Matsutake Sushi

This place was closed by the VA Health Department for repairs. It looks like they are not going to open again as it’s been months since the notice was posted on the doors and no repairs seem to be taking place. I am grossed out by the fact that it seems they had critters in the restaurant and that caused the need for repairs.
This also makes me question the other locations of Matsutake.

The airport is usually the last place I would think of having sushi but every time I’m at DCA I always stop here for a bite to eat before my flight. The staff is extremely friendly and the sushi chefs know what they are doing. I usually grab a roll, some nigiri and a hot green tea.
If you are expecting a Nobu experience you are at the wrong place but if you just want a good quick lunch this is definitely a great choice. I honestly have nothing bad to say about this place and would encourage any person visiting to give it a try if you have some time before your flight.

I walked by this place today and it is currently closed by the Health Board. Honestly, I’m happy that they are. I work a block from this place and the quality of the food, facilities, service, everything was terribly lacking. Did this place even have a manager?
I really don’t think this place is ever going to re-​open.

I Try
I live across the street from this place. I want it to be good sooo bad! There’s only one other sushi place in the area but it’s a little further (and makes great soup btw).
So I’ve been going to Boru about once a month for their HH sushi, mainly because my roommate drags me – the sushi does the job. Believe me, I’d rather go somewhere else, but it’s just so damn close.
Anyway, this journey is about their Hibachi. 7pm on a Saturday I made the colossal mistake of trying it on a pre-Valentine’s Day date with my super hot girlfriend. Walking into a nearly empty restaurant, we stand at the «Please Wait to Be Seated» sign like idiots for 10 minutes. No one acknowledges us or even notices us. There are two Hibachi tables with customers to be exact.
We make our way towards the Hibachi tables in the back. We ask what looks like a waiter if we can sit. He looks at us and keeps going about his business. He must have not have understood my American accent. Next a bus boy walking around with his headphones on, I don’t know Spanish sign language, so we move on. Finally, another bus boy and in my broken Spanish I ask if we can sit. He signals us to seat ourselves and he was nice enough to bring us menus.
We sit and to our surprise, there’s already an appetizer at our table, a dead cockroach on top of our table. I kindly point it out to him. Cockroach isn’t difficult to say in Spanish. He shrugs his shoulders and goes back to work standing in the corner. And must I say, he’s very good at it. And so we sit. And then we sit some more. Another couple, unsuspecting victims, get lucky enough to sit with us at our shared Hibachi table. And guess what, we sit some more. 17 minutes of sitting and no drink order. If there was any other time to need alcohol, it’s now.
27 minutes in, she finally takes our drink order and I ask for a tofu appetizer. Tofu comes. No drink yet. Tofu is cold. I ask in ignorance, «Is it suppose to be this temperature?» She looks at me like I’m stupid and walks away. A few minutes later she returns with my girlfriend’s drink and a message, they don’t have my poison of choice tonight, Stoli. «Absolut is fine, I reply.» She goes to the bar and comes back immediately.
«You wanted Grey Goose right?» (smh)
She brings us a new hot tofu appetizer and leaves our cold one on the table as a souvenir. 40 minutes in, I get my first drink.
I love Hibachi places and have been fortunate to eat at some of the best places. Growing up, every birthday my parents would ask me where I wanted to eat. I don’t know why because I would always yell emphatically, «Shiki!» (A Hibachi restaurant in NJ). I’m a wannabe adult now but when it comes to Hibachi I still enjoy playing along like a kid and cheering the chef on, catching flying food in my mouth and pretending I’ve never seen these wonderful tricks before. I won’t even go into the horrible detail of this night but the show sucked. Period. And that’s half of why I came here.
The other half, the food, was short of mediocre. The shrimp was cheaply small. My filet mignon was not all edible – too much fat.
Then the check came. No dessert offer. I couldn’t take it. «I want to see the manager!» The sushi chef said he was out on an errand and will be back shortly. There’s something fishy here and it’s not the sushi.
Speaking of sushi, 10 minutes later, the sushi chef returns with a special made sushi platter on the house. It was wonderful. He makes it for me at HH. But I was stuffed with the food I just ate. I didn’t want sushi. It was a nice gesture. I offer it to the other couple watching us intently. The sushi chef informs us the manager will return in 5 more minutes (in addition to the 10 we just waited).
Here’s the kicker, 5 minutes later, the Hibachi guy comes over and says, «We’re so sorry, the manager isn’t returning for the night. He’ll be back tomorrow.» So we waited for nothing. Wait…
I’m in the twilight zone. Words cannot describe my confusion. Then who is in charge here?
Let me wrap this up because this is getting long. After explaining to him our night, there wasn’t much he could do but say so sorry. He was very nice about it though. He ended up discounting our food. But you have been warned. Sushi lunch here is whatever. It’s served to the 9 to 5 suits who don’t expect much from a lunch sushi buffet. Sushi HH is fine. For the money you spend on the sushi specials, the «service» won’t bother you. But dropping hard earned dollars on dinner, DO NOT EVER! You’re better off at Chili’s…

