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Naru Sushi
Categories: Restaurants Japanese Restaurants Sushi Bars Japanese, Sushi Bars [Edit]
Newark Market Place Shopping Center34942 Newark Blvd
Newark, CA 94560
(510) 796-1235
- Hours:
Mon-Sat 11:30 am - 10 pm
Sun 4:30 pm - 10 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Romantic, Classy, Trendy, Intimate
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
101 reviews for Naru Sushi
Review Highlights
"The Sake Bomb prices are great from Mon-Fri."
(in 9 reviews)
"We had the appetizer Monkey Brains mmmm Delish."
(in 6 reviews)
"get the Lion King or the Bay Scallop."
(in 10 reviews)
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101 reviews in English
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Review from Natasha S.
Fremont, CA
3/9/2011
My first time there was April this year. Since my first night , I have been back several times in the last few weeks. The rolls are very tasty, the service is excellent and the Sake and Beer deals are the BEST!
Great place to take family and firends.
PS. Try the Wasabi shooters-- you'll never forget them! :) -
Review from Amanda C.
Fremont, CA
Now Old Town Sushi! We loved it as Naru, but for some reason this place could never keep an owner for very long. We are hoping it stays Old Town. The service is tops and the portions are so generous it's almost humorous.
Sake is a nice price for the riiiice! Sometimes they also bring out things on the house. Their chefs always amaze me. Very friendly and clean all around. -
Review from David T.
Milpitas, CA
2/6/2011 1 Check-in Here
I was in the area with my sisters and we decided to give them a try. I would say that I am quite pleased with the food and service that I got here. They offer the usual rolls and sashimi like any other sushi restaurant.
We ordered a few items.
Grilled baby lobster: Pretty good and it was only $6.95. Could use a little more hotsauce.
Lion king roll: This roll was huge and was packed with sauce. Not too bad, a bit over whelming.
Spicy scallop roll- This roll never fails but I would've left the cucumbers out.
10 piece sashimi- I ordered 10 pieces but they hooked us up with 20 pieces!
Uni nigiri- a bit more expensive than most places but it was HUGE!
Ama ebi nigiri- This was fresh and the shrimp head was battered and fried just right.
Over all this place is about 3 stars but I gave them 4 stars because of their service and the freshness of their food. Everything came out really fast and tasted great. -
Review from JuneL L.
This was my third time coming to Naru Sushi, and this time it was CROWDED!!
My sister and I had ordered the California roll with baked scallops and i opted out for the avocado, not really a avocado person and it was delish with their special spicy sauce. YUMMY!! The crunch roll was also good and The fire in the hole sushi. Even though they were busy our server was still attentive.
PROS: Good food
CONS: Needs more space. -
Review from DW W.
Fremont, CA
8/18/2010
FALSE ADVERTISMENT........Bad food.
The owner refused to take my http://restaurant.com coupon which was bought the same day I went there. My mistake for deciding to eat there since my wife and kid were hungry already.
Foold came after about 20 mins, OMG, the rice had this wired stinky smell in it, too strong that I couldn't eat it. Tempura was ok, teriyaki beef was burned.
Service is slow, only 3 tables at the time and yet I had to wait for 10 minutes for my check.
So if any of you guys out there thinking about going to this place, don't. Just feel lucky you find out the reviews before getting yourself stuck with bad food and high bill (due to the false advertisement, they DON"T accept coupons). Go across the street to Newark Buffet and eat as much as you want for cheaper. -
Review from D.wight L.
Fremont, CA
7/15/2010
Not really my type of sushi joint, but I ain't exactly the common crazy roll eater. And they offer the full arsenal of crazy ass rolls. Dragon, Caterpillar, Cherry Blossom, Lion King, OMG, WTF...whatever your roll lovin' ass could want, you can get here at Naru.
If you get the main sushi chef to do up your order then it is actually presented cleanly and generously. But I think they get busy enough that when the helpers get a hand at the sushi, it is clearly a step below. Also when it does get busy the servers definitely go under and you feel the attentiveness just crumbling, which sucks cuz they are quite nice.
They promo 99 cent sake and sake-bombs, which also makes me keep my distance. I do know of people who are fans of this type of place, roll grubbin', cheap sake guzzlin' types but for me, not-so-much. Bad fit for me and that by no means is a bad thing for anybody else. -
Review from justine k.
