Yanagi Sushi

From start to finish, the service was bad. I remember Yanagi being good food and service. Clearly, things have changed. From ignoring us when we walked in and taking the people who walked in behind us first, without even an acknowledgement, then a grunted «follow me» from the hostess whose surliness rivals my Korean mother-​in-​law, to sitting around 10 minutes for our check after they cleared our table, then waiting another 5 minutes after walking up to pay and our waiter then making us wait because he didn’t know what table we were from. Really? We were well past the lunch rush, but he can’t remember. I should’ve told him, «We were the table which was close enough to hear you berate the busser about not carrying enough of the drinks.» I feel sorry for the busser because she was the only one who actually served us. The waiter certainly wasn’t hussling nor could he remember serving us. I’m guessing he’s related to the woman who grunted at us. The food was just okay, for lunch it’s a glorified Shirokiya. I won’t be back.

My go-​to place for Sushi. I come here almost every week around 5−6pm!
If you know me, you know how much of a sushi addict I am and Yanagi fulfills that addiction quite well.
I’m just gonna lay down the dishes I usually get
Sake Sashimi w/​Sweet Onions: Best app that everyone gets because its so darn good. The sake sashimi sits on top of a pile of sweet maui onion drenched in sweet/​tangy ponzu sauce. Ohmygaaah, my favorite app to start off dinner.
Oyster Shooters: Heeellll yesssss. Best oyster shooters hands-​down! I always get huge pieces of oysters (ones that take up the entire space in your mouth) in my shooters. There’s tobiko, quail egg, green onion, and ponzu sauce (I believe).
Nigiri Omakase w/​Uni: $ 35 GREAT price tag for the types of nigiri served and the quality of the sushi. Usually there’s Chu Toro (my fave), Negi Toro, Maguro, Hamachi, Hotate (my fave), Albacore, Amaebi (my fave), Sake, Cali Roll, Maguro Roll, Unagi, Tamago, Ikura, Scallop Mayo, and others depending on the chef’s decision. The uni requires an additional charge of $ 3 I believe, but its so worth it because its so sweet! *Highly recommended dish. Every single time I go here (from the first time I’ve been here), that’s the only dish I get! The sashimi is extremely fresh and you could tell its been prepared with love.
We also always get a side of either scallop mayo or hotate (which is suuuper sweet).
Oh & don’t forget the green tea ice cream!
My favorite go-​to sushi restaurant on the island. I honest hope Yanagi never closes down because idk where else to get sushi as great as this for such a steal!
Service 5/​5, food ⁵⁄₅. Will definitely be back on a weekly basis. I love you, Yanagi, so much.

For the price it’s pretty good sushi. Sashimi quality can be questionable. Service is awful though, they don’t come by enough and tea always needed to be fill, if you can come back then please just leave the pot.
The sushi roll with scallop and mayo was popular for non sushi eaters. I think it was either dynamite or volcano.
Salmon skin salad if you like a slight bitterness .
Tofu sold was simple but refreshing
Grilled Hamachi (I think it was its cheeks) was yummy as well
Amaebi nigiri, specifically asked for the fried head, I never got it .
Seafood miso was liked by one of my friend.
Did not try dessert because they didn’t have s good option here.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR FOOD
Usually come here during the late night happy hour.
Really just come here for the cheap soju sometimes.
The food and service is alright. If I could I would give this place a 3.5÷5
The favorites:
Blackened Ahi Sashimi
Salmon w/​Maui Onions
California Roll
Spicy Tuna Roll
Combo sets
(Regular priced items)
Uni
Ahi Sashimi

I love coming to Yanagi’s. My coworkers and I use to come often after work since they open late and have a great late night happy hour. This time around I decided to get the deluxe sushi set and the baby takos which are my favorite item in the happy hour menu. Service is already quick and friendly. But be prepared for a wait.

