Highest-rated sushi restaurants in the Santa Cruz area by diners
Sushi first started gaining popularity in the United States in the 1960s, when a restaurant called Kawafuku opened in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo neighborhood. The restaurant's sushi bar was frequented by Japanese businessmen, who'd bring their American coworkers for a meal. Eventually, sushi restaurants started cropping up in other Californian cities, like Osho, which opened in 1970, next to the 20th Century Fox studio in Hollywood, attracting big-name producers, directors, and actors. Soon, the cuisine came to New York and Chicago; by the late 1980s, it was a full-on dining craze. According to industry marketing research company IBISWorld, as of 2024, there were nearly 17,000 sushi restaurants in the country.
Whether you're looking for an affordable bento box for lunch or a fine-dining experience for date night, Stacker has you covered—this list of the highest-rated sushi restaurants in the Santa Cruz area on Yelp will help guide you to the right roll. Data is as of July 7, 2025. Businesses under the category "sushi" were selected using Yelp's ranking system, which calculates an adjusted rating value that takes into account the number of ratings as well as the rating score itself. Only businesses with at least 20 reviews, and within a 10-kilometer radius of Santa Cruz, were considered. Also, in an effort to highlight independent businesses and local chains, those with at least 10 locations nationally (based on our analysis of Yelp data) were not included.
