Vibe Asian Fusion

Second time coming to this restaurant expecting to enjoy some food with my family and they are not opened! Won’t be wasting anymore time driving over here to give them my money. Luckily there’s more than one AYCE in San Diego! Get it together!

Went there again with my mom, was super excited to show her this place, we got there at 4! By the door was a note saying it opens at 4 weekdays. It was closed and the lady owner said they would open only at 5???
I was starving with a newborn on the car and had to go back home starving!!!
We shouldvr gotten a free dinner for sure, that was a big disrespect!

First off we first came in the restaurant it took us forever to get seat the service is not so great. The food was very skimpy and they didn’t have a lot of the foods on the menu. The vibe of the whole restaurant was very dull. I don’t not recommend this place. Never again.

This place is a hidden nook. I really like the all you can eat sushi. It was a bit confusing at first so I asked the waiter how it works and they did a poor job explaining. I decided to just order regular and not all you can eat. I got the high grab it was good nothing too crazy. My friends ordered the all you can eat and was stuffed. Overall it was an ok place. They don’t have happy hour! Nice clean looking place.

3 stars because the service was shockingly so slow. Expect to wait a while in between the food they serve you. Would have given it 2 stars but the two guys who were serving us were very nice. The food was mediocre but good considering SD doesn’t have many sushi options.

TLDR; Food was good but service was just incredulously bad. I don’t think I will return here until I see their service improving.
Wow, I really didn’t know service was going to be SO SLOW. I arrived at around 7pm and it took over 2 hours just to do two rounds of AYCE sushi. It wasn’t the server’s fault honestly but the kitchen staff. The food was coming out every thirty or more minutes for everyone in the restaurant. While it was prime time for dinner, there were only about 5 tables of small groups that were there and plenty of empty tables. Perhaps they should hire more kitchen staff or re-​evaluate how they should put orders out. I think what they’re doing is finishing each table’s order one at a time, which could be done really fast or slow, depending on the number of people/​food ordered. I have to say though that the server was really nice and apologetic. I felt really bad for him since he was the only one waiting tables.
The sushi was mediocre. I got the AYCE option with nigiri ($ 24.95) and to get your money’s worth I would recommend just getting as many nigiri as you can eat. The rolls have too much rice so you’ll get full easily. The hand rolls had more rice than the fish itself… maybe it was because they were too busy and decided to just stick in one piece of salmon instead of the multiple pieces I have seen here on Unilocal?:(((The escolar was the best nigiri out of all the ones I tried here. IT WAS SO FLAVORFUL AND SOFT! I only had a piece since I didn’t know what it was and wanted to try it before ordering too many of them. But, too bad they ran out by my second round of ordering (like what???) Anyway, the fish tasted pretty fresh and the rice was really tasty– wasn’t soggy or too overcooked. I also ordered spicy garlic edamame and spicy miso soup, both of which took AN HOUR TO COME OUT (UGH). While they were really good, it wasn’t enough to offset the amount of time I had waited to get them. I think I would’ve been able to eat more if the food came out faster. So disappointed with my experience here.

Delicious, scrumptious, all you can eat nigiri. The kalbi burrito is awesome too!
Great place watch some games wth friends, the bar and vibe is great

Vibe sushi is a hidden behind the more well known Manna… I initially liked that it was hidden and had its own parking lot, but that has come to be this restaurant’s biggest downfall.
AYCE sushi is hard to come by in SD, and I have admittedly been spoiled with my previous visits of AYCE sushi. Vibe started out strong– few people, attentive and great service, great rolls and nigiri, and also a nice price.
Since returning, everything has gone down hill, kinda bad the 2^nd-​3^rd time, awful the last time. They have since raised the prices if you want to include nigiri in your AYCE? And now sneakily changing from 2 pieces of nigiri to 1 for the order.
I feel they don’t really want this to be all you can eat as they have reduced the quantity per order and are very strict on the «3 rounds» of ordering.
Our server was wishing he were some place else, either from boredom of an empty restaurant, our existence, or because he was also babysitting two young boys who also didn’t want to be there.
Not sure if we will return anytime soon. The rolls are good, but the service and emptiness makes you kinda feel like you’re wrong to be there. I hope this place shapes up because it was once a great hidden gem!

