Taiyo

I’ve never really seen this place too crowded. The staff members so far have all been very nice and super friendly.
The patio is very tiny so if you are more than a party of two I wouldn’t suggest it. The inside is very small as well. They also have three little booth seats that are inside of these little boxed rooms with Asian sliding doors. Sitting inside them is really fun, but getting inside of them and then out is no bueno and super awkward.
The sushi is really good here and you can pick either brown or white rice!
Love the tofu salad! It is so light and fresh!
Plum wine is also really good as well!

I was so sad when Amagi’s closed down at the Gower Gulch until I discovered Sushi Taiyo. Really great sushi and at a reasonable price too! Check out their lunch specials for a great deal.
Their baked scallop roll is mouthwatering good! Also make sure to try their yellow tail carpaccio for a delicious, fresh, and light seaweed & yellow tail salad.
Their sushi & special rolls are all really good here, you can’t go wrong at Sushi Taiyo.
Want to bring your pup along for lunch? No problem, Taiyo is pooch friendly. However, there are only about 4 outdoor tables and the space is kinda small so make sure you call ahead or walk by to make sure there is enough space for you and your pup.
Definitely one of my all time faves! You can find me here during my lunch break at least once a week :)

I come to sushi Taiyo at least once a week. I love the ambiance, the people, and I must say you get a lot of «bang for your buck».
For example, let’s take a couple of standard rolls like the spicy tuna roll and the rainbow roll. At whole foods they are roughly $ 7.95 and 11.95 respectively. At Sushi Taiyo the prices are a mere $ 5.50 and $ 9.75… Win! And the sushi quality far surpasses Whole Foods. As an added bonus you get a fabulous ambiance, private dining booths, and kick ass wait staff.
I’ll be back… time and time again.
Also, their chardonnay by the glass doesn’t completely suck — especially if you drink a lot of it.

Sushi Taiyo is amazing!
Right next to the UCB theatre, so you can grab a quick drink/​roll before a show.
It’s super cute — mood lighting, sushi themed clocks and private booths equipped with doors, gives a unique dining experience.
I especially recommend the baked salmon roll and the seaweed salad. delicious.
Also, the service here is AWESOME. I had Natalie and Julie and they were both fast and super friendly. Always sensing when I need something, they are always there to help.

Cozy little place next to the improv studio called Upright Citizens Brigade. It’s excellent to come here when waiting for the next show to grab a beer or a few rolls.

This place is just ok for me. Probably not eat there again to be honest as there are better eating options in the neighborhood.
The food is just a little above average, I’ve had better (also had worse). They have some kind of private booths inside which seem interesting. But I always like to sit outside when I eat wherever possible. They have a small patio, but the location of it sucks. There is always a long line of people standing outside waiting to go into the comedy theater. I mean like constantly all evening. It is not a good vibe to have a quiet bite to eat and a drink, when you have a line of about 60 people standing right there watching and looking at you.

The food here is sub Japanese restaurant in the mall status but the staff is super cool and the restaurant itself is really nice.
Everyone who works here was great and I really like the private booths but the food was just inexcusably bad. I am assuming no self respecting Japanese people work here, or if they do, they must think that no one knows this food is more like dog food than Japanese food.
If the food here was good, I would go out of my way to eat there but the food itself fails on every level. However, if you love the Japanese food you can get in malls across America… stuff like Teriyaki Chicken that tastes like microwaved meat and sushi that looks like yesterday’s lunch take out, then this place would work for you because it is a cool environment in a nice part of town.

I love this place! The best I’ve had in LA, and we are gluten free dairy free so we eat Jap a lot. Always fresh, specialty rolls are always filling and you feel you definitely get your money’s worth. Miso is perfect, edamame so tender you can even eat the fleshy parts on the outside of the pod.
Open til 1am fri and sat which is awesome. The dragon roll has a very generous serve of eel, is tender and melts in your mouth. The baked salmon roll melts too, but be prepared lots of delicious creaminess: when the menu says sauce it really means it!
Always leave feeling really happy and satisfied.
Also their lunchtime specials are the bomb.
Parking can be hard in this area, but if you are patient and do the block a few times u can generally find someone leaving.
Brilliant food, charming fast service, great presentation, clean cute comfortable and stylish setting. Thanks Taiyo!

I just came out of review-​writing retirement to say… Eight customers in the place and 30 minutes later, no food. Even though I told them I was in a hurry. Give this place a pass unless you don’t want to eat.

