Ami Sushi @Bamboo Lounge

Great service AND great food. We walked in and were warmly greeted and got to choose wherever we wanted to sit. There were 3 of us, but we were waiting for a 4^th to join us. Our server set our table for four, brought us all waters and even got us started with a DELICIOUS complimentary salad. He played along with us as we talked about our imaginary friend – our 4^th friend who never ended up making it. The rolls we ordered were all delicious, the beer was yummy and like I said before, the service was delightful. I know we’ll be heading back to this place soon.

I find the sushi here to be extremely sub-​par.

Occasion: Causal dinner on a Saturday night.
First, our server was dealing with a slow sushi bar and dealt with it very well. She was very attentive and gave us a round of drinks on the house to compensate for the wait.
Second, the sushi was good, but nothing spectacular. The chili lime edamame is very tasty and would get it again.
In the end, due to the very slow sushi bar, it was a so-​so visit, and while the service did not make up for it, it certainly saved the place from being ruled out in the future.

Came here for the groupon for sunday dinner. Food was mediocre (tried dragon and ninja i think), hummus platter, and vegetable tempura. They had avocado tempura which was interesting. But the service and ambience was great, so 3 stars instead of 2

I purchased this groupon to use during my vacation, so I wasn’t familiar with this area. After visiting Temecula, Encinitas, and Carlsbad, Hillcrest feels like a run down, mature/​dying neighborhood borderline ghetto. Its where college kids would go to get drunk. We called to make a reservation (per Groupon instructions) which was a joke since the place was empty at 5pm.
We walked in and immediately realized we’d been had — this was a college dive bar. This was a place to get drink and get drunk. Dark, dirty, creepy kind of place. We were given menus by someone who had mega BO who announced he was not our waiter and walked away. We walked out. This is not a place to take a date. This is a place to take a one-​night stand if you are both desperate and trying to hide from people who might see you.

I can’t get enough of the great sushi here. I’m a VERY picky person when it comes to sushi (my dad is a sushi chef) and I leave with a stomach full of sushi every time. I really enjoy the traditional nigiri’s but what I really like about Ami Sushi is the creativeness that comes with the rolls. Lemon, bacon, curry sauce? Yes, please! Of course thats not all on one roll… unless you want it to be! The chef, Ditchi, is great about modifying any rolls to your liking. Writing this review makes me hungry for sushi… yum!

A friend and I came for sushi Tuesday evening. I had a Groupon, $ 12 for $ 20. The downside? It can’t be used with the Happy Hour Sushi specials, go figure. We ordered the Spicy Tatas Roll, named for it’s bosom-​ish appearance, and the Rainbow Roll. Both were decent and tasty. A little disappointed in the price… if it weren’t for the Groupon, we would have paid $ 34 for two rolls and a beer. I guess that’s not too bad, but I did expected a little better pricing for «decent» sushi. I guess this is a breakfast/​tex mex joint by day and sushi bar by night. I haven’t quite figured it out. But, all in all, it’s a decent place to grab some sushi, especially on a Tuesday (buy two rolls from the Happy Rolls menu and get one FREE). Service was good too… although a tad sluggish.

Hands down the most amazing sushi and friendly service… I loved the new creations by the sushi chef, Ditchi… Heavenly Roll, which can only be described as heavenly and the Soulful Roll… an amazing marriage of Japanese esthetics and southern spice. If you are looking for a new twist on sushi with the same attention to artful, balanced creations in traditional sushi, this is an amazing find!

So this is a first that I am reviewing the same place for a totally different vibe. Starting at 5 the bamboo lounge turns into Ami Sushi! Although I loved the brunch at Bamboo lounge the Sushi was ok. On Saturdays you can buy one specialty roll and get one specialty roll free. So good deal but ok sushi. What I ordered:
Buddha:
spicy tuna, wrapped with salmon, yellowtail, masago, scalllions 14
Bamboo:
spicy yellowtail, cucumber, scallions, wrapped with avocado and bamboo sauce 11
Of course the second roll was the free roll
I did however love how they have white sangria. We ordered the pitcher which is toally worth the price of 30 bucks because it served at least 6 glasses and tasted really good!
The waiter/​bartender was funny and has a great personality!
I would go here again for a happy hour for sure but not to pay full price.

happy hour = happy kim.
the happy hour is different everyday, so check for what you’d like. i went on a buy 1 speciality roll and get 1 free. i couldn’t even finish 1 roll but they were both delicious and the price was great!
i got the spider roll and another roll (forgot the name), but it had fried soft crab (alot!) and some spicy mayo sauce was delicious.

Show up during happy hour = best sushi for the price in San Diego.

