Drunken Monkey Sushi — Restaurant in Truckee

You stumble into Drunken Monkey like you've wandered off-course from a Sapporo back alley and ended up face-first in a fever dream—except instead of neon kanji and drunken businessmen chain-smoking under paper lanterns, you're staring down Brockway Road and wondering what kind of cosmic joke dropped this place in a sleepy ski town. The vibe? Imagine a sake-soaked jazz bar had a baby with your woodsy uncle’s fishing cabin and then handed it over to a lighting designer with a God complex. Everything’s dim, warm, and weirdly perfect. You could lose your phone and your dignity in here—and you wouldn’t care. Behind the bar: Ja-ear (how he breaks it down to you). A man, a myth, a sushi-slinging demigod with hands that move like they’ve got a cheat code for time. The guy pops up like a culinary specter—"Try this," he says, dropping something on your plate that looks like it was painted by a Michelin-starred monk tripping on wasabi. You eat. You black out in bliss. You come to licking sauce off your fingers, unashamed. Da Vinci couldn’t carve raw fish like this man. There’s always a “How’ve you been?” from Ja-ear, and I mean it when I tell him “Better now.” Because once the sake starts flowing and the sashimi hits the bloodstream, you realize—you’re not just at dinner. You’re on a damn pilgrimage. The staff? Surgical. Like culinary assassins in crisp black shirts, quietly plotting your next flavor ambush. No ego. No nonsense. Just pure, razor-sharp execution. You’ll swear you’ve fallen into a Tokyo izakaya—except there's a golf course a block away and snowboards on the roof racks outside. We parked ourselves at the sushi bar—because dinner tables are for the indecisive. The calamari came out like Poseidon’s revenge: golden, crackling, bathed in a sauce that made me question the meaning of life. That tang still lingers in my dreams like a bad tattoo I don't regret. Dan-Dan ramen? Jesus. That bowl had the depth of a Kurosawa film and the kick of a back-alley brawl. Brisket so tender it was practically weeping in the broth. I’ve eaten noodles in Hokkaido alleys in the dead of winter—this was right there with it. No passport required. The sake kept coming. Something went wrong with the ginger in one of our drinks—minor glitch. They took it off the bill before we could even pretend to be bothered. That’s hospitality. That’s pride. That’s Drunken Monkey. And here’s the kicker: this isn’t some flashy Vegas knockoff or big-city clout trap. It’s tucked next to a damn roundabout in Truckee. TRUCKEE. You’d never guess this much flavor and finesse was hiding out where ski bums and snowplows cross paths. But here it is: a Japanese fever dream in flannel country. So skip the cookie-cutter tourist spots. This isn’t just dinner, it’s aboys’-night-out-meets Blade-Runner-meets-Hokkaido food hallucination. Drunken Monkey is raw, loud, fast, and deeply personal. You’ll leave full, buzzed, and spiritually rearranged—and you’ll curse that roundabout for being the only thing between you and...

This was our first time attending this restaurant, and we will not be returning.

Very disappointed in the quality of the fish. Sushi should not have remanence of scales stuck to the fish, and the fish should not have a strong fishy taste. I am visiting from out of town and eat sushi at a variety of different restaurants on a regular basis. I have never experienced this lack of quality at an actual sushi restaurant. I have had better quality sushi at our local natural foods store.

Also dissatisfied with the service, our entire party felt that because the gratuity was already applied, our servers did not care about the quality of their service. Our waters were never refilled the entire night. There were two dishes brought to the table that we did not order, one of which was applied to our bill. When the dishes were brought to the table, most of them were dropped at the end and we were not told what they were as far as rolls. When we mentioned this to the waitress, she told us that we “needed to be more conscientious about that we ordered.” How are we suppose to know what a rolls name is that we have never seen before? The hand rolls were disgusting, again, salmon that tasted unusually fishy, with remanence of scales and very off tasting tempura crab. We had asked the waitress for a to-go box, which was never brought, and we had to go to the hostess for one.

The one person at the table with a shellfish allergy, who made this aware to our waitress, and we also made it apparent before reservations. Ordered a roll without any shellfish, ended up having a contamination reaction to her roll.

On another note, when I called for clarification before the reservation was made, I was told that the $20 per person deposit would be refunded back to my card, not applied to our bill. This was not the case, when the bill came it was applied. It was not made an option. This wouldn’t have been an issue if we had been made aware of it beforehand.

Our service and food did not deserve 20% gratuity. As someone who has worked in the high end food industry for the better part of 13 years, in server, manager and chef positions I was appalled. Many of our party has worked in customer service or the restaurant industry, and we are very conscientious of the struggles that come with being in that industry. But much of what we encountered was unnecessary. Especially considering that we were a very easy party, that was not loud, rowdy, demanding or making dozens of alterations/changing orders, and that the venue wasn’t busy.

I hope that this is discussed with the servers and kitchen staff, and that changes are made. It was a very disappointing experience considering this was a special occasion for our party, and we wish that we had gone...

I have always enjoyed Drunken Monkey but was extremely disappointed tonight. The dining area smelled like fish when we came in. We were one of the first tables to be seated for dinner. Our table and menus were grossly dirty- I felt I needed to wash my hands before I ate after simply sitting down and handling the menu! Yuck. Not what one wants from a sushi restaurant, and not acceptable in any restaurant.

Our waitress was attentive and helpful; she helped us fix our wobbly table as well as clean the table (once we brought the dirty table to her attention). The manager did come to talk to us at our waitress's request and she did apologize for the dirty table but she should have skipped it-- she made it quite clear that she was put out and that we were wasting her valuable time. It was quite rude and not at all appeasing; I felt less valued as a customer after she talked to us. We ordered one full sushi roll that was so small I was amazed they called it a roll. It did not hold together, it was smaller in diameter than a cigar, and the rice was cold. It would embarrass any true sushi chef to serve it. It was far from what I expected for $20, and definitely not high quality to justify the cost. We were careful to only order cooked seafood after the table and smell-- in hindsight we should have just left, but had the idea of other, pleasant dining at this restaurant in our minds and hoped for the best. The menu layout and our experience this evening suggests the name of this restaurant is who they feel their clientele is. I love sushi, and I am shocked by this experience. I highly recommend supporting...