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Hayashi Sushi & Grill
Rating Details »
- Hours:
Mon. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Tue-Thu. 11:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Fri. 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Sat. 12:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
- Parking:
- Street
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
17 reviews for Hayashi Sushi & Grill
Positives: The foxy lady roll was amazing. I want to eat nothing but these for the rest of my life. We also ordered the godzilla roll, the ex-girlfriend roll and the fried spinach. I was impressed with the food in general. I'll definitely be back for more foxy lady rolls. There was more than enough food for four people and everything was well priced.
Negatives: The drinks were undrinkable. The waitress said they were training a new bartender but wow. Horrible. Everyone had to send their drinks back and we were too scared to order any new ones. Also, the taste of the rolls were delicious but they were cut so haphazardly; some rolls were normal and some were gigantic and even the guys couldn't stuff them in their mouth (so you know they must be huge). Also, the crab salad in the foxy lady was so cold it was slightly frozen. I'm glad they keep their crab salad cold but it needs to be unfrozen completely before they put into their rolls; the crab being that cold hurt our teeth and changed the texture of the roll.
Albeit Cedar Park is growing, I have to admit I was a bit excited to see a sushi place open up in an area that is surrounded by brick and mortar stores.
Invited by an old childhood school friend for dinner, my first experience was not bad--good wine, nice atmosphere, and our waitress happened to have started work that day. Let's just say it was good enough to try it again...and with a $15 coupon why not. This was a month ago.
Unfortunately my coupon had expired by the time I made it back, and believe me I wish I would have just opted elsewhere. The positives of my second visit was a) a conversation with the manager at the bar while waiting for my friend and b) well, the company of my friend. While waiting I had the Blushing Geisha which was a concoction of Pomegranate liqueur and champagne--not bad and the glass was tall and fancy. Fun! I specifically asked if it was an option to transfer my drink to my table bill, but was told they were separate--no problem.
It was about 8pm at this point, and there was a pretty good crowd on the dining side, including a very loud table of 8 next to us which drowned out our ability to even have a conversation. We made the best of it. Our waitress, who happened to be the same girl from last time, unfortunately still provided service as if it was her first day on the job. Kinda painful, but we were forgiving at best.
For apps, we ordered edamame and the beef negimaki which were amazing. So far so good.
For dinner I ordered the spicy tuna roll and the go go roll which were mediocre. The crab tasted imitation and I've had much more fresh tuna in other reasonably priced places for less money--Midori and Imperia being two of them. My friend went with the sushi dinner (seven pieces of sushi and one spicy roll) -- honestly I can't remember exactly what came with this (and either could our waitress) but I had one piece of tuna and it was more fresh than what was in my roll.
During dinner the band started setting up, and eventually played. Before then trendy techno music played from an itunes list on the computer that was sitting openly on the stage for all to see. It would be nice to be a little more discreet. Fast forward to the band which started to play --LOUD. It was impossible to have a conversation. In fact it was pretty frustrating which helped make our decision to wrap up and get outta there.
All in all, I don't think I will be going back to Hayashi anytime soon, and don't really recommend it unless you are not an avid sushi lover and are okay with mediocre or less.
Word of note: I was charged twice for my Blushing Geisha at $9 a piece, and we never received our $15 gift card which is a standard offering for every patron who eats there. It usually expires two weeks from the date. Probably a good thing then being it would have expired anyway if I had one.
First of all, I just want to say that I didn't know we could give a 5 star review to a restaurant based on how hot the waitress or the bartender looks as if you were rating a titty bar.
My first visit to Hayashi was last Mother's Day and I was not impressed. I really had no plans on coming back from that experience, but I would've rated them 3 stars at that time anyway. I would have given one star for my husband's Chef's Choice Special, none for my Shrimp Tempura and none for my son's Teriyaki. Oh, but I would've given them one for the Mother's Day yellow rose and the good service we received, thanks.
Well, if I only go there just for drinks and to socialize I probably would recommend this place, but I went to Hayashi mainly for the food. Anyway, I went back to give Hayashi another chance, but I don't know why.
