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Asahi Sushi
Category: Restaurants Japanese Japanese [Edit]
13919 Baltimore Ave Ste 4Laurel, MD 20707
(301) 776-0002
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Quiet
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
About This Business:
Come visit us for a wide variety of fresh sushi, sashimi, maki & rolls and other traditional Japanese dishes from our Hibachi grill. We offer brown &… read more »
32 reviews for Asahi Sushi
Review Highlights
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"I'd recommend their lunch buffet any day." In 12 reviews -
"Still, excellent service for a Korean restaurant." In 11 reviews -
"They LOVE tempura-style sushi here - the mackerel is..." In 7 reviews
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32 reviews in English
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Review from Tiffany J.
Laurel, MD
12/27/2011
I love this spot! I have some sushi favorites such as the Rasania roll (it's baked), American Dream roll, and the 007 roll. My fiance is not a fan of sushi, but he loves the chicken teriyaki.
The staff is always very friendly and smiling even if they don't say much. They have a great lunch buffet.
Definitely sad for me when I moved 20 minutes away so I can not frequent here as much as I used to. -
Review from Jordan K.
4/11/2012
It's a sushi buffet okay so don't expect it to be fantabolous. Price wise for Lunch is $13 which is not too bad at all. Quality is mediocre, but what do you expect for the price. I am a sushi snob and the rice was not that tasty! I can stomach it but it just left a taste in my mouth that didn't feel right. (plug in that I "Lived in Japan")
Staff was super nice and joked around with us which I think was a plus. I still like the Sake House sushi down the street, but even that place is not all that great either. -
Review from Toby R.
Washington, DC
3/21/2012
BEST SUSHI BUFFET!!! The selection is amazing and for $13 on weekdays, it's so worth it.
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Review from Ray P.
Cleveland, OH
3/7/2012
The lunch buffet is an awesome, delicious deal!! A+
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Review from Jimmy C.
Greenbelt, MD
2/11/2012 1 Check-in Here
I used to love coming to this spot, I usually order off the menu here, only eating the lunch buffet once before. This time I came for dinner, and didn't expect a dinner buffet available. The servers kind of pushed every customer coming in, towards the buffet suggestion. The buffet was 18.99! only one Hot plate bar and a variety of sushi to choose from. Don't get me wrong, most of the dishes were decent and the sushi is decent for buffet, but the variety you get just doesn't seem worth the price to me. Every other time I've come and ordered off the menu, it was a much better experience. so maybe next time I'll try the menu again and re-rate this place.
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Review from Nina U.
The gem of a find this week. My coworkers love this place and I was a bit leery because I thought it was a chain. It is not. Family run and they were so cute, they thought I was Korean. I am not. I also usually do not like buffets because I feel like the large selection of food isn't high quality and I don't get my monies worth. I changed my mind about buffets today.
Asahi Korean food buffet: $11.95. Deal. The best mochi/rice cakes in kimchee sauce. Who would've thought?? SO GOOD. bulgogi, long rice, lots of veggies, it's all delicious. And they have a sushi bar lined up with all kinds of rolls and even some nigiri. The roll slices are small but I think that's smart so people take more manageable portions.
I think it's funny that people around here all run different types of ethnic restaurants. Like Chinese running Japanese restaurants, or Koreans running Japanese restaurants. But hey, I love this place. Whatever works. -
Review from Cam W.
Laurel, MD
12/21/2011
Love their buffet and mix of Korean starters and sushi.
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Review from Ieesha J.
8/7/2010
Based on service alone I have to rate them a 1 star. I hope that one day I can put the rude service behind me and try the food.
So I stopped in to order take out and the lady at the front counter told me they were too busy to take my order. WTF? I thought I heard it wrong. I asked "oh so you don't take carry out orders" she said yes we do, but we're really busy so we can't take your order!
So that sums up my experience at Asahi!!!
Maybe I can get over my hump and go back and actually try the sushi...then I will change my rating!!! -
Review from Karen A.
1/19/2011 8 Check-ins Here
Lunch Buffet: I think it's a bit unfair to knock Asahi for the quality of sushi at lunch. Seriously, if you put your best cuts of fish out for all-you-can-eat anything, do you think they would stay in business for very long? I don't go to the buffet very often anymore, but when I do I usually enjoy the Korean entree options more than the sushi. Given them a try! Plenty of kimchi, kkaktugi, vegetables, bulgogi, mandu, chapchae, tempura, and much more. It's always fresh and I have gone into a serious food coma on more than one occasion thanks to it.
