pretty decent, standard fare. Nothing exceptional but at the same time nothing to complain about.
But the food’s not the reason it gets 5 stars.
We went here for a friend’s birthday on Friday night after being aghast at the prices at the BBQ place next door. As soon as we walk in we get the standard Japanese shouting courtesy of Jeff (manager? I’m not sure), who also adds «Happy Birthday!» How he knew it was someone’s birthday I’ll never know.
We go to the tatanmi rooms in the back and everything’s going along normally, with Jeff making a bunch of birthday girl cracks. About half way through our meal Jeff comes back and sees that our tea cups are half empty. «What! No hot tea!» he exclaims, «I’ll go fire her (meaning the waitress) now!» to which all five of us laughed at.
The birthday policy at Midori is that the birthday person gets free ice cream, but our entire group got free ice cream AND free mochi, which just made us very happy.
There was a whole bunch of other funny/​awesome things but I can’t think of them all right now.
Anyway the point of this story is that Jeff is awesome and if you’re going to go to Midori, go on Friday or Saturday (those are his new hours I believe).

I actually stumbled upon this place on one of my late night runs on El Camino. I eat at weird hours most of the time and it’s hard to get good food. I think I was driving around on El Camino around 10pm looking for something good to eat. I passed by Midori at first, noting that they had late night specials and karaōke. I originally passed it up because I wasn’t sure that it was open, and I assumed that if I had sushi that late, that I would end up eating something I would regret later.
Anyways, third time up the street heading back in the direction of home, I noticed that their sign said midnight special, so my boyfriend and I figured we would give it a try and see if it was open. By that time it was around 10:30 nearing 11pm. I think the manager was working that night, a jolly Asian man. He was so nice and funny, he gave me this weird wooden sculpture thingy and I had no idea what it was for. He explained that if I needed anything, I could push the button and he would come. He also explained to me that if my date was ‘touching me’ that I should push the button and he would come beat him up (hehehe).
So during the course of the meal, he would remind me of the button, and making sure my date wasn’t molesting me (heh). He was hilarious and he took some time to talk about the restaurant and explain why karaōke night wasn’t happening anymore.
We ordered a rainbow roll, 2 orders of philadelphia rolls, a dragon roll, and a bowl of udon. I also ordered chirashi sushi, as I love it when it’s made good =)
I started out with some edamame, which they served warm and slightly salted. It was really good, and they gave a big portion of it. It was also salted just right, so I wasn’t fiending for water and the edamame itself tasted very good.
The chirashi was decent, there were 4 kinds of fish in it, and I kindly ignored the ikura by rolling it out of sight. There were no seasonings of any kind on the rice, and it was all common fish. I appreciate it when I get a variety of fish instead of a lot of one fish, or mostly common sashimi. The rainbow rolls and dragon rolls were standard as well. I was impressed that the food was so good at that late an hour, so perhaps their food is spectacular during peak hours.
The udon was good, the broth was tasty, and they had a lot of ingredients in it. It came in a big hot black cast iron type bowl on top of a piece of wood. It looked really hot, so I didn’t touch it until after the boyfriend was done with it.
My only disappointment was with the philadelphia rolls as they only put a little teeny tiny dab of cream cheese on it. I like the ingredients to take a ¹⁄₃ proportion or ½ salmon, ¼th of avocado and 14^th of cream cheese. I couldn’t taste that it was in there, and I thought it was left out until I opened up a piece of sushi to look for it and saw a little smear along the seaweed. Well I guess it’s healthier, but defies the point of putting it in the roll.
The prices were a bit high in my opinion, but I’m not complaining because they are open late, and it’s a gratifying late night experience for the late eater. I’m willing to pay a bit more for some good late night food, and I was impressed with the quality I got at that time of night. They also have a pretty good selection on their menu, which is always a plus.

Had lunch here with some friends. Typical Japanese food, nothing very spectacular that stood out in my mind. The ambiance was very nice.
It’s next to the Korean supermarket (han kook).

