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My only complaint is the price, which isn't so bad if you go at the right time. They have a great happy hour, but I think it's over at the end of August. From 5-6 p.m., you can get ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT SUSHI for $19.95! I probably ate about $50-60 bucks' worth of sushi on my OWN, if we were going by menu prices.
Otherwise, you can order the pricey sushi on the menu and pay about $10 on average per roll (some more, some less). They have the typical sushi bar beer selections and the hot or cold sake that seems standard, also. If you want to saddle-up at the bar and go for the gold, drop $26.95 and get the ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT anytime you want.
I've been here a few times. The first time, I was impressed with the quality of the fish, but not-so-much with how loose the rolls were. I felt that I roll tighter sushi at home. The second time, I had absolutely no issues. Every time I've been, they're been out of Anago and I have to stick to the regular Unagi. Bummer.
Apparently the owner is pretty awesome. He was present the last time I went, rocking the #1 Dad hat. My boyfriend's been going here for years and told me about the owner coming back from Hawai'i a few years ago. They were all eating at the bar and the owner had picked up some random rare fish that couldn't be sold legally in the States, so the owner whipped up an awesome dish and gave it to everyone at the bar for free! Pretty epic and pretty personal - great for locals.
Whenever we travel we run the risk of having a horrible experience eating Asian food, and that happened with us at Hiro Sushi. I read the reviews and felt I'd give the place a try, after all it was really crowded with pictures or portraits of movie stars signed on the wall. It must be good right? Mistake.
We ordered some sushi rolls and my son ordered a beef Terryaki bowl from the kid's menu. Let's talk about his meal: a small bowl of a few pieces of beef on rice. The cost was $12 for about five bites of food.
The most disturbing thing I noticed about our sushi, besides the inflated prices was the rice!!!! YES, THE RICE!!!! The rice was not sticky at all. If you know anything about Japanese anything, you know they spend a lot of time and effort making their rice sticky, using a bit of vinegar or sesame oil and cooking it just right, in fact, good sushi must have good rice. This place has no idea about how to make rice. The display and taste was terrible. The price was outrageous. If fact, no one that we saw working there was Japanese.
Do not go to this place. The locals must be used to this level of Japanese food because they looked like they were having a great time. I'm sounding like a snob, but please, go down the mountain and learn that true Japanese food is an art form and making good rice, correct rice, is how you begin.
Only do the all you can eat, ordering a la carte is not worth it!
Let me start of by saying, the quality of the fish was excellent. However the service was horrible, mainly because they were understaffed.
The food presentation was horrible as well, the chef claims to be a Japanese trained expert and blowfish expert... well the sushi rice was not packed tightly in the rolls. Major no no for sushi.
Be prepared to wait 45 minutes to sit, 30 minutes for your food, and 15 min for the check.
I live in Truckee but frequent Hiro's once a week. The fish is always fresh, staff always courteous, and you leave full! Go with the all-you-can-eat, it's worth it. One of my favorite rolls is the Chef #2, fried halibut inside with a shrimp mousse topper. There is usually a wait on the weekends for all-you-can-eat, but that's okay, they have a full bar up front with apps if you chose to whet your appetite. Hiroshi Hayakawa is a great guy too if you get to meet him, he loves chatting with his guests.
MORE WASABI!!!
Apparently some of these people really need to get out more. We ordered a couple of rolls and it was pretty tasteless. The next day both my friend and i both had some "intestinal" issues. I have had better sushi pretty much everywhere else then this place.
Fish is the focus of this place and they make that very clear at the front door where they have a prominently displayed bumper sticker stating, "Promote Fish, Run Over a Chicken."
And as long as they stuck to the fish, they were SPOT ON! I had the Langostno ( which has lobster in it) and the Spicy Octopus rolls and they were DELICIOUS! These two rolls were enough to fill me up and I didn't have to shell out for the sushi dinner. Sorry Hiro but, in these tough economic times I don't have nearly $22 for a sushi plate no matter how great it looked. I was happy with my choice though.
Not heeding the chicken signal on the front door, my husband ordered the chicken teriyaki. Our 7-year-old daughter followed suit choosing the children's menu version of the same meal. After asking, hubby was assured Hiro's only uses white meat chicken. It was quickly obvious that this wasn't the case though because our little girl pulled what looked like a thigh bone out of her dish! When we brought this to the server's attention she didn't react at all. In fact she told us, "Once they pour that brown sauce (meaning the teriyaki sauce) over it, it's difficult to tell whether it's white meat chicken or not." We burst out laughing. Are you kidding?
