Ajisai Japanese Fusion

If you don’t want to read this whole review, here’s the takeaway — when I came, the sushi was mediocre at best, and the service was poor. I likely won’t be back.
If you want to know why, continue reading.
My wife and I came on a Saturday night during Triangle Restaurant Week. We decided on Ajisai because of all the restaurants listed, it got the best reviews on Unilocal,and the restaurant week menu looked promising. When we arrived and went in, no one acknowledged that we were there. There was even a waiter at the front figuring out his check, but he didn’t even look at us or tell us someone would be with us soon. Ok, whatever — it happens. sometimes. We eventually get seated at a booth, and wait about 10 minutes before our waitress even comes to introduce herself. Ok, whatever, you’re busy — it happens.
We end up ordering, and I’ll just mention that we didn’t get our food in a very timely manner, but we’ve already established that they’re busy (and understaffed) at this point. After our food comes out, my wife had thought her second course came with another hand roll. The waitress tells her it doesn’t, and tells her she can give her a menu to check for herself. There was a hint of attitude in the way she said it, but whatever. My wife says yes, and the waitress gets visibly annoyed at the request, and doesn’t really hide it the rest of the evening. Really? Really? Ok, whatever, bad service — it happens.
Onto the food.
For starters, we ordered the Truffle White Tuna and Rock Shrimp.
The Truffle White Tuna was seared white tuna and black roe with a spicy lemon sauce. Not that portion size is everything, but there were only four thin slices of white tuna on a large plate. Did it taste good? Eh, it was ok. Would it have been worth it if I had ordered it from the menu? In my opinion, no. The tuna was not that tender, but the sauce was enjoyable.
The Rock Shrimp were basically deep fried shrimp with some coconut wasabi sauce. The sauce was bland, but the shrimp were deep fried nicely. It’s easy to deep fry shrimp and have the shrimp get tough and chewy. This shrimp stayed pretty soft in this case, which I appreciated.
For our main dishes, we ordered the Omakase Sushi Combo and the Omakase Sashimi Combo.
The Omakase Sushi Combo came with four pieces of sushi and the Tomo Roll, which was a spicy crunch salmon and avocado roll with seared salmon and white tuna on top. I got the salmon, tuna, white tuna, and eel for my sushi pieces. The salmon was probably my favorite piece. Other than that, I was not very impressed with my sushi pieces. My tuna was tough and chewy. The white tuna was a little better, but not by much. The eel was just ok, too. The tomo roll was decent — it was generously filled and topped with fish, and they did a good job of masking the average quality of the fish with some kind of spicy sauce. Meh.
The Omakase Sashimi Combo came with six pieces of sashimi and the Angry Dragon Roll, which was filled with shrimp tempura and spicy tuna, and topped with spicy crab meat. The whole thing was wrapped in soy bean paper, which was more for show than anything. The quality of the sashimi matched the quality of the sushi I described above — average, at best. My wife got a cut of seared salmon, which was poorly seared — only on one side, and for too long. The Angry Dragon Roll was probably the most disappointing part of all the main dishes. It lacked any kind of flavor, and only had the crunch of the tempura to make up for all that it lacked.
For dessert, we tried the Mochi Ice Cream — one red bean and one mango. Big mistake. They tasted just like the ones you can get at Trader Joe’s. Plus some whipped cream. To be fair, they may not have actually gotten the mochi ice cream from Trader Joe’s, but it definitely wasn’t made in-​house, and if you want to save some money and get the same results, skip the mochi ice cream here, and stop by Trader Joe’s on the way home. You’ll have more left over for later, too.
It’s a great location for the restaurant, and parking was no problem, but I was unfortunately very disappointed by my first (and likely only) experience here. It’s unfortunate, because I feel like there should be good reasons why my fellow Unilocalers have given Ajisai such good ratings. Perhaps it was lost on me.