This is a good AYCE restaurant. Though they have few choices of rolls on it, they are really good. I recommend the albacore special, spicy albacore roll and alba-​alba. They also have bulgoli tacos and gal bi tacos which are really tasty.
If you are anticipating a sports game on tv they also have 4 tvs inside. This is a really must try place. We will definitely go back here.

Stuffed to the brim in the best way after the AYCE sushi here. I got thte AYCE sushi which was about $ 25 per person. The $ 25 option included the nigiri, the option without nigiri was about $ 20 per person. There are 3 rounds of AYCE but some fish such as the halibut and the freshwater was limited to one per person. We ordered lots of nigiri, hand rolls, and the special rolls. Service was pretty consistent and they brought out the sushi spaced out, which was good so we had time to eat the fish we got already while waiting for our other rolls & nigiri. The fish was fresh and you could tell by the colors. For example, the tuna was a nice gorgeous, bright magenta pinkish, red.
Some of my favorites ones was the freshwater eel (the fish was fatty & flavorful), seared tuna, salmon, halibut, and the Great Wall of China roll. The Great Wall of China roll was sort of like a California Roll for the inside, with avocado, tuna, and chili oil umami sauce on top. I’ve never had a sushi roll with chili oil on top, but it actually worked super well because the chili flakes and a fragrant fried chili aroma and added a nice crunch & flavor to the roll. However, there were peanuts in the chili oil, since one of the people I went with was allergic to peanuts, could not eat it. The menu should definitely indicate that because that could be a pretty serious allergic problem for certain people. Other than that, the sushi was fresh, and I was in AYCE sushi heaven. It was super worth it in my opinion because I definitely ate a huge amount of sushi/​fish. I would definitely come back again!

What happened to the quality of this place???
I came here recently after not visiting for a year and the place has gotten noticeably worse. I came on a Friday night after trying to stop by another popular sushi place nearby because I was too hungry to wait an hour and this place had no wait at all. In fact, there were only 3 other tables there when I arrived, which was a total change from last time I was there and the restaurant was 80% full.
The AYCE kitchen menu has had quite a few items removed from it, but I think the nigiri and rolls sections are about the same as before. The quality of the rolls that we got were okay. The fish was of decent quality but some of the rolls were drowning in sauce which made it hard to eat. They also messed up one of our orders and gave us two of the same roll instead of a different roll, but we felt bad about wasting food so we just ate it. Overall, disappointed by the experience and I’m not sure I’ll be returning.

I would come here for AYCE sushi ANY day over any other dumb overpriced sushi restaurant around my place.
Such a great deal. $ 24 AYCE with Nigiri.
We came on a Sunday afternoon around 2pm. I had a gnarly workout that morning and was exhausted and starving, and Vibe definitely hit the spot. We were the only patrons in there, so as I would have expected, service was FAST and on point. Our server was always around just on time to make sure we were ready for our Rounds (you get 3) and that you had everything you needed.
The quality of nigiri as AWESOME!!! Personally, I would skip over the rolls and just do all nigiri, fried calamari, udon, and seaweed salad. YES, it’s all part of the AYCE too! They even have bulgogi tacos on there.
Super stoked with place. Can’t wait to go back. I’d go back by myself, but I don’t want to be judge as the fatass I am. :)

Pleasantly surprised by the quality of the nigiri! We ordered AYCE. I gave up RB sushi for a while after warm fish, small slices, poor quality drove me away from their hillcrest location. Vibe is comparable in price here, around $ 25 if you want nigiri. The cuts of fish are consistent and pretty thick, they don’t bat an eye as you order large amounts, and a bonus is that it is always strangely empty, so service was good. Also, we ordered a ton of salmon nigiri and and at one point it seems that they ran out of the normal stuff and started giving us delcious cuts of really good fatty salmon belly. What! My first time have such melt in your mouth fish. I can’t wait to come back for a carby and omega-​3 rich protein feast.
My faves are tuna, salmon and mackerel. There’s always a special place on my tongue for the unique taste of mackerel, most people cant deal but it’s a really special and delicious little fish :)
Came here a second time, with more friends in tow, and quality was still great. HOWEVER it doesnt seem to be worth eating here unless you do all you can eat. One friend did not order all you can eat and orded some simple rolls. For example the tuna roll was only 4 small pieces that were unevenly cut. Very very strange. Also I dont like the cucumber salad here.