Dinner: The quality of the sushi improves significantly during dinner hours. Complimentary korean appetizers, miso soup, and salad are served. The dolsot bibimbap is one of my favorites, but the spicy stir fried squid, kimchi jigae, and soondubu jigae are also delicious. If you're in the mood for sushi, several sushi platter options are available or you can order by roll.
I have never experienced service here that's been less than fantastic. The waitresses are always friendly and the owner will often send complimentary dishes out at dinner, from a free sushi roll to spicy squid to free bottles of sake. I would recommend Asahi to anyone! -
Review from Alicia C.
Bethesda, MD
1/25/2009
Came here for lunch. We ordered a variety of rolls to split... spicy tuna, salmon, Philly, salmon skin, and shrimp tempura, along with some seaweed salad to start. The sushi was decent and the spicy tuna definitely had a nice kick. I asked for some hot tea, expecting the usual small tea cup to come out... they bring to the table a mug bigger than my typical morning coffee. While I might have over done it with the tea (finished 2 cups plus some water), I was definitely grateful for the larger cup... provide much needed warmth from the frigid day outside.
Service as a whole was pretty on spot. As mentioned, my tea mug never went empty. Everything came out fast and was cleared away as soon as we finished. And they even insisted on wrapping up our leftovers (I guess our eyes were bigger than our stomachs), and even ran outside after us when I forgot the box on the table.
A definite downside is the parking situation. When I pulled in the front lot was completely full (it was very small so not hard to do). I did find parking in the back lot, but there was no easy way to get back around to the front of the building... had to take the long way around.
They also have a sushi lunch buffet... which, if this place was closer to work, I could see my coworkers and I frequenting quite a bit... but for now, it will just have to remain a spot to stop if ever I'm passing through Laurel and the sushi craving hits. -
Review from Diane Z.
Laurel, MD
8/23/2010
The people who work here don't even want to be there, so why would I? The worst thing about this place is the service. I come here every once in a while since I live like a minute away. However, you have to deal with the servers who think they are too good for you. I came in once to order carry out. The owner (I think) was sitting in the dining area when I came in. Well he offers me the menu and sits by the register as I'm looking over the menu. I guess I was taking too long because he went back to his seat in the dining room!! WTF? It wasn't even like he was helping another customer! So, who is going to take my order?
I have come here before for their buffet and it seems like all the sushi rolls were very similar. I like their Korean food though, but if I want Korean food and better service, I would go to any of the 3 Korean places in Beltsville. -
Review from B W.
Upper Marlboro, MD
1/22/2011
I have never tried the lunch buffet, but I certainly look forward to it.
Everything there, fresh, delicious, tasty. I've never had bad service or a bad experience. The amount of food served just blows my mind. We once went and there was so much food on the table all of it would not fit. Sure you pay for it, but the value it completely there.
If you like Japanese or Korean, this place is a must! -
Review from Amy B.
Laurel, MD
2/15/2009
I went here last year and I still have Post Traumatic Stress.
I made the mistake of ordering soup with fish in it. I love Asian cuisine and I especially love taste testing soups. I saw the waitress kind of hesitate when I ordered - like she was worried about the order - but she didn't say anything - so I went ahead with it.
The fish was not even de-boned. It was seriously a whole fish - no prep work - chopped into pieces. So - it was not easy to eat. Then...I swished around in my soup and got a big chunk. I said "That's not...Oooohhhhh Gaaawwwd...." and put my head on my hand. Yes. ladies and gentleman...my fish was staring back at me. I had found the fish head with eyes still in it's head.
My main course was not edible in my opinion - and scared me by staring back at me.
I remember that the rest of the meal was okay and the waitress was nice - I liked the presentation - so I may go back - but I'm still dealing with Post Traumatic right now. -
Review from Chang W.
Gaithersburg, MD
8/15/2006
Sushi eaten in bulk is never a good idea. Having said that, Asahi's all you can eat lunch buffet is terrible. Two things come to mind when I think of good sushi: freshness and presentation. Asahi's sushi "chefs" provide neither. Some of the rolls they make contain ingredients that I don't normally associate with this delicious Japanese cuisine---fried chicken, pizza topping things, and various other mystery items. You won't find fatty tuna here!
Note-I will give this restaurant some credit b/c I don't want to sound like a complete bastard. Their Korean food selection is actually quite good. I really liked the japchae (Korean noodles). -
Review from Hikari K.
Hyattsville, MD
11/22/2009
I would like to first state that this review is based on the lunch buffet, as I have not tried them for dinner.
