Kintaro Sushi Bar

Best sushi in the Sacramento/​Elk Grove area ! Been coming here for 12 years .
Love the service, fish is always fresh — black and white is the best.

Had dinner at Kintaro tonight with my sister and my grandparents, and OH MY GOODNESS THEY LOVED IT. WE loved it. Quote from my Filipino grandmother, «Dis is better dan Sushimono!» Sorry Sushimono. Our waitress, Jennifer, was THE BOMB. She was so nice and helpful from the second we were seated to the second we were out the door. In fact, my sister forgot her purse inside and Jennifer brought it out to our car after we had already exited the restaurant. Thank goodness for her! Also, when we ordered, I asked her for her recommendations on the specialty rolls and she did not disappoint. I went with her recommendation and ordered the Juicy Roll, and it was delicious. Great service, great food, great experience, check out Kintara.

Happy hour and the fantastic servers are probably the only reason why I will ever go back. You are probably wondering why I rated them a 3…
So my family and I came here for my graduation dinner and was expecting high quality sushi and mouth watering rolls;howver, when we received our rolls, a few of them were not cut all the way. The appetizers were decent. Nothing really stood out. Also prior to sitting on my seat, it was wet due to water spill from an earlier table.

Great sushi, great prices, plenty of seating. Service was fast and friendly and we got seated right away on a Saturday night. Favorite go-​to sushi place!

Like sushi where you can actually taste it and it isn’t slathered in high calorie sauces? This is the place. Each roll is lightly sauced which is perfect! We have been to Morimoto’s in Napa (the food network Iron Chef) and I have to say as much as I love Morimoto’s, Kintaro’s rivals it. Their food is fresh, delicious, and very reasonably priced. The service is outstanding, friendly and consistently good even during busy times. Favorite items… 49er roll, happy roll, dragon roll, chicken yaki soba, shrimp and veggie tempura. Try it!

Stopped in here for a quick lunch today. I had not tried this place for well over a year. I was not avoiding the restaurant, it just did not happen.
Anyway, decent lunch time crowd although only one person at the sushi bar. Wait staff was very helpful as time permitted. It looked like she was waiting on all the tables, answering the phone and greeting. Anyone in her positon would need some help — way too busy.
I ordered two rolls on the lunch menu (which was exclusively «in restaurant» only). Note they also offered an extensive regular menu which included takeout if you desire. Before I was served my rolls, I was given a bowl of tasty miso soup (which I was not expecting) — nice.
My main course was a Happy Roll and a Mina Roll. Good size portions and pretty good. Both had tempura prawn and spicy mayo of some kind. The Happy Roll also had crab and avocado. The Mina Roll included spicy tuna and a super tasting sauce.
Prices were very reasonable. Overall, I would give this place a little high rating if they had adequate wait staff. Note, I tipped the waitress well as she worked very hard.

If want great food and I’ve tried most on the menu.
Awesome, delicious and the service is with a smile.
If you have not been here You are missing out…

Planned to eat at Baguettes, next door, but they were closed. So we headed in to check out out the sushi. Found a generous happy hour, lasting until 9pm, and great service. Our waitress was friendly, helpful, and attentive. All of the food was delicious and came out quickly. We had 2 rolls, bbq albacore, spicy edamame, and miso soup — all for only $ 36. Next time we’re down in Elk Grove, we’ll return.

Absolutely the best Sushi/​Sashimi palace in town.
I’ve been coming here on a almost weekly basis for 7+ years. The food and service is top shelf.
It’s the best sashimi anywhere.

I loved walking in to the restaurant! They asked how many were in our party and sat us right away! It was great that the basketball games were playing on the televisions, too.
The waitress came right away and took our orders. The miso soup and salads came out. Then the sushi came out. Then the dinners came out! The dinners are amazing! I had a bento dinner box and there was so much food! I was very surprised by the amount of food and the quality of taste! Delicious!!!
Friendly servers! I loved that they came by to do refills and were so friendly. They talked to my little sister and it was just so fun to see!
I would come back here when I’m in town! Onolicious!