Came here for the first time the other night, and there are 2 reasons that would make me come back here:
1. There hours are great. Unless I’m blind, there seem to be very few sushi places open past 10ish during the week. So the fact that they’re open until midnight during the week and 1am on the weekend is a plus.
2. They offer the ability to substitute any of the rice in the sushi for brown rice. Being able to eat out and keep things on the healthier side is yet another plus.
Otherwise, the sushi was fine, nothing over the top amazing, but I was definitely happy and satisfied. The prices couldn’t be considered cheap, but it also wasn’t expensive.

I’ll be honest; I’ve walked by this restaurant probably a bajillion times and never realized it was there. Not quite sure why, as it’s not exactly hidden — it’s right between UCB and Birds!
Our server was SUPER sassy; which I appreciated — I think. It’s always sort of a rarity in this town to get a waiter with personality, (ha!) and this guy was definitely fun, and was enjoying serving a table of girls. He even made great drink recommendations (honestly, the watermelon mojito was one of the best drinks I’ve had in recent memory! at a sushi restaurant? shocker!)
As for food; I wasn’t really that hungry so I just had a shrimp tempura roll, which was pretty standard, and a salad which was about 5x larger than the typical starter salad of wilted greens and that delish ginger dressing you get standard at any sushi place. So pleased!
Prices are standard, seating, as others have mentioned, is definitely more apropos to parties of 2, but I went on a Saturday night and the place was fairly deserted, enough for us to be seated immediately in one of the fun little ‘private’ tables for four, located on the side of the restaurant but separated with move-​able screens. Very cozy!

This time around the service and the food were much better. I was starting to get bummed out that I couldn’t come here since it’s so close to my place and I always want seafood, but now my faith has started to get restored in a place I have grown up loving. I don’t love it again, but I sure did like what I had tonight!
I’m iffy on some of their nigiri– it was good and fresh, but the texture was slightly rubbery. However, my unagi and my halibut were perfect. Could have had the miso soup be hotter, but other than that, quite yummy.

I’ve walked that little stretch of Franklin so many times I should be embarrassed that I did not notice Taiyo sooner. Whether drinking at Birds, crate digging at that crummy record store, or beer shopping at Oaks, somehow I overlooked this place. Alas, in my never-​ending quest to familiarize myself with sushi, I decided to give it a shot. If you’re just reading this review for a base-​level reaction, I’ll simply state that I had a decent meal but I don’t know if I’ll eat here again.
In my other sushi reviews I’ve mentioned the years I spent frightened by the thought of eating sushi. I have an innate fear of contracting food poisoning, and in my admittedly immature, neuroses-​ridden mind I equate raw fish with gruesome illness. It would seem fitting that an Americanized sushi joint like Taiyo would be perfect for me. I could order baked rolls without fearing for my life, and if I liked them, I might feel adventurous enough to try something raw.
The kamikaze roll (California roll topped with baked halibut, jalapeño and spicy mustard sauce) was really good. The scallop roll is nearly identical but without jalapeño. Same spicy mustard sauce and baked fish atop a California roll. Once I had tasted the baked fish and my anxiety level had subsided, I decided to look at the regular sushi list. I definitely was not going to try anything with roe. Clearly I’m not afraid to face my fears when the situation calls for it, but heaping mass of fish eggs is an entirely different story. That just sounds unappetizing.
Spicy anything is good as far as I’m concerned. Albacore, scallop, you name it, if it’s spicy I’ll give it a shot. The Kane (blue crab) was really good. Oddly enough, shellfish preparedness doesn’t worry me as much as it should. My most daring order of the evening was the sea urchin. It tasted pretty bad, but not in an «off» way, just an unflavorful way. Unflavorful? Did I just make a word up? Whatever, this is Unilocal,no one will notice.
The atmosphere, at least when I was there, was very cool and comfortable. If you’re lucky enough to score one of those booths with the sliding doors, you might even wind up having quite an intimate meal with friends or a loved one. The prices are reasonable, the service is fine, and the location is great. That said, what is served at Taiyo is a very Americanized rendition of sushi, so those of you who want the freshest, finest fish and more traditional options could leave here disappointed. For beginners like me it provides a good first dalliance into the world of sushi.

I tend to agree with Stephy S’s review.
The location is amazing. It’s great to have a sushi spot in Franklin Village that offers an alternative to its Italian and Bistro neighbors.
But the sushi doesn’t really deliver. The scallop and eel rolls were decent. The New York specialty roll should be taken off the menu. The salmon roll wasn’t fresh.
The seaweed salad was not very fresh and no comparison to the deliciousness served down the way at Shintaro.
The cool thing about this place is the ambiance. The have private booths and good service. Maybe stick to the Teryaki and other hot dishes.

