Matsuri Sushi

Call before you go because when my coworker and I stopped here last night on our way back to the East Bay, we were dismayed to find out it was closed due to a fire.

This place is so good after all this time. I moved from Benicia to Oakland and still come here from time to time. I miss coming here more frequently but glad the quality is still good.

This little japanese restaurant is a great spot. You don’t have to travel to the city to get decent Japanese food. So for the people who live near benicia I suggest to try this place out. The sushi is very good some of the popular ones are lion king, seared scallop, Titanic, dragon roll and more. The sashimi is one of my favorites I usually get salmon. The nigiri is good too. I like to get octopus. If you like something hot their nabeyaki udon is really good. However, I feel like the past year, the broth is a bit salty. Maybe different chefs? But still really good. For the price, quality and distance of this place I give it a 5 out of 5.

Decent sushi, but a little pricey.

Flavor was good
Sushi menu was basic
Tea had the powder floating
Bathroom needs a renovation

First time here. Very cozy authentic looking sushi restaurant. Really great specials. Had Lobster Tacos, Salmon Belly, Nachos… Everything was absolutely DELICIOUS!
We will definitely come back!

Service was great during my last visit. There are new Chefs and they are great.

Careless service from the women who seated us and it seems she is the owner of the restaurant. Overrated on Unilocal.Asked for extra bowl and a chopstick from the owner, and it took long long time and had to ask again. Worst of the part, we had diarrhea in the midnight after dinner there. 0 star if possible.

Matsui goes suburban!
I reviewed this place last year after chosing it when I discovered sushi, late in life (I was going to Japan) and it was not only the best in town, but also open at hour unusual for family-​focussed Benicia. Last July 4, they closed «early»; I thought that was a one off but last night I went there at 9 and it was closed again! Worse, an employee outside lied about the previous opening hours and claimed nowhere in Benicia is open aft 9 p.m. I used to joke about this too, but right across the street were two restaurants with blazing neon «Open» signs.
Not all Benicia residents are suburban families; some eat at sophisticated hours and chose to eat in town instead of the big city occasionally. Unless I suddenly have little kids to entertain, Matsui just lost a customer!

A simple Japanese restaurant with fresh ingredients for yummy sushi! Although some sushis can be on the pricier side, their fish is very fresh and really just melts in your mouth. My personal favorite, the pink lady: shrimp tempura roll with cucumber, avocado topped with real crab and tobiko. You would be amazed at how tall each sushi is from the ingredients they packed in the roll! I also enjoy their sashimi because I personally love raw fish and felt their cut was on point and was very flavorful and fresh. Their taro and sweet potato fries were also very good. I have never had taro fries before and they were delicious! The batter is similar to the tempura coating and is light and not greasy. Definitely an appetizer worth trying.
Overall, it is a nice Japanese restaurant that has great ingredients and will leave you wanting more! Parking is very accessible and its location is very populated with many restaurants and desserts, such as ice cream :)

The whole point of a sushi restaurant is to have more than just food. And while the food was unexceptional (neither to the good or the bad), the service just plain stank. I was treated as if I wasn’t wanted.
When I asked to sit at a table instead of the sushi bar (because I had work I wanted to do), was given a «let me see what I can do.» After several minutes taken to the dining room which had more open tables than occupied. So they shouldn’t have given me the bulls**t about seeing what they could do. They knew they could seat me.
Took a long time to get a drink ordered.
Never told the specials and they were written on a board so illegibly that I couldn’t have possibly read it from more than a foot away.
As is my usual practice in a sushi place, I ordered soup and one set of rolls, fully intending to order more once I ate those. Response was «is that all?» To which I said, «I plan to order more later.»
Soup was delivered without a spoon. And since waitress ran into the back before I noticed, I had to get up and go into the bar in the other room to ask for one. Which still took a minute or so to be delivered.
Sushi order was delivered by someone other than the server who took my order. It was okay, nothing great, not bad.
Finished my sushi, had not been visited by any waitstaff. Waited some minutes more, really wanting to have the chance to order more. Finally had to give up and flag someone down to get a bill. Then had to flag someone el down to take my credit card.
Honestly, don’t make your customers work so hard just to have a meal.

A long wait for what.
Tiny expensive rolls that don’t taste good. I had been coming here for awhile and then all of the sudden their staff changes and the place goes to hell. I ran into one of the wait persons working at another restaurant and was told that they paid them late all the time. I’m thinking what the hell, they don’t make enough money to pay their staff! I know when we went there we would spend enough to pay two people for the night easily. And I don’t like sitting in that little curtained closet. Anyway that was enough for me! Never going back there. I’m all about Ali’i now. But I will try Kimono.

Everything I ate was quality, fresh and simple. They dont feel the need to bombard thier rolls with 15 ingredients to compensate for poor quality fish. The place feels authentic, certainly not fancy — just clean and strait forward little hidden japanese gem.
We ordered:
1. hamachi & green onion roll (very fresh, large chunks of fish). By nature of the type of fish and the simplicity of the roll it was fresh, but slightly bland. Could use a acidic sauce (like a ponzu) to bring out the flavor of the fish.
2. Salmon skin roll: lot’s of crunchy, salty, good salmon skin and veggie flavor.
3. Seared Scallop Roll — to die for! I will be back just for this roll. Fresh, creamy, intense deliciousness. Most scallop rolls are baked and boring. This is not like most — trust me. Real crab, tempura onions, seared scallop, eal sauce and cream goodness.
My mango «saketini» was creative, light and easy to drink. Good service. The menu is very fairly priced.
We’ll be back! (maybe tomorrow)

Me and boyfriend absolutely LOVE this place! Great spot for sushi & sashimi especially the SAKE BELLY! It’s a MUST! We love to sit at the bar because the chefs are sOOo nice and accommodating, and we meet the nicest people there. Such a great environment for good food, conversation, and a little bit of sake [Recommendations]: sake belly, hamachi belly, mackerel, pink lady sushi, and lobster tacos!

