Pink Godzilla

Pink Godzilla holds a special place in my heart.

I love the rolls. I love the sake selection. I love the cute little rooms you can sit in pretending you are at a real Japanese restaurant, even though there are huge holes under the table for your legs so you don't have to sit cross-legged. I DO NOT, however, love the service.

Each time I have been here, our server (different almost every time) turns out to be more incompetent than the last. They will either come over 30 seconds after seating you, or 15 minutes later to ask for your order, even if there is only ONE OTHER TABLE in the restaurant. The servers will bring your meals out at different times, and almost never refill your water.

BUT PLEASE! Do not let this review deter you from eating here. The rolls they offer are interesting enough, and very inexpensive. If you want to just stuff your face excessively with rice and fish, and spend only $20 for 2 people... You've come to the right place.

xoxo

I came here once before but found out it actually closed and the hours weren't correct on Yelp.

I'm always down to eat sushi and some of my friends thought this place was great for the price. So after shopping at Capitola Mall my friends and I headed to Pink Godzilla which is a few minute drive away.

Thought the tatami room would be a cute/cool place to eat dinner but didn't notice the 15% tip charge. It's cool, that's how much I normally give. Fine, whatever. I ordered to split with one other person the Wonderful roll, manresa roll, pleasure point roll, scallops mitsu, spider roll. Each for $4.95.

I'm a huge complainer so I'll give you a play by play on what went wrong:

1. I ordered about 5 sushi rolls while my 2 other friends ordered the Godzilla Dinner and split the Ultra Bitchin Roll (only after seeing people rave about it on Yelp). Not only did they get their food (minus the sushi) before us but they were all finished before we got ours. So basically, we watched them eat and afterwards, they watched us eat. Not fun..

2. Only 1 sushi chef and then the other one showed up towards the end? Why do they take 40 minutes to make a roll? Because they try to conserve dish washing time and put 48 pieces of sushi on a big plate. Obviously if they know we're waiting they should split it up so we get fed. I was STARVING. And it's not like there was a million people I counted about 4 other parties.

3. Waitress checked up on us once during my course of waiting just saying that the sushi will come out soon and to collect the empty plates from my friends who already finished their meal.

4. Friend's sushi was on my plate so they had to reach over. Did I say I was sharing with them? Why don't you just combine the Godzilla Dinners together on one plate and make them share? Geeze.

5. Waitress put a 20% tip. We couldn't figure it out because we only had 4 people and the Tatami room said 15% tip will be placed not 20%. Greedy people.

6. We left close to closing time but waitress waited outside our Tatami Room and grabbed our tab right when we stood up from the table. Can't you just wait until we're almost out the door? RUDE.

To sum up my ranting, service wasn't great but pricing really is good for sushi. I didn't think the rolls were THAT great and when I was eating the sushi, I didn't even know which was which. It just looked like a blobl of rice everywhere. Ew don't get the sushi with the lemon in it, super sour!

I am finding it hard to get excellent sushi/ Japanese food here -- so thank god I work in the Bay Area. Pink Godzilla is a novelty here in Santa Cruz-- they have a trendy menu and who doesn't like those tatami rooms and sake bombs? This place gets two stars from me for the following reasons

1) The father who owns the restaurant is awesome (totally down to earth and super chill), however his son is rude and degrades the servers..and talks shit about them in Japanese...on several occasions when I went with either family or friends (while the father was out) the son was incredibly demeaning to the female servers-- to the point where one time my father refused the sushi the son made-- and tipped our server 15 bucks. Granted the son speaks several languages and makes decent sushi-- but his unprofessionalism is why I have not returned.

2) It is cheap-- but you get what you pay for... which is the same quality as shogun and takara...crappy. If you are in the mood for a sushi fix then by all means.. however their sushi and sashimi is of poor quality and not at all fresh (not all the soy sauce and wasabi in the world can cover up the "staleness" of the fish-- trust I have tried.)

3) It gets two stars instead of one because the quantity of good is decent- it should fill you up if you are getting their bento/ dinner specials.. for the price it is a lot of food-- but again the food is nothing spectacular and mediocre at best.

Hopefully things have cleared up since my last visit.. but I go over the hill now to Japantown when I want some decent homeland goodness.

Hype.

that's all it is.

That's what happens when you listen to a bunch of white ucsc students where the best sushi in town is.

I don't even know why I even ordered an appetizer, 3 sushi rolls, aand a rice dish for two people. Maybe I was that hungry. Maybe I was excited to eat all the great food everyone was talking about.

Appetizer: Tempura. 6 GIANT pieces of vegetables fried in batter. No good. couldn't finish. I felt like it was the boardwalk attempting to bring some japanese cuisine to all the tourists eating deep fried twinkies.