Union City, CA
8/11/2010
F this place, seriously. I had a http://restaurant.com certificate and I came for dinner, and while the old lady is trying to seat me she sees my certificate and goes, "oh.. we don't accept those anymore". wtf? then why are you still being listed on http://restaurant.com? the proper thing to do as a restaurant owner would be to notify http://restaurant.com that you do not wish to participate in this program anymore so they can stop listing you and they can give me my money back to use on another place. what a waste of my time!! like seriously, don't put yourself on discounted gift certificate websites to gain business, and then decide on your own that you don't want to honor the deals anymore. that's bad business, forreal. shady.
since I was already there and my boyfriend was meeting me, I figured we'd just stay and eat anyway even if I couldn't use my certificate. UMMM, food was whatever. I've def had better sushi elsewhere, and the dudes next to us even said TGIsushi down the street is WAAAYY BETTER. so i'll have to go there and check it out!
came back again to sake bomb and that was fun only because I was with fun people. cheap alcohol is a plus. but other than that, this place is WEAK as a sushi spot. service is okay. hit or miss. the ladies are nice, but sometimes they're just clueless... hi... did you forget that we need plates to eat on? yeah.
btw, did anyone notice the rude reply that "jenny c" wrote on one of their reviews? is this how they treat their customers? reading that made me go from 2 stars to 1. -
Review from Aimee L.
Hayward, CA
6/26/2010 1 Check-in Here
When your gut tells you to walk away then you should listen. Unfortunately tonight I listened to my fiance who said we should stay and try something new.
The sushi was bad quality. The tempura type roll was cold. We ordered smoked salmon nagiri, but they didn't have it so we ordered the white tuna nagiri. It was definitely not white.
This place is so not worth the cheap beer and sake. -
Review from Kristine L.
Union City, CA
7/23/2011
My sister and I decided to try this place out because they had a promotion going on. The sushi tasted fine at first but when I got home I ended up getting food poisoning from it...and I never had from any sushi restuarant before. I'm not sure if I ever plan on coming here again...
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Review from Lorrie M.
3/31/2010
As Phung N. mentioned, you can buy http://Restaurant.com coupons for Naru Sushi which makes this place even more attractive as a sushi spot than ever.
I was skeptical at first since again this was another one of those places that served sushi 'rolls' more so than they have focus on real sushi and raw fish. Came here on a Friday night with the bf prior to an event in Fremont and found this place packed to the brim with a huge waiting list. After about 20-25 minutes we were seated at the corner of the bar area. They have beer and sake specials ($0.99 for either) from Tues-Fri so we took advantage and ordered some beer.
We ordered a variety of rolls, mostly raw fish rolls, and an order of chirashi as it's become the bf's favorite dish at most sushi restaurants. The rolls came out fast and their prices were definitely reasonable. (Again with the coupons, even more reasonable!) The chirashi was well prepared and the fish were fresh and delicious! The sushi chefs are fun and interactive and their waiters are even more interactive as it gets later and later at night when they ... start to participate in their own alcohol specials and table festivities.
This whole restaurant tends to have a fun atmosphere especially on Friday nights and I'm actually very excited to come back again armed with the coupon for some delicious sushi and a fantastic time. -
Review from Audrey A.
Newark, CA
9/24/2010
Informing all you Naru Fans and Lovers that Naru has CLOSED!
:( -
Review from Michelle D.
San Jose, CA
6/20/2010
Ew.
This review is not just for the food, but the environment. This place is like Quicklys or a super asian pearl drink joint. I came here last night because I had a coupon, and the first thing I noticed was the large amount of really asian guys sitting outside smoking.
I went inside, and there were people running around the restaurant, drunk out of their minds. The whole restaurant smelled like smoke, and there were sake bombs galore.
The sushi was subpar, the service was inattentive. Definitely overpriced except for their cheap sakebombs, so I guess that's what encourage the environment.
Unless you feel like being obnoxious and getting smothered with secondhand smoke, I suggest you opt to eat anywhere else. -
Review from Paulo M.
Fremont, CA
4/22/2010
1 star for the bad service. The staff were irate over all the ruckus being caused by the crowd that gathered for their 99 cent sake/ beer special. Then the waitress with the short cropped black hair and beady eyes accused our group of ordering an extra plate of sashimi. On more than one occasion our group had to flag down the waitress to remind her to refill our drinks. The staff behind the bar kept mean mugging the customers. Not a very friendly set of staff.
I would rate the food as supermarket grade. The sashimi was cut into small chunks and was at room temperature at best. The only thing this place made right were the crispy rolls. We ordered green tea mochi for dessert and it is $2.50 for two pieces cut into halves. The mochi tasted the same as those that you can buy from an asian supermarket.
