Tako Grill

Tako Grill relocated from Wisconsin Avenue to occupy this spot where Hinode used to be.
It was definitely a change as Tako Grill was quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Hinode, which had a sushi lunch buffet.
Great service, food was ok, pricing was as expected for being right off the block from Bethesda Row. Portions for the lunch specials were somewhat small.

We weren’t very impressed. Food was good. We had sushi, and one of us had the bass. All of it was good but nothing memorable.

I’m utterly confused as to why I just waited 45 minutes for a take out sushi order consisting of six simple rolls. Honestly, if I didn’t pay beforehand, I would’ve walked out 20 minutes in. After looking ridiculously annoyed without hiding my facial expression around minute 25, I get an update at minute 35 saying it’ll be ready in a few minutes with no apology. I got the order TEN more minutes later. Um… Never coming back here again for basic rolls. Service sucks.

This is the only sushi in the DMV area I will eat! The firecracker roll is the best thing on the menu! Great service and they treat their regulars like family. Honestly one of my favorite places to eat in the DMV!

I work in the area, and found myself wandering. Weather was gorgeous the Friday I went, and why not walk around looking for food? And I found Tako Grill. It isn’t really on Bethesda Row… more like behind… or on top of, depending on if you drive into the parking lot, or walk up the stairs (this will make sense if you see it… I promise).
The foodie in me loved the sushi I got here. It was so fresh, and looked very delicate, probably some of the prettiest sushi I have ever seen… and it was only a spicy tuna roll and a volcano roll.
The ‘Murican in me is ashamed that I paid nearly $ 30 for a teensy portion of food and wishes it was bigger and meatier. I even ordered a gyoza on the side, and it was all just so damn… delicate.
Overall, I don’t think this is where you want to be if you just want a quick lunch during work hours. Not that that is the only thing restaurants have to offer, but considering the location… it might be beneficial to have a lunch menu here.

What a hidden gem. The sushi, nigiri, and tamago were all excellent. I can’t wait to come back and try more on the menu.
The restaurant is inviting and the ingredients are incredibly fresh. Tako Grill is among the best sushi restaurants in the area.

Love this place! I’ve been coming here for almost 15 years and think their food is fantastic!
Not the cheapest eats, but worth the price! Worth it for the fresh sushi.
Staff is great and very friendly/​accommodating.
If you’re a Japanese food lover, give this place a try!

They should get 4 stars just for the food. I’ve always enjoyed the sushi, and the new location is nice. But Tako has always been the date night or special occasion Sushi place in Bethesda. The prices reflect that, the service should too. or the planning, maybe not so much the staff. No splenda? Not even equal? Come on, it’s 2016 who uses sweet and low? And on a early weeknight as one of maybe two couples, I asked if a seafood teriaki could be made with only scallops, no shrimp. I would have been fine with a no after checking with the chefs, but I simply got just a no. OK… NO apology, no suggestion, just no. We like Hanaro and Raku too, and it really are the little things that matter when the food is about equal. With d o many choices, the owners should pay attention to those little things.

I am guessing this place is new? This place is not bad for being a sushi place.
The sushi was SUPER fresh since we ordered the specials for that week. The pieces were a bit too thick compared to other places and how they slice their sashimi.
My favorite was the chicken teriyaki lunch special with the white rice, salad, miso soup and California rolls. The chicken was absolutely amazing! You think it’s crazy to say that the chicken was great because it is impossible to cook the chicken wrong but it is possible! This chicken teriyaki was cooked perfectly, it was dried or chewy. Right amount of texture and bite to it and having the sauce really topped it off! And with the fresh steamed vegetables, it made the dish a lot more healthier compared than other places!

We went in on a cold day while shopping at Bethesda Row and had some shumai and a few sushi rolls. It was all delicious and right on the price that I expected. I will go back next time I’m shopping over in Bethesda.

Had a fantastic experience here… the staff and especially the older gentleman who works the yakitori station next to the sushi bar are all very pleasant and the courtesy they give you (traditional welcoming when you arrive at your table, etc) really make you feel that you’re in a top notch Japanese establishment.
Fish quality was very good, not superior. Yakitori offering was authentic and very tasty. I also ordered a half order of their soy sauce ramen which was the perfect amount and at $ 7 allows you to get it as part of your meal.
I’ll definitely come back to this place on future trips to Bethesda… my only request to the sushi chefs would be to dress up your nigiri pieces a little bit! Add some inventive flair! Even just a simple glaze brushed on or a simple herb/​citrus squeeze topping would heighten the flavors of your high quality fish.

