Ariake Sushi
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
118 reviews
San Jose, CA
"I went to Sushi Zen after reading some good reviews and wanting good Sushi option in San Jose besides good but costly Blowfish at Santana…" read more »
52 Reviews for Ariake Sushi
I've had sushi and then I've had great sushi. Nijiya's sushi, Sushi O Sushi, sushi in Tokyo and around Japan...
This isn't sushi.
Seaweed all wilted and stringy around a glob of unproperly seasoned rice. Unripe avocado. Smelly fish.
Cheap yes. Quality no.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
I was too scared to try the sushi here, so I got a bento box.
Man, wayyyyy too much food but a great price. We could have split one.
My husband got california rolls in his. The sushi guy (not qualified enough to call a chef) had made a HUGE roll and then cut each section in half, so each CA roll was open on one side. How lazy!!! And hard to eat.
I didn't like any of my food (burnt chicken teryaki, chewy tempura and flavorless gyoza). The waiters were rude and rolled their eyes a lot. The best thing was the sectioned orange that came with the bento because I could eat it with chopsticks.
Forget the food here. It's not worth it (except for the orange!)
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
First time I went here, sat at the counter and picked sushi off the boats. Most pieces were good, some were not fresh. I didn't order a bento box that day. That's all I had on that visit.
My second visit, I decided to sit at a table instead. I was greeted with respect and the host/server asked me what I wanted to drink. I requested the hot tea. What I ordered was a bento dinner that came with salad and miso soup, both good. In addition, I ordered a sushi roll that had a tempura shrimp rolled in (can't remember what it's called), a mistake on my part, I'll explain later. When the bento dinner came, it had A LOT of stuff! Had a heaping of teriyaki beef, rice, tempura mix and on top of that, I had a sushi roll! Dayum! This meal would have feed at least 3 people! Prices were good and the service was good. If I were in Sunnyvale and had a fix for Japanese, I would come back.
I love this place. My wife and I eat here at least once a week. The service behind the bar is excellent. They even make things for you that are not on the menu if you ask. We have a few personal favorites that they remember when they see us and ask if we want them to make them up as we are seated. We look foward to our next visit.
Aiiiight, hold up. Gimme a minute to finish yacking.
Came here because all the other sushi joints are inconveniently closed during the hours of 3-5pm y'all... and that includes saturdays, too! Sen Dai, Cherry, Sushi-o-Sushi... all closed. I couldn't help but scream profanity after seeing the "closed" sign at every window of each joint. bitchfuckcuntmotherfuckingstupidshit......and as my deceased, loving, but hot tempered Chinese Father would say, "booooo-shieeeyit"!
I just ordered vegetables tempura and a cucumber/pickled raddish roll. Simple shit. Tell me why both turned out to be the nastiest shit I've ever eaten in my life? I'm not even on my period nor am I over exaggerating. The tempura batter was not even fully cooked. YACK. Then, the rice in my roll was super mushy... a consistency similar to that of the boogers in my nose. You know, the sticky ones that resemble little bits of fat you pick out when no one's looking and you smash between your fingers... YEAH.. I know you know... YOU know.. =P
"You, miso soup? On da house, fo you!" Oh thanks! But no thanks. I think that's what lead to my stomachs demise this evening. Shitting my intestines out. But I guess it's a good thing because I'm trying to lose weight.
ALSO, the soy sauce here is diluted. WTF?! Never coming here again.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (2)
Cool (2)
To borrow Miz Tam's favorite word...Ass.
I contemplated not paying.
So I was looking for a different restaurant that I had not been to before- just had the address- and as the street numbers on El Camino are not contiguous, I couldn't find it. So I saw the sign for Ariake Sushi. How 'bout Sushi? I say to the 4 year old. Good. She says. Pay attention that's the last time you see the word good in this review.
SERVICE:
We walk in and are kinda half greeted. I'm not sure an actual word was spoken, but eye contact was made. They have the sushi boats. I should have known then, but I was famished. Breakfast was at 7am and it was near 1pm and a lot had happened in between.
