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Hanamizuki Japanese Restaurant
Rating Details »
Categories: Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
8255 International DrSte 136
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 363-7200
- 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
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
17 reviews for Hanamizuki Japanese Restaurant
I'll admit now - Orlando is not my favorite city. Even though I find myself here every year or so, I never really enjoy my stay here for one reason: Orlando caters to the tourist which, unfortunately for a foodie like me, means most of the restaurants around are not gastronomically focused.
That said, Hanamisuki is my favorite restaurant in Orlando - hands down.
The ambiance is comfortingly authentic and traditional, and the food reflects the same - authentic Japanese food, fresh sashimi, and nice servers. The pace here is a little slow so, if you're looking for a quick lunch or dinner destination, this may not be your best bet, but if you're looking for good food and conversation, this is the place for you.
The sashimi here can compare to some of the restaurants I've been to in Los Angeles. The last time I went, the salmon was fatty and fresh and the scallops were melt in your mouth perfect. The cooked foods are good - I've had the udon and the beef with ponzu sauce - but the fish is what gets me every time. If you add the previously mentioned dinner combination, you'll have enough food to feed an army.
If I'm ever in Orlando again (and chances are, I will be), be sure - I'm going to Hanamisuki.
**SEE PICTURES POSTED**
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/6/2007 First to Review
Hanamisuki is a cute little Japanese restaurant in the same plaza as Charley's Steakhouse. It's very… Read more »
First of all, I'm only taking the time to post this review to warn fellow food connoisseurs about this place. With Oyaji (formerly my favorite local sushi restaurant) shut down and sushi master Moose Tenaka nowhere to be found, I am on a quest for a passable replacement.
Bayridge Sushi in Longwood has consistently satisfied my sushi cravings to some extent. But, tonight I decided to try Hanamizuki since I had a coupon. Unfortunately, this International Drive strip mall eatery serves sushi that is less edible than grocery store sushi. There was skin left on several pieces of sashimi. The spicy tuna roll consisted of finely minced fish that was barely recognizable (no big chunks here). And, the miso soup was bizzare--it had been made with a beef bouillon cube.
But what should I expect? This restaurant clearly survives on convention overflow, benefiting when all the big name restaurants on I-Drive are booked.
Oh, and btw, even though I had a coupon for $25 off my meal, I still would have rather spent my money elsewhere--even if it was just for some Publix sushi!
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Ok, so I hit a couple anime conventions a year to reconnect with friends from the far reaches of Florida. We're all pretty interested in Japanese food, and noticed this place right around the corner from our hotel. It's on International Drive, so don't expect the prices to be low, as it's a big tourist area (with 2 theme parks and a water park within 2 miles).
Upon walking in, we instantly felt out of place. Every single person in the restaurant was Asian. From the waiters, to the customers. There was ONE white man, with his Asian wife, and her Asian parents. This is ALWAYS a good sign. We quickly got over it, and took our table. The waiter informed us that they don't split checks, and that was fine, we all had cash anyway.
Their menu is extensive. Half of it is in Japanese. There's a large section for their wagyu beef, which unfortunately, was too rich for my blood. They did, however, offer a 5 ( I think?) course meal that you could attach to your entree. I leaped at the opportunity to try some new stuff.
Aside from the normal soup and salad, was chawanmushi. A custard with shiitake mushrooms. It was a bit bland, but interesting. Through the whole meal, I enjoyed every bit. Even if I didn't enjoy some of the dishes.
Overall, the service was normal, and the food was good. Not exactly the kind of place you expect to find in a tourist area in a shopping plaza. If you enjoy Japanese food, and you're on I-drive, eat here at least once.
I decided to try a new sushi bar on my last trip to Orlando, and Hanamizuki looked nice. It's a small restaurant and much more Japanese than I'm used to. Looking at the cooked food menu, I had no idea what most of it was. But I knew my way around the sushi and I went with that. The O-toro was disappointingly chewy, the spicy tuna roll was VERY spicy, and the yellowtail was excellent. Sadly, there was no Mirugai and I was really in the mood for it. If I wanted to experiment with some new cooked food, I'd be back here in a second and my wife and I have already talked about it. But for sushi, I'm moving on because this was only average.
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This place was a very pleasant surprise! After eating mediocre food on the Disney property, my boyfriend and I were craving some really good sushi. We weren't really expecting to find much, but we found this place on yelp and decided to give it a try. Needless to say we were not disappointed. We split a maki combination, which was excellent. The fish was very fresh and came out very quickly. My boyfriend ordered a steak (can't remember the name)...oh my god.. it was extremely tender and full of flavor. It was like and orgy in my mouth. I ordered the nabeyaki udon which was huge and very flavorful. The service was excellent, the wait staff was very attentive and our glasses never went dry. This independently owned restaurant is a gem in a town saturated with chain food mush.
Overall, my experiences at this restaurant has been quite pleasant. I come to Floria often for training and each time I come, I have to hit this restaurant at least once. I especially crave good Asian food after a week of eating hotel training food...and this restaurant definitely hits the spot.
I've tried everything from the udon (with chicken, mushrooms, tempura, fish cake) to the garlic steak with ponzu sauce. I've also opted many times for the dinner combination which comes with a side salad, miso soup, egg custard, Japanese pickles, a choice between tempura and sashimi, and a dessert choice. The sashimi was extra fresh - the salmon and scallops just melted in my mouth!
Overall - a great experience every time!
Authentic and high quality Japanese food. Attentive service. The sushi I had was very fresh.
