San Shi Go

A first rate sushi restaurant with outstanding ingredients. I had the omakase special. the final «desert» was toro topped with foie gras and truffle (the most memorable piece of sushi i have ever eaten). My wife had the ama ebi and the deep fried soft shell crab. both were live.
definitely worth a visit.

Amazing Sushi. Try the Chefs special, definitely worth the price. Staff is extremely friendly and professional.

Again and again, this little diamond in the rough impress the heck out of me. Daishte is absolutely amazing with his craft utilizing the freshest overnight fish from all over the world, fantastically hand made ingredients, meticulously assembled into the most incredible culinary experience I’ve had the pleasure to undertake anywhere in the world. This is our 8^th time here and each time, has far exceeded the last. Place your taste buds in his hand and it will be an experience you will never forget. Service? Absolutely amazing, far exceeding Ritz Carlton or Four Season with an intimate personal touch. Your glass will always be filled, taste buds floating in ecstasy, and you’ll leave, that much better a person than when you came in. Back to toasting Daishte and all the other chefs! Life is good! Peace out!

I lived in Japan for 2 years y this is the best sushi I’ve had since I’ve been back stateside!
Uni martini can be shared between 2 people. I highly recommend ordering sashimi off the fresh catch of the day menu — barracuda, seabream, y ama ebi. The ama ebi they serve still moving y you can either have the heads fried or in miso soup. I suggest you do 1 of each (DELICIOUS).
Their ice creams are delicious as well btw!
+++ excellent service!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE

Absolutely the best sushi ever! Been coming here for 15 years and I’ve never had better sushi anywhere else. Great people, great food.

My Favorite Sushi Restaurant… And when I say sushi I mean regular raw fish and not rolls. Now there is nothing wrong with the rolls as I occasionally have rolls too, but what I have found with the rolls is that the taste of the fish is severely masked. I love getting the Omakase (Chef’s Choice) Menu here at the Sushi Bar because it puts the well earned trust into the highly skilled Sushi Chef. If you are truly lucky like we happened to be you will be treated to a great time by master sushi chef «Dice K.»

Sushi was good, but unremarkable.
However, their sashimi carpaccio were to die for!!! And I loved that the chef explained what were in each dish, and how they prepared the food.

Love this place just as much as the Laguna location. I’m not a sushi person, that’s for sure. I made a reservation for two and the waiter was more than eager to serve us. We ended up getting California and vegetable rolls and ordered a half box of nanbu ryu sake, which had an amazing melon flavor. Don’t pay for the metered parking, since there is a parking lot that’s free after 6pm. The next time I come back I’m sitting at the bar since that’s where all the action seemed to be.

Five star. I can’t say enough about this small hidden gem of a sushi restaurant.
This restaurant is small and kinda out of the way, but it is worth it.
Our chef was Mokoto-​san and he did a great job with fish selection and and especially presentation. We order the mixed omakase with sashimi and cooked dishes. $ 120 per person and worth every penny. This small place rivals the best places in low Angeles, Beverly Hills, WLA and the South Bay for less money. Without any pretentiousness.
So the main thing about this place is it uses the freshest (live) ingredients, made and presented with the upmost care and detail.
There was a unique standout dish I have never heard or tasted. It was a homemade tofu blended with fresh edamame beans that was served agedashi. When the tofu and beans were cooked it had the slightest chew with a fresh bean taste.
So check out the pictures posted.

345… More like #1. My absolute fave in North America (outside of Japan). I have travelled the world, and there is no other sushi restaurant I would rather be. It’s definitely the new school way of Japanese using the same traditional fishes & seafood, with a touch of expensive delicacies, like truffle, foie, gold flakes, etc.
Daisuke (boss man) is absolutely out of this world.
My suggestions for this restaurant are as follows:
1. If you don’t know what your doing or what you want, trust in Omakase. (You can do hot, cold or mix of both)
2. Sit at the bar always, if you can. (This applies at Japanese restos ALWAYS)
3. Sit w Daisuke, if you can
4. Be prepared to pay $$$
Now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you what you why this place is amazing.
They have fish flown in fresh from Japan, Spain & everywhere. They carry fishes that most places in So Cal don’t, and they know how to prepare them. The rice to fish ratio is excellent, so you don’t get too full off of nigiri. Nigiri most of the time is the way to go. You get great flavor out of the fish.
Eat with your hands at the bar. Daisuke encourages it as the traditional Japanese way, and of course don’t use soy if he tells you not to. Some fishes are already sauced or made plain on purpose by the man himself. Drink sake with the chefs. :)
What do I order? Lol what haven’t I ordered.
I always start off ordering the things I can’t live without, then I tell Daisuke to fire away until I can’t eat anymore. I come at 5pm on the dot, and don’t leave until 9.
I always start with Uni, Golden Eye Snapper, & Toro (seared). Then I let him roll in with omakase. Daisuke usually serves me up lots of fishes and finishes off my meal with 1 or 2 hot dishes. He always surprises me. It’s always quality & I’m never disappointed.
Price… Be prepared to pay. It’s usually around 150 for 2 people, but if you eat like me, it’s usually 200 – 350 because I like to order doubles of the fishes I really love!
Also, their complimentary dessert of home made ice cream is amazing! Get the black sesame or the secret flavor (cheese).
Check out some of my pics over the years… Enjoy!!!

