Geisha Japanese Restaurant and Tea House

This restaurant has the best selection of vegan sushi I have ever encountered. Everything I tried was delicious. Thank you for offering variety and creativity in your vegetarian offerings.

Ordered delivery through Doordash for the first time and was very impressed with the quality and variety of flavors. I am a vegetarian and had more options than just the traditional simple rolls. Pics taken after we were almost done eating. Plan to eat from here again 😸 Edit: Was really happy with the vegetarian offerings but asked that any items containing msg be removed from my order as it makes me very ill. No one contacted me and my full order was prepared so believed everything was fine. Was quite happy with the flavor of my meal but became ill just a couple hours after eating it so presume they ignored my request. Will likely be very ill for the next few days now. Changing my review from 5 star to 3 for disregarding my request.

We had some of the best sushi we’ve ever had here! The restaurant lacked in ambiance for sure… dead silent with no music, stuffy, dirty windows. And service was spotty. But the food more than made up for it and we will definitely be back!

Very nice. Sake boxes are fun. Good was fresh. Pork tonkatsu was crispy. I had not been here in a very long time. But will definitely come back. 2nd time not as nice, dinner. Saki was not full, sushi was ok service was ok, they were bored so on phones.

This place has the worst service in Santa Cruz. Recap of our last 2 experiences. 1. Order food to go. Wait time 35 minutes. I show up on time. It takes them another 35 minutes once I show up to get my food. Wasted time. 2. We order food online for pickup. Order is accepted and gives us a 25 min eta. We go to pick it up and the restaurant is closed. The charge on the card went through which we now have to challenge and we wasted 1/2 hour waiting to eat dinner. Overall this place is incredibly unreliable.

My wife and I gave this place a shot for our anniversary and loved it! The staff was very friendly and the sushi was tasty. I definitely enjoyed the sashimi more than the rolls, but one of the basil rolls were surprisingly delicious. This is the only sushi place I have ever been to that had something actually spicy. You gotta try the Satan sauce if you are crazy about hot food!

Truly amazing vegan sushi! One of the best on the west coast in my opinion and I’ve had a lot of vegan sushi across California + Oregon. They really dedicated a good chunk of the menu for creative options that are flavourful and affordable. You won’t see the common and unnecessary “vegan tax” here, it allows you to splurge to try more rolls! Highly recommended.

I have lived in Santa Clara California for 18 years since I married an American, before I lived in Kauai where I learned to appreciate Japanese culture and food. That's why whenever I can I choose start with edamame, miso soup, then sushi, sashimi, tempura, salmon or a classic bento box . Many weekends we go to different areas of the bay, Capitola is one of my favorites, especially in summer. We go to this restaurant for dinner, the atmosphere is incredible. They have many tables inside a very spacious room, there are always nice people, I love the decoration the quality of the food is excellent and the prices are very reasonable . They have vegetarian options and a good tea selection. The staff is friendly, professional the service is fast. I highly recommend this place for a fun moment with great food.

We traveled into Capitola with the intent for this specific restaurant that we had visited before. I checked the hours and was to open at 4 once 4 pm rolled around we headed over to have an early dinner to our surprise it was not open.I called and was rudely told it would be 15 minutes until they would open. We arrived sat down and was shocked how our experience went. It took a while to get something to drink and once we ordered it took even longer. We had a total of 4 bento boxes the beef teriyaki was tough and not consumable. The California rolls in one box seemed as if they were from the day before and the tempura was drenched in oil. Sadly this once favorite restaurants of our we will not return to.

The most delicious sushi I've ever had; even post COVID the quality of the sushi has not gone down. The service was a little slow, but the food came out quickly.

We went to Geisha after not going for a long time( only because Capitola hard to park , and traffic heading south from westside in the afternoon). We were going to attend the Twilight concert series in the village there, and decided to go to Geisha beforehand. We were flabbergasted the restaurant was fairly empty! That is why I am writing this 5 star review. The service, ambiance, and food was SOOOO GOOD! I had the "Yedo Dancer" roll and the "Yam Central. UNBELIEVABLY DELICIOUS! Wait staff all so nice and attentive. So if you haven't been in a while....please give it another go! Fabulous! Can't wait to go back!

