Ari Sushi

Conveniently located in the Waterford Shopping Center, next to Safeway. Plenty of parking.The restaurant was bright, clean, and very welcoming. We went on a Tuesday and there was no problem getting a seat at 12:30.I ordered the Spicy Chicken Lunch Special. It was a lot of food. It came with a Miso Soup and Glass Noodles. They have condiments on the table too. Daikon, ginger, and pickled garlic. The Chicken was moist and spicy. Almost like a stir fry dish. I only ate half and took the rest home. I put the chicken over rice and it made for a second lunch. I love California Rolls and Ari makes them just how I like them. I posted a picture of my Spicy Chicken Plate. I thought the price was inexpensive: $16.95 for basically two luncheswith leftovers. I definitely would go back for lunch!

I've been curious about Ari Sushi and it has been on my Yelp bookmarks for a while. Their tendon pictures looked so good, but it is out of the way for me unless I'm actually around the area. Today was the day! After a strenuous hike, this was well earned and deserved, so my partner and I decided to give this place a try. Ari Sushi is located inside a plaza and there are plenty of parking available. We arrived at Ari around 5:30PM-ish, so pretty early dinner on a Saturday. This place looked spacious, clean, and simple, but great. The menu is a lot bigger than I expected. On Yelp, I saw that most of their most popular dishes were tendon, so that's what I thought they mainly serve, but they do a lot of bento, sushi, and rolls as well. Pretty extensive menu. Between my partner and I, we ordered edamame as appetizer, and shared a Seared Hamachi nigiri and Seared Hotate nigiri. My partner ordered the Ebi Tendon as his main, while I opted for Chicken Tendon. Food came pretty fast. We were each given a bowl of miso soup and sweet corn salad as complementary starters as well. They also gave a bigger plate of complementary japchae. Also, they have a jar of ginger slices, pickled shallots, and pickled radish on every table. So plenty to share from the start. They were all okay! I like the variety these added to the meal. For our order, the edamame came first. It was made well! It wasn't overcooked, so it had a bit of crunch to it. I love edamame, so I enjoyed this even if it's just a very simple dish. Then came the two seared nigiri. We tried the Hamachi Nigiri first, and unfortunately, this was a bit of a miss. It was seared nicely, but overcooked, so the Hamachi didn't have the buttery taste of a raw fish. The Hamachi slices were white with just a tad bit of pink to it. It did have a nice smokey flavor to it though. I think it was also lacking a bit of flavor. Maybe it could have used a light sauce glaze on it. On the other hand, the seared Hotate Nigiri was made well! It looked like it had a bit of sauce on the top. It was lightly seared, and the Hotate retained it's buttery texture. It was delicious! As for my main dish, the Chicken Tendon! Portion size was great. I didn't exactly know if there was a difference between tempura and tendon, but according to Google, tendon is just 'tempura' and 'donbori' put together, haha. My Chicken Tendon came with chicken, 2 shrimps, seaweed, kabocha, eggplant, shishito pepper, and a soft boiled egg. Plenty of variety. I think my favorite of the tempura was the seaweed actually. It has a mild sweet taste to it and it's just a thin crispy chip basically. I think the rest of the tempura could use more flavor, though I would say that they do their batter and frying pretty nicely. Each tempura had a light batter and none of it was super oily. The chicken part of it was like mini chicken kaarage. My bowl had plenty of pieces in there, but I think it would be even better if they gave bigger and less pieces, rather than lots of small pieces. I rather get more pieces of juicy chicken bites, as opposed to drier crunchy battered bits. My second favorite piece was the eggplant because it's moist and soft, but had a crunchy outer layer. I thought the egg was pretty cool too! Haven't seen a fried egg like that. It might have helped if they gave some sort of tempura dipping sauce on the side because I think most of them could use a bit more flavor. All in all, I enjoyed my tendon bowl! They even gave a delicious complementary dessert as well - shiso sherbet! This may have been the best part of the meal just because it was so unique. Light and sweet, but you clearly get the shiso flavor. When all is said and done, you just walk up to the counter in the front and close your tab. I'm definitely glad I checked Ari Sushi off my Yelp bookmarks. It's a nice, once-in-a-while, indulgent meal. If I happen to be in the area again, I may just come try their sushi next time. Service was pretty friendly!

Ordered the soft shell crab tendon and it was honestly quite good!Pros:- Generous portions for the price and quality- Egg is perfectly soft boiled and goes great over rice along with the sauce- Sauce is very good as well. So glad they don't use the cheap watery tsuyu most places serve.- Excellent choice on vegetables (eggplant and kabocha)Cons:- I ordered to go so this might not be an issue for dine it but there was so little rice compared to the 7 pieces (including the big soft shell crab) of tempura I got- Some items have too thick batter and can feel a little overpowering at times. Notably the batter on the mid section of the soft shell crab was way too thick. Also I really liked the dressing for the salad :) it tastes just like corn potage and was very comforting!

