Shino Sushi + Kappo

Absolutely the best! Robert is the owner and you will find him up front and center personally making sure every bite is perfect. He truly loves every piece of fish. The freshness and quality is unbelievable. The atmosphere is incredible and the wait staff is amazing. We are going back tonight, the sushi was so amazing it melts in your mouth!

delicious sushi and enjoyed the chicken teriyaki.
Awesome location bringing some diversity in restaurants to Little Italy.
Service was good.
One big negative is that the place is cramped and so loud that you can’t hear the person you are talking to.
Prices are about average for the area.

Amazing! Everything tasted so fresh and delicious. We have been to many reputable sushi spots in various big cities for omakase and I can say that this was pretty on par. The chu-​toro here was the best we’ve had… literally melted in your mouth. Our sushi chef Yasu was very quiet but extremely attuned to detail. I was very impressed. The first few servings of nigiri had a small amount of wasabi under the fish (like usual). But he took notice that we were adding a little more to the top of the sushi and the following orders had more and more wasabi. We ended up not even needing to add any additional wasabi to the nigiri half way through our orders. Reminded me a lot of the Netflix documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi where he talks about noting guest preferences and subtly accommodating them. Very impressive. We will definitely be back very often… probably too often. So happy this place is just a block from our condo! Everything we ordered was so amazing that we completely blanked on photos. I managed to snap one photo of the needle fish, our last order, only because I’ve never had it and it wasn’t on the menu (it was delicious).

Yes yes yes! This sushi joint is just so delicious! The ahi tuna appetizer is my favorite dish on the menu, it’s a must have, I get it every time. The service is excellent and everyone is very friendly. Nice wine list. It’s the only sushi place I can go to now, just love it.

Best Sushi I have ever had. And the ice cream at the end was incredible.

Hidden gem found tucked away by the train tracks of the Santa Fe Depot. Modern, clean, minimal décor with a flat screen at the bar and very clean bathrooms with wheelchair access ramp. If you are coming in on the Amtrak and are in search of quality sushi, this is the place for one of the top 3 in San Diego. Chef Robert gets his fish from everywhere, even some flown in from Japan. You can taste the difference once you have a bite of the tuna which melts in your mouth.
We stumbled upon the corner eatery after watching the Balloon parade by the bay front. There were some lunch specials posted outside, so we came in and sat at the sushi bar and watched the artistry unfold.
My kids ordered the salmon lunch plate which came with tempura shrimp and veggies and my son ordered the sashimi bowl. The sushi was so amazing, my kids wanted a SECOND order. We decided to order some Unagi sashimi and nigiri which was delicious.
I highly recommend this place for out of towners who tend to get recommended to go to Sushi Ota primarily, because after you dine at Ota, you are in a strip mall near car dealerships. Good sushi, but not quite a neighborhood. However, here at Shino, you get the beauty of walking a few blocks to the bay front and little Italy. Enjoy some Papalecco gelato afterwards and it’s a great date and destination to explore.
Park on the street and if you spot a yellow or green curb after 6, you are good.

I really, really wanted to love this place. Unfortunately, the experience left me disappointed. I took my family there for dinner and made a reservation for 6:30pm. We arrived right at our reservation time and were told that our table was not yet ready. So, we waited and waited and waited. 20 minutes after our reservation time, we were finally seated with an apology from the host. However, the restaurant did nothing to compensate us for wasting our time. Not even complimentary edamame or dessert. I’m just glad that they didn’t automatically include a service charge on our bill for a party of 6.
As for the food, we ordered the sashimi combo, sushi combo, a couple of different rolls and appetizers to share. I thought the sashimi was nicely cut, fresh and high-​grade. The sushi combo had nice variety and above-​average quality sushi. At this price point, I expected fireworks but was left feeling underwhelmed.
The restaurant is more spacious than it looks from the outside. There is one dining room with a couple of tables and a large sushi bar, and an adjacent dining room with a couple more tables. Décor is minimal but very clean. Our tea cups were constantly filled, but no one really checked in on us to ask how we were enjoying our meal. So, the service was a little cold. Unless you happen to be in the area or live in the neighborhood, the restaurant may be a little hard to spot and parking is nearly impossible. Shino was worth trying and perhaps you’re better off sitting at the sushi bar. But I’ll be going elsewhere to get my sushi fix.

I was satisfied to try this restaurant, but I prefer to go to Hane sushi or sushi ota.
They have same menus, such like Kitchen sink roll, Sushi combo and etc…
But when I got sushi combo, fish cutting was not very clear and beautiful.
Chef and wait staff were very nice and attentive.

