Sushi Kuchi — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Hidden gem in Carlsbad. Warning to all the Sushi Aficionados out there though. This is not your high end sushi by the coast or like one of those fine dining sushi that you bring your partner on a special date. This is a sushi restaurant plain and simple. So I have to rate this based on mid-tier level Sushi Place standards

Let's start with the food. The food is amazing, the fish are fresh and the portions are just perfect. Price-wise it's not that expensive, because if it's expensive, I'd rather go to a fine dining sushi restaurant. So they just priced their food just right. We tried unagi, tuna and the oyster and non of them failed. Yes they aren't cooked but the chef is confident enough to serve it to us, you guys wanna know why? Here's a little Sushi trivia for you guys. When they are that confident in the kitchen that means that they stand proudly behind the FRESHNESS of their fish, mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans.

Now when it comes to service, they are welcoming but I must say that the front requires more training. I ordered a Sake but our server forgot to put it in our bill. Since I am an honest customer, I did point out that it was missing and they are grateful about it. However what does a well trained restaurant do for customers like that? I don't know maybe a free dessert at least to thank them, but nope they just let us walk away. I mean I know it isn't necessary but I just feel that nowadays, how many honest people/customers are out there? Might as well give the good ones reasons to keep on coming back right? Again it's no biggie but I'm just saying

Last but not least and this is the reason why it went down from 5 stars to 4 stars. It's the ambience. I feel that the place is a bit crowded. Like for example the table next to us is super close i could literally hear the guy breath next to me.

Overall, we had a good experience. We'd definitely comeback. Maybe when we do, they do changes that would make this 5 out of...

The restaurant was pretty crowded when we arrived, but we were seated right away right by the door, and I sat facing the window. It looks like any traditional sushi place, and not terribly large. At one point during our meal, the lights suddenly dimmed and loud music started to play, and then a strobe light started to go off. There was no prior warning that this would happen. I have epilepsy, and just covered my eyes for the duration (maybe a minute?). I started to feel unwell and dizzy after. I let the hostess know that I had a seizure condition and that they may want to take that into account for other customers. I hate being “that person”, I really do!

The hostess apologized and everything was fine. Our waitress comes around, curious, and I explain it to her as well. She tells me “there’s a sign” and that I can just “wait outside” when it happens. I turn around, and at the far end of the restaurant, high up under the strobe light is a small sign warning that there may be loud noises and flashing lights and to let a staff member know if there was a concern. I would never had seen that sign from where I was sitting. Maybe a placard at the table or on the menu?

The hostess came around a little while later to let me know there would be another round of the flashing lights soon, which was very kind of her. She didn’t know exactly when it would happen, so I opted to leave while the rest of my party finished their dinner.

I totally support celebrating birthdays! And I completely understand having their own rules. I was just surprised by how little they cared that their strobe lights could have sent me into an epileptic seizure.

I don’t think I will be...

Mixed service quality. First time I went I sat at a table and it was great, good service, food came out fast, server checked up a couple times. Second time was some of the worst service I've ever had in my life. I sat at the bar this time. I filled out the sheet and while waiting for the server (I ordered Udon as well as rolls) the sushi chef offered to take my order and have the server enter it.

The server never came by to refill my water (I had the spicy Udon and it would have been nice to be able to wash it down), never got ginger, server never checked up for the entirety of the meal. The sushi chef checked on me 3 times to make sure the rolls were good, which they were great, but my attempt to flag down a server were futile. The chef asked one of the servers to get my check, which she dropped next to me and ran before I could hand her my card. I waited 7 minutes for someone to come pick up my check to no avail. Luckily I had cash on me and didn't have to wait any longer. Tipped the chef's tip jar 20% and left the server 4 cents. 4 cents too much in my opinion, but I couldn't wait any longer.

It was 8:30 when finished my meal and the place was only about 1/4 full with 4 servers on, so it was not overly busy. The people who sat me, brought my udon, took the plates, and dropped the check were 4 different people, so I'm not entirely sure I actually had a server assigned to me.

Good food, but a critical failure on...