Ninja Star Sushi Bar

This place is no longer around… They had fantastic sushi and a great location so I’m not sure why they didn’t last. In fact there always seems to be a new sushi restaurant in this location every time I go there, at least 3 in the past year. Each place has been slightly downhill and none of them can measure up to Ninja Star

Folks, know your sushi/​roll. Freshness is very important and texture is next to that. It’s like that saying «cleanliness is next to Godliness» well Texture is next to Freshness too! Then, flavor comes next to that! My shrimp was old, avocado was brown, my rice was dry and bland and broke apart easy. My sushi was irregularly sliced! I had big pieces and pieces half that size… Seriously wth?! And guess what? My Dragon Roll (note the word roll here) was a Dragon Box! What a horrendous way to tell your first time customer that’s how sloppy and careless you make food. I wouldn’t give that food to anyone other than my neighbor’s annoying dog. So, to anyone who actually comes here to eat, KNOW YOUR SUSHI. Now you know you deserve better, find that perfect sushi place that serves you fresh, tasty, textured and beautiful pieces of sushi/​roll. Don’t settle!

Again, it was another one of those «got to do errands with the bro» kind of day, and with all the errands we were doing, we got hungry so we visited this place.
Our orders:
Mixed Tempura Appetizers – the same as any other that I’ve tried
Godzilla Roll – I was looking over reviews, and a lot of people had mentioned the Godzilla Roll in their reviews and how good it was, so I ordered this. Yeah, it was good… at first… but then I just found myself eating it just to finish it, I don’t know what it is, but all I know is that I didn’t enjoy eating it for very long haha
Lion King Roll – I tried one piece from my bro’s plate… I’ve had better Lion King Rolls elsewhere
Honestly, if there was one thing that I enjoyed eating the most here, it was the complimentary edamame… lmao…I eat that stuff like it’s french fries homes!

This is definitely my favorite sushi bar. Tried other places but I always find myself returning to this location. It’s not a huge place but its really friendly and cozy. Brought my little nephew here once and even he can tell the sashimi is really fresh!!!
My husband brings his clients here for lunch all the time and he tells me he never looks at the menu. He trust the owner, James, will delight his guests!
James, please don’t ever move or retire. Work till your 100! :-)

I dont know why my first time I gave them a 4 star, This place is a GOLD MINE.
Today’s order: Godzilla Roll (I always get this when I come no matter what.)
Sake Nigiri x 2
Uni Nigiri.
Now — I normally do not eat Uni, I find it disgusting and repulsive. Everytime I’ve had it, the flavor was bleh. But I’ve never had anything bad here so when they told me there was Fresh Uni — i had to try. James (the sushi chef) has never led me wrong before. It was the most delicious Uni I have ever had. The texture was PERFECT as well. It was creamy melt in your mouth goodness. Now most places will give you half the Uni they did in your Nigiri/​Gunkan sushi. They gave you 4 massive delicious pieces (2 per Gunkan).
The Salmon Nigiri — no joke — DELICIOUS. Fat thick slices, fresh.
Now this place may not be cheap, but the QUALITY is one of the better places i’ve ever been to.
In retrospect actually, this place is relatively cheaper than most other places AND has better quality… hmm.
I hope this place never closes. I told James, if it does, tell me the new location of his restaurant — I will follow!

I finally have some time to catch up on my reviews but my boyfriend decided to take me to this place for lunch and it was just lame. We should’ve just turn around and gone somewhere else after we walked in and saw that the place was literally empty. We were asked to sit anywhere we wanted and after a few minutes an older lady wearing a kimono came to take our orders. I ordered the california roll and saba bento box and a diet coke. Well even though the waitress wasn’t rude or anything like that, i feel that if you are going to work in the service area, then you should at least be courteous to customers. If you are going to have an attitude and just look miserable at your job, then work in a kitchen or somewhere where you don’t have to rain on our parade. Anyhow, the food was horrible. The sticky rice on the california rolls wasn’t sticky at all! The rice was all lose as you can see from the picture i posted and it made it difficult to dip into the soy sauce with them falling apart. Also the steamed rice that came into the box seemed like it was just throwned into the box and not nicely shaped like most sushi bars. The salmon had zero flavor, it was just grilled and spattered with teriyaki sauce. My boyfriend pretty bad for taking me to this place but even the stinky food didn’t keep me from enjoying his company. Thx babe, you’re the best.

