Excellent service! Came with the hubby and 18 month old for Valentine's day. We were staying near Huntington beach and was looking to have Shabu Shabu. Found this place on Yelp and thought we would take a drive down the coast and make a nice evening out of it. They did nothing but accommodate to everything I requested even if it wasn't on the menu. Â It was worth the drive, it was just Delicious!
We are from Hollywood area and now have a place to go to when we come down again.
Thank you Dana Kai!
Finally a great sushi restaurant within reach of me from San Clemente! Â Sushi in San Clemente unsuccessful so we ventured out of town to Dana Point. Â Great environment, creative and diverse sushi selection including rolls and specials of the day. Â Great Sake selection! Â Great quality, very clean flavors! Â All my special requirements for good sushi. Â Most of the sushi I have in San Clemente is very watered down, poor quality and not diverse or creative selections. Â I will drive here for sushi from now on!
SUPER friendly staff too! Â Sumo sushi in San Clemente, she screams at you when you order! Â Ha!
I feel bad giving this place 3 stars but I really was not impressed with the quality of food and legitimately had a stomach ache after. The place is very clean, well decorated and the staff is very nice and polite but I have honestly had better sushi from a gas station. It may be my fault for ordering a baked lobster roll when I normally get something very simple like a veggie or California roll but it was sooooo creamy and rich and heavy. I may give this place another shot one day but not anytime soon. Also a little more pricey than i would have expected.
Review Source:living close to the coast and in southern california, there are countless sushi restaurants that I can go to... So why drive 30-40 minutes to eat at this one? Because it's different.
Usually, nigiri at sushi restaurants is pretty straight forward: sushi rice + raw fish = nigiri (of course I'm sure there's an art to making it and a whole bunch of nuances to the taste/quality/etc.etc. but you get my point). Dana Kai's sushi is special to me because they add sauces/condiments to the nigiri... so, for example, my albacore will come seared, bathed with a tangy ponzu sauce, sprinkled with scallions and with a tiny dot of sriracha on top. It's delicious.
Also, the waiters/waitresses are attentive and friendly (water cups always full, plates always cleared, etc.). Food comes out fast enough. Place is clean.
5 stars!
For the person who gave one star because their Chardonnay selection so poor..... Seriously?
We are visiting in the area so just yelped and this is the closest to our resort. We needed a break from the fancy expensive meals and just wanted something simple and good food. This was the right place.
The dishes were not over the top, most on the menu are what you would see in most similar restaurants of this sort. Every thing is exactly what we had expected.
My husband is fairly picky and he had the BBQ ribs and ribeye combo and he is happy with the meal.
Very glad to have come here.
I keep putting this off and I don't why.
Warning: this one has a lot of rambling before I get to the point! ;p
This place is one of the best sushi places out there.
Ok, so maybe we haven't been to very many, but that's because when we find one we love we stick to it.
We've made this our "go to" sushi spot since we moved here from Huntington beach a little under a year ago.
We actually tried a couple other spots before we got to this one, but once we found this one, there has been no other since.
First of all, friendliest staff ever! So welcoming and kind! They make you feel right at home! They all say hello to you - even the sushi chefs from behind the bar - the second you walk in.
We prefer to sit at the bar because when we do, we have a better chance of getting a free sample of something new one of the chefs is trying out.
(rambling gonna happen here)quick tid bit about me: I practically have to be FORCED into trying something new. Especially when it comes to sushi! (it's actually how I started liking REAL sushi, not just California rolls. Shout out to the hubs for that! He succeeded, I normally don't take kindly to people who try to force me to eat something new!) It was hard for me to get into it to begin with because I'm huge into the whole TEXTURE thing. Certain foods just creep me out! Especially squishy foods! So to try something new at a sushi restaurant takes a lot! I've learned to just not question it, not stare at it for too long and just go for it! It's worked out nicely each time. I'm proud to say I've loved everything they have given us to try!
