Tatu

The all-​you-​can eat specials on Wednesday are totally worth it. The sushi is not the best I have had in Baltimore, but the décor makes it a good date spot!

I went here back in December 2011 to take my fiancé for his birthday dinner, along with family visiting from Philadelphia. The décor is romantic and trendy, so I was looking forward to good Asian fusion food and drinks with loved ones. Since there were 6 of us, the server did not have to work for her tip and was completely rude, sarcastic, and horrible to us. We did nothing to deserve such rude service. Three years later, this experience still leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as it was the worst dinner I’ve had in my 4 years living in Maryland. They were out of several food items we requested, and the food was served incredibly slow and was cold by the time it got to our table. The overpriced drinks tasted like cheap liquor.
I just read that Top Chef Bryan Voltaggio of Volt (Frederick, MD) bought the space and is going to start a restaurant here. I had a wonderful experience with Volt (a birthday celebration-​worthy food and service experience), and I will return to Power Plant Live to rejoice at the closing of Tatu and opening of Aggio restaurant.

I’m very disappointed. And I’m a roll with the punches type of person. Upon walking in, my bf and I thought this place was trendy and romantic. The lights were low with a few red lights highlighting the area. We arrived 30 minutes early than our set Valentine day reservation so we sat at the bar. Disappointment #1, no hot sake. My bf never had sake so I really would have liked for him to try it hot. We settled for a bottle of cold sake. It wasn’t bad. We passed our waiting time listening to the music and chatting. At 830, we were seated and I saw a pre fixe menu. I should have know. I was tipsy at this point (from drinks other than sake) and I did not noticed that for $ 75 we had to SHARE an entrée. We ordered 2 entrees and 2 appetizers and there was only 1 dessert to choose from. The waiter came back and informed us that we had to share an entrée, not appetizer but an entrée (disappointment #2). At this point we should have left, but I decided we should stay. What a mistake. Disappointment #3 is the fact they sat us by the front door where people walked in and out. We felt every draft. It made our experience worst. My bf ate the appetizers since I don’t eat shellfish. Our 1 entrée came and it was a slimy piece of salmon with rice (disappointment #4). It was something I could have made myself. But being tipsy and hungry I picked threw it. The rice had some flavor. But I was so blown. After we ate, the dessert came and wow it was the best part of the night as we ate throughout the drafts.
I would not come back. After spending $ 130 with tip included, my experience was horrible. I expected to pay for a great experience with good food and warmth from this cold February night.

I headed down to TATU pretty early on a Wednesday night to take advantage of their Happy Hour deals. Unfortunately, they do not have Happy Hour deals on Wednesday, which is not made clear on their website. Instead, they have a special called I Heart Sushi.
I Heart Sushi is a $ 15 all-​you-​can-​eat sushi, on select rolls of course. Seeing how one roll here can easily run you $ 15, for the fancier rolls, this would seem like a great deal. However, the all-​you-​can-​eat deal only includes the really basic stuff (cucumber roll, tuna roll, salmon roll, shrimp roll), so if you want to try to crazier-​sound rolls, you’ll end up spending more anyway.
They also have a $ 5 all-​you-​can-​drink sake special on Wednesdays, which is a great deal in theory, if your waiter actually comes back.
On this particular evening, our waiter was not at all knowledgeable about the menu. He had to check with the kitchen to find out what was included in some of the specialty rolls and for every sushi-​related query. He was also bartending at the same time, which meant he didn’t visit our table too much to check on if we wanted more sushi, or sake. If people are doing an all you can drink deal, it’s safe to assume they want you to keep the sake coming.
The sushi was just OK, not terrible, but nothing really special. The basic rolls were fine, on par with our typical delivery sushi. The special rolls were kind of a letdown and the flavors on rolls like the China White and Jalapeño roll (two of the more exotic offerings in the I Heart Sushi deal) were just not working.
Overall, I’m glad we tried it, but we probably won’t be back unless we’re dying to eat a LOT of mediocre sushi for a little bit of money. Sticky Rice is much more my scene. Tatu has more of a «club» vibe, if you’re into that. Also, it was freezing.
They don’t have an avocado roll. Isn’t that weird?

