One Piece Sushi — Restaurant in Millbrae

I would like to point out that the ratings distribution for this place is RIDICULOUS and there's a reason for that! The food is really good quality - especially for the price! Together, the food and atmosphere give an unexpected home cooking vibe. On our first visit, we were talking about coming back before we'd even left the restaurant. Now it's my go-to sushi place. You seat yourself and each table has a mounted tablet used for browsing the menu and ordering. Portions are small, which is really nice, as it allows you to try a greater variety. Prices are low, quality is good. A four-piece sushi roll is $3 - $4.

This will be a great place to go if you are feeling socially drained/anxious like I sometimes get. The dining area is spacious and clean and I really like how it doesn't feel like I'm seated directly beside the next party. Because of the tablet ordering system, interaction with staff is minimal unless you press the button to call them over. Ordering is very flexible and you can continue to order more food until you press the button to pay, which prompts them to bring out the bill. The service is extremely efficient and the folks who work here are very nice. I appreciated on our first visit that the server offered to refill my water as we were paying, rather than wasting water just refilling without asking, as many places do.

I would caution that this might not be the best place to come if you are not very familiar with sushi/Japanese food. The menu has decent variety and clear images of everything, but is a bit minimalistic in terms of description and if you have any questions, you may need to hit the call button or go to the counter to talk to someone since they are not going to come over to take your order. However, if you are familiar or willing to consult Google, then this is a very nice, non-intrusive dining experience.

Restroom was well-stocked and clean, but no paper towels (air dryer only). Parking was very convenient; we used a free lot just up the street, less than half a block.

Again, the food is super good.

Miso soup: Actually served hot enough that the wife has to wait and let it cool whereas she usually drinks them fairly quickly to make sure they don't get cold. She likes her soup HOT. Flavour is reportedly good.

Rainbow roll: Contains cream cheese? It's different from other rainbow rolls we've had and I love it. The fish was fresh and served close to room temperature, so you got the full depth of flavour. I have to order two of them every time.

Lion King: Very, very good. Again, different from other lion kings we've had. We haven't been able to place the sauce. We are both big fans and tend to order seconds of this, too.

Rock 'n roll: Good! The wife is generally more of a fan of eel than I am, but I've found no fault in this roll. Good depth of flavour, they chose a good sauce.

Yaki onigiri: I'd never had fried onigiri before; the wife had had them in Japan. She was shocked, said it was the best she'd ever had. Personally, I think I prefer them not fried, but they are good.

Okonomiyaki (Japanese "pancake"): If you haven't had it before, definitely Google this first. It was not what I would have expected - more like a pot pie? She really liked it when she had it; I took a pass. Seemed to contain octopus.

Fuku salmon: Just OK. Not cooked in the center and we weren't sure whether that was intentional, but it wasn't worth calling attention to. It's sushi-grade fish, after all. She liked it pretty well; I found it a bit bland? For baked salmon, I recommend the lion king instead.

Hokkaido mille vanilla crepe: I didn't think I was going to like this, but it is very light and savory. A hit with both of us.

Good variety of drinks, including the "melon creamy soda" that we recently discovered...

Delicious, fresh, cheap, though low-end sushi. On par with and in some ways even better than Masa (which isn't as good now anyway since the original owners retired). Some stuff was good. Some stuff was fine but didn't taste as expected. Very little was bad. Just don't expect edomae kaiseki quality and you'll be fine.

I've now worked my way through almost the entire menu. Best things were the plain salmon and salmon belly, hamachi and hamachi belly, kurodai, aji, walu (escolar). I order these every time, if they're in stock.

California hand roll and spicy tuna gunkan nigiri sat for too long before serving and so the nori in both were a little sad by the time they got to the table. It was nice that the Cali had real crab as I detest surimi/krab. The roll that has real crab salad and seared walu on top (snow demon?) is also good.

Yellowfin tuna was a little sad, and already sauced, which sushi chefs don't do unless the fish is starting to go south. I'm just spoiled by bluefin akami.

Spicy tuna was very mild. YMMV as to whether that's good or bad.

Red snapper (tai), saba, unagi were all just meh. Tai weirdly was torched even though it didn't say it would be in the description. Saba wasn't the gamiest or oiliest ever but wasn't the best either. Unagi was lukewarm.

