Drunken Monkey

To borrow a famous line from an incredibly witty snl lady from (the 90’s?)…
I LOVE IT… I LOVE IT… I LOVE IT !!!
enough said.
just go.
its so yummy and the goto place for just hangin out and eating really fresh and fun sushi.

Delicious signature creations, excellent quality fish (using the words «fresh fish» in a sushi review is incorrect as all raw fish used for sushi/​sashimi is frozen before its served. That’s a law and for good reason. With food, frozen and fresh have opposite meanings therefore there’s no such thing as «wow that sashimi was so fresh»!)
This place is great! Go here, over and over. It’s always good and always a fun spot.

Ate here and got food poisoning. Then, if that wasn’t enough, got home from vacation and discovered our checking account had been debited twice for our meal. Double ouch! The cause of food poisoning may have been the ginger.

The sushi here is fantastic. But it doesn’t just end there, they have a variety of appetizers, noodle bowls and cooked dishes to delight anyone’s tastes. The chefs sometimes will offer off-​menu rolls when they aren’t too busy, which is fun. I recommend any of the nigiri, which is always fresh and the sierra sunset roll.
I come here often because its some of the best sushi town. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars, is that if the restaurant is busy, and you come with 2 people instead of 4 and do not want to sit at the sushi bar, they won’t give you a 4 top table, even if its open. Perhaps standard practice at some restaurants, but I don’t encounter this often.

I love the name of this restaurant :) The service was great. The waitress was very friendly and nice to us and made sure our needs were met. The food tasted great. The portions were small, but that was good for me because I could have easily over eaten. This was the first time I used chopsticks to eat dinner, and surprising I did well. Their chop sticks work better than the cheap ones you get from Safeway. I would come back next time I’m in Truckee.

This little gem used to be a favorite, but things have clearly gone down hill. I ordered the chefs sashimi plate $ 29 for 15 pieces … That’s about $ 2 per slice. Not bad if they are decent size. My order arrived and the slices were not only small, but super thin. In the past, this dinner order would fill me up, but I left hungry and irritated. The service was a little dicey too… friendly, but I had to ask for everything. Can I get some water? Can I get some ginger? Can I get more water please? Can I get my check? Nobody checked on me … Weird since it was early and they had a full staff, but the wait staff were busy socializing.
Too bad! They used to be great…

We came with a party of four on a Friday afternoon at 1pm. We were seated right away.
Very nice inside with 80s music which I like:-)
Service was good.
The food
Nasu miso-​shigi (braised Japanese eggplant in sweet ginger miso) — 4 stars — lightly sweet, tender. Very good
High monkey maki (tempura shrimp/​avacado inside, topped with albacore, cilantro, Serrano chilies) — 3.5 stars — good flavor. Chilies were hot. Would like a little bigger shrimp in the roll.
Dreaming monkey (rock crab/​cucumber/​avocado topped with hamachi/​ahi tuna/​salmon) — 3 stars — solid roll. Wish the fish pieces were bigger
Friend got beef phở and said it was a bit bland.
Next time I will try the yakiniku grilled beef donburi rice bowl. My friend got the roasted char-​shu pork and it looked delish. She said it was amazing.
I would come back as it is the best sushi we have had in Truckee.

Does it make sense to make a party of 2 wait for 15 mins while there are 5 empty tables for four?
Secondly, why tell us 5 min wait for a table for 2 when clearly every table for two just started to order?
Just saying…
They do have really good food here.

We had an unexpectedly great meal last night at Drunken Monkey. The fish on the chirashi was amazingly fresh and delicious. The noodle dishes (ramen and pan-​seared) were also really tasty. Kids and adults were both very happy.

A local recommend this restaurant. The sushi was fresh and tasty. We ordered a spider roll, dreaming monkey and Sierra sunset. They were delicious. Our sushi chef Ian was very friendly. We sat by a guy who travels here once a month and he always comes to this restaurant. Everybody knew his name and said hello/​goodbye to him when he came in/​left. The only thing negative thing, I have to say is that the miso soup had a lot of very odd things in it but I’m a picky eater.

