Sushi Confidential Campbell — Restaurant in Campbell

Sushi Confidential has two locations in the South Bay: San Jose and Campbell, both located in California. The location I will review and went to today was at the Downtown Campbell location. The downtown Campbell is located in Campbell, CA where there are a bunch of restaurants and little family owned stores. Right now, Sushi Confidential is doing take-out orders and outdoor dining due to COVID-19 and I saw the staff and the customers handling the protocols pretty good. I got my order pretty quickly and when I got home and ate the sushi, it was so delicious! I ordered 4 of their vegetarian rolls since I am a flexitarian.

The first roll I will review is their Anti- Phishing which is with spicy tofu, tempered green beans, topped with ahimi, avocado, unagi sauce, green onions. Ahimi is basically a play on raw tuna but it’s not raw tuna, it’s tomato but has that ahi tuna feel. To be fair, I thought there was no way tofu can be put into a sushi roll but it turns out they did! I really liked the tofu with the unagi sauce and avocado, I thought it gave the roll a nice freshness. I also liked how the tofu was soft and it actually had flavor that I absolutely enjoyed! I also liked the ahimi which was soft and it did taste like it was raw tuna but it’s not! I enjoyed how I can still have that “tuna” taste without eating any fish. I did wish the tofu was a bit spicier. I was expecting it to be slightly more spicy. To be fair, this was actually my favorite roll out of the 4 I got! Highly recommend this roll very much!

The second roll I got was their Snitch which is spicy tofu, cucumber, topped with avocado, spicy spy sauce, and sweet potato crisps. This roll was definitely spicer than the first roll which I really liked I thought that this roll had spicer tofu than the Anti-Phishing which I liked very much! I liked the avocado and cucumber so that the roll had some freshness and I like the spicy spy sauce, it complemented the roll very well. I did like the addition of the sweet potato crips, really nice texture element I do wish it was a bit crunchier. Overall, really liked the roll, it had every tasting element you should definitely taste ina sushi roll.

The third roll I got was DTF (Down to Fiesta) which is basically an avocado roll topped with fresh pico de gallo, jalapenos, Persian lime & jalapeno olive oil, sesame seeds. This was a really nice, fresh roll and l liked the addition of the other ingredients to help elevate the flavors of the sushi roll. I think a bit of lemon maybe would of helped get another flavor level of the sushi roll because I didn’t taste acidity which I think that’s what pico de gallo really needs. Either a lemon or lime would of helped the roll out more and tie in the flavors together. I do however really liked the fun fresh flavors they were going for I thought it was thought out!

The last roll I got was their Hollaback which has shiitake mushroom, cucumber, topped with avocado, lemon, garlic crisp, soy vinaigrette, and spicy sprouts. I really liked how mild this sushi roll was and all of the vegetables really helped tie the sushi roll together. I did like the lemon on top to give the roll acidity. I thought that was smart so all of the flavor components shined through. I did like the addition to the shiitake mushrooms because those were like the “meat” part of the sushi roll which was super filling. Overall, this sushi roll was delicious and perfect. I don’t have anything to say except, this was some great fresh sushi!

Overall, I really liked Sushi Confidential and this is definitely a must go spot if your ever in Campbell or San Jose! Their sushi rolls were very fresh and the rice was just right! Don’t forget to support local businesses like this one and check out their sushi! It’s really delicious and I love the variety of vegetarian/vegan sushi rolls! I wish there was more because I have a feeling their rolls are terrific and definitely I hope they come out with more vegetarian options in the future! Follow me @the.flexitarian.aholic on Instagram for more...

When I first entered the restaurant, I asked for a menu. It had a nice weight to it, implying that they had a great selection. Nonetheless, the lunch menu was on page three, right under the cover page. I liked this because it helped assure that there was a lunch menu. Granted, the deals were not amazing ($21 for teriyaki bowl, $24 for double protein teriyaki bowl). Anyways, I needed to use their restroom and as no server was around, I asked the sushi chef. He was welcoming and directed me to a very clean bathroom. It was good that the women’s restroom was slightly closer than the men’s, a reversal from the normal order that hi dress the women’s so the bathroom line isn’t as visible. I came in very hungry, and after placing my order, was tempted to get nigiri to stave off the hunger. I would order the tamago nigiri eventually, but more on that later. Meanwhile, my server brought out the miso soup. Perfect, as it had some solid scallions and tofu. That would help with the hunger and so I thought about not ordering the nigiri, but as mentioned I ordered it. The bento box was quite full. I appreciated the sesame seeds on the rice. The rice itself was also well cooked and neither soggy nor dry. Moving up, the beef had nice slices, and I’m pretty sure I saw some rhombus diamonds. The grill marks were great, and the teriyaki sauce was not too sweet. On top of the beef was a little container of katsu sauce to complement the chicken katsu on the right of the beef. Nice and crispy, which was a great complement to the cooked veggies. They were to the bottom of the chicken. There were zucchini, carrots, and a single half broccoli. The broccoli was probably out of season, as it was a lighter color and not dark green. The zucchini was nicely seasoned to bring out the innate sweetness. There was also salad. Anyways, the tamago I’ve been hinting about: the moment I saw it, I gaped in amazement at its beauty. Wide and yellow slab/ Like a kyoto oiran’s sleeve/ I’d touch that beauty. In this case, I bit into it (it may be pretty, but it’s still food!). It was a little on the tough side, but very good on the sweetness level. There was just a...

I'm not sure how this place ever became so popular, but I suppose everyone has their own priorities.

The top of my sushi scale is currently Izaka-ya, which is like someone ripped a restaurant up out of Japanese soil by its roots and slammed it back down by the San Jose airport. Sushi Confidential is seated solidly at the bottom, just above the sushi they serve at Google X (which is invariably soggy and tastes the way mildew smells). It's pretty uncommon for me to be able to pinpoint a restaurant's exact location in my internal rating scale, but this one is easy.

When we tried eating here, we had a very difficult time with their menu, which is heavily westernized. As I recall, nearly every sushi roll was spicy or contained nuts or another oddball element. I don't recall what I wound up ordering - one of the traditional rolls, maybe a rainbow - but I do remember remarking that their creativity must be for the sake of hiding the flavour of the fish, itself. My wife was similarly unhappy with her food, but the real showstopper was the tempura shrimp and vegetables which, within a single dish, exhibited a range from overcooked mush to still having ice on it. This seemed to confirm my suspicion that the fish was from frozen. Overall, it was a very poor showing. I could argue that we only caught them on a bad day, but it's pretty tough to recover from serving food from frozen, particularly when you are a sushi restaurant. Fresh fish is sort of the entire idea.

The service was good. When the waitress served us, she accidentally dropped some of the food on the table and then left it there, which we found surprising and tactless. Later on in the meal, a waiter overheard us discussing the low-quality food and odd service and immediately reported it to a manager, who came over to personally apologize and ask for feedback. We thought her attentiveness and the fact that a server cared enough to escalate what he'd overheard spoke well of their staff. The tempura was removed from our bill.

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