Ginza Japanese Cuisine & Sushi Bar

So slow. Be prepared to wait for your food, etc.

I’ve been here numerous times, both with friends and by myself and the first thing about this is to hope like Hell you can luck out enough to park in their lot. If not, it can be a major pain.
That aside, this was a nifty little find. I took a friend of mine who formerly lived in Japan and ate sushi (and sashimi) much more continually than I was and am able and so had a good base, from the source, on which to compare. He found Ginza to be very favorable in terms of the Japanese sushi, maybe not on an exact level, but still very, very good.
I can’t remember a time I’ve ever went here and gone away anything but happy and if I had to pick a favorite overall sushi place, it would probably be this, even though I hate the chairs considerably (nothing like the feel of wood to chase you out). There’s a nice tv, in case you want to watch sports, a pretty decent selection of beers and a sushi chef that is frankly undersung in the valley. Add to that a very slick wait staff that never leaves you wanting and it becomes one of the best «hidden» places in the city.
If there is a downside, other than the parking, it’s the size of the restaurant itself, which is unquestionably a bit on the small size (which means it can get a bit loud and may be a little dicey at times to get a table), but it’s clean and they clearly try to make the best of it that they can. For those minor things, though, this is one of the few reasons for me to go downtown at all.

The sushi was fantastic.
I recently moved here from Hawaii and was thrilled to find that Ginza serves mochi from Bubbie’s… probably the best mochi you will find ANYWHERE.

I was just there on Tuesday and I have to say it was very good… there were 7 of us and we tried some of everything. We had two vegetarians and the vegetarian rolls are the best I have ever had. The location is not the best, a little dicey and the back in parking is a little different. But the Noodles and Sushi are very good… I have eaten here about 20 times and never had a bad experience. It can get quite crowded because it is small but they are one of the few Sushi places that actually have a Japanese — trained in Japan, Sushi Chief. Also the noodles are really fantastic real Japanese style with the hot bowl.

The only reason this place gets three stars is because of the customer service. Other than that, their rolls are super tiny & overpriced. A CA roll is almost 8 $ here. If I wasn’t there to qualify for the extra 50% off, I wouldn’t even bother.

Be patient with the service as it is slow. I would suggest getting a green mussels shooters. Good piece sizing on the sashimi. The negatives are that the fish choices are what is most popular (salmon, tuna, shrimp, yellowtail). If you want squid or sea urchin, good luck!

I love this little bit of sushi heaven. I live down the street and walk over as often as I can. (Given the lack of parking, I think walking would be the best bet for anyone!) We come here for almost EVERY family get together. We’ve even driven all the way down to the Draper location.
My favorite rolls:
Spicy X (don’t know what that bit of spice is, but it works perfectly with the bit of sweet sauce)
Green eggs and ham
Philly Roll
Mars Twist
Did I mention the half priced rolls at lunch time? This place is a neighborhood favorite for sure!

Started with miso soup, better than average. House roll: eel with sprouts and eel sauce. Very good. Yellowfin roll was ok. Scallop handroll with scallops and spicy Ginza sauce very good. Décor simple with a lot of neon. So a cross between a mom and pop shop and metro Tokyo. A couple Japanese speaking patrons came an ate next to me at sushi bar. That is my litmus test of a good sushi place. If they come here you know it’s the real deal.

Ok. Back in 2000 I used to come here for the green eggs and ham. I recently visited but I was not pleased with the overall experience. The food was okay but the portion size was way too small for the higher prices. In 2000 there wasn’t much of choice in SLC. Today our group is going another sushi joint because we were just not pleased with the experience. Booooo!

One of my favorite sushi joints in Salt Lake. You’ve got the have a Mars Roll and the X Roll (The sauce with this is phenomenal, I could drink it straight!!)

first off… I’ve never wanted to go for sushi at a place that looks like Ginza does on the outside. I came here with a friend of mine when I was in town visiting. it was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night… just one other table. the interior décor was awful as well.
but on to the service… awful. the waitress was either in a super bad mood or just pissed at us for asking for the wasabi she neglected to bring (as well as soy sauce dishes and ginger…), she brought it, slammed it on the table and walked away. she only returned once to give us our bill. wow.
and besides bad attitudes and forgetful service… the avocado roll I ordered was terrible. terrible. AND 6 $. are you kidding me??? I can get delicious avocado rolls for 1.50 $ at other sushi places.
never ever returning to this junk drawer of a sushi restaurant.

First off… to keep this review in context, let me share that I took a client to Takashi earlier this year, and spent about $ 125 for lunch. Today, I took another client to Ginza for lunch, and we «ate our asses off»… (probably not really, because I’m sure our asses got bigger after what we packed away!) We ordered numerous nigiri sushi items and 2 orders of the crab roll that’s tempura’d and 2 orders of the X-​roll. Our lunch came to $ 98.
What made our lunch so much fun and satisfying? I think we were both hungry. The numerous nigiri sushi items tasted great. We really got into the X roll and the tempura’d crab roll. They were a great mix of savory and sweet. While I vaugely remember Takashi serving what I remember as maybe a higher grade fish, I had no problem today at Ginza helping my dining mate «clear every plate!»
Regarding service, we got Jackie, a young lady that took the brunt of my kidding around, and kept a smile throughout. We kept her busy bringing refills on our iced tea, and cups of ice. As for parking, right next door to Ginza, I stuffed $ 3 into the public parking pay box, which bought us 2 hours. I believe we pretty much used the majority of those 2 hours.
Are there better sushi houses in SLC? Maybe… but I can only attest to Takashi as one possible competitor. But I will tell you this… during the near two hours we were there, we saw plenty of clients walk in for lunch. And many of them looked like local business people with what may have been first timer tourists. (Word of mouth?) So I figure if this really is a 2 – 3 star place per other reviewers, then there must be a bunch of SLC sushi consumers that don’t Unilocal,and have non-​discriminating taste? … And no, I really don’t think so. They’re coming in for a reason, and as an out of towner who’s done some high end sushi dives in my day, I’d come back to Ginza, for sure.

