Kiku Japanese Fusion

Our second visit proved even better than our first, a seemingly impossible feat. Our perfectly attentive waitress was knowledgeable and friendly, with impeccable timing. As such it came as surprise when she revealed it was only her 3^rd day in the job.
Following our traditional starter of Seaweed salad, the enormous platter of maki & sushi rolls, comprised of two Chef Specials and two accompanying free standard rolls, left us beyond stuffed. It could have easily fed another two people.
Just as with our first visit, the chef was happy to accommodate our requests for no mayo and extra massago (that alone wins it for me!). The Snow Mountain maki roll was an interesting and delicious change of pace, as it is wrapped in rice paper instead of nori. While everything was fresh & delightful, the high point by far for us was the Sunshine maki roll. A tempura fried salmon roll, it is truly one of the best things I have put in my mouth! My daughter agreed as her eyes involuntarily closed with each bite. Our tab again was an even $ 50 with tip, and again the best bang for our buck.

good sushi and great sushi deals (dine in bogo) the service can be a little slow so definitely don’t come here if you’re in a rush. other options for people who don’t like sushi — hibachi and sons bento style entrees. I like the Alaskan maki with wasabi sauce on the side and the fried roll (not sure what it’s called) overall great sushi place to eat at!

Great food, reasonable prices, excellent service Bento boxes at lunch are really good They have been consistently good for years.

So, when I read the reviews, «best sushi ever,» I think that’s one heck of a bold claim.
I mean, I’ve dined at Moritmoto (you know, Iron Chef Morimoto)… And while the price tag for such extravagance is substantial, the meal is a combination of art and food, and maybe a dash of sex.
Comparatively, Kiku leaves much to be desired, much as in perhaps an ocean’s wide of room.
1. The miso soup was warm.
2. The octopus salad unremarkable
3. The sashimi dinner palatable at best.
The price tag? $ 40 plus tip (and I always tip at least 20%, after all, it’s not the servers fault the food is not so good).
The store, located in your typical strip mall, has interior little curb side appeal.
As to the folks that think this is the «best sushi ever,» my advice would be to get out more often, head to a major foodie city, and try the fish there.

Good for lunch, the rolls were fresh and good. The sea weed salad was different with a base of lettuce and some type of mayo tasty but not a lot of sea weed do the price. Very interesting mix thou. The miso soup was very weak in miso paste and flavors. The age dashi tofu was alright but with thin strips. The service was good and so was the green tea, price was alright, might return.

Meh. My meal was only slightly better than food court Japanese. The miso soup had a strange taste, almost antiseptic. I didn’t bother eating it. The salad was nice and fresh and I did enjoy the ginger dressing. I ordered the teriyaki chicken and while the portion was huge and they used a nice cut of meat, the teriyaki sauce looked to be made of mostly water like it had been thinned. It also had more oil than I expected. The meal came with maybe a quarter cup of steamed vegetables that were also covered in oil and some sort of extremely thin sweet sauce. Huge portion of white rice came with this as well. The meal was probably enough for two people so at $ 14 is a decent value. I might try their sushi since others like it but the cooked meals seem to be a weak spot.

Excellent service and sushi! My hub and had a teriyaki bowl with Tofu and was very happy. Most items are two for one. The waitress forgot to bring me my two for one second glass of wine. But it all was really exceptional.

I’m particularly picky about my sushi especially when it comes to raw fish and Kiku is one of the few places I know I can count on. The seaweed salad and tempura ice cream are fantastic as well. This location seems to have better service than the one on Ocala as well.

Somewhat recommended, but with some reservations. I did not have sushi so this review is purely for a kitchen entrée.
Kiku has a dark yet high-​energy vibe and a lovely-​looking sushi bar for the solo diner or those who don’t want to look at each other. Small booths are the best place to sit for small groups.
I wasn’t in the mood for sushi so had katsudon. The usual salad with ginger dressing appeared first — this was fine but the dressing was just dumped on top (why don’t most Japanese restaurants dress their salads properly?)
Then came the main dish. The katsudon was prepared with fried egg, as is usual in Japan but far from guaranteed in the US or Korea, but unfortunately the tasty pork and egg combo was undone by soggy breading (it’s hard to get this right but it’s integral to the dish.) Pickles and inoffensive vegetables were mixed in with the rice and meat, whereas the pickles would have been better on the side.
This came, oddly to my taste, with a very mild and thin tonkatsu sauce rather than the usual thicker one. Maybe that’s a regional thing, I don’t know, but either way it didn’t add much to my taste. Rice was fine.
Basically, things like that are casual, comfort-​food dishes but ones that live or die by their preparation, and with the breading and egg slipping off when I tried to eat it, it didn’t quite pass muster, tasty though it was.
The menu has some BOGO offers on sushi that aren’t marked and are explained quickly and quite confusingly by the (admittedly very friendly and overworked) wait staff.
Expensive for the quality of kitchen food but I’ll go back for sushi sometime.
Full bar. Free wifi.

This is and will always be my first place to eat sushi at. The sushi is absolutely excellent! And you cannot be the fact that they always have BOGO seven days a week. Service is great and it’s beautiful inside. Very nice place to eat for special occasions also.

Great selection and great tasting food! Definitely recommended Kiku if you love sushi!

