Kura Revolving Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Irvine

I saw that they were having a Japan fair with some fun specials and thought I would try them out again to see if the experience would be better than last. Prices have increased to $2.90 per green plate and there are now partition for every table due to the pandemic.

My boyfriend and I decided to stop in for lunch and we arrived around 11am, shortly after opening. I heard wait time is usually long so we wanted to beat the lunch rush, but there were plenty of open tables for a walk-in even after we finished.

Once seated, they take your drink order and you have two options: pull directly from the conveyor belt or select various options from the touch screen at each table. We did a bit of both. To pull from the conveyor belt, you lift the plate up to prop the cover up and off. Pretty seamless and easy to do. For the touchscreen orders, they come directly to table via another belt above the general conveyor selections. You can view your order status, see how much time until your order arrives and total number of plates.

Favorites: Shima Aji Soy Ginger, Ikura Norimaki, Ikura Gunkan, Garlic Ponzu Salmon, and Red Snapper with Yuzu Pepper. I was very curious about the sweet shrimp yuzu jalapeño, but the shrimp texture ended up being super slimy, filmy and not fresh. Hard pass on that one and the yuzu jalapeño component was too saucy for me. It was ponzu based I believe, so it didn't give the burst of flavor I was expecting for citrus & spicy.

Overall, we spent about 30 minutes here and accumulated 17 plates, which totaled to about $53 (w/o tip) for lunch. If you hit 15, you get a gacha gift! I filmed the little animation on the touch screen, but it was very anticlimactic since nothing arrived lol. We asked our server at checkout and they gave us the gift.

For the price per plate and the 1:3 fish to rice ratio, I'd rather go elsewhere. For a quick sushi fix, it's nice to grab a few plates, but the small portions...

I went to ​this location on August 28,2021

We were a group of Latin people. Two of us order beer and were told that they didn't have glass cups for the beer. We didn't think much of it and they gave us plastic cups. A newly seated person(none Hispanic) ordered beer and he was given a glass beer cup. We looked around the restaurant to check if more people were drinking beer and we didn't see more than 4 glass cups. We asked for another beer two glass beer cups. The waiter stated that they didnt have glass cups again.When I pointed at the other table the waiter changed his story and said that the other person got a glass cup because when he came in they had a clean batch. I told the waiter that is okay and if that was the case we would wait for the new batch . The waiter was very adamant about not giving us the cups but frustrated said okay and walked away. It was pointless to even carry this situation further so we decided to ask for the check. We still tipped by the way. As we were leaving the restaurant we noticed that only 3 people were drinking beer. The whole restaurant only has 3 glass cups? We were lied to for some reason. The tables that did have glass cups were occupied by asian guests. I wouldn't have the need to point this out if it didn't beg a question. The point here is that I was lied to not one time but two times for a whatever reason. I don't plan on ever going back. I felt degraded and taken for a fool. I would rate lower if I could. Please make it public if anyone has experience...

I've been to most if not all the Kura locations in California including LA, OC, and SD. If you've been to one before then you basically get the jist of it. This place is pretty middle of the road compared to the other locations. Service was okay and general quality is probably above average when it comes to Kura locations.

If you've never been to a Kura before this is a pretty gimmicky version of conveyor belt sushi popularized in Japan. Sushi is placed in plastic domes that revolve around the customers and you just pick up whatever you want that passes by. If you know what you want but don't want to wait for the conveyor belt or someone snatched up before you could get it there's an ipad that you can order off of. Once you do that there's a second belt above the normal one that will deliver whatever you want directly to you. The gimmick is that they give you little cartoons and prizes the more you eat which makes it kid friendly.

Overall, the quality of food is good not great but the price reflects that. The wait for this location was just a few minutes versus sometimes over an hour for the LA location. The big draw is the convenience factor. You can sit and eat right away without waiting for a server. I'd recommend this location to first timers and veterans alike.

P.S. This location is part of the new rewards program that Kura just rolled out. I'd ask about it since it's pretty new and not all locations are part of it. But you can redeem the rewards at any location, just not accrue points at...