Tired of incredibly poor to non-​existent service. Today was the final straw… Sat at a table and ignored for over 10 minutes. After the hostess seated me, I sat there unable to get noticed, no water, no order, no service at all.
COME ON MAN. It’s not a fast food cheap restaurant. Your service needs to match your food…
GET IT TOGETHER.

Hands down best food I’ve had in a LONG time. We shared a lot of food, from the spiced edamame to several different rolls we enjoyed it all! The martinis were different and tasted so good! My favorite dishes were the two tapas we got– the ginger chicken (don’t recall the name) and the beef (don’t recall the name). Both meats were cooked exquisitely and the vegetables that accompanied them were so good!
The wait staff was a little off, but it was a busy Saturday night. We sat at the sushi bar and ordered rolls through the sushi chef and there must have been some lost communication, but it didn’t effect the quality of the meal or the time that much. It is more pricey, but so worth it.
The atmosphere is awesome and I loved the décor.
I’m so glad I got to experience this food while visiting Truckee.

I was visiting Truckee for a few days and unfortunately I got super sick on the 2^nd day. All I wanted on a very sick, cold, Sunday night was to pick up a bowl of ramen to try and feel better. I called Drunken Monkey to place an order and was told the kitchen was too busy to accommodate a takeout order. After pleading my case and my willingness to wait, the young, female, mildly rude hostess told me no.
Total bummer that in a local, community-​driven town, she couldn’t step it up for me.
I come to Truckee 3 – 4 times a year for work and because she sucked I’ll never stop at this place.

Our area is awash in Sushi choices, some good, many decent, but few that would qualify as great.
AYCE sushi is the expectation for most establishments, but to provide that experience, you need to control costs closely if you want to provide a better than average experience.
Drunken Monkey is not AYCE and the quality they can provide as a result is at a different level.
I had been hearing about Drunken Monkey for some time now, but the rhetoric was amped up in the last few weeks as a couple local foodie icons hammered social media with drool worthy pics and outlandish praise.
I was, to say the least, a bit intrigued. I like sushi. Ok, I kind of love it. A good portion of my dining budget annually goes towards funding my ability to stuff raw fish down my neck. The catch? I rarely make it up to Truckee since it is over an hour commute from Carson City.
I have traveled all over and have experienced sushi on several continents. The best to date I have had in North America was in of all places, Boise, ID at a place called Shige’s (but that is a review for another day).
I had the opportunity this week while coming back from an impromptu trek to Sacramento to stop in Truckee and made coming to Drunken Monkey a priority.
I was not disappointed.
From the moment you sit down at the handcrafted sushi bar, you can sense that a different level of care has been taken here. There is a pride in what they do here that is reflected in how the place is organized, how the fish is handled and how the chef’s work.
The sushi menu is simple with all of the traditional Nigiri, Maki and good selection of sashimi items that you would expect in a traditional Japanese Sushi restaurant. They do have a few Long Roll selections which although not traditional, are definitely in the spirit of real sushi.
We ordered a couple Nigiri (hamachi and sake) items to get a feel for the quality of the fish and rice (rice is so important to good sushi, and so many people underestimate how much the quality and preparation of the rice impacts the sushi experience).
I start with Hamachi and Sake at all new sushi places for a reason, you can’t hide their quality. Due to their fat content, both of these fish should begin to «melt» as soon as they hit your warm tongue. There should be no «fishy» taste, only a creamy buttery taste of clean ocean. These did not let me down.
The rice, oh the rice… Hands down, the very best sushi rice that I have experienced. Perfect texture, just the right amount of vinegar and served at the right temperature. I could order just the rice for a meal and be content.
Once I was convinced the quality was there, it was time to go full «Omakase» and trust the chef to provide a great selection of choices, including an amazing long roll with Hamachi, Salmon, Scallops and a daikon slaw that was so amazingly full of umami that I kept tasting it on it’s own to try and understand it flavor components.
The chef then offered up an order of scallop nigiri to showcase how good the scallops are. These are dry packed fresh scallops that they order in from the Boston area and they are easily the best scallops that I have ever tasted in any form. They were served with a little chili oil and finely sliced scallions and they blew my mind.
In all we had about 5 orders of Nigiri, one long roll and a grilled Salmon collar between 2 of us and spent about 25% more than we would have at our favorite AYCE Sushi place in NV for a much higher quality experience.
This may have been my first trip to Drunken Monkey, but it certainly will not be my last.