So normally I stick to what I've liked so far, spicy tuna, Philadelphia roll (I love that they put asparagus in theirs), crunch roll, halibut & red snapper. Recently I have started to like their rainbow on spicy tuna roll too.
Aside from the sushi, it is the only place I love getting the teriyaki chicken dinner.
If you know me, you know I love my sauces/condiments and what not. Well, theirs is THE best teriyaki sauce I've ever had the privilege of tasting! Something about it... Kinda maybe cinnamon? something so different than other teriyaki sauces I have to order it every time! And the salad dressing! YUM! Gingery and sweet. I love mixing my rice in that too!
The vegetable tempura is another favorite of mine here!
The prices are descent too! For fresh sushi like this! I never leave unhappy or feeling like they overcharged!
In fact I always leave with a full happy belly!
Also, everyone says thank you and see you later when you're leaving. I kinda feel special when they do this! They really take the time to appreciate you for being there and eating their delicious food!
It's almost like you've been friends forever!
thank you Dana Kai for making this girl and her boy so very very happy! :)
I have been coming here for many years for Bento Box lunch and have never been disappointed. Very good price for lunch. Dinners are good but can get very pricey. The Sanuzuri roll is my favorite but is $16.95. When I have extra $ this is great place for dinner but the lunch deals are really worthwhile. (They are NOT open for lunch on weekends - bummer!) Â Yes, service has been spotty over the years but be patient and they will try to assist you as fast as possible. They have always been very pleasant to me and I feel they appreciate my patronage. Almost a 5 star but it is not due to prices and service.
Review Source:Horrible service on July 3 2012. The waitresses are inept. A very long time for food to be delivered to table after ordering. Other diners were very angry or incredulous at what was going on. Who ever is in charge had no clue about how to run a restaurant.
We will never go there again. Very unpleasant.
I give this place 5 stars without hesitation. It is the best Sushi I have had in a very long time. That includes being in Hawaii, and Japantown in both LA and San Francisco. Dana Kai is tremendous. Try the 1/2 priced lunch on weekdays if they still have it.
Here is a rundown of what I usually get:
Salmon Nigiri
Dana Kai Special Roll
Yellow Tail Nigiri
Uni - Both Nigiri and Handroll
Dragon Roll
etc.
This place is a must visit if your are staying at the St. Regis Resort or at the nearby Ritz Carlton.
Thank you Yelpers for helping me find this place. Â New to the area, and with family in town, we were craving sushi and Dana Kai came through. Â We had a nice bottle of dry cold saki and several rolls. Â One of specials was a Crispy Rice Roll and it was fabulous. Â Service was EXCELLENT. Â I will be back.
Review Source:Since I wasn't familiar with the area and this was a half way point for me and my cousin, I decided to search yelp and saw this place. Â Pretty much all the reviews are 4-5 stars and I can understand why. Â The sushi was delicious!!
Im a fan of baked sushi so I was glad that it was seperated on the menu. Â My cousin and I shared the baked lobster, eel special and teriyaki roll. Â All were amazing except the teriyaki roll. Â The teriyaki roll included chicken and I was really curious about that roll since i've never heard of using chicken in sushi. Â It was ok. Â I didn't like the teriyaki sauce. Â My favorite was the eel special then the baked lobster. Both were amazing! Â I loved the eel inside and outside on the eel special roll. It was delicious. Â I love the baked lobster roll. Â The lobster was on top of a california roll. Â
Definitely worth the 1 hour drive. Â I'll definitely be back in the future.
BROWN RICE SUSHI! FRESHEST FISH ON THE WEST COAST!
SUSHI CHEFS WHO WILL PLUG YOUR iPOD INTO THE HOUSE SPEAKERS!
I'M HOME!
Dana Kai has lived up to its reputation as the BEST sushi in South OC. I was skeptical at first, but after my last dinner here, I'm a believer! Officially my new fav sushi spot back home and I'd probably make the hour drive just to satisfy a sushi craving at Dana Kai...
