Kakui Sushi

Freshest fish and super big rolls. The price us well worth it. Very cozy atmosphere especially when it’s raining and you can stare out the window.

I really want this business to succeed however No one seems to be minding the store at Kakui. Some very young staff don’t seem to have the service/​cleanliness issue in check. Saw one sushi maker touch a sore spot on his hand and put it back into the rice as he made sushi.
Saw another wipe his forehead with his hand and again go back to preparing food. Then saw a bus person sneeze into his hand, pick up a cleaning towel and wipe his hands and then wipe tables. This should not happen I think the owner has lost interest. Definitely put me off my food.

Love the décor of this place. It’s very calm and relaxing, perfect for sushi. Service is also nice.
Food is pretty good. The crab meat is delicious! Probably my favorite of what I ordered. But everything was quite flavorful, even the sushi rice which is a total bonus because I hate it when the vinegar for sushi rice is weak. & I was surprised at how big the salmon is for salmon teriyaki bento box. Also got the chirashi, which was a bit off colored in my opinion but still good.
The dressing for their salad has a strong ginger flavor which caught me off guard. I was expecting the typical sesame dressing. Unfortunately I can’t have ginger but they were kind enough to remake another salad for me! I got to have my greens my lunch that day!

I’m a sushi Nazi. And this is probably the best sushi in this neighborhood and maybe all of Oakland. Amazing quality and presentation. A little pricey but you get what you pay for.
Hamachi Kama was amazing.
The Uni is from Japan and very good.

Great food but dissapointment in the fried salmon skin roll. It was too chewy. Everything else was amazing. Service great.

Still the best in the village. Very fresh and full of great flavor. Try their house roll, very refreshing.

OMG! Get the Alicia rolls and you will NOT regret it! It is fantastic and their sushi is super fresh. We have lived here for ears and skipped this place as we have other sushi spots in SF and Berkeley but when we have kakui a shot, we were more than delighted! Service was fantastic too!
Cheers!

Great sushi. Everything tasted just so fresh. I just wish we got our food at a reasonable time.

Amazing sushi! They offer unique rolls that are all delicious and great service. For those of us who have to force themselves to eat vegetables, the Brussel sprouts are really amazing. Try the raiders roll!

This may not be the most authentic sushi I’ve had, but it is certainly delicious and better than all the places in the Montclair and stacks up with some of the better Japanese restaurants in the east bay. Service was good, the waiters routinely refilled my tea cup and delivered dishes at the right time and took away plates. Décor is very aesthetic with a great floral piece in the center of the restaurant
The Good:
Gindara — small pieces of incredibly buttery flaky fish with a decadent sake sauce
Sake Sashimi — perfectly cut pieces of fish, very fresh
Beet Salad — Tasty, nice wasabi dressing
’Black Dragon’ Sake — sublime
The Ok:
Spicy Tuna Roll — not very flavorful
Miso Soup — standard nothing to write home about

This place is really having some problems. Last night might just be our last visit. Food quality wasn’t good, super fishy Iruka and toro, mushi sushi rice, super rubbery nori and agadashi tofu that was was to breaded and strange. The service was also off, things delivered in weird order, dishes not cleared, confused wait staff. I am not sure if the ownership or management changed but this wasn’t the same place I’ve been to in the past.

Food: 5
Service: 3
Cleanliness: 3.5
Atmosphere: Small & compact with a city vibe (even though it’s nestled away in sleepy, cute and quaint Montclair)
The three of us walked in during their evening rush hour around 6pm and had to wait for a table to be cleared. Hunger didn’t fully hit me until I heard and smelled the appetizing food. We watched several employees stand around while no one really prioritized cleaning the empty four top. It was bizarre, and a touch of a squeezed fit standing inside to wait. Too chilly to stand outside, we huddled around the hostess stand and were mistaken for the hostess as a couple walked to the sushi bar and another walked in to pick up an order. About ten or so minutes later we were sat.
From that point on, staff was timely, except for the fact they forgot to bring out the other half of my dinner that we were sharing, the Caterpillar Roll. The Jasmine Green Tea, Edamame with garlic (and soy sauce which contains gluten smothered in it) and the miso soup (which has gluten too) were fantastic. My poor celiac girlfriend couldn’t partake. She ordered the seaweed salad which was safe and some of the hand rolls (no sauce). The third person and I shared the Gingara (with Black Cod and Bok Choy). It was a small proportion and incredible! Every bite was soft and glided like a sliver of soft butter off of the plate and into your mouth. The sauce on top, absolutely decadent!
No dessert, just lots of hot tea. Kakui surprised me after the mediocre rating, I feel they surpassed that and deserve an honorable mention.
Woud I would return?!
Yeah or maybe consider just a take out order next time…
Enjoy!

