Happy Salmon

Place was great! Other than the fact that you might have to wait a while for your sushi, it’s a fantastic spot for sushi made with love. I’ve been to Japan a few times, and I can confidently say this is my favorite spot for sushi when I don’t feel like making it at home. I don’t mind waiting a bit longer—personally, I think it’s well worth it. I remind myself that it’s a family-owned business making some damn good sushi. There was one time during a busy evening when I waited quite a bit longer than I’m normally comfortable with. That said, I understand the sushi-making might all fall on one person’s shoulders. It might help if someone could assist the sushi master during peak hours or maybe even develop a more efficient system in the kitchen to ease the workload and improve turnaround time—whatever the pain point might be behind the scenes. Still, despite the occasional wait, the quality and care that goes into the food keep me coming back. Highly recommend.

I really want to give them a good review. The sushi is great and better than many places around. The problem with Happy Salmon is that they are chronically understaffed, and it frequently takes as long as an hour for sushi to be ready. Even on not super busy nights. The sushi is a huge bottleneck, and this is a sushi restaurant. Also it seems the owner can’t be bothered to make any sushi, so while the orders are backed up, he’s just standing around doing something else or nothing. If they would/could fix this, I’d come here a lot more and would love to recommend the place to so many other people.

We love the sushi, but not worth how long we sit waiting for food. Our last visit it took 20 min to get someone to come take our order.. they only have one person it looks like preparing the rolls and it took over an hour once we ordered for food to come out. In that hour no one ever came back to check on drinks, ask if we need anything, etc. Unfortunately, this used to be a favorite but we probably won’t be returning any longer. This is the second or third experience like this.

Like being in Japan. Amazing. The owners are Japanese. The restaurant made us long for Japan. Awesome sushi. Awesome sake. We will be back.

My Mixed Bag Experience at Happy Salmon Hey folks! Wanted to share my recent outing to Happy Salmon in Safety Harbor. First things first, the wait for the food... much longer than I anticipated. I'm all for taking the time to make a meal right, but this felt like a bit of a stretch. Now, about the food. It was, okay. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it didn't knock my socks off either. I was hoping for that 'wow' factor, especially after the wait, but it ended up being pretty average. Nothing to write home about. On the plus side, the place itself has a decent vibe. Definitely laid-back. But, if you're looking for a culinary adventure or a quick bite, this might not hit the mark. All in all, I'm giving Happy Salmon a solid 3 stars. It's not off my list, but I'm not rushing back either. Maybe it was just an off day? I might give it another shot down the road. Until then, the search for my go-to seafood spot continues!