Sun & Moon Cafe

This place sucks Big-​Time!!!
I tell you why they named this place «Sun & Moon»
Because it takes until the Sun to go down and till the Moon to come up, to get your orders taken.
Yes, just to take your order.
Then it takes under Sun and the Moon cycle all over again to get your food, if they bring the food.

I was reading a South Bay crime blog and saw this place got its liquor license revoked right before it closed down because police caught them selling alcohol to minors three times in a sting operation. I really couldn’t help but laugh and remember my experience about 6 years ago when I was 19.
«Sun & Moon Café doesn’t card!!» was the gossip going around the post-​graduates of Mira Costa, and now I definitely know it was true!
Personally, when I ate there, I didn’t try to order any alcohol (I was such a good girl!) but I will say that this was the only restaurant in my life that I got up and left. I ordered sushi with the waitress, and after that was completely abandoned for an hour. My friend and I were both restaurant employees, so we had empathy for the girl at first, but an HOUR? That’s just ridiculous.
Anyway, guess they got what was coming to them.

I only go to this place for phở when I’m in the South Bay and I just MUST have it. The portions are small and the egg rolls are tiny/​overpriced but I eat them anyway. The owner is Vietnamese and he is SO NICE. I haven’t really eaten anything else here, but it is one of the few places you can get okay phở in the South Bay!
I get my serious Vietnamese food in Gardena though!

CLOSED!!! They have a new front on the restaurant that says «Hamptons»

I loved this place so much, but they aren’t there anymore. Why? I love their phở and sushi combo! It’s amazing!

I dined here alone on a weekday after work, there was one other couple in the patio area of the restaurant and they had just ordered what the menu claimed to be «the best phở in LA», I figured I would give it a shot too and also ordered fried calamari «spicy style».
This is without a doubt NOT the best Phở in LA. I mean, it was OK, but to claim its the best and not even be close…
The Calamari sucked. Sorry, no other way to put it. The calamari was tiny and drenched in batter to make it appear bigger, sucked. Oh and the «spicy» part? A dab of Siracha on each measly batter drenched piece of squid. Lame.
Overpriced. Way overpriced. Save your calories and money.

Terrible place! The food was over priced and below par! So salty!
Mandatory tips were added to only 2 people table.
Maybe we just came in on a bad date. There was a group of people celebrating someone’s birthday and they were extremely loud and rude. They were literally screaming there! We should just left!
The owner wasn’t happy about it since it was disturbing other customers, however, they don’t have the guts to tell these rude people to lower their voice. It was extremely bad experience!

Came here for dinner on a Tuesday night around 8:00 with my boyfriend. We were only one of 3 tables. I had a seaweed salad and a California roll, he had the chicken and mushroom noodles.
The seaweed salad came out and was quite tasty. His noodles then came out — there was nothing to them! It looked like spaghetti with half a piece of chicken around the edge… and they forgot the mushroom! When he asked about it, they brought him back, literally, one mushroom sliced.
My California roll included pieces of either plastic or bone. I told my waitress who just smiled. It did not come off my bill.
Horrible food. Not that great service. Will not be going back

It was a few months ago, I was there with a very good friend and we had a very positive experience there.
The atmosphere was pleasant and cozy, the décor was simple yet perfect for the place. My favorite was the back wall with pictures of their customers… it made it more welcoming.
We had edemame, sushi and veggie sushi (for me) along with tea and water with lemon. Everything was wonderful, the service was great, we had refills as we wished.
We are actually looking forward to meeting out there again some time in the near future.
I would recommend the Sun & Moon Café to all my friends and others.

I read the review from the Asian dude who didn’t like it but noticed that all the white people were enjoying their food. My friends (who are white) wanted to go here for a birthday. After reading that review, I prepped myself and knew that it wouldn’t be the best sushi I ever had.
The owner was super friendly and the food was decent. The edamame was good but portion size was small. I had the seaweed salad, which was really good. The spicy tuna was average. My friends who are vegetarian/​vegan got the fried rice and veggie platter. They both enjoyed it. They brought my friend out some tempura fried ice cream with a candle on it for her birthday, so that was cool. Overall its good if you go in with the right expectations.

