hearth sushi

This place has always had a special place in our hearts. 4his was the first sushi restaurant I took my wife to when she moved to the States as it was literally across the street from us and even though we've moved we continue to come back here because the sushi, memories, service and atmosphere are well worth it. From the moment you step in and remove your shoes your greeted by the staff and escorted to your floor table where you rest your legs into a recessed area under the table. This is the preferred posture for eating and is quite comfortable. The food here is and has always been very good, no matter what you order Ive never been disappointed and I've had about every dish on offer. I can't recommend Irori highly enough and urge you to visit as soon as you can, you won't regret it.

Coming from Hawaii, my mom wanted to treat us to sushi (she lives in LA). I have pretty high standards as Hawaii sushi is bomb. This place did not disappoint. At 1st I was somewhat alarmed as it's in a strip mall-ish type place in the Marina, but don't be fooled. After you are required to remove your shoes, you are seated. There was nothing that I had that I was disappointed in. I accidentally ordered the truffle salmon, and was glad. It was outstanding. It was incredibly flavorful. Calamari was fried to perfection as the veggie tempura and karaage chicken. It was all so good I forgot to take pictures of half the stuff we ordered. There are slippers by the bathroom that you may use-don't go into the bathroom with your bare feet like my friend did! lol. Service was impeccable.

Loved our food. Cute atmosphere. Went twice in 3 days. Four stars because we ordered something but the server understood something else apparently. So we ended up with three things almost the same and full price. She never came back to fill our water and we had to ask for our check from a different person. Beautiful presentation of our food. 2 stars service 5 stars presentation of food and taste! 4 stars atmosphere (was very cold).

Wonderful place that comes very close to the experience of eating at a sushi restaurant in Japan. Almost everything on their menu is delicious, and there are secret things you can order also (gobo). The servers are spectacular and try to make your experience better. They will always try and help. As a diner there, you need to be patient with them and try to go with the flow. It’s usually very busy, and being patient and understanding will help you greatly. The service can seem rushed every now and again, but if you time your meal with their closing time you will not feel rushed. One caveat is that the prices are high because of the service and the excellent food quality. To really enjoy the experience, you will possibly spend more than $100 per person. Their lunch specials at the sushi bar are an inexpensive way to try this place out. Always amazing when sushi can be such high quality—even on a Sunday night. It’s very difficult to find such places this special even in Japan. Highly recommended.

Before the big BUT: We really loved everything there. The ambiente is very authentic, the food is DELICIOUS and the workers were very nice. Also the drink was good. BUT: when we paid and wanted to leave the service girl came to our table and started lecturing us about how we have to leave a tip. It made us and especially my boyfriend who wanted to give us a special experience in also not so easy financial times VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. Our own financial situation shouldn’t even be relevant to this as I believe being a waiter is a job just like others which should be done well regardless of whether outside people are willing to leave extra money or not. We do like to tip if our own budget allows it, if the service was exceptional or if we simply decide to do so since it is our own money and no questions should be asked and in no world should someone be made so uncomfortable for not leaving a tip. It was very rude and my boyfriend ended up feeling so pressured by the lady that he put a (in my opinion completely forced by her because she didn’t leave us until he gave more money) tip. Then we left, making an experience we were actually so happy and enthusiastic about end up very weird, uncomfortable and unwelcome. Even though we loved our dinner there, this would definitely hold me back from coming back and I hope managers and staff can figure out a way together how this can be prevented for other guests in the future.

I visited for dinner on a Saturday evening as a walk-in. Parking is easy because the restaurant is in a big plaza. It was a full restaurant but thankfully no wait. I shared the "Omakase" menu items that included sashimi (chef's choice) and sushi (included bluefin tuna belly, snapper, eel, etc.) and it was delicious! We also tried the garlic edamame, a spicy tuna cut roll and toro scallion cut roll, blue crab hand roll, and California hand roll, and they were also all delicious. The food quality was great and fresh. The ambiance feels authentic and the service is fantastic.