Tora Tora Sushi — Restaurant in San Diego

Food: 4.5/5 Service and Setting: 4.5/5 Value: 3.5/5

Tora Tora is the newest sushi restaurant that has opened up in Mira Mesa and they make great sushi. The interior of the restaurant is modern and clean, showing some personality with Funko figures hidden around the register area. To me, the dining area is chic while not being sterile, an issue that many restaurants have when going this direction. I find the seating situation to be awkward, but that is nitpicking at this point. The lady at the register was super kind and chill. When I asked her if the squid legs were made in house she just straight up said no and same with a couple other items I asked about. I appreciate her for being real and letting me try items that they craft themselves!

Salmon Belly Truffle: 5/5 This truly amazed me. At it’s price point, I was not expecting much. The fish was so soft and fresh while having a luxurious truffle flavor. The main star of the show was the rice though. This is something I would expect in an omakase only level restaurant. It was the perfect temperature and texture, each grain of rice bouncy yet soft like a mini piece of rice cake. The rice was lightly seasoned and made the roll impossibly delicious. If they are consistent with their rice, they will probably be one of the best sushi restaurants in San Diego at any price point. My favorite so far and a very opulent experience.

Baked Dynamite: 5/5 Again, high quality ingredients. What impressed me the most was that the dynamite sauce they used tasted very faintly of mayo and had a wonderfully light umami flavor. The seafood used in the dynamite, though they are scrap pieces for sure, are of high quality and fresh. Scallops, end pieces of fish, and I’m sure whatever else they have are respectfully cooked, holding the integrity of the ingredients and their flavors. They purposely do not use things like onions that are used to mask poor quality or old seafood and I 100% appreciate that. Must get.

Miso Soup: 2/5 Standard miso soup. Came out pretty cold and meh. It was a nice accompaniment to the sushi though.

Wasabi Mac’ Salad: 1.5/5 Tasted like grocery market mac salad with sour wasabi. I wish they tried harder on this for sure.

Green Tea Tiramisu: 3.5/5 I got the inside scoop that they do not make this in store, but it was good! The matcha was light and not bitter. It was not overly sweet and felt cohesive, a word that is not familiar to many fusion desserts. I probably would give this a solid 4, but it was frozen solid so it tasted a bit dry since the lady fingers at the bottom did not have a chance to hydrate. A solid dessert if you wanted a complete...

While waiting for this place to open, I was pretty excited to see the window vinyl say that they were a Nigiri Specialist as we don't really have a place to get good Nigiri here in Mira Mesa. When they finally opened, the actual sign replaced Nigiri Specialist with Sushi Specialist. I was a bit bummed, but decided to try it out anyway. Ordered the Nigiri Set and a couple rolls. They included some real wasabi, which is always good. The nigiri presentation was nice with a decent assortment. One that stood out immediately, was the baby squids. I was excited as it was something I wouldn't have expected to see in there, but I was a little disappointed with it. Not because it was bad, it wasn't, it was just that the squid didn't taste like anything. Honestly, if I was blindfolded and ate that piece, I would have thought it was just rice and seaweed. The other nigiri pieces had good flavors and textures. One pretty big issue though was with the Toro piece. There was a sizable bone in it. Luckily I didn't swallow it. Make sure to chew your food well. The rolls were decent, with good flavors. All in all, it's not the best sushi in San Diego, but it might be the best in Mira Mesa... but there's a pretty low...

DAMN, this place impressed me! First, we walked in and marveled at the huge painting of a supernatural man riding an animatronic tiger annihilating fish in an explosion of roe in the ocean via the tiger-murder-machine, spear, and fireball. WOAH!

We ordered at the counter with a charismatic and enthusiastic woman who I presume was part owner (she mentioned she created one of the roll recipes). She was a delight! We dined inside while listening to some fun reggae fusion music.

We ordered the mushroom fries, Wasabi Yuzu Yellowtail, Blood Orange Tuna, and Bonito Shiso rolls. The mushroom fries were wonderfully-seasoned panko breaded deep-fried beech mushrooms (I believe) served with a delicious tangy, sweet plum sauce (I think). PHENOMENAL! They were my boyfriend's favorite part of the meal. Our favorite roll was the Wasabi Yuzu Yellowtail, followed by the Blood Orange Tuna. Both rolls were exploding with flavors that bloomed and developed over time.

In summary, this place isn't your average sushi joint, and the owners clearly have a passion for being different and excellent....