All in all, i'd advice against this place. I won't be coming here again; the food, the service, and the ambiance were unimpressive. -
Review from Nikki C.
3/18/2010
Dined here twice this month.... so far. =P
Definitely happy w/the food & service but the place does get pretty packed. Naru is a little larger than Satomi so the wait isn't nearly as long. We were seated quickly the 1st time and sat at the bar the 2nd time.
My favorite roll (for now) is the Spicy Rainbow. Think rainbow roll but instead of the california roll filling, it's filled w/spicy tuna. YUM! The Crunch roll was just that... crunchy. I really liked their Agedashi Tofu. Pass on the Saba Shioyaki - it was mediocre. I'll be back to try more rolls.
Naru also has $0.99 sake & $0.99 beer DAILY. Sake Bombs all around!Listed in: East Bay finds
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Review from Quyen T.
Newark, CA
7/5/2010
We used to go to Satomi and loved the chef there, stop going and discovered Naru months ago and have been going there ever sense, especially because the chef we loved is now at Naru. Sit at the bar and you will get great service! The waitresses are ok, could be much better, they are slow on orders and drinks as well as lack the quickness of giving you attention.
Sung, the head sushi chef really takes care of you. He knows I love salmon and spice, so every time I come in, he immediately starts up a special QT roll he made for me. Very inventive rolls and the fish is great! Came here on my birthday and had a blast, drank with Sung and they hooked up the sake!
Overall, food is great, Sung, the sushi chef really knows how to take care of his customers, the servers however need serious improvement. If you go towards Thurs-Sat nights, it will be crowded because of the great sake deals... -
Review from Rosemarie L.
Hayward, CA
Updated - 4/5/2010 3 Check-ins Here
3.5 Stars...
Our second time @ Naru was going well until they LOST my fiance's cousin's credit card! They looked all over the place for it, but couldn't even find it and the bad thing is that they GAVE UP on looking for it. WTF?! Good thing we knew some of the other patrons and checked to see if they got the credit card by accident and sure enough they did. They need to be more careful with that ish!
Anyway...
A few things we tried this time around:
* Hawaiian Poke - The poke is very tasty here and not too spicy. I'd definitely get this again.
* Cherry Blossom roll
* OMG roll - Yum! One of my faves. I will be ordering this tonight at my friend's birthday dinner, but without the jalapeno. I don't do jalapeno; I like to enjoy the flavors in my mouth, thank you.
* Spicy Rainbow roll - made w/ spicy tuna instead of crab. So much better than the regular rainbow roll. Mmm.
* Teriyaki beef - Not as tender as Satomi's, but still pretty good.
* Assorted Sashimi - nice & fresh, as it should be.
* Tempura coffee ice cream - my first time trying tempura ice cream so I can't really compare it to anything else, but it was pretty tasty.
* Mochi ice cream - always yummy!
I'm still diggin' their food/sake/beer so I'm definitely coming back, but seriously, they better not lose anymore credit cards!Listed in: Local Joints, Asian Avenue, Sushi Lovah
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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3/10/2010
Probably as good as Satomi, but maybe even better because of $0.99 sake & $0.99 beer, Monday through… Read more »
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Review from Jason L.
Newark, CA
Updated - 6/19/2010
WOW.... this place has gone down hill!!! I don't like coming here just for the fact that they stole the menu from satomi and basically copied it and the quality of the fish isn't all that great (just average if anything). My sisters friends wanted to go here so I joined them just because I wanted to get drunk off their $1 sake / $1 beer.
WARNING... the $1 beer is BUDLIGHT! WTF?! I can go buy a 30 pack next door for $18.99 at safeway. Minus points for that!
When they brought our plates out, they gave me a plate that looked like some one already ate off of it already. It had soy sauce and rice on it....really?! wow
I ordered a sashimi seaweed salad. so tell me, why does this salad come with 80% shredded cabbage, 5% seaweed salad, 5% sashimi, 5% sesame oil, 5% fried tempura batter?! totally disappointing! This place was basically dead the whole friday night so apparently everyone else already knew how whack this place was...... gotta go back to satomi to redeem myself! donezoh! not coming back here ever again!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/5/2010
Finally decided to check this place out on Friday. Got here around 7pm and it seemed like we just… Read more »
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Review from Doris L.
East Bay, CA
4/23/2010 1 Check-in Here
FIRST TIME EVER, I've seen the Cherry Blossom Roll not presented as a "Blossom" (like a flower)!!!! And this will also be THE FIRST TIME EVER, I've seen two pieces of tuna being used to cover the outskirts of the roll throughout the roll because the tuna slices were not big enough!!! Seriously though.....WHO DOES THAT??? Don't know if this had anything to do with the bf and I using a $25 http://Restaurant.com gift certificate.
