Mitsunobu

We sat at the counter and the chef was lovely. Delicious and fresh sushi, we got the omakase menu and it was great. Nice, small place with attentive service. I got a chardonnay and it was pretty mediocre-​they could use an update on the wines. My partner got sake, and he was happy. The matcha tiramisu at the end was unique and wonderful. It is an expensive place, which is fitting for west menlo park but I’m not sure the décor/​vibe fits the price.

I always enjoy the food and atmosphere of Mitsunobu. Having lived in Tokyo for 4 years, I would not hesitate to say it is the best and most authentic Japanese restaurant in the Bay area.
But last night I was so disappointed at their service. First off, nobody explained the details of the menu. And when we wanted to order some additional sushi, he, the floor manager look-​like, expressed his unhappiness to us (!), simply because we ordered too late after the ice cream desert came! I felt like that he was trying to teach us how to eat omakase kai seki style… We spent freaking US$ 900 for BAD service!
Sad that I left there with this feeling. But I am not sure I will go back there any more.

Extremely rude service. The server chewed our head off when we asked if we could order (we had been waiting for over 15 mins) — screaming that we needed to be patient, that someone would get to us when they could, that he seated us without a reservation (why did you seat us if you couldn’t accommodate us?!?). After about 20 minutes, he decided to apologize, but then his apology quickly turned into another rant about why he was justified with his original behavior. We will never return to this restaurant.

Had the Omakase dinner. It was well worth the money. First time I was actually full off a Chef tasting menu. Great portion! Will highly recommend this place. Hidden Gem.

My husband and I celebrated our «10-​year dating anniversary» at this place — I’ve always known that this place was very close to work but never actually thought about eating here until we realized that it was time for another celebration (a.k.a. another reason to eat out at a fancy place, lol!) and this place came to mind.
We managed to make a reservation on a fairly short notice and was pleasantly surprised by the interior as it doesn’t look very special on the outside! The service was pretty decent — the restaurant itself is quite small so it really doesn’t take much to be attentive to all the tables. They are very big on food allergy/​aversions as they will try their best to prepare alternative food options if you can’t eat certain things… I thought that was pretty considerate as there are definitely restaurants that will NOT allow you to make any changes/​substitutions to the menu.
We went with their kaiseki set menu since apparently you have to inform them ahead of time if you wanted to do omakase & that’s only offered at the sushi counter… this wasn’t the first time we’ve heard that before but we were slightly bummed about that.
Overall, we enjoyed the food very much, but it’s definitely not a place that we would dine at often since it’s so pricey!

Had a great experience here. We ordered the Kaiden’s set with the sashimi upgrade (toro and uni). Everything was fresh and delicious tasting.
The yuba roll (with Kani) was my least favorite. But as I tasted it more. I felt the flavor changing and it grew on me even though I did not like it at first.
Everything else was really great. The jewelry box was a real highlight and the service was wonderful as to be expected at an authentic Japanese place.
I can’t wait to come back again.

It was my first visit here and we celebrated my birthday dinner. I loved it! My mother had been here before and suggested it. It turned out that our waiter also has the same bday as mine, so that was cool. He made suggestions for us and brought extra treats. Everything we had, we liked. It was my first time having wagyu… sooo good. It was so soft & tasty, it was like eating sushi. We tried a lot of different items, both cooked and raw. I will definitely be back.

Rip off. Not even good nigiri to the 5star price they charge. Never go there, not worth your time and meal.

Good food. Terrible service.
We had a nice meal here and thought the quality of food was generally very good. However, the service ruined everything. When the bill came we noticed two mistakes, the waitress had overcharged us by $ 100 for something we didn’t order. And she also overcharged us $ 5 more for a sake ($ 29 vs $ 24 on the menu). When I asked her about it she just shrugged her shoulders and said the menu was wrong. She corrected the $ 100 wrong charge but did not offer to correct the $ 5 overcharge. Given it was a small amount we just paid and left without further discussion. However, it did leave a bad taste in our mouth since she was so nonchalant about overcharging us by +$ 100. When I left I said something to the sushi chef/​owner purely out of desire to help restaurant succeed as we like to have nice restaurants in the neighborhood but he also didn’t seem to take our feedback seriously and was nonchalant about it.
Funny thing was that during dinner that my spouse and I remarked and discussed why we haven’t been back to this restaurant in years. I remembered we paid close to $ 500 for sushi for two last time there and it felt really steep for the quality of food. In hind sight, it’s highly likely that they overcharged us by a big amount. Only that we had too much sake to notice last time perhaps.
Bottom line, the food was ok but overpriced and beware of overcharges and dismissive attitude towards customers when you point out their mistakes!!! I

