Kiku Sushi — Restaurant in Berkeley

Food is fine but the other reviews about slow service are not kidding. This place had the most terrible and slowest service I have experienced in at least the past 10 years of eating out. First, they took over 30 minutes to bring our first roll out of 4 (we ordered them all at the same time and we were not sharing). This was brought out by the host who sat us who noticed we were sitting there looking confused. They did not bring soy sauce or ever come back to check on us, just dropped the plate and left. So my friend was expected to eat his food while I watched, after I finally went to get soy sauce myself. Two more rolls came 20+ minutes later after I asked if she even put our whole order in. The manager came to apologize and I asked how much longer until our fourth roll came and he brought out our receipt and he thought we received it already. So apparently it wasn’t even on their radar. He had also brought us a free dessert, and we hadn’t even gotten to eat our dinner yet. The worst part was that the whole time we were waiting for any food our waitress walked past us at least 5 times to deliver food to the table behind us and wouldn’t even make eye contact with us. There were 3 chefs behind the sushi bar, and they seem to just make things in the order that’s most convenient for them instead...

Better than shizen! I am a vegetarian who loves Japanese food and recently moved to Albany. I've been super into finding the best Japanese food since I visited Japan in November. I've tried shizen and Chaya and was excited to try my new local place, kiku! I ordered the lunch bento vegetarian special and upgraded my roll to the 'kiku roll'. The salad, rice, miso and eggplant nasu were all very tasty but nothing to particularly write home about. But the roll was delicious, really really lovely, with crispy tempura and roasted carrots and avocado inside. The right size and proportions of fillings. The couple next to me just got lots of vegan sushi options and the next time I go (which will be soon) I will definitely get two special rolls instead of all the bento extras. So many vegan and veggie options (a full two page veggie menu in fact)! I highly recommend! Service was excellent too, with a very polite and attentive...

Excellent dishes (best in the East Bay), unbelievable prices, very nice staff, and huge range of choices make this my favorite restaurant.

Went there again tonight and had a fabulous meal.

Highlights:

The only sushi place that puts tobiko all the way through the tobiko hand roll.

Can, however, be slow on occasion.

Superb seafood teriyaki on a sizzling platter

Fantastic shoestring sweet potatoes (ask them to leave off the sugar)

Truly great salmon collars (and the dipping sauce is incredible)

The Soba Salad is one of the most beautiful dishes ever (all of the colors of vegies) and an incredible variety of deliciousness, including marinated black mushrooms, perfectly blanched peapods, black hijiki seaweed salad, lovely slices of kambocha squash, etc. all over a wonderfully lightly dressed bed of soba noodles.

And on and on...

A great restaurant with...