I was highly unsatisfied with the food here!!! I was expecting much better quality!! The rolls were TINY!!! Definitely will not be coming here ever again!!! If it weren't for the $25 http://Restaurant.com gift certificate I wouldn't have stumbled upon this 1 star joint and tasted CRAPPY sushi!! Not worth the drive from Alameda and not worth the time!! Staff wasn't very attentive, the two waitresses were busy flirting with some of the customer's sitting at the bar THE WHOLE TIME and the sushi chef DID NOT look like a sushi chef!!! Place was dimly lit and it was a bit hard to find with all the different shopping center's on Newark Blvd.
Take your time and money elsewhere!!! -
Review from Brien G.
Los Angeles, CA
8/13/2010
Comedy of Errors.
This place is an abundant enigma. What's up with the service? I asked for the 99 cent sake special three different times and the guy didn't get what I was talking about. They brought us two huge piles of Kaiso salad when we only wanted one (thanks, but one heap of salad is enough). The Edamame should be called the EdaSoggy because it was mushy and pasty. We were never sure who our server was or what they were doing. Frankly, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.
The rolls were okay, nothing you're going to think about with your last breath, unless they kill you. It's cheap, bizarrely run, but they have generous portions of medicore sushi. And if you ask enough times maybe you'll get 99 cent sake special.
And by the way, in a Japanese restaurant it may be perceived as insensitive to use a picture of a mushroom cloud to represent your Sake Bomb specials. Just saying... -
Review from Marti L.
1/29/2010
99 cent sakes & 99 cent beers Mondays to Fridays: 5 stars!
Service: 0 star!
Our table was next to the kitchen and I happened to sit at the outer side of the table. My whole night consisted of turning around in failed attempts to locate our server.
The two of us arrived late. As we joined the rest of our party, we ordered a large sake and a large beer.
5 minutes later, sake arrives. Where's the beer? We want to sake bomb! 5 minutes later, still waiting.
Server walks from the kitchen.
Me: Excuse me!
Server: Are you ready to order?
Me: Yes, but we also ordered...
Server: *walks to another table*
Me: ...a large uhhhhh...
Couple minutes later, server walks to the kitchen.
Me: *waves arm to get her attention* We ordered a large beer!
Server: *zooms by*
Don't think she heard me.
Another couple minutes later, server walks to our table.
Server: Are you ready to order?
Me: We ordered a large beer. And I'd also like a...*looks down at menu* *looks up*
Server: *gone*
Where the f did she go? Seriously?! Ugggghhhh!
Finally after waiting for what felt like eternity, we were able to get enough of her attention to tell her about our beer and place our order. Not sure if we got the right food since the roll that came out was baked, and the menu did not mentioned it being baked at all. Still ate it since we didn't want to go through the whole ordeal again. It tasted good. Or was it good because we were starving and have been drinking on an empty stomach?
The place was busy with only 2 servers, but that's no excuse for the poor service. Jumping from table to table like that was inefficient and just plain rude. I rather wait for her take care of the other table first, than having her run out on me mid-sentence.
Should I come back for the cheap sake and beer and put up with the rude service? I don't know. -
Review from Monica W.
San Lorenzo, CA
8/9/2010
Came here today with a total party of five to try and use my http://restaurant.com certificate only to find out they no longer accept them (waitress said they stopped accepting them in June) and that if I contacted http://restaurant.com they'd give me a refund. The thing is, the certificates are still offered on http://restaurant.com so they should really contact them to remove their restaurant from the site. This was very disappointing so say the least, but since rolls were 25% off after 4 PM on Saturdays and Sundays we decided just to stay anyway and have dinner.
We started off with the Heart Attack appetizer which was discounted to $6.50 since it was a special. This was actually really tasty, it was halved jalapeno peppers filled with spicy tuna and cream cheese then fried - came with 7 halved pieces I think.
For our sushi rolls we ordered:
Jack and Jill: Probably the tastiest of our selection IMO, the soft shell crab was freshly fried.
Lobster Lover: This wasn't my favorite, the lobster salad they used to top the roll had too much mayo on it.
Big Brother: A bit forgettable, the piece I had had salmon sashimi on top, the salmon sashimi on top didn't really strike me as being SUPER fresh and delicious, but it was all right. I've been at other restaurants where the sashimi used to top rolls have been sliced thicker.