My hubby and I really enjoy the food here. I always like to try other places but my hubby always says this place! Service is always good. Tonight, we walk-​in with no reservations. No seating at all till 8:30pm; that was 3 hours later but they gave us an option to seat away from the dining room area which was a table away from everyone by the restroom. Ok-​sounds bad but it was actually not bad cause we had our privacy and service was excellent. You figure, we would have been gotten but the opposite.

My visit to Hawaii was not complete without trying sushi here. Yanagi Sushi was the most received recommendations from my friends and locals. Here are my thoughts:
Pros:
–The fish is FRESH.
–There is a Late Night Special Mon-​Sat 10:30pm to close.
–The décor of the restaurant is nice.
–Some parts of the dining area are separated by walls so you get privacy and noise control. There are 2 – 3 tables inside these rooms.
Cons:
–Although the food quality cancelled this out, the server was slightly rude when it came to 2 occasions. For instance, I asked them if they had a «protein roll» [sushi with no rice], and he looked at me with a weird face saying «No… we don’t have that…». Also my friend asked him if miso soup came with the meal, and he would tell us with a weird face again that «it came separately». LOL.
Conclusion: Try this out if you are looking for the «best» sushi place in Honolulu! I read that they’ve been in business since 1978, and many locals have recommended this to me so this place was far from being «tousity»

Personally not a huge sushi fan but my better half is. She gets sushi from here at least once a week.
I on the other hand get something super basic like chicken teriyaki or some silly meal like that.
This place is quick, tasty, and fairly priced. The fish in the sushi (via my lady) is always very fresh and the rolls are all quite good. She switches it up weekly.
Also of course the chicken teriyaki is bomb. if youre into that sorta thing.

I rarely write bad reviews but, Yanagi Sushi need to look at their cashier/​hostess. She is rude. No other way to say it. They may have a Japanese name, Japanese food but, that’s not how to treat customers. I will say the food is good and the other people there are great but, she shouldn’t be greeting people.
I’m sure I’m not the only person to have this experience. The question is what will the business do?

Food is slightly above average. Good service. I recommend you come for lunch to try their food. Good lunch specials for decent prices. We had the salmon sashimi which was fresh and thickly cut. The salmon skin salad had way too much dressing. It was almost a soup. The baked squid was pretty underwhelming.

Yanagi Sushi never disappoints during those late-​night post-​gym cravings or when you’re too lazy to cook and decide to indulge yourself in a good old Japanese dinner. Love the casual, yet traditional, Japanese feel of the place– there’s also a sushi bar if that’s more your style. I really enjoy their dinner specials, which come with a salad, appetizer, picked veggies, miso soup, rice, and ice cream, with a choice of 1 – 3 entrée (s), including sashimi, misoyaki butterfish, broiled salmon, and tonkatsu. For an average of $ 25 for a combo meal, I think that’s pretty good! They also have lunch specials and a wide variety of sushi and sashimi.
Service has been great the past several times I’ve been here, employees are attentive and friendly. Parking can be a little difficult as there is limited street and valet parking. Although, late at night, parking is usually easy to find.
P. S. I commend the kind employee who ran after me when I left my packed left overs at the table. Domo!

A good place for a lunch or dinner teishoku and/​or sushi/​sashimi. My company had a group lunch and we booked a private room for about 10 people. You can order in advance and when you sit down, everything is set up and ready to go. They bring out the food in short order. Very convenient and good place for a private, small group gathering.
I had the shrimp tempura and chicken teriyaki. They were of average taste. I would instead recommend their sushi/​sashimi.

Always a must coming here whenever on Oahu. Getting off a late flight & hungry??? Yanagi sushi is the place to be! Late night specials from 1030pm-​2am, last orders at 130pm.
They have a great selection of late night specials, however, I always order the same dishes: chicken katsu, salmon skin roll, spicy tuna roll, fresh salmon with sweet Maui onions, and gyoza. They do have new items on the menu every so often.
Great service, fresh fish, great tasting food… Is there anything else you need in a restaurant?!

