Tonight we are at Genki Sushi Japanese Restaurant on Makala Blvd in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. We heard good things about this chain, but being a chain we are wary. Upon walking in the door the aroma of fresh sushi permeates the air and relaxes us with great anticipation. The restaurant has the sushi chef station in the center and a conveyor belt moving around the outside of him so you select what you like as it comes by your table or you can order directly from the chef. Every dish plate is color coded for easy price recognition.

I start with spicy tuna. It’s good and spicy but not very strong on the tuna flavor. As I take a small bite of just the tuna it taste a little tired. It reminds me of something I would expect from a fast food, mass produced sushi joint. The first piece I ate without ginger, wasabi, or soy sauce. The second piece was better as it complimented well and made up for the tiredness of the tuna. Next, I try the pot stickers. Not impressive. The California Roll, Leise liked. I really liked the Crab Tempura Roll. The Ebi Tempura Roll was similar to and almost as good as the Crab. The second bite of the Ebi is warming me up to it. I am starting to get that happy, “I like this place” feeling. Leise orders some tempura vegetables. Satiated, Leise relaxes with her bowl of edamame. We both relax with a velvet cake cupcake. Yum. It has chocolate fudge in the center. We finish with the Green Tea Ice Cream.

With the loud Top-40 pop music and the poor room acoustics which reflect every noise including the screaming children, the ambience has a high school cafeteria feel. For ambience I give Genki Sushi 2 out of 5 surfboards. For food quality I give 3 out of 5 surfboards. For service I give 4 out of 5 surfboards. Overall I give it a 3 surfboards. The best things this place has going for it is that it is fast because the food is prepared continuously, pretty good food quality, quite attentive service, and the price is very, very good. We ordered ten items and walked out for less than $30 plus tip. That doesn’t suck and Leise said she liked it better than Sansei. Leise is not a big fan of Sansei and she is quite a connoisseur of sushi, when she was single she used to go out to sushi three times a week.

We are enjoying this experience and will come back again….

WARNING: Genki Sushi does not accept American Express Prepaid cards.  I was most upset to see on their window that they accept Amex only to discover when I went to pay that they do not accept Amex Prepaid. This tainted our whole experience and made a good experience bad. There are other better sushi places.  We probably won’t be back.

Mahalo,  James Christopher

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