Red Lobster: A special roll with some baked lobster on top, not bad, but not incredible either.
OMG: Also forgettable.
The type of rolls here are usually drizzled with sauce, usually not too much, but that just gives you an idea of what type of sushi joint this is.
After we devoured the above order, we decided to order a spider roll as well. It's not as good as the Jack and Jill, but the crab was still warm and fresh.
Service here was courteous, but a bit lacking in attentiveness. We were the only people there for the most part, then about two more tables were filled but I repeatedly had to flag down the staff when I needed something. Parking is free and plentiful, restaurant is clean but it's not too large. I also noticed they had a sign/decoration written in Korean on the wall so I'm assuming this is a Korean owned Japanese restaurant.
In the end our bill came out to $70 with tip, split five ways it was about $14 a person - I don't feel like what I ate was necessarily worth $14 a person (and it was discounted 25% from original price). While the food is decent and perfectly average for sushi, price needs to be a bit lower for what it is to move me to come again or on a more regular basis. -
Review from RJ A.
Hayward, CA
11/7/2010
This place was hella sick. a really chill kick it spot. It sucks that this place closed down. I went here many times. There deal on Saki and beer was good being only a dollar The food was good, the presentation of the rolls was clean. This place was pretty friendly and the service even though was a tad bit slow they made sure all your accommodations were met.
They had wasabi shots which were pretty nasty but free saki for taking them. They showed a sense of appreciation for their costumers as they had many pictures on the wall of people who ate there an yeah goign to miss this place. Wonder what they did with the pictures though I'm part of that collage. -
Review from heidi g.
7/7/2010
dun dun dun..3.5 for naru!
I've been here at least 10+ times and I can't really complain except that when friday hits, this place gets extremely busy at night. The service can get slow and they sometimes forget your orders. And sometimes you yourself forget what you ordered because you're on a good buzz from the dollar sakes. Woohoo!
The staff is pretty friendly and nice. The sushi and the prices aren't bad at all. Especially for their specialty rolls and bento boxes. Their sashimi however isn't always fresh. So minus a star right there.
Verdict: Love that it's down the street from my parents places and I swear all of newark folks go there. -
Review from Nha H.
2/13/2010 7 photos
Came here yesterday on a Friday night and like others have said, it wasn't that busy. A couple came in before us and got seated right away and we didn't, so we waited even though I saw an open table. The waitresses completely ignored us and didn't seat us until an older lady saw the table and sat us. A waitress then came to us to give us the menu and I gave them my certificate from http:// http://restaurant.com. She took it and several minutes later, she came back to take our order. I ordered the desperate wives and the OMG. My husband ordered the Fire in the Hall, Bertha and an Asahi beer.
Several minutes later, we got our water and complimentary edamame, but no beer. We got our food and still no beer. I grabbed a waitress and said we ordered a beer and it still not here. She looked like she was confused and didn't really want to help us because she wasn't our waitress. So service wise, not the greatest and it wasn't even busy.
Now the food was great. I definitely give them at least four stars except for one item that my husband didn't like too much. The rolls were really big and you can get full easily. The OMG was as the name described..OMG..a couple next to us said it looks like a sushi nacho. LOL. All the food was good except for the BERTHA roll. I don't know why for some god reason it would be name Bertha. It's not even an attractive name and it didn't taste good. Sorry to all the Berthas out there. Anyway..the Bertha roll was way too sweet. The sauce that they had on it was way overpowering all the other flavors. You couldn't taste the fish, the rice, or the avocado that was on it. All you can taste was the sauce, which I got sick of after two pieces.
Summary: Service, not great. Food, very good. Decor, could use a little sprucing and more tables needed. I'll definitely come back here because I got another certificate, but next time, I'll probably bring people so I can utilize that certficate to it extent.Comment from Jenny C. of Naru Sushi 2/14/2010
i'm sorry but we can't add more tables becasue it is against… More » -
Review from Jasmine M.
Union City, CA
5/25/2010
My family and I ate here once, and it wasn't so bad. We came back the second time, and we all left upset. Don't get me wrong, food was about average, but we didn't like the service. We came in and wanted to use a coupon, owner said it was okay. But if we used the coupon he would INCREASE the price of all the alcohol. We didn't like the idea and couldn't walk out because we already dove into our bento boxes. It didn't make sense to us to INCREASE the price our sake, just because we were using a coupon...
So my family and I will not be returning... -
Review from clarisse c.
Hayward, CA
6/9/2010 3 Check-ins Here
Sake bomb! Every day! Sake bomb! 99 cents! Sake Bomb! Very cheap!
