Kai Lounge – Sushi Bar & Kitchen

Ok…my partner (TAVi Art) and I met here for our anniversary dinner. TAVi asked the chef, Tin, to be creative and design rolls & sashimi for us to try. It is insane food! We had a number of plates that had flavor, texture, colorful, and exotic. I highly recommend this new restaurant at Pacific City and stop by to see TAVi Art along the way. Grateful for the new restaurant.

Chef Tin is passionate about his sushi and sashimi. And with that being said you will definitely not be disappointed. Top quality fish, the combination of flavors and techniques in his dishes/rolls are superb!!! Notable things to try would be the Tempura Rock shrimp, Japanese Black Cod, and Tins oysters. And for Sashimi…just Omakase that and it will be worth every penny. Great service and recommendations from our Waitress, Tammy as well!!! Such an accommodating waitstaff team.

Great sushi rice. Warm and fresh!! The miso soup has a unique flavor. Taste like a woody mushroom. I’m a fan. Good cocktails. Nice staff. Kylee and Candice up front seem to run the show and do a great job! Thanks for the hospitality.

Food was wonderful, great flavors. We were also very impressed with the service and ambiance. We will definitely be going back.

nancy A

Went around dinner time on Saturday night. It wasn’t too busy. They seated us right away. Very lovely atmosphere. Greeter and our server were very friendly. The food was amazing! We ordered the salmon delight roll and the balboa roll. I’m usually not a sushi person not that ambitious but decided to give it a try and they did not disappoint. I would definitely recommend eating here and would come back again if I’m in the area. Although one tiny gripe was my friend said the wasabi was alittle weak. Other than that everything else was great.

Fili Esquivel

Great food, great ambiance, and the service was outstanding! Our server was on it the whole time catering to us. Glasses were never empty. Food was coming out at a great pace, giving us time to enjoy the plates. I can say I was impressed with the pork belly buns as they had many flavors ranging from, ginger, cilantro, and mint with the pork flavor made this a favorite. The fried rice was so good it gave me ideas of ingredients to add to my own with a great range of flavor. Also on the list was the HB roll, which was very good and the balboa roll with a flavor all its own and not to miss. Stuffd jalapeños were on a different level with fresh seafood in it giving it a great simple fresh taste. Photos attached.

Amber Steeves

This gem is tucked in the back corner of level two in pacific city, absolutely gorgeous entryway and decor. The menu has a little something for everyone, we ordered from both the dinner and raw menus. The food waa delicious, the drinks were tasty, our server was friendly and attentive. We had reservations for a Saturday evening and had a very short wait for our table.

Mar Sol

Our server was great even made us chuckle a few times. The two plates we had were delicious. I appreciated that the fried rice wasn't a huge serving. This allowed me to go downstairs and enjoy an ice cream from the ice cream shop. The restaurant itself is beautiful.

Becky George

We easily made reservations and were seated immediately. The restaurant wasn’t too busy at all and we were given direct attention from the waiter/waitress. The food was actually really good and a wide drink menu. Definitely get the baos, some of the fluffiest bao buns I have had!

Kim Nguyen

We came here to celebrate a friend’s birthday on a Sunday night and sat at the sushi bar. Service: 11/10 Not only was the servers on top of their game the sushi chef was attentive, entertaining and made us feel so special. Food and drinks: unbelievable. Best omaske I’ve ever had in Orange County. Every creative drink menu. Perfect place for date night. Decor: let my video and pictures speak for itself. Can’t wait to come back again on a Friday or Saturday and try the whiskey bar.

Jeff

Came in late on NYE with a small group and had a great dining experience. The service was initially a bit slow. We seated at 815 and last call was supposed to be 845(pushed to 9). It was 825 and the server had not come back to take our order yet so we started prepping to build a large order in case we run in to the cut off time. When our server arrived she was super friendly and let us know that she would take care of us no matter the time restrictions, including alcoholic drinks. She said she would go back and make them herself if need be. The food was delicious!!! We ordered almost good variety of rolls for the table to share and they were all delicious. My favorite would probably be the Newport. Can’t wait to come back.

Tyler Diep

I sat at the sushi 🍣 bar and really enjoyed the company of the chefs. This is definitely not the traditional sushi restaurant. Traditional sushi is very light on flavor so you can taste the freshness of the fish. At Kai, every bite is packed with flavor so this is a different way to serve sushi. The staff service was good. Interior design is nice. I would definitely come back and take a few friends.

Imad Dahdoul

Exceptional sushi—amazingly fresh with great service. This place deserves a spot on your must-visit list for fine dining. It’s priced very reasonably at 3 out of 5 dollars, making it a fantastic value. Honestly, it’s at least as good as Nobu, and I even liked it better. Far superior to Katsuya, in my opinion. A must-try for your next sushi craving!

Karan Khurana

This place is a must go for sushi lovers. High quality fish and amazing nigiri preparation by the sushi chef. He really knows what he's doing. We will definitely try the omakase next time since the chef really puts a lot of thought into his creations. Even the regular menu items are great. We had the hamachi crudo and a couple carpaccios as well. All super fresh and delicious. The watermelon pork belly salad was an interesting surprise as well. Great food all around!

Brian B

Ok…my partner (TAVi Art) and I met here for our anniversary dinner. TAVi asked the chef, Tin, to be creative and design rolls & sashimi for us to try. It is insane food! We had a number of plates that had flavor, texture, colorful, and exotic. I highly recommend this new restaurant at Pacific City and stop by to see TAVi Art along the way. Grateful for the new restaurant.