The only negative was the place was so busy that my omakase sushi order took over 1.5 hours to come out. They warned me though so this is not a huge negative and not really their fault. I just ordered a bunch of dishes from the kitchen while waiting, to turn this negative to a positive. I got to try more food of their delicious food!
This place is pretty close to the Orlando convention center and I am glad the positive yelp reviews led me to it. I will definitely come back here next time I am in town.
Well I guess I am the only one who just does not like Hanamizuki! We had a group of four and all of us were in agreement - the food was just mediocre and the service flat out terrible.
The sashimi menu is extensive, however, the maki (roll) menu is very limited. The rolls were fresh but lacked flavor. When we walked in the restaurant it had a distinctly fishy smell which was an immediate turn off.
Our waiter flat out refused to split our checks and the service in general was extremely poor. We were not told that each refill would be an additional $2.00 (soda) until after we had been served. Our drinks were left empty constantly. We had to physically go and find our waiter in order to get our check.
Perhaps the kobe beef is the real draw? I typically will give a place a couple of strikes before writing them completely off, however, the lousy service put it over the top for me. I will not be back.
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Wow.
I ordered Mizuno some kind of seaweek appetizer, shitake mushrooms sauteed in butter, cold soba noodles, Hanamizuki maki rolls, and this fried tofu thing that came in a sweet, viscous honey liquid. So delicious.
I stuffed myself. My friends ordered katsu, rolls, sushi, udon... A feast. No one was disappointed.
I think I'm in love...
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This is definitely not your typical sushi bar\teppanyaki restaurant. It was like no other Japanese restaurant I'd been before. As soon as the menus came, I knew I was out of my league!
The place is tucked away in a strip mall, deep in the madness that is I-Drive. The interior is very light, modern, clean... very Japanese. We all ordered different things and opted to make it a 'full course meal' for $12 more. So that meant along with our entree we got miso soup, salad, a kobachi appetizer, sashimi or tempura appetizer, chawanmushi, pickles, rice and dessert.
Know what chawanmushi is? I didn't. It's a savory flan with mushrooms, soy beans and STINGRAY. Awesome.
I tried uni for the first time (sea urchin) and it was ... slimy, but you know.. different! I've been wanting to try it but was leery of the places around town. I knew this would be the place to try it, and I'm glad I did. Probably won't order it again, but I can cross it off my 'To Try' list.
I had soba noodles and tempura shrimp for dinner and it was awesome. Everyone really enjoyed their dishes. If you're looking for something completely different but still delicious, this is the place to come.
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Checked out Yelp for a good and reasonably priced Japanese restaurant and found it in Hanamizuki Restaurant. Along the famed International Drive in Orlando, tucked away behind a Charley's Steakhouse and in between a Falafel restaurant and an Asian restaurants sits a quite unassuming "delight". With a full menu of Japanese appetizers and entrees it is almost overwhelming to decide. Had the Sake Shio (salted Salmon) and for the extra $12, added a full course meal including a sampling of sashimi, salad, Japanese pickled vegetables, miso AND Chawanmushi (a tasty egg custard) plus desert.
Authentic Japanese taste. A great place for family and friends. Highly recommended.
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Yes, their food is authentic and very high quality. All of the waitresses give you green matcha tea and wear kimono. But, if you are looking for feel full then you have come to the wrong place. My husband and I came here for our anniversary and ordered an appetizer sampler, three onigiri, two entrees, and one eggplant appetizer. Over $150.00 later, we went straight from this restaurant to the pizza slice place across the street to feel full. The one thing that did stand out in my mind was the grilled onigiri ($3.95). At some places you can get onigiri with various fillings, but here they also grill it, which is amazing.
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This ranks among the other best Sushi restaurants I've ever eaten at, and the meal last week is probably the best sushi I've ever had, period.
Table service isn't magnificent, but the sushi chef and quality of fish are.
Unassuming, packed between a Chinese and Greek restaurant in a strip-mall.
We were taken here by Japanese clients a couple years ago and make a point of visiting here on every Orlando business trip.
Call ahead, as depending on the conventions/business that's in town, every Japanese national might already be there as was the case on our previous Orlando trip and we were unable to secure reservations at all the entire night when we called at 2pm that afternoon.
I have to agree with the reviewer, "Sara A," that the food was just mediocre and the service flat out terrible.
There are no free refills on soda and the waiter was terrible. I had to get up on more than one occasion to get his attention. In addition, our small party asked to split the checks and the waiter refused, which left everyone at the table speechless.
I spoke with a couple of Japanese customers on their way out and they seemed to like the place, but they also seemed to get better service, which was a real disappointment.
Overall, this was the worst experience that I've had at a Japanese restaurant. Luckily, there are some good establishments in my home town that actually provide good food, service and don't discriminate.
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Best Japanese fare outside of SoCal.
This sushi place is located in a quiet area on International Drive. I intially picked this location thinking that the area would be bustingly but to my suprise it was located in a small plaza that was pretty slow due to the closing of the grocery store next door. Anyways getting back to the food, the sashimi was very fresh and the service was attentative. We ordered a seaweed and calamari appetizer which was pretty small to share among the three of us. Oh, I was suprised they still provided the hot towels to clean your hands. This place was very authentic and the prices were very reasonabe compared to Chicago. However I must deduct 1 star for the lack of rolls and the location.
I have eaten sushi all over the country, hundreds of places. This was the best I have had. Always wanted to try Uni? This is the place. Kobe beef? You won't believe it. The SOY SUACE was so good I wanted to lick my fingers. Lots of things I haven't seen anywhere, all remarkable and delicious, The house sake is really fine. The night we went, about 45-60 people there, and almost all were japanese speakers. Can't rave enough. If we lived in the area we would eat here every week