This is where my love for the Lion King Roll originated.
The husband-​wife duo that work here are kind and attentive. Sushi is moderately priced, in my opinion, with good reason. I eat a lot of sushi and often have a hard time finding a place suitable for my liking. I’m in no way a sushi-​snob, but do appreciate a good cut of sashimi. It may also be that my Hawaiian upbringing has spoiled me into submission with ungodly amounts of fresh fish available at the drop of a hat.
That said, the fish served here is delicious and worth the price. I have yet to find another restaurant that is able to serve me tuna nigiri that I actually enjoy at an affordable price. $ 2 beer specials are not to be frowned upon either. I have also sampled hot entrees included in their bento box (e.g. tonkatsu, teriyaki chicken) and have not been disappointed.
I will continue to return for more tuna, more Kirin, and more Lion King Rolls!

Haven’t been here for awhile. Seems like they have a new menu and I love it! There are more special rolls on the menu and you can’t beat the happy hour menu and how can I almost forgot about the$ 2 draft beer!!! Love my waitress and the sushi chef! She was so attentive and I see her remembers almost all of her customers during my visit there. Surprisingly the sushi chef remembers us too! This is what I call GREAT service!
We ordered «the kitchen sink», «scorpion», and «lil trangie». We love them ALL!!!
We will be back Ninja star! Keep up the good work!

This place may be called Ninja Sushi, but consider whether you would like someone because he had a cool name, but had a less-​than-​amiable personality. That’s how I feel about Ninja Sushi. Looking at the sushi menu, I wasn’t impressed with either the prices for the nigiri or the rolls. The menu didn’t sell the sushi to me, so I ended up getting something safe: Tonkatsu. At Fuji Sushi (located on the same street) where I can actually sit at the sushi bar and watch the chefs make the rolls, I wouldn’t hesitate to order their sushi, but I came here for lunch and the chef was behind a noren curtain, and I couldn’t be sure what would go into the sushi. Moreover, I sat in a booth next to the wall, and there was another adjacent table not 10 centimeters away from my booth. That’s really bad table placement! Good thing I was by myself. For these reasons, I cannot approve of the ambiance. Yes, they had two HD TV’s playing the football game, but I don’t go to a sushi restaurant to watch American football. I think perhaps Korean-​owned sushi places honor dining traditions better than American-​owned sushi places.
So anyway, I got miso soup and edamame with my entrée. Whatever I had did not taste like miso soup, and the edamame wasn’t good quality. My tonakatsu came out fine, but it was served with a bowl-​shaped lump of rice on the plate. This is the defining characteristic of an American-​owned sushi restaurant. Rice should be served in a separate bowl, and it should be moist and fluffy, unlike what I had.
I cannot give Ninja Sushi a passing score because there is nothing Japanese about Ninja Sushi. Not even my green tea.

I went to this place my first time a few weeks ago and it was horrible. Yes, this place does have nice deco and great customer service however the quality of food and the high prices do not compensate for the short falls.
We ordered
1. Lion King Sushi — I had much better. Even BBQ buffets had better sushi than this.
2. Beef Teriyaki Bento Box — The beef seriously tasted like rubber and had an awful after taste. For $ 12 bucks this Bento box was definitely not worth it.
Overall we spent around $ 25 bucks in a meal for 2. While I wouldn’t mind spending this much if the food was of better quality I definitely left this place with a half empty stomach.
With that said… I probably will never return here.

You can’t beat good, fast sushi delivery!
This was my first time ordering from here. I got:
Spicy Tuna Hand Roll — 3.5 star — As far as spicy tuna hand rolls go, this was ok. Definitely not bad, but could have had a little more spicy tuna in it.
Red Demon Roll (Shrimp tempura and avocado covered in spicy tuna and sauce.) — 5 star — this was freakin awesome, I will get this frequently.
Scorpion Roll (Soft shell crab and avocado wrapped in tuna and salmon.) — 5 star — This was also awesome and will be a frequent order.
All in all, I love sushi and am quite picky, so this place has certainly done it’s job. The delivery was fast, the food was great, and the minimum to order is only $ 15 with no delivery fee. Also the delivery person was friendly as well.
The bottom line, there are tons of variables in delivery sushi, and I had zero complaints, definitely will order frequently from Ninja Star Sushi Bar. Even the name is awesome, it has Ninja Stars and it rhymes! =)

A mediocre Japanese restaurant in Downtown San Jose. Nothing great, but nothing terrible if you stick to their cooked dishes. …Maybe.
Upon arrival, we were immediately greeted by the server and escorted to the seats. I ordered Spicy Lion Roll, a spicy salmon roll with tuna, salmon and avocado. While we were waiting for the food, the server delivered a plate of edamame on the house.
This is going great so far, I thought. Waiting time was about 10 minutes, which is probably the standard of Downtown San Jose.
But when my roll arrived, I had to look at my roll twice in dismay. «Why on the earth IS that eel sauce swirling on my roll??» was my initial thought. This roll contains NOTHING related to eels.
The conveyance of the message by this restaurant, saying that eel sauce goes well with salmon and tuna was an insult to me. That alone just terminated any future relationship between me and this restaurant.