We decide to sit at the counter, not because we didn't want to order non-sushi things, but because the 4 year old likes to watch the boats. So we sit there for like 5 or 10 minutes and no one has come to take our order. El hombre de Sushi had asked us if we wanted some sushi, but I told him we hadn't decided. So I was ready to start with some miso and rice and I was jonesin for a diet cola. So I tried to get the waiter's attention. I don't know if he was purposefully ignoring us or what. I had to move my chair out and lean in front of him as he passed us to get his attention.
So I say, "We'd like some rice and miso." He turns his back on me. I pivot the direction he's going in and say, a little louder, "And a diet cola." Then I get the attention of El Hombre de Sushi and order an advocado roll for the 4 year old and take a tuna roll off the boat. We did get the soda, miso & rice, but only 1 bowl of miso & 1 bowl of rice. I was also going to order Chicken yakitori and some unagi, BUT... No one ever checked on us again and even if they had I had decided not to because...
Food:
The tuna was fishy- the fishiest tuna I have ever tasted. Any fishier and I would have spat it out. Any less hungry and I would not have eaten it. The miso soup was NAS-T! It was worse than the powdered in an envelope kind you get in the grocery store. And there was almost no tofu in it, which is my daughter's favorite part. The rice had a weird flavor and was over cooked and somewhat mushy. I had one bite of miso. I had two bites of rice. I lost my appetite. Now look at my profile picture. I have more than a hearty appetite. I like to eat. I lost my appetite. When I finally got the waiter's attention and asked for the bill he said, "Only two plates?" and made a little laugh. I should've said to him how bad it was. I mean, how else are they gonna know, but I didn't.
I hope I never have to eat here again.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (3)
My friend Renee and I tend to go out and eat whenever she's home from school, so we usually try different places. One of those places was Ariake Sushi. We walk in, table for two, let me peep the menu, just glasses of ice water please, and then chat and play the waiting game. I had ordered the Bento Box with Terryaki Chicken, that mini salad it comes with, some Tempura, Rice, and Miso Soup. My friend Renee had ordered some Sushi, I forgot what kind.
Delicious. I get scared to try new things at Sushi places, cause I always think I won't fill up on something cause i've never heard of it so I always go for the same stuff all the time. I'll drop by this place again, and maybe i'll try something new.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
Let me make one thing clear. I review based on VALUE. For $11.95, I got plenty of food in my bento box: Salad, miso soup, unagi, rice, tempura, california rolls. I was stuffed to the DOME. Of course it's not the BEST Japanese food I've ever had and it's located next to Safeway (it's not that authentic). But I did enjoy the food in a hungry man who's had a long day comfort food kind of way. Not the foodie, I'm supercritical and there's something wrong with everything kind of way. So in that sense I like Ariake. I would go back.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I actually like this Ariake location. I have been coming here for about 3 years now. The waiters know me and are super friendly when we come in. They always give the kids free Edamame and know exactly what to bring us to drink. I love the Bento boxes for the price but the chicken is way to fatty so ordering the beef is a much better choice. I really like the salad dressing, the miso soup, and the tempura. I am not a big fish eater so the rolls that I enjoy are:
unagi
Ebi
Inari
Dragon Roll
Overall, it is a decent place to get decent sushi. Sure, the sushi is not the best you will ever eat but its a decent replacement. Not all the waiters are friendly so sometimes you have to deal with them but for the most part, there are good guys working there.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I moved to the neighborhood recently and decided to check out this place. I should have read the reviews. Save the supermarket and grocery store sushi, I have had the worst sushi here. The fish is not fresh and tasteless. Rice is "packed". I agree it is inexpensive but the sushi is terrible. Service is mediocre at best. Nothing that I can recommend about this restaurant. I am definitely not going back.
I don't even know what to say except that it wasn't good and I won't be back. The service was just fine, the parking was plentiful and the prices were less expensive than other places, but that is really all I can say. Perhaps this is a case of .... get what you pay for!
