Hamachi Sushi

Big Red Flags On A Date:
1. You hate their stupid, stupid face.
2. They slap the waiter across the face at the slightest provocation.
3. There is drunken, incoherent screaming much earlier in the evening than normal.
Big Red Flags At A Sushi Restaurant:
1. It’s $ 13 for all you can eat lunch.
2. A less than stellar Unilocal rating.
3. There’s nobody in the place except for the old man sleeping in the booth who owns the place.
I know these things, and I’m normally not one to ignore big red flags, but we ate at Hamachi anyway. And it wasn’t bad!
Was it the best sushi I’ve ever eaten? Not even close.
Do they give you way, WAY too much rice? Of course, it’s AYCE sushi.
But is it a pretty incredible deal because you can also order hot food on the AYCE deal as well? Yep.
For $ 20 (including a generous tip that the server totally deserves because of the multiple, annoying orders that we made), you can get miso soup, salad, fried calamari, shumai, gyoza, chicken teriyaki (!), many other items, and all the sushi you would ever want to eat in a sitting.
Yes, I did feel awful after this meal, but that was more because of the absurd quantity of food rather than any sort of quality issue.

This 2 star is for their service. Their waitstaff is rally friendly since it’s family owned. The resturant is also huge. BUT their sushi is really bad. I order their ayce sushi and I was hugely dissatisfied. I believe their soy sauce was expired because there was a very weird taste in it. Their rice was also very hard as well. Hopefully they can improve their ingredients because like I said, the people who runs this place are very nice. If they can get better ingredients, I believe this could be one of the more busier sushi spots in the area because their price can compete with saki sushi. –3 stars for the food.

This is the only place I go to for all you can eat sushi. Their prices are great and the food is pretty good. I stick to their specialty rolls because I feel like their house rolls have too much rice (for example Alaskan roll). The service is somewhat slow and un-​attentive but this does not deter me because the food has always been up to par.

My boyfriend and I came here for an early Valentine’s day dinner. The waitress (there’s only one) showed us to our table, and then walked back to where she was standing (forgetting to ask us if there’s anything we would like to drink). I gave her the benefit of the doubt and let that slide since it wasn’t such a big deal. Since we’re talking about how the waitress forgot to ask us for the beverage we’d prefer, let’s start with the service of this restaurant. I am going to say that the service at this restaurant is very poor. You can argue and say that there’s only one waitress, but I highly doubt anybody would expect the waitress to be very occupied when we were the only customers in the restaurant. When we actually got our beverages, she forgot to come around for refills. As for the sushi chef, there’s only one as well. Our orders took very long to come but I can give them the benefit of the doubt and say that there were probably many calls for takeout/​delivery (I highly doubt it though. See below for why). Now, onwards to the quality of the sushi.
My boyfriend ordered the following: 2 kani salad, 2 sashimi platters (only salmon), 10 salmon pieces, 4 surf clam, 2 sea urchin, 1 spicy salmon roll, 1 spicy kani roll, 2 fluke pieces, 2 salmon roe pieces, 5 eel pieces, 1 garlic shrimp, and 1 shrimp tempura. Before I get into the details of orders, I have to say that none of the food ordered were presentable.
90% of the kani salad was cucumber, which was quite disappointing (they should call it cucumber salad instead). The Sashimi platter came with 4 pieces of salmon but it wasn’t fresh (it was losing its orange color). The spicy salmon roll was poorly made and had no taste. A traditional spicy salmon roll has crushed salmon that is mixed with spicy mayo but at this restaurant, the chef made it as if it was a salmon roll with very little to no spicy mayo. Similar with the spicy kani roll, it consisted of a piece of kani with little to no spicy mayo (traditional spicy kani roll has the crushed kani mixed with spicy mayo). In terms of the spicy mayo, there was a very strong taste of sriracha and almost no taste of mayo. As for the sushi pieces that was ordered, we only got 8 salmon pieces, 2 surf clams, 2 sea urchin, 3 eel pieces. The pieces were really big but that’s because it was packed with rice. Every piece that we grabbed had rice that would fall apart. Additionally, the rice was too hot. We didn’t get a chance to try out the rest of our order because we were so disappointed that we cancelled our remaining orders. Of course, we weren’t going to be anal and not eat what was already made so we asked the waitress to give us whatever that’s already made and cancel everything else. The waitress comes back with a kani roll with crunch, and a tuna roll with crunch. First of all, we didn’t order those. Secondly, we have «No crunch on all orders» written on top of the paper that we used to order, and «no crunch» next to all of our orders that includes crunch. My boyfriend didn’t want to put the food to waste, and so he wanted to finish the food. However, after eating the first tuna roll, he couldn’t eat the rest of it because it was absolutely disgusting. Clearly the tuna was not fresh either (yes, it was losing all of its red color). We had the waitress double check our paper to confirm that we, in fact, didn’t order what she gave us. We asked for the bill, and left. 100% sure we’re never coming back here.
On the good note, the garlic shrimp and shrimp tempura was good. Additionally, the restaurant is very spacious. If you’re looking for a spacious restaurant over the quality of the food, then come here because there’s so much space with little to no customers. I would suggest that if you’re going to spend around $ 20 on a AYCE sushi, go somewhere else that’s actually worth the money.
TLDR: Service is very poor. Sushi isn’t fresh or presentable. Go somewhere else for AYCE with $ 20 bucks. Never coming back here.

