Genki Sushi

I usually go around 5:30p, 6p with both my kids. The best part since it’s after hours, parking is next door at the First Hawaiian Bank parking lot. At that time there’s no waiting. We get seated and start ordering our usual California roll, spicy ahi roll, hamachi sushi, salmon skin, unagi, tako sushi, ebi sushi, Kalbi bowl, and so on. Our bill normally comes out to be around $ 45. Not bad. Service is not the quickest but ok. The staff are friendly and always comes by to make sure our cups of water are filled. The restaurant itself is somewhat run down and needs work. It’s not as clean as the other locations. Makes me think of a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown at times. But hey, food is good.

The Kapahulu location has got to be the worst Genki I have been too! Walked in and there was no one at the counter to ask if we’d like to be seated. Sat down and went to the restroom and it was DISGUSTING! Toilet paper all over the floor, broken soap dispensers. When I asked the employee that walked in if there was any soap, she says «oh, the one on the left never works… try the one on the right. Then to see the employees hanging out in the office which is next to the bathroom with the back door opened and employees smoking outside. Then when I walked out of the bathroom, a tall Asian looking boy wearing a black collared shirt (apparently a supervisor with no name tag) walking out in the restaurant area with a CIGARETTE hanging out of his mouth! Ordered some fried chicken wings and got chicken karaage. But when we got our fried chicken wings, you could tell the oils was old just by the taste of the chicken. I know that they’re moving across the street soon but the service should still be decent and not shitty.

What happened??? I discovered this great place over 10yrs ago. Just went today. Walked in and went to the rest room. The place smelled like sewage. Small flies in the bathroom. Walked to sushi bar and looked at all the dirty smelly little plates stacked on every table!!! The belt had hardly anything on it. After seeing and smelling what I saw I fled to the fresh air outside and kept walking. Call the health dept. somebody please!!!

Don’t do it! I mean… Maybe you can if you have no taste for sushi.
This place gets 3 stars primarily because they seated us fast and the servers were awesome. The Uncle serving tea was super friendly and made us smile.
The sushi… It all seemed smothered in mayo, cream cheese, or deep fried. The shrimp within the sushi was burnt leaving a weird after taste in my mouth. The things on conveyor belt were circling forever– other Genki Sushi restaurants I’ve seen take them off the belt after a certain amount of time. And for the quality is was just really overpriced.
Again, I do love that the staff have a great spirit and are very hospitable. They are moving to a new location so maybe better facilities will help with the quality– I’m not sure if that’s possible, but I’m trying to be positive.

I actually adore Genki. Part of it freaks me out — the food going round and round on a belt, passing by all kinds of people who cough and sneeze and scratch and spread their germs everywhere — but I can generally get past that because A. I’m hungry and B. The food is decent.
This Genki — not so much. I went there a few weeks ago with my mother in law and my two year old for lunch. To start, we got there just before they opened. The staff seemed annoyed that the had to open the doors and let customers in. Not one friendly smile or hello, a dirty table (meaning, dirty from the night before because we were the first customers in the restaurant that day), and a waiter who was absolutely despondent over taking our drink order. So, a great start…
As I do every single time I go to Genki, I ordered the chicken karaage. I like it, my son likes it, it’s perfectly sized and it’s delicious. As I do every single time I go to Genki, I cut open (well, pry open with my chopsticks), the chicken karaage so that it cools down faster and is small enough for my toddler to eat. This time, I notice it’s pink inside. And not just pink, but it looks under cooked. I point this out to our waitress, who was annoyed that I dare stop her to ask her for help. She agrees to take it back to the kitchen. She asks me if I want another one, and I say yes please. A few minutes later, she brings me another one, and asks me to see if it’s okay. I open a piece up, and this one looks fully cooked — totally white inside. I thank her for her help. Then she tells me «The chef said it wasn’t under cooked. He says that’s the marinade that makes it pink like that, you know.»
Seriously?
My husband is a chef. I love to cook. He and I are not thin people, so clearly we both love to eat and know our way around food. Pink chicken is never pink because of the marinade (unless it’s char siu chicken, and even then, the inner part of the chicken is white!) Furthermore, if it was because of the marinade, then the second batch of chicken, and every single one of the probably 100 or so orders of chicken karaage I’ve ever ordered would also be pink. So, nah, I don’t think that pink, rubbery piece of chicken looked that way because of the marinade. And I was a little annoyed that they were offended that I asked for fully cooked chicken. I mean, I’m down for a lot of things, but salmonella poisoning isn’t one of them.
On top of that… no refills on our water, and we were only offered a refill on our tea after we had requested the check. I don’t think one single person we encountered on this visit smiled or seemed even remotely happy. I don’t think we’ll ever visit this particular location again.

