Jin Japanese Restaurant

So sad to see another GREAT sushi place bite it. It was sold and I was told by a VERY reliable source that the employees didn’t show up after the switch. I will try it at least once to see if they can find a sushi chef that is as good as the previous one.

This place is absolutely delicious!
My husband, father-​in-​law, and I went here on Dec 23 and only ordered nigiri so I can’t speak to the rolls though they did look tasty. We sat at the sushi bar and ordered salmon, tuna, yellowtail, albacore tuna, and fatty salmon and every piece of fish was so tender it practically melted in your mouth. At most places only one type of fish is tender and the others are chewy, but not at Jin — ALL the fish was tender and fresh!
I will say that the albacore tuna had more garlic on it than you will get at most places, so you really need to be a garlic lover for that one. The size of the cuts of fish seemed standard and for the yellowtail the pieces were actually larger than normal (not sure what one of the Unilocal reviews was referring to when they said the pieces were small — that was not the case).
The service was great. Every time my water got low our server refilled it without my having to ask. It was our first time here, and they gave us two free appetizers that were delicious. There was an average number of people there — not overly crowded and we didn’t have to wait to be seated. Parking was easy to find. The bathrooms were clean.
We will definitely be back!

Ordered food for pickup told me it would be ready in 20min showed up in 25min. Made me wait 15min food was completely wrong. One Rainbow roll that for some reason was spicy not really sure what is in it, a hand roll that turned into a full roll that was missing ingredients. If you eat here I don’t recommend that you ever order out. The price is too expensive for your order to be wrong.
Food was mediocre at best, completely disappointed.

Friday night sushi date night. Found this spot on Unilocal.The quality of fish was outstanding! I love sashimi! They have over 20 different types! All fresh all nice size portions. We sat at the sushi bar. Met some cool people. The sake section is by far the largest I’ve seen. Mid to high range. Awesome stuff. I couldn’t get to 5 star bc they were short staffed and service was way way below expectations. There was only 1 waitress. Could be a scheduling issue or some unforeseen circumstance. Non the less. This place we will be coming g back to!

I was in the area and craving for sushi, this place was the closest one from me,
so I went in there… mistake. Really dark, old interior, table is dirty,
everything is so old. and I was hoping, this place has been around for a long time and food might be surprisingly good. Nope! Nothing to rave about this place.
It was busy time and there were only 3 tables, I know why now.
Food is way overpriced for what???
I wish I drove 10 – 15 min and went to descent Japanese restaurant.
Not recommending this place to anyone.
Left there with bad taste in my mouth.

Probably the best authentic Japanese restaurant and sushi bar in South OC. They have a great lunch menu priced right that comes with organic salad, miso and an entrée plate all for about $ 12. At first sight it’s a bit hidden and watch out for the front door (it’ll swing back at you). Once you’re in its an old school vibe and the menus will validate.
Business lunches/​dinners– this is a must!

We came in 10 minutes to close and Irene our server welcomed us with no hesitation. The service and food was amazing and the quality of the food was impeccable! We will definitely be back for more!

This place is close by so we decided to try it. It was just us and the booth next to us, who consisted of VERY annoying adults talking very loudly about sex. In this big restaurant it would have been nice if we could have been seated anywhere else but next to the obnoxious people.
Anyway, the prices there were pretty high and the Happy Hour menu was just ok. The server was overbearing before we ordered, then disappeared once we got our food. I was going to order more food but decided not to.
I would probably not go back here considering there are so many other better sushi options.

I feel I need to defend Jin sushi because it’s getting down voted more than it deserves.
First, let me say the sushi is incredible. My Japanese friends always praise sushi that melts in your mouth, and every piece of nigiri I had here had incredible texture. Everything was buttery and full of that freshness only found in top quality sushi. The part that I like is when the chef seasons each piece so that you don’t even need the soy sauce. Everything was seasoned just right, I really liked the seared pieces and really enjoyed the yuzu on the milder cuts. One bit of weirdness was that we also ordered uni, but they held it back while we finished the other pieces of sushi. I appreciate they want us to enjoy the food in a certain order, but then why not do that for the whole meal, why just the uni? That might just be my hang up, though.
The things Jin can do better is in their interior and their promotion. The restaurant looks like a bar that was converted, but all the décor was kept as is., and there are many TVs playing sports, movies, you name it. The prices here are on par with a higher end restaurant, but the décor screams bargain. It’s a shame. If this place looked like the restaurant in Jiro, I expect the reviews will be very different.
Regarding their promotion, happy hour that lasts from 5:30 to closing isn’t happy hour, it’s just dinner.
So overall, I would give this a solid 4 because what matters to me is the food, but there’s no denying the presentation also counts.

Small restaurant tucked in the corner of a dark Lake Forest shopping center. We came on a Sunday evening and there were only a few other diners. Once we were seated, the waitress informed us that it was happy hour, which was a nice surprise. We were very glad it was happy hour because it would have been a bit expensive for us. The happy hour menu only features limited items and sashimi is not included in that list.
The sushi pieces were very small. My boyfriend ordered unagi and the unagi pieces were so tiny; it was almost laughable. If we paid full price for that, we would not have been happy. I’m not sure if they change the items for happy hour, but that would explain the tiny pieces.
I’ll be heading to a different sushi place for happy hour.

