UE Kara Grill

FYI, this place is CLOSED! No suprise

Love this place! The Ceviche Roll is absolutely amazing!!! Amazing food and amazing staff!

Took them two hours to deliver a simple sushi and bento box.
The food was disgusting. The chicken was rubbery, the rice was bitter, and the whole presentation of the food was ridiculous.
Never, EVER eat here. If I could give them a zero, I wouldn’t hesitate.
plus, when I called to check on why its taking 2 hours to deliver my food, the owner was VERY rude by saying…“uhhh so you want me to just give your money back and cancel your order”. Uhhh NO, I’ve been waiting two hours you snob.
Again — avoid this restaurant. The other «Five Star» reviews are the owners friends, trust me — I over heard them.

I’ve ordered lunch (from the sushi menu) on a few occassions from this location and have had it delivered to my office.
Each time, they have not disappointed and have actually even arrived before the time I requested each time. (which helps b/​c my stomach was grumbling)
I would definetly order from this place again!

This place seemed billed a decent to good place to get sushi. I ordered it, picked it up, brought it home, and thoroughly did not enjoy it. Really, just not good at all. The rice was good, the fish wasn’t all that great, the rolls weren’t put together well. Just poor sushi overall. Would never come here again.

I have gone here a few times and the food was good and also very cheap. A nice place to go for lunch if you want sushi, but don’t want to pay too much. The service was very good and our server was nice.
I did have to laugh at the review below that complained about items they didn’t have. Really you had a problem with them not having an item? Of course this same review complained that they didn’t have Japanese staff. Always comical when the race of the staff affect whether or not you like a place.

DO NOT EAT HERE!!! I REPEAT DO NOT EAT HERE!!!
First time I came in my co worker order a roll Togo so I figured I’d get some yellowtail nigiri (they were out– at lunch time)
Second time I go my boss approaches me with his famous I buy you fly routines (which means hell be if I pick up and we work through lunch) well he ended up buying for the whole office. Order consisted of California roll one spicy tuna hand roll two teriyaki chicken bowls one Philly roll and my bento box with teriyaki chicken yellow tail nigiri and spicy tuna hand roll. At the prices they had I thought I was in for a steal. I get to the restaurant wait for order n take back to the office… Take out my bento box with extreme excitement take one look at the yellowtail n can tell it is extremely sub par and has that funky fishy smell, so does my hand roll. I took a bite (very small bite) of the hand roll and the tuna was so unbearably fishy n lacked flavor. It was spicy but not in a yummy way. I skipped the fish ate the ck which was at least edible n had my coworker eat the fish. Everyone else had their food but questioned whether we would be getting food poisoning (we were that hungry — to eat something we actually felt may make us sick). I did not feel to good later :/​
EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

Tasty (and pretty to look at) specialty sushi, super friendly staff and awesome specials. Don’t let location scare you off. If you work or live close by, give it try. It looks like the reviews are all over the board, but I really like this place. Also, they do add wasabe on the side and have soy sauce readily available, but you don’t need it… to me, the specialty rolls taste good as-​is.

I’ve attempted to consume sushi several times but have been unsuccessful. I have an issue with seaweed. Instant gag reflex. I do enjoy everything inside a roll but dislike the smell of the nori.
To celebrate my arrival back to Downtown a few friends and I headed out to this place. I was informed that I had the option of getting my sushi roll in soy paper. I decided to try the Vegas roll. It was delicious! For the first time EVER I was able to enjoy it and finish my plate!
We’ve gone back a few times. Since most of the time we are crunching for time we order ahead of time and are served promptly.

They have some very interesting, pretty tasty sushi rolls, reasonably prived ordinarily ($ 7 – 11), and especially so w/​their daily specials. On Fridays, it’s just $ 6 for Fantastic roll (tempura shrimp, crab, cilantro, tuna, avocado– topped w/​eel sauce — pretty fantastic), tropical roll (shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, salmon and mango — haven’t tried that yet) or 911 roll (spicy tuna and crab inside, tuna and jalapenos on top w/​Tabasco sauce — wasn’t a big fan of this one, especially the sauce).
I agree w/​previous reviewers that atmosphere is nothing special, but portions are generous — 1 roll w/​10 pieces is plenty for lunch. Servers have always been friendly to me, so I’ll come back and try another roll for lunch sometime.