Th sushi rolls were excellent we had 6 Mmm yummy. Their were no tables so we sat @ the bar & it was great washing them make the rolls. Our waitress was sweet & attentive we sat by the end of their station. We’re from out of town so we know our sushi rolls. We travel a lot. We look @ Unilocal & we don’t go wrong when there 4 or 5 more stars. We ignore the 2 because they talk about service or other things. We will definitely come back if are in this part of town.

Crowded sushi bar? Sure. But Kiku also had every table filled. Three sushi chefs were doing their best to keep up. Still, we had cheerful & attentive service.
We started with a small ginger salad. I thought the dressing was a bit too thick. But the flavor was typical of most sushi restaurants. Our edamame was steamed and salted perfectly. I ordered a rainbow roll and a New York roll. While on the small size, the rolls were made with fresh fish and sweet rice.
The kids ordered tempura. To my surprise, it was light, crispy, not greasy and well seasoned. The snow mountain maki was shrimp, crab & avacado stacked on a cucumber was excellent. Kiku compares well to any «big city» sushi restaurant. Frankly, better than most.

The ambiance is nice in this restaurant and the service is friendly. They have nice tables and a sushi bar in the back.
We ordered the beef teriyaki which was decent and it came w a side of rice. The beef yaki udon was okay but the beef was a bit tough. California rolls and miso soup were good. The gyoza was bit size but tasty.

A solid sushi spot with friendly service and interesting rolls. We got a huge portion for the table of various rolls and I enjoyed most of them. I found some of the basic rolls like the asparagus roll and the California to be on the dry side, but it was made up for by the pink lady and the beauty and the beast roll. Overall a great lunch spot. Loses a star for location as I really hate eating in strip malls.

The best sushi you’ll find in Tallahassee. Buy a roll, get one free is a neat promo they run. Service was timely and rolls were delicious, though slightly pricier than other sushi in the area.
Recommend: Beauty and the Beast — you get what you pay for
Avoid: the spider roll, portion is small, and not as tasty as any other restaurants’ spider rolls. A bummer for sure.

«The best sushi in Tally»? I only read the first few reviews. The only reason the get two stars is for the QUALITY of the food served. The place looks very nice and is kept clean. The food however, was disappointing and expensive. The service was very slow. My appetizer was very small for the price. It took 15 minutes for it to come out which was even more disappointing since it was a dish that seemed like they pulled it from the fridge. Almost ever roll contained tempura in one form or another, even my hand roll came with tempura flakes. (I’m not a huge fan of tempura or fried foods)
That being said I am confident the fish they use is very high quality, just poorly prepared. I would say its safe to eat here, if you don’t mind being price gouged. So many people say this is the best sushi in Tally, that means I should probably steer clear of sushi while I’m in town. I will not be returning.

Tallahassee’s BEST sushi, nigiri, sashimi bar — bar none. Rationale? They’ve always had fresh sea urchin (uni) when I’ve visited. I even do the «visit Tuesday» test to verify.
Today was no exception. My friend Ernie treated me to a VERY generous birthday lunch at kiku’s. He had a couple of sushi rolls in addition to sashimi conch and seaweed salad. To boot, he also had his first taste of uni with quail egg topper.
I had (here’s where I break out over-​the-​top (yet apropos) vocabulary) a most splendid lineup of conch, sea clam and octopus sashimi, a spicy tuna hand roll, the pair of uni /​quail egg nigiri all following the de rigueur miso bowl.
Admittedly, the hand roll is really the only display of talent here, other than the miso soup. I mean that these two items require assembly/​construction. Everything else simply requires a regular purveyance of fresh, high quality product. Sure, there is clearly talent in forming the rice and wrapping the seaweed but the freshness factor is paramount.
I digress.
Bottom line:
Depend on kiku as tallahassee’s premier sushi bar. It’s true.

This is the new Kiku #2 basically in town. I believe the owner owns the other kiku and the 2 hasu restaurants in town. Basically a local chain restaurant. So if you have been to the other kiku or hasu restaurant you know how the food quality/​taste it/​portion size/​presentation, etc. This place is exactly like the other kiku in town on thomasville from interior design with modern décor like etched glass walls and tvs fused with traditional Japanese décor like at the sushi bar area. This place feels brighter lit though. Overall design wise very similar.
As for the food, its the same exact menu as the other Kiku and the bogo sushi deal (few exceptions like tempura rolls are $ 1 more). I think they have the same happy hour deals here also. The beverages they offer are the same also.
If you want to see about the food reviews its probably best to refer to the other kiku comments and see what others people have to say since this place is exactly alike and I am the only comment on this page for now and don’t have time to write a really long comment explaining everything over (sorry!)
Overall, its another kiku. Same quality, interior décor, etc. Only difference is this kiku is on the FSU side of town.
*Note: Currently the location of this kiku on the map is correct BUT the address underneath the map location is not. This Kiku is located at 800 ocala rd. not on thomasville rd (that is the address of the original kiku)

We tried this place out for the first time because the wait at Bonefish Grille was ludicrous (bang bang shrimp Wednesday). We had a short wait of about 20 minutes and were promptly seated.
I ordered three different rolls. I saw some previous Unilocal pictures of the rolls and they looked like they were decently sized, but in reality they aren’t. They were the smallest rolls I have ever seen — probably only a sliver of fish and a tiny bit of rice per roll. Not worth the $ 6 – 6.95 they each cost. I left hungry after spending about $ 30 that night.
The plus side was that Julie was a great server.