I realized a few years back that the sushi that I was raised on was not authentic, real-deal Japanese sushi. A majority of the "Japanese" restaurants I have visited are run by Koreans- sometimes with pleasant results, sometimes not so much. It all winds down to the service, the price, and of course, the quality of the sushi that they have to offer. My cousin and I stopped here before a massive round of Christmas shopping, in hopes that we would fill up with good food and be satisfied enough for the rest of the shopping hell our day would be. The Verdict?
Asahi comes very close to taking the cake for the best Korean sushi lunch buffet, as it is comparable to Nikos, my current favorite, in Ellicott City- except its possible to get to Asahi by bus from where I now live. My tastes in sushi are not very complex- I'll try anything except those with cream cheese and that are cooked (excluding shrimp tempura). What made me love Nikos so much was that they had the basic rolls and small bite-sized nigiri, but also strange, experimental unnamed rolls that always varied and were to die for. Asahi is no different. I'd even say that Asahi's is even more strange in their experimentation, which is a big deal for someone like me, who always unspecifically craves "something weird".
One thing I wasn't too keen on was that on every roll that had the spicy red-orange sauce on it (a personal favorite of mine), there was also a wasabi sauce. Though it was tolerable, I'm not too fond of wasabi and felt that it threw off a bunch of really tasty rolls. Still, I had been craving spicy sushi for nearly a week before I stopped by, and it really took care of the craving.
There's plenty of non-sushi eats here for lunch as well. My cousin is picky in her choices of sushi, and yet she still had a good time between the few rolls that she tried, and the other food options the lunch buffet had to offer.
The service is excellent to boot. The waitresses are all nice and on top of refills and taking away plates that are not in use. They also were nice enough to make a pair of noob chopsticks for my cousin, as she could not figure out how to use them.
All in all, good prices, good service, pretty decent sushi- at least I liked it. We got there early, so it wasn't very full, and options on sushi were nearly endless. I'd recommend their lunch buffet any day. -
Review from Kafi L.
Laurel, MD
12/29/2010
I love this place. During the lunch buffet there is a great assortment of sushi and a side buffet with teriyaki chicken, sesame green beans, and other delicious fare. Go there enough, and the staff will give you an extra warm welcome.
But please, don't just go for the buffet. There are other delicious meals on the menu. And sometimes, if you are there late enough, they will give you free samples of the special of the day. I love this place. The service is good, the people are kind, and the food is fantastic. What more could you want? -
Review from Natasha S.
Washington, DC
7/22/2010
The food here is pretty good. I normally just order the Soon Du Bu and am usually pretty pleased. I probably would give this place 4 stars, but the last couple times I dined in, it was extremely slow and the servers just stood at our table and STARED as us eating. Additionally because my mother is deaf and uses sign language to communicate, they felt it was okay to have 2 servers stand at our table the entire time in complete silence. It was awkward, rude and extremely uncomfortable. We stopped coming here after that. The food is good, but not great enough to keep us coming back. We actually have started going to another Korean place in the area that is just as good if not better.
Another downfall is the Mandu that is claimed to be homemade is not. They use the frozen ones you can buy from the Korean store, and when they run out they use regular frozen Japanese gyozas. Disappointing. The sushi here is decent, but not the best. -
Review from Eric H.
Laurel, MD
6/11/2009
Good value for money and friendly staff make Asahi a decent place to have lunch. The mix of Korean food and Japanese sushi is priced appropriately.
There are good Korean entrees and appetizers available and the service is obsequious. The sushi is fair-to-middling, but it's fresh and there is always a large variety of maki and nigiri - often with one or two eel rolls. They LOVE tempura-style sushi here - the mackerel is particularly good - and they love to experiment, which adds some nice surprises.
Is it the best sushi on the planet? Nope, but neither are you paying Baltimore or DC prices. However, i always see many Korean and Japanese people eating here, as well as military personnel who first had sushi overseas - so Asahi must be doing something right.
Parking is only a problem if you fail to read the signs telling you about the large parking lot behind the shopping center - and if you can't stand walking a few steps.
All in all, a good place to satisfy the sushi craving, especially if you live in Laurel and time is short.
BTW, they have new owners and are now closed on Sundays. -
Review from Daniel K.
Bethesda, MD
10/29/2010
Yeah, I know, another sushi buffet, how different can they all be? Well, not that different, I guess but I love sushi. This place has a great variety of sushi and the pieces are very small, so you are not enticed to fill up on rice. I like the korean food options that they have along the sald bar area. The miso soup is tasty and the service is always good and attentive. I get a friendly vibe from this place unlike some other sushi buffet places that are looking to get you in, stuff you full of rice and shovel you out the door.
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Review from steve m.
