Conrad W.
Yelp
We were down in this part of town and decided to check out this new (to us) sushi place a couple weeks ago. It was a midweek night but the restaurant was more than half full so that was a good sign. We were seated quickly and our server took our appetizer and drink order within ten minutes. I ordered a sake flight and picked all cold sakes (Dassai, Kikusui Funaguch, Hakutsuru and Gekkeikan-Suazku). The sake flight arrived with all four labeled. The Hakutsuru was very clear and had no nose at all (you can probably guess where this is headed). My wife tasted it and suspected that it was water. My older daughter and I tasted it as well and confirmed that it was water. When we told our server, she was quite taken aback and took our glass to the back. She came back out shortly and said she tasted a pour from the bottle and confirmed to us that it was water. So she opened a new bottle and poured us a new tasting glass of the Hakutsuru.
For food, we ordered a hamachi carpaccio, a bowl of miso soup, the miso ramen, the hiro sashimi (see photo), negi toro long roll, fire ocean long roll, ikura nigiri, kazo sake nigiri, sake sashimi, hamachi sashimi, and a rainbow hand roll. The menu said the miso soup had unlimited refills. We had to ask our server three times before we got a single refill of soup. The hamachi carpaccio was very good. All in all the quality of the fish was very good and the presentation was excellent, but the photos I saw from this place on Insta and Yelp were very misleading regarding the size of the pieces of nigiri and sashimi (there are photos on Yelp showing fat blocks of sashimi). Ours was just the standard slices. The daikon radishes and red radishes were nicely cut for decoration.
The ambiance was good but the service was on the slow side at 2 hr and 15 min. Price was high but that's because this is not ayce. Since this restaurant isn't close to home, we probably won't go back.