The service at Hiro's is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, it was busy and there were only two servers but, the restaurant isn't very big. Be prepared to speak up because your ability to get nourishment or even a table will depend on it. When we arrived, we stood in view of an open table for four. The servers whizzed by us, one even stopped near us to shuffle menus and table orders but neither of them greeted us or suggested we take the table until we asked if we could. This turned out to be indicative of what we were in for. Our server never checked in on us, we had to flag her down if we wanted anything.
Yet I would still return to this place --- the sushi is THAT good. In fact, the four stars in my review are for the sushi and nothing else here.
Only good for happy hour. All you can eat can be up to an hour wait! Do not get items off the menu. Hiroba Sushi in Reno has a deal for all you can eat that blows Hiro out of the water! The menu at Hiroba in Reno includes all appetizers and deserts Hiro does not and is $5 more! Besides being overpriced I always like the quality of the fish. Overall its OK, but for Tahoe probably one of the better places.
Not too shabby. It was actually way better than I expected for Tahoe sushi. Nothing was spectacular, but nothing was awful either. The friendly staff and warm atmosphere pushed the review to four stars. I really like it when an owner pitches in with the grunt work (serve beers, clean tables, greet guests, etc.), it just makes the service feel more honest. Prices were average for sushi. If I were in the area, I'd stop by this place.
Bonus: There's a mini wall of fame above the fireplace. It features celebrities who have visited, including Tony Shalhoub, some dude from the Twilight movie, and superstar actor The Rock!
one of the smallest restaurants in north tahoe, but TOTALLY WORTH IT. here, you can become an A.Y.C.E.! the ALL YOU CAN EAT sushi deal for $26 can't be beat. here's how it works....
for one full hour, 60 minutes, or 2,400 seconds (you pick the unit), you are seated at a sushi bar with 3 sushi chefs at your disposal. At the busiest (which they always are during dinner), the patron to chef ratio is 6:1.
you're allowed to order all the fancy rolls and nigiri your hearts desire. sashimi is not included in the AYCE buffet. There is a limit on the total number of hamachi pieces you can order.
make sure to differentiate ORDER vs # of pieces. they are NOT the same. you're allowed to take two orders of hamachi...that's 4 pieces total. some think they're done with their allowance of hamachi after two pieces...but that's just ONE ORDER. don't fool yourself!
go early before the dinner rush. slopes close at 4:00pm.......so go home to change and go directly to hiro's to beat the crowd that hangs out at the base of the mountain for a few drinks.
+try the oyster nigiri
+try the salmon skin nigiri
+try the hiro's special rolls #1 & #2
best food (quality and deal) i've had in tahoe...north, south, east, or west
So, I wasn't expecting much when my friends suggested we grab some sushi for dinner during our weekend in Tahoe. I mean, come on, we were a considerable distance from any big city and up in the mountains. There was no way the fish would be top quality or anything, but I figured I'd roll with it. Though the all-you-can-eat sushi sounded belt-bustingly appetizing, one of my friends wasn't hungry enough to do it that night.
So, we arrived at Hiro Sushi around 8pm on a Saturday night. As expected, there was a wait for the sushi bar (where you get the AYCE), but there were 2 tables open. One of the waitresses asked us if we had called in (we hadn't). Were they expecting someone with a reservation? I guess not, because she then proceeded to pull the 2 tables together for us to sit at.
I ordered hot tea to drink, but they were out of teacups (seriously?) so settled for flavored iced tea instead. We also ordered some edamame and miso soup to start with. The waitress wasn't sure if they had bowls for the miso (once again, seriously?), but soon came out with miso in some (I assume) freshly-cleaned bowls. The edamame was a bit over-salted, and the miso was scalding hot but tasted fine once it cooled down.
For the main course, I ordered the special #6 roll (I forgot what it was called), a shrimp tempura roll, and some yellowtail nagiri. The special roll was awesome... it came with some mayo-based special sauce on it that tasted great, and the order had 10 pieces (plenty to share). The tempura roll was mediocre at best (tasted a bit soggy and stale), while the yellowtail nagiri was acceptable.
The place had a warm, inviting feel to it, and I liked the "Kill Bill" art on the wall. However, I think this was the first sushi place I had ever been to with non-Japanese sushi chefs. Kind of a weird thing to see. The service was fine... nothing special or noteworthy. The bill came out to about $27 per person, so slightly cheaper than the total bill for the AYCE would have been.