The California roll tasted SWEET (like dessert sweet) which is the last thing I expected and the unagi was especially rubbery. Just a bad day? Maybe, but I love sushi too much to put myself through another visit to Ariake.
In my opinion, the perfect chirashi would contain the following ingredients:
*multiple slices of sake, hamachi, saba, hotate, maguro, unagi, amaebi, tamago, white tuna
*ikura (salmon roe)
*slices of sweeten braised shiitake mushroom
*pickled radish or daikon
*seaweed salad (optional)
This restaurant's chirashi had the following pros and cons, relative to my notion of the perfect chirashi:
Pros: Included some interesting vermicelli shell fish salad, seaweed salad, price was low, but...
Cons: A lack in variety of fish...only three types, one slice of each. Wouldn't consider this chirashi.
Sushi bought from grocery stores taste better then the sushi here. Went there during lunch, and didn't look like a single sushi plate was picked off the boat...so the same stale sushi kept making its rounds. Ordered a bento box and a caterpillar roll. caterpillar roll was huge and mostly soggy rice. bento box was blah...
Spend your hard earned money elsewhere. Btw I'm not basing my rating on one visit. I used to frequent this place a few years ago..quality has been declining for years now..
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Decent in a pinch, but the quality is not up to par. I read a prior comment about looking in on a dirty, wet kitchen floor & I saw the exact same thing several times. It definitely raised some concerns about the cleanliness of the restaurant.
If you want to get in an out fast, feel free to go here. They have a creative sushi bar, but the selection isn't there. Plus the sushi is small in portion.
I still go here, but only if I NEED sushi and I only have 30 minutes or less. Prices aren't bad, but could certainly be better given the sliver of fish they lay on the mound of rice.
My boyfriend and I came here for lunch a few days ago. We realized that we needed a table for 3 because of an unexpected guest...a cockroach on the wall next to our table. When I pointed it out to our server, he took care of it with a napkin. They then gave us free mochi ice cream and proudly took 10% off the bill. It wasn't enough to make us stay. Even after they offered free sushi to go. I think I ate one piece of tempura and they still charged us. I hope the server washed his hands before waiting on other tables. I don't think I'll be returning to this location.
This place sucks rice balls!
Once you step into this place...you notice the smell of urine burning your nose hairs away. But once the urine odor kills your smelling senses you then notice that there's some bugs kickin it with you at your table. The kind that live through nuclear war ie: roaches.
Now if all that isn't enough for you to leave. Just ask the waiters there for nothing more than a refill, and expect some attitude with that.
I'd come back here again...only with a health inspector and to punch the waiters!!!
People thought this was:
Useful (4)
Funny (6)
Cool (1)
Decent sushi at great prices.
The workers are nice, although they often forget things. They have funny names for their sushi. My favorites are the Picachu, Caterpillar, and I Love You rolls. Yes most of their dishes aren't traditional sushi rolls and sometimes asking for these rolls may sound gay, but if you're complaining their sushi is Americanized/Westernized... don't frickin' order it!!! They have traditional sushi as well as westernized rolls with avocados and cream cheese.
Don't come here during lunchtime as it can get awfully busy. Decently sized place with a few tv sets on one side of the wall with a sushi bar on the other side.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
I went here for my birthday last year. I like the sushi becuase i can't taste the fish and i can't taste the seaweed. Seewead? yucky!
They have nice filipino servers that gave me sake bomb! I don't like sake, i only like taking shots.
the best part of it is that they played 50 cent for my birthday, i had the ebst time, and i got full.
don't go here on the weekends becuase it's crowded and full of loud people like me. haha..ok..bye bye guys!