I came here with my boyfriend for late lunch, around 2:30 pm. I was happy to find that it was almost empty! It could be busy around lunch time. I think this place is worth 3.5 –4 starts. 4.5 starts is kind of overrating.
We ordered the two roll lunch special, sashimi lunch special, Ajisai roll, Voking roll and sake. I know it was a lot!!! We were really hungry, first meal of the day at 2:30 pm, which also ended up as the only meal of the day.
I didn’t like the miso soup here, so plain and nothing inside. The salad comes with lunch special was also the most basic salad, nothing special. We only had one bite of the salad. The sashimi was fresh, but not very smooth. The temperature was a little higher then what it should be. Maybe our waiter didn’t serve it to us immediately when it was ready. The tuna avocado roll and eel avocado roll for lunch special were just the normal rolls. Did not really stand out.
Then we tried the Voking roll and Ajisai roll. We like both rolls! Full of flavor! These two rolls definitely improved my impression for this place.
My suggestion is if you want to be full with reasonable price, choose the lunch special rolls. If you really want to try tasty rolls, choose their special rolls. The sashimi didn’t impress me.

A step above most sushi restaurants around town. The chef was nice one day and gave us some samples of things he was working on.

Great deals for sushi! Not a bad price for good quality. Fish is very fresh, I recommend anything with salmon.

I am a fan of this place. My boyfriend and I were looking for something light and we thought sushi would be perfect. They have some really good lunch specials! I got two rolls for 8.75 and it came with miso soup and this REALLY good, really fresh salad that had a fantastic ginger dressing. I don’t even normally like ginger dressing. They have a pretty standard selection of vegetarian rolls, but their «vegetable roll» is definitely one of the better ones i have had. My boyfriend had the kitchen lunch bento which had a great variety of tempura, sushi, dumplings, and rice. We also got a free edamame with the Unilocal check in deal. With prices like this and the proximity to NCSU I would definitely come back for lunch when I don’t feel like eating on Hillsborough street. Also shout out to our waitress (I think her name was Heather) who was fantastic and took great care of us!
My only complaint is that the water had wayyyy to much ice in it :(

Outstanding
Probably one of the best sushi restaurants I have ever eaten at. We just asked the waitress to bring us what she liked and we were not disappointed.
We even got a sushi roll that was presented to us with flames.
Food was delicious and presentation of food was amazing .
I will definitely head back as I travel through Raleigh.

Enticed by Unilocal reviews I added Ajisai to my triangle sushi investigation and came away wondering how they have 4.5 stars. My husband and I dined here for lunch last Friday and enjoyed everything but the sushi. Service was fantastic, no complaints there. Sake, beer, and wine were all reasonable priced and tasty. We enjoyed the free Haru Maki with Unilocal check-​in which were good spring rolls with a nice dipping sauce. I chose the 3 roll lunch special for $ 11.50 that was served with authentic miso soup and an average side salad. My rolls were average at best with the fish on the down slope of fresh and served at a temperature above 40 degrees. My husband went with his litmus of a Rainbow and I believe the Dynamite Roll. Again average at best with the crab meat on top of the specialty roll dried out and reminding us of play-​doh hair. Maybe we ordered the wrong items or came at the wrong day or time but our first impression was not good. We both had bathroom issues the next day and that sealed the deal for us on not returning.

The Unilocal check-​in bonus plus the great cost of lunch special sushi means that I’m perfectly full leaving here every time. The environment is welcoming, the staff are friendly, and the sushi is good! What more can you ask for?

I love the unique sushi options this place has to offer! My bf and I split 5 different dishes to try a variety of options. We got a free app for checking in on Unilocal (you have the option to get edamame or haru maki aka spring rolls). Below are some details on the items we ordered:
Haru Maki — Small spring rolls. Nothing much to add about them they are just your typical fried spring roll. This item is 3 pieces.
Wasabi tuna dumpling — very cool item! The tuna is shaped into a dumpling almost like a crab rangoon. This item is 2 pieces.
Mini pizzas — 4 mini sushi bites that are each piled on top of tortilla chips or something of the sort. Also a very unique choice.
Sweet Heart Roll — 8 pieces total. There are a total of 4 hearts that come with the dish, each split into 2.
Fireman Roll — my favorite dish from what we ordered. This roll literally comes out on fire! Fireman roll is one of the specials so I am not sure if it is always offered. If the roll is available when you visit I would try it out! There is some heat to the roll so I would avoid this item if you don’t like spicy food.

I just moved to this area and I love sushi and they do a great job here. Always good food and very nice service

Spoke with server and not only do they offer GF soy at table, but if requested will cook with it so not just sashimi, but fried rice and other meals can be made safe.
They have a couple items on their menu I haven’t seen at a sushi restaurant before like an appetizer of salmon wrapped around avocado and king crab with wasabi. As well as some of my favorites like naruto roll which is a cucumber wrapped roll.
Really well prepared sushi. Good place will be back.