Not much love for Tatu. We ventured here before a concert at Rams Head for the all you can eat sushi. It is a great deal, but only one of the rolls was worth coming back for. The China White was really good and everything else we tried was pretty ordinary. One of the things they don’t tell you about the all you can eat sushi is that none of their menu items are available except those on that menu. No hot food!
The décor is pretty fun and a great place to relax and ‘be seen’. The bathrooms are downstairs are pretty fantastic. Our waitress was a bit flaky and uninterested in serving us for the most part and our orders took a very long time. I would give them another star if they had their regular menu available during the all you can eat. Oh well. I’ll pass them up for a much better sushi experience somewhere else in the city.

Very disappointed in management and upper level management for not responding to a concern that I had after one of the pieces of furniture (one of the couches) with an exposed piece of metal CUT and slashed my right hand! I am very disappointed in that experience, I went for sushi and good times with friends and left with a cut hand. Major inconvenience, horrible response from upper level management, and sub par food.
My entire experience was ruined after that and the lack of response. I filled out an incident report for goodness sake, MAKE GOOD on a BAD situation smh… I would NEVER refer this place to anyone. And yeah, still sour about my experience and visit which was well over 2mos ago. And the security guard that night actually tried to insinuate that the cut wasn’t a big deal… there was blood and I have a scar I can not get rid of…
DO BETTER TATU ugh!
No parking. Poor, Poor Service. Ok food.

My friend knew the DJ playing the night we showed up and said that it was a cool spot for some small bites and drinks for our girls night out. I would’ve given 4 stars if I was just rating our bartending who made excellent drinks for us for the 4 hours we spent there. We sat at the bar so we were well taken care of. I believe his name was Mike and definitely one of the best bartenders I’ve ever had. I am giving this place 3 stars because the food was not the greatest especially for the price. We ordered our drinks, I had a Lychee Martini at the suggestion of our bartender and it was amaze balls I love anything Lychee so at first taste, I was in love. Although it wasn’t too sweet… it’s one of those drinks where you only need one and move onto something new. I ordered the «Firelfly»… sweet Tea vodka I believe was the main star… that was scary good for I could not taste any alcohol. We ordered an array of appetizers… calamari, jalapeño Hamachi roll, Korean chicken strips. The Calamari desperately needed seasoning and needed to be fried at a higher temp to ensure a crispy coating ad color… the jalapeño Hamachi roll was good but not mind-​blowing… the Korean Chicken had to the oddest plating and it tasted nothing like Korean food. It was bland and severely dry. I HAD to send that one back and suggested to the bartender that, that shouldn’t be on the menu and he agreed.
Overall, the décor is very modern… dark… creepy… sexy… with red/​black/​white burlesque ish feel to the place. I would definitely come back for the drinks and atmosphere but heard the bartender (MIke) isn’t working there anymore so I probably wouldn’t go out of my to hit that place up again… I definitely wouldn’t go hungry.

EXTREMELY expensive and not worth what you pay. Sushi here is not the greatest and you can definitely find better elsewhere. The food took a fair amount of time and worst, drinks took about 20 minutes to arrive after ordering.
The ambiance of this place is somewhere in between a nightclub and a restaurant. There was no major dance floor to accompany the blaring music and that music did not allow for any conversations to occur during a meal.

The atmosphere here is really cool, very similar to RA (my personal favorite sushi and happy hour spot), however, I enjoy how it is at Power Plant, but it is not IN Power Plant, it is right outside of it so you don’t get the crazy traffic or if you go late no cover!
I went for a little date happy hour with my boyfriend and we were super excited because we had coupons for TATU that we got at the Best of Baltimore Party. AND it was happy hour and they still accepted the coupon (oober cheap meal)!
We got a lot of sushi and drinks, and this is the downfall. The sushi was mediocre, RA is WAY better in terms of sushi. The sushi here was smaller, and the rice was a little mushy. We bit the bullet and got one of their more expensive rolls, the samurai, and it was the worst one, not good at all. The crab rangoons were delicious little bit sized portions, I saved one as my last bite because it was so delicious (you gotta save the best thing for the last bite people!)
My boyfriend ordered the Sopporo and Saki, and asked the server if we could get two glasses and the server said he would have to charge us for the extra glass? It was really weird.
HOWEVER, the manager at one point came over and spoke with us and he was super nice, everyone was really really nice. It made for an overall excellent little date night, we really enjoyed it. I will probably stick with drinks and try different rolls next time.