Ambience was very mellowed and quiet.
When you’re ready to get high quality of sushi and pay high volume, go try this sushi restaurant.

This is going to be somewhat of an incomplete review — in that I have «set» that I usually order from the sushi bar that I order to use as a baseline for my review; and then add on some specialties to explore that.
However, from my initial experience last night; Shino has delicious potential. Because of a larger party; we sat at a table, and that usually in itself detracts away from the potential a bit. In tasting some of my regulars — I can say that the Uni was delicious and creamy; and had a nice sweetness and fullness to them. The goldeneye snapper was perfect seasoned and had a nice bite to it; and on other end of the spectrum; the chutoro had just the right melty rich texture to it. The salmon belly was alright (compared to other places). The yellowtail belly had just the right texture as well, but the flavor was a little lacking. It seem like it was just a tad off from being the right amount of fresh. The most interesting piece of the night was the wagyu sushi. Tremendous fatty texture and flavor, and nicely seasoned with salt and finely grounded pepper. I think there was a heavy on the pepper end as it somewhat masked the savory character of the beef; but definitely a fun chance to try some authentic wagyu.
I’m looking forward to coming back here on another night to try an omakase type experience at the sushi bar!
Do note that there isn’t a ton of parking in the area; so plan accordingly if you are trying to get there!

Shino is a top notch sushi restaurant, somewhat tucked away in Little Italy.
Because I live so close, I love Shino, but I do want to point out that it is expensive. The fish is high quality, but some of the prices feel truly outrageous. Each piece of sushi is more than you’d think, and even simple rolls are pricey.
That being said, order what feels fair to you and I promise you’ll love the food. The place is nice overall (not fancy pants but not gross at all) and the service is great. I recommend sitting at the sushi bar and eating while watching and chatting with chefs. Always more fun that way!

Incredibly high quality fish. Sashimi was excellent! We even tried raw wagu beef, which I was skeptical at first. It was surprisingly delicious, buttery and nothing like we expected.
Shino is expensive but worth every penny. We spent about $ 180 for two people with alcohol and tip. Important to note we have big appetites.

Best sushi in or around Little Italy!!! Robert is awesome!!!
Nothing but the freshest fish and highest quality ingredients. I love the friendly staff!
It’s a perfect spot for lunch or dinner. I prefer to sit at the sushi bar because you get a more personalized dining experience.
Don’t let the lack of website or hidden location fool you. This is a diamond in the rough.

Wow! Definitely a hidden gem! I’ve walked by this area many times, but never noticed this restaurant.
My expectation for this restaurant was low, but definitely really high quality sushi and sashimi. Unfortunately the portions are really small for what you pay.
We ordered a variety of sushi rolls, sashmi, etc, and you can’t go wrong. I highly recommend this place and can’t wait to come back.
Favorites:
1) Salmon Belly
2) Double salmon roll
3) Spicy tuna on crispy rice
4) Del mar roll – kobe beef

YUM! How I’ve never heard of this place as a sushi lover I don’t know, but we ate here with a bachelorette party for dinner and I was really impressed with the fish! Everything that we tried was great, there was nothing that we ordered that I didn’t like. The pork belly appetizer was insanely good, you could tear it apart and eat it with chopsticks it was so tender and the flavors were so different from other pork belly cuisines I’ve had, which all tend to be similar. The salmon belly sashimi was to die for, it was as smooth as butter and practically melted in your mouth. We got a couple of sashimi/​sushi combo type of boxes to share which were fantastic. I loved the albacore! The Del Mar roll which had steak was also surprisingly great, I usually am not a fan of non-​fish sushi but this was really good. Honestly everything was great, I don’t think you can go wrong with anything you order here. I can’t wait to bring my husband here soon!

I have to admit, this is a hidden little gem on the outskirts of Little Italy right pass the railroad tracks. I stopped in for lunch and ordered the Chirashi lunch for $ 15 which included shrimp, salmon, tuna, yellowtail, hamachi, octopus, eel, and a few other items. The lunch also came with a small bowl of miso soup which was very good.
The chirashi was great. All the seafood items were quite good. I especially enjoyed the eel with its great tenderness and slight sweet flavor brought on by its the excellent grilling and subsequent sweetness of the soy glaze sauce. Seriously, I would of been happy with a whole bowl of eel. The salmon was of very good quality and was served at a perfect cool room temp. It was, very flavorful, although not as fatty, large, and evenly cut as I would of liked, it still had that rich buttery texture. The tuna was great and as the salmon, came with two pieces. They were larger and thicker than the salmon, so I was very pleased with that, because it allowed me to better appreciated the flavor and quality of the fish.
The single shrimp was good, very light in flavor however, the octopus a little bit chewy but tasty, the yellow tail and hamachi were very nice and light, and the rice imitation crab were all nice. I normally do not eat that much white rice, but I found this one to be very good, especially since it acquired some of the seafood, not mentioned added soy sauce.
In the end, it was a great quality lunch chirashi bowl and miso soup. I will admit that I was semi filled with the meal, then again I am a big eater. Service was great by the both servers I had. Lexi was super nice and so was the sushi chef.