Heard so many great things about this restaurant finally had the chance to go in recently must say they did not disappoint. We had sweet and sour soup and mushroom soup both were terrific, the white tuna with garlic was a nice surprise very mild and super fresh. My vegetable tempura was absolutely delicious but not hot. I must say that was disappointing … The shrimp teriyaki was your basic shrimp teriyaki nice size shrimp with a semi sweet teriyaki sauce. All in all a very good meal and outstanding service. Shout out to Kelly our hostess super nice and friendly made us feel right at home.

Wow. Where do i start. Reservation at 8 seated at 8:40. Manager on duty «at the time» was not knowledgable about management when we asked how long she said she was gonna «push» okay interesting. ?My lychee martini was served in a glass that was chipped at the top and bottom. We had 12 people, needless to say we ended up going to some where else to eat because we’re not full. Smaller portion, presentation is not all there. Please save your time and money don’t come here just because it’s Cameron village. I wish that Unilocal has «0» Star.

This place is legit! My sushi roll was not on the menu but it was definitely top shelf! I’m coming back for sure with my family! The sushi chef even gave me a dish on the house. I’m really glad I stopped in. Go ahead and come by and find out for yourself!

I came here after a day of holiday shopping with my mother a few days before Christmas. It was fairly quiet when we got there shortly before noon, though when we left it was getting pretty busy — not altogether surprising for the craziness of Cameron Village during the holidays!
We were quickly seated by the hostess and greeted by our server, who gave us waters and quickly came back with our order of hot sake. The place has a dark, sort of romantic/​moody décor, with dark walls and neat prints all around. We ordered both salads with ginger dressing & miso soup; I used to notice that this automatically came with many sushi orders at restaurants, but this doesn’t seem to be the case anymore — not just an Ajisai thing, but I still wish it were!
Their menu is expansive and includes things for that person (my dad!) who doesn’t happen to like sushi. What I also really liked is that many of the special sushi rolls are pictured, so there are really no surprises with what you’re getting! We ordered a basic roll with yellowtail and green onion as well as two special rolls: the Angry Dragon and the Viking Roll. The Angry Dragon has shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, and papaya and is topped with crab meat and soy bean paper. It also is served with a basil oil drizzle on the side, which was interesting. It tasted delicious, but it wasn’t very strong nor very much so I’m not sure how much it added to the sushi. The Viking Roll went over huge with the both of us; it’s got eel, avocado, and crunchy tempura on the inside, and is covered in tuna, yellowtail, and salmon with the spicy sauce. One of the best rolls I’ve had in recent memory.
Overall, great lunch with very attentive service. That, and our sushi plate had a small (4 inches), light-​up Christmas tree in the corner decorated with veggies and tempura flakes to make it look like snow. That was quite the presentation!

I tried Ajisai for the first time and I was definitely impressed with the quality of sushi. All of the fish was very fresh. Don’t come here expecting BOGO rolls like you can at many sushi places in the area. You’ll pay a little more than the BOGO places, which is fine with me because the quality is much better. I also liked that they had a lot of variety of fish in their sushi and they didn’t limit themselves to the more Americanized sushi with just shrimp tempura, imitation crab, and spicy tuna.
We ordered 4 different specialty rolls and a couple of eel sushi pieces a la carte, which was the perfect amount for 2 people. For our specialty rolls we ordered the Ajisai, Viking, Spicy Mama, and Nobu rolls. All of them were really good and beautifully presented, but my favorites were the Ajisai and Viking rolls. We also took advantage of the check-​in offer using the Unilocal app. You can choose between free edamame or Japan spring rolls. We went with the spring rolls, which were ok, but I probably would have preferred the edamame. They did forget to initially put the order in for the spring rolls and it came out after our sushi.
Since it was a cold night, we also opted for some hot Japanese green tea which hit the spot while we waited on our food. They refilled it often so our tea never went cold.
As for the atmosphere, we went on a Sunday night so it was a little quiet and the restaurant was about half full. The service wasn’t exactly the quickest, but I think that is the case for most sushi restaurants in general. I definitely plan to visit Ajisai again when I am craving some sushi.