No!!! If you never had fresh sushi or eaten at Japanese restaurants before this might do it for you. If you have been to the pacific rim skip it.
The fish is fishy. People sushi isn’t supposed to taste like ocean. I even ordered a tempura roll and it just tasted like fish tank. I am sushi purist so I can taste if the fish has been in the fridge too long or if the rice isn’t quite right. This is definitely suited to an American taste hence the lack of Asian customers in the place. If you are in Baltimore you are better off at Pabu or Ra.
Won’t be back.

I went for sushi. I should’ve known I was getting an in-​your-​face Asian experience from the pictures. They have a darker, lounge elegant ambiance and I would only imagine that when it gets later in the night, Asian girls dressed like Lucy Liu come out and swing from the ceiling and crack your back by stepping on you. Too much?
Maybe I need to come back and see how the evening scene looks. I went during dinner and sat at the one table that is outside and gives you a view of the street. This is my favorite spot.
The rolls were okay and tried a few. They are high quality and no nigiri or sashimi. Definitely go for the ambiance and company. The bartender and servers were bored since the place was empty.
Spicy Wok-​Seared Green Beans chili pepper, ginger, garlic $ 8
— Little too much sauce and cooked a few minutes too long but good flavor
Tuna Avocado $ 8
— Normal boring roll, they don’t season the rice
Spicy Tuna scallions, cucumber, tobiko, spicy mayo $ 8
— My favorite out of the rolls
Power Roll shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, crab salad, tuna, eel sauce $ 16
— Good but they need to cut the rolls into skinnier pieces

(08/​15/​2013) Tatu is a club/​bar/​lounge (with glaring red lights and blaring dance music) that happens to serve sushi. When all the tops are at couches, you know you’re not really in a place that wants you to eat. Sushi is beautifully presented, but not overly focused on the fish. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of variety and crazy combinations to be had (jalapenos and Hot Cheetos, anyone?), lots of tempura-​battering and frying (Samurai), but the focus is on spectacle rather than on highlighting ingredients and flavors. Best of the rest was the Tropical Citrus Salmon Roll (salmon, mango, avocado, tobiko, lemon, citrus aioli); zippy and bright citrus cream went well with the fruit and fish.
Prices are pretty steep, even at the promised (but not delivered) happy hour pricelist, but this is still heart of the monstrosity that is the Powerplant Live plaza, a wretched hive of scum and villainy (in backwards baseball caps and Oxford shirts and stilettos and tube skirts). There was really only one polite and diligent server/​attendant in the whole place, at least 3 surly bartenders/​bar backs ignored us from behind the empty bar. Tatu is pretty much a place where the packaging is more important than the substance.

Tatu came under new ownership a few months ago, and the interior has been remodeled. Now it looks a lot like a swanky lounge, with red plush couches, dark lighting, gilded accents, and a bunch of mirrors. I can imagine this place being a really fun place to hang out with friends on a Friday or Saturday night.
Unfortunately, to my disappointment, they no longer provide cotton candy and temporary tattoos. (What is a place called «Tatu» going to do without temporary tattoos?!) However, they’ve replaced them with an unbeatable deal — unlimited select sushi ($ 15/​person) and sake ($ 5/​person) on Wednesday nights from 5pm til close! Although service was slow, my friend and I had six rolls of sushi, including the China White (really good), Triple Lucky Wasabi (with wasabi peas inside), Hamachi Jalapeño (the jalapeño was a nice fresh accent), and Eel with avocado (featuring a sprinkling of toasted sesame on top — delicious!).
We estimated that we ate over $ 70 of sushi for only $ 30. In addition, the waitress gave us coupons at the end of our meal for free drinks on our next visit. Can’t wait to come back!