This place rocked not only for the name, but also their signature Ninja Star roll, whose ingredients included mushrooms and avocado. It was a unique and delicious.
The spot was small but decorated well. There was only one other party when we came in.
We split the spicy tuna roll, the scorpion roll, the cindelicious roll, and the ninja roll. Everything was great, and I had enough leftovers to last me through breakfast and lunch the next day. (Yes, it was that good — I had it for breakfast!)
Another upside to the spot was it’s prime downtown location which made it great for people watching. However, it’s not the best for parking. Further, their bathrooms need attention badly. Also, it took us a pretty long time to get our bill — I suppose they didn’t want to rush us, but I didn’t really want to have to ask for it after an extra 20 minutes either.
But overall I really, really liked the sushi, and the servers were very nice. So I would definitely be back.

Four Stars for the name alone.
The little ninja dude on the billboard is also 100 x adorable!
OMG I passed by this spot the other day, and just had to check it out tonight.
Sadly, it seems that all the thought and creativity went into the restaurant’s incredibly graphically appealing sign, kicka$$ name, and interior design of a ceiling lined with paper lanterns.
The menu on the other hand, as well as the presentation of the food itself, defiantly lacks imagination.
If you want something basic, but relatively visually appealing, then this is a great spot for you. On the other hand, if your looking to be kicked in the pants as far as new sushi combinations goes… I’d highly encourage you to look elsewhere.
Me I love the basic bento box, and this they did quite well. The only qualm I have is that my food came out a literal 5 minutes before my friends. I personally won’t eat until you have your food too… so this means my food was cold. A big «no, no».

I was surprisingly delightfully impressed! I have passed it before and I decided to give it a try. Being super convenient as I live right here, mmmm the rolls are amazing and the fish is fresh! Trust me! It’s a cute small hole in the wall place kinda. Only reason it’s not 5 stars is because it was a bit pricey for a hole in the wall but I guess you get what you pay for! Freshness! Thumbs up for delivery too and being open during late lunch time!

RUN not walk away from this place.
Rarely do I give one star but in light of the competition and also how dismal the experience was, frankly this place deserved it.
Unless you adore Americanized sushi fare SO MUCH that you’ll love mediocre non fresh fish slathered in sauce at an oh so convenient location at overpriced rates (which I think is ridiculous a reason to come here but whatever), go anywhere else.
Firstly I had better, fresher sushi at a buffet. Yes, a buffet.
The albacore sashimi wasn’t fresh at all, the maki roll sushi wasn’t described as the crispy dried out rice on the outside roll that made it feel like it was sushi sitting out under a heat lamp for 3 hours. Yea it was disgusting and yea I know rolls are supposed to be «special» but tthat was the most terrible mouth-​feel I’ve ever had and the most disgusting thing I put in my mouth for a long time. I ate it because it was $ 12…and I didn’t want to offend my friend who ADORED american rolls. but disliked nigiri… which to me is going against the grain of saying you like sushi but whatever. Her and I definitely have different tastes…
Second, the service was annoying and appalling. She kept asking over and over again if I was ready. Give me a few minutes I said, and she came back again to badger me, in a rush, not giving me time to relax. She was also rude to my friend’s classmate/​friend despite him being a gentleman and his roll looked bad as well.
Third it was expensive as hell. $ 16 for 2 non fresh pieces of nigiri and an oddly crafted crispy on the outside (wtf) rolls that tasted off?
Frankly, I feel it’s over-​hyped and too expensive and because of my «service» experience I don’t care to throw more money at them to «impress» me with laughable sushi.
Rarely do I ever need to use the wasabi. At least my company was good but ninja star didn’t create said company.
The only good thing about this place was that it was clean. It was renovated hence the «reason» for the increase in price.
Give me sixteen dollars and I’d rather eat mcds over this place with lots of room monetarily to spare for desert like Quickly’s etc.

