Toshi-San Sushi & Shabu-Shabu

man, I am so disappointed that Toshi San is closed! it was one of the best restaurants for Uni that I ever had. I will be trying Hane Sushi instead which I have heard is the same Ota and Nakamura brother’s restaurant. Very authentic and perfectly portioned fish to rice ratio. I love the freshness and quality of the fish.

Well, from reading the reviews and blogs about this place, I was excited to try it even though I was deathly sick for dinner.
Some of the reviews already warned you with the lack of customer service and enthusiasm with the staff, but hey, I’m Asian, and I KNOW how service is last on the list.
The place is older, I still found charm in a bungalow kinda feel. The parking was excellent, and of course, there was no wait.
Our waiter wasn’t really understanding us very well, maybe cause I lost my voice a lil. I ordered the soft shell Crab roll with the avocados on the side as I am allergic, but my friend is not allergic, so she could have it separately. They ended up charging us for the avocados on the side, cuz they had avocados in the roll. And also the prime rib shabu plate was hella small. We ran into a lil more hiccups here and there with our waiter not understanding but all in all, we kinda got what we wanted… Except, for the avocado. He served us the avocados first, and our shabu plate, so we started. Then served the soft shell crab roll and before biting into it, I saw avocado in it. So I didn’t eat it…
But when the bill arrived, the avocados on the side were charged, just 10cents… But I still felt compelled to tell him nicely what the mix up was, and then asked if he could do anything about the bill? He asked for the avocados back, well… That is hard, its being digested in my friends belly! So, i thought, not a big deal, but they refused to take off 10cents in sake of customer service. 10cents… Really??? (well then THAT is gonna reflect ur tip buddy!)
I won’t be returning here… If the quality of the food was amazing, then I’d consider coming back. But the portions were small, sake is Nobu pricing… And I can totally get the same foods in Kearny Mesa… With the same type of service but better portions

I hate this. I am losing a friend and a go to spot,
my sushi spot.
I didn’t see it happening and when I first heard complaints,
I blew them off.
I try to maintain an optimistic view.
The glass is half full kind of guy but without all the spirit fingers and crap.
And Toshi-​San just meh?!?
No way.
This was just someone who was used to fancy deep fried rolls,
someone who was used to paying for more but getting less,
someone who can’t believe something so simple
can be so amazing.
Then another complaint from someone who knows a thing or two
About sushi…
This sparked me and forced me to get down and enjoy a meal with Toshi-​San.
I didn’t enjoy it.
It was ok. It lacked … that spark, that zest that it used to have.
Maybe this was on off day. Maybe. One so-​so meal
shouldn’t ruin the luster that I hold for this spot.
So…I came again with a friend.
It is done.
I have lost my go to sushi spot.
Some things change and it isn’t always for the better.
Sometimes it is better to say thank you for all the good times
and be on your way. People change, perceptions change…
It wasn’t a half-​truth or a lie when I said I loved you…
But that was yesterday and now… We aren’t the same.
That door is closed and a new one will open.
Best of luck Toshi-​san,
with everything.

This place is a hidden gem. I was very impressed with the quality of the fish, as I have only encountered such freshness in Japan. The cod and eggplant were out of this world, and lets not forget the tender delicious halibut sushi and my favorite the toro hand roll. As dessert came along, the actual red beans on the green tea ice cream was a wonderful surprise. I’m very pleased to know that we have such a restaurant right here in town.

This place is one of the last dining experiences I’ll be having in La Jolla for quite sometime. I came here with the X G/​F for shabu shabu. It wasn’t really memorable but it was eatable.
The portion size was adequate, and if I remember we ordered some rolls that where okay. Think it was a soft shell crab roll,. Shabu shabu doesn’t really have a tasty broth like Chinese hot pot so I guess I’m not really a fan.
Doesn’t matter I wont be going back.

The quality and selection of food was satisfactory; Shabu Shabu was adequate but the rest of the dishes were mediocre, many of them overpriced.
Furthermore, the appalling level of service provided at this restaurant simply brought me to a loss for words. Their utter disregard to manners and social etiquette brings ‘rude’ to a whole new level. I would expect better service at a soup kitchen or school cafeteria.
First of all, the service was remarkably slow and crude. The waiter completely ignored our first order, leaving us to wait for nothing. The waitress showed no respect whatsoever, she accidentally knocked the shredded fish from our tofu salad whilst trying to retrieve the menu, but did not have the decency to apologize. Instead, she walked away.
In addition to the substandard service, the cashier literally forced us to pay 18% gratuity by filling in the ‘tip’ section of our credit card slips. I would be more than happy to pay this amount of gratuity if the service was decent.
It seems as though the staff at this restaurant were not educated well enough to understand basic social conduct. The unreasonable pricing, poor ambience and discourteous staff perfectly explains why it was empty on a Saturday night.
Simply put, I would rather starve myself to death than eat at this hell​-hole​.To any of you who happens to have the the slightest urge to eat at this place: think again.

