Sonoda’s 550 Broadway

Surprisingly good sushi!
I must admit, I was a wee bit skeptical about this place after reading reviews on the Unilocal since it seems to be pretty inconsistent with food and service. However, I bought a Groupon that was set to expire so onward to Sonoda’s I went!
I went here on Sunday night and sat at the sushi bar. They have a cozy wrap around bar that started out empty but soon started to fill up after I sat down. Server was nice but didn’t really go out of her way to be nice, same with the susi chefs. And usually I dont trust a white boy making sushi but good Lord, the white boys know what they’re doing at Sonoda’s! I started out with the Poki roll fresh with tuna then went for something heavier and fried like the Big Bang roll (not sure if I chose it because of the reviews on Unilocal or the show) but it was awesome and had my mouth watering a bit thanks to the fresh jalapeño. Two rolls later, my belly was happy and I got out of there in no time. Everything was pretty good here but as anyone who has been to an establishment at this location knows parking is a major pain. If you check in and spend $ 50 you can get a free lava roll!

There’s nothing wrong with the food here, but the servers are TERRIBLE, rude and ugly. A woman sitting near us ordered the dinner special and several glasses of wine. We chatted, she obviously had been coming to this place often for years and had several great suggestions. When her check came, she had a Groupon. They said she couldn’t use it on the dinner special and were very rude about it (her wine wasn’t included, about $ 45). She asked to speak to a manager, there wasn’t one around so they phoned. Apparently he said no. I suggested she leave the Groupon and cash. The waitress threatened to phone the police. REALLY? Is there no other solution other than to alienate a customer and upset the ones nearby?
Then two guys came in. One of them had been in earlier, looking for his friend in the restaurant — there weren’t many people that early on a weeknight. They sat at the sushi bar, not a table, and said they each had a Groupon. The waitress very rudely said, «You have to separate.» I guess if they came in and pretended they didn’t know each other, it wouldn’t have been a problem.
Customer service at this place sucks. If they hate Groupons, don’t participate. There are too many sushi places in town for this kind of behavior. I know my girlfriend and I won’t be going back, we have bad vibes about the place.
Maybe someone should teach Sonoda’s on 6^th: «A satisfied customer tells their friends, a dissatisfied customer tells EVERYONE.»

Sonoda’s is okay if you don’t want to shell out money for expensive and better sushi.
It’s really just okay. The fish doesn’t taste that fresh but the prices are reasonable. Our waiter was also very attentive.

For starters I was seated quickly at the bar. But I didn’t receive the standard greeting upon entering a sushi restaurant. And its weird to order the sushi w the server and not the chef. The presentation of the sushi was great. Sonoda’s uses frwahh fish and its delicious. They don’t go overboard with rice either.

This was not my first visit to Sonoda’s. In fact, I’ve been to all of their locations. I’ve typically had a good experience at each one and this was no exception.
First, it’s not the best sushi spot in town, but certainly not the worst, either. It was a busy Friday night and with no reservation we ended up waiting about 45 minutes for a seat at the sushi bar. No problem there, as we weren’t in a hurry. Some might complain, but we knew what we were in for and I like to take it easy and not be in a hurry everywhere I go.
Once we were seated the service was pretty prompt. The place was very busy this evening and they had three sushi chefs slicing up the fish. The sushi chef directly in front of us was very friendly and made sure a member of the waitstaff was immediately over to help us.
We have a solid list of go-​to items we order every time we go out for sushi, and it’s mostly comprised of nigiri. Salmon, shrimp, eel, tuna, octopus, usually a couple rolls, the occasional specialty roll, and a sunomono salad. This time we had the nigiri mentioned above as well as a California roll, spicy tuna roll, spicy scallop roll, and one of their specialties called the Crazy Love Roll. All washed down with a bottle of hot sake.
The quality of the fish was to be expected, as I mentioned before, not the best in town and certainly not the worst. My wife tends to judge the quality of the fish by the salmon. She mentioned that it was nice and fatty and had the sweet buttery taste of quality salmon, but the portion was pretty skimpy. I thought everything we ordered was pretty good.
A standout for me was the sunomono salad, which was fantastic and actually one of the better ones I’ve had in a while. The Crazy Love roll was pretty interesting. It was shrimp tempura, avocado, asparagus, jalapeño masago, yamagoboh, scallion, layered with yellowtail sashimi and baked with spicy mayo. I thought it was pretty tasty, but I didn’t think the asparagus fit in very well with the other flavors.
I think at least one of the other reviewers has this location mixed up with the one downtown, which I have also been to and had a similar experience. Again, I think it’s pretty solid. There are quite a few choices around the city and some that I definitely prefer, but I’d be happy to eat here again. We came to Sonoda’s with a Groupon, had decent service, fair quality food, tipped on the entire bill (like you should always do) and left with a smile.

