Saiko Sushi

Upscale fine sushi and fantastic sake choices. There is a roll I ordered (can’t remember the name) that had a fruit glaze on it that was AMAZING! I also ordered fine tasting warm sake that came in a box. Decent beer selection too. Everything here is classy and high quality.
Godzilla movies?! I love Godzilla movies!!!
Play more Yakuza movies from the 60s.

The food here was wonderful. Creative, fresh, delicious rolls. However the service was inattentive and slow. Took at least 20 min to get our drinks after ordered. And it was a slow night. Too expensive to put up with poor service.

Haven’t been to Coronado one but the north park one us awesome
Sake selection is awesome
Uni was amazing
Sit at the bar and let the sushi chefs guide you.
Rotating tap list of San Diego beers.
Not super traditional but not crazy avant garden
Nice happy medium where shit doesn’t get muddled
Very well priced

Holy frijole. Seriously. There was another highly rated sushi place with more reviews but this was closer and we were short on time (and maybe feeling a bit lazy…) so we went here, which also had 4 stars and was across the street from where we were ending up.
Go for happy hour. Sit at the sushi bar. These are recommendations I’d issue as orders if I could get away with it. :) The sushi chefs are so helpful and it definitely made the experience even better. and Happy Hour is really impressive – $ 5 beers and sakes, $ 5 sushi rolls that normally cost $ 13, etc. I could have had a roll or two, an app, a beer and walked out for less that $ 25 with tip.
The thing is, their sushi is not your garden variety sushi. At all. There was so much interesting stuff I had never heard of – and both of us at dinner LOVE sushi, so finding such unique offerings is not something either of us experiences too often.
Things we loved:
Saikou Salmon (holy balls this was DELICIOUS)
Japanese Yellowtail (oh man so was this)
Saikorama (ok actually everything was…)
Home Wrecker
Spanish Mackarel
Eel
I can’t wait to go back. The staff were so knowledgeable and friendly, and the food was amazing. Doesn’t get better than that in my book.

Saiko Sake & Sushi Bar, and Chef Evan, are awesome. Chef Evan just catered one of our very important events, and did an incredible job with his Sake Tasting Bar. I mean, the guests were all completely impressed with his deep knowledge, and way of presenting each sake.
All of our guests raved about how good the sake was, and I was thrilled with how he kept things within my budget.
Really an incredible experience Saiko and Chef Evan gave us. Everyone should check them out for sure. Thank you Chef Evan!

There isn’t much more that I can expect from a sushi joint. There is a happy hour menu, extensive saki menu, and fresh fish. By checking in on Facebook, you will receive a free California roll it a bowl of house Edamame. We opted for the Edamame. It isn’t the typical salted and served cold beans. They are sauteed in a ginger and garlic mixture and served warm. Very tasty, but gave me dragon breath with all the garlic.
For happy hour I had a glass of house Malbec, and a spicy tuna roll. The spicy tuna roll was very basic. Tuna with cucumber slivers. That’s about all to expect from that roll anyhow. Our main rolls were rainbow roll, Fanfaire, and the Homewrecker. The Homewrecker was the winner out of this bunch. It’s topped with bits of seasoned cashews. The Fanfaire was interesting. Topped with Yellowtail and an orange miso drizzle. Definitely different from anything I’ve had before. But it was unexpectedly good. The fish in all of our rolls was so fresh tasting. Nothing is worse than tough and smelly raw fish. With Saiko Sushi, there was none of that. I can’t think of anything that would make this place better.

Frank is the man!!! Sushi was great. He recommended the fanfare roll… Which was amazing! But their traditional rolls were just as good. The sake menu is huge and quite good. I’d try the Pacific Ocean that was my favorite.
Great experience! Friendly service.

I am impressed. The sake selection is great! I just need to become a sake person. The people are amazing, the fish is perfect, the prices are just right. Shout out to Jessica & Ivan, you are two of the nicest people on earth. Every time I go to Saiko, the servers, bartenders and staff seem happy to be at work. Good people, good times. I’ve found one of my favorite white wines here too: Poppy Chardonnay. I’m not normally a white wine person but, this stuff is good!
My favorite things so far: the kimchi (spicy!), the sunomono salad, dear john, roboto, Kilroy and the new style sashimi (yellowtail).
I’m excited to try the rest of the menu!

