Cooked Fish or Raw, San Diego's KOI Japanese Restaurant Has it All

KOI Japanese Restaurant at the northwest corner of Market Street and Eighth Avenue in downtown San Diego is a new eatery where Padres Ballpark Pizzeria used to be. The neighborhood has improved quite a lot since 2007, with all the new upscale condos and cleaner street and more police patrolling the area.

Eighth Avenue runs right into Petco Park (home of the San Diego Padres MLB team) 3 blocks south of Market Street, and there is a big ACE open parking lot on the other side of the street, so you can actually see the stadium from a few tables at the front of this place.

The dining room is rather small, though very clean. It is stylishly decorated in a very organized manner... You do feel like you've walked into a Japanese sushi bar rather than one of those impersonal franchise dining room that you'd get at MacDonald's or Taco Bell's (where the only thing setting their facilities apart is the different logo). The dining room is smallish and can probably handle a party of up to 30 people (assuming no other diner present). The bar and counter runs along the right side of the building with a mid-size flat-screen TV monitor at the end, usually in mute mode (with running subtitle), and turned to a sport game or news). Restrooms are to the back and left, and kept consistently clean.

This is a moderate-price Japanese sushi bar with full menu (all sorts of sushi, nigiri, hand roll, teriyaki bowl, sashimi, yakisoba, udon, variety of fried rice, and bento). You can have a good lunch or dinner for less than $20 per head (as long as you don't eat like a sumo wrestler). The sushi is pretty good and fresh, though you don't get a lot of fish on the rolls. The rice and yakisoba dishes tend to taste a bit light and bland, if you are familiar with Japanese food, but the quantity is quite good for the price.