The best sushi in Carlsbad, and it knows it. Rated ★★★★★
We’ve been here several times now, and been quite impressed. We sit at the tables — I’d prefer to sit at the sushi bar and order one-at-a-time but I’ve only been with my wife’s family and they’d rather sit at a table and chat.
Tonight we had a load of appetizers and three sushi rolls. There were two kinds of expensive Nigori-sake, I had the cheaper kind; they’ve got a tea menu that’s blissful just to read. Garlic edamame I thought was okay, the rest of the table loved it. Tempura was somewhat better than so-so. Calamari was quite good, sauce was great. There’s some “fusion” to the menu — pot stickers that melted in your mouth with a light sauce that tasted a bit like barbecue. Very, very good sushi rolls.
The place has the feel of a small Japanese country inn that somehow got dropped in Socal and isn’t sure what to do with itself now that it’s here. Fun to watch the turtles in the pond. There were some annoying people taking pictures of the turtles, but since it was us I didn’t take off points for that.
A very nice note from the owner tells me that Nozomi means “Hope”; that Omakase is per person and should be ordered at the bar from the Executive Chef, Ken; and earns them another star.