Fairfield, PA
11/23/2011
Had lunch there today and it was fabuliscious! The sign says Japanese but the cuisine is all Korean and sushi. I was surprised how close to the food in Seoul Asahi was. The sushi was great and not just the cheap stuff. There was ample choices including salmon and tuna. My only gripe was the sushi was warm. I like my sushi cold. The staff was gracious and fast not like the other reviews. I will definitely go there again. THe tempura was very oily so stay away from that.
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Review from Su K.
7/23/2008 5 photos
Being a dad has its pros and cons. Teaching my daughter new lessons (see new profile pic), how any stresses from my workday melt away when I get home and see her smile, watching her grow and develop, and seeing such innocent joy are some of the pros. One of the cons that has developed is the fact that family dinners are now relegated to places near our home b/c our parents don't want us to drive too far in fear of throwing off their granddaughter's schedule. Though I appreciate their going out of their way for our convenience, this wouldn't be a bad thing if we lived in say, DC, where numerous dining choices abound, but in the city I affectionately call Limited Laurel, there aren't too many options. So it was inevitable that we'd eventually go to Asahi to celebrate a special occasion and in the end, it wasn't all bad.
Food - I feel I need to apologize on behalf of Koreans to the Japanese for masquerading as sushi chefs and passing on what we create as real sushi. On second though, you mugs occupied us for decades! Apology retracted! And what's w/ a lot of the Korean-owned places ending w/ aku? But I digress. To sum up their food, they shoot for quantity over quality and serve decent, overpriced Korean food and subpar Japanese dishes here. The sushi specials are $74.95, $99.95, $125, and $150 serving 3 to 6 respectively. We ordered the $125 boat (see pic), which was a good amount of fish, but it wasn't very good. The tuna had a very rubbery texture and the salmon wasn't buttery. The special rolls they made were decent but nothing out of this world. I ordered the donkatsu ($13), which was dry - unacceptable for a deep-fried food since I'm trading in my health for good taste. The Korean soups, however, were excellent. The monkfish soup ($12.95), kimchi jjigae ($10.95), and spicy galbi tang ($11.95) were large portions, savory and delicious. The spicy galbitang in particular, was very good b/c I never had it spicy before. The dolsot here is $12.95, which is $1-$2 more expensive than other Korean restaurants and it was just ok. The dinner boxes are good deals ($15.95) and come w/ a lot of food.
Service - So if the food is subpar, why 3 stars, you might ask? Being a special occasion, their service was fantastic! As w/ most Korean-owned sushi places, they'll give you a LOT of free food. At the start of our meal, they brought out a cooked salmon head, several salads (sugary, ginger dressing - I liked it!), and a fried rice concoction made w/ burnt rice (noo rung gee). They brought out a lot of banchans, though they were subpar and refilled them efficiently - like 1,1,2,3,5, I see a pattern developing here. We also had the endless-miso-bowl, likely b/c it's the holdovers from their lunch buffet. As the meal was ending, we were stuffed but the servers brought out a free tempura platter since we were celebrating my Father In-Law's birthday - I'm not so sure this would have happened if it were a younger person. In fact, I'm not so sure the service would've been good had we only been w/ young people either. Still, excellent service for a Korean restaurant.
Location - The parking lot here sucks! There aren't many spots and many of them are usually filled. If you come here for the lunch buffet, the parking lot will be packed and you'll likely have to wait for some fattie to leave the buffet before you get a spot.
For future family dinners, I'm gonna advocate for Shin Chon or Bangkok Kitchen. But if we had to come back to Asahi, it wouldn't be all that bad. After all, my daughter's smile almost makes me forget that I'm downing mass quantities of subpar food.
Note: The lunch buffet is decent here. Note Chang W.'s review below - they serve some of the strangest rolls ever. The Korean food is good, however, and it's a pretty good deal at $11. For buffet, I'd stick w/ Gah Rahm a few miles south on Rte. 1. -
Review from Wicky T.
Beltsville, MD
12/28/2010
I loved this buffet, value for money, I went in there around 2.30 though they close the buffet at 3. I still managed to eat well. They had about 20 -25 varieties of sushi and other Japanese dishes. Well worth ones money and time. The dishes were lovely,fresh. The waitresses were pleasant and polite. I spend $34 for 2 people. I would recommend this buffet as a good value for money given its a sushi buffet, will definitely go there again.
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Review from Tu-van L.