This place is a cool little downtown location. Really not upper class at all, the inside is a little run down in all honesty. But we showed up late and there was nobody there and I just kept having them bring out different rolls of the waiter’s choice and they said by the end they were giving us stuff that wasn’t on the menu. So that type of thing whether its true or not makes a patron feel warm and fuzzy in the loins. I asked them to bring out some of the spicier stuff they make so they tried their best to accommodate. The negative reviews on here aren’t incorrect in all honesty, I just had happened to have a good visit is all. So suck on that!

Yikes. Effing yikes. Sushi is nothing special, they do not have a very large fish selection, the rolls seriously lack creativity, and the dragon ballz app tasted like deep fried garbage (also doesn’t say on the menu that it is deep fried… I would not have ordered it had I known). Service was fine, though the sushi chefs didn’t communicate to our server that they were out of two items we were waiting on until we were done with everything else. The two stars are basically for:
1. It’s cheap. Think our bill for two (including beer and sake) was like $ 40.
2. Their gyoza is amazing. Think they actually make them from scratch, unlike many places who use frozen ones from Sysco.
Unfortunately, neither of these reasons are strong enough for me to go back.

Hit up Ginza for their half off lunch special (half off certain rolls until 4PM). Only a handful of their rolls apply… unfortunately I was disappointed for value sushi. Fried rolls were a little soggy and spicy tuna (not on special) was bland. High point is the Kyoki, which has a curry dressing that’s uniquely good. Also, service was slow and no free parking just made it an under-​performing experience.
Recommend if…
A) You want to try the curried Kyoki.
B) You need a quick, cheap bite of sushi during the lunch hour.

Let me just state up front, I like Ginza. The reviews really are all over the place for this restaurant. This is one of those place where the servers can be totally indifferent and you just shouldn’t take it personally, because that’s not what is intended.
I have a couple of theories about this place. First, the aforementioned service disposition. This is further compounded by some people’s inability to converse with strangers. Second, many people in Utah have weird expectations regarding sushi and thus they come away disappointed. Next, this place really does approach a dive. The exterior is a bit sketchy if not just plain weird. Dive’s can be good, but not always. Also, the décor of the restaurant is a bit avant garde. Based on other reviews they must have a consistency problem like Matt W. mentioned. Those are my ideas but I could be way off,
This place essentially comes down to expectations. You really have to know what you are getting yourself into when you come here. Oh, and parking can be a small challenge.

Awful for many reasons. I ordered the California Roll, the Salmon Roll, and a side salad with their homemade dressing [couldn’t tell what it was].
Yes, I realize my menu choice was a little plain-​jane, but that was only because their menu is way overpriced for the quality of rolls that you’re getting. Rainbow Roll $ 13.95??? Really???
Side salad was first… disaster! The salad was washed, but in warm water! I could tell because #1, the whole salad was warm [gross!] and #2, they didn’t bother to spin it dry, so the water was everywhere and they had already put too much dressing, so the water just killed it,…excuse me, the «warm» water killed it.
The rolls themselves were fine. Nothing special, nothing great. Tuna seemed fresh. Ambiance, awful. Hip-​hop and soul music in the background didn’t help the look of the chefs behind the sushi bar.
Price for side salad, and two very basic rolls [just water for drink]…$ 15!!! and that’s before tip!
Don’t go, not worth it. This should have easily been a $ 10 meal. 1 star, sorry.

What to say about this place? My first thought was that there were no Asians in this restaurant for dinner. Not even working behind the sushi bar. However, I removed my biased judgment and ordered freely… the service was A+, but some of the plates came dirty. Then the sushi came and it was good, but my friend sent the teriyaki chicken back due to being inedible.
Maybe I am spoiled living on the west coast near very fresh fish markets where sushi restaurants are a dime a dozen. So I didn’t know what to expect.

Meh… I’ve been here twice. The décor is weird, and it does feel a little dirty, or dusty, or something not quite clean.
The service is passable. It’s not great by any means, but it wasn’t really bad. On my last visit, the waitress asked my date and I if we had reservations. Which I found slightly odd as there were only two filled tables in the place, and it was by no means crowded or busy. For future reference: Ginza does take reservations.
The sushi was decent. It wasn’t particularly memorable; I honestly didn’t feel like it was a whole lot better than Shogun. (And Shogun isn’t that great, either.) Like the service, the food isn’t bad… it’s just not great. I’d rather go someplace else that IS great.

After reading reviews from various sites all over the internet, including Unilocal of course, I found it interesting how Ginza elicits such a variety of vociferous opinions, ranging from one star disses to five star raves. One can only assume that Ginza is incredibly inconsistent.
So, why have I been so lucky? From the first time I ate solo at Ginza the night my divorce was final, to the dozen or so times I’ve dined there with my current flame, Ginza has always been delightful.
I turned my lady onto sushi at Ginza, and now she’s addicted. It remains our favorite sushi restaurant in the valley. We enjoy the small and intimate atmosphere, the friendly service, and the delicious specialty rolls.
But take my review with a grain of salt. I always get laid after dining at Ginza, so I’m probably biased.