07/03/09

Served me well for years

by trueblueyou

I spent years as a regular at Kappaya and found it to be a wonderful little jewel. The food is down to earth, delicious and I always left feeling wonderful and full of energy. The prices were alway reasonable. Go for lunch and you will see there is a real community that surrounds this place. Thank you to the staff for all their kindness! This place if full of good people and healthy food. I have moved now, but will visit you when ever I can. Best to you all.

• Pros: Great down to earth cuisine

02/04/09

Eh...

by BadHorsie

There was a little lost in translation. I asked about the tempura appetizer, and told the waitress I wanted it with my sushi. We went back and forth 3 - 4 times about it, and finally I got my tempura well ahead of my sushi anyway. Oh well. As someone else mentioned, the oil may affect flavor a bit.

People say the portions of sushi were big, but I found them to be not so big. Takahashi serves sushi that takes most often two bites to eat one piece, where here one bite is more than sufficient. So I ended up spending more money than I would at Takahashi.

The owner and sushi master, Teri, was a nice man. Pleasant and helpful.

The sushi was top notch and very fresh.

We had to ask for tea as well as a refill, so service wasn't as great as it could be. The third refill, she did bring on her own.

The decor was very bland indeed. I felt like I was in a brightly light office.

Tamago wasn't too sweet, which was nice. I do not like eggs too sweet.

I liked the natto roll, although found it was made more into a paste than actual full beans, which I think I would have preferred for the texture.

I tried the umejisho roll, which had a very distinct and fresh shiso flavor to it. It was green, and not pickled. I recommend not dipping it into soy sauce or wasabi, but just eat it straight.

Of course, the ebi (shrimp), kuni (crab) rolls were very good too. The veggie rolls. Masurgo, Sake (salmon), oregon albacore rolls... all good.

My mother tried the udon noodles, which she said did not contain too much noodles in it. She liked the flavor, but thought it had a lot of broth compared to amount of noodles in it. The noodles were not homemade, but very flavorful. She got the tempura udon, and was disappointed it did not have any fish or shrimp.

All-in-all, we enjoyed it, but the value wasn't quite what you might find at Takahashi. Still, both are good places to eat.

• Pros: Fresh sushi! Sushi master Teri will help you, and is pleasant. lots of parking.
• Cons: Small pieces of sushi can lead to expensive meal. Some communication with the waitress was lost in translation.

05/23/08

Sit at the bar and get to know your sushi chefs

by bastiandantilus

Oh man, you want to know about a good sushi place? You gotta try Kappaya. The portions are generous, the sushi is delicious, and the chefs are friendly. The wait staff can be a bit standoffish, particularly if like me you don't know Japanese, but the chefs themselves are really nice (one of whom is the owner). The nigiri (the type of sushi that is a piece of fish on top of a bit of rice) is really superb, I particularly recommend the hamachi or oregon maguro. The unagi avocado maki (roll type sushi) is quite good and there is a good variety of spicy, savory, and crunchy rolls depending on your mood. I've also had a tasty dinner here even when I wasn't in the mood for sushi, including sweet and salty Kitsune Udon (yum).

I've heard this place favorably compared to places that cost 3 times as much, and my experience is much the same. The atmosphere is kind of a cross between a japanese convenience store and a Japanese person's home, but I come there for the food.

When I go to Kappaya with my girlfriend, she always orders her sushi with "no cucumber, please". They have always accommodated this with no issue, which is a big plus in their favor in my book. I have never gotten bony fish unlike some other places I could name. The sushi is just the best.

• Pros: Excellent Quality Fish, Tasty Food, Special Orders Okay, Great Specials, Ample Parking, Great Value
• Cons: Popular can sometimes mean Slow, You'll want to order appetizers on busy nights, It would help if you spoke Japanese (I don't)

03/29/08

Unremarkable food, poor service

by agood476823

I ate here about 2 or 3 times, usually only because it was the closest thing and we couldn't think of anything else. It has always been bland, unremarkable food, served by unpleasant people.