Nothing great or spectacular about this place. Husband and I decided to try this place based on some reveiws. We dined here on a Friday night. there was no crowd. A couple of booths taken, a couple of chairs open at the sushi bar with «reserved» signs, yet no one showed the entire time. All center tables were empty. There were only 2 servers and neither were friendly, attentive or helpful. The sushi was just meh. We tried a bunch nigiri sushi, a couple of rolls off their happy hour menu, and all was just average. Nothing to rave about the food or the service We’ve definitely had much better service and fresher, bigger portions of fish (for the same amount or less charged here) elsewhere. No need to return here.

The Sushi chef is amazing at what he does. A great experience every time we come.
I highly recommend the «Uni, uni, uni», I order it every time. The Uni is some of the best I’ve had. Salmon, yellowtail belly and of course Toro are all delicious!
Very friendly staff and friendly chefs who make us feel welcomed. Great neighborhood sushi bar and Japanese restaurant. We come here once a week. I crave it all week long!

I ordered sushi deluxe for yesterday lunch. The owner chef was on the sushi bar alone with preparing fish. Since I have been there regularly, I was expecting for him to recognize me. However, he was too busy to do his own work. He didn’t even say hello to me. Since I was the only one at the bar and ordered somewhat expensive food for lunch ($ 40), I was still waiting for him to talk to me at least. He was completely ignorant. What an experience! Why do you need to sit in front of the chef then?
Food was also worse than the usual. Nothing deluxe. Now after reading recent reviews on this restaurant, I realized that I wasn’t the only person who had a bad experience with Jin sushi. It’s definitely going down.
I was so mad and told myself that I won’t come back again.

I would NOT recommend this place to anyone! When we went this past Monday, it was happy hour, and there were maybe 10 customers in the whole restaurant, and one sushi chef. We ended up waiting 45 minutes get an order that we never received, we ended up walking out and going to El Pollo Loco instead.
Don’t waste your time or money on this restaurant. They weren’t even apologetic to the poor quality of service nor was there any attempt to make it right.

Trust a fellow (Japanese) foodie. Quality has declined majorly, not worth your time or money.
Ordered salmon skin salad. and they forget the salmon skin! durr.
Tonkatsu: should be Japanese food 101. Theirs was clearly overcooked and dry, but WORST of all. they try to use a knock-​off or homemade tonkatsu sauce that was just plain terrible. wth? Just stick with the classic version. Not to mention the dish took 30 minutes to arrive (in an empty restaurant).
Grilled Kama: ordered, waitress confirmed, but dish never came. ok
Sushi + Chirashi: not bad, but not great. Frankly, just not worth the experience, just go to Mitsuwa and slice your own sashimi feast for half the price. please

Located in the small plaza with parking lot which was created last century for tiny cars. Interior of the sushi place is kind a mixture of sports bar with japanese restaurant with some decorations. Family operated no customer service oriented business. Food is awful. Very expensive for such quality food and service. What all the hype about?

A very disappointing dining experience here. With the prices as high as they are for food, you’d expect your fish to be fresh.
Things we tried:
–Spicy poke bowl
–Chirashi bowl
–Eel avocado roll
–teriyaki chicken dinner set
Nothing was good. The fish in the poke bowl wasn’t very fresh — most of was a lot chewier than it should have been. I gave a few pieces to my mom and she ended up having diarrhea after. The rice was also drenched in vinegar. I couldn’t even finish the rice in my spicy poke bowl because it was like stuffing mouth fulls of vinegar with each bite.
The eel roll also left much to be desired, namely, eel. It was more of a cucumber roll with a tiny piece of eel on top. The eel was definitely not the hero of the dish since it was essentially nonexistant.
The chirashi bowl looked like they just tossed the oldest fish they had on hand onto some rice.
Honestly, nothing was very memorable except having to shell out $ 100 bucks for a disappointing birthday dinner for three.

Yum yum yum yum.
The fish is amazing feels like it was caught a few minutes before you sat down.

The quality of the fish here is really good. Came here during happy hour on a Wednesday (5−7pm), and it wasn’t packed at all. Had more of a dark and intimate interior.
Pros:
++ Sake Don thoughhhh. Sake (salmon) was really good. They give you 8 thick pieces of the regular salmon, and 4 pieces of the belly.
+ Came with a salad (not bad), miso soup, and a bed of rice (really good). Entire meal got me pretty full.
+ Uni wasn’t Ohshima amazing but was pretty good considering the steep price.
Cons:
— Nothing on the happy hour menu looked like that great of a deal (other than the Sapporo), but I’d come back to try it out.
Overall, I can get full off good sushi without completely breaking the bank and that makes me happy.

This is probably the best sushi I’ve had in a long time. SO fresh. My brother was craving sushi and took my sister-​in-​law and me here. We ordered all of their favorites appetizers including Agedashi Tofu, Fried Oysters, and Grilled Yellowtail Collar. The agedashi tofu was soft with a savory broth. The fried oysters (my sister-in-law’s favorite) were crispy (probably my least favorite of everything we ordered, but it was still really good!). The grilled yellowtail was tender and moist on the inside, with a nice crunch on the outside – super tasty.
As for sushi, we ordered: Spider Roll, Sake Tataki (Seared Salmon), Albacore Tataki (Seared Albacore), Hirame (Halibut), Maguro Tataki (Seared Tuna), Kanpachi (Amber Jack), Unagi (Fresh Water Eel), and Saba (Mackerel). Everything was so fresh and yummy. Each piece came with a generous slice of fish and melted in my mouth. My favorites were the Sake Tataki and the Unagi. I also loved their wasbi. For some reason it was very fluffy – like it was whipped. Will definitely come back again when I’m in the area!