I have mixed feelings about this place due to the service but I plan to go back because the food was sooooo good.
It was a very short walk from my office (across the street from the back entrance to the Merrill-​Lynch building), but it was also in a slummy area of downtown near trolley tracks and a dilapidated ancient ruin of a hotel, and it’s next to two other pretty sketchy restaurants. Hmm.
I got a flier with a coupon for a $ 6 crunchy roll, and well, crunchy rolls complete me, so I thought I had to give it a try. I went in there to order to-​go, and was chatting with the sushi chef in the almost completely empty restaurant (one table with two people already eating) when he told me I needed to give my order to the hostess/​cashier, who was nowhere to be found. Waited. And waited.
Once she finally showed up, she seemed like she wasn’t all there, but eventually gave me correct change and a to-​go menu to hold on to. I don’t mind waiting for the food, but it took a full 10 minutes of shenanigans before she even gave the chef my order. And I knew what I wanted and paid cash. There shouldn’t have been an issue.
I was walking out of there with my order still unsure, but I have to say, the roll itself was amazing. Great and fresh ingredients, very artistically made and pretty, and it was a damn fine crunchy roll.
I loved the food but they really need to work on the service and ambiance, especially for lunch. Most people from the hours of 12 – 1 in the financial district are on a lunch break and don’t have the time to deal with a dimwitted server. Maybe she was having a bad day or something, so I will still give it another chance … but only on Tuesdays when they have that crunchy roll for $ 6. :)

The way I see it, when you eat food from a restaurant you should have great service and amazing food. This place has both. I work in the area, so my coworkers and I get food delivered three to five times a week. It’s affordable and I have never had a problem with the taste of the food.
They have specials every single day of the week (which I absolutely recommend ordering from because it’s cheap and the rolls are pretty big!) My favorites: fantastic roll, cerviche roll, spicy tuna roll and the crunchy roll.
If you have been to any of the places within the Pacific Beach area (Tokyo House, PB Sushi, Mika Sushi, Zen 5, etc.) then you will love the food here!

I am all about giving new restaurants a shot, but I don’t think I’ll be back to this one. Although the staff was very friendly and attentive, the food was «eh». I ordered a spicy tuna roll, salmon skin hand roll and edamame to-​go. The spicy tuna was OK… nothing special. The salmon skin in the hand roll was not crispy at all — it was kind of mushy and looked like the skin was still raw. I ended up taking it out of the hand roll and just eating the rice and cucumber. The edamame was mushy and had a flavored salt on it… I would think that this would be the easiest thing to make. I guess I’m just disappointed… still looking for yummy sushi walking distance to the building!

The owners of Ue Kara Grill came into my shop a week ago and placed an order for some postcards. I was chatting it up with Chef Gerardo while finishing the details on the order. I told him how much I love sushi and he asked me what types of fish I like in my sushi. I told him I liked spicy rolls, loved softshell crab, yellowtail and roe for texture. He smiled and nodded politely.
That was little less than a week ago. Chef Gerardo is not only a craftsman but a sneaky craftsman. Today they came to pick up their order and to drop off a taylor made roll to my exact specifications. I’m really big on specialty rolls but this was a first. This was the kind of roll for which i did not need my usual wasabi and soy sauce, it had so much flavor on it’s own that I was floored. It was fresh, spicy, rich in texture and had a hint of citrus. Wasabi and soy would have been blasphemy, I threw away the wasabi and soy they brought me.
If this is a hint of how wonderfully they treat their customers they have just gained one for life. You’ll be seeing me soon guys and I’m sure, repeatedly.
Chef, thank you so much for raising the bar and keeping the artistry alive in the culinary arts, and most importantly for listening so carefully.
–Mario

Lunch was delicious, staff is accomodating and engaging. I’ll be back soon!

No joke…:
After arriving on a Friday afternoon for lunch (with NO ONE in restaurant)
«Hot sake please.» «We don’t serve sake»…
«Wasabe please.» «We don’t have any wasabe»…
«Where is your restroom?» «We don’t have a restroom.»…
Photo-​copied menu that was barely legible.
Audacity to charge $ 6.00 for Nigari…
DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT eat at this DUMP!
Oh, number of Japanese staff: 0
Number of Caucasian staff: 3

Sushi was amazing. The miso soup and the atmosphere on the otherhand…
I would definitely eat here again. I used a
certificate and went with some friends, but probably wouldn’t take a date here. Again awesome sushi, stay away from the miso!

I had seaweed salad and the Fantastic Roll. The seaweed salad tasted as it should and was definitely up to par, but the Fantastic Roll needs to be re-​named the AMAZING Roll because it was ALL kinds of delicious! I will definitely be coming back ^_^

Um, when you serve me frozen fish in a sushi restaurant, especially when surrounded by great seafood, it’s pretty embarrassing. And when I say frozen, I mean it’s still frozen. Not thawed. The chicken tasted microwaved too. The service was fine, but the food was obviously not good in comparison to what you can get in the area or McDonald’s for that matter.

I had my first meal today at UE Kara Grill and it was very good. I got to school at City College and there is not really much around there but fast food. I have been frequenting Subway but got tired of that.
What I ordered UE Kara was excellent, just what I was looking for and expecting. For 7.99 I got half a California roll, a bowl of miso soup, a bigger than normal salad for this type of lunch special, and a huge pile of chicken teriyaki and rice. Most of their sushi is 50% off right now also.
I will defiantly be back again, probably next week.