We were super excited to try a "local" spot. Recommended by someone who lives in Santa Cruz, Looking for hidden gem. This is not it. The restaurant was hot inside, Maybe it's me but walking into a sushi restaurant that is 80 degrees at night, I should have gone with my gut. I HATE sweating while eating. The window next to me would not stay open. All 4 of us were miserable. The food was ok. I've had better almost anywhere. It was ok. Our server barely spoke English so ordering was a struggle, we got the items we didn't order, and the one we did, never arrived. What did arrive seemed fresh, but overly basic. Everything that arrived was spicy, that's how we knew we didn't get what was ordered. The food wasn't awful, but it wasn't delicious either. The highlight of our night was the drunk uber driver who picked us up!

Overall very subpar. The sashimi was rectangular chunks of tuna, zero presentation and eating it was like chewing rectangular chunks of tuna - I had an O-nacu (?) roll with unagi and cucumber. The cucumber was a long rectangular piece and the eel was tasteless, not barbecued. My wife ordered a Rainbow roll, again fairly tasteless. There is pretty much zero ambience and the waiter was inattentive. I would not recommend this place until they begin living up to certain standards sushi lovers come to expect.ú

It's usually pretty quiet at this restaurant, at least every time I've gone. The rolls are delicious. I tried a Japanese curry with katsu chicken for the first time, it was amazing. My mom usually gets udon and tempura... amazing. Their nigiri rolls are large and generous with the portions. I love this restaurant and am glad it's in capitola.

Holy whiff. I got a bento with teriyaki beef and chicken delivered and I legit could not eat it. I ate the rice to hold me over and then ordered a burger from another restaurant

Not welcoming at all, it took a few minutes before we were even acknowledged, the people that worked there probably the owner just looked at us and looked away. Not friendly at all! The food was not very good. I will never go there again.

Delicious! Tempura is amazing. Try the lemon drop roll. Great food, casual environment. Very happy with our dinner!

I am COMPLETELY BAFFLED by the negative reviews. Like- stunned. Makes no sense to me. This restaurant has been one of the most unique and delicious sushi experiences I have ever had. It's a cute restaurant with a relaxing vibe. The vegan options are the most creative and delicious options you could ask for and the vegan tempura is legendary (it's nearly impossible to find vegan tempura, and they are even conscientious and kind enough to use a separate fryer.) miso soup is AMAZING . The yakisoba is out of this world. Honestly one of my favorite places to eat in planet earth. 10/10!!

I'm sorry but please do not waste your money at this restaurant :( my husband and I ordered three different rolls and couldn't eat more than one bite from any of them. Unfortunately worst sushi we've ever had.

I'm convinced the people leaving bad reviews here are just trying to gate keep this place. Or they're used to sushi places that load up on salt, sugar, mayo and cream cheese and hate actual raw fish. The quality of the fish and the rolls here is INCREDIBLE. So yeah if you like Americanized unhealthy sugar sushi, go to Safeway. If you like incredible, sustainable raw fish with amazing natural flavors, the best garlic edamame, and thick cuts of fish- go here! It's also such fair pricing, especially when you get an ocean view!

