East side and west side - which don't talk to each other (1 of 2) In this metro area, there is a sharp divide in that what is west of downtown and what is east of downtown don't tend to mix. It could be the distance, but that's no excuse since the freeways don't see traffic like the heavily trafficked cities in America. It's also that it's provincial! I was visiting a friend who lives in this very community on the west side and, since we sometimes visit the same restaurants, I dug up Arashi, located across the street from manicured Stepford-centric Crocker Park. Crocker Park is not a park, but a somewhat upscale mixed use retail-office-residential development. Arashi is a long-standing Japanese restaurant. I suggested it in part because I don't often eat Japanese food. Also, my friend has a few dietary restrictions and I am not a nutritionist. Eating Japanese food for lunch met with approval. As for me, I just avoid the few things I've known to have a negative effect on my digestive system as well as spicy food, the latter of which I flat out despise. They feature sensible lunch combinations. One can pick from the hibachi section of the menu or the regular section. We chose the exact same thing - hibachi chicken lunch - except that my friend had the mushrooms omitted. The chicken platter comes with rice and vegetables as well as soup. I also ordered the tea service. The latter is not free of charge like it might be in some Chinese restaurants. All of the food was very tasty. As for the soup, we ordered the miso soup and the onion soup. My onion soup was delicious. The problem, with which my friend concurred, is that the soup bowls were small. I could have had three times that amount of soup. I could have eaten more of everything! There is portion control at work. The interior of the restaurant is simple and tasteful, with only small hints of ethnic flavor. The regular restaurant is outboard by the windows, the room with the hibachi grill is inboard, and there is a bar between them. They have sushi and there are people who will order that, but I'm not one of them. The service was polite and got the job done. The pricing for the lunch specials seemed about right. My friend, who has lived in Europe for years as well as Asia for a few months, said arashi meant something but forgot to follow through. I looked it up and arashi means a storm or a tempest. From my L.A. days, I only know about 20 or 30 Japanese words, two of which have to do with climatic or geological matters - yuki and jishin. Yuki means snow and some Japanese women have this name. Jishin packs a meaner punch - it's an earthquake. So, rather than experiencing a jishin, I'd rather weather a fictitious storm (arashi) here and have a reliable low-key Japanese lunch. read more

See all

Good, inexpensive, fresh sushi, and delicious, service is great and the restaurant was well kept and very clean. Have been coming here for 10+ years and I still love it even after the new owner. read more

This place is terrible. The dining area is also very dirty! Server forgot drinks. Forgot to bring entrees out. Do yourself a favor, go somewhere else. read more

The service was excellent, attentive. The food was just average. I got the Eel Naturo and it was bland with very small pieces of eel. The spicy tuna Hand Roll I ordered was way over stuffed with rice and didn't hold together to eat, and was not very flavorful. I believe it was a Sakura role I got which was your standard sushi roll and that was palatable. read more

I consider myself a regular meaning I regularly go here for sushi, well this time the fam wanted to try hibachi side- total regret, was upset I told the host that I'd never done it and I usually eat sushi and they insisted I can also order sushi on the hibachi side which is true but the environment is totally different and there is no room to eat the sushi in the service for the sushi is completely horrible. They don't know what to serve you. They don't know that you want chopsticks. They don't know that you need a plate. They don't know that you need soy sauce with a really bad negative experience and unfortunately, I will never come back to this restaurant again! Not even for sushi what a waste I usually have sushi and tip 25% and the hibachi chef was soliciting tips like a I'm in red light district - then the server didn't know how to be a server and the soup was cold - miserable-also we were forced to sit with this couple that was not friendly looking and had really bad vibes and it looked like they were regulars so all the questions they looked annoyed by and also they cooked the seafood on the same area as the steak so my wife being a non red meat eater -that was troublesome as well, honestly, if the host a set the proper expectation about the hibachi side and they actually cared about food safety and they were actually kind of friendly with good service and hot soup then maybe this would've been a better experience, but since they fell short on multiple situations that are restaurant should be able to execute on. This is why they get one star yeek me thinks snot. read more

Food was beautiful and delicious! Our server, Brandon, was great! We ordered the Love Boat. They were busy and didn't want us to have to wait, so they brought it in stages! read more

