Location: 11375 El Camino Real #120, San Diego, CA 92130
If you are looking for some authentic and well-prepared sushi and sashimi this is the place you don’t want to miss! I first heard about Ken Sushi Workshop after my husband had a business lunch and was blown away by the food. Situated in a quiet office building area in Carmel Valley this hole in the wall is sure not to be missed!
To be honest, for most of my life I have never been a big fan of eating raw fish. The slimy texture and stringy meat was always very off-putting for me….but I soon realized that all this time I was eating very bad quality sushi/sashimi. Ken Sushi Workshop changed all that and I quickly learned to appreciate GOOD like SUPER GOOD sashimi. Like most high end Japanese restaurants this place is a bit pricey but well worth the quality and service you get.
We ordered several dishes that night to try, starting off with the Amberjack Tiradito (see first photo above). This dish was amazingly yummy, I never had raw fish with truffle oil and boy does it bring this dish to the next level. It’s a very light appetizer with a delicate soy sauce vinaigrette that compliments the meaty texture of the Amberjack very well.
Next, we had the Kurobuta Sausage appetizer. These little sausage bites were delicately grilled to perfection and served with a honey mustard sauce on the side. Really great classic combo of salty smoky sausage and sweet sauce to balance it off.
The following two dishes were their specials for the evening: Chu Toro (Tuna) sashimi and Red Snapper sashimi. The Chu Toro sashimi was simple, lightly dressed with some soy sauce and garnished with some green onions and wasabi. The flavors were clean and delicate and it had a nice meaty consistency, not fishy at all, and great slightly firm texture.
The Red Snapper sashimi I have to say was more interesting! Upon first glance it looks kinda plain, just sliced fish sprinkled with a bit of Himalayan salt. But when you taste it, it has this incredible smokey flavor from the charred skin and the slight saltiness of the fish and soft texture somehow reminds me of a fish prosciutto in a good way!
Next we had to try the Ken Sushi Workshop Sashimi Plate and Nigiri Combination. You can tell the fish at this restaurant is of a very high quality as everything on the plate was again super fresh, not a hint of off smell, and you can really taste the natural sweetness and subtle flavors of each type of fish presented. These are more traditional dishes you can get at most restaurants but are clearly very high in quality at this place.
Overall, I would come back to try more of their unique marinaded sashimi plates as that is something you can’t often find at other Japanese sushi restaurants. And if you are a sushi /sashimi novice like me and scared to try raw fish but curious as to why people are crazy about it and ready to spend the big bucks….I recommend coming here for your first experience!
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