I don’t eat sushi, so allow me to expose my potential bias upfront. However, they offer a big enough selection of other foods to satisfy me!
My boyfriend and I have eaten here twice. Both times, he has gone nuts with the sushi; partially because he loves sushi, and partially because, according to him, their prices are reasonable.
The interior is comfortable. Both times we came in, it was pretty empty; however, this didn’t serve as a reflection of our experience with the quality of their food or their service. I’m going to cite our unusual days and times for going out to eat in this instance.
We shared the vegetable fried rice as an appetizer on both occasions. For those who despise white grains (like myself), I have good news: they will use brown rice to prepare your dish, upon request. The veggie fried rice was delicious, and arrived in the form of a generous helping.
The beef teriyaki was a pleasant surprise. Since it’s a sushi restaurant, and therefore contains a limited selection for other dishes, I will admit that I harbored suspicions about how satisfied I would feel upon my departure. They lived up to my finnicky taste buds, in terms of both portion and quality.
The people who work here are very cordial when we come in, and I like that they show appreciation for our patronage. I have seen some negative reviews on here, and I’m not a sushi expert, but I truly have no negative commentary to offer here (there is a reason we returned for more!). Would this be my first choice for a dinner venue? No, but given the circumstances (aka, my disdain for sushi), I’m going to be fair and give them the 5 stars I feel they deserve.

Appetizers are good.
However, sushi has too much rice!!!
Can’t even taste the fish anymore…

Ambiance: Walked in and there was no staff to be found. The location is oddly split in what looks like two parts, with a two door that connects the areas. Dimly lit (not the romantic kind). Because of the large space, sitting there seems so out of place. I was very confused why the waiter just didn’t seat everyone on one side to save themselves the hassle of checking both areas.
Service: subpar. We were not served water until asked… Waiter forgot two orders.
Food: all you can eat buffet lunch
* Sushi — while the fish is bigger, the amount of rice is SO much more! Plus, the rice was not the correct sushi rice…
* Kani salad — not too bad at all. It wasn’t water (as most cucumbers would be). Like 60% cucumber and 40% kani
* Avocado salad — just give me all your avocado, yum! The lettuce is a bit awkward though — it’s all the chunky pieces
Restrooms: clean

I stepped in for an all-​you-​can-​eat sushi lunch on a Sunday and wanted to leave by the time my first dish arrived. You get what you pay for but it baffles me that a sushi restaurant can get so many things wrong:
— Wrong type of rice or it was just plain overcooked/​watery.
— No vinegar in the rice.
— Sushi pieces are way oversized. Fish fell off the that gigantic wad of rice. (This is coming from someone who loves to eat rice.)
— The fish had no flavor whatsoever. There is natural flavor to salmon and the fact that it was flavorless mushy gush worried me.
I understand filling customers up with lots of rice is a common AYCE tactic that restaurants use but please, just slice your fish half the size as other restaurants do.
Service:
I expect a server to offer me a glass of water by the time I’m seated and not when I’m frantically trying to wave down someone to get the slightest attention. There are 2 sides to this restaurant. They don’t have enough servers to pay adequate attention to any of their customers!
Just shut one side of the restaurant down and keep half the capacity. Save half the rent. Hire actual employees; not your relatives. Your waiting staff looks exhausted and as a paying customer, I don’t feel in anyway welcomed to dine here.