I loveeeee Tako Grill — the sushi, the sushi makers, the host, the waiters and waitresses. Everyone there is so sweet and hospitable. My mom and I have been going to Tako Grill since I was in elementary school (around 20 years) — it’s our favorite mother-​daughter sushi date spot.
Two unique items that they have, and i love, are their orange roughy (which isn’t a sushi roll) and their tuna tempura roll. The other rolls are fantastic as well. I also often get their shrimp tempura roll.
Thanks Tako Grill for always being wonderful!

3.5++ stars. My fish bento (salmon today) was great overall. Fish perfectly cooked (=tad undercooked making it juicy inside and tad crispy outside) & under-​seasoned (=perfectly balanced). Miso soup is too dark (=salty) for my taste. Traditional Japanese style is light miso-​based w kelp infused broth. Ikura (salmon roe) was superb. Green tea needs to be lighter & fresh. Way dark=old or over-​brewed. Much better parking option here at their (new) location (Hampden lane) than where they were for many years on Wisconsin Ave.

ONLY GO HERE FOR SUSHI. This is a great place for sushi. It was some of the best I’ve had in a while. The reason I say you should only go for sushi is because both me and my girlfriend enjoyed the sushi more than the rest of the food. The menu was extremely confusing, we spent nearly 30 minutes and failed to order more than one entrée. I will go back and hopefully I will have better things to say, but for now I am just disappointed in the overall experience. The one entrée we ordered was red snapper head. After tearing at it for 5+ minutes we were able to get a small plates full of overpriced fish. The waiter also had very little knowledge of the menu and didn’t even seem to know how to help us. It was good at best, which is why I chose three stars, not great, not bad, just good.

Their sashimi is amazing — fresh, cut with precision, sweet, and just a micro-​dab of soy sauce. Our go-​to in Bethesda.

Totally tasty sushi — The Firecracker Rolls are a must. The décor is lovely in the new location, and the staff there are so friendly. My friend and I often come with her toddler, and they’re always more than welcoming.

I have to give them a 5 star. It’s not the best sushi I have had but the variety and authenticity in overall Japanese cuisine is terrific. The Sukiyaki is good, I am a fan of the Izakaya and Chirashi. They have Yakitori and Tempura and other treats. Some of my favorite items were the Shitake mushrooms and the flounder fin. You can make this expensive or inexpensive. Sakis are delicious and they have several Junmai options. The owner is a sweetie pie and the food very clean and tasty. Terrific go-​to for the Japanese cuisine fix I have from time to time. If you are not familiar with Japanese cuisine this is a great place to go explore in a safe, Bethesda like land.

I can’t say enough positive things about this place. If I could give it 20 stars, I would. My dining companion for the evening said it perfectly: «It’s like I’m eating sushi for the first time». Literally every single item we ordered (seaweed salad, pork belly and chicken yakatori, a variety of sashimi and maki) was the PERFECT temperature and SO fresh. I was amazed. I’ve been eating sushi for almost 20 years and this may have been the best I’ve ever had.
You’re looking for a sushi place? THIS IS IT! Go eat here! I’m very excited to now have a go-​to sushi place in the area thats so… complete. Staff is lovely too, presentation is excellent, clean, looks nice, not too loud. The list goes on… and on…

Tako was our go-​to sushi place when it was at its old Wisconsin Avenue location. We mourned its passing. Apparently by the way it was all for nought. The staff at the new location told me that Tako was kicked out by its former landlord who intended to sell the property. Tako found its new space on Hampden, then the original landlord’s deal fell through. So Tako is in a new location, and landlord has an empty restaurant storefront. Serves him right!
Back to Tako. The new space is much smaller than the old space. There is not bar. There are no beers on draft. Having a cold Kirin Ichiban draft at the old location was one of the true pleasures of eating at Tako.
Sushi is still good and fresh. There is little innovation, but it’s good. We didn’t have grilled food this time, and having a grill is one of Tako’s nice advantages over the typical sushi joint.
Service was good. Our server was young, possibly high school or college, and sweet. Sushi orders come out pretty fast. Their miso soup is among the best I’ve ever had anywhere.
We ordered house sake in a carafe, and it came out hot and ready in about 3 minutes, wonderful and amazing.
We will return. I gave the old place 5 stars consistently, the new place gets 4 stars because it just doesn’t seem as special and cool as the old place.

Good place for lunch. Clean and fresh.
I’ve tried miso soup and of course sushi. Sushi pieces are good sized and seamed very fresh.
Overall had good experience.

The yakitori is a good deal. But the service can be so attentive it borders on intrusive. This is the rare Japanese restaurant that feels overstaffed.
Also, the fish is not being handled by someone who understands manners.
If you run out of something one night and are unable to include it in a dish that specifically lists it as an ingredient, you tell your servers to warn people BEFORE they order a dish. Otherwise, this is false advertisement.
On the rare occasion you run out of something in the middle of the night before you can tell the servers, you make sure to train them to be up front about it instead of simply replacing the missing ingredient with a more expensive substitute without apology or request for permission.

