Kaido Japanese Cuisine

Don't let the strip mall exterior fool you. The owners of Kaido Japanese Cuisine on Santa Monica Boulevard pride themselves on fresh fish, fair prices and friendly faces. Once you step inside, the curtains keep out the bright sunlight making Kaido a hazily lit, wonderfully smelling setting. The sushi chefs can be seen from the restaurant, so you can watch your dish being made right before your eyes. 

If you're at Kaido for lunch, order the Large Sushi Plate for $14, and you'll see more bang for your buck. The plate includes miso soup, your choice of a hearty salad, five pieces of a spicy tuna roll and seven pieces of assorted sushi. The albacore, salmon, pepper-rubbed tuna and shrimp will melt deliciously in your mouth. The salads are large, also, and you can choose from the fried calamari salad, the baked salmon salad, the chicken salad or the spicy tuna salad. 

The sushi menu features nigiri sushi, sashimi and rolls. Nigiri includes tuna, octopus, yellowtail, freshwater eel, snow crab leg, scallop, sea urchin, Japanese mackarel, halibut, squid, surf clam, striped bass, albacore, monkfish liver and more. 

The dinner menu has a wide array of appetizers, salads, Japanese noodles, dinner combinations, entrees and sashimi combinations. For a delicious starter, try the $9 tempura stuffed shiitake mushrooms with spicy tuna and crab inside. 

Salads include salmon skin salad, marinated albacore salad, tofu salad, seaweed salad and more. Dinner entrees range in price from $11 to $20, but remember that salad and entree portions at Kaido are generally large. If you're looking for a dinner that doesn't include raw fish, you may be interested in the broiled Chilean sea bass, the shrimp and vegetable tempura or the sukiyaki with beef or chicken in a sweet soy sauce with noodles and vegetables. All entrees are served with rice and miso soup.           

The combination dinners give you seven pieces of sashimi, rice, miso soup and your choice of beef teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, Chilean sea bass, miso salmon, shrimp tempura or vegetable tempura all for $20.     

HelloMetro Tip: If you're here on a date, share a combination dinner so you can try lots of Kaido favorites. If you're still hungry, you can still order sushi by the piece whenever you like.   

- by Jessica Bates, Santa Monica Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Jessica Bates

Jessica is a freelance journalist residing in lovely southern California. She holds a bachelor's degree in English and journalism. She writes for a green living publication, which she thoroughly enjoys. Once upon a time she was an editorial board member for Steel Toe Books choosing poetry manuscripts for publication.