Genki Sushi

We were visiting Oahu and I was apprehensive to go here because of all of the poor reviews related to service and the wait staff. I always take sushi eaters’ reviews of the food with a grain of salt because sushi snobs seem to be the toughest customers on the planet to please. I have youngish kids and the basics work great for us. Crab, CA roll, ahi, etc. The food was just fine and the kids loved the race car delivery (which was relatively prompt). The wait staff, however, was phenomenal. We had Brooke and Laura helping us and both were happy to explain things to us and check in with us on a regular basis. The water and tea essentially never got below ½ full and both waitresses interacted with the kids and complimented their (strangely) good behavior. Anyhow, our experience was good and fun!

Genki Sushi is the local venue for the kaiten (revolving) sushi bar that is common and popular in Japan. They went through a lengthy recent renovation and added in a mini railway system that delivers your orders to you. I had the occasion to visit on a weekend as I was curious about how that worked. I had expected it to be really busy but was surprised that it was a short wait. There were a lot of offerings going around the conveyor belt, not sure how long they’ve been going around. My companions ate a few but I’m kind of picky. I selected a spicy tuna and was kind of disappointed. Sizewise, prior to the renovation, they had a lot more fish on the rice… way more. And sushi should hold it’s shape… this one just fell apart right away and this seemed to be a common problem with other ones we tried. I understand that a lot of the sushi is made by the sushi robot so not sure what’s happening there. Tried a couple of other sushi but wasn’t really impressed. Special orders are made off a ipad/​tablet and the train or boat delivers it to you. Pick it up, press the button and it returns. What I didn’t like is that there was a young girl in the next booth. Whenever the train/​boat passed by, she was trying to touch it and was even handling other dishes on the conveyor belt and placing them back. yuck! Service was very good with water and tea getting refilled constantly. All in all, it’s OK but you get what you pay for… fast food sushi.

I came in today Jan 19^th w/​a couple of friends to get some food. I’ve never been anywhere w/​such a techie vibe, I had a lot of fun ordering my food. I ordered the chicken teriyaki bowl, vegetable rolls & two California rolls. It Was my FIRST TIME having sushi & It Was GREAT. Very happy with the food selection. After awhile we noticed some of the food hadn’t came & we got approached by a lady Named Laura & she checked to see what was going on & even brought the food over to our table. They have AMAZING customer service & would recommend this place to anyone in the area :)

Love this place! When we feel like eating somewhere with food that comes instantly and if we’re on a time limit, we come here! Friday and Saturday’s are pretty busy ESP around dinner time, there is usually always a wait. We usually come during the week for lunch and it isn’t too busy, we usually get sat right away or if there is a wait it’s about 10min max. The new menu system is convenient and the people who work there are friendly. The food that is ordered from the menu pad comes fast. I love all the salmon dishes they have.
The only thing I don’t like about this location is the parking. It’s understandable tho because it’s in a shopping center.

I’ve never thought Genki was any great shakes but yes, I was lured in by the renovations. It is a cool system. After the novelty wore off, I wondered if the mediocre sushi was worth it after all.

Good fast food sushi and just remodeled with the express line but due to this new express line, it seems no one grabs from the standard line and the same dishes continue to circle. None the less, enjoyable.

The only good thing about this location is that the order taker was efficient and fast. I ordered take out. What was disappointing is the hand rolls and the freshness and taste of the crawfish. The tuna and spicy hand rolls that I ordered were pathetic and pitiful looking. 7 – 11 has more decent looking hand rolls ! There was more nori than filling. Very disappointing compared to their Ward location which almost never disappoints.

I had high expectations for this location since they recently renovated but boy how wrong was I. My boyfriend and I came in on Saturday (10−3−15) around 2pm. It wasn’t crowded and we were seated right away. The hostess who seated us wasn’t too friendly. She gave us water but didn’t give us sauce bowls so we had to ask. My boyfriend asked if they served beer and she just said, «NO» then just walked away. The least she could do was give an apology or an explanation. After that we ordered using the touch screen. I never take anything off the belt because god knows how long the raw fish has been rotating around. I just hope that they make it fresh and don’t just take it off of the belt.
I was quite disappointed with how long it took the food to reach our table. I ordered a california tempura roll and it took 15 minutes to come out. Towards the ending of our meal my boyfriend ordered another fried squid combo and that took a little over 10 minutes to come out. That is so unacceptable given that there were only around 7 other parties seated. But there was a clear explanation as to why our food took so long to come out. As we were walking to the car I saw over 5 cooks sitting outside on the side of the restaurant talking story and having a «smoke break.» I don’t think everyone needs to be on break at the same time…
One more thing. I was contemplating on giving two stars but because of this they deserve only one. My boyfriend was sitting facing towards the front door and the area where the waiters/​waitresses fill drinks. He watched in disgust as one of the waiters dropped a water cup on the floor then immediately after filled the cup with water and served it to customers. Seriously?! That’s so gross! You don’t deserve a «Pass».