2/22/2006
A great place to go to fill up on cheap and tasty sushi (can't beat the $9.99 lunch buffet). They don't skimp on the salmon and tuna and there's interesting rolls every once in a while. I was expecting some shrimp tempura and eel rolls, but I probably missed it from getting there on the later side of lunch. Not far from UMaryland at College Park and a stone's throw away from the USDA research campus.
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Review from Lindsay A.
Honolulu, HI
1/30/2009
I go here for dinner every couple of months, and I never leave disappointed - which is a big deal for me! Sushi is pretty good - best in the area (not counting DC). Coming from College Park with 3 average to below average sushi places this is a goldmine! yummy yummy.
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Review from A C.
Mt Rainier, MD
8/27/2010
Terrible lunch buffet. Do they use pennies to size their sushi rolls, or dimes? If drizzling lots of greasy yellow-ish goop makes your food look better, stop serving the food, and step away from the goop.
Also, customers often get really loud and management won't do anything about it, even when asked. -
Review from Stephanie N.
Clearwater, FL
2/21/2006
OK place to go for sushi lunch buffet for $9.99. Place is relatively small, but the service seemed pretty good. I was disappointed though because they didnt' make ANY eel rolls or any real higher end sushi rolls :( Also, while I was there - it seemed like 40% of the sushi dishes were perpetually empty even though there were 3 sushi chefs working. The mini-buffet had some great tempura pieces and I LOVED their ginger dressing for the salad. It was SO good! Green tea was good too.
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Review from Michael P.
Laurel, MD
6/29/2008
I really wish we could give Half-Stars!
I would give this place 1 1/2 stars. This is a horrible Japanese steak house the food was very bland I had the sweet and sour pork, and my friend had the Bulgogi. This place is Korean run I think, It seemed that they were Korean. I also had the Sushi it was not bad, but not good also. I would give this place the 1/2 star for the food the 1 star for the service which was decent even though they brought out the red wine instead of the white that my friend asked for. The one thing I could say about the food here at least during dinner. Asahi definitely believes in quantity as there was enough food for 4 or 5 people on the 2 dishes we ordered. I must say I have had better Sweet and Sour pork at almost every single Chinese takeout place I have been. I mean there is a problem when you bite into the fried pork and you can't even tell what kind of meat you are eating by the taste of it. I ate all the pineapple instead and I am definitely a carnivore. -
Review from B B.
Silver Spring, MD
9/23/2010
Great locale gem. Love the sushi. Place could be little cleaner (bathrooms). Prices went up recently? Good selection. The buffet is the best. Went one time (alone) and couldn't be seated because he was only seating larger groups....I walked out.
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Review from Jamie H.
6/30/2008 1 Check-in Here
Hands down, the best sushi place on the east coast. I love everything. I usually get the biggest boat which is a sushi sashimi combo boat.
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Review from Missy Y.
Columbia, MD
10/14/2009
I stopped going to Asahi because the last time I went and got a tuna roll the tuna had a horrible smell to it and it tasted nasty. I had to spit it out of my mouth. The Miso soup tastes like they take water and put some powder in it. This is also one of those restaurants where you have to spend over a certain amount to pay by credit card.
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Review from S J.
Howard, MD
5/22/2010
Let me state up front that I've only been here for the lunch buffet and pretty much only go for sushi, so if you're looking at another meal or the rest of the menu, you may get a different experience. That said, I like sushi and work in Laurel right now, so if I want a fix this is the only shot within reason. It's not bad, but it's not great either. There are a large variety of rolls on the buffet, which is nice, but there's a lot of rice and very little fish in any of them, which is not. The service is very attentive and very good, the people are friendly and the price is fair for an all you can eat buffet....I just wish it was better. To be honest, if I was looking for a dinner sushi spot, I'd drive a little further to one of my favorites, but since it's the only shot around for lunch and I've got limited time, I'll continue to go when I just *have* to have a fix...
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Review from JoJo D.
Dumfries, VA
7/5/2009
This is a great little place in the middle of Laurel, so you're not paying DC or Baltimore prices. The staff is always so kind and they know us by name. The lunchtime sushi/Korean buffet is great - not huge pieces of nigiri but a good size for buffet, and the rolls, while not your traditional idea of rolls, are pretty good and creative. You can still order from the full menu during the lunch buffet if you want bigger nigiri or more traditional sushi pieces. Other than sushi, the menu is mostly Korean and I do go there for dinner quite often too. The bibim bap is great! Just one caveat, they do serve TRADITIONAL food there, so you have to be aware of what you're ordering. Some items on the menu list a whole fish, and you do get the whole thing. It would be unfair to give a restaurant a poor review because you didn't know what you ordered, like one of the other reviewers did. I've had just about everything on the menu and it's all great.