FOOD: Happy hour Sunday-​Thursday from 5pm-​9pm
— Sumomono with seafood: cucumber salad with fresh fish and shrimp. Very tasty. 4.5÷5
— Gyoza: 4 pieces of deep fried potstickers. Warm, crunchy, and tasty. ⁵⁄₅
— Fried Smelt Fish: tiny fried fish in an amazing dipping sauce. 3.5÷5
— Chicken Teriyaki: a good amount of chicken marinated in sweet teriyaki sauce over a bed of cabbage. 3.75÷5
— 911 Roll: [spicy tuna] albacore, tuna, spicy mayo, chili sauce, green onions, and masago. Good flavor, fresh fish. Tiny kick. 3.75÷5
— 49er’s Roll: [tempura shrimp, crab] avocado, tuna, unagi, unagi sauce, spicy mayo, green onions, and masago. Good flavor. 3.5÷5
— Happy Roll: [tempura shrimp, crab] avocado, unagi, unagi sauce, spicy mayo, green onions, and masago. Good flavor. 3.5÷5
— Mina Roll: [tempura shrimp, spicy tuna] avocado, albacore, unagi sauce, spicy mayo, habanero masago. Good flavor. 3.5÷5
SERVICE
This place was super busy. Literally every table was taken. Luckily we reserved seats at the bar. Apparently it’s like this all the time. The servers were attentive and Chef Blinky was awesome. He’ll make special requests. ⁴⁄₅
FINAL THOUGHTS
I would definitely come back to try other items. All the rolls I had were good, but none of them really stood out. Their happy hour is pretty sweet though. Great deals on drinks, appetizers, and rolls.

One of a few Sushi places that have a late happy hour: 5 — 9pm. Specials on sake bombs, oyster shooters and selective brands of beers. Special prices on several different appetizers and rolls.
We really didnt ordered from the happy hour menu much since ot only a dollar or two off. We had the pepper fin (ask for blue fin), garlic edamame and a nemo roll. The blue fin was delicious and buttery and taste well with the spicu jalapeños slices. The nemo roll was very filled several different fishes and topped with black caviar.
We also tried the udon and chicken teriyaki which was okay. Nothing really special. Overall, we enjoyed the experience and will come back again.

My first experience here was fantastic!
Came for an early-​ish dinner on a Monday night around 6pm. Luckily we came at this time and beat the rush because around 630 more people came in.
We chose to sit at the bar and luckily we did because we got to sit where the sushi chefs were. And to our luck (we don’t eat sushi much cause my bf isn’t fond of fish lol) we got to custom make our rolls! Chef Quang was awesome! I listed out things I usually like in my sushi and he’d toss in recommendations as well of items I usually like but forgot to tell him xD As for my bf who doesn’t eat fish, he just asked Chef Quang to make him the best roll with anything besides fish lol!
We also ordered appetizers, forgot to get pictures though :/​
But we got crab pockets: a tofu pocket stuffed with crab mix and deep fried. Simple but delicious! $ 6
Fried soft shell crab: came out and in thin strips. Easy to eat with a side of dipping ranch. $ 6 I think?
Half dozen oysters on shells for $ 12: small oysters with a dot of sriracha on it for your slurping pleasures lol
When our rolls came out, I was so excited! My roll was shrimp tempura and crab mix on the inside topped with salmon, tobiko, and tempura flakes plated with an avocado cream sauce (yes, I said SAUCE!) and spicy mayo with sriracha. It was everything I wanted and more. The avocado cream is so unique and I’ve never eaten it that way with sushi before. Loved it!
My boyfriends roll was also something out of this world! Chef made him a roll with shrimp tempura, crab mix, and fried soft shell crab inside topped with three different toppings: sprouts, fried strips, and tempura flakes. He loved it! I hope this turns him into a semi-​sushi lover haha.
Our experience here was wonderful and we will definitely be back for some more of Chef Quang’s creations. Assuming it may only be when we’re at the bar? But we’ll take that chance!

This place is awesome! I’ve been here a few times and I love their food (that’s the non seafood stuff ;) lol). My boyfriend, who is a sushi and sashimi fanatic, LOVES this place… as well as my brother. Fish is fresh and quality is there. There are times when this place gets PACKED to the max where wait time is about 30 minutes to an hour. We were lucky to get in right away last night. Only thing is that they were short handed last night and only had two servers working the WHOLE restaurant. They forgot a lot of our stuff that we ordered and took a while for our food to come out. All of my other experiences here have been good, except last night.
I really hope they find more helpers to work during peak hours. If not, I don’t suggest coming here during peak hours. Service can take forever and food can take forever.

This place did not disappoint. Came here wirh my family for dinner and the server was friendly and attentive, maybe cuz we’re the last table but it’s still nice.
I ordered a small sashimi plate and it was cut thick and tasted very fresh. Sea steak was made on point the sauce was so good that I wanted to drink it all.
Overall my first experience was very nice and will definitely come back.