Now I know why they got rated 2 ½ stars. They fricken suck! I ordered a spam roll, one hour later I still didn’t receive it. I was like okay, whatever. Then I ordered edamame and gyoza, 15 mins later I still didn’t receive it. WTH were they doing? Growing my soy beans first??? Beyond annoyed. F*** that place! Oh and my waiter was dumb as f**k! Biitch lucky he got a $ 2 tip. If you ask me, he deserve a kick to his face as a tip. They deserve NO stars!
BTW, it wasn’t even close to being crowded so seriously, what was taking so long?!
Everyone there should get fired cause they all SUCK!!!

I was first exposed to Genki back in the continental US (Seattle area) and really enjoyed it. It’s conveyor belt sushi, so we’re not talking high-​end, but having an inexpensive sushi experience can be a lot of fun. So it was with great anticipation that my wife and I went to the Kaneohe Genki, our first experience of Genki in Hawaii.
On the positive side, the restaurant is clean and attractive. We went at dinner time, and the restaurant was full, so there was quite a bit of bustle; but it’s a good thing for a conveyor belt sushi spot to be busy, as it makes it likely that what’s on the conveyor will be fresher. They have recently installed new technology, including remote control cars and ipads that allow you to special order desired items and have them delivered directly to your spot by the little car. The little girl sitting next to us loved it, and truthfully, so did I. :-)
However, prices were higher than I expected (don’t know if that’s because it’s been a while since I went to a Genki or because Hawaii is just expensive). But for what we got, both in quality and quantity, it just wasn’t a very satisfying experience. It was fine, but we won’t likely be back. There are better options at this price point.

First time here. Bullet train and touch screen is cool. Our waiter — Derrick was awesome. He checked up on us — refilled our drinks and was the only one walking around and cleaning. The food was subpar. No salt to put on the edamame, no dishes for your wasabi-​soy sauce, chicken bowl was cold chicken on hot rice. The cold tofu wasn’t properly drained so it was still sweating on the plate. Also — with the veggie tempura the mushroom stems are a joke. Look we get that u have stuffed mushrooms and want to recycle the stems into the veggie tempura — but 2 stems, 1 small green bean, 1 small slice of eggplant and a half a slice of zucchini with 2 kabocha — which are huge. I’d like to have tempura green beans as an option since they stuff into sushi rolls — but no. The sushi here is smothered in mayo and sauce and the inari (cone sushi) is just rice vinegar — no sesame seeds or shredded carrots.
There is no need to come back. The novelty of the bullet train isn’t worth it. I can get better sushi at zippys in pearl city.
Also — the nori is soggy. It’s rubbery and unappetizing.

I like this place… I really do but I hate that they don’t have a thing for reservations. It would have life easier trying to convince my husband to come with me but when we have to wait 30 to 45 minutes it’s hard to do that. :/

People may complain about this local cheap sushi chain, but every time I’m there, there’s a huge crowd of people. Newly renovated with the latest magnetic serving trays and tablet ordering menus, it’s a fun place that the kids really enjoy. As long as you keep an eye on the tab (meaning stick to the $ 1.65−2.40 yellow and green plates with only limited ordering of the red and black $ 3 – 5 plates), you can probably get away with $ 10 per head max for light to normal appetites. Beyond that, the portions are small, the quality of the food is on the cheap-​side, but the taste is ok and I’ve never really had a problem with the food, staff, or service.

Nice renovation but ever since they reopened, I feel that the quality and service went downhill. Sure the bullet express is cool, but I swear sometimes the workers take old stuff off the conveyor belt and send it out on the express cause sometimes the nori on the sushi is soggy and the hot food (karaage chicken) is cold! That totally defeats the purpose of ordering food from the back!
And what’s up with the lack of those little shoyu/​wasabi bowls? I went there twice and both times they didn’t have any to spare! They instead gave me styrofoam soup containers for my shoyu and wasabi!
I used to enjoy going to Genki Kaneohe because it was convenient and the food & service was good. I hope they can get their act together cause Kurukuru Sushi is too far (but better).

After being conditioned to be used to California Pizza Kitchen 30 minutes wait-​time for a good part of my high school life, waiting a Genki Sushi 30 minutes wait time seemed to fly by since in fact, it was quicker than 30 minutes. Cool cool cool.
What made this venture out to Kaneohe (forgive me, for I am quite the townie) even cooler was seeing and eating at what our friends said was the newly renovated Genki Sushi. Yes, the sleek modern design of the interior and what appears to be super plush booth seats (don’t be fooled, my friends, it is not) is nice and all. The main attraction, however, is the super fancy ooh-​worthy race cars that hold your delicious sushis (the plural of sushi?) of choice. Order from an iPad = sushi of choice comes delivered on a car contraption that whizzes to your table making an slightly noticeable noise to indicate that, YES, YOU DID JUST GET YO SUSHI WHIZZED TO YOU ON A CAR, SEND ME BACK FOR I HAVE MORE SUSHI TO MAGICALLY DELIVER.
Of course, my go-​to sushi of choice include spicy ahi, the spicy BOMB (kapoosh!), unagi, and shrimp tempura, all of which was kind of pricey considering I could go to Kat’s Sushi (all you can eat) and majorly pig out. Good thing I was being lady-​like and only ordered several things instead of my usual twenty (but it also did help that I was feeling full from theater style popcorn just a few hours before).
Service was spot on. Our waters and hot teas were always refilled, and everything was served to us very promptly (the wizardry of their «bullet express») and of course the people waiters.