Shino is good to meet up with friends.
Located right near Waterfront Park, it’s and intimate eatery with big windows and great scenery.
The sushi is good here. Very fresh tasting and looked appetizing. Why the 3 stars? In my opinion, this place is kinda pricey.
I would visit again to meet up with friends, but to have sushi here regularly, probably not.

Amazing top grade sashimi!
Shino doesn’t look like an authentic sushi place from the outside because it’s located under one of the newer apartment buildings near the Water Park. I’ve always passed by Shino and didn’t even think about trying it until I saw the Unilocal reviews. I was curious and so I went!
The inside and décor is very basic. Clean and sleek. The owner is one of the sushi chefs, so he’s actually working. I came for lunch as I saw they had Chirashi bowls.
I think this is probably the best quality Chirashi bowl that I’ve tried so far (better than Hane’s Chirashi, and I’ve had many Chirashi bowls, definitely better than Hane’s Chirashi bowls) For a $ 15 lunch Chirashi it comes with 11 items. 2 tuna, 2 salmon, yellowtail, hamachi, imitation crab, grilled eel, octopus, shrimp and egg cake thing with some cucumbers over rice and seaweed. I felt that the fish tasted so fresh and buttery… like it came right out of the harbor and they are slicing it from the boat. The sushi grade was top notch. $ 15 for a lunch Chirashi is pretty average and I thought totally worth it.
I would love to come back here for some of their rolls and other items for lunch and dinner.

Finally! I found an amazing sushi restaurant that is right around the corner from me!
We came in on a Friday night and even though it was busy we were sat within 5 minutes. The ambiance is sort of romantic. It is a little dark inside and intimate. We were sat in the back room and our server approached us promptly. We ordered hot sake and 3 rolls: Philadelphia, double double spicy tuna and the threesome roll. Everything was delicious but I especially enjoyed the double double spicy tuna and the threesome roll. The double double had spicy tuna inside and on the outside with eel sauce on top. The threesome roll had shrimp tempura, spicy tuna and an avocado cream on top.
The rolls are a little on the pricey side but definitely not overpriced. All of the rolls we ordered were between $ 10-​$ 20. If you are looking for cheap sushi this is not the place. If you are looking for absolutely mouthwatering sushi and excellent service then this is the place!

My best friend recently graduated from law school and her dear parents decided to take the bunch of us out for lunch at Shino Sushi! I did my homework in looking over the Unilocal reviews and came in with high expectations.
We had a party of around 30 people and the owner worked with my friend to set up a preset menu for around $ 50 each. They closed off the back side of the restaurant for us and assigned 2 waitresses for us. (I’m always impressed with owners that not only take the time to work with large parties but also making sure that the customers get their money’s worth)
Here’s what we got:
— salad with 3 pieces of sashimi (tuna, albacore, and salmon) — 4 stars
— 2 pieces of spice tuna over fried rice cake — 4 stars
— 3 snowcrab dumplings — 5 stars
— chirashi bowl (pictured below) — 5 stars
— miso soup — 3 stars (wish they would’ve brought out the soup first)
All of the dishes were very tasty and the fish were SO fresh!
Highly Recommend!

I’m still a fan of Shino, but I honestly left there Sunday night feeling somewhat underwhelmed. The fish remains some of the freshest that I’ve encountered in any of the restaurants that I’ve patronized. The value, however, is what I’m starting to question. After spending around $ 85, two of us walked away still hungry, leaving us no other choice but to walk to Waterfront to consume a cheap, hearty plate of delicious nachos and french fries.
I am no sushi connoisseur. Far from it, actually. Nevertheless, with the rise of some stellar AYCE options around town, it’s becoming more difficult for me to frequent the higher priced sushi restaurants when I can stuff myself full of yellowtail elsewhere at a reasonable flat rate.
Shino is still super convenient; it’s just mere steps away from my apartment. I’ll surely be back, but just not anytime too soon.