Su Shin Izakaya — Restaurant in Coral Gables

A spontaneous suggestion for dinner here was a good idea! I walked in a little after 7 PM on a Saturday evening and was able to be seated right away. The tables are situated close to each other, but not so close that you're sitting on the people next to you. All the tables got filled within an hour and a half, and there were about 3 servers and the owner manager taking care of the whole dining floor, but despite the busy atmosphere, we were able to get our orders and additional requests without much delay.

I loved looking at the blackboard specials that they have written on a literal blackboard spanning a whole wall and on a section of the QR code menu (very convenient). It takes me back to the actual comfortable izakayas in Japan where you were reading the menu off of the wall. If I had another few stomachs, I would have wanted to try dishes like the ika sugatayaki (grilled whole squid), harami (grilled salmon belly), doteyaki (braised beef) and nijimasu (grilled rainbow trout). I haven't seen these kinds of dishes in any other Japanese or Japanese masquerading restaurant in the area. The writing in Japanese of the dishes below the English names tells you someone Japanese is actually overseeing the menu.

I bet you can understand how excited I was to see hamachi kama (yellowtail collar) on the menu. There is even a salmon kama with miso on the blackboard specials, which I'll return for. A collar of a fish is rare, understandable considering you can only get one from one whole fish, and it was a great opportunity to have it. The hamachi kama was tender, moist, just the right kind of fatty, a delight to pick at and share. If you don't get ponzu with the kama, ask for it, because it makes the fish so flavorful.

I shared the Chika Special, which is listed as a plate of sashimi, nigiri and rolls for 2 and comes with 2 sides of either miso soup or house salad. First, the house salad is plentiful, fresh and lovely with the carrot ginger dressing. Second, this special is a banger of a deal, because for $66, or $33 per person, you get 2 whole rolls, 6 slices each of 4 kinds of sashimi and 5 sets of nigiri (as in 10 pieces of nigiri to share). We did not finish the platter, which took up our entire table haha, and I'm very excited to finish the leftovers tomorrow. Each slice of sashimi had good thickness, and all the fish tasted fresh. We liked some slightly fatty sashimi that we couldn't identify (it's gray looking?), then we found out from our server that it was wahoo. There is a lot of wahoo, sashimi and grilled, on the menu, which should definitely be something to try if you want a new fish. The rolls, California and tuna, were made quite well---the balance of the fillings vs. outside rice was sound, and they did not fall apart at all. I appreciate the inclusion of unagi and octopus in the platter. It was certainly a well rounded sampler.

The only funky part of the sushi was that there is a lot of shari (rice) in the nigiri. Like the log of rice is a whole bed for the sashimi to lie on, end to end. We both removed some of each nigiri before eating it, or else we would have not gone very far into the platter.

This restaurant is doing better to showcase authenticity of Japanese food, not just sushi, than many other so-called Japanese restaurants. You can get more unadulterated, quality food here than going to a froofy omakase. If you're in Coral Gables or have plans to be in the area, it's...

I just moved to Miami from Las Vegas leaving a 100% authentic Japanese Izakaya restaurant I went to for 6 years. I know this because I lived in Japan for 4 years. This restaurant is not a true Japanese restaurant, let alone Izakaya or run by anyone who knows Japanese food.

First the atmosphere is not welcoming, it smells of clorox and the woman in charge is dressed like a nurse. The smell of Clorox is overwhelming. It is freezing cold and there are some lightbulbs blinking that need to be replaced.

For the food, the tako su they used what is the seaweed you put in seaweed salad. Traditionally dried wakame seaweed is used for this dish. The tako was cut very thick and rough, had serrations from the dull knife that was used and was not cooked enough. Very thick and chewy. You should never see serration marks ever. This was akin to a Korean style dish and horribly executed.

The tuna tataki was not correct. It was not seared at all. It appeared to be barely browned by a torch. The sauce was not correct either. We only ate a few pieces.

The wahoo misoyaki was ok, borderline over cooked but definitely not anything to be impressed by.

Over all in my opinion, the reviews on this restaurant are very misleading as this is not a true Japanese Izakaya in any form.

Considering the location I was expecting more, especially after reading the reviews but I'm learning that there is no really good traditional Japanese restaurants here in Miami let alone Asian restaurants in general.

This is a struggle for me leaving a healthy Asian food culture in Nevada and the west coast in general. Really that's the only thing I miss about that side of the country after living...

WILL NEVER GO BACK AGAIN! I have been a loyal customer of Izakaya for the past 5 years. This is the first time I was treated like this with literally NO RESPECT AT ALL! Me and my friend we went for a dinner tonight with an unfinished drink on our hand. As we understand most of restaurants don’t allow outside drinks and it’s not our first time dining there, so we were going to discard the drink or put it aside after sitting down. Instead, the owner grabbed our drinks out of our hand without saying a single word, while we haven’t even sat down on our chairs. Our server was nice, but when the owner came and brought us the check, we saw we were charged 18% out of the after-tax amount for tips. I asked one of the servers if they always put the tips on the bill themselves, he said no and he didn’t know why our bill was like that. He said about this drink, it was the boss so there’s nothing he can do. I called the wife of the winner and explained the situation. As I saw the table next to us wrote their own tips and I went to this place no less than 20 times, this is the first time this ever happen to me. She was keep apologizing and offering to remove or edit the tips. I declined the offer and told her this is not about the money but how unfair and unwelcome we were treated!! For me, quality of the service comes first and way more important than the taste of the food. Very disappointed, will...