Oji Sushi & Bar — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

When we first walked into this sushi spot in Costa Mesa, the atmosphere instantly caught our eye. The restaurant had a fine-dining look with colorful décor, elegant lighting, and stylish tables — it definitely felt like a place with high potential. However, one odd detail immediately stood out: several of the chairs were patched up with regular office tape. It seemed like a quick fix for damaged seating, but in an otherwise polished setting, it looked strange and unprofessional.

Once we were seated, we waited about 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. A staff member eventually came by and silently dropped off waters without asking for our drink preferences (lemon, no lemon, no ice, etc.). Another five minutes passed before someone asked if we were doing all-you-can-eat or à la carte. We said à la carte and that we were ready to order, but the server rushed off without taking our order. We waited again before she returned to finally take it.

There was a large party dining at the same time, and while that can understandably slow the kitchen down, it’s standard practice in the restaurant industry to let bigger tables know they may experience delays, while still getting food out quickly to smaller tables. That didn’t happen here — we waited about 45 minutes for our sushi to arrive.

When it did arrive, the presentation looked nice. However, my fried spicy tuna tempura roll came out before my husband’s sashimi, which felt out of order. More surprisingly, the roll had raw jalapeño slices inside — something I’ve never seen in a fried roll — and it didn’t complement the flavors at all. Still, the sushi itself tasted decent.

But here’s the real test: how we felt the next day. We frequently eat sushi from various places, and our go-to spot, Sushi on Fire in Huntington Beach, has never caused us any issues. This place, however, left both my husband and me incredibly sick the next morning. We woke up with severe stomach pain and explosive diarrhea — I was in the bathroom for nearly two hours, crying from the discomfort.

We had high hopes for this Costa Mesa restaurant to become our new go-to spot, but between the unorganized service, long wait times, questionable food handling, and getting sick the next day — we won’t...

Fruit Fly Alert: Me and my boyfriend come to Oji Sushi all the time, it’s one of our go to spots for Sushi! Their happy hour is our absolute favorite, and the service has always been amazing. The staff is consistently friendly and welcoming, and we’ve never had any issues… until today.

This time, the issue wasn’t with the service (which was still great), but with the food environment. When we were seated, we immediately noticed a few fruit flies on the table. I work in the food industry myself, so I recognized them right away. I know how difficult they are to get rid of, and how quickly they can spread and contaminate food.

Throughout our meal, the fruit flies were swarming around our table and even landing on our food. We spent most of dinner swatting them away and trying to keep an appetite—which was hard. What’s even more concerning is that, since we came in around 10pm (they close at 11), I noticed a server pouring all the leftover soy sauce into a single container, likely to reuse the next day. With fruit flies around, it’s not hard to imagine one slipping into a container unnoticed.

I’m leaving this review in hopes that management sees it and addresses the issue. I’ve dealt with a fruit fly problem at my own workplace, and it took over five months to fully resolve. It was frustrating, especially having to serve food and drinks to customers knowing what was going on behind the scenes.

We love this place and want to keep coming back, but this is a serious concern that I hope is taken seriously and their food standards...

Round 1: A giant cockroach flies into our food. Not just a random cockroach from outside, but one from inside because we sat all the way inside the restaurant at the table next to the kitchen. It came from the wall and jumped into our food. Told the server, they don't seem surprised and move our table.

Round 2: We probably should have left at that point but we're pretty hungry and giving it another shot. We sit at the new empty table and place our new order. We wait 30 minutes and nothing comes out. We try to wave down servers but they seem to avoid us. We have to go up and ask and it seems that they lost our ticket.

Round 3: Again, we probably should leave at this point but we order again and hope to get some food. We're told this can be our only order because they are now closing. (We've been here over an hour at this point). After another 30 minute wait, we get some food which they got our order wrong but we ate it anyways and it actually gave me a stomach ache that night.

I guess one star was deserved because we got a discount for the...