Hoang Nguyen

Chef Tin is passionate about his sushi and sashimi. And with that being said you will definitely not be disappointed. Top quality fish, the combination of flavors and techniques in his dishes/rolls are superb!!! Notable things to try would be the Tempura Rock shrimp, Japanese Black Cod, and Tins oysters. And for Sashimi…just Omakase that and it will be worth every penny. Great service and recommendations from our Waitress, Tammy as well!!! Such an accommodating waitstaff team.

John Snedegar

Great sushi rice. Warm and fresh!! The miso soup has a unique flavor. Taste like a woody mushroom. I’m a fan. Good cocktails. Nice staff. Kylee and Candice up front seem to run the show and do a great job! Thanks for the hospitality.

Whitney Bilbao

We really liked everything here! Good fish and drinks. Jason was the kindest server.

This is orange county’s best kept sushi secret. They are empty. The food is delicious. Be patient with the staff as they are always understaffed but the sushi is worth it!! Had the Kai roll for more sushi experience and the salmon garlic roll for something different. Loved both!!

We took our family of 5 out for a birthday celebration and had a great time. The food was delicious and we had great service. Only one order was an upsell mistake, but otherwise everything else was perfect.

I was completely amazed by the exceptional quality and quanity of the food served. We were a party of 6 and everyone found the lunch exceptional. The restaurant only had a few patrents and this restaurant deserves our local support. You will be very please by this sushi restaurant.

Michele Briggs

We took our family of 5 out for a birthday celebration and had a great time. The food was delicious and we had great service. Only one order was an upsell mistake, but otherwise everything else was perfect.

Mickey Bennett

I was completely amazed by the exceptional quality and quanity of the food served. We were a party of 6 and everyone found the lunch exceptional. The restaurant only had a few patrents and this restaurant deserves our local support. You will be very please by this sushi restaurant.

Went for graduation dinner, made reservations and a note. They ignored it. Wait staff blamed the cooking staff for the wait times, wait staff was TERRIBLE. Had to reorder food MULTIPLE times. Salmon came with bones still in it. Food is CRAZY over pretentious, small portions and priced for the location. We’re local, this place is crazy overpriced. There are 4-5 other places with lower price points and better service. Honestly I’m embarrassed I tipped.

Gabriel Rodríguez

Went for graduation dinner, made reservations and a note. They ignored it. Wait staff blamed the cooking staff for the wait times, wait staff was TERRIBLE. Had to reorder food MULTIPLE times. Salmon came with bones still in it. Food is CRAZY over pretentious, small portions and priced for the location. We’re local, this place is crazy overpriced. There are 4-5 other places with lower price points and better service. Honestly I’m embarrassed I tipped.

The service was slow but there were only two servers on a Saturday night. The portions were small for the price and the sodas were not refillable which was not told to us from the beginning.

We only saw our server twice. We never got refills nor could any of us order a second cocktail, because she couldn't be found. Also, No one came around to see if we needed anything after our meals were served, so we just did without. Our meal portions were comically small. Looked like a Barbie sized portion.(which, btw, came an HOUR after we initially ordered. Wednesday night was NOT busy, so no excuse) Finally, in exasperation, some of us got up to go on a search for our server so that we could finally pay and leave. We had to sit at our table for almost 3 total hours when most of us wanted to leave after 1.5 hours. We literally just sat there, uncomfortable and sighing. NIGHTMARE. I think I can speak for all 6 of us, we WON'T be back.

sharde santini

The service was slow but there were only two servers on a Saturday night. The portions were small for the price and the sodas were not refillable which was not told to us from the beginning.

Kelly Craft

We only saw our server twice. We never got refills nor could any of us order a second cocktail, because she couldn't be found. Also, No one came around to see if we needed anything after our meals were served, so we just did without. Our meal portions were comically small. Looked like a Barbie sized portion.(which, btw, came an HOUR after we initially ordered. Wednesday night was NOT busy, so no excuse) Finally, in exasperation, some of us got up to go on a search for our server so that we could finally pay and leave. We had to sit at our table for almost 3 total hours when most of us wanted to leave after 1.5 hours. We literally just sat there, uncomfortable and sighing. NIGHTMARE. I think I can speak for all 6 of us, we WON'T be back.

Kayla Torres

Very poor service waiter never came to wait on us more than twice we had to call her over after an hour we had reservations and weren’t seated for 20 minutes although there were multiple tables open, we kept watching our waiter interacting with everyone but us after an hour and a half we got our appetizers and it was cold and stale because it was a fried dish and the miso soup was gritty and very salty and cold ,then after another thirty minutes asking the waiter what taking so long she tried to tell us that the sushi chef was leaving if we wanted anything else and we said no so they did give us the omakaze on the house but it wasn’t the full dish then finally after another 30 minutes we got our two sushi rolls but they were plain and not what was advertised and the waiter never came back so we weren’t able to get any condiments and then we still had to flag her down to get the check. The validation for parking wasn’t for more than two hours so we had to still fight to get free parking as advertised due to us being over two hours. The manager never even came out to apologize although the waiter told us she spoke to the manager. All in all the worst experience. Price was awful as well for what we received. Will not be recommending this spot to anyone. If I could put zero stars I would. Very disappointing.