I LOVE THIS PLACE. High quality sushi for reasonable and affordable prices. My friends and I come here at least 1 – 2 times a month split 3 rolls and by the time we are done we feel so full that we joke around that we are having sushi babies. Haha!
Our favorites: Godzilla Roll and Million Dollar Roll
New Roll favorites: Kitchen Sink Roll
Favorite drink: Mango Iced Tea
The staff are friendly and definitely accomodating to your dietary needs and wishes. Best part: They don’t mind to split checks for different sized parties!

Not too many specialty rolls to choose from, so everyone ordered the Godzilla roll. Holy crap, the Godzilla roll is hella huge! Sushi quality was ok and service was nice.
SJSU tip: Walking distance from campus and 10% discount w/​SJSU id.

This place apparently used to be Godzilla Express, and I guess they didn’t change the menu because the menus they gave us were small single fold brochure-​looking things that were probably take-​out menus for Godziilla Express.
Our sushi came with complimentary edamame that was super salted. We ordered three rolls, but they were pretty forgettable. The only one I remember is the spicy salmon roll — it was not listed on the menu, so they charged us $ 8.50 for it… which is kind of ridiculous given the quality and that the spicy tuna roll was only ~$ 4. But whatever. What I really didn’t like about this place was that they added tempura crumbs inside all their rolls even though it’s not specified in the description. But my dining companion liked it, so I guess it could be a good or bad thing.
The place is pretty small. We were the only people there for lunch on a Saturday. Service was adequate.

I’ve had much worse so this wasn’t too bad. The restaurant was empty when I visited on Saturday afternoon, but I imagine that this part of downtown San Jose doesn’t see a whole lot of foot traffic on weekends anyway. This restaurant used to be Godzilla Express, but it’s changed its name recently to the Ninja Star Sushi Bar.
As soon as I walked inside I was greeted by a gentleman who asked that I grab a table anywhere. The restaurant has a very clean appearance with fresh flowers on most of the smaller tables. There are two flat panel televisions mounted on each side of the sushi bar. Each had different sports programming on during my visit. Huge photos depicting some of their menu selections are displayed on the wall behind the sushi bar.
Judging from prior reviews for both Ninja Star and Godzilla Express I knew the restaurant specialized in monster rolls and even though I considered it I went ahead and ordered something else. I had the Monterey Roll (fried calamari & avocado) and a Salmon Teriyaki with California Rolls bento box. It turns out the man that greeted me was the sushi chef.
After a visit to the very clean restroom (I know that fact is important to some of you.), I sat back down and was brought a bowl of piping hot miso broth (
) along with a soup spoon. I found that kind of rare for a Japanese restaurant but regardless I didn’t use the soup spoon anyway. The broth was a tad oversalted but not too much. It had lots of seaweed and nice little cubes of soft tofu submerged on the bottom.
My Monterey Roll (
) was served shortly. Parts of this roll had more rice than other parts but this perfectly sized roll was very good. The fried calamari filets were thick and very lightly battered then deep fried. The still warm calamari was perfectly cooked and took up much of the space in the roll. The light batter provided a bit of crunch without tasting oily.
As I was finishing up on the roll I got the bento box (
). The bento box had four compartments and an orange wedge in the center. The salad was mainly iceberg lettuce with a few bits of shredded carrot and a small slice of tomato that needed to be ripened more. The salad greens appeared a bit dried out maybe from sitting in a refrigerator too long. I didn’t like the miso dressing which tasted a bit off. There were two small pieces of grilled salmon but one piece was from the area near the salmon’s belly so it was mostly skin, salmon fat and a couple of fish bones (be careful!). It tasted «fishier» than the other piece. The piece of salmon that was actually salmon filet was grilled nicely with a nice crispy crust on the skin. Both pieces of fish swam in a thick and sweet teriyaki sauce.
The California Rolls were not made fresh. I knew that just from the temperature and the cohesion. The roll was a lot colder than the freshly made Monterey Roll and each piece began to unravel as soon as I picked it up. The Monterey Roll had been perfectly assembled remaining intact, but that was not the case with the California Roll. I tasted a bit of refrigeration burn in the crab salad on my second piece. That was enough California Roll for me. The steamed rice was fine.
Although I’ll know better than to order another bento box here I may find my way back some day to try one of the monster rolls. I think as long as it’s freshly made there should be no problem. The restaurant has a new website at
and they offer delivery through a third party service via the website. Their discount for San Jose City Hall employees and SJSU students is ten percent (must present ID). 3 stars for now.