Coach Sushi — Restaurant in Oakland

I have been eating at Coach Sushi for over 15 years. I have a lot of emotion wrapped up in the place. I have spent many a birthday, Christmas Eve, New Years Eve, and Superbowl Sunday sipping boxes of saki, chatting with Coach, and the staff. I was sad when Coach retired. Long gone are the days when he chased me down the street with a bottle of saki to ensure my endless box of saki was always overfilled in a sign of abundance. Over the years the place had become a bit run down. The quality of fish wasn't the same but I still had my love of the place, so when I walked in last night after being out of town for several months I knew something had changed. The place had a whole new look which was welcoming, but I knew from the faces of the staff and the sushi chef that one of my favorite places had undergone new ownership. My heart sank a little. We sat down at the Sushi Bar and ordered. Gone on the new menu were some of our favorites, but with an open mind we ordered a few nigiri, some dumplings, and a few rolls. The fish slices were nice and fresh. They were bigger than the last sushi chef would cut. The rolls were slightly more interesting. The gyoza, although no longer pan friend, were still hand made and delish. Happy, the new owner was receptive to suggestions like changing the table salt for the saki to a courser grind kosher salt or flake salt. No, this was not MY Coach Sushi, but I think it will be our new old place as we explore the new menu in months to come. Sure sometime a new owner isn't as good as the old owner, but this new owner sure wants to make the community loved restaurant her own and we will keep coming for another 15 years. Best of luck to Happy and her staff. Thanks for the delicious super fresh oysters and...

The new owners of this place have ruined the restaurant. It used to be my favorite local Japanese restaurant in my favorite item on the whole menu was their tofu steak which was amazing and very delicious, but of course they got rid of it and it's less vegan friendly now than it was before so I guess I won't be eating there again. I hate it when people take over a restaurant that's very popular and get rid of good items from the menu. I understand new owners want to make some changes but it really sucks when they take good things and dump them. No other Japanese restaurant makes the tofu steak like they did, so I guess I no longer have a place in my neighborhood to order from. I'm going to have to go to the specifically vegan places for decent veg sushi , but unfortunately none of those other places carry the tofu steak like coach sushi used to make either....

Good to bad customer service. Depends on if a regular waiter is serving you or the owner. The owner lady always seems like she's in a bad mood. Anyway, the sushi? It WAS and USE to be pretty dang good. But I heard it went down hill and I had to try it for myself. It's true. The fish tasted like it was refrozen a few times. It was actually pretty gross but not bad enough to get you sick. It's not cheap either. There's so many other good sushi options. Why settle for mediocre to bad sushi? Too bad Coach, you use to be good and fun but now you are old, cranky and kind of...