If I'm craving sushi in Tahoe again, I'd go back. It's decent enough to repeat a trip to Hiro Sushi.
Been coming here forever. Hard to believe a good sushi place exists in Tahoe.
Can't beat the all you can eat and happy hour deal. Since they've expanded they're able to get more people in, but get there early! If you're not there right when they open, you will probably be waiting for a really long time to sit at the sushi bar. Good thing they added the bar in the front!
Sushi bar is the way to go. You don't have to do the all you can deal, but why not? The entrees are eh, so-so. If you eat here, come for the sushi, you won't be disappointed.
During the winter seasons, I typically stick to resorts on the North Shore so I can end the day with dinner here =)
Hallelujah! I have finally been to Hiro Sushi! My cousins and other family members have been going here for YEARS - I have been hearing about the great All-You-Can-Eat sushi dinners here for YEARS! I have wanted to come here for YEARS! What hype eh? But I wasn't disappointed. Certainly not in value. And since I was always a little skeptical of "great" sushi in Tahoe and therefore had reasonably low expectations - I wasn't disappointed. No it's not the best sushi I've ever had. The fish isn't the freshest but it's pretty darn good (I'm a little bit of a sushi snob too.) The rolls are very creative and incredibly tasty. But it's the All-You-Can-Eat deal that's really got the pull. Combine that with honestly - a fun atmosphere and I'm so coming back here!
Perhaps I'll ruin it for everyone here but it seems 3-day weekends are the time to come. We went on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend - granted we showed up at 5pm, but our party of 4 immediately got a spot at the bar. By the time we left at 6pm, most of the bar was full (except for our now-vacant 4 spots!)
I'll admit I was a little unsure what to think when I didn't see a single Asian person working behind the sushi bar - but my cousin mentioned that 2 of the 3 guys have been there forever. And after a few of the first rolls came out - I wasn't complaining. The salmon was great, the yellowtail also. The maguro (tuna) I wasn't as impressed with. The rolls were the best! I can't for the life of me remember the name of my favorite roll - it was snapper with serranos and then tempura-ed. GET IT. It was YUMMYYUMMY! And I don't like snapper OR spicy peppers!
For the best/freshest sushi ever - don't look to Lake Tahoe. For good sushi and creative fun rolls for a spectacular value in a fun, friendly place - go to Hiro's. Just not on a night that I want to go...
Hailed by a local realtor as "arguably the finest sushi on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe" -- umm, okay. I'll argue. Aren't there, like, four sushi restaurants on the entire North Shore? Definitely in the top two or three.
Chef Hiro Hayakawa is where it's at -- kidding around with guests, greeting locals who stop by for a drink or just to say hello, bossing about two junior chefs, telling the waiters how to run the register. And he's the real thing, clearly a very capable, experienced sushi chef. He doesn't like oysters out of season so there are no oysters out of season. Same with ankimo (monkfish liver) -- he does not aprove of the preprepared version most sushi restaurants serve so he makes it himself, and it's a seasonal food. He does not like natto (sticky fermented soybeans) so his restaurant serves no natto.
What Hiro-san does serve is sushi, lots of sushi, copious quanitties of sushi. All the standard nigiri and rolls, including the newer American variants (e.g. rainbow roll, philadelphia roll, etc). I've never seen so much sushi coming out of a sushi bar that size.
Much of the hubbub is the all-you-can-eat sushi special. At $26.95 it sounds like a lot, but this sushi is all made to order and not buffet style. And they don't hold back. You can get expensive items like tobiko (salmon eggs), ama-ebi (sweet shrimp with the heads deep fried) or spider (soft shell crab) roll so if you come with a hearty appetite and stuff yourself silly as I did, you can have about $70 worth of food for the price. There are a few rules to avoid abuse, like one item at a time and you have to eat the rice and not just pick out the fish, but if you're cool they let it slide.
Unfortunately, for all the value and effort, the problem is just what you would think. Lake Tahoe is a little out of the way in terms of sashimi-grade seafood, so much of the fish isn't top quality or super-fresh. Nothing wrong with it, just isn't special for one who loves sushi.
Decor is pleasant and festive. Music selection is somewhat loud American oldies. Like verywhere in town, the view of the lake and mountains is great.
Been coming here since it was just the small sushi bar in the front area (which is now the bar), almost 15 years. Its great to find good sushi in such an unexpected area (not a prime location).
All you can eat sushi starts at 5 and ends at 9 so get there early or expect to wait 1-2 hours. I almost never see Hiro behind the bar anymore, but Carlos can will take care of you just fine (be sure to tip him a Corona while you enjoy his sushi).
