Harada Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar

One of the best sushi restaurants I have ever eaten at. Everything was super fresh and although traditional, it was unique. Highly recommend it!

If you happen to be in Morro Bay and feel like Japanese food, I highly recommend you give this place a try. I just had an amazing sushi dinner here and the staff were very nice and pleasant. Great experience and would certainly come back!

Two stars

The sushi is okay. The restaurant’s strength is its classy ambiance, service, and presentation of food. But the portions are small & just a bit mediocre in flavor for the price.

Epic Shogun Boat again a few years in between visits. Excellent work. We really enjoyed it. Thank you.

I could have totally been fooled into thinking this was a cool Japanese restaurant from just looking at the outside. From the outside, it looks like a traditional Japanese house. Looked so authentic!
There was literally only ONE waiter working the entire restaurant. And by the looks of it, only one cook in the back too. We came around one pm and it took about 40 minutes for the waiter to take our orders and then for them to finally get the food out. I felt so bad for the waiter since he was by himself and the management here must be horrible. But then, he had the stankiest, most indifferent attitude that I instantly did not feel bad for his at all… I know he’s by himself, but at least try to be courteous to your customers instead of slamming each dish down and bouncing away as fast as you could before we could even figure who’s dish was who’s.
Anyways, the food was sub par. Nothing special. I got mackerel and they managed to burn that to a crisp… Probably because there was only one cook trying to juggle around a whole restaurant. I literally saw two tables leave because: first there was no one to greet them in the front because the waiter was so busy with others so they sat themselves down, and second because after sitting there for about 15 minutes, still no one came to their tables… So please please please, find somewhere else to eat and don’t get sucked into how nice this place looked on the outside.
Management really needs to get a move on…

Yum! The chef and staff are always attentive and super nice. I love the atmosphere! The food is always fresh and excellent. There is such an extensive menu, we still haven’t tried everything. I highly recommend this sushi place. I read some reviews that said it was expensive but most sushi places in the area are comparitively priced but haradas is way better quality. Try the samurai it comes with so many sides and is enough to feed 2 people! It even comes with a full lobster tail!

This place used to be one of our favorite sushi restaurant. We came in for lunch to celebrate my father’s birthday. We weren’t even greeted at the front door. One of the sushi chef told us to seat ourselves and waited for about 15 mins. There was a group of people at the sushi bar, but the restaurant was not busy at all. No one came by to give us the menu or ask us if we want something to drink. At one point one of us asked if we could have the menu, the server just threw them on the table. We were trying to be patient, but we finally left and went somewhere else. Pretty much the worst restaurant experience ever!

This is a good sushi place. The other dishes are up to standard too. The service is excellent.

I sat at the bar and received indifferent service from the sushi chef. I left the food up to him and was served nigiri, which is great since I don’t like rolls. The chef first served me something which he called Sea Bass. I assume he meant tooth fish and just thought I was an idiot. Next was halibut and I then requested the eel. The fish wasn’t bad, but the rice was quite poor in quality. Perhaps I just had a great day and was expecting too much, but I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I went across the street to Windows and received much better service.

Just popped over for lunch. I hope to God I don’t end up in the hospital. The vegetable roll was fine but the fish — oh dear. I guess if you’re vegan, it’s okay…

Went for sushi on Valentine’s Day. Really terrible service actually no service we stood in the front waiting to be Seated finally went looking for someone to help us got a seat then ordered our food never came so we finally left and went somewhere else

I’m a Chef and love the Industry, the food, especially when it’s Outstanding and completely Authentic. I went to Morro Bay Two weeks ago and found excellent Sushi, extremely Fresh Ingredients, well prepared– attention to detail (even fresh wasabi) Amazing !! And the view! Beautiful. Thank you Harada. Well done.

First off, if I could give this place none or negative stars I would. I downloaded this app and made an account just to warn people of how horrible this place is. My boyfriend and I called at 5 when they opened for dinner to make a reservation and they told us they weren’t busy to just come by (after my experience there I now understand why there was lack of customers) we were seated right away and waited 15 minutes to have our drink orders taken while watching several staff members pass by the sushi bar ahead not attending to us. There were only 4 other parties there a total of 13 customers including my boyfriend and myself so no reason for such a long wait to get out DRINKS. Once we ordered I requested my steak be medium well because I am pregnant. The food came about 20-​ish minutes later and my meat was medium rare at most, it was a bloody piece of uncut steak. The worst part is this $ 35 steak was almost covered in pure fat. Ontop of the food not being cooked to order and its quality being awful for its expensive price, the waitress was extremely rude from the beginning as well as inattentive. The steak was removed from our bill my boyfriend forced down his chicken which he claimed was very salty and chewy and we left. Never going back here again.