Walked in and was about to sit down and saw a ROACH crawl across the table!!! My buddy suggested this restaurant. Said the food was very good. I guess if you don’t mind the ROACHES. This location is right across from the Hilton in Crystal City.

I am sorry. This is nasty. Don’t go Here. My friend found a dead cockroach found in the bathroom, we immediately left, and called the health department. Here is a part of our correspondence:
«We have received your concern regarding cockroaches in Boru Asia Bistro located at 320 S 23^rd St.
Upon inspection of the restaurant, several live cockroaches were found in walls, floors and behind equipment, in cracks and crevices. No roaches where found on food contact surfaces or near food though. Mouse dropping were also found throughout the establishment pretty much everywhere. Several fruit flies in different areas added to the mix.
The establishemnt informed me that they are going to change to a new pest control company because they have already had problems with the current one.» –Arlington County Health Department.
This joint is full of unsanitary conditions, and they will not be shutdown because it was not found in the «food contact areas». Nasty guys, skip this place.

No, no, and no. I puked my guts out (on a flight!) and for the next 24 hours after eating here. Ironically, nothing I ate was raw. I ordered snow crab sticks, shrimp tempura crunch roll and two orders of Inari. Never, ever again.

Hey… you are in an airport and you want decent sushi, this isn’t a bad option. Go for it. The spicy tuna is a little spicy… Skip the spicy hamachi though, they just put a small piece of wanna be yellow tail in here and then a touch of cucumber and call it a rolll…
The miso soup might have come out of a packet. It probably didn’t, but it might have…

This is a review for the sushi lunch buffet which I was able to take advantage of because of a retreat my office was having at the neighboring hotel.
I have to say, I was really impressesd! The sushi was fresh and tasty and there was a great variety to choose from. The reason I really didn’t want to give this place a whole bunch of credit is there seemed to be some confusion over how to do buffet take-​out. The miso soup is included on the buffet but I was charged extra for taking it out. Why? Things that make ya say ‘hmmmm’

Onion volcano — check
Charming but sassy hibachi chef– check
Shrimp flying at your face and screaming awkwardly while you dodge it — check and check
Hot:
The mini-​hibachi show was dazzling and the chef was so charming (in a nerdy hibachi way). Everything was reasonably priced and my face was at full «glisten» mode when our chef cooked our food amongst the flames (I got my beloved onion volcano! Ee!).
Warm:
Literally, my scallops and my friend’s chicken could’ve been cooked more. My friend almost threw the chicken on the cooking plate after the chef cleaned up, but my friend and I deemed that to be a D-​Bag status move.
Cold:
When we first arrived the service was kinda awkward and aloof. Initially they insisted my party wanted to sit in the bar area. But after we clarified we had a reservation, they warmly welcomed us. What’s kinda really awkward: having a few of the idle employees watch you intently while you sit down. AWK-​ward.
This place is good for a small business that is pretty polished for the mom and pop status.