This is not authentic Japanese fare, so if you’re looking for that, skip this place. Went for lunch. Service was not good — they mixed up our orders and I could also hear they served incorrect dishes for some of the takeout and table orders near us as well.
Ordered the sashimi bento box, which was meh. Special roll of the day was… california roll. Doesn’t seem that special to me. Swapped it out with a 49er roll, which was decent. Miso soup, which is a basic Japanese dish, was way too sweet — they added lots of sugar in this, which is not normal. The bento box was supposed to come with a fruit bowl dessert. This ended up being… a half peeled orange. Seriously. WTF? Tempura was OK. Salmon sashimi was good quality. California roll was meh. Salmon teriyaki was meh. Word of advice — tonkatsu ramen on the menu is not real tonkatsu ramen. Tonkatsu is not the same as tonkotsu… That is all. Also, all this mediocre food was on the pricier side for a sushi lunch, particularly given the lack of authenticity and the quality. I will say the décor and ambience of the restaurant were nice though. I suppose that is what people pay for? I’d skip if you have the choice.
I gave them two star instead of one because I did think the salmon sashimi was good, and the one waitress while blundering our order, at least tried.

It (slightly) pains me to give them 2 stars because the décor was nice, the service was fine and the sushi wasn’t too bad but… I gotta go with 2 stars. Here’s why:
Overpriced all around
— $ 12 mixed tempura? Really? Also, I’m convinced the ponzu sauce was missing an ingredient because it had absolutely no taste. No really. No taste at all.
— $ 4 edamame? I ate it because I was hungry but I’m pretty sure the edamame had been «steaming» since the previous night. It was chalky and overcooked. If you’re going to charge $ 4 for edamame at least make it fresh.
— $ 12 chicken udon — it was basically pieces of chicken, carrots, and another green veggie with some udon noodles in miso broth. It was definitely not traditional, lacked good flavor and was way overly basic.
— Sushi — was fine but again priced high for what it was. Ordered the 49er and 2015 roll
The bill came out to over $ 66 and that included 1 beer.
I don’t mind spending some money on food but $ 65+ on the above was just too much for average food. I’m pretty sure we were paying for the décor inside because I sure didn’t see anything about it having local, fresh organic items (which I’m happy to pay more for).

My husband and I tried Kakui Sushi after a recommendation from our Airbnb host. We enjoyed our dinner well enough. We ordered the buta abara, uni nigiri, French kiss roll, and the 2015 roll.
Both rolls were good; we liked the French kiss roll more than the 2015. Probably because there was less going on in that roll so the flavors were more focused. The short ribs (buta abara) were tender enough to slide off the bone in one piece without much effort; juicy and quite savory, although a touch too salty for my taste.
After eating here, we’d say this is more of a rolls place. The sushi rice really wasn’t very good — dry and flavorless. The uni nigiri would have been excellent if the sushi rice wasn’t so distractingly bad. I guess you could always skip the nigiri and just do sashimi because we did enjoy the fish.
Ambience is nice and relaxed. Service was very warm and accommodating.

Overpriced sushi with a side of slow service was not what I expected when I came here. We came in around 8pm and didn’t end up leaving until past 9pm and considering we hardly ordered anything and it wasn’t a full house [I think it was a Monday or Wednesday night], it was a long time waiting. We were seated right away, but we were mostly waiting for food during that one hour period.
Food: We ordered a miso soup to start, which was came to us the quickest. For appetizers, the komatsuna (miso steamed kale, butter, chili flakes) for $ 6 and the chicken kara age (japanese fried chicken) for $ 9. For dinner, the spider roll (fried soft shelled crab, cucumber, avocado, crab meat, topped with tobiko) for $ 10. The 30+ minute turnaround in getting all the food in reverse order (sushi roll first, then appetizers last)… NOT priceless. I was rather perturbed by the fact that the waiters were inattentive. Until the end, however, did they apologize for their slow service (so it was also acknowledged by the staff). They even offered us a peach sorbet, served on a frozen peach. It was a nice gesture, but it still didn’t make up for many of the mistakes that were made. This is may what increased my rating from 1 to 2 stars.
Service: Need I repeat myself?
Atmosphere: Trendy with high ceilings and modern décor. Beautiful, but not too excessive flower arrangements.
Overall: I wouldn’t recommend this place unless you’re really craving sushi and you happen to be in the area. But I think there are other places in the East Bay that offers excellent service and delicious sushi.

