Mobos Santa Cruz - Mobo Sushi Santa Cruz
Mobo Sushi
105 South River Street,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060-4541
(831) 425-1700
| Cuisine | Asian, Japanese, Sushi |
| Price | $15-30 |
| Neighborhood | Santa Cruz |
| Payment Accepted | American Express, Cash, MasterCard, Visa |
| Parking | Private, Garage, and Street Parking |
| Meals Served | Lunch, Dinner |
| Take Out | Yes |
| Delivery | Yes |
Mobos Santa Cruz - Summary:
(from mobosushirestaurant.com) - Mobo Meanings...
In the 1920's Japanese youth, who wore western clothes and assimilated western ideals, called themselves modern boys or Mobo.
MoboKanji translation:
To search while standing still and wandering.
English derivation (slang) from Mobius, Inventor of famous paper strip science experiment.
Apragmatic example of illusion and perception.
Alludes to the integration of East and West into symbiotic world culture.
Humble dedication to preparing and serving the freshest food in the most pleasing manner.
A magical incantation.
The shape of your mouth when eating something delicious is...MoBo...
Mobos Santa Cruz - Reviews:
Positive Mobos Santa Cruz Review:
Love the outdoor seating, especially in the summer when the Wisteria is blooming. Great outside atmosphere; inside's too crowded unless you can snag booth, or a spot around the side next to the giant tank. Which, is weird if you think about dinner while you're staring at the fish tank...unless that's you're thing.
Some of the rolls are fantastic - The Beamer, Emerald City, Crop Burning (?) all wonderfully paired with unique additives. Many have flavors that just don't 'jive' with me, and leave me wanting...well, something tossed into the mix. Still, the food always tastes fresh and I've never had a "bad" roll.
They're also really accommodating for requests (I wanted a chunk of lemon to mix into my wasabi, not lemon slices like they have in water. I guess I wasn't clear when I ordered, and had to ask for a wedge after the server brought the thin deals. She was super nice though, and we got it straighted out with plenty of lemon to go around).
The biggest plus for me is the service - prompt, efficient, and they're unobtrusive! Too many places pester you, or leave you waiting. Like magic, the servers come over at just the right times and never take too long with food/checking in/bill etc.
Nice local sushi place, perfect for relaxed dinners & more romantic occasions.
-Nicole A., Santa Cruz, CA
Negative Mobos Santa Cruz Review:
I come here about every week or so. The sushi is pretty good, plenty of vegetarian options, and it's close to my house. Sometimes I dine in, but more often I get take-out.
Last night I stopped in for take-out and noticed that they had added a 10% gratuity to my bill. Now, in my opinion, tipping should never be mandatory - restaurants should pay their employees a fair wage and not depend on the customers to do so. That said, I am a good tipper - never below 20% for average service (it is very rare that I get what I would consider 'bad' service in a restaurant that is not due to situations out of the server's control) and up to 50% for excellent service. I tip at buffets, for deliveries, and include a dollar or two for take-out orders.
I know that it is customary for some restaurants to automatically add a tip for large parties. But this was a small order for two people and it was take-out. The chef merely placed my food in a to-go container instead of on a plate. We took it home, warmed up the soup, used our own plates, napkins, and condiments, did our own clean-up. I also noticed that when I received the credit card slip it gave the itemized percentages at the bottom for tipping, but it did NOT take into account that 10% had already been charged. So, a 20% tip would actually be a 30% tip. Obviously it is the customer's job to check everything prior to paying, but this is still a deceitful practice in my opinion.
About a year ago they overcharged my credit card by $20 for a phone-in order and blew me off when I called about it. I ate the extra charge and forgave them. This new thing with adding a gratuity, even to take-out orders, is the last straw and I will not be returning.
-R.R., Santa Cruz, CA
Average Mobos Santa Cruz Review:
Mobo is Mobo. Not horrible, not great. They're one of the few places that does a good and thoughtful variety of vegetarian and vegan maki, so they get points for that. But I'm not a vegetarian, so they only get a few points for that.
Sashimi here is mediocre. I had one very good experience with a mixed portion of sashimi when I first came here, but in general I wouldn't come for sashimi. For whatever reason, the fish has not been great, and the portions have gotten smaller over time.
Their green salads are pretty good, usually reasonably fresh romaine, thin shredded carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, one of the few in town containing something other than iceberg.
They do offer a larger variety of Japanese pickled vegetables than you can get most other places in Santa Cruz. I've only ordered the large assortment from the appetizer menu once, but I thought it was pretty solid.
Never had any of their hot foods like noodles, teriyaki, or cooked fish, so can't evaluate those. They look about the same as everywhere else's.
But people come to Mobo for rolls. Their rolls are perfectly fine. The more expensive monsters, like the Tazuna, are not worth the extra expenditure, but Mobo offers a pretty good variety of raw and unraw maki, with a couple of honestly creative combinations, some ingredients that aren't that common outside of Santa Cruz (mangos, macadamia nuts), and some cute names.
Mobo deserves credit for the Guido roll, a wholly inauthentic vegetarian concoction of avocado, cream cheese, macadamia nuts, basil, and garlic, that is nevertheless very good.
If the sashimi isn't that good, then the fish in the rolls can't be of spectacular quality either; and as it happens, I think their best roll is the Guido, which has no fish at all. But if you're eating maki containing 6 or 7 ingredients, maybe you don't care that the fish isn't fantastic, you just want the roll as a whole to work, and most of Mobo's are okay.
Here is when Mobo should get your business: you're with a large group of people who want sushi, who maybe all have somewhat different tastes, some may be vegetarians, others may be picky or afraid of raw fish. Or maybe you're with your uncle and aunt from New Mexico who have never had sushi before. Or maybe you want take-out sushi rolls, enough to feed 2, 5, or 25 people, and a good variety. Or maybe you're cheap or you have friends who are cheap, or UCSC students, and you want a place where it's okay to be very obviously a student, and come in at 11 pm on Saturday night before slinking off to one of the dive bars.
Mobo is basically the Applebee's or T.G.I. Friday's of sushi places. It's not "authentic," the atmosphere is crowded, sometimes too noisy, the inside is dim and sometimes a little dank, the food is merely okay, sometimes good. But the prices aren't terrible, and the menu will adeptly feed a lot of hungry students and groups of families visiting for graduation without scaring off the vegan or Aunt Emma. It will also feed you when it is 10:00 at night, you just got off work and you want some maki to take home and eat in front of reruns. That is probably when Mobo is best.
-Nikhil C., Santa Cruz, CA
Mobos Santa Cruz - Photos:
