Oni kuma — Restaurant in Mill Valley

We really wanted to love this place. Seriously. Service is great, kind staff all around, great location & atmosphere. The problem? Food quality, authenticity, and portion as compared to price. Example: nigiri is sold by the individual piece - and it's tiny (as in Michelin star restaurant tiny - but quality doesn't match). Pickled vegetables haven't fermented long enough and do not turn out "pickled". Skewers have flavor and are not over-grilled but instead incredibly chewy (ex: squid has likely not been softened long enough). Hand rolls were disappointing (texture, fish quality, flavor) - for a fraction of the price, you can go to Pacific Catch and get the "same thing" - which deflates the experience of paying "top dollar" here. Long story short - it is open 7 days a week and for longer hours than any other Sushi option in MV - a plus! Downside - all of the above. Don't take my word for it - check it out, order a bunch of different stuff etc. and come to your own conclusions. I would love to see this place succeed but the owners need to make some big changes to compete with Samurai just...

The other reviewers seem to fail to recognize the ingredients being top-notch fresh, rich, aromatic and overall of high quality - as high quality as food in kyoto. This doesn’t just apply to the sushi fish, but surprisingly, the chicken karaage, its hollandaise sauce, and the homemade dessert menu (that has more than just matcha ice cream like other places). Very few Japanese restaurants around Marin get this right. Very few.

On the other hand, the contemporary Japanese wooden decor, the soft background music, and the handmade earthen ware work together to create a comfortable, peaceful, relaxing dining experience. True authentic ambience to enjoy a sushi dinner.

Overall, the experience shows the manager’s high attention to details and their willingness to go above and beyond to craft a great...

Service was good and the sushi was outstanding. I have eaten at many sushi restaurants, and this one was top quality. They had some of the freshest fish I have had ever in a restaurant. For reference, I have been a fisherman all my life, and on many occasions eaten ling cod, yellowtail, yellowfin tuna, snappers, halibut, salmon, mahi-mahi, and many others, straight from the ocean, and I am picky about fish being actually fresh. This place delivers. We ordered California Roll, Lotus Roll, Spicy tuna roll, hamachi kama, and (maguro, albacore, saba, unagi) nigiri - all excellent. It's hard to find good saba nigiri! Our bill with drinks came out to about $190 for three people (we ordered multiples of most of the items). Not cheap, but wow was it good! I will...