Gen Kai Japanese Restaurant

My family and I had been long time customers at Gen Kai (8-9 years) and knew all the staff by name and had an ongoing relationship with the owner. Last Valentine's Day, my husband and I called in to see if we could make a reservation and were told by the owner herself, "just come on down, there will be no wait for you." Well, we cheerfully headed down and arrived 15 minutes after we'd called, only to be ushered to the end of the line to wait...and wait...and wait. Finally, 45 minutes later, we were finally seated and requested glasses of water. We settled in and put our order together, expecting that now things would proceed normally. Now quite hungry, we waited patiently for someone to come and take our order as well as bring the aforementioned water...and we waited...and waited...20 minutes later, the owner finally came by (didn't apologize for the wait or anything) to take our order. We made a relatively simple order and asked if it could be put right in as we had waited so long already after being told there would be no wait. She said, "sure." and vanished into the kitchen. Finally, after another 35-40 minutes, we caught her attention again to ask where our food was, only to be met with the response that it hadn't even been put in yet because they were so busy and if we didn't like to wait we should go somewhere else. So we did. On our way out the door, a couple that we had been talking to earlier and who also had not been served asked us where we were going since they could see we had not eaten either. We told them we were heading over to another restaurant and we left. The next time we went to Gen Kai we were told that we were not welcome there anymore because we were "telling her customers to go to a competitor." Needless to say, we were somewhat shocked and dismayed at this kind of treatment from the owner of a restaurant we had been so loyal to. So, I guess my advice to anyone going to Gen Kai is not to expect good service if more than a few tables are filled and to understand that your continued patronage of this restaurant is not important to the owner. more

This is by far the best sushi south of Eugene and north of Sacramento. I lived in Japan for 4 years and this is the real deal. They do tone down the selection on the rotating sushi bar (ambiance) to include the most popular types, but the menu has more selections. We go at least twice a month just for sushi and occasionally we will have other items from the menu like teriyaki salmon, oyako domburi, miso, etc.... The staff is friendly and accommodating --- same people for the last 15 years though their original location was in Ashland. They even have sushi to go. Great place to take visitors and order a sushi boat (or chirashi order) just for the fun of it with some Momogawa saki. more

Very good sushi. average prices. Nice settings for a family. very helpful with your sushi selections. definitely the place to go if you want quality sushi and not pay extreme prices to get it. It is across from toys r us and has very nice waiters and waitresses. If you go here you will immediately love it. more

When we first moved to Ashland, we found Gen Kai almost immediately and fell in love. A couple years later, the owners closed the restaurant and moved it to Medford, across the street from the Toys r Us. The owners are very kid friendly and the restaurant is our son's favorite place to go. He loves sitting on the high stools next to the sushi boats, which may be unique in the Valley. There is a great variety of sushi, it's fresh, the chef prepares it the way you want it, and he will explain what each type of roll is. The prices are reasonable for sushi, and another advantage is you don't have to pay Ashland's food tax. more