Kai’s Sushi & Grill

Kia’s is the best Sushi restaurant outside of Minneapolis. I have never been disappointed with my food and I have been to Kia’s more times than I can remember. They recently remodeled to allow for more seating which was nice because they were getting too busy to accommodate the customers. I recommend the Chan Roll or Playboy Roll.

Kai’s was my go to place for sushi in the south west of the cities until Saki in Chaska opened. The price is quite high and last time I dropped in, the happy hour ended too early to really take advantage of. It’s good but not great but used to save me a 1 hour drive to Woodbury or a 40 minute drive to down town Minneapolis.
Now, it’s just a place I drive by on my way to other restaurants.

This is my all time favorite sushi place! It’s so delicious and reasonably priced for their normal rolls. I could pour their shrimp sauce on a shoe and eat it, it’s so good! Also they have a happy hour everyday from noon to 6 I believe and the sushi is even cheaper. Try the crab Rangoon as well, so yummy!

Great food and they were prepared for our party of eight. Nice location in Chanhassen and will definitely visit again.

I eat here at least once a week. Great food and great service! The owners are very nice and show appreciation for your business.

Great sushi Ina small comfortable environment! We come frequently and enjoy it every time!

I’m not sure about their dinner menu, but I really like this place for lunch. It’s never too busy, it’s not too expensive, and the food has good quality and quantity.
I usually cycle between Hibachi and the Chicken Katsu Bento, and both have good portions, taste great, and are cheap enough to feel like really good value picks.
I must have eaten here 40+ times over the past couple years. Of those times, I think one time the miso soup was too watery, and a few times the portions felt smaller than usual. On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by generous portions a handful of times as well, and I’d say 95% of the time I left the restaurant extremely pleased.
There’s not too many other options for Japanese food in Chanhassen anyway, but I’d heartily recommend Kai’s as a great lunch option.

Decent sushi but Horrible over the phone customer service! When I was calling for ‘Take-​Out’ the lady spoke as if she is rushing you off the phone. Yet, when she went over my order she got it wrong! I almost wanted to tell the lady «Calm down & please listen to what I’m saying instead of assuming what I’m going to say next!!». After getting the order correct, she quickly said «ok, see you in 10 min». Um… don’t you want my name or the very least a contact #? I asked?! She replied «it’s okay we’ll know, it’s not busy right now.». WTH!!! Ironically when I picked up my food, the counter had bags of take-​out orders waiting to be picked up. I guess to be mean, I gave my name — getting a deer in headlight look back. The lady asked me what I ordered along with the quantity. I picked up order, paid & quickly left all while SMH!

Pleasantly surprised. Is the best way I can describe this place. After living in Seattle for 10 years I have found the ethic food scene in and around MSP to be, well, lacking.
Thus I had low expectations, however the bento I had was excellent. I went safe, as I prefer my sea food cooked, but had the bento box with chicken teriyaki and California roll. It was very tasty.
I will be back to this establishment.

Came here for dinner while out here on a business trip. Had a craving for Japanese so went to Unilocal for a recommendation. Great! 4.5 stars so had to go check it out. First off, I must say the service was outstanding. Friendly and attentive. The atmosphere is laid back and casual. Had the Nabe Yaki Udon and a Salmon roll. Udon was OK and sushi less so (nori was really thick and rice was not well cooked). Overall a funny texture. Hard to explain. Hate to be picky, but this may be 4.5 in Minn. but definitely not in California. Sorry, but I’ll try a different place next time.

Would not come back here. Had high expectations coming here because we saw 4.5 star from the Unilocal.We came there, with group of 4. Our server came right away and got our two more utensils, drinks and orders quickly. And then miso soup and salad came out first. Salad looked so old and didnot tast fresh .we orderde some sashimi and couple of sushi rolls. and my friend ordered habachi chicken. Well, when the food coming, it looked awesome. BUT NONEof those fish tasted fresh. pieces were too small for sashimi. Habichi and miso were okay. But after eating there, made my stomach upset and had to constantly go to the bathroom at least 4 – 5 times.
Overall, place is too small to move, fish was not fresh. The only good thing is service is ok. NOT RECOMMEND.