I'm just putting very average review I don't necessarily think it was bad, but it wasn't good (for me) either. I did want to put a review and wish I didn't have to put any stars to it because I barely ate, and I think it's unfair of me to do that to them... I feel like I have to say something about it though. They advertise vegan options and I've had vegan friends refer me to this place, but when I was looking through their menu I felt very uncomfortable. I tried asking the waiter if I could clarify about the items because some of them say it's vegan... it has cream cheese, or the futomaki it has tamago (egg) in it. Only item on there I saw clarification for was the mayo, which they did call vegan mayo, but I was a bit confused by then and I was too scared to order anything that looked complicated because it looks like to me the menu has some confusion between vegetarian and vegan, which is a common mistake. They just told me to look at the green dots, which was the problem because it had green dots on items that did not seem vegan. I was looking for avocado rolls I see that in some earlier posts, but I didn't see it on their menu not on their website neither in person, but I can see it on the Yelp menu so maybe it's something that changed? A lot of inconsistencies or weird things going on with that menu further shook my confidence. Conversely there are some items I would have imagined would be safe and whenever I'm unsure I just choose to go for safe and plain items. Avocado and tofu isn't listed as vegan? What do they cook it in? If it's a typo, then... I was just really unsure about the menu. I'm not saying they are lying or misleading I'm just saying I felt very confused and had low confidence in the menu, and so if you're vegan I would just be aware. Could these items be vegan counterparts of what they are listed as? Sure. I just wasn't sure and couldn't get clarification when I asked. My partner is not vegan and they ordered chicken katsu. Didn't rave about their item and seemed to enjoy it. They tried to share it with one of our kids, but the kids didn't like it. To be fair the kids are tricky and have different taste everyday though. Ambience was very nice extremely pretty in there. It was quiet in there too, but that's kind of something I expect on a weekday night (aside from Friday). Worker didn't give us any issues they weren't outstanding but I would consider them friendly and checked in on us, and so they got the job done. Just my personal opinion although I'm not sure about Capitola prices but I've been to other sushi and japanese places in Santa Clara area and I felt like the prices here were a little bit on the higher side like there's a place a I really like in Santa Clara the rice is normally $3 but over here it's $3.50 so they're squeezing out 50 cents, and furthermore the portion size was about half. I felt like the quality of the rice it really wasn't that great. Very mushy likely overcooked and to me seemed like it had an off flavour. Steamed vegetables were fine but seriously... $7?? It seemed like maybe at best very optimistic 1/2 Cup worth of sliced vegetables. I felt like that was kind of outrageous, but I was hungry.

what a joke, the rice tasted like soap, they gave me the wrong order, the customer service was awful. the sushi they gave me made me sick. (didnt order but was hungry) this place used to be good, it really is bad now. what a shame to the location and food that the people are ruining this place. OVER PRICED AND DISGUISTING. wash your hands and give people what they order

Staff was very rude. No one said a word to me and when i ordered I was not spoken to once and wasn't even told the price he just pointed at the system to pay. It was very empty in there.

My friend and I stopped during lunch. Upon getting upstairs, we were greeted and sat right away by a nice server. We were given menus and decided to order light because my friend had eaten prior. It would be my first meal of the day. I ordered the bento box with shrimp Tempura (5 pieces) and chicken teriyaki. My friend and I got the Art Attack Roll to share. This one particular server (Hispanic male) came by to get our order, and since I was the only one ordering he had stated "That's alot of food for one person." I ignored it the first time, but after we had finished our food and asked for our check, he made more remarks, basically calling me fat and shaming me for ordering the food. I was disturbed. He is unprofessional, obnoxious and made me want to chuck water in his face. The establishment would be better without him. Just a reminder, you work in a JAPANESE restaurant, and people come from all walks of life! The food was mediocre for this type of service. Will not be back. The ambiance felt threatening coming from that a**.

My husband and I waited 30 minutes for them to open at 4:00, then stood outside the locked door for another 10 minutes--even after an employee made eye contact and ignored us. We were the only customers waiting. At 4:10, the same man finally opened the door and told us we could come in but would have to wait another 10 minutes because they were working on a large order. He seemed annoyed, and when I asked if it was a to-go order, he just repeated, "You'll have to wait 10 more minutes," in a rude and unwelcoming tone. We didn't feel welcomed, so we left. We would've gladly waited, but not to be treated like that.

We've been coming to Capitola forever but have never been to Geisha until today. Glad we stopped by and we'll be back. We went around 4:00 on Saturday of 4th of July weekend and the place was empty. It is a bit indivisible unless you notice the sign. It's an upstairs restaurant and sushi bar above am ice cream shop. The service was great and the food was very good too. We got chicken teriyaki bento boxes, but 1 with fried gyoza and the other with steamed gyoza. Both styles are good but I think we both preferred the fried, which I had never tried before. The chicken was excellent too and they had very yummy teriyaki sauce. The basic included salad was very good and plentiful (great dressing). The only complaint was the miso soup was only luke warm. Lastly, as of now the place doesn't have their liquor license since changing ownership. They're working on that.