Why I LOVE Dana Kai:
1.) GREAT for groups. Always a great place to gather a group of friends and start putting down some sake.
2.) Super FRESH fish! ALL of their fish tastes like it was caught that day! Everything is exceptional, but the salmon and the yellowtail are the favs among my friends and I.
I highly recommend Dana Kai if you appreciate sushi and sashimi and fresh, consistent rolls. Keep it simple here - stay with the traditional options!
Shashimi Appetizer - MELT in your mouth
Salmon Sushi, Yellowtail Sushi - like BUTTER
Spicy yellowtail roll (with brown rice) - this will fill you up
edamame - so SIMPLE but most places do it wrong (cold, under cooked, etc), but not here - (I always order the edamame here because I am almost always starving by the time I get here), it's always HOT, and perfectly steamed and salty
3.) Something for everyone! Dana Kai also has a variety of fusion rolls. Very creative combinations of ingredients. I like to stick with fish and rice here, but Dana Kai does make some incredible fusion rolls, I admit. Friends really like:
Baked lobster on California roll
Mountain roll: baked salmon on spicy tuna roll
Crunch roll - SO crunchy and delicious!
4.) I have never disliked any menu item I have ordered here and I'm almost positive I've never left a bite uneaten either! If you want sushi that tastes so fresh you think the fish might actually still be alive - GO HERE! This place does not disappoint. Dana Kai rivals most well-known LA sushi spots in my opinion!
Dana Kai is one of the best sushi restaurants in Orange County!
To start we had an amazing poke dish. Albacore tuna and lettuce with an amazingly refreshing lemon vinagerette. I could have eaten that alone. We had several rolls and some toro sashimi, all of which were excellent and so fresh.
My only complaint was that some of their rolls did not say on the menu that they have shellfish in them and I'm allergic so we had to send them back.
Will definitely be back the next time I'm in the area!
Good place with good sushi. Service is good. Prices are very typical of sushi in the area. My wife and I ate our fill for about $50 total. Nothing to "out there" with the ingredients - I mean you won't find brown sugar glazed scallops on a lobster roll or anything like that. It's all the traditional southern california sush stuff you'd expect.
They do a good job here. I would recommend it to almost any sushi eater who isn't just on the prowl for AYCE - although I am sucker for that occasionally.
Saw this on Yelp and while leaving Dana Point harbor last night decided to stop in for some sushi.
The service is OK- though had 4 people coming by so wasn't sure who to ask for extra orders or drink refills.
Food- frankly am not that thrilled. The seaweed salad was so chunky and salty (I have seaweed salad at least twice a week elsewhere), the yellow fin sashimi portion was tiny- small 5 pieces. The Dragon roll was the best part of the meal.
The Chardonnay selection is poor- and the most expensive wine on the menu tastes like vinegar.
Will not be back here but hope all of you who enjoy this place continue to support this business.
Great place to have a relaxing night of sushi! I was so impressed with this place because I have had so much bad sushi lately (just look at my last few sushi yelps) that the thought of good sushi was almost an imaginary dream.
They serve all sorts of specialty items that you will not find at many places in the area like: monkfish liver, live shrimp, New Zealand mussels, baby eel, ect..
It's not the cheapest spot around but If you want good sushi you have to stop being so stingy and pay up! Please try this place out and prove me wrong.
SO SO SO SO good!
We ordered 4 rolls all perfectly constructed and super yummy!
Crunch roll-OMG fabulous! There was nothing wrong with it, perfect balance.
Salmon roll- super fresh salmon, not fishy at all, delicious!
some kind of Tuna roll- this one was okay, it had some kind of pickled thing on the top that i didn't care for but other than that it was very fresh tuna and very tasty as well...
THE BEST roll was the last one, it was like a california tempura roll that had coconut in the batter! HOLY crap this roll was amazing. So amazing I felt like I was eating coconut shrimp but it was a california roll it was just perfect and so different.
I will definitely be returning here :-D sooooo gooooooood!