Lunch on a Friday was pretty busy at 1130am. Walked in and was asked if I made reservations, which I did not. The woman at the front didn’t seem too pleased about that. I recommend making reservations if you intend to eat here during lunch hours. However, we got seated right away in a private room area that held two separate tables, which was interesting.
Automatically you get a little platter of one shrimp, edamame, and bean sprouts. I ended up ordering the spicy tuna roll, soft shell crab roll, and the double combination lunch (teriyaki ahi and chicken cutlet). The tuna roll was a pretty good size considering that it was only $ 6.95. The soft shell crab (4 piece) was a lot! The pieces were huge with a good amount of crab. The teriyaki ahi was soft and not over cooked and the chicken cutlet was good. I think I may have ordered too much food considering that I had to take home my double combination lunch leftovers.
Service was good. Taking away the empty dishes was on point and refilling water and hot tea was also on point. Very quick, but didn’t feel rushed.
The parking is Valet only, so be prepared to bring some cash for the Valet guys.

Don’t order their oyster shooters!!!
I came here a couple of days ago and I wrote a good review on Unilocal.Hours later I started to get sick… Keep in mind I shared everything with my boyfriend i for the oyster shooter. Thinking it was a stomach virus, I went to doctor yesterday and was told it was food poisoning from shellfish! Gross! I’ve been eating raw seafood like oysters, fish, crab, my whole life and never have I gotten sick off of it until now.

While I frequent a lot of Japanese restaurants this is the place I visit if I crave some nigiri sushi. This place gets quite busy during dinner hours (never tried their lunch hours) so unless you’re arriving just as the street parking on Kapiolani becomes available it’ll be easier to leave your car with the valet guys (valet is free so you just pay the tip). Of course making reservation ahead will also be wise unless you’re doing the late hour dinner/​happy hour.
So back to nigiri sushi, I always order the chef special combo which basically has little bit of everything. Recently they started charging extra for adding Uni to the mix so I just order the full package and think of it as a price hike since life just isn’t the same without Uni. But even after the price hike I think the amount of sushi you get from here cannot be beat if you consider the balance between price, quality and quantity. I think they do quality control their seafood since the quality has been pretty consistent over the past couple of years I visited.
Aside from sushi I had the pleasure of stealing some sashimi and chirashi off others and seeing how the basic building blocks of all these dishes are the same they were all equally great. If your primary interest is stuffing yourself with seafood and not rice I think the sashimi platters may be of better value than sushi although it may be a bit more pricey. Cooked items such as broiled saba and butter fish are also very nice here.
I think this place could have easily gotten 5 stars from me but there were a few times where the tempo of food being served were kinda off. If you bring me my sushi set first and then bring the broiled fish for my party 20 minutes later we just end up awkwardly staring at each other debating when to start. Since the service in general is pretty timely I figure either the kitchen gets swamped and gets lagged behind or the server forgot to put in the order right away. Either way since it has happened more than once we kinda learned to order and eat around this potential nuisance. But all in all if you are craving some quality sushi and have a moderate amount of money I would highly recommend this place.

I never wrote a review yet on this place? Maybe because I’m usually busy stuffing my fat face here to write a review.
So, just go after 10:30PM. Like everyone else in Honolulu. It’s too damn expensive before then. Why after 10:30PM? Because that’s when they have their after-​hours specials. You can get some great food for under $ 10 a plate. Like sushi. And seafood. And katsu. And it tastes pretty good. Plus, they’re open late. Like until 2AM.
We’ve all been to Zippy’s, but sometimes, you need more. Your stomach deserves more. You deserve more. And sometimes Yanagi will give it to you. When they don’t have a wait of over one hour for you to be seated. Because almost everyone else in Honolulu agrees, this the place to eat after hours. So you wait. For 20 minutes. Then 30 minutes. Then 45 minutes. Then an hour. And then you eat and you’re happy.
Or you give up and go to Zippy’s.
But I like the food here better than Zippy’s. Plus, it’s close to my apartment. And just park across the street. The parking lot is small and cramped. You’ll thank me later.

