Shiki Bistro

The food is very good and presentation is excellent
The reason I give them 4 stars is that they lack of planning for guests
They put us at a nice table near window and 10 min later realized that they have a big party coming and asked us to move to a booth
Even though there was another window table empty for the whole time
I do not like sitting at booths and I am not happy when I get a table with a view and than asked to move

Shiki is good. For non-​Japanese sushi chefs, they really make some good rolls and dinners.
The service is very good and they are attentive to filling drinks. Their prices are a little high, but, they have happy hour rolls and appetizers.
Don’t go on Thursday nights, it seems to be family night in San Carlos! OH, and they have a 2 piece band-​singer and guitarist who set up 2 large speakers and play/​sing odd music to dine to. It was too loud to have a conversation.

Come here very often and have never had a bad experience.
It’s a nice setting and I love the décor
Love all the food I’ve tried. Some favorites are the
–Fuji Mountain Roll
–Crispy Honey Prawns
–49er Roll
–Sake Nigiri
–Goma Tuna Tataki
That’s just to name a few, everything is delicious and what’s the best part of all?
Happy hour!!! It’s great here! Tons of food and drink options for $ 3 $ 4 $ 5 or $ 6.
A San Carlos favorite of mine for sure.

I’ve been coming here for about a year now. It’s located downtown San Carlos next to so many other great restaurants. I usually go to sushi spots to try the specialty rolls. My favorite sushi roll at Shiki Bistro is the Snow Dragon. Pretty tasty. The service here can be hit or miss depending on who’s serving you. I still come here every few months and like eating here. If you’re in the area, I say it’s worth dropping by to try out.
FYI — sitting at the bar won’t give you an authentic feeling of having that experience with the sushi chef, as the orders still need to be placed through a waiter or waitress

Quick Review: Come here! You will not leave disappointed.
Sushi Rolls Ordered: Snow Dragon ($ 15)/ Spicy Delight ($ 14)/ 49ers ($ 13)
Customer Service: Excellent, very attentive and friendly almost every time
Ambiance: Modern, the bar has 2 TVs often playing sports
I ALWAYS have a great experience here! My 2^nd favorite sushi spot in the Bay Area! I discovered this place through my sister. I believe Shiki Bistro is family owned and has 3 other locations. I have been to the Laurelwood location near the 92 and San Mateo spot off of 101, but Shiki Bistro in San Carlos is by far my favorite!
Sushi Quality — First off, portion size. This definitely is not place where you will leave hungry. Some of the freshest fish I have had. We sat at the bar and were able to see the chefs at work. I’ve watched a few sushi documentaries on the process and it seemed very traditional here. The rice in sushi is often overlooked but it is a huge component. The vinegar and sugar have to be the right consistency and Shiki nails it. Though we didn’t order it this time around the Seared Ahi Tuna is a must try. You have to order the Snow Dragon, it’s my favorite roll!
Service — I was reading some of the other comments on customer service and I would have to generally disagree. But that could also be because almost each time we got the same server, he even gave me and my boyfriend free dessert on a few occasions. Today there seemed to be confusion on who was helping us because we were sitting at the bar but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Someone else took us over and checked in regularly. Give this place a chance!

The food is good HOWEVER the service is terrible. I went there at lunch time on 12÷28÷15 hoping to enjoy a quiet lunch. I was seated by one of the servers, hispanic gentleman. After 10 min, I asked the bus boy to find out who can take my order. He was nice at least to offer me water at this point. He came back to tell me someone would help me. One server passed me, the other server who sat me, passed me 5 times with no contact. Finally after 20 min, he came by and said «oh ill be with you in a few minutes». I said to him «No thank you. I am leaving, no one should wait 20 min for at least some sort of communication» He then responded to me after grabbing the menu «ok fine!» No apologies, no nothing. He usually works there at lunch and to be honest, it was the same way the last time I went there but this time it was worse.
I am truly disappointed that I have to rate this place. More so that because food is really good. The crappy service unfortunately weighs heavily and I will not be going back to this place ever nor will I recommend my colleagues, 400 plus employees that work near by to never go there.

This is the WORST restaurant I’ve ever been to in my entire life. I would give it negative stars if I could. This is my experience in the shortest way possible– My boyfriend and I got seated and our waitress didn’t even come to greet us for 15 – 20 minutes. It was a Sunday and wasn’t even that busy yet. She then showed up to our table with an attitude and was very hostile and rushing us to order as if she was trying to get it over with. Then she got my drink wrong and I told our waitress and she just shooed us with her hands and went to another table. The hostess ended up bringing me a new drink which was fine. We waited for our sushi for 45 minutes!!! Two of my boyfriend’s rolls came first and he was waiting for my food and his other roll to arrive so we could begin eating together. We then asked another worker if we could get our waitress to check on our food and our waitress told her to tell us «She’s really busy right now. She’ll come when she can.» What?! It had already been so long since she even came to our table! Which was when we ordered! Then she finally came and asked how everything was and we told her ummmm there’s still food missing! We couldn’t even begin eating what we did have! She got an attitude with us and rushed away and didn’t check on us for the rest of our dinner. Mind you– we are two of the sweetest and kindest people ever so the fact that we were treated like this was beyond us. The manager then came to our table out of the blue (I believe her name was Elina or Elana) and was VERY RUDE. She didn’t apologize for her employee’s behavior, didn’t offer us anything and then began threatening us. I was in shock. She basically said she wanted to fight us. What?! There’s so much more to the story. But I did put her (manager) on video tape because it was THAT bad. And I will be reporting her. Horrible experience. Oh and the food was trash to be honest. Yuck. Ugh this was a bummer. I can’t believe this happened to us. Don’t go here!

