Waka Sakura Irvine

Came on a Thursday in the late afternoon around 3:45 and the wait was about 20 minutes long. Not terrible as you can walk around Tokyo Central as you wait for a text letting you know your table is ready. Restaurant is clean but smaller than I had expected. The servers were attentive, provided instructions and showed us where the call button is in case we needed help. Directions are self explanatory on the pad and you can also order on your phone if you need. You’re allowed to order 6 at a time and the food came out quite fast. The fish tasted pretty fresh. Wouldn’t say it’s the best fish I’ve ever had but definitely above average. The rice was a solid for the most part. One or two of the nigiri I had was a bit hard in terms of rice but I still ate it. All in all, everything was pretty good. I’m not sure I would ever wait more than 20 minutes for this place but recommend everyone to come check it out when there isn’t a crazy wait.

Finally made it out to the new high-end revolving sushi spot in Irvine, and it absolutely lived up to the hype—well, mostly. The quality of the fish was top notch—everything was fresh, beautifully plated, and melted in your mouth. You can definitely taste the difference in quality compared to other conveyor belt spots in the area. The service was also excellent—attentive, friendly, and surprisingly efficient given how packed the place was. That said, be prepared to wait. We had a 2-hour wait during opening week, which was a bit brutal. And the parking situation doesn’t help—tight, chaotic, and definitely a headache during peak hours. Still, once you’re inside, it’s a great experience. A fantastic addition to Irvine’s sushi scene, just plan ahead and bring your patience!

Revolving/Kaiten Sushi. This is probably the best spot in SoCal. We are here on the opening day. All the fish are fresh. Scallops lover has four pieces of scallops sushi with original, seared, shoyu, and mayo flavors, highly recommended. Another item surprisingly good is Takoyaki, very authentic just like what we had in Japan. The miso soup is also good, not too salty and the tofu is so tender. Wagyu sushi is the only one I wouldn't recommend otherwise, everything else is good. Expected to line up 1 hour during dining hours but definitely worth the wait. A must try.

Price is rather good. Service was okay, nothing too extraordinary. However the reason for why I gave it a 4 instead of 5 star lies with the fact the tuna lovers dish. The blue fin tuna reeked. Simply put it was fishy, which sucks since I was looking forward to it the most. Salmon lovers plate was fine, same with the scallops/ shrimp dishes. It was honestly just the tuna reeking. Total came out to 39.25 per person after tax and tip.

The wait can be long, but we went outside of peak hours. Total wait time was under 30 minutes on a Saturday around 3pm. The miso soup with clams and the steamed egg were both very tasty. Then the nigiri (we tried salmon, tuna and scallops) were all good and fresh. We'll come back to try more!

Super slow - came before opening and signed up for the waitlist. At opening they process the waitlist in order one at a time with a 15 minute grace period per group. It’s just so inefficient - when the restaurant is completely empty why not at least do it in batches. It’s crazy for the restaurant to still be half empty 50 minutes after opening and only like 10 groups have been processed. Food is good but honestly it’s like borderline Sake2me level except throw on an hour or two for the wait. This is the wait I expect for a premium sushi spot not a place with run of the mill quality. Would not come back until they figure out how to process their lines more effectively.

This is NOT a revolving/rotary sushi place. We visited on Friday and they said their wait time is 2 hours 🤣🤣 so we thanked them and decided to eat elsewhere. Also, you cannot reserve or book in advance 🤨

2+ hour wait. I looked inside and the restaurant was EMPTY. Everyone outside was complaining and some people just left. Appears they didn’t have enough staff to service customer. So why open if you’re not fully ready to operate? An empty restaurant and a list of 40 or more people on a waiting list outside for over 2 hours. Crazy.