One of the best restaurants in bethesda, especially friendly if you are eating alone at the sushi bar. Everything is fresh and very well prepared. The bento is a great deal.

I’ve had lunch on multiple weekends. I used to regularly eat at another Bethesda Japanese restaurant that has recently changed ownership and gone seriously down hill, so Tako Grill is new for me. The owners are Japanese which is a huge plus; in addition to high quality fish for sushi and sashimi, they serve a very good variety of Japanese dishes beyond standard sushi restaurant fare. Service is friendly. Highly recommended.

This is a great place to come for lunch, get the bento box but do not come here for dinner. You will be disappointed. It’s pricy and they don’t handle being busy well, at all. My friend didn’t get her sushi only her salad but didn’t feel like asking or paying for it so we just asked for the check.
Won’t be coming here for anything other than lunch ever again.

We decided to give Tako a try after happening upon it while running an errand. The food was delicious, without exception. There was a vegan and a vegetarian among us, and the waitress was very helpful in directing them to what turned out to be a fair number of choices. The rest of us mostly had a variety of sushi, which was fresh-​tasting and very good. The prices are reasonable (not cheap), and the service was great. I’m sure we will be returning.

When you roll over the stars on Unilocal,5 stars is supposed to mean «As good as it gets». This place is honestly as good as it gets. Everything about Tako Grill is utterly exceptional, from the décor to the staff to the food.
I work right by here and go there several times each week since they opened. My favorite entrée is the Chicken Teriyaki, by far the best teriyaki I have ever had from any restaurant. Ever. It comes with a side salad, miso soup (which I don’t usually like at other places but LOVE here), cooked carrots, broccoli and rice. The chicken is cooked and seasoned beyond perfection. For lunch it is only about $ 14 and is MORE than enough food to fill you up.
I was never a huge sushi fan until I went here. I don’t like avocado in my sushi, so they let me sub cucumber instead. Game changer. My personal favorite is the fire cracker roll and the salmon roll. Everything is so fresh and that really makes all the difference. They pay attention to detail, even during the busy dinner rush.
The staff are some of the most wonderfully helpful people I’ve encountered in any restaurant. They are always great with making recommendations based on past orders and are very friendly. The owners seem to genuinely care about your experience, which is truly refreshing (especially in the Bethesda area).
I had never been to their previous location so I can’t speak to how it compares. However I will say that they more than filled the void in my heart (and stomach!) left when Hinode closed. This is one of my all time favorite places in the area and I cannot say enough good about them.
Keep up the great work! Can’t wait to try more of the menu!

Second visits since it moved; first time was a lunch and was pleasantly surprised — good sushi, tempura and service. Visited last evening and was more impressed by all of the same, but also how friendly everyone is. Noted that this had 3 ‘$’ on its heading. Someone might want to revisit that; dinner with drinks, food and tip came to $ 55. Clearly a value for the middle of Bethesda.

This is the new location for Tako Grill. It’s smaller than the old location but still has a similar set up. The menu is the same with my favorite, the soft shell crab maki. This time eating there I also enjoyed the agedofu, and the gyouza were really wonderful.
I’ve eaten at the old location many times, and this place is solid. Many Japanese people consider this to be one of the best real Japanese restaurants in the DC area. There is a Japanese chef.
Parking is annoying and expensive at this new location though.

New location for Tako Grill! The old location has been teetering on redevelopment for years. Since Hinode closed, it’s location seemed logical for Tako fans. After many delays, the new restaurant opened with some of the old hands, but many new ones, hopefully for the better. The location is in the «Shoppes of Bethesda» the odd strip mall on Hampton with the liquor and UPS stores. In the evening, there is plenty of paid parking. But you paid on Wisconsin as well. The new restaurant lacks a sign at the entrance door, so ½ the people went to exit door, including us! There is an entry, with a hostess stand. Unlike the old place, there is no bar, in fact, all booze seems to come out of a back set up area. Everything is clean and fresh with a nice sushi bar and lots of seating. On a Sunday night, it was full of Japanese and Bethesda families of all ages. It doesn’t seem like a hipster sushi bar with little décor or fancy dishes.
On to the sushi! Top grade tuna, toro and yellowtail for sashimi — melt in your mouth fresh with good sized pieces. It appears to be an extended roll menu than before. Excellent Dragon roll was generous although not as well cut. No longer do they offer small «house» salads, only larger salads. Tempura Vegetables and miso soup are very good. We didn’t try the Yakitori grilled skewers or the Isakaya menu this time.
Overall, it’s a relief to see Tako in good form again. Prices, never low at a sushi place, seem appropriate and not egregious for Bethesda. Here’s hoping for another long run for Tako.