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
ok..anyone giving this place 3 stars are more is either a moron, or cannot differentiate food from cardboard. if this place is 3 stars, what the hell is one star? i can find more flavor licking the sweat off my arm.
anyways, i don't care for the fact there there weren't japanese people inside. i don't care even for the weird smells (someone else says cleaning fluid). i only care about the taste of the food. if that was good, then i'd be satisfied. but man...this was crap. the rice has absolutely no taste of vinegar or any other seasoning. the fish wasn't good (i didn't even pluck the fish from the boats, i had them cut it up for me right then and there). the wasabi is bland (and isn't even present in the nigiri). the tea was very light (too light) in flavor, and after the first dish, i was EXTREMELY sad that we didn't just decide to walk out right away
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (1)
Cool (1)
I go here occaisionally, when im craving quick sushi and my wallet isnt as full as usual. Definatley not the best sushi place, try Kobe on Stevens creek and Scott of your looking for good sushi. Word to the wise, don't pick up anything off the boats. Ive noticed it tends to be rubbery and dry, but you can always ask the sushi chef to make you some of whatever you want. My favorite is the Dragon roll and the spicy shrimp, but these MUST be fresh if not, you wont like it trust me. Ive never seen bugs or smelled urine as many say, but i suppose anything is possible. Also, if your a woman, they always tend to give you Diet Coke, so specify Regular Coke if your picky about the flavor. If i wanted to keep my girlish figure i wouldnt eat so much.
I say try it, im told the bento boxes are acceptable, but nothing here is superb. You get what you pay for. Pretty quick, ok tasting sushi and a very good price.
people, a friggin' BUG crawled out of my cucumber roll! enough said. STAY AWAY!!!
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
EWW. This was not good sushi. I just ate at Ariake last night with my boyfriend, and it was actually a sad experience because I'm trying to convert him to sushi and I totally picked the wrong place to do it!
The rolls with crab are stuffed with nasty, obviously FAKE crab. All of the fish going by on the sushi boats (on the nigiri rolls especially, when it was just rice + a piece of fish on top) looked HELLA dry and I even saw a couple that were shriveling towards the edges! I don't even understand how a restaurant could let fish like that go out.
The only upside is that the prices are decent. We shared a bento box with beef & salmon teriyaki with vegetable tempura. The meat & fish were okay, but the tempura was definitely made before we ordered it and left sitting under a lamp light or something, because the fried batter around the veggies was getting kind of soggy.
I will not be going back.
Have only had the bento boxes (great deal, especially at lunch). The teriyaki is sweet, but not overly so, and the meat is consistiently good.
The staff is usually a little too rude for my taste. I once saw a guy who had miso soup spilled on his leather jacket by a waiter.. who didn't bother telling the guy he did so.. the guy got up to leave, put his jacket on and realized it was soaked in soup! He then loudly went to the counter when the "manager" decided to try to clean it with a napkin..
I dont know, I only go here when I've got a hankering for some quick bento-action for not a lot of money.
Edit: OK, roaches.. yea.. stay FAR away. While you're at it.. I'd avoid the Coldstone nextdoor too (well, I'd avoid it anyway, no matter where)... but, yea.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I didn't come here expecting great sushi, just wanted something decent for lunch before I had to get back to work.
My boyfriend got 3 rolls. They were better than what I got...
I got a bento box that included: salad & miso soup as starters, chicken teriyaki & rice, potstickers, and california rolls. Potstickers were disgusting, they gave me 4 and I only ate 1. The california rolls tasted not any better than the ones you get packaged from safeway. Chicken was sooo salty, ahh. I know I won't like bento boxes but I foolishly get them anyways sometimes!
I used to like Ariake a lot when I was a youngin' and it was the only sushi place I went to but once you've been to better places, ugh, never again!
Move along folks, move along...
When you see the eerily overbright lighting of this place, keep on moving. Well, the decor has no unifying theme. I had huge hesitations once I saw the revolving sushi boats. My dining companion said that it was once good, though they specialize in rolls. Yuck. It was all bad. Started with waaaay too salty miso soup. Then plum wine that tasted more like slightly spike Hi-C. Not even as tasty as Hi-C. Then the waiter was surly and gruff. I guess he didn't like that they didn't offer numerous sushi options that were listed on the menu.