I wish i lived in manhattan. I’d frequent Sun and Moon!
This place is very very tacky, but I am all for tacky! i love places where you dont have to dress up, but the food is by far exquisite! The drinks are delicious and the service was wonderful.
nice family owned joint! GREAT HAPPY HOUR!

Sun & Moon is a tiny and eclectic sushi restaurant, a staple place to go to to have fun and get a little rowdy while eating FANTASTIC sushi! This has been one of my favorites for years, but I went on Saturday night with some friends and were treated to one of the best sushi dinners I’ve had in a long time. 5 people shared 2 orders of edamame, 2 orders of pot stickers, and 8 sushi rolls — the new sushi bomb item on the menu is fantastic, try the sampler of tuna, salmon, and albacore and you won’t be disappointed!
The owners are friendly, and while may it not be the best place on a Saturday night for those who are too young or too old to appreciate those who are drinking and having a good time, the sushi is fresh with lots of interesting rolls and combinations — it’s a great place to start your evening.

Ouch! This place is getting zero love on Unilocal huh? Well I’m going to have to beg to differ.
Is this fine dining? No. Is it a nice sushi place with a soothing atmosphere and fancy chopsticks? No. Is it a place with sweet and friendly owners and halfway decent and creative sushi? Yes. Yes it is.
It’s an off beat little place with fun paintings and odd little decorations and lights. Apparently it’s famous for its beer funnel which the owner proudly brought out to show us which we politely declined. So random and so funny. They have a happy hour that includes martinis and beer from 4 or 5 until 7PM. Their menu is vast with many unique sushi combinations that are far from traditional (lots of deep fried stuff0 but have no fear, if you don’t feel like eating their infamous sushi bombs they have plenty of the usual menu items for you (spicy tuna, spider rolls, etc.). We ended up with spicy tuna, some eel, a lobster roll, and some other stuff that I forgot. It was all pretty good, not the best ever, but perfectly edible and tasty. I have no complaints. I really enjoyed my lobster roll (even if it fell apart while I ate it).
And yes they just give you edamame without asking and yes they charge you for it which is in fact a little annoying but geez it costs like how much? I don’t even know but I doubt it was over $ 5 so it’s not that big a deal. If anything, you’ve read the review so now you can politely decline them when they bring it out. No big deal.
It is a little pricey but I think it’s on par with the rest of the area which is itself not so cheap to begin with. Would I come back here? If I was in the area and felt like a quick bite in a really relaxed venue, I’d probably give it a whirl. I wouldn’t come here specifically but seriously the owners are so random and funny and they really want you to be happy I think it makes it worth a try.

The food here wasn’t that BAD. I don’t know why everyone here is complaining. I have to say, the owner and his wife are awesome. Where else would you find the owner roll up to your table with a beer funnel? It was hilarious. Just too funny.
The food was pretty good. it was nothing to run home about but pretty good. some pretty unique rolls at this place.
You can’t beat a restaurant where the owners are so happy. It just rubs off on you and makes your day that much happier. It’s your friendly neighborhood sushi joint. =)

Within walking distance of our place after driving since 9am, we felt like going someplace where we could eat something we liked the taste of, could have a lil’ wine/​beer and sit outside.
This was a weird find… lots of blondes, USC colors, guy pushing 29 with a hickey, beer bongs, chanting, service a bit off but seriously, very friendly.
Was this the same sushi I had for breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market? Er, no. Did it taste good and have hella sauce? Did I get to see someone have a beer bong? Ok, ok, ok, did I get to see 5 people have a beer bong? Did I get to overhear someone say «The Chinatown in San Fran is VERY, VERY Chinese» while nodding seriously? To all, a resounding yes, YES, YES.
Will I be back? When I’m crashing in Manhattan Beach again, yes, YES, YES.
Generous seaweed salad. btw.

Man, glazing over other people’s review of this place, you’d think only Hitler and child molesters ate here. I’m no sushi connoisseur, but I AM a «getting-​plastered savant», and this place is a blast!
I have never, ever, in my life, EVER been to a sit-​down restaurant, where not only is a freakin’ beer-​bong on the menu, but the sushi chefs actually come out and do one with you! I mean, what’s not to love folks?!
I think finer-​palated people will shun this place, due its lack of «refinement»… that is, the rowdy group in the corner loudly chanting, «Sake-​bomb! Sake-​bomb! Sake-​bomb» whilst pounding the table with their fists in order to make a shot of sake, balanced on chopsticks, laid across a pint of Saboro, fall into said pint and immediately chug, cheer, and repeat (GUILTY!).
A few of those and anything on their menu is oh-​so-​tasty, despite it not being prepared by Katsu-​ya.
So I guess it’s fair to say, «real» sushi lovers pioneering for top-​places maybe should look elsewhere, but for a good time with a group of friends, look no further.