This is my 3^rd time dining here. I’m updating my review to 4 stars rather than 5. It was just not as spectacular as it was the previous times. The otoro and wagyu beef sushi were not anywhere near the same in appearance, presentation, portion size, or flavor as it was when I first came here. there’s a reason I take photos. It just doesn’t seem like the same thing as we ordered previously. We drove all the way over here just for the otoro and wagyu beef and it just didn’t live up to what I remembered. I won’t be coming out of my way again. We will only return if we are in the area already.
The best thing we had on this visit was the seasonal homemade agadashi tofu. I loved it so much I ordered take out for our daughter and she loved it as well. This one was made from pureed edamame. We love traditional agadashi tofu and this one is one step better. I would be curious to try their other seasonal flavors sometime.

I wish I could give this a million stars. My boyfriend and I are huge sushi fans, and we stumbled into this little quaint place on Saturday night around 9PM. We were greeted with a smile and the sight of fresh fish and we decided right then and there that we had made the right choice!
We chose to do omakase and Dice was our chef. He was incredible and made the experience so special for us. We felt so at home and ate and drank way too much!
The bill was very expensive for two people, so it will probably be a place that we come on special occasions — but it was truly a unique and amazing dining experience that I will not forget.

Phenomenal… the rating on this is 4.5 stars, but Unilocal
Is not cool enough for half stars. I won’t give 5 stars to just any restaurant, so the not perfect rating should not be taken as a slight against this spot. Now for the review…
Prime location on Balboa Peninsula… located on Main Street right smack in central Balbs. Inside is nothing commercial and modern, but homy and quaint. I actually like the inside… the simplicity made it feel welcome and local. The food and I mean sashimi was great… I had the sushi chef special. Every single fish I had was a minimum ⁸⁄₁₀. The octopus cut I had was the best I have ever had in my life including Tokyo Japan. The oyster appetizer blew my mind away… the baby oyster from Japan was stuff of legend.
To top it off the service was great and friendly. They were nice to my 3 year old son and that helped make the experience better. I also appreciated no birthday song for my birthday. I cannot stand it when restaurants do that. All and all great place and good experience. I will be back.

After numerous great things I’ve heard about this place, I finally made it here for my sushi craving and this is absolutely the best sushi I’ve had in a long long time.
We decided on omakase after seeing all the beautiful fish selection behind the glass and you can just tell this is the place that KNOWS what they are doing…
Every course we had were fresh, lots to flavor and many beautiful textures… The surprise of the evening was the uni martini with cold broth and egg… it was so tasty and creative! They also get a lot of the fresh fish locally and overseas… we had about 9 or 10 different types of fish that were all great!
Not only the food was amazing, service was on point. Friendly staff that gives u fine dining service in a cozy hidden gem down balboa.
Best place for sushi in OC!

UHHHHH this place was such a disappointing Valentine’s dinner for two.
We called ahead for reservations because my boyfriend said this place offered omakase! I love love omakase (prefixe sushi meals) ! It’s the best bang for your buck. Get to try a little of this and that. You won’t over order, and everything is a set price! Just to make sure, he even asked on the phone «omakase will be offered correct» and the guy confirmed yes absolutely ! Well perfect then.
Then the day comes. And guess what… Jokes on us! We came and were seated right away. So strange. Wasn’t that busy for Valentine’s Day… That should have been our first red flag! We had two options of seating arrangement. In the front or in the back. Since it was cold we opt for the back. The guy set down the menu, we take a look… And behold! Omakase! Perfect right? WRONG. You begin reading this so called omakase menu… And it’s offering such strange items, like steak? Fish? Appetizers? This isn’t sushi omakase! This is a white people prefixe dinner?!! What on earth. And to top it off, price was 120. PER PERSON! Freaking sakes! Someone gonna come out and sing to me with this price? That’s so absurd. For food I don’t even want.
Anyways, we sat and waited for our server to come to us. Where is he? By this time we talked about seven different topics! To be fair, the restaurant was set up so strangely on how they divided the tables amongst servers. Our server, Brandon, he was actually a super good server! Only problem was, his tables were on the other side of the restaurant ??! Why! We were his one table that was on the other side, so we felt a little neglected. Even though I know he was working hard running back and forth. (Btw there was a server standing in our area, but I know he wasn’t our server, but he could have at least helped a little bit? Get us water? Greet us? Write down the order for Brandon? Nope just kept saying «your server will be right with you» what? This place never heard of teamwork?)
Anywho, we asked Brandon. Wthell is this fake omakase crap? Where’s the sushi omakase? He said its for the bar only. WHAT! We had one specific requirement. Omakase. If we knew that, we would have asked to sit at the bar, but by this time, no seats were available! That’s so unfair, but so is life so we moved on.
We tried the specials Brandon recommended. Yes they were good. But not outstanding .
Overall, disappointed. I didn’t have a good Valentine’s dinner. And that was our first Valentine’s together too! But i know some Unilocalers are gonna be like. Who cares? You care. That’s why you read this long rant of mine. Duh!
This place is so far from me, parking was impossible, place is small, omakase only at bar? Nah, won’t be back.

