Hama Sushi

Hama is hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes you will get lucky with quick service, good quality fish, etc. Other times you will get unlucky with servers that forget about you, sashimi with bones/​spines, etc.
If you’re not in a hurry and want to roll the dice on your fish, Hama is not a bad spot. Otherwise there are better options very close by.

Our favorite place for sushi near home.
There are many options for sushi and Japanese food nearby, but this is the best.
It’s not new and trendy, but the sushi can’t be beat. No wild selections or pages and pages of cliched-​named mammoth sushi rolls. The basics are tried and true and served here artfully.
They happily customize your sushi selection for you as well. My favorite option: tuna tempura roll with added avocado. Comes out hot and crisp on the outside and cool raw tuna inside. Delicious!
Real ground wasabi is available on request, as are other delightful compliments: the gyoza dumplings, when fresh, are outstanding. The miso has rich deep flavor.
The servers know us and lead us nicely to their best fish each time. Be sure to ask them what’s fresh and best when you visit.
And do visit.

I don’t normally give restaurants five stars and reserve it for the best of the best. I love sashimi and it has to be fresh fresh fresh and generous. Not all sushi restaurants are generous. A picture tells the whole story that I took a pic of my lunch menu sashimi cause not only was it incredible … But look at the generous amounts of fish I got. I have closer Japanese but I’ll drive over to the clock tower for this restaurant

Delicious, reasonably priced, and quick. I had the Roger shrimp and spicy tuna and it couldn’t have been yummier.

Service has changed and not for the better. I rarely make it here for lunch which is when they reserve their best servers. The dinner wait staff has a bit of an attitude that makes you feel like you are inconveniencing them. They have also become inflexible for take out orders. I used to be able to order oyako Don buri for dinner even though it’s only on the lunch menu. No more. Sad that they have lost their friendly demeanor.
And now this! I placed an order for delivery and nearly an hour later I get a call from Unilocal Delivery that Hama has no one to deliver the order so they are cancelling it. So now at 8:15 pm I have no dinner and very few options. Please note — the delivery time was estimated at 15 minutes.

I’ve gotten food from here several times, and Hama works just fine. I’ve had most of the vegetarian rolls, chicken teriyaki entrée, Hama soup, and other items. I’d say my favorites are the soup and the sweet potato roll. The soup has wonderful flavors, and it’s not just your plain old miso soup; it has salmon in it! The sweet potato roll is crunchy, huge, and just plain delicious. The fish sushi is just alright. I think those marked as spicy could be spicier.
If you decide to call in an order for pickup, they are pretty spot on with estimating times. I’ve called in sushi orders and they typically say 10 minutes which worked out. If you decide to dine in, there are plenty of tables, so you probably won’t have to wait for one even in high traffic times. There is a back area with a more traditional Japanese sitting space. The staff could improve their approach with customers — they don’t make conversation, and when you ask for their opinion, they are not eager to give you one.
Bottom line: this is an okay spot for traditional Japanese fare as well as some new dishes in a calm atmosphere. Get the sweet potato roll!

We came in for lunch around 11:30am on a Tuesday. The restaurant was fairly empty as they had just opened. We were immediately seated. The server was quick and polite. Our food came out very quickly! We ordered potato shrimp (amazing), fried shumai (delicious), the Hama soup (miso with salmon, mushroom and a few extras) to start. Then we ordered nigiri sushi (tuna, salmon, tobiko, fatty waloo, sea scallop) and it was all extremely fresh and tasty. We also paid the additional $ 2 for fresh grated wasabi — it was worth it! Best wasabi we’ve had in a long time! The ginger was so spicy and was a great addition. We finished it off with a volcano roll which was delicious as well! The food was great and overall we had a wonderful experience. The only disappointment was the small selection of specialty rolls. There were only 6 – 10 (not including the normal rolls like avocado, California, spicy salmon, etc) and we wish they’d have more variety! They certainly have the quality!

Had Curry Udon. Omg, absolutely flavorful and fresh. Delicious, will come back to try more!

I had their chirashi. It was good but it had too much rice and not enough fish and the pieces were too thin, especially the salmon. The tuna was cut just right, though. Considering how much they skimp on the fish I think $ 18 is to expensive. I may stop by again if I am in the area to try their other dishes but I don’t think it’s worth going out of my way for.

15 year hiatus since my last visit (moved out of the area), and it was a delightful re-​discovery.
Hamachi (yellowtail) — outstanding
Salmon — like butta!
Suzuki (wild rockfish, in season) — first time we’ve been able to try, so delicious!
Unagi (eel) — good no complaints
Volcano roll — tuna with fresh jalapeño yum
Shrimp tempura appetizer also comes with vegetables
Kids chicken tempura bento box was awesome and a ton of food.
The staff were very sweet with our kids :)

All the food we had tasted great and the sushi was really fresh! A group of us had beef dumplings, steamed shrimp dumplings, shrimp tempura, a tuna roll, and salmon roll as appetizers all delicious. I had a lunch bento box that came with miso soup, salad, bulgogi beef (you can choose between 4 things for the meat), 6 pieces of sushi (3 california roll, 3 nigiri), rice and something I didn’t recognize, it looked like waldorf salad to me. I was not able to finish my meal because of all the appetizers we ordered, but everything was great. The only thing I did not try was the side that looked like waldorf salad.
The service was fast and friendly, the atmosphere was very casual and loud which is always nice if you want to converse with others and the prices were pretty good for the lunch special. I would definitely come back and get just sushi (I absolutely LOVE sushi, I got a bento box this time because I’ve never had one before and always wanted to get one.)