Pretty sure this place has been renamed to Boru Asia Bistro & Sake Bar. A group of us went here for during «Happy Time», which is weekdays from 3 – 7 PM, to get our sushi fix. Make sure you’re seated and you’ve put in your order by 7 or else the Happy Time prices no longer apply! The sign on the door said that items during Happy Time were either $ 1, $ 2 or $ 3! Didn’t see the bill to say which was which but we ordered hella rolls, literally we had like 100 pieces on our plate to share. We got a bunch of those philly rolls (salmon and cream cheese), spicy tuna and spicy salmon rolls (which were SUPER spicy), some california rolls and the two special rolls. I remember the special rolls being better than all the others, my favorite being the Boru roll which was tempura’d. Also got some nigiri which tasted pretty good. Teriyaki chicken was also included in the Happy Time menu as well as edamame. Our other friends had hot sake but I had the Boru cocktail which was super fruity and super strong! Service was eh and I’ve had better sushi, but the price and the people I went with made it a fun experience. It was a Happy Time indeed!

I’ve never had hibachi at Matsutake because they weren’t offering it when I was there… That’s right. They weren’t offering hibachi.
I would say that everything I ate was pretty good, but the service was horrible. I understand that it was a slow night, but I would think the waitress would want some kind of a tip. Apparently not. Our order was messed up at some point and my companion’s food never arrived. Eventually, we just split my meal, which thankfully was more that adequate, and had the missing entrée removed from the bill. However, even with only one entrée, the bill was NOT cheap.
I would go here if you have a big group looking for a convenient hibachi place and decent sushi, but only if you’re willing to wait and you don’t mind paying a lot. I would NOT go here during the week.

**Hibachi Dinner Review**
I’ve only done Hibachi twice in my life. The first time (at another establishment) the show was superb but the food was an absolutely failure. Here, at Matsutake, the show was just average but the food was YUMMMMY! I was really impressed by the how tender the filet was as well as the great taste of their scallops. They were seasoned perfectly. I ordered my dinner with the fried rice which was simple but had a little bit of a spicy kick to it. The amount of food was perfect. The shrimp appetizers are kind of lame but a nice touch to the fried rice. We also go the sake sampler which gave me a chance to try the different types of sake they had. Service was also pretty good, too. I asked for two waters and sure enough — two were brought.
**Sushi Lunch Buffet Review**
Not the greatest. The Matsutake in Ballston has fresher sushi in my opinion but this location offers a better selection of hot foods. The sushi here for the lunch buffet is just «okay» — basically, you get what you pay for.

Dear Matsutake staff,
You know exactly who I am… I come at least once a month to get the quick sushi buffet. Yeah the big group that only 3 – 4 order Teppanyaki and the rest are doing the buffet. Not because we like it that much (my boss makes us), but because is fast. We have to go back to work under an hour!
I am also the one that keeps leaving the big balls of rice and only eats the raw fish on top… yeah, yeah, I have been warned. But in my last 3 visits you haven’t noticed my new trick… Now, I get a bowl of soup, get the noodles you nicely display next to the soup, and I hide the balls of rice under the noodles heheheh… hahaha found a way to get rid of the rice… You put WAY too much rice. Did I say rice again? I am rice-​out!
.
The assortment of sushi is good from tuna, salmon, california, all kinds of rolls, fried, raw 2 soups hehehhe… korean vegetables… but keep the sushi coming, sometimes the sushi is all goneeeee… I only come here because is self service and I have to eat FAST!!! and you still get a tip!
So…don’t yell at me next time for leaving the rice… I have other tricks.

Yuk! They are just horrible food, you call it Japanese? I’d boil some hot water and have ramen noodle instead. Sushi is horrible, very slimy rice and oh-​so-​unfresh fish sitting on top with sorry look. Hot food is also disappointing. Sorry, but we have to pass next time someone wants Japanese in Cristal City.