Whenever I want Sushi, this is where I go. Really fresh fish, beautiful rolls. I particularly like the spicy tuna. There were 3 of us last night, and the place was not very full. The hostess was delightful, took our orders quickly. We could not decide what to drink, so she went back for more/​different drinks (water, tea, wine, coke) without any complaint at all. I keep meaning to order the shabu shabu, but then I think, love the sushi, and end up ordering that again.
I love the way they all greet us when we come, and say goodbye and thank you when we leave. Just like Japan.

Went here on a search for shabu shabu with my fiancé. (Recently moved down to SD from OC.) At first, we were sticker shocked about the shabu shabu. I was really hoping it was good since I could get my sushi fix and he could eat shabu shabu. My sushi order came first — albacore and salmon. AWESOME! Generous pieces. Excellent meat to rice ratio. Tasted very «melt in your mouth» fresh. I also had the unagi roll. It was ok. Next time, I will probably skip the unagi roll and get unagi sushi instead. Then came the shabu shabu. The quality of meat and size of slices made the price worth it!
As the other reviewers mentioned, ambience isn’t that great but the food is top notch!

This place has refreshing iced green tea, delicate miso cod, flavorful cuts of meat, and EXPENSIVE PRICES! I’m not a stickler when it comes to paying for good food, but in this case, I don’t think the food is really worth the price. You have to pay for extra sauces, which is really unfortunate because the sauces are so integral to complement the meats. They say that they give you vegetables with your meat orders, but in reality they give you a very small amount and just a single slice of carrot. When it comes down to it, I am still going to continue going here because the shabu shabu is as tasty as I’ve had in San Diego. Still, I feel that the prices could be lowered and they could be much more generous with their portions.

Whoever thought of having a restaurant that serves both sushi and shabu shabu is a freakin’ genius in my book! These are two of my favorite things to eat and I could hardly contain my excitement when I found this on Unilocal during my brief stay in San Diego. When we first got to the restaurant I was nervous because it was completely empty besides one other table, but then I realized that they were about to close in 20 minutes so it made a lot more sense. We got some sashimi which was extremely fresh and we also got the beef and seafood shabu shabu (I know I’m a pig). The meat and seafood were delicious but I was kind of disappointed in the vegetables because I expected a lot more cabbage and a lot more variety in the type of vegetables.
I’m giving this one more star because of something that happened as we were closing out our check. I decided to pay for dinner and I had accidentally handed the waiter an old debit card that had already been cancelled. Obviously, the card was declined and when the waiter came back to tell me he made up some excuse that sometimes the credit card machine doesn’t recognize certain banks and etc. It made absolutely no sense but I liked the effort. It gave me a good laugh.
I highly recommend this place if you’re in La Jolla and are craving Asian food since there is not too much of it.

This is my favorite sushi restaurant in San Diego… hands down.
Growing up in a military family, I was blessed enough to spend my formative years in Japan. As such, I have a penchant for all things Japanese, food especially. I feel that I know what GOOD sushi is, and I prefer sushi restaurants that remind me of being in Japan as opposed to many of the Americanized Japanese restaurants that specialzie in crazy rolls or concoctions. Give me a great piece of nigiri with a friendly server and gregarious sushi chef, and I’m a fan.
And that’s JUST what you’ll get at Toshi-​San.
The sushi itself is great. The quality of the fish is top notch, and Toshi-​San actually serves Tamago! You’d be amazed how many «sushi» places don’t serve such a basic dish!
I’ve had the shabu shabu before. Although, as a general rule, I am not a huge fan of shabu shabu to begin with, it was pretty good. But I go to Toshi-​San for the sushi combo B.
Plus, the mochi ice cream is the best in town. I still don’t know what brand they use for their mochi ice cream, but once I find out, I am totally going to stock my freezer with it because it’s delicious (both the mango and the strawberry are equally good).

Oh my, oh my… This is the real thing, better even than sushi ota (which can be rather westernized). If you are here for the sushi, do the bar or get the deluxe chirashi. Toro, ikura, uni, all fresh and with larger portions. Shabu is also good, and as a side dish the chawan-​mushi is great. The real secret is to ask for specials or off-​the-​menu items.
Cons: rolls are so-​so, and the lighting/​seats are rather sterile for a nice sushi place. People are mostly here for the quality of the food, not the ambience.