Cooked scallop was the only really bad item. Didn't taste fresh. Also didn't taste cooked. Had the skirts on which is common in Asian cuisine but not for most Western palates.

Seared and smoked salmon were both meh. Smoked didn't taste smoked. Both just tasted like butane from the searing torch.

Miso soup - tasted like fish broth. Seaweed weirdly had large hard knots in them. Update: This tasted like normal miso soup other than that first time.

Ankimo - too mushy texture, ponzu not ponzu enough, weirdly had sriracha on it.

Chicken karaage - texture was also soft, and unexpectedly was drizzled with tonkatsu sauce, which didn't taste bad but wasn't what I wanted or was expecting. The chicken itself tasted fine.

Udon - too soft, and the broth was weird. Also had those way too hard pieces of seaweed. Update: The udon is much better during their new udon-only times for lunch and late-night weekends, when I guess they can concentrate on their noodles, or maybe someone else is cooking them at those times.

The udon carbonara is better, but it's not real carbonara. It's a cream sauce with bits of cooked salmon topped with a garnish of either tobiko or masago.

The unagi filet was good but huge. Better than the unagi sushi because it's cooked to order and hot and fresh. A little too much eel sauce. Lots of rice. It's available during udon time too.

Similarly the hamachi kama (yellowtail collar) and salmon collar are moist, hot and delicious. A little less seasoned than I like but fixable with ponzu or soy sauce.

The takoyaki is great. The okonomiyaki is only so-so. It's smaller than at most places but super dense and filling.

Hot tea is only 25 cents with free refills, but isn't the greatest tea. Tastes like tap water so I assume the water isn't being filtered.

The monaka desserts are my favorite dessert here and not much more than they cost at an Asian market. The mochi ice cream are also just the kind you can get at 99 Ranch or Nijiya, etc. The mille feuille cakes are not my speed but are a fantastic deal compared to Lady M.

The tablet ordering system is convenient but the UI and responsiveness need some tweaks. I wish the UI were more consistent from page to page - for example, if your party wants more than one of the same item on the "today's special" page, it requires you to add one separately again and again, whereas on other pages you can select a quantity before you hit the...

Best deal in the Bay, as well as one of my favorite sushi places in the Bay area. It's not as high quality as my favorite higher end sushi restaurants, but it's fresh and cheap, and you don't need a reservation.

I love that, like the name implies (though it's also a reference to the famous pirate anime), you can order individual pieces of nigiri and aren't forced to buy pairs. The rolls are also smaller (3-4 pieces), so you can have more variety in the same meal without having to get a large group together to share normal-sized rolls of 6-8 pieces. And of course the prices are lower accordingly. Actually, the prices are probably better per piece than anywhere else despite the smaller minimum buy.

The shari (sushi rice) has a really nice, subtle, not too sweet taste, and a texture that's soft and moist without being too wet, and sticks together well and doesn't fall apart.

Most of the fish is good, and the portions are generous. You can even get real crab here, which is uncommon. My favorites are the salmon belly and kurodai (black cod).

There are a few items I wouldn't recommend here, like the ankimo or hand rolls (but only because I feel hand roll bars are the place to go for the best hand rolls), but most of the food is good, and the owners are nice and hardworking.

It can get busy, but for the most part it's easy to just walk in and not have to wait. It feels like the best-kept secret on the peninsula, because at these prices and this quality, why isn't the place packed all the time? I've seen sushi bars with much worse-tasting fish and higher prices be consistently busier for no good reason. Ambience can only take you so far, and it's not like some of those places look all that fancy either.

You can walk out fairly full for $20-25 per person, or roll out stuffed to the gills for $30-50pp, (ridiculously high) tax and 20% tip included.

The minor downsides are:

Parking is street only, and it can be challenging to find a spot nearby.

They only have 1 album they play on an endless loop. I wish I could give them more music to play. I just put on headphones when I get really tired of it. Otherwise, those few songs get stuck in my head all week.

The restaurant itself is pretty bare bones visually, with the exception of some small wall art they've added in recent years. However, it's cleaner than your average hole-in-the-wall joint, even the bathroom, so you can feel comfortable ordering and eating...