Shougun House

Closed and is now Sweet Basil Thai.
They had their chance and blew it big time.
The new place is actually OK and I will review in my Thai listing in the near future.

Decent but Sushi tasted old!

We found this cosy restaurant while looking for food in RC. There was a jazz/​bossa nova band playing near the entrance and this was what drew me into the place.
Did not get a chance to try the sushi here yet but the nigiri prices seem very reasonable ($ 3.25 for sake/​hamachi). I ordered a karage bento set which is crisp and tender. Miso soup is ok but a little salty.
Love the ambience of the restaurant and the super cool tunes performed by Jazz Friends. The restaurant have music on thursday and friday by different bands apparently.
Food ***
Price ****
Ambience ****
Music *****

I came here when it first opened for lunch. There was no one in the joint. I had the sashimi bento and expected the worst but surprisingly the fish was pretty fresh and tasty. One huge minus was the haphazard way the sashimi was cut, excuse me, sawed through. Normally, unless a plate looks truly heinous I excuse a ton of presentation errors, but sushi is supposed to be a delight for your taste buds and your eyes, or it should be anyway. If you’re not an artful professional you shouldn’t attempt sushi. They also have oysters, of which I am a fan, but they fly them in from the east coast, which the waitress seemed really proud of (?). I cannot comprehend this when there are a handful of great local oyster farms in the north bay. Probably will not go back.

Big sashimi pieces, good ambiance, good food, BIG sushi rolls, sweet oyster bar that is set up outside during Monday Jazz…
Try MIke’s Miketini creations… they are his sake-tinis…sure to make you order a second one…
Family owned place that adds to the whole experience.
AND opened on SUNDAYS !!! you want a stuck up, lifeless experience during your sushi dinner? then go down the street… you want a good time had by all… come here… you may see us at the bar drinking some Miketinis !!!

No connection with Japanese cuisine. I doubt any employees have ever even visited Japan let alone ate at an authentic Japanese restaurant.
Waiters seemed like they just happen to wander in off the street dressed in torn jeans and T shirts. One was wearing a baseball cap and the other a leather jacket. Furthermore, they were totally unprepared for families with small children. E.g., they tried serving my 2 year old a big glass of water filled to the brim. It was downhill from there.

I went to this place a short while ago but I forgot to post a review. As a public serviceI feel compelled to tell people STAY THE H*LL AWAY FROM THIS PLACE.
I like the vibe in the place. The décor is ok and the music is cool. The service was decent. The only complaint I have is a deal-​breaker for a sushi place: THEY SERVED US OLD FISH. Really old. Like, smelled-​like-​trash-​juice old. When the sashimi came out there was a noticeable stench wafting up from the tray. After checking out the various cuts it was traced to the hamachi and the sake. The hamachi had a slight odor but was edible. The sake smelled like it was 4 days old.
My friend ordered some maki and had the same problem, though not as noticeable due to the sauces and other ingredients in the rolls.
Here’s the biggest problem of all: When I complained to the server she tried to tell me «sometimes the fish smells bad because of the direction it gets cut but all our fish is fresh». Um… B.S. Then she brought out new sake that was fresh.
To summarize: They served us old fish even though they had fresh fish under the counter and then they blatantly lied about it.
Screw this place.

I had a subpar lunch at Shougan recently, which brings me to a segment I like to call: «Really, with Dan» *
Really, Shougan? Do you REALLY think cranking super-​loud funk music is good background for Japanese fare? And not good funk, but some sort of bastard child of bad funk, disco, and Muzak! I mean, where did you find this stuff?! REALLY. Are you actually paying to pipe it in? Cuz if so, you are definitely over-​paying. Really.
I was trying to talk to my wife, but it was really hard to concentrate while I was contemplating suicide. Really, it was.
And REALLY Shougan, what is it about the word «hot» that you don’t understand in the phrase «hot green tea?» Are you from an alternate realm where «hot» means: room temperature in Miami? Really, I want to know. Other Japanese places actually serve it about 20 degrees warmer. And it’s much better that way. Look into it.
REALLY, I mean it.
And Shougan, really, do you really think it’s OK to serve two meals at the same table ten minutes apart, but then with only *part* of the food for the second meal, so that I had to wait another 20 minutes for the rest? REALLY? Just checking.
Hey, thanks for giving me some extra CA roll pieces for the trouble, but it had waaay too much rice, not enough filling, and fake crab. It basically sucked donkeys, so I didn’t finish it anyway.
And really, why did our meal take over 45 minutes when we were only one of 3 tables seated? And we got there before that table of six. We really did. You really are incredibly slow. Really, you really are!
Pretty good price point, but I really won’t be coming back for lunch anytime soon. REALLY.
*with apologies to SNL

You just got bumped to 5 stars. Good service good food and good music. Redwood City sucks for it’s food selection. I know. But it sucks. Great for mexican food. Bad for most others. So go here and enjoy it.

I would not want to get in a fight with this Shougun. Too much mayo and mediocre fish do not make for an excellent sushi experience. We got take out from Shougun and although they had great service over the phone the quality of the fish was lacking. I’m not asking for Tokyo quality tuna or even Hawaiian, but man this tuna was so bad we didn’t even finish it. We had one of their scallop specials on top of snapper and it looked like some alien spawn. I can get passed bad looks but the taste wasn’t even there to make up for it. My hunt for sushi on the peninsula continues.