Disappointing. See empty conveyor belt picture. And to get help takes awhile. Wow. This place used to be so good.

This genki is great for take-​out! I was hungry on a Friday night, and REALLY wanted a spicy bomb. With my heart set on raw fish and sushi, I opened my handy dandy mobile Unilocal app, and found this place. To my surprise, this location is open until 10 pm! The parking can be difficult during peak periods, as there are only under a dozen stalls in their dedicated lot, but if you are craving late night sushi like I was, no problemo!
The service was kind of slow, which is why I am giving this location 4 stars. I stared intently at my spicy bomb for a good five minutes before the hostess noticed that the take-​out order was ready. Five minutes for a hungry person felt like an hour! Trust me!

LOCATION:
this genki is right on 885 kapahulu ave. across of panda express in that shopping mall (i forgot the name of it)
SETTING:
This genki is not too big & not too small. it’s just right for me :) they have alot of booths which is nice & some counter tables. i rather choose the booths though, who would want to choose the counter and talk to your guests side by side? haha not fun! the wait for a booth could be pretty long though. dinner time is ALWAYS busy! today was the first time i seen it not busy! i was shocked! lol it was before 7. and right when we were seated & got our food, the rush came! yay! lol
SERVICE:
the service is excellent there!!! the waitresses kept coming by our booth to ask us if we need water or anything else to order, and to just ask us if we was okay in general. i like that! its very important to alway ask :) they even asked us if we wanted tea. haha and when we ordered, the cooks gave us our food fresh over the counter just how we like it!
FOOD:
we got the garlic salmon, it comes with 2 pieces so we ordered 4 orders because 1 order is not going to make us full haha c’mon now! we also ordered the fried squid, dynamite seafood, california tempura roll, oyster fry and a dragon roll. omg it was all sooooo good! so much taste & it tasted fresh. the only thing we didnt enjoy was the oyster fry because 1. it doesnt match with the sauce it comes with, and 2. it tasted too fishy (like it came out straight from the ocean) if you know what i mean. yuck! i think they need to cook the inside more maybe. oh! and my bf ordered their spicy ahi bowl, and omg it came out looking like it was a kids meal. very little bowl and the ahi was too chunky. like, it wasnt soft like how it was suppose to be. other than that, everything else was great!
oh! and a tip! we never grab food off the roller, i rather order from the menu so its fresh haha

Sushi was decent. nothing to fancy but does the job. The conveyor belt make getting food easy. Staff was friendly and will take order if you don’t see it on the belt.

Service was ok even though I didn’t get my hot water and had to ask for drink refills several times
I ate here several years ago and rated it a 4
This time their karage was cooked with old oil or recooked
We ask for a new one but it was still the same
I was disappointed because I really enjoyed myself several years ago

This was s great place to have a quick meal.
Service — the servers are all pleasant. Sometimes we have to flag them down to put in our next order or get refills on tea. It’s not to bad though.
Food– fresh and pays attention to detail. Made well and always gets order right.
Ambiance — chill and kick back. It’s a great place to relax and just have a conversation. Can get a little noise during the weekend evening rush it’s really not a big deal. It’s usually a really relaxing place.

Sushi was pretty good, conveyor belt to being around several foods. Good place to have sushi for cheap and fast.
HTR: ⁷⁄₁₀

This place is great for cheap sushi that goes around in circles on a conveyor belt. My favorites are the Rainbow Roll (salmon, tuna, and avocado slices wrapped around an inside out California roll), natto hand roll (slimy yet satisfying), and the Ultimate Trio (yellow-​tail, tuna, and salmon nigiri seared and topped with Japanese mayo and unagi sauce). A lot of times items that you may want won’t be on the conveyor belt. The simple solution is just to flag a server down and let them know what you want to order. Your order will be delivered shortly after.
If it is your first time here, here are a couple of quick tips:
–Pickled ginger is available at your table, but the wasabi is on the conveyor belt. You just need to snag a container and help yourself and put it back when you’re done.
–Water and hot tea is on the house! Just let the workers know you would like some.
–You are charged per plate, so just take what your budget allows. Different colored plates are different prices.
Ending your meal is really easy. Just let the server know you are done and that’s pretty much it. A plate count is done and you are handed a check documenting how many of each plate that you had. Then you simply go to the cashier, pay, tip, and that’s it!