I’m on a sushi roll. .. so to speak. .. having reviewed 3 such spots in a row. :-)
So now it’s Broadway Sonoda’s turn. This Sonoda used to be one of our regular stops but we’ve recently switched allegiances. When I asked myself why, I discovered that it had to do with the staffing of the restaurant.
When we used to go in regularly, we’d sit at the sushi bar and always be greeted with a smile, a big hello, and a nice little mini-​food present. The servers would know what we liked to drink and just confirmed that we hadn’t changed our minds before bringing it on. They’d make suggestions, as would the sushi chefs, about what was freshest and shouldn’t be missed.
Now, different folks there, and the ease of going in and knowing people and having that close interaction where you kind of felt like it was in part «your place» disappeared. And with that, the little bit of magic that made us think the place was better than 3 stars likewise disappeared.
Interesting how that goes, huh?

I don’t come here expecting top of the line melt in your mouth sushi. This is the type of place you take your sushi noob friends or maybe you just don’t want to spend top dollar for sushi. It’s a quick sushi fix. Simple as that.
**If you’re from LA, think of it as sushi stop but a tad better and normal restaurant prices.
What I got
scallop sushi: They used medium sized scallops and cut them. It was pretty good, I’ve never had a medium scallop before!
Sweet Shrimp with fried heads: yum yum, not as sweet and creamy as I’d like but it’ll do!
Eel and Avocado Roll: best Americanized sushi. Creamy avocado on top of deliciously cooked eel. YUM
Spider Roll: honestly it was really meh, would I get it again? eh. not really.
Sashimi Deluxe Dinner: it was fair and there was a nice variety of fish. The octopus was surprisingly yummy!
I found the nori to be chewy for all of the rolls and nigiri, but what do you expect when you don’t want to pay top dollar?

We walked into Sonoda’s on Broadway last night to use our Groupon and fill our tummies before the Unilocal event (not knowing what food, etc. would be there, since it was our first time).
We were kindly greated and immediately seated at the sushi bar (we never sit at regular tables unless we have to). We ordered a small hot sake, 1 miso soup, 1 vegetable tempura, 1 Philly Roll, 1 Crazy Love Roll, Tako sashimi (4 generously sized pieces) and the total was $ 42. Decent prices. With the Groupon it ended up being $ 17 + tip. I can manage that.
I really liked my baked Crazy Love roll — spicy, crispy fro mthe shrimp tempura and veggies but soft from the succulent yellowtail and warm spicy mayo baked on top. Very good roll! Also, the sushi bar guy was clearly a great sushi assembler/​artist. But…
There were a few things that rubbed me wrong however:
— Half the vegetable tempura was either inedible/​decorative or undercooked (if you have ever tried to deep fry something when the oil isn’t up to the right tempurature, your results come out soft and oil soaked)
— The sushi bar was pretty small/​cramoed and the bathrooms were right next to the sushi bar
— Service was unprofessional (homeboy was complaining about working 20 hrs. a day, was in a «mood» and definitely wanted to bitch to someone, also asked if we were «copacetic» instead of, «Hey, everything okay over here?», and then pointed out the original receipt on top of the Groupon discounted receipt… as if we were going to NOT tip on the original price.
Overall, the food was decent and prices were good. This may not be on regular rotation, but we will give it another shot.

Very friendly staff
Agreed on menu prices
Groupon brought us there

I don’t get all the haterade being poured on this place but all I can think is they upped the ante after they discovered all their bad reviews.
I was dreading coming here to use my groupon because of the lackluster reviews and waited up until a few days before it expired.
We ordered a few rolls, sake, beers, and the bf ordered some sashimi & sushi. He says the scallop sushi is one of the best he’s had and he gets this every time we go out for sushi.
A few days later I was all hard up for sushi again and I do a search for some happy hours nearby and what do you know, Sonodas has 2 for 1 drinks all day Wednesday, excellent! This time around we got habanaro masago which were actually very spicy and delicious! All the rolls were good and the booze cheap.
Both times I thought the rolls and fish quality were pretty good. Best sushi ever? No, but definitely nothing wrong with it.
I love the Wednesday spirits deal and will probably frequent it often, as it is a good alternative if you can’t make the earlier happy hour.

