San Diego has no shortage of great sushi. Sushi Ota is the icon. Kinme Omakase oozes exclusivity (and quality). Hidden Fish brought omakase-only dining to the city. Soichi has a Michelin star for Pete’s sake, and Sushi Tadokoro is undeniably great. There’s Sushi Gaga and Hane and Shino and Maru and Wrench & Rodent and Kaito. Hotel del Coronado just got a Nobu.
But this top-notch scene comes with a cost, literally. Sushi tends to either get saved for a special occasion or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, picked up from a cold case at your local grocery store accompanied with a requisite blob of radioactive-green horseradish. (Let’s be honest, we’ve all done it.) Few places can balance general affordability with high quality.
But that’s what Sugarfish has done pretty successfully in Los Angeles, Orange County, and New York over the past 17 years. And it’s what they say they’ll bring to San Diego when they open next spring in Little Italy—at 2100 Kettner, the LEED-certified, six-story, mixed-use building that currently houses Postino WineCafe, Slice House by Tony Gemignani, and the HQ for the city’s pro soccer team, San Diego FC.
In 2008, the partners—chef Kazunori Nozawa (whose restaurant Sushi Nozawa had been a star in Studio City for decades), Jerry Greenberg, Tom Nozawa (Kazunori’s son, also a chef), Lele Massimini, Cameron Broumand, and Clement Mok—opened the first Sugarfish in Marina del Rey. Over 17 years, they’ve cautiously expanded to 10 more locations in LA and five in New York City (with one more on the way). Massimini says the slow growth was intentional.
“Our goal is always to deliver the best bite of sushi to every guest when they come to Sugarfish,” he explains. “When we were sure that we could deliver that in San Diego, that’s when we pulled the trigger.”
And the local bounty makes sense. Chefs in Japan will often source fish from San Diego and Baja, says Tom Nozawa: “Really good stuff comes out of the San Diego waters.”
One of the Sugarfish signatures is their approach to rice—made with a proprietary rice vinegar recipe and served warm and loosely packed, which contrasts nicely against the cool fish. But don’t look for funky fusion sauces or rolls. “We’re sticking with our roots… serving simple, great sushi,” says Nozawa.
And the price is right—the cheapest lunch special on the Los Angeles menus runs $32 for edamame, tuna sashimi, two pieces of albacore sushi, two pieces of salmon sushi, a toro hand roll, one piece of Japanese yellowtail sushi, one piece of hirame sushi, and a blue and dungeness crab hand roll. The most expensive lunch option—called “Don’t Think. Just Eat. Trust Me”—tops out at $60 for a sashimi course, seven orders of nigiri, and two hand rolls. Everything is preselected on the Trust Me menu, but what it lacks in adventurous exploration, the team says they make up for in cost and consistency. Of course, you can always order à la carte. Might I recommend the pink lobster nigiri from New Zealand?
Architect Robert Tsurimoto Kirsten of A-RTK is designing Sugarfish Little Italy in a similar vein to the restaurant’s other locations, but drawing inspiration from famed building designer, architect, and San Diegan Cliff May. May, known for his California Ranch homes and mid-century modern designs, created spaces that mixed indoors with outdoors, with lots of warm woods and open spaces. This location will seat 40 guests and emphasize cozy colors like greys and blues, but Massimini says they plan to keep the design on the minimalist side to ensure the sushi remains the showstopper.
“For us, design is supportive,” he says. “It’s not the centerpiece.”
PARTNER CONTENT
Sugarfish doesn’t try to blow your mind with exotic sauces or unbelievably rare fish. But for predictable, high-quality sushi that’s painstakingly sourced and served and won’t set me back a Benjamin or two? Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa opens spring 2026 at 2100 Kettner Blvd., Suite 1100.