We were excited to find a tendon place in the bay, so we made the trek from San Jose on a Monday evening. We got here around 6:30pm - it wasn't too busy, we got seated right away.The servers were very nice and attentive. We ordered hot tea to help with the chill. For foods we got:- anago tendon- soft shell crab tendon- 15pc chef's choice sashimi- amaebi nigiri- seared scallop nigiriWe were served soup, salad and what seemed like japchae-style noodles. The noodles were surprisingly really, really good and flavorful. Our favorites were the nigiris. The sashimi was fresh but pretty basic and nothing special (probably wouldn't get this again). Unfortunately, the tendons were just okay. There wasn't enough sauce and it really lacked flavor. The tempura also wasn't as crispy. I've had better tendon in SoCal tbh. I did appreciate the self-serve ginger and pickled garlic at the table, these were yummy!I also noticed that everyone else who ordered hot tea got their own hot tea pot, and we didn't (just two cups, where the servers would have to come refill them). At first, I thought that maybe it was exclusive to tables with 3+, but a table of 2 next to us got a tea pot. We had to ask for more for hot tea a couple times. Not a big deal but something to note.All in all, did it satisfy our tendon craving? Surrrreeee. Will we drive from San Jose for this place, and for this place only? Probably not.Honorable mention: I like how noticeably clean and tidy the restaurant was and also liked the cute, simple, refreshing decor.

It seems that the ownership or management of this place changed sometime between my first visit in June 2024 and my last in August 2024.Previously, they used to offer a free dessert at the end of the meal, but under the new management, that perk has been discontinued.The restaurant still has shelves next to each table stocked with common items you'd typically ask the server for, allowing you to help yourself. These include utensils, cups, napkins, condiments, sauces, and more.During my most recent visit, the restaurant seemed a bit short-staffed, so the self-service shelves made sense as a practical solution.Additionally, I ordered takeout on a previous occasion, and I noticed that the complimentary soup and salad that normally come with every entrée were not included with takeout orders (just something to keep in mind).

A very interesting place. The format is a little different as there is a cary next to each table which is kinda convenient and it alleviates the server's workload but a little unorthodox IMO. They also specialize in tendon which is a new thing to me.What struck me was the super clean and minimalist interior. I kinda liked that aspect of it. The restaurant is located in a strip mall so all these elements added to the unorthodox nature of the restaurant.The menu has all the faves, Great selection of appetizers, Salads, Noodle bowls, Entrees, Sushi rolls/Nigiri and of course, Tendons. They also have lunch and dinner specials if that's your thing.I went with a special roll and it was quite delicious!The service was ok. Our server was a young lady and I sensed that she was either new to the profession or to the restaurant. She gave it her best though and I appreciate her effort.Overall, check it out if your a lover of Japanese cuisine. I'll definitely bring my family if were in the area.

Right or wrong, when I've had a bad experience with a restaurant, I'm usually reluctant to return when it appears that ownership has changed. I hadn't been back during the last ownership and the reviews for the current incarnation looked pretty decent. We dropped in around 12:30 for lunch. The restaurant didn't appear to be too busy, maybe five or six tables in use. We were told to sit anywhere and we choose a table in the back right hand side after entering. Two clipboards were dropped off. They were numerous loose pages that made up the menu. We both fixated on the two/three item lunch bento boxes. On the table were containers that held napkins, chopsticks, Soy Sauce, Pickled Scallions, Ginger and Japanese Pickled Radish. She ordered Beef Teriyaki, Saba and a Spicy Tuna Roll. I ordered Tonkatsu, Tempura and a California Roll. After Miso Soup, the Rolls were served on separate plates. The only negative critique I might have is that the Rolls weren't tightly wrapped (see my pictures). It may have been that the rice was not properly seasoned which would help the rice to bind better. When the Bentos arrived, besides the entrees, each also had a Cold Salad, Rice, Edamame, Slice of Orange and the appropriate sauces. We both really enjoyed our meals. Our server came by a few times to check on us. We ended up taking most of our rolls with us because we were simply stuffed. The restaurant appears to be much brighter than I remembered. The food came out relatively quickly. When we were done, after the dishes were cleared, we were presented with a small portion of flavored ice with some green specks in it. We weren't quite sure what it was, but it was a good palate cleanser. We'll have to come back when we're in the area to try some sashimi.

Unique restaurant serving sushi and tendon (tempura rice bowl). Clean and minimal interior. The service was excellent, and they even offer a complimentary dessert at the end--a small scoop of shaved ice topped with what seemed like cucumber syrup. It was the perfect refreshing treat to wrap up the meal. Their prices seemed to increase and their sushi choice wasn't anything out of the ordinary. However, I would like to give a shoutout to their tendon menu. Their tempura was fried flawlessly and it was sooo crunchy with each bite. There's sauce that is poured over the tempura and rice which is very tasty. The entree comes with salad and soup as well. Overall, I would come back for their tendon but not much for their sushi. There are other sushi restaurants in this area that could be a better option in my personal preference.

We dined in for dinner and the staff were so friendly and attentive. The ambiance is wonderful and you get to see the chefs at working cooking your meal. Lets get into he food:Ari (Conger eel) tendon (5/5) - we came here before and we still forgot the sauce was at the bottom of the dish, definitely worth all of the fun tendon items in there, seaweed, squash etc. yum!Diablo (5/5)- really good sushi roll, not too spicy either! Its got spicy tuna, fish on top and shrimp tempura! Triple threatHwe dup bap (5/5)-yess so good if you like chirashi get this!Highly recommend trying this place!

Excellent sushi in Dublin! I was driving to a soccer tournament and needed somewhere to stop by for dinner off of 580. Yelp pointed me to this place. It's located in a strip mall. Parking was easy for a Friday night and we got seated right away. I loved how clean and bright the place felt. There is a sushi bar if you want to sit there, but we sat at our town table.I ordered Chef's choice omakase 7 pieces, California roll and the Chicken Teriyaki dinner platen for my son and I. It was the perfect amount of food and he ate everything! I would definitely come back here if I'm in the neighborhood or driving to another soccer tournament. :)