I though this place was really nice. They have outdoor seating indoor table, bar, and sushi bar seating. I ate at the sushi bar and you have a waitress who will get you food from the kitchen and any rolls you order with the chef behind the counter. You sit lower so you are not able to see them make it but the rolls were delicious. For how nice the restaurant was the price was very manageable.

We went there on wednesday night because somehow we wanna eat sushi roll. And it turns out that Saiko is pretty close to our house so we just walked there.
This place has huge interior, full bar and have many kinds of sake. In their menu they said they are serious about sake. Well, i do drink sake but i don’t like it much. So, i skip! ;)
This review is supposed for food and service only, NOT intend for their vareity of sake.
Their menu has sashimi, nigiri, rolls, and food from kitchen. We order albacore sashimi, edaname, and 3 rolls. Sashimi is fresh i love it. Their rolls r amazing, my friend and I really enjoy all of them. They bring ponzu sauce for free (some place charge $ 1 or $ 0.75 for ponzu sauce.) staff r friendly, nice, and helpful.
Reason I only gave 4 stars is they can’t cuztomize your order. I know each place has their own way to run business but I think at most sushi place, the sushi chef should know how to cuztomize patron’s order tho. (of course, you will pay extra for it)
Anyway, we still enjoy our dinner then. We will be back when we r craving for rolls and lazy to drive. :)
Arigato Saiko. :)

I don’t normally write reviews but when I do it’s normally because the service sucks.
This is one of those times.
Let me be clear. The food was spectacular, but I put a premium on service. It took about 20 minutes to get our order of drinks. We had to ask twice for water. I got the small sashimi plate with a bowl of rice. I got the rice in five minutes. I got the sashimi almost a half hour later. Meanwhile, my buddy got the omakase, which was seven courses. I was done with mine, while he had five courses to go. I’m fairly certain there was only one server which may explain some of this, but it’s really their responsibility to keep the place adequately staffed.
These guys really need to get their act together.
Now for the good… The fish was absolutely delicious. I also got the sea flight, which is their flight of «clean» sake. It was fantastic. My favorite was the Pacific Ocean. You’ve got to try that one.

Hey, North Park!
You’re just too cool and hip for your own good.
But there’s something at Saiko Sushi that’ll give you a run for your money.
CRISPY CHICKEN SKIN.
It’s just that good.
Of course, everything tastes good if you pair it with a sake flight. We tried the $ 10 Nigori with 3 very different styles ranging from milky-​sweet (Gekkeikan) to delicately dry (Cranes of Dewa) but I kid you not. Get MULTIPLE orders of the crispy chicken skin and share with … NO ONE.
This is the place to start off your night with their trendy American style sushi rolls that have catchy names like Renegade or Home Wrecker. We ordered just so we can say the name to our server! While I’m more of a sushi purist and love a good traditional 15 piece chef’s choice sashimi, I can’t deny the delicious morsels on their «kitchen» (izakaya style) menu, such as the grilled Japanese mushrooms or salt and pepper wings. Or even a plain vegetarian cucumber/​avocado as requested by our friend. Everything is fresh and affordable for a poppin’ sushi joint.
I wish the service was much better, they lagged on some of our requests like water or utensils. Understandably since they’re bustling on a Saturday night. BUT …
CRISPY CHICKEN SKIN.

I’m so sad to only be giving this place 2 stars because the food was actually quite delicious! The service though was a horse of a different color.
Note to management: do not staff 1 server on a night there’s a concert happening directly across the street.
And it really wasn’t our servers fault. She was really working her tail off. The place was just way too busy to have only one server working the entire restaurant. Everything took FOREVER.
It wouldn’t have been so bad having to wait a log time to be greeted, order drinks, receive drinks, order food, etc… But it was especially annoying having to ask our server where the rest of our food was after having finished everything else that we ordered. At which point we found out that the kitchen «forgot to make» our food.
Mind you, this was a Wednesday night. I’d hate to see what this place gets like on the weekend.