Great fish quality, very tasty rolls...
Clean and bright. Â We received good service. Â Ordered about every roll on the menu with just as many nigiri pieces and was impressed with everything we ordered. Â Had an amazingly delicious roll with shrimp and coconut...? Â Not sure what it was called but Im coming back in a few days and Ill updated my post; one of the best fried rolls me or any of my friends have every had. Â After spending a couple hundred bucks here, we got a few freebies...which were very good also.
Will be back
Steve
This place is great, there's no denying it. I was only one of a handful of customers when I came here alone while on business, and had a great time with the chef. In fact, he was apparently having fun watching me consume, what he called, "The spiciest 'spicy tuna' of his career". This he did for me at no charge, as he must have thought I wasn't enjoying myself. Admittedly, I was shedding tears and my sinuses were cleared from the heat, but it was a blast!
They served probably the freshest fish I have ever had, and the presentation put so many others to shame. They really did a tremendous job here.
It was a little pricier than others in the area, but well worth the extra buck.
Review #300. YAY! I was real glad to end up at a great restaurant for my 300th review. It would have been unfortunate if dinner sucked royally.
This wasn't my first time to Dana Kai, but it has been easily more than 5 years (more like 6-7) since I was last here. I definitely have to make it a point to stop by more often when I am tired of my usual sushi bar or if I happen to be in the area.
The first thing you notice about Dana Kai is there are mostly Dana Point locals in the establishment. A lot of my brethren from the other half of my genes... aka its mostly white people. Not that is bad, but the focus here is rolls which is a shame because the fish they serve is actually pretty good. The second thing you notice is that there is a mix of people coming here: trendy high school students that will remind you of some show on the WB, families with their young kids (yes, the kids are eating sushi), middle aged couples on a date, and the surfers in their 20s at the sushi bar in board shorts. Finally, you notice this is a pretty mellow crowd so don't come here looking for a crazy night life. This is Dana Point after all.
We order the usual cuts of nigiri (like tuna, salmon, yellowtail, etc) and a couple of rolls (spicy tuna and spicy scallop). The nigiri is definitely good. You get thick cuts of fish which is well balanced to the amount of rice. A good sign when the fish is pushing a 1/4 inch and the fish is hanging off both the ends of the rice by a good 1/2 to 1 inch. The rolls we weren't so impressed with. They were alright by roll standards... just nothing great.
The service here is great... almost to the point where they are getting too crazy aggressive in trying to refill your drink. They often pass by looking to refill your glass when you have barely drank anything from it. to be honest, I would rather have that than trying to flag someone down to get a refill though.
We had a great time here and the mellow atmosphere just happen to be exactly what we were looking for that night. The sushi is fresh, service is great, and the staff friendly. 4 star!
+ $3.95 rolls for lunch special
- minimum order 3 rolls per person (very full!)
+ very friendly waitstaff. At dinner time they yell something in Japanese when you walk in the door.
- At Lunch they don't yell in Japanese.
+ Pretty good food
- Nothing too exotic or unusual on the menu
+ very close to my house
- not much else nearby
Pros: Food, Location, Sushi Chefs
Cons: Service, Price ($$$), Crowd/Atmosphere
Summary: Even though the food is good enough to hold its own, your money is better spent elsewhere. Around $35 per guest (before alcohol).
Alright, I've always wanted to try this place, and since I moved to LA, I never really got the chance, 'til last night. It's a neat little sushi restaurant with kind of a random location, but it's quaint and very close to the beach. It's right where Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, and Laguna Beach meet.
Beware: this restaurant although it presents itself as a sushi bar, is not really what it is. It strives very hard to be a family restaurant, with calming decor and a brightly lit dining area. Definitely not a place to get your drink on. It's a very shwaggy place, where the crowd is very judgmental, and attracts either an older elderly crowd, or a family crowd. This merits a star loss.