Me: Toro.
Waiter: No.
Me: Mirugai?
Waiter: No.
Me: Aji?
Waiter: No.
Me: Maybe you could tell me what you do have?
Waiter: No.
Okay, I'll keep playing this guessing game. I guess this was was supposed to be my clue that I should have just left. Ended up going to my usual sushi place, Yuma-Ya for a chaser. (Reason I didn't go there in the first place was because I had just been the night before and was a bit embarrassed!)
The pieces were not only niggardly in size, but also dried out as if they had not only revolved on sushi boats, but as if they had had their head stuck out of a car moving at 100 mph on the freeway. Yup. That bad. And the few pieces that were not desiccated, well, they were waterlogged and tasteless, namely the scallops and the hokkagai. (I left most of the stuff. Not worth the calories and the risk of getting sick.)
I couldn't be paid enough to come back. We'll see whether I get sick...
People thought this was:
Cool (1)
This place sucks ass.
The last (and final time) I went there was with a friend and he didnt leave a tip because our service (we sat at a table) was horrible. The waiter had the nerve to chase after us and ask for a tip. What kind of shit is that?
People thought this was:
Funny (2)
Cool (1)
Ariake is quick, decent sushi. However, it should be considered almost like sushi-fast-food.
I guess it's a good place to go if you're somewhat broke, have the munchies and want instant gratification by eating the rolls from the boats.
Their custom rolls aren't the best and their sushi is pretty plain.
Serving size is good though and you will get full pretty quickly.
Overall it's a good place, just don't expect it to be the ultimate experience.
Everything about this place is just mediocre: the food, the service, etc. The sushi doesn't taste good or fresh; the bento boxes are probably the best bang for your buck if you're looking for something cheap and filling. I just don't come here anymore because I generally want sushi when I eat at a Japanese restaurant, and I sure do not want the sushi here.
I knew better, and yet I went here anyway. I get kind of embarrassed showing up at Satsuma twice a week, so I've been casting around for a backup bento option a little closer to home. Well, this ain't it.
I got a bento with gyoza, California roll, and chicken teriyaki. The first warning sign was the overly salty miso soup. Then the bento arrived. The gyoza were completely overcooked -- I think they had been boiled, then pan-fried, then shoved back in the fridge, then either reboiled or nuked -- the bottoms were brown, as if they had contacted hot oil at some point, but there was no texture to the noodle at all. Ew.
The California rolls were enormous, and not completely encircled with rice. I suppose they do this on purpose. They also weren't very good. Too much krab and the krab was too dry.
The chicken teriyaki was OK. The skin was still on, which I don't particularly care for, but I know when you cook it skin-on it keeps it from drying out, and it wasn't dried out. So, the passable teriyaki gets 2 stars.
The rice was kind of dry. Rice! Dude!
So, this is not the place to go for acceptable weekend lunch bento. Drat.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
* Update 5/23/08: ONE WORD - COCKROACH! It scurried across our table, while we were eating. Needless to say we got out of there fast. GROSS!!!
Okay so it's not the best Japanese restaurant in the area, but it does offer a quick and value filled meal.
The Bento/combination dinners are a very good value and the food in it is fine. I don't have a lot of experience eating a lot of their sushi/sashimi beyond the sashimi in my combo though.
The service is friendly and it is open late.
Overall recommendation: teriyaki cockroach isn't my idea of yummy.
This place is getting worse by the month. Maybe it's cause of the same workers who's been there for years are tired of working. I've always viewed it as a fast food Japanese quick fix. But even take outs take forever. You call 30 mins in advance and arrive there and yet they just start making your food. Foods not all that great. Just your CA rolls are ok.
who cares if not evrybody there is japanese yeesh. Atleast the food is good.
if you haven't noticed, they have the best salad dressing out of every japanese restaurant. AND they have a joyful greeting when you walk in the door.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
you get what you pay for. Cheap lunch, really cheap quality food. But it fills you up when your broke and hankerin' for "japanese" food.
