Amberjack

Been going to Amberjack since it opened, 8 – 9 years
Sushi has always been fairly good with low prices
Now with higher prices, Rabata Grill is now a better value.
The service usually poor, cold and surly — she never smiles or acknowledges guests
The chef, no personality seems angry most all visits.
The food prep area has gotten dirtier over time, needs paint and better lighting
It does not seem sanitary in the prep area or behind the bar anymore.
I was rushed out last night WAY before closing. I commented on being hurried, no reply. She just looked down at the floor.
I used to like it but am tired of being treated indifferent. It no longer seems like a healthy environment in which to eat.
They should change their name to ANGRYJACK!

Sad, the service impressions was descriminative and controlling we took out our food, had to discard the minute we left.
Caution proceed at your own whim!

Amberjack is great. I go there once a week and always get the freshest and greatest sushi.

Great little place with very good sushi. Was recommended to me by my boss who lives in the area. It’s a very small place but if you are able to get a seat it’s worth it. Will definitely be coming back when I’m in the area again.

I have had better sushi at Safeway! I can’t believe this place has even survived in mill valley

I came here because I’ve just moved to MV and this place is the closest to my house, walking distance. I read the Unilocal reviews and decided to go for it. As soon as I walked in, I kind of regretted sitting down. I didn’t find it cozy one bit and the service was mediocre to lame. The sushi chef seemed to be in a very surly mood like he really hated his job and was making no effort to fake it. I tried to compliment him twice on the sushi, speaking louder the second time. He was so tuned out, he didn’t hear me even though he was 2 feet from me. He never made eye contact or asked me how anything was. There was 1 waitress handling all the tables and the to go orders, another older woman in back putting things on the grill. They seemed stressed and no smiling. I came here because I work from home and just needed to get out and be with other humans. I was expecting at least a friendly sushi chef as I sat at the bar. no dice.
The worst part was it was ICE COLD outside and I nearly froze sitting at the bar with a sweater and scarf around me because every other patron that came in and out (lots of take out orders) would let the door wide open (this is something the restaurant HAS to fix — put a spring on it so it self closes! … and every time it was a seated patron that would have to get up from their meal to shut the door, myself included! My feet and hands were freezing the entire meal, not exactly relaxing to say the least. This happened no fewer than 10 x’s in an hour while I was sitting there!
I ordered Shiro Maguro and Hamachi Sashimi (5 chunky pieces ea for about $ 8 per) and an Amberjack roll (CA topped with warm eel and roe). The sashimi tasted fresh and the eel on the roll was very nicely done — warm, almost crispy, not fatty. I sat at the bar around 7pm on this Friday night as all the tables were full. I had to ask for Miso soup and hot tea (usually miso is standard with a full meal). All in, I paid about $ 55 for 2 5-​pc sashimi, 1 roll, edamame, seaweed salad, miso and 1 large Sapporo. Given those prices for a single person’s meal (a woman) I would expect much more from the place. Zero ambience, unfriendly service, no artistic presentation of food.
I may use this place for pick up but will never eat here again (dine in).
I had brought my laptop to try to work on a presentation, which the bar was a pretty tight squeeze. Luckily it was just me and one couple at the bar with a few seats in between so I could actually pull out my laptop. Would have been much better if I had gone somewhere I could have sat at a warm table.

I grab my food to go and it is always ready when I come in. Their food is always tasty and I’ve yet to be disappointed.

I’m a fan! Very fresh sushi. Large pieces, and very cheap for the quality. Very small place with not-​so-​great atmosphere, but who cares — amazing fish!

Review is for Sunday, August 16^th.
Three stars for food, two for service.
I arrived with a couple of family friends around 7:30 on Sunday evening. The place is small, with only a few tables, and it was completely empty of patrons.
The waitress was extremely bored and it showed on her face. She was not friendly at all, didn’t smile once, and neither did the sushi chef. When I asked her opinion of the sashimi regular versus the chirashi, all she said was «they’re pretty much the same, only the rice different.» Gee, that was helpful. We also inquired as to the origin of the name of the restaurant, and couldn’t understand her reply. Maybe she didn’t really know.
My sashimi was what you would imagine: some pieces of raw fish with a bowl of miso and a small bowl of rice, for $ 16. My «grandma», if you will, seemed to enjoy her tekka don though and my friend Angela’s $ 11 nebayaki udon looked pretty tasty. It was just too hot outside to be eating hot soup, in my opinion.
I would not say this place has anything spectacular, but Samurai sushi was closed and we wanted Japanese food in little Mill Valley. At least it was nice and quiet, I can say that much. Maybe when it gets colder I’ll try the udon but I don’t have much desire to come back.

I have been going to amberjack for several years and they have been consistently good. I would usually order takeout but I finally ate there a few days ago. Their service is prompt and their fish is both reasonably priced and always extremely fresh. I highly recommend the 49er maki and the cherry blossom maki. Definitely the best sushi place in mill valley.

I’ve been going here for years, I love it. The ambiance is great, I love how cozy it is and the fish is delicious. They also do take out which is very convenient.

Love this local favorite. The staff is always welcoming and nice, and the sushi is fresh. Simple, tasty sushi at a reasonable cost. Favorite menu items:
–49ers Maki
–Toro
–Kamikaze rolls
–Cherry Blossom roll

When you walk in you want to like this tiny place. It’s convenient so I’ve been in a half dozen times. The donbrui and udon are fine. Nothing special but reasonably priced and fine comfort food. The service is, as others have written, painfully slow, but I never found anyone impolite. What is noteworthy is the tempura. Amberjack has perhaps the worst tempura in the Bay Area. They take shrimp, vegetables, etc., seemly briefly warm them (the sweet potato was almost raw) them dip them in luke ware tempura batter and serve ! It’s not fried. It’s drenched in a gooey mess that fortunately slips off the vegetables, etc. No deep fat fryer for them, I tried it once and thought they made a mistake and foolishly didn’t say anything. The next time, it was clear this is their idea of tempura. Do nor repeat my error!