3÷28÷15 Dinner
Trying this place out since I want to branch out of our usual eating habit. It’s in Montclair Village so I suppose the prices would reflect the neighborhood. They do take reservation so it’s a big plus. Seated promptly for 7PM reservation. The place is already bustling before dark.
My first impression: the décor is very uppity hipster contemporary-​esque. Most of the patrons are consuming cooked food and drinking wines. So not very Japanese. The menu confirms this first impression. Lots of cooked entrees: ribs, teriyakis, grilled fish, braised pork belly, kumamato oysters, rack of lamb and yes, even Caesar salad! (in fact that’s what my neighbor was having, a Caesar salad in Japanese restaurant).
*Shrimp Tempura (3 pieces, $ 10): batter is too thick, shrimps otherwise are fresh.
*Tempura Roll ($ 9): Shrimp is better fried in the roll (inconsistent frying?) with avocado and lettuce.
*Assorted Chef’s Sashimi (10 pieces, $ 25): fish is of very high grade, sliced in perfect squares, with maguro (tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), sake (tuna), and tai (red snapper), and albacore tuna.
Despite the very high quality of fish, the sashimi order is not a dinner combo, so it doesn’t come with rice or soup. Also for the first time ever in a Japanese restaurant, my sashimi did not come with wasabi — and I had to ask twice to get my wasabi. The soy sauce container on the table was also empty.
So as you can see, I’m paying $ 70 for dinner and I think I deserve better service? Lack of attention to small details on the restaurant’s behalf. The Gold Blossom wine ($ 10) was a great touch for the meal, however. That all said, I’m not sure if I’ll make this my to-​go place because you don’t get very good value.

Modern… Fresh… Chic… Fresh… A little on the pricey side.
The reason for my need to negate 2 stars is that Kakui is a little pricier than most sushi places but each and I every time I eat here I am satisfied w freshness, the taste, the presentation and I am full. I’ve only ever ordered take out– staff are all friendly and accommodating.

When I’m craving Japanese cuisine, I love a place that can tempt me with offerings beyond the typical sushi, sashimi and bento options. This place has it all — from amazing nigiri and yummy rolls, to fancy-​schmancy entrees with complex flavors. I’ve been here 5+ times for dinner and can attest to Kakui’s consistency in serving delicious, fresh food while providing fantastic service. I’ve NEVER had to ask for a water/​tea refill and the staff checks in regularly without being overbearing.
Here are some of the items I’ve enjoyed from my last meal:
Brussel Sprouts (5 stars): These are A MUST! They’re delicately fried and dressed in the yummiest FOODGASM-​inducing vinaigrette. I always ask for extra vinaigrette on the side because it’s my «ranch dressing» while I’m there — it goes well with EVERYTHING.
Corn Kaleage (3.5 stars): You have to be in the mood for these so I don’t always order them. They’re delicately fried corn kernels topped in a wasabi salt, dressed with a spring salad in a tangy vinaigrette. Delicious when dipped in the Brussel Sprouts Vinaigrette!
Buta Abara (4 stars): I’m not usually a fan of ribs but the marinade on these are delicious. I’ve ordered them three times and twice they’ve been fall-​off-​the-​bone. Decent portion size (I believe they give you 4 – 5 ribs total).
Buta Kakuni (4 stars): Mmm… butter! The slices of pork belly are melt-​in-​your-​mouth perfection. Each thin slice of pork belly is served on poached daikon and topped with some pickled onion which adds the right amount of tang and texture. I would warn you that this is a very small serving size so as long as you’re expecting this, you won’t be disappointed.
Rack of Lamb (5 stars): I hate lamb but these were insanely good. Great marinade and perfect cook on the meat! Served with a great sauce reduction and fried zucchini tempura.
Ocean Trout Nigiri (5 stars): The most amazing Nigiri I’ve ever had! I’ve had the Ocean Trout and Kirala and this one is WAY BETTER! The color is very close to Salmon but the texture is more buttery, yet flaky. It’s perfectly salted and topped with pickled onions. Flavor explosion! This is a must have and is my favorite thing on their menu!!!
Oakland A’s Roll (3 stars): Decent roll but very standard. Comes with spicy tuna and avocado on the inside, fresh salmon and tobiko on the outside. Tasty but nothing really special about it so it wasn’t quite memorable. Definitely not worth $ 13! Next time, I’ll stick to my Philly roll and sub in fresh salmon ($ 7.5)
Expect to spend between $ 40-​$ 60 on dinner for two, depending on how hungry you are! Definitely reasonably priced for the quality and amount of food that you receive! I’m SUCH a fan and will do my part to keep them in business!

This has been a great addition to the Montclair area.
The good: I enjoyed the sashimi and all the rolls we ordered.
Recommended: brussel sprouts, JP roll, Kakui roll, Oakland A’s.
The bad: A bit pricy, but expected for the area. Easily spent $ 50(including tip) for lunch.
Service was lacking. Took awhile for someone to bus our dirty plates, and we had to ask for water refills. Not sure if this was because we sat at the bar, but shouldn’t happen regardless.
Restaurant is a bit small and cramped, this use to be the old Jamba Juice.