1.5 stars. Some of the dishes are good enough to warrant this rating, but certainly not the staff.
Blech! Aw lawwwwd… hell nahhh. This applies only to the buffet. Never have ordered anything else.
This place is no longer Matsutake; they changed their names quite some time ago. I’ve been a few times since I wrote my first review and each time, the experience has progressively gone downhill. Yesterdays visit was prolly the last straw.
One thing I’ve never liked is that there are no signs indicating what kind of roll is before you. Sure, there are some obvious ones such as California roll, but others are not so obvious and it would be nice to know what you’re eating.
Standard to any buffet is the request that patrons not waste food, only take what they can eat, yadda yadda yadda. I got two pieces of salmon nigiri and ate the fish only. I left the rice on my plate and ate the other pieces of sushi (from rolls) I had. When I was just about finished, one of the employees came to my table to «warn» me that if I left too much rice, they would charge me by the pound for it. I looked at her, expressionless, and said, «You see there isn’t much rice on my plate, right?» and she said that I should be careful otherwise I could be charged. I gave her the axe murderer look and she took off. Just a minute later, another lady stopped to say the same thing. I really couldn’t understand her exact words, but politely asked her to leave my table.
My dining companion even noticed that the employees tend to hover all around the tables and asked me, «What’s with all the hovering?» I said it was the first time I’d seen them do that and certainly didn’t appreciate it.
The rice police really took away from my dining experience; I could see if I had a bunch of rice piled on my plate that was clearly going to waste that I should receive a warning. However, that was not the case and I had exercise great caution in keeping my mouth shut.
I vote no to this restaurant and don’t encourage anyone to give it a try when there are many other, better places out there.

I had dinner last night at Matsutake as I was waiting for my friend’s flight to arrive. Since it was hot as balls out last night, I wanted something cool and refreshing and I thought — sushi it is!
Upon entering, most of the place was empty (it was about 8:30 on a Sunday night). I was greeted by a very nice hostess who took me directly to my seat. Upon opening the menu, I was sort of astonished at the prices of most of the sushi dishes. I wasn’t trying to spend $ 25 on two different rolls that were advertised that I wanted.
I ended up ordering a California roll and a tuna roll of the sushi menu ($ 5 each for 6 rather small pieces of roll), a side of white rice, and a bowl of miso soup. The miso was good, and the rice was good. The sushi was decent, but nothing to write home about. I didn’t eat all of it, so I got a box to go.
I will say that the staff was very attentive to keeping my glass of iced tea refilled.
All in all, this place is okay, but it’s not worth the money. There are better places out there.

So disappointed.
This review reflects the lunch sushi buffet only. I suspect the items on the buffet change from day to day so I’m really torn between 2 and 3 stars, but despite the good service I received, the meal was solidly a «meh, I’ve had (much) better».
I spent last week on-​site at a client’s most of last week so was eager to take advantage of the sushi buffet here.
The sushi offered on the buffet was just sad — not from a freshness standpoint (that was fine) — but from a variety and preparation one. The sake (salmon) nigiri was probably best thing I had and it was very good, but the portion of fish was sliced so unbelievably thin and barely covered the rice at all. Likewise, I suspect the other nigiri option I tried was tai (red snapper) but it was impossible to really tell as it was sliced even thinner than the sake and the slices were literally see through and falling apart on the rice balls. The other 2 nigiri options both included cooked fish options so I did not try them — in fact, a lot of the «sushi» buffet seem geared to non-​raw fish eaters — again disappointing when this whole point of coming was to eat sushi.
The maki offerings were not much better. Mostly they were some combination of the core ingredients tuna, krab or shrimp with avocado and/​or cucumber, rice and nori. This one might be straight rolled, another might be tempura fried, yet another might have tobiko, a special sauce or some other ancillary ingredient. I’m not a big fancy maki roll person (give me a simple hamachi roll any day), but I just felt these were all too similar, and all pretty boring.
Of the non-​sushi items I sampled, the tempura vegetables were outstanding, the fried rice had so many hot pepper flakes mixed in it was almost inedible (and I like spicy food), the miso soup was fair.
I’m one who approaches buffet dining by just putting a few items on my plate or a little bit of items that peak my interest and then heading back to get more of those or sampling some other items. I guess the biggest disappointment when you consider the cost of the buffet was after I finished my first sampling and looked over what was available on the buffet, I just didn’t find it appetizing. I actually left the restuarant not only regretting my lunch choice but also hungry.
NOTE: I’ve been to Matsutake in the evenings several times in the past, but its been a few years (well outside my Unilocalable range). My experience ordering sushi a la carte has always been positive (never tried the teppanyaki grill) so I was quite surprised to be disappointed by the quality on the buffet. If I do venture back here for dinner again, I still have hopes of being able to raise my star rating for the place.