Just like other reviews ‘the service is not at all good’, unfortunately don’t know how delicious is the food, as we waited for more than 45−60minutes and we never got any.

The food is great but the service is terrible. I have been twice to this restaurant and both times have been very disappointed with the service we received.
I went last night with my family and 3 of us immediately got our food and my dad’s roll didn’t show up until the rest of us were done eating and we had to ask a random server to check on his roll. I had ordered a large Sapporo and almost forgot I had even ordered it since it didn’t show up until I had 1 bite left of my sushi. We also had to keep asking for our water to be filled.
It’s also very expensive for what you get. There are so many great sushi restaurants between Redwood City, San Carlos, and Belmont that it’s not worth the price or bad service.

Great for families. Not sure I’d say super authentic but the rolls are tasty. They also have happy hour specials on food and drinks before 6PM.

Sushi’s and rolls are great and service is efficient. The big issue is the hostess, rude, arrogant and happy to ruin your whole evening. If she doesn’t like you she will place you at the bar even with a reservation. We decided to avoid the place altogether because of her, despite going to this place at least once a week before. Hopefully there are many other options in San Carlos.

We come here constantly. But the service has seriously declined. I walked in today at 5:50. I was given the happy hour menu. It took 15 minutes for anyone to come by our table and when they did, they refused to honor the happy hour prices. It’s not my fault your service is slow. Then they claimed that they never meant to give me the menu in the first place — that it was stuck to another menu. No, it was right on top. You knew exactly what you were doing. Good luck getting my business again.

I really enjoy going to Shiki especially when I’m craving their tuna tartare. The spicy tuna is served on a slightly seared rice patty. Sooo good! Their friendly staff is always spot on. Whenever your in the area and craving sushi, give this place a try.

Food is great, food service was fast, bartender was overloaded and we were done with our meal by the time we got our drink… not good. Would have got more stars if the drink came. I had to beg for my soda.

THIS IS ONLY FOR BRUNCH
food is always great but its sad they have a brunch menu with cocktails that they dont even know how to make are you serious. We asked for a bloody mary that is on the menu and she said that she didnt know how to make, so we then asked for mimosas and she said ok i know how to make it she poured the champagne into the glasses and after a while she starts looking for the orange juice and then comes back and says im sorry we dont have orange juice to make your mimosas at this point we are over it so we just took the champagne Like I SAID FOR DINNER OR HAPPY HR ITS GREAT for brunch it sucks Food is great even tho this time we just decided to leave and go have food somewhere else I will still come back for happy hour or dinner since everything has always been great

There are two reasons for the 2-​stars.
1. The service has been below average. The last time my family and I went to this restaurant – 6 months ago, our glasses of water were not refilled unless we asked for refills by a random waiter, our dishes came after a 35 minute wait – this particular afternoon was not busy; we were handed two plates that we did not order and were given a hard time (a random waitress attempted to drop off two plates of food we did not order. It was explained that the food she had was not ours. She said nothing but rolled her eyes and swiftly left our table).
2. Expensive for what was ordered. We spent a lot of money for me to leave hungry. I considered ordering another plate, but our waiter was no where to be found. I decided to get our bill so we could leave.
I will not be returning.

The service we received is not deserving of even one star. We went to this place with 4 adults and 2 toddlers. Ordering was fine. 2 of the 4 adults and 1 of the toddlers got most of their dinner. But some items were missing. We waited at least one hour before being asked about the other items we ordered. Of course the waitress noticed our displeasure and sent the manager over. The manager assured us that two of the meals would be comped. We received the bill and almost paid it, but my wife noticed items were added that we didn’t order and then comped; thus making our bill more expensive then it should have been.
The quality of the food was ok. Not great. It baffles me that in this area places with terrible service and mediocre food can exist. I do not recommend this place… Especially with all of the great Japanese food around.

I keep coming back and we frequently order take out. Everything is fresh, beautifully served, and we’ll prepared. Today we had the Fuyu, Haru and the spicy tuna rolls. The Fuyu I will pass on next time. I found that the spicy sauce added on top, over powered all the other flavors. The restaurant is nicely decorated and well maintained. Comfortable a day relaxing. The service attentive and pleasant. Our favorite sushi house in the area.

What an amazing experience! It’s been a while since I’ve been to a restaurant where the people who work there actually care about their customers.
We arrived with a crowd, it was prime-​time for dinner. The hostess was able to keep track of the influx of people and checked everyone in promptly. We waited less than 5 minutes to be seated and as soon as we sat down, we were greeted and provided beverages.
Their menu appears to be different from location to location which makes me wonder if they’re under the same ownership. All that aside, we ordered an assortment of sashmi and nigiri — and the fish was fresh and didn’t leave you with an after taste.
I also had a Passionate Mango cocktail which was really strong so I sipped it very slowly. Our waitress noticed and asked if it was ok. I was honest and told her how weak I was and the drink kicked my bum and she offered to have it re-​made. How awesome is that?
The restaurant has several booths which can seat parties of 4 – 6, bar-​seating, tables near the entrance for smaller groups, and a section in the side and back for larger parties. Great option for birthday parties, anniversaries, etc.

Eeehhhh… I paid 2 times what I would usually pay at any other Japanese restaurant for a salmon fillet and roll. On top of that, the vegetables on the side were way too buttery. Quick service, though.