My husband's sushi was good and the fish was fresh. I could taste some salt from sushi though (rice). And why, I don't know why, but I ordered the Shrimp Tempura again. Well, at least the batter for the tempura was not as bad as last time, but the tempura sauce still tastes just like sugar and water. One more thing, why oh why do they serve rice on a plate instead of a bowl? To me it's like eating spaghetti using chopsticks, or eating BBQ ribs, fried chicken or a turkey leg using utensils. You know what I mean?
No, I'm not going to give Hayashi another chance. Sorry.
I'll start with the positives. There are some good prices on select rolls and drinks during happy hour. You can order the rolls as a hand roll (temaki), which I really like. All of the hand rolls that I tried tasted great and the GoGo roll was pretty tasty.
Now the negatives....if you like nigiri or sashimi, I wouldn't recommend going here. The rice was prepared poorly and fell apart with every piece of nigiri. The fish was not bad, but it can be better and is in a lot of places. Food takes a long time here. The waitress herself was not bad, but the sushi took an unbelievable amount of time to get to the table.
To sum up, the rolls were good, especially the hand rolls, but the food should never take so long and the rice needs a lot of work.
Went here on a saturday night for a late dinner. We got to the restaurant a little before 10pm.
The first thing you notice is that the decor is really odd. It's like they're trying for a hybrid restaurant/bar/club/opium den vibe. The restaurant was almost completely dark, minus the light from the projection TV and pseudo-club neon lighting. There was a large speaker plunked down smack dab in the middle of the room and they were cranking club music at VERY high volume, to the point where I could barely hold a conversation with the people at my table.
Between the three of us we ordered a couple of sushi rolls, the Kobe fried rice, and the Chilean Sea Bass.
Sushi (spicy tuna and some sort of salmon roll) were pretty standard. After 10pm they have half off specials so they were actually a pretty good deal in the end. But nothing to write home about.
Chilean sea bass was two pieces of sea bass, seared and served on a bed of sauteed spinach with a bowl of rice. It was supposedly sauced with some kind of mango something or other, but I could barely taste it. Fish itself was cooked decently, although bear in mind it's pretty hard to screw up cooking Chilean Sea Bass. Spinach was unmemorable.
Third person at our table had the Kobe fried rice. It contained what appeared to be tiny bits of beef (like almost a ground beef texture), and various veggies like broccoli, bell pepper, and I think I saw some zucchini in there too. The rice was overpowered by the taste of beef fat and was pretty heavy. And they also broke the cardinal rule of cooking fried rice. You should use day-old rice because it is slightly dried out and thus is more appropriate for frying. You could tell the rice they used here was freshly cooked and thus the texture of the dish was mushy. Not appetizing at all. I guess the only saving grace was that it was a pretty large portion...if you think large portions of below average food are a good thing.
My main gripe with this place is that it seems to have an identity crisis. What are you trying to be? Night club? Bar? High end restaurant? It was just a really odd experience. And the food wasn't even that good! Especially for the prices. I can see coming here during a happy hour for some drinks and cheap sushi, but that's about it. I don't think the vibe they're going for here really fits in with the Cedar Park feel. A place like this might be more appropriate (and successful) somewhere closer to campus or downtown.
Oh, last gripe before I forget. The kitchen's timing is terrible. They brought my friend's sushi out first. Then about 15 minutes later the fried rice. Then about 10 minutes after that the sea bass. So there was a lot of sitting around the table staring at food before everyone could eat.
I'll start by saying I enjoy good food. I shop the extensive collection of Central Market for meat and seafood, I used to dine regularly at Uchi, and I've sampled most of Austin's better known sushi locales (Mikado, Uchi, Musashino, Korea House, to name a few).
If you go here, I urge you to sit at the sushi bar and try the Omakase. Omakase basically means 'it's up to you [the chef]'.I even urge a bit farther to try 2 or 3 courses of it. The owner is a chef himself, and picks out the best fish I have had in a long time. He enjoys talking and making good food for people who enjoy it. He was quick to make a rapport with me, and together we have come up with some fine dishes, and no two dinners will ever be the same. He was also quick to ensure that there was nothing I was allergic to, or really didn't like.
