Kani Kosen — Restaurant in Pacifica

I searched on google for best food near me and this place showed up. I love Japanese food, lived in Japan for 3 yrs, and was excited to find an “authentic” Japanese place after a King Low Tide hike. It was difficult to find, in a small complex, no street signage. When I arrived the Mama-San approached me stressed, unpleasant, scowling saying “did you make a reservation, we can’t serve you, we are understaffed”. I was still believing this would be the 4.6 rated food experience. The room was 1/2 empty. I was just one person, who would order quickly. She scowled, walked away and the sweet young man approached me, apologized and I thought we were now off to a good start. The place has the “old world Japanese small restaurant” vibe, with lots of old articles about the place on the wall. I thought I’d found a hidden gem. Everything looked pretty unkempt, dusty and forgotten—but, still optimistic that the food was going to be special, I pursued. I ordered the sushi sampler, unagi, pickles and miso soup. The last 2 items were solid. When I flagged Mama-San over to hear about the pickles I got more barking and scowls. “We use shiso!” Was all she could say. I told her how delicious they were, but she had decided to be rude/mean/unfriendly to me, although she was fawning all over her regulars. The sushi sampler was the worst dish I’ve ever seen or tasted. I should have walked out. It had really old, freezer burned, terrible octopus, avocado rolls, all brown, past it’s prime (no good chef puts a vegetarian item on a sushi sampler, this was a cheap move, in addition to the shock that any sushi chef worth his nori would let spoiled food be served to a guest). There was farmed salmon and something white, maybe tuna. It was so bad I felt sorry for the place, and the exceptionally nice and kind server trying to provide a better experience for me. The unagi was good, altho the teriyaki glaze was too sweet. I saw the older man come to the kitchen in his street clothes, but he wasn’t overseeing the quality that night. I spent $76 and left feeling confused that the art of Japanese hospitality was abducted by an inexplicably rude owner who, from the moment I arrived, was mean, cold and out of line. I can forgive most missteps, but the sushi sampler quality was beyond horrible. The sweet young man brought me lemon sorbet, a kind gesture after a weird and unpleasant experience. Thank you to him. I hope this was just one bad night, but serving such poor quality fish, and the mean owner left...

The (best) of the four Japanese restaurants in Pacifica! The gyoza (pot-stickers) were delicious and are homemade (not frozen), so they often run out later in the evening. I had the two item combination (chicken yakitori & tempura). The tempura was light (not soaked in old oil) and tasty. The chicken yakitori was a little overcooked, but that's an extremely common failing among all restaurants. They all would rather overcook chicken than take the chance of undercooking it and you getting sick.

This place is a little more expensive than the other three places, but I understand why. The miso salad dressing is also homemade - not out of a bottle or can.

The staff were extremely friendly and welcoming and really treat you like you're family.

Sadly, the owners are retiring when their lease is up in November. Isn't that the way it always goes? You find a great restaurant and then they close. So, you only have a few more months before they're gone forever.

I would definitely recommend Kani Kosen over the other three Japanese restaurants...

Not consistent and a little pricey, but I will be damned if I will stop going there. Today they had live Uni, I can't think of any other restaurant that serves it live like that in the area.

The tempura is perfect, on occasion the sashimi is just as good, and the service is great. I would give it a 5 star if it was consistent, ate there all week this week, but for some reason today my sashimi was cut a little weird and the fish wasn't the freshest.

I would have loved it if it was just like every other day I've eaten there this week, and that would have made it 5 star no problem. I would call ahead and ask when they get their fresh fish just to make sure your experience...