I read about this place somewhere that prompted me to bookmark it. Thrilllist, SD Mag… I read a great review somewhere. Well, I’m glad I did read about it, it is a great sushi spot. My husband and I sat at the bar (not the sushi bar) and was waited on by one of the best bartenders I have had in So Cal in long time, Jessica. We later found out she just moved here from Seattle. She gave us such a great pitch on their sake that it peaked even my interest (I don’t like sake). After her convincing pitch and a $ 10 flight special, we were both in. We tried two different flights and had good and bad experiences within both flights. My husband ordered the Unique Modern flight and I ordered the air, land and sea. Both are worth trying, everyone has their own personal taste. Overall, I enjoyed the flight experience despite not being a sake drinker. My favorite was the Happy Bride, my husband really enjoyed Mystery.
On to the food! We ordered the house edamame which is the simplest to prepare, but unfortunately was overcooked and lacked a little flavor. Based on Jessica’s recommendation, we ordered the crispy chicken skins and we didn’t regret it. They were awesome! They were served with a house made Sriracha which was just ok. I’m disappointed to say that because I give credit to chef that go the extra mile, but the stuff from the bottle would have been killer with the chicken skins. The house made lacked the kick I was looking for. Finally we ordered the Kilroy roll and yellow sashimi. The Kilroy was a hate/​love. It was so different with the blueberry so it took me a minute to like it. I would definitely order it again. The yellowtail sashimi was awesome, my favorite out of everything.
Overall, a great, modern sushi spot with great service.

I was excited to try this place with all the raved reviews. It just went downhill after we got our drinks. We ordered the sake taster and two rolls, but all we got was the sake taster. A couple sat down after we have already received our drinks. They sat at the table where I was facing so it was not hard to notice when they came in. Well they ordered maybe about 10 minutes after us. They got their food and finished eating while we were still waiting.
We asked the waitress and she kept saying the food is coming. I was super peeved. The food was okay and to make matters worst I saw one sushi chef just standing there chillen. They were not busy and there should be no excuse on why it was taking so long. The waitress excuse «Oh I had to put your drinks in first and that’s why they got their food first». Umm okay but that table is done eating and we still don’t have our food, I understand waiting 20 minutes but close to an hour? I didn’t leave because we knew everywhere else was busy and I was already hungry.
There was a mistake along the way and instead of apologizing we got excuses. If they would have made up for it I would have been fine, but otherwise, no I was not happy.
The food was just okay and okay doesn’t make me want to come back with such service… Ugh so annoying when restaurants are so highly rated and I happen to be the one that get the bad service. This is a lesson that restaurants need to learn to be consistent.
What we ordered:
Idiot IPA: 6.00
Seal Flight: 13.00
Edamame: 4.50
Spicy Scallop roll: 7.50
Fanfare Roll:14.00

For our first time here at Saiko and because of sushi uni cravings we left coin op. The almost 5 stars rating by Unilocalers live up to its reputation.
940pm for sushi was a real good decision. We asked our hostess if there was uni and hallelujah! They did!
The sushi they served was fresh and I wish we ordered more. Heather, our server, was so cool and personable. She also bartends there on Tuesdays and Sundays. The restaurant itself has a Los Angeles feel to it. I personally liked the old Godzilla movie playing on TV over head by the bar.
5 stars and thank you to everyone at Saiko!!!

Trust the locals. They advised us on Saiko Sushi’s North Park location — presumingly the best Sushi in town. And, Saiko delivered.
The fish: super fresh. The menu: creative and well-​sorted. The value: expensive but you get what you pay for.
Our table went crazy over the appetizer selection: best item was the CRISPY CHICKEN SKINS with housemade sirancha. The SHISHITO PEPPERS and the WILD BOAR TONKATSU w/​kimchi BBQ sauce and miso mustard was also the table’s favorites.
On to the main course. The table voted for a mix of new style and traditional rolls, as well as sashimi. The fish really was extraordinary and super fresh — SAIKOU SALMON and the JAPANESE YELLOWTAIL were the favorites.
The rolls were creative and the non-​traditional ones more than filling: the CORNERSTONE ROLL (Salmon, Avocado, Spicy Crab, Jicama, Yuzu-​Carrot Fluid Gel, Red Quinoa) was awesome with the yuzu carrot, and the RENEGADE ROLL (Albacore, Crab, Tempura Shrimp, Black Garlic Ponzu, Micro Cilantro) had this nice twist of cilantro to it.
The meal was accompanied by several flights of sake.
Overall a fantastic experience — highly recommended.