My friends and I came here for dinner, since all of the other sushi places were busy. We came at the right time with happy hour, which is Thursday– Sunday from 5:00pm-9:00pm. We were seatly very shortly after we were greeted at the door.
For drinks, we ordered sake bomb, Kirin beer and oyster shooter as a start. We went into ordering a dish of gyoza as appetizer.
Food: We ordered 4 different sushi rolls from the happy hour menu– 49er’s roll, 911 roll, Ryanon roll, and Mina roll. All of the rolls are very good and delicious! We thought it was too little for 4 people, but it was a lot.
Service: I thought the service was okay, our waiter came to greet us and let us know he will be with us shortly. After drinking the sake bomb and osyter shooters, we left the empty cups at the end of the table, our waiter nor other waitress did not bother to pick it up nor clear it as they walked by our table. This is why it’s only 4 stars. I was bothered by it because we had 4 people and we are already sitting at a small table, and with ordering a lot of food, there wasn’t much room on our table.
I will probably come back again and try other dishes, just not sure about the service.

Four for always being consistent. This place is probably one of my faves in Elk Grove area. My husband hates sushi so he’s very picky about his Bento boxes. It’s really hard to find a place that has really good Bento boxes && fresh fish. Kintaro has both. Husband loves his Benton box and I get to enjoy my sashimi. Win win.
We usually order:
Beef Bento box: comes with beef, rice, pot stickers, croquette (but only has potatoes in it. We call it the Asian hash brown), salad, music soup and your choice of tempura or CA roll.
Chirashi: comes with slices of maguro, sake, hamachi, albacore and some kind of white fish over sushi rice with a little bit of wakame. This dish usually comes with tomago and ebi but I like mine with all fish. Overall good… But would be nice if they added some different kind of fish like other restaurants.
Overall we enjoy dining here. Great service and good food.

I’ve found a new favorite happy hour place.
The prices are great, the food is good, and HH lasts from 5 to 9pm! I feel like I just stumbled upon a rare unicorn. The restaurant is also nice and roomy.
We had the baked salmon roll, the elk grove roll, the happy hour teriyaki chicken, the gyoza, and the edamame. They also brought some free soup. It was a ton of food for two people, and with one alcoholic drink a piece, the total came out to only 30 bucks.
Next time I’m back, I’ll try to save room for dessert.

I’ve been going to Kintaro when I’m in the area for several years now and it is remains one of my favorite places to have sushi. It has become my go to place since moving south of Elk Grove.
The restaurant itself is very nice, open, well lit with plenty of tables as well as seating at the long sushi bar. I enjoy sitting at the sushi bar watching them make the rolls. The restaurant is very clean. I appreciate that they give you nice chopsticks (not the kind that will give your mouth splinters) and a fancy wet napkin.
The service is great, they are very attentive and always very friendly. I’ve never had a bad customer service experience (not sure why Unilocal said this was my first check in because it definitely is not!). They always refill my water and make sure to ask if we want refills on our drinks.
I appreciate that they also give out complimentary edamame, I especially love that its salted and warm. The fish always tastes fresh. I find it refreshing that they don’t drown their rolls in all the sauce to hide the freshness of the fish. I also appreciate that they have a lot of rolls that do not have sauce on them, those are some of my favorites. Many places I go there seems to be a lot of imitation crab and deep fried shrimp in almost every roll so you begin to feel like the rolls are all the same. This is not the case at Kintaro which is one of the reasons it is my favorite, variety. They also offer specials which are listed on at board near the back of the restaurant.
On our most recent trip my husband ordered the Stacy annd Markee. Both had sauces on them, which he loves. He really enjoyed both rolls. He remarked that the Stacy roll had a good variation of flavors that worked well together. And although he did enjoy the Markee he remarked that he prefers fresh unagi instead of the deep friend unagi on this roll. I ordered my favorites the King Roll and the Sea Steak roll, both have no sauces on them. The Sea steak roll is currently also on their happy hour menu so its a dollar off. I also love the combination of the flavors, its very fresh and clean just like I like it.
Also for those of you who are gluten free, they do have gluten free soy sauce, you just have to ask for it. =)

We live 3 miles away from Kintaro and we’ve tried almost every single restaurant in Elk Grove… and this was our FIRST visit to Kintaro. I’m not sure why we waited so long. But Kintaro has been here for a very long time so it must be good, right? Right. The restaurant is spacious and the staff is friendly. The food came out fast and portions were huge for the affordable price.
I ordered the beef sukiyaki for my dinner last night. I rarely see it offered on menus at Japanese restaurants. I usually only eat sukiyaki when my parents cook it for New Year’s Day. When it came out to our table, it was a HUGE bowl, steaming hot. But I was so hungry so I dug in right away, quickly blowing off the steam before each bite. They are generous with the ingredients in this meal– definitely worth $ 12.95. Veggies, tofu, plenty of meat and noodles. we shared it AND still brought some home with us.
I think we’ll definitely be back. Their happy hour offers multiple appetizers and a whole list of sushi rolls during dinner time every Sunday-​Thursday!