I come for the all you can eat
it’s $ 19 with nigiri and $ 24 without nigiri
it’s convenient that this place is open late and the service is somewhat decent.
i’d come back for the seaweed salad, yellowtail and salmon nigiri, spanish roll, and sashimi salad
yes i love salads

Went here with a big party for a birthday dinner. They seated us in a private room, which was a pretty nice touch. There were tvs in there and felt really intimate with just our party. The service was good, there were two servers helping us throughout our dinner. The prices were really cheap, I think it was for happy hour, but be warned an order of sushi only comes with 4 pieces. I had to order four times to fill me up.
One thing I really didn’t like was how our separate orders were grouped together on one plate. It’s alright if I’m sharing it with a s.o. or something, but it’s just weird sharing with friends much less people you barely know. Sometimes the orders were grouped together and the two people were not even sitting next to each other.

Please Note: They DO NOT do all you can eat sushi anymore.
The girl was nice and let us do it since it was our first time and we didn’t know about the change.
They did mess up our 1^st order (forgot 2 of our rolls) but the guy apologized and they fixed it =)
The sushi was amazing and the waitress was really nice.
We got:
Spider roll
Dragon roll
El Fuego roll
Spanish roll
Great Wall of China roll
Spicy albacore roll
Philadelphia roll
Crunch roll
Salmon hand roll
Spicy tuna hand roll
Miso soup
Tiger roll
Hawaiian roll
(Check out my pictures of each roll)

Unless you’re here for the all you can eat– ordering off the menu is not worth it. Sushi is mediocre, fusion food items like kalbi tacos are delicious, but cocktails are so weak, you wonder if they put anything in there.
Service is very friendly, but inefficient. We came in there on a Friday night– it wasn’t busy at all with probably less than a fourth of the place filled, but the food still took a while and they forgot an item. And it was warmer inside than it was outside– they only started the AC when people asked but even then it didn’t seem to work (been here twice and it’s been like that both times),
If you’ve got time to hang (bring your own bottle– low corkage a plus), an appetite, and can tolerate the heat, definitely come for the Ayce. Otherwise, there are better a la
Carte options in the area.

This was my first time here and it didn’t disappoint at all. The service was great and the food was impeccable. Every piece of sashimi was smooth and soft and their dipping sauce was the perfect combination of sweet and salty.
We got a sashimi plate, a sushi platter, and a spicy seafood stew (codfish, mussel, shrimp). Like I said earlier, the sashimi and sushi were so good and the stew’s broth was very flavorful. This place is a must if you’re around in the area!