I came here twice, once for the sushi buffet and the other for the regular dine in. The sushi buffet was more like a rice buffet. The rolls were huge and was wrapped tightly in an unnecessarily large amount of rice. I guess this was their way of saving money and getting us full quicker. I was almost unable to finish the first round of sushi. I do like their sushi pieces though, the eel was very good. The other time I came, I ordered the seafood and vegetable yaki udon. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t that great either, it was a little bitter. All in all, it was just a «meh» experience.

So much fail at this place.
Place wasn’t that busy looking, but service was slow. Seriously slow. Server came and dropped off tea but we had to pour it ourselves. We ordered AYCE and ordered a bunch of rolls and appetizers. The rolls that came were wrong. There were cali rolls but we didn’t order them and the rainbow roll we ordered came with the wrong ingredients (salmon on the top and inside). The Kani salad was 95% cucumber with 3 shreds of Kani. The server came to us with the same dish twice and we had to tell her that we had it already.
The description of each roll is misleading. The waitress was confused as well. The chef told our waitress what was supposed to be on the roll but when it came out, it was something else. We also ordered rolls that never came and had to let our waitress know. We didn’t mind much since it was AYCE anyway.
Tl;Dr — slow service, wrong rolls received, lots of confusion.

Are you looking for below average service? Do you have 3 hours to spare for a meal? Do you look forward to getting a surprise from the chef every time you order something?
If you answered yes to all these questions, Hamachi Sushi may be exactly what you’ve been searching for!
Waitresses disappear for 20 minutes at a time on a night where the restaurant cannot even be considered half full. They seem to have no idea what is supposed to be on the menu and seem oblivious to what it means when the lid is taken off the teapot (need more tea). Despite our perusing of the order sheet for the AYCE, the waitress asked if we were done ordering for the night (the same waitress who, at the beginning of the night, advertised the AYCE option and invited us to order until we were full) — after one round of orders came out.
I wish I could say the food is the redeeming factor that customers return for but I simply cannot give you a straight forward answer. Honestly, I’m not sure what rolls I received but it certainly wasn’t what I ordered, if their menu descriptions are to be trusted. The chef claims that the rolls were made correctly but crabmeat and salmon are far cries from being similar. Their salmon teriyaki was tasteless; the Kani salad was 90% cucumber with what looked like ¹⁄₃ of a crab stick; oysters were burnt; the fried calamari could be mistaken for chewing gum.
This review is not for a 0-​star rating, but actually a 1-​star rating for their fried rice and their chicken yakitori, which were fairly edible. My group ventured to this restaurant after Nagoya, our regular place, was filled up for the night. Really wish we would’ve just waited the 10 minutes for the next open table.

I always come here for their Hibachi, and it never disappoints. Out of the places where I tried Hibachi (including places in Florida), this will always be my favorite one.

Not bad, okay!
I came here for the lunch all you can eat. The other people in the group suggested to come here because of some of their good special rolls and other items, which can be found on their dinner menu. If you come here, I would highly suggest the dinner all you can eat menu! The rolls looked wonderful and they have more of a variety on the menu compared to the lunch menu. I would say that their dinner menu is worth the price and eats, but like I said, I came for the lunch.
I just had a lot of salmon and avocado, etc. They were all pretty good quality. The calamari was also pretty delicious! Every thing else tasted consistent to the other sushi restaurants I have been to as well.
It is also a spacious restaurant. Many available seats and even private rooms and booths.
I may be back. If I do, would likely try the dinner ayce menu.

