The Fish Joint

Too bad they are out of business. Ambiance was pretty cool like people have described as it is joining an art gallery bistro place. However, the artwork inside the sushi place was abhorrent and I hope was part of an exhibit: paintings of people holding out their own hearts, people vomiting into eachother’s mouth, a man with full on boobs and a bunny hat, and a small malnourished child looking like gollum from LOTR.
Oh yeah, sushi was great. Got the Chronic roll like everyone said here. I liked some other brighter rolls better since the thick sauce and tempura is not my thing. Spicy calamari with the pickled onion and cucumber was really good. Beer on tap was a small list but including Breakwater, Oceanside Aleworks, Stone, and Black Market. Impressive for a sushi place. Ordered an Oceanside Blonde, but it was undrinkable. Fortunately, I wasn’t charged for it either by accident or because the server saw I didn’t drink more than a single sip of it. Anyway, fun place and I’m glad someone added it to the database. $ 5 pints of all craft beer on tap is also hard to beat.

Best sushi in North County. Hands down. Small place that gets busy on the weekends, for good reason. Make a reservation if you can. Everything is freshly, artfully and carefully prepared. Lots of local catches too!

Not surprised this place is closed… AT ALL

The Fish Joint is our favorite sushi restaurant. Sure the service can be slow some time. Who cares? Why is everyone in a such a hurry? There is nothing better than lingering over a meal in my opinion.
The menu is just a suggestion, anything goes here. The menu does contain many great items. I can’t recommend one thing over another it is a personal choice. However, the menu offers so many choices and so many ways to customize that even a non-​sushi lover can be pleased here.
We enjoy the small eating area. The art changes every once in a while. Almost anywhere that you sit you can watch them make rolls. Another great thing is that you can also order anything from the menu of the Hill Street Café. In fact, you can even sit in the Hill Street Café and order from the Fish Joint.
We really enjoy it here and think its well worth a try.

I’ve been craving sushi so we checked out this place and we weren’t disappointed with the sushi! We ordered the chronic roll, the real surf and shrimp tempura and all were AMAZING!
Only negative was the table we sat at was sticky and I feel that they are over priced on their rolls but overall the service was great and sushi was delicious!

Oceanside blonde with hot sake!
Spicy calamari appetizer!
Spicy rolls galore!
Great little place with a lot of character, the staff is probably the best in San Diego. They have the largest selection of spicy rolls you will ever see. Can’t wait to go back and get me some more.

I absolutely love this place. I will eat here again and again!
My fiancé and I had our very first date here in 2011. The food was awesome, and even though it was packed because it was Valentine’s Day, the service was still great.
Fast forward to July of this year. My husband came home a year long deployment. Before he left, him and I were trying to remember the name of the awesome place we had visited on our very first date, to no avail. Well, before my husband came home, I figured it out. The night after he arrived, I surprised him and took him to The Fish Joint. He was very happy to say the least.
Fast forward even further. We recently went back to The Fish Joint for some dinner. We got the Chronic, and the Mango Madness. We got two other rolls, but I cannot recall the names. I had the Mango Madness the past two times we have eaten here, and I have to say it is my favorite. I also ordered plum wine. The first time I ever had plum wine was in 2011, and this is still my go to place to order it!
The service is always awesome, the guys behind the counter are very friendly and will talk to you. The actual establishment could use some refurbishment, but hey, it’s right by the beach. If you choose to eat out on the patio, there is also live music sometimes. Its night to sit out there in the ocean breeze and enjoy your sushi!
We will continue to go here for years to come. Very fresh food, and great atmosphere.

If your living a plant based lifestyle and thought you couldn’t ever experience sushi again. Fear not! The vegan rolls at The Fish Joint are all incredible. With 8 vegan rolls on the menu you wont be
personal favorites .the Professor with grilled zucchini, sundries tomato and avocado wrapped in soy paper and topped with onions and the vegan rainbow with asparagus, sweet potato fries inside topped with grilled red peppers mushroom and avocado and finished with an awesome spicy citrus sauce. Be sure to try there delicious homemade Kombucha too! The vibe is cool and the staff feels like family after your first visit!

