Sake House By Hikari

Always clutch on late night happy hour in Santa Monica! I love this place its cramped but always hopping! Greta atmosphere and great food! The tea is a little over priced at 1.50 and a refill is the same price. But service is on point and so is the quality of the food! Love!

Delicious Japanese food! We ordered the shishito peppers which were awesome. Vegetarian Udon noodles and 911 roll.

Sake house in Culver City had the best spicy tuna I’ve ever had. All their sushi is great, and their happy hour (1pm to 7pm on weekends!) is terrific.
They have a great, friendly staff, and my wife and I love eating there.

I’ve been here a few times before, however the last time was the best experience I’ve had thus far.
Pros:
— Ambiance: quaint restaurant in Downtown Culver City, great for a date night or catchup with a girlfriend.
— Affordable Happy Hour
Recommendations:
— Baked Salmon Roll
— Dragon Roll

I stopped by for lunch a couple of days ago while working in Culver City. Sake House is another small place sandwiched between Meet in Paris and City Tavern on Culver Blvd in the heart of downtown Culver City. At the peak lunch hour the outside patio was about half full so I was quickly seated outside without any issues. This is a typical Japanese restaurant with a bunch of fancy rolls, sushi and teriyaki dishes. I decided to get the Chirashi lunch special ($ 13) as I wanted to have a quick light meal.
After ordering it was a manageable 10 minute wait to get the food. The Chirashi was plated fine but just by looking at the it, I knew that it was not top shelf quality. This was validated when I dug in. I would rate the quality of the fish to the packaged sushi bento’s that you can pick up in any Japanese supermarket (like Mitsuwa, Nijiya or Marukai). For the price it was not bad specially considering the downtown Culver City location. You could always do down the road to K-​ZO and pay 3 times the price for cuts of fish that will be about twice as good :) Normally I would have rated this place as three stars because of the average fare but here I’m adding one more for the extremely friendly service which is a rare occurrence in Japanese restaurants.

Pretty solid sushi spot. Not the best or the most authentic, but a good option for sushi lunch in DT Culver. Also, the lunch prices are very reasonable with specials like sushi lunch or chirashi for $ 13 each. Coworkers both got chirashi and enjoyed it. Very good portion for the price.
Rolls were good. Ordered a fusion roll (can’t remember the name) of spicy tuna, salmon and avo inside, wrapped in cucumber with some kind of soy sauce-​like sauce, which was pretty fresh and yummy. Also had spicy tuna roll, shrimp tempura roll, and crunch roll (batter-​coated deep fried California roll). All three of these rolls are considered «sides» and were very cheap. Spicy tuna was really good! It wasn’t super mayo-​y like at a lot of places which I liked. Bonus: this place has nice patio seating in the heart of DT Culver so it’s a great place to enjoy lunch outside on a nice day.

CREAMY CUTS
The reason why this is a 4 start rating instead of a 3 is because the sushi chef left the fish in the casing and retrieved a new fish to carve up and serve me. That is excellent service. If it wasn’t for that everything would have been mediocre when it comes to wait staff service, quality of food in general, and pricing.
SALMON SASHIMI ($ 16) — 8 pieces for 16, not worth it — UNLESS they are carving a fresh piece. My serving was perfect and the slices were proportionate. When it comes to salmon sashimi, for me it is about color and creaminess — this had both.
AVOCADO SALAD — typical salad with that Asian dressing for sweetness but with fresh sliced avocado. The avocado was the highlight but for $ 7 not worth it.
I’d come back.
Until the next review…

I came here with my boyfriend to enjoy some good sushi. I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed their rolls.
The place is a bit small and parking can be a little tricky. The service was good and the décor was superb. It was a nice quiet little place for good sushi.

Happy Hour EVERY DAY 4−7pm & late night 9−11pm!
Sapporo 16 oz $ 3 34oz $ 6
Kirin small $ 3
Asahi small $ 3
Any house wine $ 5 glass
Hot sake large $ 4
Kikusui Jinmai sake 300mL $ 12
Edamame $ 3 (GREAT)
I recommend getting a seat outside, enjoying some sake, and people watching.