The portions of the lunch combo are highly Americanized. The salad alone constitutes a full meal, but in order to please our larger than life selves, Taiyo throws in a bowl of miso soup and box of rice with a little fresh fish on top. And all for a whopping $ 9! The special is available every day, not just during the week. The food is fresh even though it’s delivered in a manufactured manner. The dressing on the salad is sweet and tangy; I wanted it to last forever.
They have a private room in the back for larger parties (most of their seating is catered to two-​tops). It fits nicely into the United Nations of food options that is Franklin Village.

Whoa… walking into this place is like walking into one of the circles of hell. Can they add anymore red lights to this place? At first it was interesting but then after a while it just got annoying. After some time looking at your food and your company bathed in eerie red light is disconcerting to say the least. The huge heavy hoe hanging in one of the booths we sat in also made me nervous. If there was an earthquake and that thing fell down, my friend would’ve been fileted like a sashimi. We also wouldn’t be able to get out of the booth fast enough as it was really a challenge to get into.
The sushi we ordered was just OK. Portions were pretty small that we ended up ordering multiple times. The best roll I had was the Philadelphia but everything else was forgettable.

The overall experience was not the greatest. My friend and I stopped by Taiyo for a quick bite before a comedy show next door. The place wasn’t busy. Probably just a few small tables of people. 3 Servers. And somehow, we always had to be flagging someone down because they were too busy chitchatting off on the side.
But you know what, we were rushing, so maybe they didn’t see us as serious customers. (Little did they know!!! I’m quite serious about my food and service no matter how pressed for time a customer may be)
I saw the spicy tuna on crispy rice come out, and immediately had to get an order. Everytime I’ve ordered this particular dish at a Japanese restaurant, it’s never failed to please me. Until last night.
Far too westernized, I couldn’t enjoy the quality of the tuna. It was as though they were trying too hard to do-​it-​up that it overpowered the main essence of sushi… which is the fish. Served with capers and jalapenos on the side, but the servers never bothered to give us any soy sauce, I had to get up and grab it from another table.
Then my order of the yellowtail dynamite came and again, the dynamite overpowered everything. I couldn’t enjoy the fresh fish at any point in this meal.
Now, I’ll take responsibility for not having done my research before stepping into this place. Perhaps, if I had known not to expect traditional sushi that focuses on highlighting the flavors of raw fish, then maybe I wouldn’t have been as disappointed. But I swear I’ve been to places that served non-​traditional western-​fusion sushi that have blown my mind away. Capable of staying true to the quality of the sushi while incorporating a new innovative flavor.
Alas. That was not the case here. Who knows? Maybe I just ordered the wrong items. Not that it didn’t taste good. But if I’m gonna spend a lot on raw fish… I’d like to be able to taste it.

RED. makes my skin. very. Flattering. NOT!
okay this place is definitely cute. Loved the idea of private booths. Me and my 2 great friends came here on a weekday. I didn’t really like how parking is pretty bad, because theres not real parking lot. We drove into some Scientology place by accident and pulled out as fast as we could before someone can run up to us and offer a free stress test.
Okay back to the restaurant! I ordered more than I can handle. A salmon bento box, with strawberry sushi roll and a salmon nigiri.
The teriyaki salmon was pretty delicious. It was moist and nothing fishy. Flavor was spot on.
The strawberry sushi roll was very different. I think I would enjoy this more as a dessert. So maybe when you do come here, get this instead of ice cream hahhaa.
the salmon nigiri was alright. wasn’t the best salmon I’ve had but wasn’t un-​edible.
Service was great. Our waitress was very kind to our annoying needs.
A little bit on the expensive side. our bill came out to 70-​something bucks for us 3.
me so broke.

They remodeled. I really liked the fun look of all the clutter of the way it was before, but its nice now. They put sliding doors on the booths and cut a hole out of the bottom of the booths for your feet.
My favorite waitress, Hillary, is still there and as sweet and cute as ever! She remembered us as soon as we walked in. The food is still good. The fish is always fresh. I have never had a problem with the fish not being fresh here.
I am not sure where all of the bad reviews are coming from. I have been here 30+ times and have never had a problem with the food or the service. Of course, I have been to waaay better sushi restaurants than Taiyo, but for a quick bite to eat at lunch time, I think that they are a fair option.

I came here last nite for my friend Birthday party, and it was at first an amazing restaurant. Very small, friendly and cozy.
The atmosphere supposely to Japanese, but the music they played was more like circuit music. The service? If there is such, as you in they have that typical service type where you need to fill out that little paper of the sushi you wanted. Then at the moment of serving yu you can be guaranteed that you get served, but I mean they bring everything on the table trying to have you eat and get out of there.
I felt like it wasn’t worth it. But as it was my friend birthday, I tried to stay cool and calm and be respectful on this part.
The food portion was average, and the taste, well I can say it’s more fusion than real Jaanese.