While driving back from Carver, I took a mini detour to stop by Kai’s. With 4.5 stars and 43 reviews, how could I eat there if I’m somewhat in the area?
Tucked away in a strip mall, Kai’s is quite the small izakaya. And like most, there’s a sizable bar and surprisingly plenty of seating for small groups. I sat at the bar and ordered an app, a couple slices of sashimi, and two rolls. Hungry, I was…
I. FOOD
*Rock Shrimp Tempura (lightly fried tempura battered shrimp tossed in spicy sauce): For ten dollars, I definitely thought it was worth the money. The family of meaty shrimps that was plopped in front of me didn’t have too much batter on them, but thankfully still had that subtle sweet that’s from tempura-​ed goodies. Not to mention, the spicy sauce tied everything very well together and the presentation rocked. (Ha ha.)
*Escolar (sashimi): Pretty good, although, they kept the hunk of escolar a bit too cold. This is also off the menu, so make sure you ask for it if you like it. ($ 6)
**No 9 Roll (fresh vegetable, shrimp tempura, spicy mayo, topped with fresh salmon, avocado, and yummy yummy sauce): For the most part, everything tasted fine. I just think that they fried the shrimp too long. It wasn’t crunchy, just hard. I would’ve sent it back, but I was in a hurry. ($ 17)
**Dynamite Roll (spicy tuna, avocado topped with spicy crunchy crabmeat): I would not recommend this. I think they’re a little heavy on the dressings. ($ 14)
II. SERVICE
Although nice, it was surprisingly a tad on the slow side. Even though they absorbed the lunch rush hour, only 30−40% of the place was full. Not to mention, they weren’t understaffed at all. In my humble opinion, I think they have some communication kinks to work out. For example, three people asked me if I wanted something to drink.
III. ATMOSPHERE
It’s a chill Japanese sports bar. (OK, maybe not a sports bar, but there’s one TV.) Not too loud, either.
IV. PRICES
Somewhere between average and pricey.
V. OVERALL
I sincerely wish this place the best, because the downtown area of Chanhassen desperately needs to diversify the types of shops there. (I’m also looking at that Thai place next door.) With that being said, I think Kai’s is a step in the right direction. If they can fix a few of their small hiccups, I can see this place serving not just locals. It has potential to be a really cool place.

I read all of these amazing reviews about Kai, so I was very excited to try it out since I am a sushi foodie! When I got there, my first impression was that it was small, but there were people there so that was good! When I walked in I wasn’t greeted by a host. Instead, after waiting there for about 5 – 10 minutes, the host looked up at me finally and signaled «4» with her hands, so I nodded. About 10 minutes later, I asked how long the wait might be, and she said she doesn’t know, but there’s just a wait. Again, she wasn’t friendly, but it seemed like she was just avoiding us. It was weird because there were visible tables open, and there was only one party of 3 in front of us. Finally after about 20 – 30 minutes we were seated.
Following that, our server seemed nice, but was the most uninformed server about sushi, or any menu items, and seemed like she didn’t know what was going on. We told her us four wanted to split an appetizer, and when we asked her what was good she said «they are all good». Before getting the appetizer, we asked her if it was possible to split the price of the app on all 4 of the checks, and she said yes. So we picked the appetizer that was labeled «calamari». When she brought it out, that appetizer was only 3 pieces of what looked like egg rolls and sauce, and let me remind you again that we told her us four were splitting an appetizer. We laughed about it, but just blew it off and one person ate it so we didn’t have to split. When we asked questions such as — does this roll have peanut sauce or actual peanuts inside — she answered in a confused tone like she didn’t know what was going on. She said yes, then no, then admitted she didn’t know — to all of the questions. So we just ordered our own rolls and told her we weren’t all sharing. When she asked for our sushi orders, she asked the name of each roll about 2 – 3 times, then asked for us to point on the menu which one it was so she could write it down, which was kind of weird.
When the sushi came out, the rolls were all served on the same platter together. This was weird because we told her that we weren’t splitting. We blew that off too, and just thought we could ask her which roll was which so we knew what to eat. When I asked her, she had NO IDEA, but instead pointed to random rolls and said random names of sushi we didn’t even order. When I asked again, she pointed to a roll and said it was shrimp tempura, and when I asked her which one the spicy tuna roll was, she pointed to the SAME ROLL and said it was spicy tuna. I reminded her she said that was shrimp tempura, so she fled without saying anything, and 5 minutes later came back with a cook who told us exactly which was which. (THANK YOU COOK!)
The sushi itself was delicious! I had the shrimp tempura and the avocado peanut roll. It was warm too. Now on to the checks… When she asked if we wanted our checks, we said that would be great! Then she proceeded to ask who’s check the appetizer should go on (let me remind you we made sure we could split the app on all 4 of our checks in the beginning) and said she can’t split it… so since one person ended up eating it because there were only 3, we said her. Before bringing out the checks, she asked again what sushi rolls we ordered because she didn’t remember (again). We repeated them back to her, she wrote them down, and when the checks came out she had all of our rolls wrong on each check. This was the point when I didn’t really laugh about it anymore and I was pretty annoyed. It seriously felt like we were being punk’d or something… the most odd and bad service I’ve had! I felt bad, but if you’re working at a sushi restaurant that is supposed to be good, I feel like you need to know about the items on the menu and be attentive to your tables. There were a lot of servers working, so it wasn’t something that had to do with short staff. To add on to this, our water glasses always sat empty, and when she would randomly check in with us, she would ask if we wanted more water, disappear for 15 minutes, then come back and fill it.
Overall, the sushi was good, but the service was one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a very long time. I’m hoping this will be a one time thing, but I’m glad that everyone else seems to like it. I don’t think I will be back here because there are way too many amazing sushi places around the cities that have great sushi along with awesome service! Too bad this didn’t work out for me!