Our usual lunch crew was down 1 person today, so #2 and I decided to head for sushi. I’m not liking the sushi place near work and after reading the reviews decided to give Shougun House a try.
#2 had Unagi Donburi and Hawaiian roll, I had spicy California and tempura hamachi roll. Holy crap, the food was sooo good and we are sooo full. Apparently, on the weekends they have oyster and sake bar. Karaōke on Sunday nights too.
The prices were very reasonable, $ 25 for the two of us, and they have lunch specials Monday through Wednesday! We even got a discount thanks to our trusty work badges… Hooray!
I will never go to the other sushi restaurants in RWC again. This place was great, the food, the service, the atmosphere. Truly a great place to come. We can’t wait to go and see Mark again when #3 comes back from vacation.

Great price for Japanese food. They have a very friendly staff. The sushi chef made me a specialty sushi roll that was really good. It had spicy tuna and tempura shrimp. I like the décor of this place. I hear they have Karaōke and Jazz on weekends. My gf enjoyed the food and we will be coming back to enjoy more.

If you like good Jaz, Cheap sushi, large quantities… and you do not get hung up on service or quality. then this is the place for you.
The music was nice. The prices were very reasonable for the quantity, but nothing I had was that good. It was all just OK. The service here is also on the slow side. very slow.

Nice décor and great service, but not enough to redeem the food. My chirashi’s sushi rice was more like cold rice with a little vinegar (my exact words were, «possibly the worst sushi rice I’ve ever had»), and all the sashimi was cubed up, which I’ve never seen before. The fish itself was decent, so that wasn’t really a problem, but the selection, for chirashi, was somewhat limited (tuna, salmon, mackerel, some tamago egg strips, squid and some other white fish, possibly white tuna). Bf’s beef teriyaki was fine. Water is served automatically; we asked for tea, and got a pot of black (not green) tea, which was unexpected, but we weren’t charged for it at least.
Although I won’t be back (why go back when there are so many better options around?), I’m giving the second star because the service was really nice, and not everything was horrible — it just wasn’t up to par.

I like Shougun House better than the other downtown RWC sushi options: Suisha House, All Season Sushi and Blue Fin Sushi. It’s new, clean and spacious.
The décor and menu are typical for a Japanese restaurant though the walls are quite orange. They have booths and tables, along with a sushi bar area. Prices are quite reasonable. They have salads, various teriyaki items, tempura, chicken karage, chicken katsu, sukiyaki, yosenabe, nigri sushi and sushi rolls. Some of the sushi is made with brown rice.
I started to get a bad feeling when they brought water instead of green tea though.
I had the Spicy Sake Donburi ($ 7.95). It comes with a bowl of decent miso soup with some tiny diced tofu cubes and seaweed. The donburi consists of regular rice (not sushi rice, sushi rice goes better with raw fish) topped with inch thick slices of raw salmon coated in hot sauce, one decorative piece of cucumber, with wasabi and pickled ginger. The portion was smaller than I expected but they were generous with the salmon. The salmon was tender and silky. The dish was simple and tasty. But I think it could use (1) sushi rice and (2) something extra — maybe roe or egg omelette strips. I was still hungry afterwards even though I wasn’t that hungry that day.
For some reason, Main St. gets much less foot traffic than Broadway, so I don’t think you’ll run into a large lunch (or dinner) crowd if you dine at any restaurant on Main St.

Came here with my bf on a Friday night, there was no one in there at all which I thought was odd. The place is decorated SO cute. loved it. The place is family owned and the owner serving us was very nice. The edamame was reallly good but would be even better warmed up! The gyoza was also excellent, probably the best gyoza I’ve had and the dipping sauce was great. The desert is also good, fried banana and ice cream! We wanted alcohol but they dont have their liquor license yet. The rolls were good and they can make them how you want, if you want to substitute any ingredients. Prices were fair. all in all it was a good place.

The food was just ok, our server forgot my miso soup and when she brought out my order it was missing 3 pieces of sushi. How do you forget THREE pieces on an 11 piece order!!! My friend found an ant in her green tea. Now they replaced it and did not charge but an ant in the tea??? I don’t know…
I have had better service and better quality sushi. But for Redwood City this place is just ok.

Solid 4 stars! This place serves up pretty good food at very reasonable prices. I just hope the prices stay that way… and not just for their grand opening special.
The food is not 100% authentic Japanese, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing — because we tried a couple of fusion-​y dishes and they were both excellent.
Will definitely be coming back to this restaurant.

First time this new restaurant in Redwood City. Sushi is great, but still a lot of improvement required on the serving style, and food accuracy, and consistency. House special still need a lot of catch up on the quality of teriyaki chicken or beef teriyaki.
Disposable chop stick need to change to a better quality. If you not seperating the chop tick carefully, you may have the tiny wood poke your hand.
I will try again after … may be a few more month.

New Japanese restaurant opening soon in downtown RWC.