The service was good…
The food was very good …
Why only 3 stars?
We had planned on doing a night at a hibachi restaurant… show and all…
I know that is not everyone’s thing –but THIS is what we wanted and the previous restaurant here was a full time hibachi restaurant.
Unfortunately, on Sunday Feb 15, 2015 there was no hibachi –food only cooked in kitchen. It was fine… service was fine… but when you are going out with a small group for one thing and it is not available… you can not get past that disappointment. THIS CLEARLY IS NOT A FULL TIME HIBACHI RESTAURANT ANYMORE…
Not aware that this location changed ownership, and
We were VERY disappointed to learn that hibachi was not available… but here is the kicker… we weren’t told «for sure» that there was no hibachi until after we were seated at a table near the door and served drinks… it appeared as if this was a «holding table» while the waitress went to check when I explained we were here for hibachi. By the time she came back –our coats were off and when she told us there would be no live hibachi tonight… some of our party decided –albeit reluctantly– to stay.
Again my food was 5 stars and service maybe 4 stars but we can’t get beyond that disappointment of no hibachi…
Next time: CALL ANY HIBACHI RESTAURANT TO BE SURE THEY DO HIBACHI and have back-​up (full time) hibachi restaurants available.
*A side note: stopped by two other Brooklyn Hibachi restaurants and they said they ALWAYS have hibachi (live at table) available. (We never had a problem with the previous owner here either.)

There have been times where the food was really good. I had a groupon or
gift certificate, and they wouldn’t let me use it for the AYCE. I nearly left that night, but I wanted to try it badly enough. The best sushi in the area is Tenzan, and I wanted to see how this measured up.
On that particular day, when I brought my gift certificate but could not use it, I found the food to be great. A distant 2^nd to Tenzan. Fresh fish. Great White Tuna. Unhappy that the spicy salmon roll and spicy tuna roll have tempura crumbs added for ‘crunchy’ filler — I have never seen this act performed anywhere but in NYC. This is a safe dish for Celiacs and gluten-​intolerant people, unless you’re in NYC. Danger! I had to force my date to eat the dish, which he doesn’t like, because it was AYCE. The squid was on the verge of turning sour. It was hot and tasted like a balloon. The mackerel was not so good either. The mussels were nasty, and the fried clam-​things were reported to me to be so disgusting that it was hard to swallow.
Noted on this visit: Never order mackerel, squid, spicy tuna roll, spicy salmon roll, mussels, or the fried clams.
The next time I came, It was okay. Not so fresh, but okay for the price. I really like raw fish, which is where you’re going to taste it if the food isn’t as fresh as it should be. It was good enough to be worth coming back.
I went last night, and it was the last time. The scallops were metallic and pumped full of fillers. There was some kind of connective tissue stuck to the scallops, which is usually trimmed off before preparing. I wanted to throw them away, but couldn’t because it was AYCE. The salmon teriyaki had too much of the grey fatty layer left on the filet — there’s a fine line between acceptable and gross. The eel in the dragon roll was straight up rotten, and we had to gag it down to not pay extra. We ordered beef teriyaki but got chicken. Noted on this visit: never order scallops, eel.
Note that the price of the AYCE is $ 17.95, which is going to be nearly $ 40 for 2 after tax, and you still have to tip. Definitely not worth the $ 45 I paid for it. I threw up in my mouth on the way home because it left me with a weird tickle feeling,
List of what’s good:
Tuna sashimi or nigiri
Salmon sashimi or nigiri
Octopus nigiri
Tamago nigiri
White Tuna sashimi
futomaki
Sometimes good:
Cooked teriyaki dishes
Miso soup — can be watery, seaweed in wads
green salad
White tuna nigrii — why is it inferior when the sashimi version is good?
Never ever:
Squid
Eel
Scallops
Mussels
Clams
Steamed vegetables
steamed spinach
I feel bad because they’re quite nice people, and the price is reasonable for AYCE, but I can’t justify spending money here when there are amazing meals to be had on the same block for the same price. There are just too many limitations on what can be guaranteed fresh on the menu. What if I order a tuna avocado roll and find that the tuna isn’t fresh, or that they’ve added tempura crunch? It’s a risk with AYCE, and I’d feel like a jerk sending it back.

The water in the aquarium needs to be refilled. gangster Chinese guy in a turtle neck sneezed on the kani salad. Health department gave this place an A. More like «A tragedy».