Strong performance from the Hibachi grill. I can’t really speak to the rest of the options or Sushi bar, so take this review for what it’s worth.
Went here for a friend’s birthday and it was great. Not crowded at all on a Friday night, which was a pleasant surprise. I loved that they didn’t make us wait until we were all there to seat us — instead we were seated immediately and offered the drink menu while we waited to round out our party.
The chef was very friendly and did all the usual cool spatula and knife tricks while cooking in front of us. I had the steak & shrimp combination, which was fantastic. The lobster and the filet both drew rave reviews from others in our party, as well.
The hibachi meal includes a soup, salad, steamed rice (an annoying extra $ 2.50 for fried rice), a small shrimp appetizer, and a fried mixed veggie thing after your main course. All told, a great deal for about $ 30.
I have been searching for a good hibachi joint that isn’t overpriced and overcrowded in Washington, I think I’ve found one to call home-​base for now!

I visited Washington DC back in late October to participate in the annual Marine Corps Marathon. I stayed at a hotel in the portion of Arlington, VA known as Crystal City. One night after the big race my legs were still a bit sore so I decided to find a nearby restaurant to dine in. Matsutake Hibachi and Sushi is about a three block walk from the Crystal City Hyatt; I decided to drop in.
I was greeted by a friendly server and I was seated at the sushi bar where I was greeted again by two very friendly sushi chefs. The sushi menu is separate from the regular menu, and it is quite extensive with many special rolls to choose from or the option to request your own. I’m not sure whether it was on the menu, but I asked to have shrimp added to an order of California Rolls and I ordered a Spider Roll. I had skipped lunch that afternoon, and my stomach had created a symphony by the time I walked into the restaurant so I ordered the Chicken Teriyaki dinner from the regular menu as well.
The sushi selections were presented in an artful manner on a stylish platter. I savored each bite as it was very delicious. As I was polishing off the last few pieces of sushi I noticed one of the sushi chefs walking towards me with a single piece of sushi on a plate. He said he liked to experiment and present new creations to his customers as a thank you for dining in their restaurant. Shrimp, veggies and fish roe surrounded by the crackling crispies of deep fried tempura batter. I ate it slowly, and it was quite good.
It was good that the chicken teriyaki dinner arrived a short time later, for it gave my stomach a chance to let all of that delicious sushi settle down. I was surprised to see two whole skinless chicken breasts presented still sizzling on a hot metal platter. A small bowl of rice accompanied the dish. The chicken was tender and juicy, grilled just right. Some baby corn, a bit of carrot and some bean sprouts were delightful as well. I was stuffed beyond belief.
A fresh tuna had arrived and the sushi chefs were busy carving away at it as one the sushi chefs discussed the trade of purchasing fresh fishes for their restaurant with another patron and I. Great food and education too! You can’t beat that combination. If I’m back in DC for another marathon, Matsutake Sushi will definitely deserve a return visit. Good for kids too as there is a children’s hibachi menu. Great food, great service … five stars!