I came here with a group of friends on Memorial Day because we were looking to get our beer and sake on. The banner on the outside is incorrect, it says 99 cent sake and beer T-F only, but it's every day! So if you want to put your liver on the fast track to cirrhosis you have the option!
A large Sapporo is 3.99 and a Budlight is 99 cents, so if anything that's how they get you, but if you don't care how well your sake goes with the beer then by all means you beat the system!
I've been here once another time before with my sister and her husband, but mainly for the ginormous sushi rolls. I think this is one of the pricier sushi places, but I guess you have to make up for the 99 cent sake somewhere right?
I've had whatever roll has mango in it and the salmon skin roll and soft shell crab. Mmmm..soft shell crab. The salmon skin roll was good, not great. I crave a specific flavor from that roll, and this was just didn't hit the spot. Other stuff was good though!
Good place to get drunk in public for cheap if those are your wishes. -
Review from Agnes C.
Koloa, HI
9/26/2010
CLOSED SEPT 20 OUT OF BUSINESS
The best sushi place in town has gone out of business -
Review from Carolynne K.
Hayward, CA
1/17/2010
Sounds like this place might be the place to be if you are looking for a nightlife filled with sake bombs and sushi. Unfortunately, if you are just looking for some lunch, it's not. At least, it wasn't for us.
My salmon teriyaki was decent, partially overcooked. The teriyaki sauce wasn't overly sweet like most places make it. Good portion for the price.
Kyle ordered the scallop sashimi, which didn't taste fresh, so he got it replaced with tuna sashimi. I could tell that he didn't really care for the quality of the tuna either. I ordered some avocado rolls, which were good.
The only thing worth coming back for is the Monkey Brains appetizer. Deep fried tempura mushrooms stuffed with spicy tuna - it is very spicy. -
Review from Joseph G.
Fremont, CA
5/13/2010 2 photos
If you want to get drunk, Come here and drink. Food.. Not so much. Ordered about 9 rolls, Mostly their specials. Sushi chefs are X Satomi Sushi chefs. All the rolls sucked!!! Either it was too spicy, rice was not cooked properly, Rolls were falling apart, Super fishy tasting. Not a happy customer at all. Basically this place is a Copy Kat of satomi but with cheaper drink specials and sub par rolls. Will not come back again. Sorry Naru.
Btw. Go to satomi sushi. Great service. Andy the owner is awesome!! You wont be disappointed. -
Review from Catherine C.
Fremont, CA
1/11/2010
First of all, I will never come back to this place. Second of all, this is the slowest service I have ever experienced in my life. Lastly, the food was decent. This is across the street from my favorite sushi restaurant of all time, TGI sushi.
My boyfriend and I came here for lunch since we had a coupon from restaurant. com. We paid $40 with the $10 coupon. The restaurant was hit by the lunch rush but I don't think that is an excuse to give poor service.
We had the Lobster Roll, Jack and Jill, and the Bay Scallop Roll. The Lobster Roll was different and only 3 pieces were topped with a mango sauce. This was kind of strange to me since ONLY 3 of the rolls were drizzled in this sauce. Prior to getting the rolls, one of the waitresses asked us if we would like miso soup, so we said okay. When we got our bill, she had charged us for 2 miso soups without notifying us that there was an extra charge. Most sushi places give complimentary miso soup and I thought the same with this place. Also, it took our server about 10 minutes to give us a to go box. She passed by our table several times with few or no items in hand.
Next time I will stick to their competition down the street...Comment from Jenny C. of Naru Sushi 1/13/2010
thank you for the review. we would like to note that we… More » -
Review from Gabriel T.
Oakland, CA
Agedashi tofu. The sauce is the best I've had -- light but effective in providing much needed flavor to accompany the delicate fried tofu. Sadly, it went downhill from there.
We ordered rolls to take advantage of the 25% off deal.
Red heads have more fun - wrapped tuna with cucumber, kaiware, tobacco, crab, unagi. No rice. 4 pieces. Meh.
Fire in the hall - spicy tuna, deep fried shrimp and snow crab covered with yellow tail, tuna, salmon and tobico with fire. Comes to the table enveloped by flames. Visually interesting until you open the foil wrapper and look inside. Looked a wreck. Tore up from the floor up. Tasted like a typical mayonnaise covered roll. Spicy.
Jack and jill - soft shell crab and crab covered with unagi and avocado. Forgettable. I always love a roll with unagi. Not true anymore. OK that's harsh. I didn't hate it. That's the best I can do.