Really happy with the selection of vegan and vegetarian sushi options here at Geisha. Since going plant based, I've been trying to find good vegan sushi that's not simply an avocado cucumber roll. Thankfully Geisha is the one spot in the Santa Cruz area that delivers on its green mission. My friend and I came here for her birthday dinner since it did have both vegan and non-vegan options. As of May 2021, they are allowing indoor dining again although spacing between parties is not the greatest. If you're fully vaccinated by now, it shouldn't be too much of a concern. We split our order with a couple of vegan sushi rolls, their seaweed salad, and the vegetable tempura. Everything was clearly marked as vegan which was very nice and helpful. I absolutely loved the South Gate ($8.50) which had creamy avocado, tomatoes, burdock, and spicy mayo to name a few. The roll definitely had a slight kick to it! I was also a fan of Tigger, Too ($8.50) which was tempeh/baked tofu with macadamia nuts, negi, and kind oyster mushrooms. Our meal also started with a complimentary bowl of miso soup to kick things off on the right track. The vegetable tempura was also very nice - lightly battered and generous slices of each vegetable that they included. While it's a bit further out to reach, Geisha really did deliver on the vegan sushi front and I'd be happy to return to enjoy more rolls in the future.

Terrible! Worst sushi we've ever had. The fish was dry, rolls were boring and no flavor. Tempura veggies were straight dough. We spent $100 on sushi and lost our appetite after the first bite.

Tasteless food, bad service, and no ventilation! Worst sushi I ever had in my life. Do yourself a favor and, don't go.

Went To Celebrate Father's Day At Geisha In Capitola! Sushi Place With Lots Of Different Vegetarian/Vegan Sushi Rolls. Surprisingly I Decided To Get A Dinner Plate. Tofu & Portobello Vegetable Teriyaki. Plate Was Great! The Food Took Quite A Bit To Get To Us. But The Taste Was Definitely There! Did Not Take Pics Of All The Other Food Unfortunately Since We Were All Really Hungry!

Can I leave ZERO stars? lol I got the rainbow roll and one with lemon in it. I can't remember the name. Sushi was good. Fish was fresh. Served with soup but I didn't taste the soup. I went early afternoon. Quiet and plenty of seating. At one point, I was the only customer there. I think the staff may have forgotten I was there. A table of teens left and i guess they didn't tip much. The waiter who cleared the table threw a fit about it and was complaining to his coworkers. His reaction and behavior was disgusting. The parents came into the restaurant later on looking for their teens. The waiter had to audacity to tell the parents their kids didn't leave a tip. The waitstaff made me feel very uncomfortable. Pretty much ruined my meal. I'm in Capitola often. I will never eat here again. I recommend you don't either.

Such fantastic sushi & service! This place is always clean, tasty, & not too packed/not too long a wait. I particularly love their Unforgettable roll. The owner is a very nice man who always remembers me, & I appreciate that. Awesome, fresh sushi in Capitola, go now!

This place has gotten SOOOOOOOO much better since the new ownership! Wow what a difference, it's back to its former glory! The staff was amazing as was the food! Glad to see it improving so much, I'll fornsure be going back ASAP!!

We got DoorDash and the food was fresh and delicious! It came at a reasonable time / pretty fast and can't wait to check out the restaurant next time.

I wanted to give this restaurant a good review because the sushi was really good!! I'm always surprised the ambiance isn't as poppin' as it could be! The service was a little slow, but the sushi was good and they have fresh wasabi.

The sushi we're great, but the ramen soup was very sweet. The Interior is very easy and simple.

Food way too long for early Saturday evening and only one other table. Food also did not taste good . Beef teriyaki not edible , like meat went bad

2 people, ordered 5 rolls, some with raw fish, others only vegetables. No one could finish a single roll. Both felt sick for a week. Empty at 7 on a Saturday night for good reason. Don't go.