Okay sushi at a decent price. I got the sashimi lunch special which came with salmon, tuna, yellowtail, and escolar. The salmon sashimi tasted fresh and was very tender. Unfortunately, the tuna was a let down. Usually tuna is my favorite, however the tuna here did not seem fresh at all, and the texture seemed a bit tough. Also I was not a fan of the salad. There was way too much of the ginger dressing.

I ordered the Chicken Katsu and it made me sick the next day. The miso soup and salad were good though. I can’t speak for the veggie sushi my guest had but compared to other places, it was meh. I don’t think we’ll come back.

I cannot recommend this restaurant. It has the most unfriendly staff and the worst sushi I’ve ever had. plus they even charge for the hot tea. Don’t bother and go to KUMO sushi instead, it’s the much better deal and quality

First trip to Hama was excellent. Tuna heavy lunch including tuna tataki app, toro sushi, and spicy Tuna roll. Toro and tataki were fresh not frozen, and incredible flavor. Server and head chef were professional and polite. Try it, nuff said! 5 stars

We really enjoyed our meal at Hama last Friday. Very friendly staff. Great food.
We chose the Dragon Roll and the Crazy Roll. My favorite was the Dragon but both were very good and nice sized portions. Sorry I did not take photos, nice presentation with both.
The atmosphere is serene, very calming after DC area traffic.
There is soft background music. Some of it sounded like instrumental versions of some recognizable hymns. It all just enhanced the serenity of the experience.
We will be back again. Everyone is so pleasant there!

Hama means shore in Japanese. So anything that says shore along with sushi should be fresh right? Well yeah! I came here from an exhausting day of life and was craving some sashimi. I ordered the Tekka don (Tuna sashimi slices on a bed of sushi rice) and it did not disappoint. The tuna was cut fresh and thick. The only thing I would say to improve on the dish is when ginger is place on the tuna, it actually cooks the tuna. I was wondering why one piece of my tuna sashimi was cooked to a eyesore tan color.
The interior decorating is like walking into a bamboo garden. The sushi bar is to your immediate right when you walk in and the chefs there know what they’re doing. They often shout to each other, even though they’re a foot away from one another.
I have this place under my radar for good sushi cravings (especially when im at work). Got my omega 3s and my joints dont hate me :)

This is my first time here and I’m not disappointed at all. Great atmosphere. Pretty quiet. Nice place for a date. ;) I had the salmon and tuna combo roll and the Cajun tuna roll. Both delicious and so incredibly fresh. I also wanted to comment on the ginger. The ginger was so amazingly fresh and moist. Quite often you get a dried up piece of ginger at other places. They also have great miso soup here as well. Very flavorful. I’ve been to plenty of Japanese restaurants that really water it down. It was definitely a full-​body flavor. I’ll be coming back next time in the area.

Was visiting to the mitre campus today and they were having fresh sushi. Just so happened the chef was from, Hama sushi. What a delight. Had the spicy runways the shrimp tempura rolls. Wish I could have it everyday for lunch!

Three stars, no more, no less. If you’re in the area and you want a simple, delicious and reliable sushi experience, you can go to Hama. No worries. However, just less than a mile down the road in the Woodland Park center you’ll find Kumo, which is the winner for me in the battle between the two Herndon sushi restaurant mainstays.
Hama has nice décor, plenty of seating, and a private dining area that fits traditional Japanese etiquette, and while Hama gets crowded at lunch, they are practically empty in the evenings.
What really killed the mood for me the last time I was at Hama wasn’t just the large-​screen TV in the main dining area, but also the fact that it was playing a CNN documentary on a super-​grisly and not-​so-​pleasant-​for-​dinner subject. Could have definitely done without that during dinner!
Sashimi plates are more creative at Hama, but I’ve found fish cut quality and presentation to be of a higher caliber at Kumo. On our last visit, I ordered the Yellowtail Lovers plate, and for $ 22, I was impressed at the quantity of yellowtail-​inspired sushi and sashimi, but was a bit disappointed at some of the toughness and «gristle» in some of the pieces; I’m surprised the sushi chefs would serve these pieces in an otherwise nice presentation.
My husband’s chicken teriyaki was okay, but pretty boring. Appeared to be a pounded chicken breast sliced cross-​wise and smothered with teriyaki and a few courtesy sprinkles of sesame seeds.
Requisite miso and salad were okay, but miso lacked any real tofu and salad dressing was more watery than what you might like, especially if you’ve had the unique dressing at Reston’s Nikko sushi.
Hama feels a little run-​down, especially when compared to the other area sushi spots, and the service itself feels tired and lacking, especially in the evening hours.
While Hama isn’t any more or any less than A-​OK, my first recommendation to a friend or acquaintance in the area would be for Kumo sushi in the immediate vicinity for a superior sushi/​Japanese cuisine experience all-​around.