Izakaya Raku

Average sushi. The environment is decent. Good service but items are not always available.

Well, the food was great but the service… not so much.
I asked for a green tea latte but the dumb waiter couldn’t be bothered and said they ran out, well turns out they did have the green tea syrup and served another customer that came in later than me, also my friend asked from some kimchii and said they ran out, which I’m sure they did not, give the people the food they want or take it off the menu!!!

Our server was attentive and outgoing! She deserves 5 stars for her service.
Fish was definitely fresh. Thick cuts of fish on the sushi rolls /​nigiri! The spicy tuna hand roll was STUFFED with very generous amounts of spicy tuna. Most places don’t even give you half of what you get here. The SLO & Sunrise rolls were great. The seared salmon belly is a must try! I love how they gave us some extra slices in addition to the 2 piece nigiri. The salmon belly was thick and buttery! Yum. Oh! Make sure to check in on Unilocal for a free iced green tea latte :)

Yummy! Food is always very tasty, and staff is always friendly. You can’t go wrong with stopping in for a bite to eat if your in the grover beach area.

I should have considered that this was Grover beach, not LA. Perhaps a 4 here is different for Japanese food.
Got the tonkatsu ramen and… I swear, it was not tonkatsu broth. I’m pretty sure they gave me the pork ramen with the chicken broth. Disappointed. And the noodles were super mushy and soggy. Also, I asked for chili flakes (togarashi) and it never came.
Garlic albacore roll… boring. Couldn’t taste the garlic.
Caterpillar roll… too sweet. Cute but not worth getting.
And the free Unilocal check in — the waiter’s immediate response was that they had run out. The restaurant was open for just over an hour. Yeah… right.

Food was decent and the server was awesome, but when they tried to serve us a roll that was inedible, they would’nt fix it, refund it or give us something else in exchange. So, I won’t waste anymore money here. Cowfish is better anyways: D

Excellent Katsudon! The Halibut sushi is great too! The servers are courteous and attentive to the needs of the customers. Well worth the money!

Had an amazing dinner here on a Saturday night! I was craving sushi during our SLO/​Pismo Beach/​Santa Barbara trip this weekend, so I Unilocaled for sushi restaurants. I was initially trying to find this other sushi place but couldn’t find it, so we resorted to coming here instead– SO GLAD WE DID!
I am still in awe of how amazing their chirashi was. For $ 14.99, the chirashi bowl was filled with so many goodies. Goodies of high quality! What kind of chirashi that isn’t called «special» or «extra special» comes with uni? I’ve actually never had uni before, and it was the perfect opportunity for me to try it. They do not skimp on the sashimi at all! Their sashimi is so fresh, and the slices were beautifully sliced. This one slice of hamachi was the most beautiful thing ever. AHH! I want to go back right now.
My mom got one of their entrees– the black cod. It automatically comes with mixed tempura, miso soup, 2 pieces of gyoza, a choice of maki (4 pieces of spicy tuna, veggie, or cali), salad with this awesome ginger-​vinegrette dressing, and 2 small cubes of pumpkin. She was very happy with her meal– the fish was very tender and the tempura wasn’t too heavily battered, and was nice and crispy. They had a nice variety of vegetables for the tempura, like sweet potato.
Dad just got their 9 piece sashimi plate. Simple but oh so good because of the freshness of the fish.
I’ll definitely be back when I happen to be in the area! Best meal of our holiday weekend trip :) Oh, also fantastic service. We didn’t make any reservations, but we were lucky enough to find seats at the sushi bar. It was around 5:30 and it was already getting packed! By the time we were eating, there were several parties waiting for tables. I would recommend making a reservation just to be safe. This is a cute little place with great food and service. As a sushi snob, I give this place 2 thumbs up.

I was going to sit at the sushi bar, sat down and said hello, no response, no smile, no grin, so I sat for a couple of minutes. The server came over and I ordered a glass of wine, got up and went and sat at a table. Server was nice and helpful since this was my first time. I will definitely return during my next visit to the area, just hope the sushi chefs learn to say hello to guests at counter.

Best sushi spot in town. Better than Yamato, thats not hatd, and umi’s. The service is great. They treat you well and the sushi is awesome. The heart attack is amazing! Come here if you want good sushi and great service!