We were hanging out in the Capitola area and stumbled upon this place. It's upstairs and we decided to give it a try. It's small but they were very accommodating to my bigger party (6 ppl). They're trying their best to socially distance which I can appreciate. We ordered some sashimi, tempura, and the mamas kiss which includes Yellowtail wrapped around the scallop, shizo, tobiko and a quail egg. Tempura was good! My kids devoured 3 orders. Super crispy and made fresh. The miso soup was a hit, but i wish I could say the same for their fish and Mamas kiss. The Mamas kiss was so big and runny with the quail egg, so hard to eat and the sashimi was sliced so big!! It literally looked like slabs of raw chicken on a plate and was not appetizing at all. Super disappointed.

just ok. I ordered delivery, and was hoping to order several items a la carte, to get the variety I wanted. as it turns out, nothing seems to be a la carte! you order teriyak, it comes with salad, rice, and a hefty price tag for s--t I did not want. same with the ton Katsu. pretty ridiculous. Four dishes and $100 later, the food was "ok" and I had lots of salad and rice I really didn't have any use for. MG Sushi offers. good quality with a much more reasonable price.

Updated Review: Okay so this place is definitely not what it used to be, a lot of the old staff is gone along with my favorite sushi chef. But with that being said, this place is still damn good. The service was A LOT better than my last experience (hence the change in stars) but they still make a lot of my favorite rolls! My all time favorite is the Final Word with Salmon highly recommend. Gotta stop here while in town, sushi is so fresh and can't go wrong with whatever you order, sushi or from the kitchen. Glad to give this place its good rating back, it's been too long

VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY!! Obsessed with this place!! Went back twice during my stay and probably would have gone back more if I could. They are very vegan/vegetarian friendly!! HUGE PLUS!! It's so hard finding yummy vegetarian rolls at sushi restaurants... usually they only sell very basic rolls like an avocado roll or a cucumber roll... not the case here!! There's over 20 different vegetarian options!! And the rolls all sound so yummy! They also have vegetable broth miso soup, vegetable gyoza, vegetable udon, etc. Vegetarian/vegan heaven!! My family got a lot of different seafood/meat & they liked it! The crabby salmon teriyaki was good. The beef teriyaki was alright - probably wouldn't get again. The vegetable udon was good. We also got: rainbow roll, sashimi combo, green monster roll, California roll, salmon nigiri, and fried chicken gyoza. They all really liked it! You can also substitute for brown rice if you want that too. The salad dressing was a little strange... not your typical Japanese salad dressing. We didn't end up using the dressing they gave us. For me (the vegetarian), I got the: * vegetable fried gyoza: that was good. Not amazing but good * yam central roll: delicious!! My favorite roll there. Nice combination of yam tempura and cream cheese! I also loved the cashews in it * temple monkey: loved this one too! I surprisingly loved the pineapple and coconut in it. I thought it'd be weird to have pineapple in sushi, but I actually loved it! And the coconut, nuts and avocado were delicious!! I got this the 2nd time & it wasn't as good (I think they didn't put enough coconut the second time) but the first time was good!! * the happy goblin: this one was alright... I wasn't a huge fan of it Overall, we loved this restaurant. We got everything takeaway and each time was about a 30 minute wait. The staff seemed nice- didn't really talk to them much. I definitely would come back though! Loved that they had so many vegetarian options and that the vegetarian options were all super yummy!!! Thank you!!

For $31, for only this entree, we were both laughing and repulsed. So there's no crab in the "Crabby Salmon", just old salmon with Subway grade tuna salad. Very, very shady...

The sushi is really quite bad and the service was just ok. I got billed double by mistake and the guy didn't even seem apologetic when I pointed it out - just annoyed that he had to redo it.

Very fresh fish with very slow service! Don't come here if you are already hungry, since you will wait a long time to get your meal. You'll get hangry. There were maybe 5 other tables with people on a Wednesday night and it still took them a solid 10 minutes after we had finished reading the extensive menu and finished our miso soup to take our order. We ordered 4 rolls. After 20 more minutes, we asked them where the food was and they said they were going to start on our order soon. We asked if they could give us just 1 roll to start on since we were super hungry and they said no, all of them had to come at the same time, and they don't keep the restaurant fully staffed so that's why it's slow. The restaurant was also quite cold (February). Some of us put our jackets back on. Finally after another 10 minutes, the rolls came and they were delicious. So fresh and so flavorful! All of them were fantastic. I don't think it made up for how sluggish they were when there were only 5 other tables to cover. Overall it was a bad experience. If I wanted sushi from here again, I would order an hour ahead, take it to-go, and eat in the warmth of my house.