After tonight’s dinner at Ami Sushi, we are thinking this must be the best deal in San Diego for sushi. They have happy hour specials Tuesday-​Saturday from 4 – 7 on drinks and 5 – 7 on sushi. Five rolls and 2 drinks for $ 28, me thinks yes.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Hane or Sushi Ota, but it is better than Sushi Deli and there isn’t a wait.
Whatever service problems people were having must have been a fluke. We were served super fast from friendly staff. You really should stop on by and give Ami Sushi a try :)

This was some of the worst service I’ve had. We ordered and had to wait 45 minutes before we got any food… mind you we ordered miso soup and edamame to start… this should take no time to make. When we asked them about it, they made excuses and acted like we were out of line. It took forever to get our bill and to top it off the food wasn’t even that good. There are a million sushi restuarants in Hillcrest with much better food and WAY better service. I would definitely NOT recommend this place.

i’m kind of disappointed because i really love sushi and i really wanted to try some good sushi while on my visit to san diego.
like Jennafer, we also presented a $ 60 Groupon and surprisingly, we were able to order a lot of food… the bad thing was
1) ALL of the sushi tastes EXACTLY the same. the only difference i could tell was the philly roll which probably would have tasted the same if it wasn’t for the cream cheese.
2) it wasn’t busy and our food took FOREVER to come out.
3) the bartender was pretty attentive at first but towards the ending, he kept avoiding us… it was PROBABLY because he FORGOT to put something we ordered into the system.
4) and by that time we told him to put our last roll to-​go, and it came out (late again) and he didn’t pack it togo.
???
my bf says the food was okay but «okay» isn’t really gonna cut it when there’s other sushi places i’m sure would have tasted 9 999 9999x better
i think i was so turned off by the sushi that i couldn’t even drink my beer. that’s probably how bad it was=\
the reason why i even gave this place 2 stars was because of the good customer service (in the beginning) and that we were able to order so much food with $ 60 (including beer).
try it if you want but if you have a problem with only 1 stall bathrooms, this isn’t the right place for you=P

I love the layout of the place. It is very nice and cozy. I am sure the drinks are their specialty. The food? Just ok. We went for sushi, and the rolls are small… well everything was small. It’s not really expensive, but for what you get, it isn’t much. The service wasn’t bad, but wasn’t good either. It just seems like the are struggling a little.

Hands down, the WORST service I have ever experienced in my life! At one point, I thought I was on a hidden camera show! And the food is not worth what they charge! I only gave one star because you can’t give none!
DO NOT GO HERE! If you want details, read on:
I bought a coupon on Groupon for $ 60 of sushi. On the coupon, it states that you must make a reservation (which is totally understandable as they sold hundreds of these on the Groupon website). We were told the earliest they could get us in on a Sunday night was 8:30pm so we agreed.
My party ended up getting there around 8:15pm. We walk in and there is no one to greet you. There is however a sushi chef behind a small counter that waved us inside and told us to «sit anywhere.» We were a little confused but went inside. Why did we have to make a reservations? The place was empty.
This place doesn’t really look like a restaurant, it looks like a coffee house and it appeared that people went up to the bar/​counter, ordered drinks, and took them back to their tables.
After about 10 minutes of looking awkwardly around for someone to wait on us, we spotted one guy in a brown shirt that appeared to be helping the only other table in the place that was eating food. (There appeared to be a gathering of painters in a back room drinking beers?)
I nudged my boyfriend, who asked brown shirt for menus and he gave us just one. Several minutes later he came around asking if we wanted a drink. I said «a coke please» but before the other 2 people in my party could say anything, he walked away. At this point, we knew it was going to be a bad night.
We ordered drinks, appetizers (including my favorite — edamame), and several rolls at once when brown shirt came back, though he didn’t write anything down. My cousin asked for a water which she never actually got during this 90 minute meal. We got 2 of our appetizers relatively quickly. The edamame however did not arrive until the very end of our meal though we asked repeatedly for it.
When the sushi rolls were brought out, we were not given any plates. We asked brown shirts for plates the next time he came through. He said «okay» and began making waters for another table behind the bar? Wouldn’t plates be a priority for a table that already had food? And there was only one other table of 2 people in the whole place at this point?! Eventually we walked over to the counter/​bar and asked for plates again and were handed them to take back to our table.
Then I decided to go to the bathroom — yuck! The sink was clogged and about to overflow, it looked dirty and there was a bottle of dish soap sitting on the edge of the sink to use to wash your hands.
This went on and on the rest of the meal. The worst part was that brown shirt was not even apologetic each time we reminded him that we needed something (napkins, soy sauce — hello it’s sushi!, a refill on drinks) and instead just said «okay» as if it were the first time, and not the third time we were asking.
If a restaurant is going to advertise on Groupon where hundreds of people are going to be paying money to go to their place, they should anticipate this and staff accordingly.
The food was so-​so and was NOT worth the ordeal to get it, even at half price! I would NEVER, EVER go back to this place!
Shame on Groupon for allowing this restaurant to be a part of their deals!