I’ve mostly gone to Sonoda’s in Downtown and only to this one on Broadway a couple of times, nevertheless, their menu should be the same. Every time I go, I make sure to order the Deluxe Seafood Combo, it’s all seafoods, thus the hefty price (last time I had it, it was $ 26). But it’s so worth it, you really feel luxurious eating it!
The best thing in Sonoda’s is their sauces, be it the tempura sauce, salad dressing, or the dipping sauce that came with my Deluxe Seafood combo, they were all refreshing and different than what you usually in find in other Japanese restaurants. I like how they serve a clear mushroom broth instead of the staple miso soup!
Also included in my Deluxe Seafood Combo that I enjoyed very much was the California Rolls. Yes, something so simple and ubiquitous is done very right at Sonoda’s. The ingredients are fresh and included fish eggs, the serving size is large and the taste lingers on your tongue nicely afterwards!
So the only disappointment for the night was the Futomaki Roll. I shouldn’t have agreed to it when one of our waiters came and told us they were out of egg custards (how could it be!!!) which was one of the main ingredients for this roll, and that they were substitute it with a bigger amount of the other ingredients. In which case I wasn’t sure if he meant the eel or the shiitake mushroom. Anyway, the roll just didn’t standout, must be because of that crucial egg custard!

My goodness! We’ve been here several times. (before I started Unilocaling) In the past it was so so. But today was exceptionally good!
The salmon was amazingly buttery and had such melt in your mouth creaminess I could have eaten an entire fish to my self.
The rest of our meal was very tasty as well. I usually order ponzu with my sushi just because I like the nice splash of citrus flavor with my Japanese cuisine. their ponzu was really good today.
The baked CLAMS were also very melty in my mouthy! (giggles) I could have eaten 20 of them. But I ordered them at the end of our meal so I was already stuffed by then. The marinade and sauce was so good I dipped my rice in it to eat the rest.
I hope our future visits are this good.

Wow, this place has turned into a massive disappointment.
To begin with, I have always loved Sonoda’s. I ate at both this one and the one downtown frequently. Ever since they’ve separated from Kenny Sonoda though, the quality of basically everything at this location has gone drastically downhill.
The past two times I’ve been in particular have been enough to make me not want to go back.
We went last night hoping to use our Groupon for take-​out. They said no, which I’m totally okay with, since it says dine in only ON the Groupon, and we knew it was a shot in the dark. We ordered $ 50 worth of sushi anyways, just to find out that they were out of a lot of what we ordered.
When we got home and opened the sushi, it was the biggest sad trombone moment ever. The $ 13 specialty roll that I always look forward to was super pathetic and looked like the $ 6 roll I usually get — the fish wasn’t great quality, they were obviously skimping on other ingredients, and it was frustrating. We weren’t Grouponers — we paid full price for our food, and I expect far more from it.
Last week I ordered $ 30 of sushi for my self — 2 of the rolls were inedible. One had really terrible quality salmon and the other had rice that was so dry it seemed like it had been sitting out overnight.
We still have our Groupon left to use, but after we use that, I’m not going back. Even though I live 3 blocks from here, I’d rather drive to the Sonoda’s downtown or go to Go Fish down the street.
Disappointing when one of your staples just turns kind of gross.

Came here since i got a Groupon. It was good, standard sushi, not bad but not spectacular.
The Tropical Roll was interesting with Mango and Strawberry, but hey i’ll whatever sounds good.
The server was nice and friendly. Out of the neighborhood, this would be my last option.

I’m not a huge sushi guy, but my wife loves it. And since she went without for about 10 months while she was pregnant, I suggested sushi when she came down to my office for lunch and to show off the baby. Well, Sonodas was really our only choice since it is so close to my office.
First impressions give you a mindset immediately, and my first impression upon walking in was not so good. The smell of stale fish punches you in the face when you walk in the door, and then you are led down the narrow stairs into a dinghy, dirty basement that almost looks like a senior citizen’s house that’s trying to be hip and fresh. On one hand you have cool, albeit dirty looking, checkerboard flooring. On the other hand, you have a pretty much empty and scummy looking aquarium and a giant swamp cooler that looks like it’s right off of the kill floor from a Greeley packing plant.
The service was OK. Definitely not bad, but also not top notch. The sushi? Forgettable at best. We only had 3 rolls, and they were neither the best rolls I have had in Denver, nor the worst. They just seemed mediocre, and not a great choice for first sushi in 10 months.
I just can’t bring myself to mark this experience any higher than 2 stars. The environment in Sonodas is dirty and unappetizing, bordering on disgusting.

I was SO unimpressed with Sonoda’s.
I am from the East Coast, and Sonoda’s was presented to me as a «Real Urban Sushi Experience» that I would relate to.
So maybe my expectations were too high. But at those prices? Damned right my expectations were high.
I expect large portions, properly sliced sashimi, supremely fresh fish, and cool service. We got none of the above.
The fish was served warm. WARM. Not room-​temperature, but WARM. On icky rice that had been out too long.
The atmosphere tried really, really hard to be «Hip Urban»… but it just wasn’t.
The people weren’t outwardly hostile, but they certainly weren’t smiling, warm, or friendly.
I (as always) had my camera, and began to snap some shots of both the décor and the food, and was rewarded with glares and «what you doing?!» questions.
So, I won’t be wasting time and/​or money here again.
Sorry, Sonoda’s. East Coast Contemporary Décor, Fresh, Artful Sushi, You’re Certainly NOT.