Bitter, rude, hostile people serving mediocre food. Took the happiest kid on his 9^th bday — his request to try this sushi place. The chef was SO rude to us from the moment we walked in – in every conceivable way. The waitress barely better. They are both clearly miserable people in the wrong career. As I was signing the bill, leaving over 20% thinking they had just maybe had a rough day, the chef walked back over and fussed directly at my child for making a noise — «stop that right now!» — and we were literally the only ppl in the place! For the first time in my life, I scratched through the tip and left none. He was appalling. Truly. He is a hostile, bitter man who frankly makes only mildly mediocre sushi (near frozen, barely any rice, and the tiniest scrap of wasabi served with it). Awful. No wonder the place was dead. Steer clear.

I have never in my life had a waitress so incredibly rude, it was surreal! When I asked for more than one thing, she turned and rolled her eyes at me. The whole experience was disturbing — and I’ve been here more than once with the exact same sour attitude. I am in shock that this girl still works there.

Amberjack Sushi– located in Downtown Mill Valley, is a quaint and small sushi restaurant that I have always passed by. I decided to finally try it out with my sister. We walk inside, and the place is actually pretty packed. There is very limited seating, and we were lucky to be seated the last table. The place is so tiny, you are pretty much sharing a table with the people on either side of you…
We took a look at the menu.
Nothing really popped out to me so I ordered the Sashimi platter with some steamed rice. My sister ordered the Sake Bowl (raw salmon with steamed rice). The food came very quickly despite the packed restaurant. Then again, our food WAS raw. I looked down at my Sashimi and could immediately tell it was not that fresh or A grade quality. It looked dry & a few hours old. Safeway quality. I proceeded to eat anyway. Just as I expected, Safeway quality. I was not impressed only because this is after all a RESTAURANT in DOWNTOWN MILL VALLEY. I was expecting much better. I tried some of my sisters dinner & it was a little better then what I ordered. Still not as good as it could be. I was disappointed.
Service was no problem. Friendly & average speed. Clean tables and seats. They also have nice hot tea they give you.
Amberjack could however do a lot better, especially for where they are situated. Solid 3 stars. I think if I want Japanese in Mill Valley I’ll stick to Robata.

A very cozy small lil gem. The sushi was very fresh and the prices were very fair. Only thing that was a little bit of a downer was that I met a girl here for a date and the tables are so it was hard to have a very private conversation. xOther than that we had a great time and the food was good!

First things first: order take out and don’t dine in.
My mom and I came here to eat dinner one night. Usually, I’m very easy to please when it comes to Japanese food, but we had sort of a mixed experience.
Everyone had raved about this place, so we were pretty excited to try it out. We walked in and first noticed that the place is quite small with only a few tables and some counter space. There was, fortunately, seating at the bar for us, so we sat down and eagerly reviewed the menus.
We ordered and as we were waiting, we couldn’t help noticing some things because of our place right next to the kitchen. Both my mom and I have a ton of restaurant experience between us, so right away, we noticed that most of the restaurant’s focus was on to go orders. This makes sense, because when you have only a handful of seats, you have to make your money somehow.
The problem is that Amberjack was short a person. They had the sushi chef, a woman on the line, and one girl trying to wait tables and to deal with the endless to go orders. The result is that we watched the restaurant patrons suffer a bit due to this near-​total focus on to go orders. This confounds me because a) the dine-​in patrons were there first and should take precedence over the phone, and b) if the phone rings and you need to run food, attend to tables, or whatever needs doing in the restaurant immediately, put the call on hold.
Twice, I saw hot food just sitting on the counter, waiting to go out. Past managers would scream! The food sat there for at least five minutes (actual time, not ‘customer time’). I kept waiting for it to be picked up and run, but it sat there for a long time. The first time, it was a plate of tempura and I assumed that it was an order that was wrong that’d been set aside, because in all of my years of working in a restaurant, I have never seen hot food allowed to just sit on the counter like that, left to die. The second time, it was our food. the waitress was totally stuck on the phone with a difficult order. :/​
I thought my food was good, but my mom wasn’t satisfied with hers. I think the lack of service bothered her and probably colored her experience.
My conclusion is that I probably wouldn’t dine in again, but it would make decent take out.

Small restaurant, reasonably priced. The sushi was fine but the service was slightly disappointing; our waitress had a bit of an attitude. Don’t let that hold you back if you’re looking for some local sushi in Mill Valley.

My adoration of this tiny, casual place with only 6 little tables and 6 seats at the sushi bar continues.
Why? For starters, how about «Hamachi Kama Shioyaki» ($ 8), a grilled and salted yellowtail collar served with a tangy dipping sauce that had J and I clawing vulture-​like through the bones, searching for every last hamachi scrap? There’s so much edible fish hidden amongst this «neck» portion; I order this anytime I see it on a menu.
On past visits we’ve ordered solely from the sushi menu and the specials board. This night we pioneered into the «dinner» section of the menu, opting for «Nigiri Sushi Deluxe» ($ 16). For that, you get a California roll + 8 pieces of chef’s choice nigiri + miso soup. It was quite a value, filling and tasty, but I missed being able to order the more exotic things (e.g. uni, Spanish mackerel) which the chef wasn’t doling out for this dinner.
The biggest compliment I could pay here sort of speaks for itself: I’m a repeat customer who intends to continue repeating. I will be back.