Kaisen Kaiten Sushi Bar

Orange County previously had a wider range of conveyor belt sushi restaurants than it does today, where there are essentially two options: multiple U.S. locations of Japan’s Kura Sushi, and a single seemingly family-owned alternative, Kaisen Sushi in Santa Ana, nearly across from Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza. Kaisen’s confusing longer name – Kaisen Kaiten Sushi Bar – includes “kaiten,” Japanese for conveyor belt, and perhaps overpromises on the “sushi bar” part. The experience consists largely of sitting at a table and watching a single large conveyor move clear-covered dishes past your seat, unless you grab them first.

You can order items from a menu if they’re not circulating on the belt, which is quite common these days, as a substantial fraction of Kaisen’s rotating dishes focus on salmon. Historically, placing an order involved marking your choices on a sheet of paper and sending the paper to the kitchen inside a glass cup on the conveyor; after a change in ownership, the paper slips were (finally) replaced with a smartphone-based ordering system using Menusifu, a decided improvement.

As contrasted with Kura, Kaisen’s menu is more interesting – including legitimately worthwhile lobster hand rolls, raw oysters, soft shell crab, and raw shrimp – with many dishes at lower prices than Kura’s current $4 per plate, plus deluxe rolls that hit the $10.50 point (for up to eight pieces). Instead of one uniform plate price, Kaisen’s dish color determines whether you pay $2.00 to $5.25; dishes are stacked on your table and hand-counted by a server at the end. Our meals have tended to be less expensive at Kaisen than at Kura, sometimes markedly so, and sometimes not.