Mango paradise - shrimp tempura, tuna, mango, crab, mango sauce. It sounded kinda weird. It tasted kinda weird. Mango and fish.... Not something to be done twice in a lifetime. Or even once now that you have the benefit of my experience.
Besides the food, the service was... not the most attentive. We had to ask for plates. We had to ask for ginger and wasabi. It's not like they were filled to capacity. There were two other tables besides ours and one of them was leaving. It also took a while to flag someone down for our check. But I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say they wanted us to take as much time as we need. My cousin was not so kind. She said they were stalling to make it look like they had customers. Hmmmmm.... -
Review from Julianne H.
San Francisco, CA
10/21/2009
Decided to try Naru Sushi since it was in Shogun's old spot. It looked nice from the outside and promising. The menu is the standard Bento box lunches and dinners. It was kind of on the pricey side, but the portions are rather large, so it's alright.
So wondering why I gave 2 stars?
Unfortunately I would have liked to give them a better review, however the tea I was served was luke-warm, on the verge of cold. I ordered the sushi dinner, and my husband ordered teriyaki bento dinner. I had a bite of his chicken and it was also cold. We waited a while too for our dinner, so it doesn't make sense why his food was cold, especially when we there weren't many people in the restaurant to begin with.
Lastly, our waitress was not very attentive. Later that evening a few of her friends came in the restaurant and they ended up chatting for a while, and she forgot about us. We had to wave her down just to get her attention. Sad to say that leaves a bad impression on us because of the cold food and bad service. Sorry Naru, but we're not coming back. -
Review from Kyle R.
Hayward, CA
1/21/2010 1 photo
Came in a bit early I guess, as they looked surprised as we entered the restaurant. They have a very impressive menu with a ton of spicy rolls and something called "Monkey Brains" (fried mushrooms filled with spicy tuna) which was the best stuffed mushroom I have ever had.
That's where the magic stopped however. Ordered a traditional scallop sashimi (hotate), and what I got was a pile of unseared scallops that were grainy and lumpy, definitely NOT sashimi grade. It was a beautiful presentation and I felt terrible sending it back, but I could not force myself to eat my favorite sashimi...
I asked for a tuna sashimi instead and what I got was a few dark pink spears of very cold tuna that was not fatty at all. It had good flavor but horrible texture and was not buttery smooth as I had expected it to be.
I'd like to come back and order some spicy rolls and some more oddly-named fried items. -
Review from Sita M.
Sunnyvale, CA
3/8/2010
Love this place. 1 dollar beer 1 dollar sake!!! The only thing is that they close kinda early, like 10 pm. I had salmon sashimi also and it was only $10. My taste buds might have been affected by the booze but I thought the quality was fine. I will definitely be back.
Oh yeah, I also tried to the wasabi shot. It was painful, had to spit it out. But it was free so definitely worth the experience!!! -
Review from Matt C.
Jupiter, FL
2/15/2010
Gangstersssss whats up guise? What can I say about Naru..its the shieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Thats why I put so many E's in "shiet".
$1 beers and sake like you don't know! Hot sake, bomb ass beers (Asahi, Sapporo, Cass is whack but its all good) Sake is hot and it doesn't taste like ass. Go here sake bombing instead of Satomi cuz its allll day every day!
Food? Dooooodddd, shout out to STEVE for that! Its great. Fresh to death fish, bomb ass rice, rolled tight like a philly. STRAIGHT perfection.
Wasabi bombs are wassup too. I'd give this place 10 stars if I could. I'd go back
Great service, great people, fun atmosphere. Bring yo friends! -
Review from beck l.
Fremont, CA
Updated - 1/23/2010
Came here on Monday night and again, had a great time! The chefs, Steve and Sung, remembered my name and greeted us when I walked in. I love this friendly atmosphere they evoke.
I ordered my favorite, mixed fish and rice, and my plate came to me like a piece of art. The fish was incredibly tasty and as I type my review, I'm actually salvating. Along with the 99 cent sake on a cold, rainy night... life really doesn't get better than this. Oh but it does! Steve, part time mixologist, gives us all a free drink. A orange/mango/wine concoction. An Asian mimosa if you will. Yum!
Even though this location is unassuming, this place is really awesome. Five stars... (I don't know why I was a star spinthrift.)1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/16/2010
I had a great time and the food tasted great! Owners must have read Yelp reviews and made a… Read more »
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Review from Mary J C.
