This could have been a 5 star rating. But the serv...

This could have been a 5 star rating. But the service needs more fluency. The servers was slow for a Sat night. There was one person taking orders and two others clearing tables. And they didn't talk to each other. So we had bowls given for our Udon and then taken away without being used and the food was a fair bit delayed each time. Even the check was delayed.

The ambience is beautiful. The seating, lighting, the candles and bonsai on each table, everything is very very thoughtful and tastefully done. The utensils are beautiful as you'll see in the pictures below. Wooden utensils always bring a certain Zen and calmness to food, vs ceramic/glass/Formica.

We ordered the Ora King Salmon sushi, the By the Border specialty rolls and the tempura Udon. To finish it, I ordered the lemon ginger kefir soda which was on the board as one of their specialty drinks.

The food was beautiful, elegant and quite tasty. The sushi was pretty authentic. The specialty rolls were better with the soy sauce but very good. The Udon broth was interesting. Not the spicy broth I usually like, but I liked it. The noodles were pretty bland, which my boyfriend liked but I was like, meh! The tempura included a shrimp, potato, zucchini, carrot and an onion. Shrimp and potato tempura works, but the carrot does not. I prefer an american onion ring to onion tempura. The zucchini, I could not make my mind up.

I think this place has pretty authentic cuisine - a typical toned down, elegant presentation and taste of food. Price wise, it is better than some of the other fancy sushi places I've tried in San Diego.