Omg. How can people who own a restaurant, serve horrible food to the public?? This place back in the day when it had just opened was pretty good sushi. Last night I decided to treat myself and I have never had such horrible sushi, much less food in general. I threw it away. I dont throw food away. I work hard for my money. Save yourself some money and don't go here. Most disgusting, disappointing sushi EVER. And the scallops were practically raw. Another clue to when restaurants don't seem to care about the product that they put out, they don't seem to bother with the yelp reviews either

I'd give it zero stars if I could. This is the second time they have given our takeout to the wrong person. The short angry male behind the register decided that he wanted to close and resolving the fact that they gave our food to someone else was not his problem. We did nothing wrong. We just ordered dinner. I gave them an opportunity to fix the situation. He replied we're not staying here late to cook your food. I asked if he cared that he was losing my business. He did not. Not a good look. Go anywhere else. I'm thinking that the can of soup that I am opening now will probably be healthier than the food prepared by a crew that doesn't care. If you are cutting corners on customer care, where else are you cutting corners?

Best tempura in town. Finally tried this place because our usual spot was closed by the time we wanted Japanese food. Lots of vegan options for me but I decided to just go with vegetable tempura PERFECTLY FRIED and crispy and agedashi tofu. The SO got the stuffed squid, beautiful ikura and a salmon maki roll. The portions and quality match the price! Will definitely order from here again.

We waited a quite a while for our sushi rolls despite there only being 5 others in the restaurant. The fish was super fresh but prepared poorly, many cuts looked like scrap pieces and the rolls themselves were salted to the point of alarm. We got the Latin Slant and Izzy Bizzy. The waitress was obviously super new, which I am tolerant of, but she isn't ready if she can't recognize the name Japanese names to the English ones. They do not serve alcohol and we were sneered at for getting a little rowdy.

The ambience is very well put together with cherry blossoms decorating all surfaces. The view is spectacular as you get to look over Capitola Beach. The service is very good. The fish is sustainable and pretty yummy. I would definitely recommend this restaurant! even though their wheelchair ramp is in the back, it's still accessible for wheelchairs. Manual wheelchair might have a hard time, navigating the ramp in the back by themselves.

Loved their rolls! Some of the best! They are pricey, but very good. There was no one there when we got there, although we did get there when they opened at 4. Service was okay - not bad, not great. Would definitely go again.

Geisha is legit. You can't find sushi anywhere else in SC that focuses on sustainable foods and has a huge and creative vegi/vegan specific menu. I also wanted to counteract some of the negative reviews that talked about poor service, etc. That's never been the case in all the years I've been going there. If you're going you must try the Spice House roll, it's totally unique and the flavors are cleverly balanced. If you order one and don't like it, let me know and I'll come by and finish it. it's also on the second floor so you get a view of Capitola and it's above the hordes of tourists so it has a better vibe than if it were street level.

Disgusting. I'd give it no stars if possible. Horrible service. Dirty dishes. Been coming here for years. Totally went down hill last year or so. Won't be coming again.

Delicious vegan sushi! Different than any other veg roll I've had-- lots of different veggies/plants/nuts/seeds and vegan sauces, all so mouth-watering. A little steep on the price ($55 for 3 rolls and 2 orders of inari ) but it was so worth it. The staff was friendly and helpful. I'd eat here again next time we're in town for sure!

Amazingly large portions of tasty & fresh fish, unusual and original flavor combinations, and a great chef and superior service from waitstaff. On a Monday night, no less. 100% will return, asap!

The food is ok, not bad & not great. The restaurant is bright with quick & friendly service. Seating is self service. I would come back if my other 2 places were closed.

Really good service. Fresh yummy sushi! Very highly recommended! Clean restaurant and sustainable/veg options!