Spicy snowball, Cha Cha roll, Millenium roll, Caterpillar roll, Spicy tuna roll, and a Spicy crunch roll… that’s what the bf and I had last night for a late night dinner because we were craving for sushi. Walking in, we were greeted by many happy faces wishing well for the 3 day holiday weekend.
I always thought this place was pretty average, with nothing outstanding, but maybe it was because of some of the few changes we noticed:
The fish was pretty damned good, I’d say for being 1.5 hours to closing.
They finally replaced that janky TV that looked like a kid took a magnet to it, so now, you can watch what’s on without thinking you’re on acid.
The «Spicy Snowball» I kept thinking was called «Dirty Snowball» was like a tempura/​mushroom/​spicy tuna EXPLOSION in my mouth. Yum.
There were more people in the restaurant — which means only one thing: things are better than the last time I was here.
For sushi late-​night, it’s almost non-​existent to find variety and freshness, but at Midori, you have a pretty good chance at satisfying your craving in the middle of the night. Rolls are a bit pricier than what I am used to for that size at my staple sushi restaurant, but I am willing to accept the price hike to get my fix in at 11pm on a weeknight. =D

Let me take you on a journey. A journey where you will truly say… ARE YOU SERIOUS. Back in the day when I used to work in Sunnyvale, one of my coworkers decided, like any normal person, to have a group lunch with our posse. Sushi was cool among everyone and we liked Midori because they have a spacious room in the back perfect for parties of 8 or more. Here we go… all 10 of us carpooling on our little journey to Midori’s for some sushi and tea.
Upon entering, we are greeted and escorted to the back room. Food comes, and it’s alright. Wanted a refill on my water… no waitress to be found. We are starting to finish our meal… no waitress to be found. Looks like it might be time to clear our plates… no waitress to be found. Well… i’ll pass on the coke refill, even skip the hot tea refill, but it might be time for our check… no waitress to be found. Mind you, it was lunch time. Sure it was busy… but after dropping off our food… that was it? Dang… cold love from Midori.
Enter a 20 minute lapse. Our table was dirty, no refills, the boss was calling, and still no check. One of my friends politely gets up from the table, exits our private room, and tries to find some staff. She is told…“sure, we will be right in.” We were a lively bunch, and time flew on by… but received another nudge by the boss. Maybe it was that they had closed the door and completely forgotten about us… but DANG.
Still no love, and it was probably 115-​mind you we had arrived at 1120 to get the back room.
We glanced at the crowd and noticed the hostess had not moved from her post and was answering the phone. So what do we do??? We call the restaurant… THAT WE ARE IN… asking them to send someone to the back.
They are so confused by our call. «Where are you? The back… you have a delivery, we will send the busboy.»
We all start yelling…“the back, closed room, party of 10… remember us, help. we just need our check. HELP HELP.” We spent like 4 minutes explaining who we were, where we were, and what we needed.
5 or so minutes later… this embarrassed nice gal comes in with our check. No cookie… no sweet.s.no apology. Tragically, no service=no tip. We leave and head on our merry way.
BUT WAIT… it gets better.
The following day, my friend-​who had called from inside the restaurant-​gets a phone call from the Midori staff saying «you missed the tip. You did not provide a tip, and we need that tip.» What… this is wrong on so many levels, and I guess they used their called ID to track us down. For some reason… they had failed to add it… and I am glad they didn’t. We weren’t going to pay for the lack of service. I would have been better off walking and getting the food myself. We declined the tip request and thought that was that.
Enter a call from the manager…“we need your tip.” My friend hands me the phone, and I say…“we needed” service to provide tip.” I guess they expected the hot tempered Latina to throw down… but it was simple… no service no tip.
Tragically, on subsequent visits… they service did not improve… and the food was not all that great. I am sorry Midori… but my rating is spread across 4 visits-​one being my back room experience.

I guess this place has had a change in ownership. You dont get the welcome scream when you enter this place anymore. The new owners are really nice and attentive with the service. They refill your tea quickly. I detected HK accents with their english.
We ordered the caterpillar and spider rolls. Both were rather weak. They didnt taste fresh. the avocados seemed glued together but unfortunately they kept falling off the rice. the rice was hard. the soft shelled crab was soggy. the rolls werent well wrapped so they fell apart easily.
We also ordered the dinner combo of beef teriyaki and shiyoyaki salmon. Sad to say but neither was very fresh. the beef was rubbery and tasted orangey. The rice was hard.
2.5 stars for great service but just ok food at midori.

Came here for lunch on my first day of work– there were 14 or so rolls to choose from, and 4 of us for lunch.
Green tea and water served right away, service was good the entire meal.
We had a tuna tataki that was excellent, the salmon sashimi was also very good quality. We had a spicy tuna roll and a rainbow roll, both were good but unremarkable. Other items we had: salmon nigiri, spider roll, super spider roll… all good quality with good sushi rice, but uninspired. This is probably going to be a reliable old standby for me, prices were reasonable for sushi.