Super fresh and tasty! One of the only restaurants with character in Chan.

Delicious! Best sushi I’ve ever had! Great flavors, hearty, perfect amount of spice. Great edamame too! Nice inside.

This place rocked. We had the Mango Tango app, it looked so good the table next to us ordered it as well. We had hibachi and curry. It was great but I can’t wait to go back and try more of the sushi. Service was great fast and friendly couldn’t ask for better. We came here based on the Unilocal reviews and we weren’t disappointed. Can’t wait to go back!!!

if you love miso soup you will really love Kais seafood soup. it is a mega packed miso with seafood tid bits. they say it serves two but id eat one by myself.
expanded awesome space and really great service. love kais for all things sushi. i would go by myself, with a date, or in a group… but prolly not a group bigger than 6 people.
plus they were open on christmas day!

This is a hidden gem in Chanhassen! Island Boy and I were on our way home from an afternoon of beer drinking in Victoria when we got a sushi craving. We didn’t really want to spend a lot, so when we discovered Kai’s, we opted to go here over the more expensive Yumi’s of Excelsior.
One of my favorite appetizers at sushi restaurants is yellowtail jalapeño sashimi, so when I saw it on the menu, I had to try it. Since I’ve had a lot of it at different places, I can definitely tell the good from the bad, and while Kai’s wasn’t the best I’ve had… it was still above par. The slices of sashimi were just the right thickness, and decent in size. We also tried the Sexy Jalapeño, which is basically giant Japanese jalapeño poppers. They were decent, but nothing I would order again.
Next, we shared the Deluxe Cajun Roll (with crawfish), the My Best Friend’s Roll, and the Beauty and the Beast roll (which was on special). They were all good, but the My Best Friend’s roll was my favorite with Yellowtail, tuna and avocado on the inside, then topped with tuna, salmon, eel, caviar, scallion, crunchy flakes, and garlic sauce. Yum!
Overall, the quality and taste of the food was great, especially considering the price… and the service was fast and friendly. I would defintely hit up Kai’s again if we are in the area!

Chanhassen wake up!!! Reviews are strong and it’s hardly filled. You have a great culinary gem in your neighborhood and you’re not taking advantage of it enough. Kai’s creates great food. Excellent menu and great specials. If you want a serious sushi experience, eat at the bar and order sushi over the rolls and combo specials. These talented sushi chef’s hook it up with beautiful cuts of fish prepared perfectly. Rice is prepped with tons of attention that complements perfectly.
This place should be the go to place here. Build this business or at least get your fill before it’s too late. Breaks my heart everyone runs to chain restaurants and not taking advantage of the best food in the area. Can’t recommend enough. Experience delicious healthy food.

We stopped in here on a road trip from Tennessee on the way to North Dakota. I was surprised to find such great Japanese food so far from the coast! We went twenty minutes out of our way to go here after seeing the reviews on Unilocal and it was totally worth it.
I had the mixed bento lunch, which is the main reason I’m giving Kai’s five instead of four stars – for the 10 $ I paid for it, I got sooo much food! The box had a california roll, white rice, two gyoza (they subbed these for veggie gyoza for me, another huge plus) and veggie tempura.
I can’t eat the fish, so my friend had the california roll, and he said it was some of the best sushi he’s ever eaten. The avocado in particular was exceptionally fresh.
My tempura and veggie gyoza were also delicious! I don’t know what kind of veggies half the tempura was, but everything, including the eggplant, tasted fantastic. Even the eggplant texture, which is usually pretty slimy, was creamy and delicious. My favorite was the tempura broccoli – that was probably the most pleasurable broccoli experience of my life thus far. I know, it’s just broccoli. But seriously, it was superb.
For dessert, we had mochi! This was also really exciting since I have not seen this anywhere outside of Los Angeles. Mochi is like a tiny ball of ice cream wrapped in a soft, chewy sort of sweetened rice dough. Although the presentation was beautiful, with whip cream and sprinkles, I actually would’ve preferred the mochi plain. Either way, it was excellent.
If I am ever in the Minneapolis/​St. Paul area again, I will definitely insist on returning here. I wish the restaurant weren’t so tiny – it’s kind of hard to find back in a strip mall. But it could easily attract enough clientele in the places I’ve lived to have a stand-​alone shop in the middle of one of the busier districts.