Parking: I got lucky with street parking. This part of town isn’t very happening at night, so you might get lucky too.
If you recently got a fat bonus and want to treat yourself, then you should go for their omakase. The chef we were assigned to (forgot his name, regrettably) definitely had fun with his creations. The ingredients were fresh and delicious, and he got more creative after every dish. If you last long enough, you’ll experience foods you probably never knew existed, and some things you have no idea what they are, but don’t want to ask because it’s so good. The experience was expensive, but well worth it.
*Tip: If you feed your chef sake, he will treat you right.
**Warning: Sake here is pretty expensive.

One of my favorite sushi place in OC, been here a million times… literally…Can’t go wrong with omakase here and letting the chef know of your preference. Must sit at the bar and do not order sushi rolls! Some of my favs: uni martini, grilled seabass with foie gras, wagyu beef, toro, chawanmushi, etc.
Yes it’s expensive, nothing good comes cheap, expect to pay $ 100 plus per person for omakase. Happy eating! :)

If you’re looking for fresh, top quality sushi… You need to check out San Shi Go. When I say fresh, I mean they still have ikura attached to the egg sack of the fish!
I’ve came here a couple of times and loved each experience. Sit at the bar and the sushi chefs are awesome entertainers with great stories. Also, the way they craft their sushi display is beautiful! My go to: uni, salmon, scallop, and whatever they recommend. Omg try their omakase! You’ll be surprise what they’ll make for you and won’t be disappointed. Such s treat to go here! Yes this place is pricey but it’s so worth it!

This is my #1 most favorite sushi restaurant in Orange County. Their omakase is unique and different from other places because they don’t just serve nigiri, but also an assortment of cooked and raw dishes including a variety of fresh fish and Japanese Kobe that’s not always served at other sushi places (such as Grade A5 Waygu). Additionally, this is one of the rare sushi restaurants that use truffle with some of their dishes. Sooo yummy!
One of my favorite dishes here is the Uni Martini. It’s uni and poached egg in a savory dashi broth. If you love Uni like I do, you must order it!!! You will not be disappointed. =]
It’s always a special treat coming here. The Chefs are very talented and meticulous in their preparation and presentation of the sushi, and they are such a delight to chat and drink with. Chefs Mokoto, Daisuke, and Kosuke are so funny and hospitable! I always have a great time with them. They make every visit an enjoyable one.
Service is always good and the waiters are attentive. You can make reservations for table seating, or sushi bar seating is first come first serve. I highly recommend sitting at the bar!

I didn’t read any reviews before coming here so I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a pain to come here because the traffic is so horrendous, and parking can be difficult (limited meter space). Other than that, I was pretty surprised.
The menu tends to the traditional side. No fancy rolls here, unless you get omakaze, which I didn’t. I ordered off a table menu because I was unfamiliar with the quality of the fish. It ended up being really fresh. I ordered hamachi, king crab, toro, toro, and hon maguro. The freshness is easily among the best.
I tried some other dishes as well. Lotus chips are very good, crisp and thin with no oily aftertaste. Chicken with sea salt and yuzu citrus pepper was cooked well, with the chicken moist throughout and the skin crispy and seasoned. Pork dumplings??? Don’t remember much about it. Looking at the menu I saw many items for non-​seafood eaters, so it would probably be ok to take a varied group here.
Service was ok. There were times I would need a refill and no one would stop by. Or before ordering they gave us way too much time. I made the mistake of sitting by the windows. A lot of smokers walked by and the smoke kept wafting inside spoiling my meal. Don’t sit by the windows.