It’s not that bad. Food was just ok. I think the problem is that we can’t see past the SHIKI. Me and my husband were great customers of the SHIKI for years and then we moved to S.I. On New Year’s Day I felt like sushi so we came here. To my surprise its own by completely different people. It was pretty sad to find out this way but we stayed and gave it a chance. For a basic sushi/​hibachi it’s great. But if you want the SHIKI it doesn’t compare. Service was a little slow but I understand it’s new and will get better with time. The hibachi wasn’t so tasty. Sushi rolls were basic. I wish them luck but I won’t be back. I can’t cross a bridge for basic. Fyi: no kids menu.

The food and service were both quite mediocre.
The tuna avocado rolls didn’t taste fresh. The tuna appeared to be dark brown in color… and not the usual deep red color that I’m used to.
The shrimp cucumber rolls were meh as well — the shrimp-​to-​cucumber ratio in the rolls was a bit disappointing. Hamachi — a bit more shrimp, a bit less cucumber, please. The soy sauce felt week, maybe too watered-​down (?).
The service was also so-​so… they were taking care of a bigger party of 7 people, and delayed our order to accommodate them. As a result, it took too long to get our stuff. A chef who is taking care of a large order should not be expected to also take care of the other orders in the restaurant. There were 4 other small parties seated while we were there, and it seems all of us were having to wait more that expected.
The waitress did not know what the rolls were. We asked her about the squash rolls, she was not aware there were squash rolls on the menu. When we pointed it out to her, she still kept insisting they were not squash rolls. When the manager corrected her, she came back to our table, somewhat embarrassed, and still not know anything about it. When we said that we did not like the taste of the pickle rolls, she just shrugged her shoulders, and walked away as if to say «Too bad!» We noticed later that they charged us for them anyways. Wow! I really dislike when restaurants do that!
The ambience was also mediocre, although we can see they are trying to make it better than the previous Shiki experience. They seem to be in the process of renovating the space. The new choice of paint is not great… the bright orange and black color scheme feels too much like a fast food chain-​like place. In spite of the bright orange paint job, the space still has a bit of a sad and dark. Too much black colored furniture. The lighting is not right. They could use pendant or shade lamps hung at every table instead to make the experience more warm. The commercial recessed lighting being used now does not provide adequate lighting. Hamachi — Please visit Nagoya next doors to take in some inspiration. Consider giving your space a simple Japanese modern feel.

Not bad. The place was empty but it was a Sunday night so we didn’t expect a crowd. The all you can eat sushi for $ 18 caught our eye. My friend chose that option and got more than she bargained for. WAY too much food for one person to finish and the «all you can eat» deal is for one person only. Also, if you don’t finish it you’re charged for the leftovers even if you decide to take them home. I didn’t like that aspect of it but I guess they have to make their money. The food was good though, nothing amazing but it was good.

This spot has opened in the location that was for many years Shiki. Shiki was a decade ago one of the best Japanese plaes in Bensonhurst but it has been in steady decline for years and after several B ratings and 80 percent off specials the place finaly sold to new owners I am here to say it has not improved in fact this is an early contender for worst meal of 2014.
I entered to an empty place, now this spot is bigger than most sushi spots in the area so it felt empty. Now Shiki was always one of the best looking Japanese spots and it still is, in fact uncovering the windows has added to the nice look of the place. I am seated and place my order, the first hiccup as the server has no idea what the Tasuta Age I ordered as an app is, he keeps saying «hot soup?» eventually nodding and walking away only to return again confused, I say just bring me a menu and I will point. He still seemed unsure what it was and had to confer with another guy. To be honest when it came I was sorry he finally figured it out as this usually yummy Japanese fried chicken chunk app was tiny little turdlike looking greasy pieces.
Before they came however another waiter noticed my confused first guy didnt bring me any tea, he asked if I wanted and I said yes and a glass of ice water. I got a tepid glass of water with no ice and a tepid cup of nasty tea, in fact the tea and water were the same temp! Gross! I eventually ordered an Asahi beer which was actually cold and the best thing on the table.
The Miso soup was by far the worst I have had, it tasted like hot water. One spoon was it as I sat and watched the small amount of Miso seperate from the water. The Sushi I ordered was also bad. The Sushi Regular was 8 generic pieces, the same whitefish 3x in fact and dull tuna, salmon and more white fish. The California Roll which I can eat anywhere was oddly tough to chew and was 80 percent cucumber, is imitation crab and avocado that expensive!
Seriously I am relieved I didnt get sick. Thats the best thing I can say.