Found this place on the trusty Unilocal app. Walked in and order take out. Waitress was nice and pleasant and engaging. Crowd was predominantly Caucasian and that struck me as odd. I guess in Truckee, i was a minority. Anyhows, menu is straight forward. Ordered char siu donburi, chicken teriyaki, crystal salad roll and the dreaming monkey. The char siu was really dark, although it tasted fine, I’m just used to the chinese char siu for comparison. The crystal salad roll and the dreaming monkey were ok. Loved that they used real crab and not the imitation but knife work is very shoddy and the sashimi was sliced very thin. Wasn’t impressed with it. The spider hand roll was ok but the Mayo dressing they used was weird tasting. All in all, i don’t know if I would go back here but may try other restaurant in the complex.

Food is EXCELLENT. Melt in your mouth sushi, super-​fresh. The other plates are great too. If you have a family where some want great sushi and others want nothing to do with sushi, this place will fit them perfectly. It’s expensive but WORTH it. Definitely my new go-​to dinner place in Truckee. Great service in spite of being so crowded. They don’t take reservations so plan to wait even up to 30 minutes (take a walk and enjoy the night skies).
Good for families and kids.

First time at the Drunken Monkey!
This place is awesome! I had the Singapore street noodle entrée, vegetarian style (tofu cubes). The others had California rolls, the famous monkey calamari, and Drunken Monkey Maki. Everyone loved their dinner, even the kids — ages 9 and 11.
I tried to take photos, but the food was gobbled up too quickly for my sluggish camera skills. Not to mention that I was too busy gobbling myself!
Even though I don’t eat fish, there is none of that imitation crab meat crap here; they give you the real $h*t!
The atmosphere is great too. Lots to look at!
We sat in the corner booth with the tall table. The only thing that could be improved is the height of the seating in that booth. It seemed that the cushions needed to be restuffed. I had to sit on my ski jacket to be at a comfortable level to eat. Okay, so if you knew me, you would say it’s because I’m short. But even my taller friend had to do the same thing!
This is a place that deserves a return visit. Too bad we live 5 hours away!

We ordered some donburi, hoping to get some authentic Japanese food, but just like most of other ethnic food restaurants in Tahoe area, they are not authentic at all. If you are OK with Americanized rice plates with a lot of sweet vegetable and dry pork/​beef on top, then this is for you. No real cha shu or yakiniku. One of my friends even got a little bit nauseas because of the sweet sauce here…
The Singapore street noodle is OK, and the tempura is good except it does not come with tentsuyu, Instead it’s served with mayo.

My 3 stars means I’ll eat here again and definitely a must try destination place. We were seated within the estimated 45 minute wait time, albeit we chose to take the opening at the bar, had we waited for a table it would have been longer than 45 minutes. We had the pork ramen, good hearty broth with kimchi and roasted garlic, I would order this again. The udon tempura, also good, but ask that the tempura be served on the side, unless you like soggy tempura. The Singapore noodles was good as well, will try the
hor– fun on the next trip. The atmosphere is warm, staff is friendly and efficient. Great to know that Tahoe has a restaurant that serves up this caliber of food. I always expect heavy bar food, Mac and Cheese, Hamburgers or subpar Asian eats up here. I didn’t leave here feeling overly stuffed or salt induced.

Returned in our final night in Truckee. The waiter, Kameron, remembered us (and did not wait on us our first visit), even remembered the Sushi order I had.
I had the Brisket Ramen this time and my wife had the Yakiniku Grilled Beef Donburi. I added a couple orders of Maguro sushi. Excellent.
It will be a place to visit again when we return.