The AC doesn’t work efficiently like you would expect in a expensive restaurant, it was so hot inside early last Sunday evening.
After couple hot appetizer (sea urchin steam egg Custer) some live shrimps sushi, and black cod fish, and glass of champagne, and desert we decide let call off the evening.
when waiter bring the bills my husband notice the price for the two appetizer was over charge $ 9.00 each, and the drink was dollar more than menu. We asked for explanation, the waiter said the run out of local sea urchin, they used the import so they have to charge more. but it was never mention ahead of time when we order it.
Food and service over all was acceptable, but it kind of turn off by the over charging without confront to the customs. be aware do check your bill.

the prices just do not hold up.
i am sure that in 1985 this would have been a destination upscale restaurant. however they opened in 2011 yet it still looks like the building hasn’t been renovated since 1985. there are HVAC stains on the ceiling.
with flea st. right around the corner, lure & till downtown, or even other japanese like sumika or inshou, $ 160 per person buys you more extremely high quality food with amazing presentation elsewhere.
staff is excellent, presentation is great, and the food is fine, but that isn’t the point, it is just not remarkable.

I have had the same experience attempting to eat here twice for dinner in the last week. I entered the restaurant which was half full, at best, and stated I didn’t have a reservation. The confused looking host declared that they were all booked up, and this was with pretty much no line and the restaurant about half empty. It seemed a bit strange that they couldn’t seat one person in a half-​full sushi restaurant with no line, given that this type of food does not take long to prepare and the turnaround on tables is quick (I’m not gonna sit there 2 hours). Having lived in the Bay Area 10+ years I know what a busy, booked up restaurant looks like and this wasn’t one.
So I insisted to be seated at which point I was told that indeed I could eat there. Oh, okay, so you can seat me. Fine. But then the host says I would be restricted to ordering from a ~$ 100 fixed course meal and could not order from the rest of the menu. What I got from this is that they don’t want you in the restaurant unless you are going to spend a minimum amount of money. I would say it borders on a scam. First tell people you are booked up when you aren’t and then steer them towards an overly expensive fixed course meal if they still want to eat there. I would believe they were booked on a single night with a half empty room (maybe big party coming there etc.), but literally the *exact* same scenario happened twice to me when I attempted to eat here, as if the host had been trained to do this little dance (it was same host both nights).
I realize that I could have made a reservation, and perhaps I should have the second time. But I consider this way of dealing with customers to be deceptive and rude. Either you have a table for me or you don’t, not this «weeell if you spend $ 100 you can eat here» scam. And I should be able to order anything I want from the menu once you’ve seated me, regardless of whether I have a reservation or not. This is restaurant 101 stuff, and this place is failing at it.
I really have no plans to ever even attempt to eat here again due to this strangeness. I bet the food is even pretty good judging by the other reviews. But as they say «fool me once…»

Although it is super pricey here, you definitely get what you pay for. The fish is so fresh and you can taste the great quality.
This is a place for someone that enjoys real authentic sushi (not just the designer rolls). You can create your own roll, however there aren’t many options. This place is more about the sashimi and nigiri. The service is also really good, and you feel taken care of. Would highly recommend this place for a nicer sushi meal or for a special occasion.

If you want to pay $ 160 per person for a restaurant that is trying really hard to be something which they fall far short of, than this is the place. The micro portions are intended to convey high end culinary experience. What they create is an increasingly frustrated reaction to the realization that you’re getting ripped off. The food was average Japanese fare, the portions were woefully inadequate and the prices were outrageous.

If you like fine dinning for sushi YES this is a good place but if you just want to eat good sushi not recommend sushi here you pay by pieces and gratuity is already included, good place to bring your first date for good impression but your wallet will be empty later.

