Kaigan Sushi

The food is yummy. I took off one star for not being worth the price and another because several times when I have ordered soup they tell me there is no shellfish (allergy) and yet I still have a reaction.

We have always enjoyed the sushi here and the best part is that there is always a table available for us!

Great deal on chirashi. Good assortment of fresh sushi. My to go place for sushi lunch. Friendly staff.

Very delicious. I’ve been going here my whole life. Definitely one of the better sushi places in San Carlos. Go here and try it out if you have not.

Walked in last Friday after Johnston’s Saltbox — and most other restaurants on Laurel St. had a 1 hour+ wait. The place was about half full at 7:00.
We were greeted right away and the server brought us water. My friends and I ordered the tempura dinner, vegetable tempura dinner, spicy hamachi roll, spider roll, and some other spicy roll (deep fried).
The food was decent, Tempura dinner came with 4 shrimp, which was a plus. The deep friend roll we ordered was covered in some kind of sriracha sauce — too spicy for my liking.
All the other food was good. Would probably go again if I didn’t have other options on Laurel St.

I am reviewing on behalf of my colleagues, we catered Kaigan Sushi via a third party vendor. Overall presentation was good, and taste was definitely acceptable. We used to cater family style and they commented that the freshness here was not a good as the alternate but close! They spoke positively about the portions of the meals, and the menu offerings. Overall, one that we will keep in our cycle of restaurants as they did well :)!

We had lunch here today and it was great! I’m not sure what all the bad reviews are for… maybe they came on a bad day or the restaurant fixed an issue because all three of us loved our rolls! Some people just complain to complain so take the bad reviews with a grain of salt and give this place a try.

Walked in at 6:30 pm on a Tuesday and there was no wait staff present. There was a guy behind the sushi bar making rolls, but he didn’t bother telling anyone we were here. We should have left, but ended up staying.
After contacting an employee we finally got served and the food was decent.

Finally decided to eat in San Carlos. For some reason we naturally always head towards San Mateo? But this night, we took a left on El Camino. Parked and checked out some of the local sushi restaurants. Kaigan was the winner because of their menu options for me being a vegetarian. I ended up ordering the BEST veggie bento box ever for $ 13.95. Had fried tofu, miso soup, salad, tempura, sushi, and rice. My husband ordered a sushi roll and muscles. Since my bento box was so huge, he helped me out with some of my items.
We are defiantly going back here.

Worst sushi I’ve ever eaten. Tasted like the fish was old, and the rolls were tiny. Whole foods makes better sushi, and I don’t even like grocery store sushi.

Fresh sushi with creative combinations. Service is excellent, friendly, and hard working. This was one of our family’s regular spots when we lived in San Carlos.

Went there with my daughter, thought I would enjoy the salmon teriyaki. Very disappointing; salmon slime was served, I had to ask myself, did I order a baby size portion? I originally had kids size written down but even a kid would think this is small. My daughter ordered the Curry Udon (new on the menu). Her dish came, the curry you normally would see in the dish was no where to be found. She said it didn’t taste anything like curry and there were barely any noodles in the bowl. Take note that the bowl was the size of a cereal bowl…
Wondered did they change management?

I liked this restaurant. My husband and I are vegetarian and there was a good choice for vegetarians on the menu. My favorite roll was «caterpillar». It was soooo good!
We took other rolls and they were good. The waitress was kind and nice! :) very very friendly.
There was only one thing I didn’t like: tempura ice cream. It wasn’t good.
I recommend this restaurant anyway.

The food was good!
We ordered sushi, seaweed salad, Tempura, edamame, Bento Box, sliced beef with cooked vegetables!
All of our food was fresh and very tasty
Our service was good too!!!
make sure you try their seaweed salad, it’s crunchy and very fresh!!!

I’m sad to see this place has 3 stars overall rating because I think it should be more. Honestly… I think this place is good… and my coworkers and I go here for their sukiyaki! It’s the best I’ve ever had. It’s great on cold days and always comes out within 5 minutes of ordering.
Today we went there and got the Romeo & Juliet rolls. Albeit, the rolls are a little pricier than the other places, but the fish and scallop on this bad boy tasted fresh and delicious!
The staff is ALWAYS friendly the 5x I’ve been there… and my coworker goes there often enough they remember she likes the red pepper spice that goes on top of soup that they bring it out w/​o her having to ask for it.
I think this place is a hidden gem. Food is good… service is great!

Props to this place being open on New Years Day when everything else was closed. Kaigan is cute inside and the service was pretty good for a sushi place. Sashimi was just average, but the Lion King Roll was pretty damn good. So if you are into rolls over sashimi this is a good option.