Four stars for the sushi, but rates 5 for location, because this is the best you'll get in tahoe.
The last time we went, we waited so long for the sushi bar (almost 9 o'clock) they kindly extended the AYCE sushi hour for us!
I'd guess anyone else who experienced less than friendly service probably deserved it. There are sooooo many rude, entitled, self described VIP's out and about in Lake Tahoe.
Hiro Sushi is my new favorite Tahoe restaurant. You have to wait a long time to get in, but it's worth it.
The all you can eat in one hour sushi special is great. The chefs really keep the food coming, and while there are some things not on the all you can eat menu (like Caterpillar Rolls), there are some fantastic things. My favorite was the Hawaiian Roll - tuna and mango with macadamia nuts, briefly deep fried. Soooo good.
Bring your appetite, and you can really get your money's worth.
My family, and, I were on vacation during the 4th of July week in North Lake Tahoe. It was our last evening, and, decided on trying Hiro's Sushi. I wasn't interested in the Sushi knowing the fish wouldn't be fresh. So, I ordered their Teriyaki Steak, and, Tempura combination. To my surprise, when the waitress brought the dinner, my eyeballs almost jumped out of the socket!!!! They were selling Korean short ribs with teriyaki sauce on it!! What an insult!!! Charging $27.95 for this crap!! The tempura was also served without any tempura sauce. When I asked the waitress she looked startled as to what I was talking about. She brought back this so called tempura sauce COLD!!! and in a little bowl so I couldn't even dip the tempura into the sauce. Disgusted, I used the soy sauce. The rest of my family felt the same way!! I hope Hiro reads the reviews, and, does something to make drastic improvements. The only ones brainwashed are the locals!!! In conclusion, stay away from here there are so many other nice restaurants in the area but Japanese is definitely not there forte!
Nothing to write home about but totally decent and really friendly staff.
The food is pretty darn good. The experience is inversely proportional to the quality of the food.
The sushi bar is small so AYCE is limited to 1 hour at the bar.
My wife and I ate here a while ago and we will never return due to the following occurrence;
We waited patiently for openings at the sushi bar for AYCE sushi. There was one man who was very drunk taking up two seats in the back right corner. He knew the owner and chef's and was conversing with them, laughing, having a good time. Fine by me despite the massive amount of people waiting for the 12 or so spots. After 45 Min's (this guy had been there for the whole time) we were seated and began to order our rolls. 25 minutes later our drink waiter came by and dropped off our check and said thanks as he started clearing our plates. we protested saying that we weren't finished and he responded by informing us that our time was up at the bar. He stated we had been there for an hour. We started to protest but with all the people waiting in close quarters, it would be very embarrassing to make a scene. We paid our check, no tip, and left. We figure as we're local and frequented the place, the best we can do is just not support them anymore. It's a little more expensive but I will go somewhere else anytime over Hiro.
By the way, the drunk guy was still taking up his two seats as we exited. Ridiculous.
Its definitely my favorite sushi place in Tahoe.
The happy hour is a good time to go for 1/2 off specials on some items. Its definitely a younger crowd and you get a lot of the types trying to be as "uber-hip" as possible, but when you have good sushi in your chopsticks, its all good.
Four stars for Tahoe, three for San Francisco...
This is the best sushi on the North Shore, I have tried them all, but would be average in San Francisco. I would never go on a weekend, just too many people, but then again I try to avoid eating out on weekends in Tahoe.
One Tuesday, night I sat a table with 3 former olympic skiiers, Mosely was at another table and Jake Burton was doing some sort of shot with a rowdy group of snowboarders. Besides Mosely's date, there was not a single girl in the place. Women, you want to meet a guy, hang out in a ski town for a while.
Hiro is ok for Tahoe. Its near where I stay, and the sushi is tasty and fun. All you can eat and happy hour is the best deal. They have one of the worst waitress's I have ever encountered.. A sour bitch basically. I do not use that word lightly. I will eat there again, if she serves me, I am never tipping her again. Sad really to have such bone heads working for you.
i've had some pretty good sushi in my day, so while this isn't the best sushi i've ever had, it was a great way to end a long day of skiing. it's a small place, kinda loud - i was there w/ my slightly deaf father so luckily we got the one table that was in the bar area in front. once the hostess figured out we were waiting for a table rather than just staring at her lovingly (hello??? bueller??), the service got better, and we were seated and eating/drinking hot sake in no time.
i highly recommend the deep fried halibut roll and the square haku roll w/ seared snapper on top - recommend that they put a sliver of lemon on top tho. a negative - the rice wasn't sticky enough and was falling apart, and the rolls are pretty expensive and only give you about 5 thin pieces (get much more for your money in SF), but we were starving, and come on, it IS tahoe, so my expectations were a little lower. our waitress was great, really nice, was very apologetic for the service (my sister finally got her soy wrapped vege roll while we were finishing up our last piece, and my nephew still hadn't gotten his yakitori yet either!).
they also have an all-you-can-eat deal for $25 - we got there too late to take advantage of that (think it's from 5:30-7).
