Terra Sushi — Restaurant in Mission Viejo

Terra Sushi is a great option for lunch or dinner sushi if the food quality is your primary concern. If possible I would rate 4.5 stars only deducting for the size of the in-restaurant dining compared to other sushi options in the area.

This next statement is entirely debatable and my own personal opinion. I put it here only to ensure that this review is only valued if read in a TIMELY manner. I am of the personal opinion that sushi places have the best quality fish at the beginning of their existence and tend to degrade over time as they make the trade off between cost and reputation. I will do my best to update this review if I notice a change in Terra's food or service as clearly from my rating I intend to be a repeat customer.

Because there are so many different preferences in "sushi" I think it is important to quickly describe my personal preferences. I am unquestionably "American" in my preferences in that I prefer "sushi" to have multiple layers of flavor, and evaluate it based on the quality of each ingredient included in the roll I ordered. While I can enjoy sashimi (although my preferred style is nigiri), if I order a roll with multiple ingredients I expect EVERY ingredient to be of similar quality. Many sushi places pay a lot of attention to one ingredient but seem to devalue others. Terra pretty clearly completely understands the construction of sushi "soup to nuts". I could very happily order a bowl of sushi (meaning only the vinegrated rice) take it home and construct my own rolls and be happy with the value.

They have a good offering of the carnival style rolls many Americans have come to expect, and everything else I would expect from another similar sushi joint with the exception of steak options. I don't mind this (and in fact respect the limited options similar to In-N-Out) as they seem to be just trying to stay in their lane. Teriyaki Chicken however was refreshing in that is was a little watery and soy-based rather than some of the sugary styles out there. As far as service, I have not actually dined IN the restaurant. If the wife and I actually get a night out without kids, I am looking for a little more ambiance and would likely be willing to gamble a bit on quality to get a more robust "dine in" experience. While picking up my orders however, this has struck me as a great place for an efficient dining experience when running behind for a movie rather than a place I could happily spend 1.5 hours.

Between Einstein's Bagels next door (for light breakfast), Baja Fish Tacos for lunch, and this....I could happily eat three meals in one day in...

Do not go here if you're gluten-free. Their rice vinegar has wheat in it, so everything with rice has gluten. Most of the rolls have imitation crab in it (has gluten), but they don't allow you to substitute it with real crab meat. I could literally only eat one roll - the lollipop roll, or sashimi. For what it's worth their fish tastes fresh and the restaurant looks nice. There's a call button on the table for the server to come over, which is nice, but our water never got filled up or brought over until we pressed the button. Kinda seems like they rely on the button so much that common tasks like greeting and refilling water doesn't happen without it. My husband got the karaage. He said the crispy outside was nice, but the chicken was so tough to chew it might've been over cooked. Only reason this isn't 2 stars is because the one roll I could eat was pretty tasty with fresh fish and an...

I typically don’t write reviews but I had to give a shout out to the chef at Terra today. We come here often as the sushi is great and the service is always fast and friendly. Kathy welcomes you with hugs like you’re family, but today was beyond.

We wanted to watch the Dodger game and asked if they could change the channel. They unfortunately didn’t have the channel so we thanked them anyway and kept eating. The chef pulled up the game on his personal phone and came across the dining room and left his phone with us so we could watch the game. All he asked for was the occasional score, inning, and asked how Ohtani was pitching. It really was the sweetest gesture but not surprising as everyone here is so...