Super Essen, lecker, zuvorkommender Service, angemessene Preise. Und Godzilla im TV…

3.5 stars
New kid on the block. I’ll have to say Saiko holds its own in North Park. This being a progressive restaurant I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I came in on a Tuesday evening before a show across the street. I was immediately greeted and sat at the sushi bar. The waitress was patient allowing me ample time to check out the menu. I was being a little indecisive at the moment so she suggested I start off with the sautéed mushrooms. These were great, sautéed just right, topped with cilantro and sesame seeds. In addition I asked for a seaweed salad. Both completely prepared different from what I’ve had before at sushi restaurants and I have to say I enjoyed both appetizers.
I decided to keep it simple and check out the nigiri on the menu. I’ll start from my favorite to least favorite. Spanish Mackerel was great and topped with a little lime wedge, I would order this again. 2^nd runner up was the smoked salmon which is smoked in house and regular salmon nigiri. Standard in flavor but still good. 3^rd was the yellowtail and albacore. I can’t quite pinpoint what the issue was but I felt the fish itself was lacking in flavor and was too cold. Like the fridge setting was off. Lastly was my poor scallop nigiri… flavorless and mushy. I really love scallops and order them when available. These were missing the slight sweetness and texture that I’m used to. Kind of a bummer.
To end on a good note the my two appetizers were great as well as the Spanish Mackerel. So 3 out of the 6 things I tried I would order again. On top of that the service was great. Fast and friendly!
This being a progressive style restaurant I feel that I may have ordered wrong. Maybe I should have ordered the rolls and let their creativity shine through. I’ll be back to try other items and with hopes to bump up my review.

We stopped by last night for some super early sushi around 5, figuring with all these stars, this place is sure to get busy fast on a Friday night.
We started off with the House Edamame and Salt and Pepper Wings. I’m just going to say, we’re definitely already fans at this point. The edamame was deliciously seasoned and the wings used exactly the right amount of salt and pepper before they could no longer be considered wings and just a salt lick. Basically if you’ve never eaten a Maldon (or other salt) pyramid as a snack, or find that repulsive, these are not for you. Get something else. Hubs and I loved them!!!
We got a few pieces of nigiri sushi and wished we’d got more. They were well seasoned and cut slices with little need for table seasoning.
Then, because I’m kinda starving, I got this new style roll. Here’s the mistake. I may never order one of these again. It wasn’t awful. It’s just a big order to not match either your expectations or your palate. I got the Fanfare. It sounded good. But I’ve still eaten the majority of the spicy tuna in my life on the east coast. We don’t mince it. I forgot, my bad. But aside from that, the roll was just bland. Spicy tuna, yellowtail, shishito pepper, and orange citrus miso, I’m expecting something bright, maybe sweet, maybe the salty miso flavor. It was just blah, none of that came through, not even the spicy.
Fanfare aside, I’m still excited to get back over there. It’s a more high end sushi establishment I don’t have to travel to get to and I love that!

‘This new Sushi and Japanese eatery is something North Park Needed, not that there are not other sushi bars around, but this one comes with a modern vibe and more progressive menu.
I came in on New Years Eve, happy that they were opened, and saddle up to the sushi bar were I met Bill, one of the talented Sushi Chefs. It was still happy hour so I ordered the Salt and Pepper Wings for $ 5, Saikorama Roll for $ 5, which turned out to be a great price because off the regular menu it cost $ 12.50, and off the regular menu, I ordered a regular Tekka Maki cut roll for $ 5.50 and some green tea which they served in a little pot (
).
The Tekka Maki or tuna roll arrived first nicely presented on wooded cutting board. The roll was well made nice and tight, and although I felt the amount of tuna was on the small side, it did have a very pleasant sweet and rich flavor (
). Next came the Salt and Pepper wings, and I was surprised that only four wings came with the order. If I would of known that, I would of passed on them. I did however mention that at least 6 wings would be more appropriate for the price, even at the happy hour price of $ 5. I really hope they listen and add more wings to the order because in the end, they were quite good. I certainly would not pay the regular price of $ 7 for four wings. By the way, that little slaw that came on the side was bliss…
The wings came with a nice golden crust on the skins peppered with coarse salt, black pepper, and sesame seeds (
). They were very flavorful and seasoning was quite aggressive in a good way, and the meat inside was very tender and juicy and if they add two more to the order, I would order these again.
Lastly, the Saikorama roll arrived. It is important to note that the roll comes tempura fried, but I opt to have it without. This roll was my favorite item I ate thus far. It came with Yellow Tail, Salmon, and Crab, and a Carmelized Soy and Wasabi Aioli swirled around the plate (
). The roll’s flavor and texture was outstanding, and at $ 5 during happy hour, it is a heck of a deal. Both the the yellow tail and salmon were delicious and eaten with a touch of both creative sauces on the plate was just perfect.
I look forward to returning to try some of their other menu items and draft beer selections during happy hour. Give me more wings!