Came here on a Friday night around 7 pm with another friend! We were greeted and helped right away, but then we were told that for AYCE all the tables were already reserved. We were then seated at the corner of a high table with bar stools.
As most others have mentioned, advertising is misleading if you don’t read the fine print of «starting with $ 18.95». It was $ 23.95 without tax per person if you ordered nigiri. THIS IS NOT ONLY AYCE. It is also a simple dine in!
There are three rounds that you can order. The server said the first round is unlimited… not sure what she means. But me and my friend went ham and ordered so much during round 1.
What we ordered:
Speciality rolls:
–Albacore special: normal roll with albacore on top, shrimp inside and lots of crab meat
–kalbi lover: I enjoyed the flavor of the kalbi meat! It definitely tasted like KBBQ in a wrap.
–rainbow roll: Standard, nothing special but good serving size.
–vegetable roll: Was a little disappointed – literally lettuce and some other asian vegetables wrapped in rice.
–Alaskan salmon volcano: I can’t rate hard on this and say it was bad (as in health wise) but it was literally drenched in cream cheese/​crab meat/mayo…but it was delicious! Fresh, hot salmon wrapped around the outside.
«Kitchen» {appetizers):
–Fried calamari: Quite disappointing. Tasted like Mcnuggets.
–Monkey balls: Pretty unique! I like it a lot. It’s actually just one piece cut into 4 small pieces.
–Sashimi salad: A small little plate that has quite a lot of sashimi drizzled with ginger sauce. Not bad.
–baked Mussel: Came with two pieces of mussel, topped with mayo and salmon roe
–Bulgogi taco: Had two As my friend describes it, «orgasmic»!
–Kalbi taco: Ditto to bulgogi tacos
Hand rolls:
We ordered two different hand rolls – one with eel in it, and I can’t remember the other one. Overall, too much rice but decent flavor.
Nigiri (each order has two pieces):
–Halibut (1 order per person), Salmon, Red snapper, Seared tuna, Shrimp-​ebi, tuna, white tuna, yellowtail-​hamachi
Overall: I can’t tell fish apart when it’s laid out in front of me, but I really liked the seared tuna and salmon! Pretty fresh for everything. Only critique is that there was no piece of wasabi to hold the fish to the rice so everything was just a mess and falling apart.
Dessert:
FREE Green tea mochi ice cream! Just ask them at the end and they will give you one piece (cut into 4 little ones) for you.
Pros:
–Good service! Everyone was extremely nice and very smiley. Love smiles!
–Nice atmosphere! Definitely modern yet «authentic» looking.
–Rolls were bigger than what I had expected, especially for AYCE!
–Once the food came out, they came out QUICK! You have no way of going back.
–They are pretty lenient with the rice leftovers… I didn’t leave a huge mound, but my friend did and we were not charged. BUT don’t take my word for it! Maybe we just looked really overwhelmed so they cut us some slack.
Cons:
–The only thing that bothered me was that they allowed reserved seating on a Friday night. I feel like it should be first come first serve, especially since me and friend ordered so much but we felt pressured to finish everything so quickly. And we had a little table, so that did not make it feel any better.
Tips/​suggestions:
–Definitely come with an empty stomach if you want to eat a lot! I didn’t eat anything all day (except a protein bar and avocado) and I definitely felt satisfied after this «fatty» meal.
–Parking lot is kind of small, since it is in the same plaza as Manna. Luckily we went before the dinner rush (7 PM???) and got a spot.
–You can ask for eel sauce! Makes everything (especially rice) taste 100 times better.
Overall:
Would come here again if I was craving something fishy, sweet, salty, lots of rice… with a Korean/​American twist!

I think I ate the equivalent of a sumo wrestler’s light snack, but even E Honda’s hundred hand slap couldn’t get me to move any faster as I moseyed home.
Thanks for the AllYouCanEat sushi. These rolls are ginormous and filling, albeit heavy on rice and krab mix. It’s still better getting sushi made to order instead of guessing the freshness of food sitting out at the buffet. I’m kinda bummed that you’re not open at lunch for midday snacking.
$ 23.95 for the entire AYCE menu doesn’t seem so bad considering a hungry person can probably put away some appetizers and a few specialty rolls to make it worth the price. Knock $ 5 off the AYCE bill if you don’t order any nigiri.
Printed on the sushi sheet are the three AYCE rules:
1. Everyone at the table gets charged the same AYCE price
2. Unfinished food, including rice, is subject to additional charges
3. No to-​go boxes
The policy is fair and they’re strict about enforcing it since it helps control their product costs and waste. Order all you want, but finish what you order because you can’t share any or take it home.
Between me and a friend, we managed to power through this feast:
–seaweed salad
–gyoza
–bulgogi & kalbi tacos
–dragon roll
–el fuego roll
–high crab roll
–special abalone roll
–rainbow roll
–super crunch roll
–taka taka roll
–green tea & strawberry mochi (small slices, but free dessert bites)
The restaurant is neat and service is both friendly and efficient. There’s a full bar with available HH specials and TVs to catch a sporty broadcast. Drinks were refilled regularly and empty plates promptly cleared.
Vibe is worth checking out on its own merits, not just because of the wait time at Manna KBBQ.