When my husband Daniel and I find a restaurant that passes our snobby test of quality, we stick to it with an obsessive loyalty.

Ono Sushi in Hillcrest has been #1 in our hearts for years now, and we rarely go 2 weeks without a visit to this fun Hillcrest joint where the beautiful people in San Diego come for martinis and rolls that never disappoint. With atmosphere to spare, Ono offers friendly servers and staff who have put up with many a spirited, martini-soaked rambling from yours truly - and always with a smile. As a professional lush, I truly appreciate that!

When you first walk in, you’ll see the action-filled sushi bar, with 5 chefs chopping and preparing sushi to-die-for.

In light of our fondness for finding something excellent and sticking with it, Daniel and I pretty much order the same thing every time we go to Ono. But tonight, we had two other people with us (my sister Amy and her friend Jaime), so we could branch out and order a few extra specialities that our stomach capacity won’t normally allow.

Here’s what we got:

My Personal Cocktail List for the Evening:

• Chocolate Tini - Vermeer Chocolate Liquor & Skyy Vodka
• Ono Plum Tini - Gekkeikan Plum Wine & Sake

To start and share:

• Edamame - $3.50
• Jalapeno Shrimp Popper - $9.50 - Looks like a sushi roll, tastes like a jalapeno popper with a special dipping sauce

Specialty Rolls:

• Ono Sushi Roll - $10 - Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, & Unagi (The whole roll is tempura fried!)
• Double Baja Roll - $9.50 + an extra $5 to make it double - Double Seared Tuna & Double Avocado with Crab & Cucumber Inside
• Snapper Roll - $9 - Red Snapper & Avocado Outside, Spicy Crab Inside
• Pizza Roll - $10.50 - Smoked Salmon, Crab, Avocado, Special Sauce - Served Hot!
• Triple Fantasy Roll - $10.50 - Spicy Tuna Outside, Tempura Shrimp, & Crab Inside

Ono is often voted the best sushi in San Diego. We’ve got a few other sushi places in regular rotation now, but we always enjoy a visit to Ono because the quality is consistently excellent. And an added bonus is that it makes us feel hip and young to hang out somewhere that’s often hectic and where you can’t always find a place at the bar. At our age, we need all of the hipness help we can get!

And while our recent trip to Japan taught us to appreciate authentic sashimi, we also learned that innovative maki rolls are not typically available in Japan and we think they’re something to be appreciated in their own right. Ono has some of the best, especially the Ono Roll. I’ve never had anything quite like anywhere else. Delish!

If you have friends who don’t like sushi (weirdos!), Ono offers many other Asian-inspired dishes that I’ve heard are quite good. The most popular one seems to be the Macadamia Nut Crusted Chicken Breast.

Ono Sushi opens at 5pm daily and at noon on Saturdays and Sundays. They also offer several different specials for Happy Hour during the week. Call for details. Weeknights can be very crowded and they don’t take reservations, so we tend to go around 6pm or 9pm to avoid the rush.

Ono Sushi
1236 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 298-0616

Thanks for dinner, Amy!