As with most sushi places of any notoriety, this is most likely not a place everyone can go once a week, cost-wise, but the payoff in flavor is in spades. The owner makes the soy sauce himself, and takes great pride in providing wonderful flavor and texture combinations. The uni there is out of this world, a very sweet variety that is counter to all other flavors I've had in the past, and even the regular sushi/sashimi combo plate is sizable and comes in good cuts.
There are only a few negatives: It's fairly centric in Cedar Park. This is great if you're in Cedar Park, but makes this almost a half hour voyage from even North Austin. In my mind, this trip is worth it. Often, it takes some time to settle up an omakase check as the chef and waiter have to confer. If you plan on going omakase, don't do it with a fixed schedule in mind. I spent 3 and a half hours there once, eating some wonderful things, talking with the owner.
If you get a chance, I'd even suggest going on the off hours. Late in the afternoon / early in evening (4-6pm) on weekdays is a great time to meet the owner, talk with the chefs, and enjoy an almost private sushi dinner.
Summation: great place to go if you want to treat yourself to something new, or enjoy just plain great sushi with a chef who likes food as much as the person tasting it.
We went for the happy hour, which has some really good values. The ambiance is more like a dance club than a restaurant, but the music was pretty chill for the most part, and we didn't mind that, just thought I'd mention it.
I'm a sake fan, and was very excited about their $1 sake happy hour. Alas, the sake was REALLY REALLY bad. Like, hard to finish bad (and I never leave a drink intact - that's alcohol abuse). I've had cheap sake before and I've never had anything that nasty, I have no idea what the deal was.
My wife had the $2.50 wine, and again it was a similar experience to mine.
The food offerings from the happy hour menu were reasonably priced - an array of $5 sushi rolls (the normal menu is WAY overpriced, in my opinion). Unfortunately, none of the items we sampled were even a little bit good. Every 'sushi roll' was pumped full of chili to the point of ruining the flavor of every bite, and we left the table entirely dissatisfied with our entire meal.
(snob) As someone who actually likes Japanese food, I am becoming increasingly frustrated with these places that are serving Tex-Mex instead of Japanese. (/snob)
Needless to say, we will not be going back to Hayashi. It's a nice looking place and the service was good, hence my two stars given, but that's where it ends in my opinion.
Hayashi is a great place to pop in for a quick bite of sushi or sashimi. I recently stopped in for lunch and had a sashimi platter at the bar. It was chef's choice and was perfect. The fish was very fresh and the combination was excellent and the value was incredible.
I have been back in during the evening hours. Friday nights, there is a dj spinning records and there is a happy hour with discounted sushi. Excellent value and great food! Tons of fun to hang out!
I saw the other post about it being a trendy restaurant in the burbs. If you want a stale and boring place to go, you should go to a chain restaurant and have their bland meals. It is refreshing to have something new that breaks the norm for the suburbs!
If you live in Cedar Park and are looking for a change of pace from all the other standard, chain restaurants then this would be a great place to try. The sushi is solid with really fresh fish and everything from basic offerings to more exotic maki rolls. The happy hour deals are unbelievable and later in the evening the atmosphere gets much more loungey. The cocktails are really great as well. If you are looking for a fun night out in Cedar Park without the drive to Austin stop in at Hayashi.
ALL DAY Happy Hour on Sundays and Mondays! Nice surprise post movie going. Nuff said.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/21/2009
Hubby and I went here right after they opened last year, and luckily for them I was not yelping… Read more »
It's next to Cedar Park theater. Before we went to watch "Love Guru", we decided to have dinner at Hayashi. It was under construction for a long time, finally it opens.
The menu is a little bit simple. It doesn't look that creative.
But I saw all other tables' dishes. They all have good presentations.
I ordered crabmeat salad and lamb chops. Both are very tasty. Especially lamb chops, very tender.
