Koma Sushi on El Camino in Menlo Park serves up the most delicious and fresh Japanese cuisine. Try it out for a fun, authentic meal with some friends. Staff photo by Eliza Crowder.

By Eliza Crowder

If you’re looking for some authentic Japanese cuisine in a convenient location, make your way over to Koma Sushi located on 211 El Camino Real in Menlo Park. Koma serves up delicious, fresh-tasting sushi rolls and sashimi along with other Japanese salads and vegetable dishes.

The atmosphere at Koma is a very intimate one, with tables situated just a few feet away from each other and with counter seats surrounding the sushi cooks’ work station. One of my favorite aspects of Koma is how you can clearly observe what exactly the cooks are doing – everything from what they chopping to how they roll the sushi to how they plate the dishes is visible from any seat in the restaurant.

The service at Koma is quite rapid. Our dishes seemed to suddenly appear in front of us just minutes after we placed our orders. The sushi cooks themselves simply just handed our dishes to us over the counter. Last time I went to Koma, my dad and I ordered the Goma Wakame, a seaweed salad, to start, a classic “California Roll” (pictured left) and a more adventurous “Dragon Roll,” a form of sashimi with eel atop a bed of rice (pictured right).

Everything from the taste and freshness of the food to the cordial servers to the intimate atmosphere was on point at Koma Sushi. However, I will admit that my dad and I left Koma without completely full stomachs. The problem with any sushi restaurant is that you have to order a lot of food to get full, and sushi tends to not be the cheapest cuisine. Each roll costs about $9.00 and the check adds up pretty quickly when you’re ordering three or four rolls for two people.

That being said, if you’re willing to treat yourself to a delectable meal and pay a little more than usual, Koma Sushi should be next-up on your “restaurants to try” list. The freshness of the vegetables and the tenderness of the fish will have you daydreaming that you are dining in a small restaurant in Japan. And if you’re feeling up for a little something more, walk down to The Yogurt Stop, a frozen yogurt shop, which is just two buildings down on El Camino, to cap off your delicious dining experience with the perfect treat.