A good night at Genki! Quality can be inconsistent but they were on Sunday night. For the money, they come through.
Chawanmushi-​They took this off their regular menu because it is hard to make. Get it when it is on special. It will cost double or triple at a regular Japanese restaurant. Getting the egg custard right is just about impossible but they do it.
Garlic ahi — I not usually big on sushi places taking liberties but the light char on this brings another layer.
Garlic salmon — Same as above. Just with salmon.
Garlic chicken — Forget Sugoi, this place has the best garlic chicken but way too expensive to just get as take out. It is the slight sweetness in the sauce that makes it a killer.
TOBIKO!!! This is the bargain. Genki uses a better quality tobiko than you find in most sushi places. It is firm with a slight crunch.
My biggest on going complaint is the air conditioning has been too cold since it opened. In 15+ years they haven’t been able to fix this?

No wait at all! We love it, first genki sushi that we got to walk in and get seated in seconds. The staff here are really friendly and made sure we were ok. The parking lot was small, but when we pulled in there were two stalls available. Great experience for our first time!

Ever since Ala Moana Genki sushi installed their new automated ordering system I forgot how the traditional way of kaiten sushi worked haha. But… I do know that it should take less than 10 minutes to order or to find a plate that you like off the conveyor belt.
It took longer than usual to order sushi during my recent visit to Kapahulu Genki Sushi. I watched the conveyor belt do about 5 to 6 rounds but I still saw the same cupcake and sushi come around. We waited a while for them to take our order. But, after the workers noticed us, they did a good job on checking up on us.
I guess the good thing about this location is that it’s not as busy as the other Genki locations. Another thing I noticed was that their prices were a little bit cheaper than the Ala Moana location (I think? Based on the prices advertised on the menu).
The bad thing is that it takes a while to order your sushi. I think i waited so long that I lost my hunger. Which is good I guess; save money…

My favorite Genki Sushi on the island and the only reason why i stopped coming here daily was because I moved. Although you can expect wait times around dinner time almost every night you could request to be seated at the counter for a shorter wait time.
Genki Sushi is in my opinion the best conveyor belt sushi joint you could go to. Their spicy tuna has never been topped in my book and keep coming back for more. My taste buds are probably biased because I grew up on Genki Sushi. This was the spot to go to after school was over and you will still catch me eating here from time to time. Make sure to not expect high quality sushi (you’re not paying for it why would you) and you’re trip should be pleasent. It is great for kids because they like to watch the plates of food go by and the keiki cup can be taken home!

Prices decreased. Smiles on all staff. Convenient and downright cold so bring a fur coat.

There are many options for sushi in our area. We come to Genki because it’s within walking distance for us, it’s fairly cheap, the kids like it and there’s a pretty good menu. It’s not the best but it’s perfect for a cheap family dinner. Service is always quick. The parking lot is sort of small.

This review exists only for the Kapahulu Genki location.
Dinner with conveyor belt is supposed to be fast, fun and enjoyable.
My concern is primarily with the cleanliness of this location. We were seated in the last booth seat outside the kitchen entrance and near the bathroom. We could smell the bathroom. Not a nice combination when dining. When we went to wash up, I noticed the restroom floors sticky and the corners unclean (very dingy and gunk was pushed into the floor corners). The toilets were dirty, sink area untidy and I amidst the dirty women’s bathroom smell was the overpowering smell of floral sachets of which about 4 were taped to the walls of the bathroom in various locations.
That brought me to looking at the walls of the restaurant itself, which I think needs a good wipe down. The floor was dirty and throughout our time there, aside from cleaning the tables, I did not see anyone sweeping the floor.
We waited a bit of time before someone came to check on us to give us a bill. And, as we were leaving, I noticed a large broken hand sanitizer unit near the restaurant entrance. We will not be returning to this location.
On a good note — my family did not experience tummy aches.