«Voted the No. 1 sushi restaurant in Hawaii by many celebrities.» — Yanagi Sushi
You don’t have to be famous to experience the fresh fish and seafood at Yanagi Sushi, but who doesn’t relish in the opportunity to dine among the stars? It takes a certain «it» factor to make it big in entertainment, and the same could be said about sushi restaurants in Hawaii, the land of many delectable options.
After serving locals and visitors for nearly four decades, Yanagi Sushi has recently upped its sushi game to deliver fresher, tastier options. As a college student, I fondly remember my first days as a ‘big kid’ who graduated from sushi at a popular diner on the West Side to a hot spot with townie friends. Watch out, big man on campus!
Joking aside, Yanagi Sushi’s owner-​chef Haruo Nakayama shows off his guilded training in Tokyo in the beautiful arrangements he puts together. Drop in for lunch if you feel like splurging and experiencing an escape from your typical work week lunch.
Combination lunch options is a great way to make sure your guests will find what they’re looking for. For those who are sushi-​shy (is that even a saying?), misoyaki butterfish, katsu and other local favorites can be mixed and matched by two– or three-​option combinations.
Private rooms are available toward the back of the restaurant. You never know which famous athlete, actor or other loyal customer whose foot steps you will be following. One thing is for certain: you’ll get a tasty meal which will have you coming back for more.

I had the opportunity to have lunch today with an old friend, my treat, my choice. She actually suggested a place on Dillingham but I said «nope, I’ll take you to a better place and we will enjoy it more». No reservations so we sat at the sushi bar which I love anyway.
My friend started with the Deluxe sushi plate and I ordered ala carte off the Nigiri menu. Who got the best of that deal… me of course. The Otoro was absolutely an awesome, fatty delight that just slid down my throat melting all the way. Oysters, served nigiri style were tender, slightly salty and superb. Hamachi, Ikura, Uni with quail’s egg. So heavenly, do they serve sushi in heaven, I sure hope so! Not that I’m going soon (I hope).
After the above we were both looking at the sushi chef with hungry eyes so Do asked for a Tempura roll which we split. Not much of a roll fan as I am a bit of a snob and usually do sashimi or Nigiri only. Oh well, a guest is a guest so we split that roll and then ordered a rainbow roll LOL! it was really fantastic. The rice is silky and perfectly cooked, you almost don’t notice it’s there. The fish is so fresh and I assume it is so because the place is always so busy they must move a ton a day.
The price is not cheap but it is worth it for a great lunch or dinner. I splurged and took home four California Rolls and 4 double Maguro Nigiri for the kids for dinner since I’m not cooking tonight! Parking is valet and only if you can get in the crowded lot. I’ll be back soon and hopefully will know in advance so I can make reservations but for two the sushi bar is doable.

Yanagi Sushi is a great combination of traditional Japanese-​upscale dining.
Their Happy Hour starts at 10:30, so me, my boyfriend and my friends ordered some beers. What was off-​putting about the menu was the fact that we saw the shabu-​shabu list, and were impressed with the prices. We then found out that the prices were PER ORDER, and that a minimum of 2 orders were needed. We were upset, but we figured that we should have asked and inquired deeper. Also, a LOT of meat and vegetables were brought, and it was quite good. So, we didn’t feel a need to complain.
However, their sushi platter was quite good. The sushi was of nice quality, and the presentation was beautiful. The ahi didn’t have much cartilage, which was good. It was nice and pink. The sushi was also nicely assembled, we could tell it was professionally-​made.
I have also had chicken katsu donburi here. The chicken katsu donburi is delicious. The chicken katsu is flavorful, the sauce is not too salty, and there’s not an overflow of onions.
They also have private party rooms, which are good for special occasion dinners. They do allow BYOB in those party rooms, but there is a corkage fee, and it cannot be a beverage they already have in stock.
I recommend Yanagi for late-​night ventures, but it is definitely not a casual hole-​in-​the-​wall place, so be ready to spend.