WORST RESTAURANT EVER.
I should of known better. Being Asian, you know exactly which restaurant caters to white people. Especially being in a predominate white area.
you expect what?
white-​wash Asian food.
And that’s exactly what it was.
& Not only the food was bad. It was overpriced. For the same bento box (size, quatity, & price) I can go elsewhere and get way better food and service.
The fuckin’ waitress charges us for gratuity without telling us. No where on the menu it says gratuity. ONLY 18% IS CHARGED FOR GROUPS OF 5 OR MORE.

If you’re Asian (and I am). don’t eat here. I ate here long time ago and was really disappointed. However, I noticed that everyone else around me (everyone who wasn’t Asian) seemed to be having the best time of their lives. They loved the food. if I remember correctly, I think they were even doing beer bongs and getting way too trashed to even know the crap they were putting in their mouths.
I, on the otherhand, was NOT having a good time because my food tasted like crap and the waitress (who was also Asian) seemed to completely ignore my friend and I. This is what I’m guessing. Being Asian, she knew that the restaurant served crap Asian food and they deceive people by calling the restaurant «Asian Fusion» when really it’s just a better way of saying they combine Asian style food with crap cooking. so the waitress was too embarrassed to come by and ask us how the food was because she knew we would tell her that their so called «Best Phở in L.A.» is actually the most overpriced small bowl of shitty phở in all of Los Angeles.
With this being said. if you’re not Asian. you’ll probably think this is the best Asian Fusion restaurant you’ve ever been to. But then again, you probably also think P.F. Chang has the best Chinese food too. It’s okay. I used to think Olive Garden served real Italian food and that El Torito was authentic Mexican cuisine.

This review is for the Phở only.
Seeing low reviews of this place I wanted to try the place more out of curiosity, i.e. the name is cool sounding, the location interesting.
In short:
The beef Phở was not half bad. A solid 3 starts. I wouldn’t mind going again.
But the lack of parking and the high price may sway me to other locations. It was nearly nine bucks for a large size Phở, but… the bowl was not large at all.
Soup:
The soup is chicken based (so the menu indicates), mild and good tasting.
There were lots of black pepper at the bottom of the bowl and not surprisingly the soup had a good portion of that nice black pepper aroma and flavor as part of the soup characteristic.
Overall, the soup was very tasty and not tiring, I didn’t need to add any sauce to keep me going at it.
Noodles:
The noodles were ok, average.
Beef:
The beef came already cooked but it was tender and flavorful and of nice quality (The star of the show IMO), albeit I wished there were a bit more of it.
Veggie:
The vegetables came inside the bowl (Not on a side dish). A nice touch was that the bean sprouts appeared to be blanched in hot water first before placed inside the bowl. They were nicely semi-​cooked already with none of the undesirable pungent ness of the raw bean sprouts.
Service:
The service was friendly. But they sure push alcohol a lot. The guy asked me if you want beer or cold sake, at 11:30am…
What are you thinking??? I thought to myself until the next two customers ordered cold sake and beer.
I feel so out of touch…, but I don’t crave alcohol with bowl of soup because the alcohol effect is watered down when combined with large quantities of non-​alcohol liquid ha ha).
Sushi?
This place also serves sushi and looks to be their main item. The sign outside includes «bakery». Uh-​huh…, but there’s nothing «bakery» about this place. If you see a bread anywhere at the place you let me know…

Really cool little place. it’s by the beach, so parking is a challenge. My wife and I went during a Sunday afternoon. The owner (?)/​host was great and funny. Japanese (so’s my wife) The food was excellent. The atmosphere was conducive to a return visit. And hey, if you DON’T want to see people drunk, remember where you are; there’s a half dozen bars in the area, it only follows that at night, if there’s good food closeby, they’ll go.
Go during the day for the best experience! We’re definitely going back!