What do you get when you put a virgin, an ex-girlfriend, and an ex-boyfriend in one place? A pretty yummy meal, that's what. The Ex-Girlfriend roll (spicy crab, smoked salmon, shrimp tempura, avocado, and cucumber) was my favorite. I didn't touch the Ex-Boyfriend (that's funny for so many reasons...) because of the mayo or mayo-type sauce {insert joke here} and the virgin, well, tasted light and airy ( baked Chilean sea bass, mango, and avocado, wrapped in pink soybean paper {insert joke here}. The reviews for Hayashi are all over the place, and that pretty much sums up my three visits here so far. The first time I went for happy hour, I had a pretty good time. They had a really super awesome attentive bartender (Mark) who hails from San Diego and still has a grown up version of that surfer dude laid-back attitude. He really enjoyed chatting us up and was super attentive. The second time, Ms. Cranky Pants was our bartender, and the third time, Ms. Alex was in charge of our cocktails. She was very attentive and seemed genuinely happy to be there. I have yet to eat more than sushi here, or in the restaurant section of Hiyashi, so I can't speak to the table service or entrees. It's my best choice for sushi in this area so I'll be back.
After recently taking a job in Cedar Park, I decided it would be a good idea to explore the area for lunchtime options. This restaurant, tucked away in a new shopping center on 1431, looked promising.
Upon entering and eyeing the simple yet tasteful decor, I thought "oh crap, I wasn't planning on spending this much for lunch. Maybe I can convince my co-worker to go elsewhere". Too late. The host spotted us and quickly sat us down.The place was nearly empty at noon on a Wednesday, which isn't usually a good sign for sushi restaurants.
Right away I noticed my seat had something sticky on it when I scooted into the table, which also had unwiped residue on it. Hmm. No sushi for me today.
The lunch menu offers reasonably priced ($7 -11) entrees from the grill. I ordered the Mango Chicken, which comes with Miso soup and steamed white rice. (brown or fried rice costs extra) The Miso soup was bland and not worth more than one spponful. The chicken was sweet and tasty. It saved this trip from being a bust.
My co-worker had the shrimp fried rice, although I think they had another name for it. She said she enjoyed the meal, but it didn't look that good to me. Definitely overpriced, ($9) considering it was mostly rice.
The service wasn't bad, but seeing as we were one of 2 tables our waiter had, he could've been more attentive. Things we asked for took a little longer to recieve than they should have.
I didn't sample the sushi, but I'm not sure I would. How about you eat it first and tell me how it is.
It's in a nice area. Both the Cedar Park and Georgetown locations are in nice shopping centers. Although parking at the Cedar Park location can be pretty crummy.
The rolls seem to shrink in size every time we go there and it's definately overpriced. I've been for lunch and dinner at both locations, and it's more expensive than many sushi places in Central Austin, which have better quality and bigger rolls.
If you are craving sushi and in the area, it's an ok place to go. I wouldn't go out of my way for it.
New sushi place in Cedar Park, right by the Cedar Park movie theaters. I was pleasantly surprised with the experience. There are so many sushi places around you can't swing a dead cat without hitting one, but this place had some tasty alternatives to just sushi. For all animal right activists.. It is a figure of speech.. I have 2 cats, I love cats... So, back to the review.. We had a pork chop and a crab salad and both were very good. The service is ok as they are brand new and still working out the kinks.
Just got back from Hayashi, and boy was it good! Sherri had the Macadamia Avacado salad and loved it. It must have had 3 whole avacado's on it. I had some outstanding Sushi (I let the Sushi Chef choose). They have a huge selection of Sake and a great looking tea room. The atmosphere is trendy and the food is great!
clean, modern, and hip atmosphere. the food was good...a bit overpriced but i realize that is the trend in the austin area as far as the sushi goes. i think this place is truly in the wrong location...demographics in cedar park doesn't exactly consist of young single professionals, which this restaurant would totally attract. its totally hidden behind a huge target and we didnt even notice it was there until we happened to go watch a movie at the cinemark. if placed in a decent location, i believe it will get much more credit than it has been receiving.