Warsaw, IN
3/3/2010
Atmosphere:
This is a very small in & out type of a place, not romantic or anything like that. All of this would be OK, if it wasn't for the front door being open most of the time we spent there, with smoke coming in from the outside... It seems to be students 'hang out' type place as there were a few groups of young people hanging out and a waiter, young gentlemen, later in the evening, turned the radio so loud we could not talk.. So one could say that the place is a very relaxed place.
Service:
On the positive note, we felt well taken care of; several folks came by to ask how we were doing, throughout our dinner, which felt good. Food arrived on time. Where this place failed for us is: mistakes made on our bill (check your bill), also, they did NOT accept our http://restaurants.com certificate, the reason wasn't clear to be honest, so we will not be back because I feel this is not acceptable. We will, of course, follow up with http://restarants.com as well.
Price:
The prices of the rolls are above average I would say, around $10-12. Bear/sake special is $2. Sashimi sampler plate was around $18
Quality:
Sashimi platter was more or less fresh; I would give it 4 out of 5. Rolls were just OK, nothing exciting, we had Big brother roll - the tempura was not fresh, in my opinion, it was "chewy". Rolls were pretty large, but primarily because of rice. The second roll we had was some kind of crab roll, it was also just OK 3 out of 5 is my rating for both.
Will I come back? - no, the quality of food is not worth the money they charge, the atmosphere is not for me, the miscommunication about prices and certificates did not make me feel confident that they want to accommodate their customers and made me wonder: where else do they 'cut corners'?... such a shame, because I had high hopes for this place. -
Review from Anthony R.
Fremont, CA
3/8/2010
Good food, but somewhat poor service. The waitress didn't really gave us attention much and my wife and I had to wait even though there was a free table. The food was great and rolls were humongous. The alarm goes off every time the fire in the hall roll comes out which is hilarious.
One more thing, it may be hard to find this restaurant because it is in a corner and if you came the opposite way on newark blvd, you may not see it, which is what happened to me. -
Review from Josie H.
2/28/2010
So i've been seeing Naru Sushi on the top list for awhile, so I decided to read the reviews and check it out. First, I bought a 25 dollars coupon from http://restaurant.com for two bucks. However, beware, you need to purchase at least 35 dollars and an 18% gratuity fee was included.
Nevertheless, we embarked on the journey to eat some yum yum sushis. We went on a friday night around 6pm, and there were lots of seats, and probably only four or five groups seated. However, as time passes, more and more people showed up.
Because we had to order 35 dollars worth of sushi, we got :
the Sashmi and nigiri plate for 17.95. The sashmi and nigiri platter was a LOT, seriously, the tuna and salmon were really fresh that I seriously ate four of them. plus like three nigiri I really liked the scallop nigiri one.
LOBSTER LOVER for 12.95 ( THIS ROLL IS AWESOME! the crab meat with the tempera, omg I ate a total of four/8 pieces. ) Seriously, this has been the best roll I had in a LONG while. Props!
And a tempera handroll ( my personal favorite at any sushi restaurants. It was pretty decent, enough filling inside, however it could have been better.
The food was decent, the service was awesome, waitresses came over and filled our tea and constantly asked us how we were doing. However, the only down side was, when we walked in, the two waitresses ignored us for a good three minutes until they finally seated us. AND i know for a fact they saw us because they walked right towards us and then walked away. Another thing was parking is horrible, but at least you can walk off some of those yummy calories from those absolutely delicious sushis :)
Overall, I'll come here again for sure, maybe with my two girlfriends when they come back for spring break:) -
Review from Shannon R.
Fremont, CA
9/2/2010
This place threw my family and I off, as the overall experience was so-so (but not terribly horribly bad)... We went on a weekday early evening and the place was already packed:
Pros:
* Seated quickly, despite the place being packed.
* Overall quality of food was just okay...but not good enough to warrant a second trip back there
* Servers were cordial and prompt
Cons:
* Server had to be reminded twice that my two-year old needed a high-chair which after 10 minutes of waiting makes for even more ansy 2-year old.
* Edamame was disgusting. Never had such bad edamame in my life. Upon the first bite it had either gone bad or was overcooked--bleh!
* My salmon skin hand roll was not prepared well and fell apart as soon as I picked it up
* The miso soup was served cold. I even told the server and he said that that's as hot as they serve it...wtf?
* My husband's Chirashi order did not have great cuts of sashimi provided...they were on the skimpy side. And for anyone who is familiar with this dish, there is never a skimpy price-tag attached to Chirashi.
All in all, there wasn't enough good about this place that occurred that afternoon with all factors considered that would make me and my family return. Even the $.99 sake bombs wouldn't entice me....
Sorry Naru, but we gave you a shot and you did not impress...