If you like pretentious hipness in the guise of pseudo-​cultural fare (Cheeto roll, but only ONE vegetarian roll) and artifacts, look no further. If you are wooed by the «sexy vibe» this place tries so very very hard to communicate, you have never been fucked right.
Overpriced, badly lit and reeking of the kind of slickness you associate with over-​cologned men with greasy hair and pinky rings leering at you over an outrageous $ 11 Sapporo. Oh and Ywuenglings are $ 6.50.
I attended two «art» shows held here, one of which I paid $ 10 to support a friend who was selling masterful prints. The first time he had his own show, and had it set up beforehand to have performers juggling fire. But the night of the opening, when the performers showed up, suddenly there was a «No Open Flame» rule. This was one of the main reasons he was having the show at Tatu to begin with, so this was a clear bait-​and-​switch, which we suspected had something to do with them not wanting to comp drinks for more people, ie. the performers.
The second show was a disaster, due mainly to the poor organization of the production company responsible for the event. But after spending $ 10 on the ticket, we still were forced to buy overpriced, average food and drink at the bar – another $ 30 each, leaving little left to spend on art. And then, during one of the 4 fashion shows they blasted loud enough so you couldn’t hear the bartender, one of the performers started swallowing and blowing fire – OPEN FLAME. Clearly, because the establishment was getting their money from the production company (which by the way didn’t pay the artists a dime out of those ticket sales, and didn’t even provide refreshments, so is basically a scam, stay AWAY from RAW EXPRESSIONS if you are a real artist), they didn’t have a «No Open Flame» rule anymore.
Basically, whoever owns this place is trying to make a buck by making it out to be some slick, wannabe Manhattan sushi nightclub or something, but in effect has joined the ranks of lascivious, cutesy and over-​Americanized sushi restaurants in vogue last decade, in order to fool us poor, culturally devoid Baltimoreans who are desperate to be seen somewhere perceived as «swanky.»
If you want class and swank, go to the Belvedere, or the Afghani restaurant in Midtown. Don’t give this place your money.

I went last night with a friend. The place is fantastic looking, but like Ra Suhsi it has no idea if it wants to be a sushi joint or a night club. However, we were seated right away, at 830, on a Friday night. That’s never a good sign.
The menu has typical Asian food, and a surprisingly limited sushi menu. No sashimi or nigiri? Also one of the rolls has Cheetos in it. If you truly think putting Cheetos in sushi is «cute» or «fun» or «innovative» I sincerely doubt you have good taste in sushi.
We got a salmon roll, California, and a tempura shrimp roll. Pretty basic sushi, but in a new place I tend to play it safe so I don’t get sick. The rolls were ok. They were not worth the $ 43 we spent on them.
The food is nothing to write home about. If this honestly makes your top ten list of «Good Sushi Places in Baltimore» you obviously have not had good sushi.
Our waitress however was good. Hence the two stars. If you enjoy sushi don’t go here.

We went here Sunday night to use up a living social coupon. All in all the ambience is swank and hip, the food was very good, but the service quality was lacking.
First the menu outside said that all day Sunday was ½ price appetizers, which was not the case for us.
After reviewing a very enticing menu, we made our selections only to find out they were out of almost everything we wanted. The explanation was that they had a large party upstairs that had used up almost all of the favorite selection. This would be understandable, I guess, except that they were also out of miso soup, which seemed like the food purchasing planning was probably a problem at this place.
When we did get our second choices, they were admittedly tasty. The firecracker spring roll came with a very nice accompanying sauce, that was on the menu as hot mustard, but tasted like a honey-​based kind of duck sauce (maybe a fill in because they also ran out of hot mustard sauce?). Both sushi rolls (Marilyn Monroll and Rock and Roll) were excellent. We got the fried rice mainly to fill us up, but it did exceed the low expectations that we had for it. Dessert was the «bread pudding» but tasted more like lava cake. The tart cherry sauce, and vanilla ice cream accompanied it very well.
Our waiter had pluses ad minuses. He was late to see us in the first place, was was very transparent about why several menu options were not available and did make recommendations for us. The food was also served in a very timely manner once we ordered it.
The bill was not a treat as the portions are modest and not cheap. We also had hoped that the place might offer us something complementary given how few options we had to choose from on the menu, but this was not the case. We did not receive the cotton candy martinit that others had mentioned. A final caution is that the menu online might not correspond to the one you get at your dinner table.
I think this place has a lot of potential, but on this occasion there were too many empty promises from the menu to make it a satisfying experience.