Wow… Sorry Matsuri. I am soooo disappointed about writing this negative review. I try to avoid them at all costs, but I think I have been spoiled by some great Japanese restaurants in the tri-​valley.
Our family came in for Sunday dinner (not too busy) and promptly seated (great!). Décor is «ok» a bit cluttered they had Warrior paraphernalia around, not a «fancy» place, but that’s OK we are all about the FOOD.
Good stuff:
We are a Party of 5 and Water was served right away.
Nice variety of rolls. 4 of us ordered a sushi roll each and my daughter ordered udon soup. Presentation of rolls were appetizing.
Bad stuff:
No complimentary tea (if there was it was not offered), or little touches like free edamame.
Rolls pricey: $ 10 – 14 (ones we chose) at that price we expect large portions Otherwise, blow our mind with flavor and freshness.
Plates took excruciatingly long to serve, we each ate our roll individually as we watched each other hungrily eat their meal. my $ 14 roll was the last to be served (titanic) 45 min later and the tempura shrimp that was in the middle was lukewarm/​hard and puny.
We will try the other Japanese restaurants in town, before we come back, but we really hope that we just picked the wrong day to visit…

This place was so good that I forgot to take a pic of the whole roll. Sushi and Sake here is amazing!

Spicy Tempura roll. Order it. Now. Not even kidding it was so good I can’t stop thinking about that lovely roasted slice of garlic on top of the roll. My boyfriend ordered that roll and I ordered the Pink Lady and I was sitting there wishing I had ordered his!
I give the spicy tempura roll a ⁵⁄₅ and pink lady a 3/5.it wAs good but I’ve had better
Service was okay. We sat at the bar and the sushi chef seemed like he’d rather be somewhere else, not the friendliest. It was busy-​around 7:30 pm and we had to wait maybe 15 min before we got seated. The place isn’t that big and I sat next to the kitchen and the waitresses had to squeeze behind me and I felt bad but it was such a tight spot to be in! (That’s what he said?)
This was the second time coming here and I remember it being better the first time. I would, however, come back for that spicy tempura roll though lol… the main reason for a ⁴⁄₅ star.

Hiddenly located on 1^st street, it is easy to miss, but the way it was packed and people lined up as we were leaving around 7pm on a Thursday. it looks like people are returning for a reason! With a $ 70 bill for three people. 2 regular sized and one mini :), it wasn’t bad.
We ordered chix terriyaki, which came in a bento box type with a side order of california rolls. That in itself was plentiful. It had miso soup, greens, veg tempura, rice, terriyaki, pickled sprouts. The salmon belly was melt in your mouth delicious! Then the lobster tacos, was ok – nothing too seriously delicious, but definitely appetizer size (almost like dollar taco size), an order of edamame was a for sure, I had the spider roll and the partner in crime had the pink lady. No oppositions to the flavor and generous portion of the roll.
Next time we’re in the area we’ll be back.
+: Ambience, Service was excellent, Choices, Wait Staff knowledge, Value, Salmon Belly nigiri!!! yummm, quality, cleanliness
OK: none to report. Our overall experience was a cut above the norm!
—: none to report.

Being up north makes it difficult to find authentic restaurants or I’m just a spoiled east bay chica;)
Why ****the star rating based on the area and lack of competition this would be as good as it gets on this side of the bridge.
Warning this place is a little difficult to find as it is hidden in a pathway it can be very easy to miss it. It’s basically nestled in the side of the building on the ground floor ok now that we found it time to eat!
First impressions, small sushi bar upon walking in as you make your way to the dining area, it was too close for comfort in my opinion but quite entertaining to hear the ladies next to us divorcees, dating, dinner, and drinks… yeah quite some stories I ease dropped in. Now time to eat.
Pink lady and crazy monkey both were equally fresh and tasty however out of the two pink lady is the way to go.
I also really liked the miso soup for $ 1.95 more you can have a small bowl of typical miso, why I liked this one they added micro tiny mushrooms.
Oyster katsu was ok but I think I will skip it next time.
Pros:
–fresh suchi
–miso soup
Cons:
–seating is a little too close for comfort.
–difficult to find.

Funny… Places such as this I’d assume were only highly rated due to the convenience factor of the area. Reality was (at least in my case), is that I crave for Matsuri, even when eating sushi in the Bay. I look forward to visiting the fam in Benicia as it gives me an excuse to swing by Matsuri to grab some rolls. These suckers are HUGE as well & I have a hard time putting down 3 (which is my norm). Pink Lady & Rainbow roll have been my go-to’s, though I’ve sampled/​tasted just about everything with the fam & have yet to be disappointed…
Killer rolls, decent pricing & friendly service (though depending on size of party, expect a decent wait-​time as this place is TINY). Now just need another excuse to visit Benicia ;-)