The food is amazing. The price is not. Even coming from LA (look up Midori Sushi), the fish was way overpriced. 2 rolls in, you're looking at a $24 check (before tax and tip). This drops the rating by a star. If you're looking to spend that much money, go to GenKai in Dana Point. It's just as good, atmosphere is better, and the price is better on your wallet.
The service was mediocre. The sushi guys were great, and very amiable and is very personal with your orders: cracking jokes, making suggestions, etc. etc. But the waitresses are clueless. One would be getting an order from a table, while trying to serve drinks at another. They frequently forgot things that were ordered and had to be reminded. And their bussing skills were terribly lacking. At one point our party had probably 20 dirty dishes in front of us, and it was beginning to pile up and make it difficult to eat. This drops the rating down another star.
EDITED: 6-27-2011
************************
Went again last night. It's been months 'since my last visit. Things have gotten worse. I'm finally 21, so I got to drink this time, and if I wasn't as drunk as I was, I probably wouldn't have stayed.
The price went way up. So you're looking around $40-50 per person. The fish remains very prime, and it tastes alright, BUT...
The service was absolutely terrible. The air-headed waitresses were always gossiping together in a corner, or checking their phones off to the side, when it was obvious people were waiting for them. They can barely speak English, and it's such a pain when you have to wonder if they understood your entire order or not.
But I think the biggest offense of all is that the owner is now a sushi chef behind the bar. This man lacks serious personality. I mean literally, he was probably the most quiet, and most boring sushi chef I've ever met. He was so timid about everything he said, and lacked confidence, which in turn, made me less confident that I was going to get a good meal.
AGAIN: Trust me. Go elsewhere. Unless you're looking to really try and impress a high-maintenance date, and SPLURGE on sushi, it's not a good place. Don't expect good service...
We love this place. We've tried many, many sushi restaurants and this one is excellent. The food is great and fresh, staff are great, very kid friendly. Â Prices are even reasonable. There is a good variety of roles - favorites include the OC roll, tiger roll, and WOW hand roll. Also I love ono (wahoo) and at this place you can get excellent ono sushi/sashimi. Get it every time.
A plus establishment for OC sushi!
I'm gonna start my review-rampage here.
Dana Kai is top-notch for its price.
Even though it's far from Norwalk, it's definitely worth the [calculating] 41.6 mile drive to get away from my everyday Norwalk life.
The best thing here (in my opinion) is the Seared Tuna, sashimi or roll.
I went here twice, now, and look forward to it.
I mean, come on. As a guy, you can't want anything more than good sushi in a clean place with an ambient setting and sports playin' on some good quality TV's.
Come on. haha
I love the Dana Kai.
I work too much so I have never tried their lunch, but I love coming in for dinner. We are always greeted with a smile and a hello from the friendly (all Japanese!) staff and we usually get to choose our table. The crowd is a mix of couples, OC cougars & families and is never too loud. Â I find it super relaxing to come here for dinner. Â Big TV over the sushi bar & dark, chill ambiance. Love it.
Miso = good. Edamame = needs salt. Salad = yummy dressing. Rolls = so good. Sushi = so good. Chicken = so so. Poke = spicy & fabulous.
Dana Kai is probably my favorite sushi restaurant. Â I always crave their sushi and rolls every so often and it never ceases until I come eat here. Â My favorite time to come is during lunch because they have a 50% off special on some sushi and roll selections. Â This place can get pretty pricey if you come for a regular priced meal so I take advantage of the lunch special they have going. Â
The sushi chefs, waiters, and hostesses are all very friendly so it is always a pleasant experience when I come. Â I usually sit at the bar and order the crunchy roll, spicy tuna roll, and vegetable roll which are all above average. Â I have tried the california roll and philadelphia roll and they are great too. Â The service is great, i've never had any problems. Â If you are in the area I suggest you try this place for lunch.
A side note, Dana Kai is closed on Mondays and their lunch special is a weekday thing. Â I believe their lunch hours are something like 11:30-2 or 3 p.m. and I think dinner starts around 5 p.m.
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