Finally, I get to Tatu after months and months of planning. Thank you Restaurant Week! lol!
First things first — when you walk in, you are immediately hit with the fact that Tatu is one of the sexiest spots in Baltimore, oozing appeal and swankiness. From the décor to the art, this is a place to see and be seen. Couple that with the amazingly great food I had and you had the makings of a a super fab date night.
Lucky for us, it was a double-​date night with one of our favorite couples. We all got the Restaurant Week menu. My meal consisted of a spicy tuna roll for an appetizer, garden stir fry with shrimp for my entrée, and a cherry chocolate cake bite for dessert. I washed it all down with (two) reverse margaritas, since I deserved it and all ;) Every course of my meal was wonderful, especially the tuna roll. While my garden stir fry with shrimp was solid, but I couldn’t help peeking over at my dinner companions plates. I can’t remember what they had, but it looked fantastic, so I think I will try something else when I come back. Notice that I say «when I come back.» That’s an absolute. In fact, I think I might be back this week while Restaurant Week is still going on! lol!

Had my birthday dinner here 2 years ago, and I’ve had plenty of great experiences at Tatu.
Food: The food is phenomenal. I’ve never been disappointed. Worth trying: singapore noodles, grilled salmon, cashew chicken, carrot cake cupcakes, banana cheesecake springrolls (with macadamia brittle!!), lotus blossom (white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate wonton shell with fresh berries and cream).
The desserts are absolutely INDULGENT.
Experience/​Ambiance: Great deal of attention given to the dining experience here. From the complementary sesame cucumber salad (spicy and delicious) to the cotton candy and temporary tattoos at the end of the meal, these folks spare no detail. The dining space is trendy and chic. The rich colors, plush couches, bamboo, elaborate design all had me sold.
Good place if you’re looking to treat yourself.

We went with a group of 6 the other night and it was not a great experience. It was not crowded at all but we were completely ignored by the server. The food was fine but not for the price range. The pork dumplings were very dry and I’ve had better at greasy Chinese food restaurants almost everywhere. A couple people got chicken stir fry and that was also very dry. My sister got something that she didn’t realize had peanuts in it so she sent it back and it turned up on the final check. We had to tell the server to take it off. The place seemed really pretentious.
The highlight of it was the bar and the atmosphere. The atmosphere is pretty unique and the bar has a lot of tasty drinks. On the dessert menu they have a chai cocktail that was amazing.
So come here when you want a drink and maybe some expensive sushi but stay away from most things on the menu and expect to be ignored. They also add tip to any group over 5 people. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

I can not let my four star review stay after my last visit to Tatu over the weekend. So sad, too, since my review was featured in the Weekly Unilocal just last week.
My friend chose Tatu as the restaurant for her birthday dinner. Coincidentally, it was Restaurant Week again so we we were also looking forward to that. We had a party of 10 and my husband and I along with another couple arrived before the rest of the group. The hostess seated us and our waitress came over and took our drink order. We looked over our menus so that we could decide what we were going to order when everyone else arrived. One of the first things I noticed was the Restaurant Week menu had been downgraded from a four course meal to a three course meal. Not to mention that the choices of food were not as appealing as the regular menu. Strike one.
After everyone else had arrived, we placed our orders. My husband and I both opted out of the Restaurant Week menu and ordered a couple of sushi rolls to start. I chose the Cashew Pao Chicken for my entrée and my husband ordered the Crispy Orange Beef. The couple next to us decided to go with the Restaurant Week menu and everyone else in the party just ordered drinks, appetizers and sushi rolls. Someone asked for the scorpion bowl, but the waitress told us that it was a seasonal drink and not available.
It took an incredibly long time for the rolls to come out and the whole time, we never saw our waitress. I was in dire need of a refill on my water and other people wanted a second round of drinks. We finally did get our rolls, but they were nothing special, and I thought they were pretty expensive compared to other restaurants in the area.
The time between the sushi rolls and our entrees was a good 45 minutes. We thought the waitress forgot to put in our entrée order! We were about to complain, but then a server finally brought our dishes out. The waitress was pretty absent throughout our entire time at the restaurant. Strike two.
Our waitress came to bring us the check and some temporary tattoos. However, there was no complimentary cotton candy like last time. Strike three.
I wish this experience could have been better. The service was slow and awful. It was a great visit the first time, but after the second visit, I don’t think my husband and I will be back again.