The last time we went there, there were about 3 open tables. We stood there, waiting to be seated, for 15 minutes, trying to make eye contact and flag down a waitperson. None of them would respond, and would just hustle by. We decided to wait another 5 minutes and leave, which we did. We will never go back.

• Pros: decent location
• Cons: poor service, bland food

01/08/08

Best potstickers EVER

by cosmicbabe

I don't care for sushi, and that's the only reason I can give for not having tried this little gem before. It was a spur-of-the-moment choice, because I figured they had to have more than just sushi -- and was I ever glad that I did try dinner here! The house sake is tasty, the entrees are delicious (and beautifully presented, as well as generously-sized), the prices are very affordable and the potstickers are the best in the entire universe. I'm thrilled that I found such a delightfully informal place with such good service, charming ambiance, and delicious food!

• Pros: Delicious food at value prices

11/16/07

best sushi in town!

by dalsfelt

this place is amazing! the relaxed atmosphere can be whatever you want it to be, romantic or relaxed or kid friendly. try the rainbow roll its pretty much amazing, the sushi is like butter!

• Pros: good service, good sake, good sushi, good sukiyaki
• Cons: none

11/07/07

Good sushi -- but that's all, if you're vegetarian

by jfusion

We stopped in, wanting a hot bowl of something -- ramen, udon, whatever. They told us all of these options were made only with meat. (Yes, I know that japanese soup base almost always contains fish. I don't have a problem with the bit of it that's in a miso or ramen. They seemed to be saying it was something more, and we couldn't communicate well enough to figure it out.)

The one hot meal they could make vegetarian was Tempura, and this normally bland dish was even less satisfying than usual. The salads that came with dinner were of sad iceberg lettuce, which I have a hard time considering to be food.

We did get a veggie roll as appetizer, and it was quite good. They have several veggie options on their sushi menu, and I look forward to returning to try more of these. I only wish we'd been in the mood for sushi last night.

11/03/07

It's great! (not for the bridge and tunnel crowd, though).

by portlandmoneymaker

The last poster was crayyzee. Kappaya always has fresh fish. I've eaten at both Masu's and they were foo-foo yuppie places with sushi made by white people! Come on. Sushi is good when that's what is the focus of a restaurant, not the decor or the servers. It's authentic and simple, not trendy and gimmicky. Kappaya is great, simple, honest, fresh and satisfying. I've NEVER had a bad meal here but I have in several other sushi places in Portland.

• Pros: Always dependable.
• Cons: Sometimes crowded at night.

10/07/07

Below Quality Fish

by wahkeenasitka

I'm a hardcore sushi snob. I came here because it's close to where we live and because my friend wanted to come here.. I hadn't been here in years because I was never fond of it in the past and had since moved on to discovering Sushi Mania, Masu East and Meiji En.. But in the name of relinquishing my hardcore sushi snob attitude and surrendering to my friend's direction, I went to Kappaya. Let me just say that it's probably ranking in my bottom three sushi places in Portland, including also Takahashi and Mio Sushi. The one thing that I enjoyed was the crunchy roll. The rest of it was mediocre ~ sushi quality that you might get out of a deli case. I was not moved into my normal hysterical state of moaning ecstasy with any of the rolls or nigiri. Plus, the atmosphere is dismal. They need some aesthetic design assistance. In general, the experience was Cheap. Cheap prices. Cheap fish. Cheap furniture. Not good quality.

• Pros: Cheap
• Cons: Not Yummy

08/03/07

Great sushi, period.

by pdxconsumer3

Next to Saburo's in Sellwood, Kappaya is my only choice for good sushi in Portland proper. You can keep Takahashi, Mio Sushi, Koji, Yuki and all the other trendy, gimmicky and cheap places. Kappaya's owner knows how to roll good sushi. I've been going there since 2000 and have never had a bad meal. The service is polite, tables are clean and besides the ocassional, ignorant idiot from Gresham, I've never had a bad dining experience here. If you don't feel like driving to Sellwood or waiting in line, give Kappaya your hard earned money -- you won't be disappointed.

• Pros: parking lot, sweet servers, damn good sushi
• Cons: the average moron may stumble in on ocassion