Showed up on Sunday, went up the elevator, no hostess. Waited, called out «Hello» «Hello?» «Hello!» Nothing… no one was there. It was past noon so we know they were open but no staff? Not sure what happened. Went down the elevator and over to Off the Hook Sushi down the street. That was good! Check out my other review for info about them.

Spent a long weekend in Morro Bay and had a craving for sushi. Being from LA, I didn’t have high expectations for a small, (seemingly) touristy spot, but I didn’t care. First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that chef/​owner was an OG Japanese guy. Secondly, it was nice to see that he was sourcing much of his fish from the local fisherman. I ordered omakase and put my faith in his hands. In the end, I was very happy with the experience. It wasn’t cheap, but it also wasn’t stupid expensive like some other places I’ve been.

It’s rare to StumbleUpon an outstanding restaurant in the sleepy little town like Morro Bay. The food was over-​the-​top awesome. Seaweed salad was authentic and we special ordered salmon avocado cucumber rolls that were exceptional. Hands-​down the best miso soup my family and I have ever had. Not terribly stoked on the service but it was okay. We will definitely come back to eat here again but most likely on a special occasion because we did end up with a hefty bill — as expected.

This is my favorite sushi restaurant ever! I have been to sushi on the east and west coast and since my first time at Harada’s 14 years ago it always makes me happy. I have actually caught yellow fin and albacore tuna and eaten it the same day and it wasn’t as good as Harada makes it. I go several times a year as a special date with my husband, and we started taking our kids when they were around 4. It’s also their favorite sushi place.
I take guests to California there to try it and that becomes top on their list when returning to CA. Yes it is more expensive than the average sushi place but there is no where I have been in all these years and international travel that serves big chunks of super fresh fish in their rolls with no frill. I appreciate the time they take to make the food and I find Harada very endearing on a slow night. He and his staff are very friendly. If they are busy they are all business and as a business owner I can appreciate that too.
It’s the best sushi I have found and worth every penny. I refer them to any serious foody I know. Yum!

I’ve eaten sushi in many places and feel like I have a good sense of the fare. This place was sub par. The food was just OK. Some of the items like the uni was good, the halibut, sea bass (all recommended) were mediocre. The oyster appetizer was crap. He took 2 extra large (probably gulf) oysters and cut them with scissors into 3 pieces and then seasoned them and served them in some kind of large shell which he obviously reused again and again.
He forgot parts of our order which I cancelled later. Also, the dumpling la we ordered at apps came at the end of our meal. 6 orders of nigiri (12 pieces) gyoza dumplings and 2 oyster apps, 1 big beer and 1 saki, $ 145 all in. I ate crackers when I got home.
Was a $ 60 meal at best.
Won’t go back.

I can hardly take any of the reviewers here who make any mention of tempura, bbq and spicy mayo sauce drenched rolls or edamame beans, seriously.
This place is about the craft of sushi and sashimi and it’s definitely one of the better places I’ve been to, including Nobu, Matsumoto and Eiji.
To the people complaining about how the wasabi isn’t good… you must be used to all the cheap mustard mixed wasabi that comes out of a plastic green tube at other «pop» sushi restaurants. But did you know, the chef actually GRATES FRESH WASABI ROOT right there at the restaurant? Never had fresh wasabi huh?
If you care about simplicity, the ingredients and great cuts of fish please enjoy the time you will get to spend in this restaurant. The time that you’re given to chew your food, talk with your friends or companions, taste the food, smile, look out the window.
If you want a fireworks show with sauces and sauces and more sauces that drown your crunchy rolls with the itty bitty diced up pieces of left over fish stuck with two trick candles that won’t blow out and ending your meal with tempura fried ice cream with hershey’s chocolate sauce and whip cream out of a can, please go somewhere else, because I quite enjoyed my quiet, intimate dinner.