We’ve ordered Kaigan Sushi multiple times at work, so this is a take-​out review as opposed to one focused on their dine-​in experience.
Overall, this place is fine. Nothing I’ve tried jumps out as being «amazing» while at the same time, nothing is a «disaster» either. If you want to order sushi, ordering from here will get the job done with no upside or downside surprises. There’s something to be said about this, I suppose.
The dishes that I’ve tried include assorted sashimi (salmon, tuna, etc.), the tuna roll, the vegetable tempura, and the chicken teriyaki. Again, all very OK.

It had been two years since my bf and I had left this place. However, we decided to give it another try last night. The new ownership has had a long road ahead of them dragging this place out of the ground, renovating the interiors, changing the menu and improving service– all under the same name! The outside seating is a nice new touch too!
We opted to sit at the bar like we usually do in sushi joints. It’s usually where the service is best, and we got to meet Eric, the sushi chef. We decided to sample a few things that hadn’t been on the menu before and were pleasantly surprised.
Salmon skin salad: It was pretty good. Fried pieces of salmon over their iceberg lettuce salad mix– not ideal for an optimal salad but appropriate for the price.
Chashu ramen: This was much different than all the ramen I’d ever eaten yet still very satisfying. I think the best part of it was the pieces of chashu which were tasty and free of much fat unlike most ramen bowls. The rest of it was simple– julienned carrots and a couple pieces of broccoli.
Sashimi deluxe: This comes in generous portions– seriously some of the biggest hunks of fish I’ve seen for under $ 20.
Saba (mackerel): These glistening silvery pieces of fish arrived nicely on a mound of sushi rice with slivers of green onion on top. Nice.
Uni (sea urchin): It was chef-​recommended. Fresh! So I obliged with a quail egg. Ahhh… one of my favorites which did not disappoint…
We were treated to some concoction with tartare on top of some rice– tastes better than it sounds. This is another good reason to sit at the bar. You get little perks.
The verdict was in quickly with this one, and the deal was sealed once we got the bill. You get a lot of food for a lot less here. We enjoyed all of the above with a bottle of sake for under $ 100. Nothing is too fancy in here. The dishes are simple but good. You can come in here pig out with some good company and not break your bank. We received excellent service too. Kaigan’s back on the map. They’ll be seeing a lot more of us.

Came here on a Sunday night, when it was relatively quiet. I really like the décor of the place — everything is clean and well laid out. The food was good — I got their tuna sashimi dinner plate and it came with soup and salad. They give you nice big chunks of tuna as well, and there was enough on the plate that I was able to get full off of that alone. Wine is $ 5 per glass, cheaper than you can get at a normal bar.
The service was a little slower here, but then again it was Sunday and it wasn’t horrible enough that it made my experience unpleasant. Good location in downtown San Carlos so after dinner, you can go down the street to the Office or Town to get a couple more drinks.

I frequently come here for lunch because my coworkers adore this place. The sushi here is decent in terms of freshness, but mediocre in all other aspects.
The standard cream cheese-​filled, deep-​fried, gooey sauce-​topped rolls are fun to eat but extremely overpriced at ~$ 12/​roll for 6 pieces. The poke salad and wakame salad are snack size, maybe 4 – 5 bites total, but hardly worth the $ 10 price tag.
My biggest issue isn’t the price, since sushi isn’t a cheap meal in general and more so a craft for the chef. The service at Kaigan is extremely lacking — the servers never bother to come back and check if we need anything else, there’s no concern for modifications (my coworker is allergic to avocado and we’ve specified to please remove avocado from all the rolls, but each time we end up with bits and pieces of avocado in our food), and the service is painfully slow.
Downtown San Carlos caters to the business crowd during weekday lunchtime, so you’d expect efficiency and speedy service, since most patrons have limited time to dine out and return back to work. Unfortunately, it takes about 10 mins for us to receive even the miso soup that accompanies the bento box, and another 10 mins for each order .
The three-​item bento box is a wonderful deal though, with the option of selecting all sashimi, with a side of rice, salad and soup. I also love the chocolate cake dessert, even though it’s completely not Japanese but delicious nevertheless. A warm rich molten chocolate cake, topped with vanilla ice cream and a generous dollop of whipped cream.
I’ve noticed something very strange that occurs each time my coworkers and I dine here. The server never seems to bring enough tea cups or glasses of water for the number of diners. If the 5 of us all request water and tea, we always end up with 3 tea cups and 4 cups of water and end up requesting additional beverages which adds to the slow service.