Some of the workers here used to work at Miyake in Cupertino; i remember the dude as an adolescent when eating there with my parents.
make sure the waiter's thumb isn't in your miso when he hands it to you!
There are 2 kinds of sushi boat restaurants in the US: The kind that serves superb nigiri sushi, and the kind that just fill you up. Ariake of Sunnyvale, however, are neither of the 2 kinds.
Ariake's nigiri sushi are freakishly small in portion, and the sashimi slice is so thin that if you have a lighter flavor fish like the red snappers, you're only tasting the rice and the vinegar. To be more specific, a nigiri sushi is basically consist of sashimi, wasabi, and the vinegar rice ball. To make a delicious nigiri sushi, the portion of the trio would have to be perfectly balanced according to the flavor of the sashimi; if the sashimi has stronger flavor the rice ball would need to be relatively larger than those of lighter flavor; if the sashimi has stronger fishy taste, then the wasabi in between the sashimi and the rice ball would have to be relatively more than usual as well, or seek other method to ease the fishy taste, like using onions or citrus to marinate or something like that. Ariake adopts NONE of these skills. The quality of their nigiri sushi are so random that no 2 salmon nigiri would taste the same.
As if it can't get any worse, the service here is non-existence. I came here for lunch at the bar, ended up spending over $40.00 on the sushi alone, and I only got ONE tea refills and I had to ASK FOR IT. Besides, how would you feel if you have a waiter eyeballing how much you're eating when you're having lunch? They would rather spend their time calculating your bill before you're finished or hiding behind the counter than to serve you properly like they're paid to do.
Ariake Sushi is among one of the worst Bay Area sushi place on my list. It still doesn't beat the one in Valley Fair Mall but it's pretty close. I would not recommend this restaurant to any of my friends, and I would definitely not recommend it to any Yelpers. But if you're a generous person who lives close by and is not so picky on sushi and just want to have a quick bite, then Bon Appetite!
PROS: Geographic location, not so crowded during lunch, more than just plain rolls on the boats.
CONS: Quality of sushi would make any sushi lover cry, non existing service, price ( their quality does not worth that much money )
EH sushi isnt to good here, I used to like it but then I came to my senses and realized it was just filler crap. The staff is ok, I dont think 1 japanese person works here haha, but why does this place always reek of cleaning solution??????!!!!!!!! I dont wanna eat while your mopping buddy!! GROSS!
It was a Saturday lunch, and we drove up and down El Camino, looking for an open Sushi place. We should have kept driving. Really, really bad sushi - mostly, it seemed that the sushi was made a day or more in advance, and kept in a fridge. Then, served ice cold. Yuk.
We spent $15 for two, and I felt cheated.
This place stinks....literally! It smelled very musty and stale, and we looked back in the kitchen, and the floor was covered in stagnant water. I don't know what the deal was, but I couldn't enjoy the meal. The overall appearance and feel of the place was dirty!
I remember it being so-so sushi, but the salad was good. Would never go back again. Better off going a mile down the street to the sushi place on Murphy St.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
They aren't the best sushi place I've ever been to..but, they are fast, cheap, and convenient. Some dishes are better than others, the salmon shioyaki gets a definite thumbs up, as does the unagi, and hamachi nigiri. Their sashimi tastes frozen, but no complaints on any other fish.
Since fresh is key for sushi, Ariake did not impress me one bit. Mediocre service and ok sushi were a disappointment, making the whole experience less-than-satisfying. Don't think I'll be back soon.
People Who Viewed This Also Viewed...
Related Lists
-
My Neighborhood
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
Hot and New
- Satura Cakes
186 reviews
Palo Alto, CA
- Hong Kong Saigon Seafood…
174 reviews
Sunnyvale, CA
- Grill 'Em
17 reviews
Campbell, CA
- Sumika
116 reviews
Los Altos, CA
- Taqueria La Bamba
232 reviews
Mountain View, CA