Huh snodas never really did me wrong but they put a lot of rice in there rolls. But there baked muscles are off the hook! I miss having saki fridays here but we lost are hookup, and to be honest I think some of the waitress put on a front like there more «Fobish» then they really are, just a thought though! One great thing they have a sushi club, you get a point for every dollar you spend once you hit 200 points you get a 20 $ gift card, not much but its better then nothing I would also say they get an A+ for presentation!
P. S. For those who don’t know what fob is,
F resh
O ff the
B oat

What makes great sushi? Freshness. Sonoda’s is definitely not a place where you are going to find anything fresh.
Do they have great happy hour deals? Yes. But it is so not worth it. If you have ever had sushi that makes you happy because it tastes incredible, you cannot enjoy the sushi that is offered at Sonoda’s. It is not a matter of being a sushi snob, it is a matter of experiencing what sushi should taste like and then trying to eat sushi that is below par and enjoy it.
If you have a sushi fix, but are not looking to spend the big bucks, you can find fresh and inexpensive sushi at places like Pacific Mercantile, or even Whole Foods.
On a positive note, you can find a great deal on oysters at Sonodas, and they are pretty good. If you are an oyster fan, looking to satisfy your craving with happy hour deals, then I would suggest going here.
In the end though, if you have any appreciation for sushi whatsoever, stay away from Sonoda’s and go somewhere where you can get fresh fish and awesome rice.

We decided to order some sushi to-​go Saturday night to enjoy at home with a bottle of sake I’d recently purchased… we were so excited about having sushi, since we hadn’t had it since relocating here from Chicago (which has EXCELLENT sushi). I had no idea where to go and didn’t really want to take a chance on a shady-​seeming place, so I decided to order from Sonoda’s, which I remembered because it’s around the corner from my friend’s house.
The lady on the phone was super friendly but I realized after I hung up that she didn’t quote a price, just a time it would be ready (20 min).
I drove to Sonoda’s, went inside, and my order was sitting there waiting for me. I ordered 5 rolls and a miso soup, and all I saw was a cup for the soup and ONE of those square, white, styrofoam containers that you typically get for to-​go food. But i had ordered 5 rolls, so I was a little confused how it all fit inside…
Well, no big deal, because 4 of the 5 rolls were basically microscopic, so they fit very well inside the package. I kid you not, 1 of these microscopic rolls was cut into 6 pieces and altogether contained maybe around 6 tablespoons of rice and at least ONE OUNCE of tuna or yellowtail or salmon… or exactly 6 matchsticks of cucumber. Granted, each of these rolls was under $ 6, but for a chain-​sushi joint in a strip mall in a LANDLOCKED STATE, I would have expected a bit more. The combined ingredients of all 4 of these rolls couldn’t have been more than about $ 2.
The 5^th roll was a decent size and had 8 pieces… but it was also $ 15 (the rainbow roll). Tasty, but not the freshest ever and not worth $ 15.
The grand total of this delicious take-​out meal? $ 40. Oh yes. $ 40 for 5 rolls that all very easily fit into one to-​go container… with room to spare. I was so stunned when they reviewed my order and showed me the rolls to confirm my order was complete, that I didn’t say anything. I should have. But honestly, I was almost expecting one of these very nice ladies to break into a hearty guffaw and laugh, «Just kidding! Here’s your REAL order!» I was beyond shocked, appalled, confused, and livid.
Will I go back to Sonoda’s, ever? Hell no. While I’m not familiar with the sushi scene in Denver yet, I feel confident saying there are better places to spend your hard earned cash.

I love love love sushi. I have eaten at this Sonoda’s location just once. Compared to other sushi restaurants in Denver, it lacks something. Not sure what, but I think the location was not designed for the actual use — that might be it. This Sonoda’s sushi restaurant is nestled in a busy strip mall in one of Denver’s busiest downtown intersections. A prime location at Speer and Broadway. I think this alone, is the main reason I stopped the one time, was the fact that I saw the sign glowing and almost pulling me in… sushi…suuuuushi…suuuuuuuuuuushi. So, at that one moment in which I had that on going craving wrapped in wasabi waiting for the light to turn green, I parked, split the wooden sticks and sunk me teeth into the food that I love so.
So, the food, the real reason for this submission, the sushi is very good, but not excellent. The rolls are typical to any other sushi joint I have been — the atmosphere is so so. The price is right, not a rip off by any means. I really think the large flat screen television right above the bar is distracting and takes away from the true art which sits on the plate in front of you.
I would recommend Sonoda’s downtown Denver local as I frequent much more on a regular basis. Fast, better sushi environment, yet more personable service, without the cramped bustle feel. But, it is not elegant… a lunch time stop.