Usuki Japanese Cuisine

Tustin has an abundance of quality sushi restaurants, notably including multiple all-you-can-eat options from Sake 2 Me to Sushi Damu, so the opening or closing of a particular location isn’t typically major news. That explains why Kyoto Japanese Cuisine’s late January 2025 pivot into Usuki Japanese Cuisine may have flown under the radar – new management is quietly bringing new life into the fairly large, decades-old restaurant, which is located in a plaza with neighbors including Flame Broiler, Fresh Off The Boat Fish Grill, Thai Chaiyo, and an eye-catching clinic with a large “Depression” sign out front.

Usuki’s menu consists of two large laminated pages, front-and-back, with a very heavy emphasis on sushi: only one of the sides features appetizers, “kitchen dishes,” and bento boxes prepared away from the restaurant’s oversized sushi bar area. Thirty different “special rolls” are all on the expensive side, ranging from around $17 to $21 each, with a buy-one-get-one-50%-off deal to moderate their costs, while two-piece sushi/sashimi plates generally range from $6.50 to $12, most hovering around $8. Three “combination” options – sushi ($47), sashimi ($56) and chirashi bowl ($53) – offer nine to eleven different proteins with or without rice, effectively chef’s choice/omakase style but with advance disclosure of the fish. Our sushi combination included a bowl of piping hot miso soup, which apparently isn’t a part of a la carte orders.

We were frequently surprised and in some cases impressed by our meal, starting with a plate of salmon sashimi that arrived with super-thick slices of fresh fish and dry ice for a dramatically cloudy presentation – a nice trick that Usuki used less effectively with a $20 Yuzu Scallop appetizer, which included only six small scallops and a lot of empty plate space. One of our two special rolls, the Truffle Calamari Roll, was basically a California Roll with lightly truffle oiled mayo and a portion of fried calamari on top, all of which tasted better than that sounds, while an OMG Roll wrapped California Roll ingredients with two types of eel, spicy tuna, and tempura bits. Neither was fancy, and both were very Americanized takes on sushi, but they tasted great.