Japanese Restaurants in and near San Diego, CA

Thanks to the city’s thriving and historic Japanese community, as well as its proximity to seafood fresh from the Pacific, San Diego Japanese Restaurants have a lot to offer hungry visitors. Overlapping with the Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego’s traditional Nihonmachi, or Japanese neighborhood, is still home to plenty of seafood and sushi joints amid the quaint, scenic tourist sites. Further afield in Kearny Mesa, diners find a wealth of ramen restaurants and robatas, as well as the bustling Mitsuwa Marketplace, a self-contained shopping mall full of lunch spots, bakeries, Japanese groceries, and appliances. Though the city has its share of fancy Japanese eateries, be sure not to overlook hidden gems such as Pacific Beach’s Sushi Ota, whose unassuming strip-mall location belies its status as one of the best sushi restaurants in San Diego.