Mujiri — Restaurant in Oakland

I saw an article about Mujiri in my newsfeed and decided to drop in for the $25 nigiri combo. Parking was easy on the side of San Pablo Ave. I was pleasantly surprised by the calm, welcoming atmosphere with nice music. Staffing included two sushi chefs one hostess, and one waitress. A qr code for their daily menu was available to scan, which brought up a small, but enticing menu. I ordered the seaweed salad and chefs choice nigiri combo, and chose to add 1 beak fish since I have never tried it before. The salad was presented first. It was delicious, with citrus and sesame notes. As I finished my glass or water, the the hostess provided a refill within 5 seconds. She was on her game, which is something I appreciate when dining out. The nigiri was brought out next, and she let me know which fish were on my plate. I was delighted when I noticed nikiri sauce painted over the top of each selection... that's something you don't see at many sushi places and tells me I do not need to dip my nigiri in soy sauce and Wasabi. The nikiri application was subtle with a few small drops hitting the simple bamboo leaf on my wooden plate. Next to the nigiri was a 6 piece tuna roll. I started with the nigiri from right to left. I was so excited to dig in I accidentally ate the Toro nigiri before I snapped the photo in my review. It was soft and buttery, and the small dab of Wasabi in between the rice and fish was perfect. The roll came next. I decided to to dip it in a small amount of soy, with wasabi to add an extra kick. The hostess approached me and asked if I needed anything else, which I declined because the serving size was perfect. I paid my tapping my phone on a portable terminal and added a 25% tip, which I am happy to give when I receive 5 star service. I left full and happy. I found my new spot and will return again, plus will tell everyone I know about this amazing bay...

My friends and I went to Mujiri on a whim and were completely blown away by their service and food. It's a very small restaurant, but thankfully, we were able to find a table when we got there. For $25, you can get the nigiri combo, which includes 7 pieces of nigiri and chef's choice of hosomaki (small sushi rolls). For the 7 pieces of nigiri, either you can go with chef's selection or pick your own 7 pieces of nigiri from the available options without repeting any nigiri. The small sushi rolls were okay, but every piece of nigiri that we got was really good. It was fresh and juicy. Each nigiri had a thick cut of the fish. My personal favorites were- hotate (Hokkaido scallop), kurodai (Black snapper), toro (Spain bluefin fatty tun). My friend also really liked their blue fish. You can also ask them to sear the fish if you like it that way. I also tried their Santa Barbara uni. It was decent (not the best I've had, but thankfully, it wasn't bitter or mushy). The nigiri combo was so good that we ended up ordering more nigiri from their a la carte menu. The service was great, too. Our server was very attentive and friendly.

Honestly, this place is a hidden gem. This place beats some of the upscale omakase places where you will shell out a lot of money for mediocre food/sushi. Given how expensive sushi can be, it's understandable to be skeptical of cheap sushi, but don't sleep...

Hard pass - never again. Brought home take out for 4 people. Genuinely the smallest cuts of fish I have ever seen in my life at any sushi bar in the world... and I have eaten sushi on 4 continents (a connoisseur). The pieces were no bigger than my pinky finger, no exaggeration. They have no excuse (especially considering their very high $$$ cost) and the manager even tried to actively deceive me when I pointed out how unacceptably minuscule the cuts of fish were. One hostess admitted to me it was a new chef since my last experience. Then the manager tried to defend (deceive me) this absurdity with such nonsense as "oh the sauce makes the fish shrink" and - this one is a riot - "the cuts are natural" (whatever does that even mean??). They could have done any number of things to resolve such a rip off experience but they did not even try. No refund (not even partial), no attempt to find a compromise, nothing. Just a list of absurdities in an attempt to defend the smallest pieces of sushi I have ever seen in my life from any sushi bar I have ever eaten at in the world (a very large number of sushi restaurants over 40+ years), no joke and no exaggeration... and for exorbitant rip off prices no less. Will never solicit this sushi bar ever again. Vehemently do...