This restaurant does not have a proper ventilation.
This place smells bad… like bad bathroom cleanser smell. Food tastes horrible also.
I would rate this restaurant as the worst Japanese restaurant I have ever been to and possibly the worst restaurant in the central coast.
I couldn’t eat the food I ordered because it was so horrible. …and I was hungry.
I wasted my money here.

This is pretty much the best sushi place in the area. Same company as Raku noodle house in San Luis, so you can get a good bowl of ramen as well. They have a lunch special for $ 8.95 which includes the roll of the day plus soup and salad. They do popcorn lobster pretty well, not super greasy and they wrap in soy paper, it’s a little different. They also have good specials.

Have been going here for awhile and today I had what may have been one of the best sushi rolls thus far in my life (the Shell Beach). They are super fresh, fairly friendly and well priced. If you are getting it to go, add 10 – 20 minutes more than what they tell you.

Was going to give 4 stars because we had to wait 30 plus minutes for our bill to be taken care of. Apparently the computers never have problems, but on the night we decided to dine in, it did. As a fellow waitress I get it and can understand how they were feeling. It sucks and isn’t their fault necessarily so I had to give 5 because everything else was excellent. Very very small restaurant! But clean and decorated with empty picture frames on the walls. It cool. There are many items on the menu that I don’t see at typical sushi restaurants back home. Yet, I stuck to the normal stuff I usually get. Different sushi rolls though. Very unique. Servers were very nice and attentive and quick with getting refills etc. even wen they had a couple bigger tables come in, they never forgot about us, which can tend to happen. Nice little sushi Spot! Give it a try!

Food killer. Service is great when the room is empty. When their are additional patrons just sit back and talk up a storm. Your food will not arrive for quite sometime. If your in a rush call a head and take it home.

The quality of the food has been slipping lately. The last 3 – 4 meals have been disappointing. I’m going to start spending my money elsewhere for a while.

My relatives love the lunch specials here. We just finished dining here on a Wednesday afternoon and it wasn’t a bad experience.
I am still convinced that this is not the place to go to enjoy fresh fish. However, their hot food is good. I enjoyed a lunch special which lets you select one main entrée and two side items for $ 13.99. This is a LOT of food and will also be my dinner today.
I went with the catsudon (per Laura B.‘s recommendation) for my main entrée and had a couple pieces of tune and salmon on the side. The pork was fried in a light panko crumb and drizzled with a slightly sweet sauce. A nice sized portion of meat which is served over a heaping bowl of warm rice. Don’t forget, all this also comes with a miso soup and small house salad so it is really a good deal if you are HUNGRY. (There is so a smaller option available for $ 9).
Tip: don’t forget to finish your meal off with a complimentary green tea whipped cream drink upon a Unilocal check-​in :)
TAKE AWAY: Yay for hot food and «junk food» indulgence rolls, NAY for fresh fish (the texture, the freshness, color… it’s just not there).

Food was tasty. They have some oddball menu items («Japanese lasagna», which is an absolutely insane baked roll) that are good if you want to try something unexpected; the standard fare sushi is yummy as well, though a bit pricey. I traditionally like more straightforward rolls and their experimental ones were of higher quality than their normal ones.
We’ve been in several times, though, and service has always been slow even if the restaurant wasn’t crowded. Be prepared for a wait.

I was in the Pismo area this weekend and was looking for a place to get a quick dinner. Noticed this place on Unilocal.
We ordered the fried chicken, rainbow roll, five cities roll, and volcano roll, green tea latte, and green tea ice cream.
The fried chicken was a small portion, but was most and had great flavor! The gosh on the rainbow roll was very fresh and very delightful to have after a hot day in the sun! This roll is for people who don’t know what kind of fish they want! You get a variety on top of every roll! The five cities to was also refreshing to have. The only complaint about this roll was that there was to much fake crab in this roll. I wished there was more fish, or real crab used. The last roll was very good! If you like scallops, this is the roll for you! It was cooked very well and was bursting with flavor.
The green tea latte was yummy! Not what I was expecting! The green tea flavor was lighter than expected and was great to have as an after meal drink! The mochi ice cream was good, but I was hoping for more ice cream and green tea flavor.
Overall this place was good! I would come back again if I was in the area!

Amazing food!
I went with my family, good service, my 6 year old girl likes this place too, they serverd the kids food in a cute hello kitty plate, which is more attractive for the kiddos, and a complimentary ice cream scoop for dessert.
I love the food! I am not really a sushi person but they have a good variety of non sushi items on the menu.
When we’re craving sushi, this is the only place we visit!