I had heard nothing but good things about this place before my husband and I tried it. Like; laid-​back atmosphere and friendly staff with cool art displayed and good sushi.
Our experience was not quite so. There seemed to be all of two people working, the chef and a «waiter.» Because of this, I am guessing, they couldn’t keep the place clean enough and not to notice the sticky tables and menus. The place in general was just dirty, even the large appliances out front had obvious grime that needed some elbow grease. Many tables still dirty from previous costumers, that were still dirty when we left.
Maybe they are just too cool to care.
The sushi was of decent taste and quality. I could see justifying their prices if the place was actually clean and they had enough staff to accommodate the patrons.

I went here over the weekend, when I was on my way to SD. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like it.
The Service was good.
The food was ok
The place was dirty
And the cook was eating in the kitchen, as he made food, eek!

I had not been here in about 2 years but it had always been good before so I took some girlfriends here when we were all craving sushi! It was absolutely horrible.
1. Service was terrible had to ask for everything to order, our drinks, our check and she never once checked on us or even made eye contact
2. The place was filthy
3.the food was not fresh and flavorless
4. The chef was eating in front of us
5. We were there for at least 1.5 hrs for just 3 rolls
6. The ambiance sucked no cool artwork or décor like in the past
Something has changed about this place almost as if there are new owners or something I will not be back!

Met a friend for lunch here yesterday. I went in «blind» because I didn’t have time to read Unilocal reviews before going in. My impressions:
Cute little place with interesting local artwork on the walls.
Friendly, attentive service
Tattered, stained, dirty menus
Miso not good — hard tofu cubes. (Bad miso is an ominous sign.)
«OU» roll was NOT a good choice. Too much cream cheese and rice, not enough avocado and salmon. I only ate half my order.
Good quality tuna in a plain-​old cut tuna roll
An interesting carrot habanero hot sauce
Overall it was OK…2.5 stars. Then I compare that with the delicious dinner experience I had last night a few blocks away at Flying Pig, and it’s NIGHT and DAY.

I’m glad a buddy of mine suggested this sushi joint for lunch. From the outside the place seemed like a plain old house with big windows. As I went in I noticed the paintings on the walls, each with price tags. One of the waiters asked if I was interested in buying one. That pretty much answered the question I had in my mind about the price tags on the paintings. I politely declined the waiter’s offer.
My buddy and I were the only guests so we were seated right away. I ordered the Red Bearded Dragon and a Scooby Snack. My buddy ordered the Chronic roll and claims that it was the big mac of sushi rolls. Yeah right! The food didn’t take long to come. Both of my rolls were in one plate. I was very impressed by the presentation. The Scooby Snack came with it’s own dipping sauce in a small wine glass. I would rate the Red Bearded Dragon as my top favorite followed by the Chronic roll and the Scooby Snack as last.
Lunch money well spent. I will definitely come back again.

After a week, I’m still not too sure what to think or say about this restaurant. The prices would make me think I was at an upscale sushi restaurant, but the rolls did not match that thought. I had the Red Bearded Dragon ($ 14.95), which is basically the Dragon roll with the shrimp tempura in the middle — they do not include the usual sauce over the top.
The meal was pretty good, but their rolls are priced about $ 3-​$ 5 too high based on the many sushi spots I’ve experienced over the years. The service was friendly. I’ll also post a pic of my young sushi chefs. It’s worth a try…

Beach vibe fresh fish, large miso in the bowl. Always crowded but never a crowd. Appreciate the style for its island fare and kick back with your sake rimmed glasses and mango studded sushi, invade your neighbors space and moan delightfully as your neighbor invades your space.
Let this fish feed thousands and those thousands find some relevance in simply made sushi without gimmicks or themes. Hello my little surfer rats I see you are eating your fishy friends today, don’t forget me when your done.

start this off by saying the service was amazing. No complaints in that department. friendly people who stayed open later for us since we arrived 15min before they closed.
the quality of the sushi is what lands this place 3stars. one of the rolls we got was not freshly made and the sea weed texture was that of a rubber band.
the Claimers… a stuffed pepper dish we got was bomb though. id say this place is worth trying just for that dish alone.