I don’t really like to write bad reviews… but this place was pretty lame. I went for a spontaneous tuesday night dinner date, and was hoping for the best but had no crazy high expectations. The service was passable, but to be completely honest the food was a huge let down. I heard this was one of Steve Jobs favorite places, but I’m left still wondering why.
Their Teriyaki Yellowtail was SO SALTY. And I love salty! But… this was too much… as if someone had broken the top of the Morton’s Salt Shaker. And ironically on the complete other end of the spectrum was the Veggie Tempura, which could have used a little extra salt.
The only thing that really made these entrees edible was forking off bits of the fish and laying it on top of the bland Vegetable Tempura (which I then ate like little bite-​sized canapes).
The nigiri (I had salmon and eel) were nothing to write home about either. Good, but very basic.
In the end, my favorite part of the meal was the Japanese Molasses Flan dessert, which was about the size of costo brownie-​bite. Sweet, caramelized, and yummy though.
In the end, as fancy as this place tried to be, it was fairly mediocre in food quality.

My wife said it right: not bad for strip mall sushi.
However, we had the Kaiseki 8 – 10 course dinner for $ 433 (2 ppl, one with two glasses on wine, one with pairings, toro upgrade), so it was clearly trying to be better than strip mall sushi — or at least, it should be for that price.
First course was wonderful — uni Chawan. Set expectations at a very high level. Sashimi, next, was average, so that lowered expectations. «Jewelry Box» was next and didn’t work as well at all, and from there, that pattern continued. Some courses good, some average, some disappointing.
Service was very good, so that’s a point in their favor, but ultimately, the meal was a little disappointing.

We came in for lunch and I was a bit disappointed. Quality of the fish was ok but nothing great compared to the fantastic sushi places in LA. Plus the prices were outrageous. I had the 8 piece sushi, a spicy tuna roll and miso soup for $ 36. I would not return. Atmosphere was very quiet.

Nothing special for lunch. Miss the former place (Kaygetsu) even more now that I see that these folks idea of a $ 40 sashimi platter was 3 – 4 types of fish, maybe 3 slices each (and thin at that) and really nothing that remotely stood out as unique or good enough to warrant that price.
The queen has no clothing. Take your good money elsewhere — esp for lunch. No wonder the room was empty that day I had a business meeting /​lunch there. Also few options for vegetarians !

We went to Mitsunobu on a Thursday night for dinner. The day of, the restaurant called to confirm the reservation and know about food preferences/​allergies etc and also to know if we were celebrating anything.
The restaurant has an almost nondescript entrance and it might take you a while to find it the first time you are there. It is tucked away behind the gas station, if you enter the complex and see Safeway straight ahead, drive to your left to find the restaurant. Once you enter though, you will be pleasantly surprised by its tiny and zen like setting. The people and service was extra ordinary. We decided to do the chef’s menu ($ 98 per person) since we were told they get some of their ingredients from Japan and we were celebrating that night. They started us off with some complimentary hot soup and lotus chips.
Our first course was a cold eggplant soup with corn and caviar, garnished with chives– When the soup arrived, it looked like a hot soup until you have it and it is cold but very refreshing. It did not taste like eggplant at all, the corn and caviar in each bite with the cold soup was a nice combination
Next course was sashimi — tuna, pike fish, (one more fish which I don’t remember). Even though I am not a big fan of tuna, I must say this was one of my favorites of the evening. Just some very very fresh fish served sashimi style, no embellishments needed, well some embellishments I guess, soy sauce and wasabi ;)
Jewelry box — The best presentations of the night! It came in a little box with a bamboo mat lid. The box had chicken fritters which were extremely juicy and succulent, others on the table who were allergic to chicken, got a fried fish version, which was equally moist and flavorful. We all had the shrimp, pear salad and tofu. The pear salad with sesame dressing was delicious!
Nama Yuba with Uni — I am not a big fan of Uni, sorry to paint this picture but it reminds me of the yellow goop that is found inside a crab that is usually discarded. Anyway, now that you googled yellow goop inside a crab and your day has been ruined, let’s get back to Uni. I could not have thought of a better dish that converted me to a Uni groupie. The savory egg custard mixed with Uni and wasabi was the perfect combination. The Uni of course, was fresh and did not taste overpowering at all, neither was I repulsed by Uni. Job well done.
Grilled Pork — The next one was grilled pork/​beef on the individual stone stoves. This is your regular cook your own meat type of thing. It was good, and provided an interesting dimension to the meal. Same with the mushroom rice and walnut sauce course that came next, it was nice.
The dessert was a chestnut roll cake and they also brought out a little dessert box for the birthday girl which had a flan and green tea ice cream. Both were very nice. We also order a glass of Cava each. For three people, the entire meal cost us around $ 450. We did the Chef’s menu since we were celebrating a birthday, but I would definitely go back to try the sashimi.