Sushi Rolls: A-ok. The waitress recommended the pickled carrot roll as SO GOOD. it was so NOT GOOD. it was rolled with a tiny piece of pickled carrot in it. ew gross. the other two rolls were ok. One had what looked like shiitake mushroom in it and the other was a vegetable roll. They were good, but forgettable.

Rice Dish: Had this soft marinated tofu dish which was super super good. It was the best thing we ate tonight.

Service: Service was really good. Seeing as it wasn't a busy night, we were looked after pretty well.

Atmosphere: They have those private rooms which cost you a certain amount of gratuity, and there was one room where they shoved about 8 college kids inside. The result? A crash. A scream. A WTF BEEP! and then 8 kids running out with water all over them. and broken glass.

*sigh*

PROS:
-a very nice variety and selection of rolls.
- sashimi for about a DOLLAR. (12 pc. for 12.95)
- overall the prices are really cheap

CONS:
- cheap sushi, cheap quality.
- rolls seem really small.
- got the 12 pc. sashimi, and the fish weren't evenly cut. the salmon were cut into cubes, while the other types of fish I ordered were sliced in the traditional way. LAME.
- I ordered salmon, maguro, and hamachi, and instead of hamachi, they gave me saba.

being a college student, it's hard not to be enticed by cheap offers on sushi, but quite honestly, it's really not worth coming to Pink Godzilla's if you're looking for good quality sushi.

I've been here twice and completely loved it each time. Everything was great - I even bought a t shirt. But, unless you like boxy, guy shaped t shirts, girls, either don't bother or get a big one that you're going to edit. :)

As for the sushi - it's fresh and fun and they're quick. You might have to wait to sit but once you're at your table, you won't have to wait long after ordering.

Their nigori sake is really yummy too.

The selection here is awesome!

I had the Ultra Bitchin' roll and the regular salmon nigiri, but the highlight had to be the U.B. that I dared myself to get. It wasn't all sorts of explosions of happiness or anything but it was great and sated my hungry appetite.

I'll be honest and admit that I've been to better sushi houses, but this sushi house is in the middle of Capitola, so I'll give it that much.

The atmosphere is cool also and I enjoyed the peppiness of the our server who pretty much tried to answer our questions about why they didn't have the shirts and sticker we wanted to buy there (which is why they only got 3 stars and not 5 :-P).

Anyway, I'd go here again if I'm ever in town which is not often.

Ever since my friends had told me about this place and how the sushi is really cheap, I have always wanted to try it! I wasn't expecting 5 star quality sushi, I just wanted more sushi for my money! My gfs and I came here for dinner on Wednesday. The place is pretty small and really pink on the outside...hence Pink Godzilla. I thought it was cool how they had private booth room thingys that you can sit on the ground and actually get a japanese feel while eating.

Looking at the menu was super overwhelming! I could not decide what to get! They had so many sushi rolls that started off at $4.95 and gave 8 rolls per order. Deal or no deal? The only thing about the menu was that there were so many rolls, and most of them offered similar stuff in it except minor changes. I had to really read what each roll had before I decided. I ended up ordering 3 rolls...I am a pig I know, but whatever. I got the Capitola Roll, Monterey Roll, and the Rock'nRoll. Honestly, I can't tell which roll was which because they all looked the same when I got it. I just literally ate. It was okay but I felt really full afterwards and that's what I wanted to feel.

Waiting for the food felt like a lifetime, but other than that our waitress was nice. The food was cheap, so I guess i'll come here again when I am on a tight budget and craving sushi.

If you're looking for you're typical Japanese inspired Korean owned sushi joint this isn't it.

True, they greet you with "Onegashimasu!" but upon tasting the sushi rolls it's known that they are indeed different. The miso here tasted no different from other places, but at least there was tofu cubes.The sushi rice has a bit too much of vinegar and poorly wrapped. Don't get me wrong the service is great and the rolls tasted okay and for a good price as well. Btw, their water tastes really good! No, I'm not being crazy there was a fresh lemon wedge that gave the water a refreshing taste.

It was either this or Naka Sushi which looked unwelcoming. This place has a nice, friendly vibe and even has an outside patio to enjoy your meal.

Definitely a FUN sushi place in the same vein as Blowfish Sushi. This is a college kid kind of sushi place. Fun atmosphere, huge fish list. Quality is fine since they go thru so much fish you know none of it is sticking around getting old. Menu has something for everyone, but it can be overwhelming in its creativity.

Stickers and t-shirts for sell help to make sure this place is getting marketed. Worth checking out.