The fish joint is legit. It is pricey. It the mood is laid back with rock n roll. Local art on the wall and Clash songs playing in the background.
It was fun but was not particularly amazing nor superbly clean.

For my friend’s birthday, I took her The Fish Joint based on all the rave reviews.
We got:
— Miso Soup ($ 3.00)
— Mango Madness ($ 14.50)
— Red Bearded Dragon ($ 14.95)
It is true, off Coast Highway The Fish Joint is hard to spot. Best thing to do is look for the Hill Street Café (big yellow house) because like other reviewers said it’s right next door. We didn’t find parking a problem at all, there seemed to be plenty in the surrounding neighborhoods. Although, we did go at 6pm, so it was probably early.
At 6pm the place was empty. We noticed that around 7 – 7:30pm the place was full. The service was great. The staff is very friendly and attentive.
The menu is made up mostly of rolls that range from $ 11-​$ 25. This place is not cheap. So if you’re looking for cheap sushi, this is not the place. If you’re looking for traditional Japanese sushi and sashimi, this is not the place. But if you’re looking for creative rolls, this is the place for you.
The miso soup was not worth $ 3. While the soup had a strong miso flavor, it definitely lacked salt and was therefore kind of bland. Plus $ 3 for a bowl of miso is kind of crazy.
I love mango so I had to try the Mango Maddness house roll. The description of the roll is «crab, avocado topped with fresh salmon, yellowtail & mango salsa». I really liked the mango salsa and think that salmon and mango are a really good combination. Something about the fishiness of salmon and the sweetness and flavor mango that just works. The biggest downfall of this roll was the amount of rice and how mushy the rice was. It really took away from the roll as a whole. The Red Bearded Dragon which was described as «shrimp tempura, crab topped with eel, avocado, crunchies & masago» was good, but also suffered from the same mushy rice. I really love unagi (fresh water eel) and I thought that this roll was good, besides the mushy rice, but I feel like the price tag is a little expensive.
Since it was my friend’s birthday I asked if they did anything for birthdays and the server said they did fried bananas with strawberries with chocolate sauce. The bananas were delicious!
Overall, I feel like we caught The Fish Joint on a bad night. I mean, the reviews are great so I feel like the mushy rice we got isn’t something that is a norm here, but unfortunately it’s what we got and my friend and I felt like it made the rolls not as great as they could have been. Would I go back? Yeah, I’d give it a second chance. They have enough interesting things on the menu for me to want to give it another go.

Cute joint — Small hole in the wall that seats about 50. Located on Coast Hwy in downtown Oceanside. Ample street parking, no lot. Several short and high tables and a sushi bar avail for seating.
Ordered the following:
–Salmon Nigiri ($ 6): OK
–Chronic ($ 13): Supposedly this is the most popular roll. Sadly, I didn’t care for it. Now that I’ve become accustomed to the «real deal» sushi, the fried-​ness doesn’t appeal to me anymore.
–Mango Madness ($ 13): This was actually pretty tasty with the mango atop the roll.
–Lemon Roll with Yellowtail/​Salmon ($ 10): This wasn’t on the menu but we got it custom made to our liking.
Total came out to about $ 50. The service was friendly, but had to ask for water refills. Overall, it’s an OK place to get sushi if you’re in the area.

I have to say, the Fish Joint is the most unique sushi place I’ve ever been to. The chefs get really creative with their dishes and the place itself looks like an art gallery converted into a restaurant.
The gorilla balls were amazing. The chronic roll is great. The calamari appetizer was a cool change up to something pretty monolithic at most places (think orange chicken, but with calamari).
The scoobie snacks were ok, but not that incredible.
Come in with an open mind, because anything goes at this place.
The place is kind of small and the tables are pretty narrow so don’t bring more than four people at most.