I don’t understand why they insist that they can’t seat groups until the entire party is present… but yet there are plenty of empty tables in the restaurant. One of the kids in our party went off to use the restroom, and we had to wait until he was done to get seated.
Also, the servers that work here were pretty awkward. Thank goodness Genki is a kaiten-​style restaurant so we didn’t have to deal much with that.
What’s so cool about this Genki is that you can also order food via ipad, and its delivered on the bullet express. Very convenient, yet its easy to drop money.
My go-​to items are their garlic salmon, salmon nigiri, and saba.
Despite the no seating until your entire party is present, it is a good place for groups and family friendly.

Been twice since the remodel. Has the bullet train thing where you order on a tablet and it sends you stuff.
Works pretty good. Atmosphere is nicer. Service is adequate.
It’s not sasabune by any means but ok for fast food sushi.
My son loves the fries and karaage chicken. He also loves so send the race car back to the kitchen.
Tuesday is not so busy so that’s the day to go!

Modernization — gotta love it!
Genki, the king of kaiten style sushi dining in Hawaii brings its signature bullet express ordering system to the Windward City Shopping Center location and it’s awesome! Simply place your order using the touch screen pad above your table and in minutes, your order is delivered to your table from the kitchen via a computerized race car. No need to wait for your favorite sushi to appear on the conveyor belt (although they still have sushi rotating on the belt for your convenience) or flagging down the wait staff.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the checks are higher with the bullet express, since it’s so easy to get carried away with the ordering. Just be sure to keep your hunger pains in check and don’t order more than you can eat.
Their wait list is also computerized. Just tell the server the number of people in your party, and a ticket with a number is printed.
Remember — no outside food/​drink is allowed, and everyone in your party must be present when your number is called.
Itadakimasu!

Genki Sushi hit a home run on this one. They chose wisely in selecting Kaneohe as the next in line for modernization. This place has been packed since the reopening!
Even if you are a sushi snob and look down on Genki Sushi fans like me, this place is worth checking out.
Genii Sushi Update: Kaneohe Genki just reopened after being totally shut down for major renovations for about 2 months. The space was basically gutted and rebuilt with a more modern and efficient design.
Venue: Brand new and modern. About 10 or 12 counter seats. There are 2 separate rotating belts and 8 separate tracks for bullet express delivery. Most of the tables will fit 6 guests. The smaller tables will fit 4. That is a lot of seating capacity.
High Tech Bullet Express: The Ala Moana Genki was the first Genki outside of Japan to be modernized. If you have not used this iPad tablet like device to order, you will be impressed. So easy and so intuitive. Like wise the automatic table side delivery system is smooth and efficient. I’m not sure what goes on behind the scenes but your order is freshly prepared and delivered to your table via the «bullet express». It also includes a high tech «next customer» system. Waiting customers are given a number and accurate time estmate. This is an efficient and fair system that I have encountered several times at Ala Moana and now in Kaneohe.
Service: The staff has been well trained and is working hard to deal with the large crowds. Our servers were very busy but pleasant and helpful. Management was visible and a dedicated host and assigned cashier made seating and paying quick and painless. Very short wait for the freshly prepared food.
Food: One might argue that low cost sushi does not deserve 5 stars. While it may not even compare to formal sushi restaurants, it is quite good when it is freshly prepared. The ahi and salmon are nicely done and not bad at all. The thing is there are about 100 different items that you can order. You are bound to find something you like. You can even choose your price level and go with an economy meal or a more raw fish sushi meal.
Vegetarian/​vegan: So for my last three visits, I have been experimenting with having a totally meat, fish and egg free meal at Genki Sushi. All three times it has been smooth sailing and cheap as can be. I am Happy! Eggplant Sushi, green bean sushi, green bean tempura sushi roll, sea weed ocean sushi, agadashi tofu, cold tofu, green salad, miso soup, natto sushi, somen salad and kubocha tempura. These are all 4 star items!
5 Stars: Well more like 4.5 stars over all. 5 star service, 4 star sushi, 5 star high tech remodeled restaurant, 5 star location. 5 star state of the art system. I’m rounding up to 5 stars! I’m confident on this.

This location is perfect in Kaneohe! Especially for the spicy tuna cravers like me! I also love their garlic salmon nigiri!
A really helpful server took my order for take out and offered me water or tea while waiting. Nalu is a great server here! You should ask for his assistance when dining here!