We ate here because Yoshimi's was closed for the week. I think the menu must have changed since the other reviews. It was so pricey and ridiculous. I am used to San Francisco Bay Area prices for fantastic sushi. This was not memorable food. The service was challenging because there was one waitress for the whole restaurant and bar. Everyone who was at the bar looked happy, but the people who were at tables (us) were waiting and waiting. The sushi chefs would say, Table and the one waitress would finish what she was doing (pouring drinks, serving soup, taking orders, cleaning up) and then get the order. The menu was also on the high end. Children's dinner was some shriveled up pieces of chicken over rice for $10. No soup or edamame included. The super watered down tea was also charged. We paid about the same price as a new pair of Uggs for dinner.
I agree that the sushi is decent, but the staff is no fun. The place was packed so we ended up sitting at the bar (not the all you can eat sushi bar unfortunately), the bartender (our waitress) did her best to ignore us the entire time we were there and was quite surely when one of our group didn't want a warm draft beer that she had sitting on the counter for a while. The sushi is inventive and I think it would be fun to sit at the all you can eat sushi bar, but I'd probably go back at a less crowded time (e.g. not saturday night at 8pm).
I love Hiro Sushi especially at happy hour when everything is 1/2 off! It is my favorite sushi place in Tahoe...try the mussels and chef special #2.
We didn't get the all you can eat in an hour special because we didn't want to wait. I'm pretty spoiled by Bay Area sushi joints, and this place didn't stack up with the better ones. It definitely holds its own in this area, however. We went on a Tuesday night, and it was packed--always a good sign in a tourist region.
the sushi is some of the better i've had in tahoe, but not as quality in terms of design. some of the rolls are kinda strange (as in non-traditional/highly americanized), which is good when you're in the mood. that said, i've had some good times at hiro, which is a big reason why i keep coming back. if you're in tahoe and in the mood for sushi, hiro is one of the better choices.
This was 'pretty good' sushi at best, and I don't know much about sushi. Usually a long wait to get a table/bar-all you can eat. We ate outside because it was a rare warm evening (7 pm) in Tahoe. Otherwise, I'd have gone to Yoshimi ( in Incline Village). Pricing is similar, food is better, wait is usually non-existent
I give them one star for getting up in the morning. I've been here a few times over several years and have been underwhelmed in general. However, I went in last week and they hit a new low for sushi bars. The rice was 'Al dente'.. as in, not fully cooked. Come on, how hard is it to cook rice properly every time. If there's one thing a Japanese restaurant should get right it's the goddamn rice. I know they make rice cookers that cook to perfection.. because I have one! Who cares about half priced food if it tastes bad (I should mention we paid full price for half cooked rice). The quality of the fish is very average too. Maybe this place is ok if you want Americanized sushi, but if you enjoy good sushi don't bother.
I've read review sites where everyone has given a place 3 to 5 stars and then one lone reviewer gives them 1. Then I go there and usually find that guy was right, and I guarantee you'll find that I'm right on this one.
"I work here cause its cool, don't for a second think I actually want to serve you!" is what I imagined our server was thinking. See ya pal. Also, it's all you can eat unless you eat more than they think you should, then they cut you off. Ok, so another time we have guests that want sushi. We call to get a to-go order. They say ok and put us hold forever. We call back and are told they don't do take-out when they are busy. So we go in when they aren't busy and they say they don't do to go at all. Probably cause we're not regulars or have dreds. A friend of ours who is a sushi connoisseur nearly punched them out.
This joint is pretty bad. Dirty tables left unclean after customers left. I can't believe the price of their simple bento boxes ($25). Sushi was pretty good, but the service was horrible. 2 stars cause it was close to our cabin
Incline Village, NV
Category: Restaurants
Incline Village, NV
Category: Breakfast & Brunch
Incline Village, NV
Category: Restaurants
Truckee, CA
Category: Sushi Bars
Truckee, CA
Category: Asian Fusion
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