The best hot & sour soup in Raleigh! Discovered Ajisai last year on a trip to Cameron Village and I’m so glad I did. The sashimi selection is impressive and the rolls are so fresh and consistently yummy. I’ve become a Manhattan roll loyalist (tuna, avocado, yellowtail and a jalapeño citrus sauce that’s to die for). The hot and sour soup is soul-​warming. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.
The takeout is also great– I was feeling under the weather a few weeks ago and the hot and sour soup and vegetable gyoza were the perfect pick-​me-​up.

What? You’ve never been here? Ah I know, I don’t understand myself anymore.
I love sushi & Asian food so much, but I don’t know why I had never been here before.
So today, I finally visited Ajisai for lunch. They were pretty busy when I got there but as soon as I sat down, the lady who worked there got me water and menu. I was so busy looking around and checking this place out for few minutes. I loved their interesting pictures (I’m not sure y’all saw that drawing or not but this Asian lady with long sword… and sushi was on that sword.!) on the wall and I liked their dark but cozy atmosphere inside.
Also, what I loved it even more was. they had Check-​in Offer! We chose Edamame (salty green bean) and it was my first time trying Edamame. Yes, it was my first time. A lady who worked there was like «What? You never had this before? It’s so good!» They also had many different options for lunch menu, but we both decided to get Lunch box and oh gosh, all of them sounded so good! I am a salmon lover, so I decided to get Lunch box B, which included salmon, salmon sashimi, and rolls.
Few minutes after we ordered our appetizer and main menu, we had our Edamame and hot miso soup first. Both of them were really hot, but good. And that hot Edamame was so yummy! I felt healthier just because Edamame was so green and yummy (well it’s bean, of course it is healthy. duh)! I liked the fact that they added salty taste, it was not too simple but not too much.
After our appetizer, we got our main menu. It was pretty big Lunch box and they all looked good. Salmon was SO soft. As soon as I put them in my mouth, they were like melting!!! Ah, I loved it, loved it! I also liked their tiny cute rolls, too. I am not a big fan of Guacamole, but it was pretty good!
I was so full after my lunch box! I honestly thought that this place is a little bit pricey, just because it is in Cameron Village but their lunch box was $ 13, which isn’t that bad! And plus, Check-​in offer? I think that was a great deal!
I loved my lunch at Ajisai and I had a great time with Lauryn! I will def come back here soon!

I was quite surprised to find such a delicious sushi place just when driving by! What a lucky coincidence!
2 words: Lunch Special.
3 rolls for 11 bucks? Pretty tough price to beat anywhere. Plus it came with a Miso Soup and a Ginger Salad.
The squid was tasty too. It was not rubbery in the slightest as squid can often be when overcooked.
My wife ordered the Chirashi and indicated it was awesome as well. She said the salmon and tuna both seemed very fresh.
A few other notes:
–Attentive wait staff
–Very modern feel inside based on music/​décor
–They have outside seating and it is heated for cooler days
–You can of course bring your dog to the outside area
–There’s a nice bar inside too if you don’t want a table
Yumm! I’d definitely be back.

Ajisai is one of those places that I really, really wanted to love. They have a super chic design, with a beautiful menu. It’s a wonderful place to go on a nice day as they have plenty of outdoor seating. However, my experience was subpar on both occassions I was able to eat here. First, I think it’s a little pricey for what they are serving. I ordered the Yaki Udon on both occassions which was decent. It was an average portion with decent flavor, but certainly nothing to rave about. The first time I came, our table was only one of two so the service was very attentive.
The second time, the service was at first attentive, but became worse as the night went on. As soon as we sat down, our server asked me if he had seen me there before. I said it was unlikely as I didn’t remember seeing him from my first visit. He didn’t let it go. He asked me 3 more times seemingly becoming more convinced I had been there. I’m not sure why it was so important that he kept asking but it seemed that when we actually needed something, he was nowhere to be found. We ordered the fried ice cream dessert which was super delicious and the best part of the meal.
We waited at least 30 minutes for our check. This was after they cleared our table and only the time we sat there waiting. A hostess brought us someone else’s check complete with their bank card about 10 minutes in, which we hastily handed back to her. Unfortunately, my sweet tooth will have to find somewhere else to satisfy the fried ice cream cravings as I don’t plan on returning anytime soon.