Uoko Japanese Cuisine - Tustin

This place is literally the best! the freshest sushi I've ever had, the salmon tasted like butter, it was so fresh. the curry was delicious, love all those sides they give you and they give you that dessert at the end! love this family mom and pop place, definitely recommend and will be back. 100.

Uoko is always spot on! if you are looking for authentic Japanese food and good service, this is your next stop!

Ever since I was a child my parents would take the family out to Uoko, so I have been to this establishment throughout the last couple decades. The quality of the sushi has varied throughout time, but it has always been consistently decent. There are times where the sushi will be phenomenal, and other times where it's slightly above average, the fluctuation in quality was always due to the change in the head sushi chef. As people may or may not know, the head chef at a sushi restaurant is always the very first person you see at the sushi counter and typically the head chef is the one sourcing the fish for the establishment. It's never been uncommon for the head chef to change at Uoko, most lasted on average a couple years before departure, and some were definitely better than others. The longest chef I remember was Shige san, he was the head chef for over 5 years back in the day and that was when Uoko was at its peak for fish quality. It had been around 5 or so years since I had been to Uoko, the quality slipping a bit coupled with the pandemic, there were just alot of newer better options in the OC area. This week in looking for a lunch spot, I realized I never had actually eaten at Uoko during lunch, it's always been a dinner spot so I gave it a go. This restaurant will always be nostalgic to me as it really doesn't ever change, even the male server who I recalled seeing when he was first hired was still there, so that was a delightful surprise. The head chefs are completely different, not any faces I recognized behind the sushi counter and that's what I expected going in. Lunch is reasonably priced at 19 for a sushi combo, and the sushi here is one of the best in the Tustin area for the price. Habuya is a better sushi establishment than Uoko in Tustin, but its also much more expensive. Venturing out to Irvine, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach etc there are far better options, but if you need a quick and consistent Japanese sushi dining experience in the Tustin area, you would be hard pressed to find a more affordable dining option than Uoko.

As a family we love this place but today we were put in a very unpleasant situation. There was an additional charge to the bill that wasn’t the tax so we assumed it was charging for tip already. We paid and left the building and as Im putting my son in the car the waitress confronted us on why we didn’t tip her, still confused she proceeded to ask me if there was something wrong with the service? She handed me the bill so we adjusted the total. It felt uncomfortable the whole time definitely the last time I come here.

Great bang for the buck. Poke bowl lunch is cheaper and better than any of the chains. Sushi and sashimi has never let me down. Good rolls at a good price. ?