Cadillac and I went here on a Saturday evening and it was dead. Bad for them, good for us (though I hoped it was because we were there old-​people early). I haven’t had sukiyaki since my mom died 17 yrs ago, so that’s what we got. We chose to cook it table-​side (one order to share). We also got a rainbow roll, seaweed salad, and a tofu salad.
Everything was delicious. The fish in the roll tasted very fresh and the chefs are back there waving at people like they want to impress you.
The tofu salad was HUGE, like a dinner salad though it was listed as an appetizer. I mean, not Cheesecake factory dinner salad big, but normal dinner salad big, with an enormous shaved bonito mountain on top.
We were stuffed at the end. I can’t see how you could get two orders for two people of sukiyaki or shabu shabu, unless you’re like a 16 year old boy and can eat your own body weight. If you get one order to share, get an extra bowl of rice because it comes with only one (and one soup bowl).
Real Japanese people working & eating here, too (in case you were wondering).
The only odd thing was they had very low lighting, some track lighting off to the side, so it was kind of dark at the table. Give us a candle or something.
No appetizers were placed out for us.

It was quick, the staff was nice, but there’s virtually no atmosphere and the food was just ok.
We had a few sushi rolls and some nigiri. I’d stick with nigiri next time since the rolls had so much rice, they were hard to fit in your mouth and a lot for the 3 of us to finish.
One thing they had which was interesting were pan-​roasted ginko nuts for an appetizer. Not for everyone’s taste, but something different to try.

Clean, yet very sterile feeling environment.
Service was decent, friendly enough.
Food? Average. Nothing that stands out.

I have to say that I was a bit skeptical going to this place even though the Unilocal reviews were good.
I cruised in with the wife and three kids the other night for dinner and I’ve got to say that I was thoroughly impressed. The restaurant was half-​full on a Sunday night with a big table of Japanese at some sort of a business meeting/​party. Vincent was our waiter and the only server that I saw besides some other female worker who RAN through the restaurant to get an order stopped that we had changed! Although Vincent was busy running around, he actually apologized for not spending enough time talking with us. Very nice guy with a great personality.
The Food: Excellent Protein Roll, amazing Black Cod baked with sake, fantastic Nina Roll (The Nina Roll is a «Marshall Roll» TM copy from Harney Sushi… someone should get a royalty check here). Everything we had here was fresh and tasty and nicely prepared. They have an OK beer and wine list and a good sake selection.
Most all of the tables in the restaurant have a heat-​plate with a hood. I saw 3 – 4 tables with a broth and meat, veggies and tofu to bake with noodles. Those looked great and we plan on sharing a broth dish the next time we come in.
I would not put Toshi-​San on the same level as Sushi Ota (The best sushi bar out there, period) but I would highly recommend them for any sushi-​lover for the freshness, selection (some crazy things on the menu that I have NEVER seen before) and friendliness.
I’ll update the review after I get to know them a bit better and make a return trip.

If you’re ever stuck needing to fix that sushi craving, this place is reasonable but certainly not high quality.
The sushi is passable but not the freshest. Perhaps the rice is a bit old? The hot foods, chicken teriyaki and tempura… all plain. Did I mention the averageness of this place?
Skip unless you really want some fish and can’t walk elsewhere.

I came here the first time after being sworn to secrecy because lest the word get out that this is the best sushi place in town, it might get as packed as some of the half-​as-​good places on La Jolla’s main drag. I’ve kept the secret until now.
I have never had a bad meal here. In fact, quite the opposite. I’ve always had a fantastic and satisfying meal here. The sushi is fresh and out of this world. I’ve been here maybe a dozen times and the crunchy shrimp roll (emphasis on the crunchies) is so very delicious. I’ll admit I’ve never tried the shabu shabu but it looks very interesting.
The sushi chefs always smile and greet me when I come in. They don’t know me nor do they probably recognize me, they’re simply friendly and happy. I’ve been a few times just for takeout and the wait has never exceeded more than 15 minutes for a couple rolls, even when it’s busy on a Saturday night.
I definitely recommend this place. Although you might write it off as being just another sushi place with standard décor, easily passable from the street, it is much more.

This place surprised me. I thought a cheesy restaurant name would constitute a bad japanese dinner experience… I was wrong.
It has a variety of offerings in terms of types of Japanese food. It has a sushi bar, shabu shabu and some but limited kappo items.
Let me tell you, their fish are really fresh. Something I wasn’t expecting at all. The toro was soooo good it melts in your mouth. I wish we ordered more sashimi but since we didn’t know what to expect, we ordered a bunch of cooked food… and it was too late, we had too much food and couldn’t order more.
I’d definitely go again… and if you sit by the sushi bar, don’t forget to ask to sit at Uchino-san’s section :)

This is Sushi Ota without all of the hype, the long lines and you dont need reservations.
Just dont order things like a rainbow /​caterpillar /​crunchy rolls. If you want stuff like that there are plenty of places in the area that will make that for you.
Of course this is my humble opinion. Go see for yourself.
Sit at the bar. Say «omakase onegaishimasu » to the chef and sit back.
Whatever you do, DO NOT ask the chef for sake, sodas, water or anything else thats not in front of him.
He is not your waiter.
Godspeed.
Ive already said too much.