I have only been here once but it was a lovely experience! We got hibachi and both the cook and our waiter were extremely attentive and engaging! We managed to come at a time where it was quite, the vibe was clean and calm, our cook did an amazing job and put on a really fun show! I got the Fuji combination and it was best fillet mignon I've had in a long time(so so juicy and tender)!!! All in all I recommend coming here, it is a beautiful and delicious place, my one and only bummed is that they do not have "egg yolk sauce" here read more

After living in Westlake for over a year, we finally decided to try Arashi. There are so many restaurants in the Crocker Park area to choose from, and we rarely treat ourselves to the hibachi experience. It was a rainy night so we chose take-out hibachi. This can be risky as nothing beats the fresh taste of food grilled in front of you. Without doubt, this was the BEST take-out hibachi we've ever had! We ordered the dinner box (teriyaki salmon, tempura, California roll) and chicken hibachi. Both meals were tender, full of flavor and with generous portions. It was a very pleasant discovery, particularly the sushi roll. We are now looking forward to sampling more of their sushi menu, as well as trying the dine-in hibachi options. GREAT Japanese food option in the Westlake/Crocker Park area - try it! read more

So this is another one of places I drive by all the time and wonder if it's any good. So this particular day a couple of weeks ago i finally decided to try it. When we entered the restaurant , we were greeted,I'm going to assume by the owner. He also ended up being our waiter and bus boy. But he did a great job. It was about mid afternoon when we got there, the restaurant was empty. There is Two sides to the restaurant, the hibachi side and the food to the table. The inside is very clean and well kept up. But was kindve out dated but still in great condition. We settled for the hibachi. There's a big selection on the menu with alot of options. We ordered some sushi rolls that were supposed to be like a starter, they were a nice portion and tasted great. For our meals I got fhe Filet Mignon, scallops and lobster. My wife and daughter ordered chicken and scallops and we all got complementary shrimp. The portions were very generous and very good. Everything was cooked perfect. Our Hibachi chef ( who wasn't the the owner ) was funny and very good. The meal also came with an onion soup, which was very tasty. Well the meals were Ooooo! Oooo! Delicious. Over all for the price and the amount of food we got and how good it tasted, it was a great experience. I've been to many hibachi restaurants, I don't know why it took me so long to try this one. Stop in you won't regret it. read more

See all

I came in after a meeting around 3 hoping for a quick lunch. Unfortunately I was told there wasn't a lunch option. Not sure if I missed the cutoff time or they just don't have lunch. I ordered a fire something roll that was on the specials menu and the vegetable habachi. The roll was so good. Shrimp tempura with crab salad, jalapeño, eel sauce and spicy mayo on top. My only complaint is the roll was so large it was hard to bite. But it was one of the best rolls I've ever had in my life. The vegetable habachi was just habachi. Nothing good or bad about it. I would go back just for that sushi roll. The onion soup that came with the habachi was flavorful but the salad was drowning in dressing. read more

See all

We met 8 friends here for a holiday hibachi dinner get together. None of us have ever been here. The restaurant was about half full and clean. We were not sure how busy they would be so we did previously make a reservation for 10. Our waiter was Liam and he was EXCELLENT!!! He was very attentive to all of us. The cook, he said his name was "Jim" was also great and entertaining. We all loved our meals. I did not hear one complaint from the group about our meals. The only complaint is instead of tossing pieces of shrimp to catch, which is always so fun, they toss pieces of scrambled egg. Honestly, kind of gross!! Who wants a piece of an egg? NO ONE!! I get trying to save money but this way is a mistake!! Sorry, no photos were taken of our dinners. We were having too much fun and enjoying everyone's company. We will for sure be back. read more

Unfortunately we won't be back. I haven't been leaving bad reviews since times are tough but this was really lame. I did update my review from 1 to 3 stars because they refunded the entire combo rather than just the fish that wasn't good. It was my birthday and I'd been planning to get some sushi to go for weeks. We ordered about $75 of food and when we started to dig in, I noticed some of the sashimi tasted off. I smelled it and sure enough, it smelled fishy and like ammonia, a clear sign that it is not fresh. I smelled another piece of sashimi and it smelled fishy but not like ammonia. We had also gotten a bunch of rolls and all of them were fine except the salmon skin, which is one of my favorite rolls normally. We ate immediately after we brought the food home so it wasn't a matter of it sitting there and getting soggy. The salmon skin was not crispy but chewy. We didn't even complain about this or the quality of anything else, though it was subpar compared to the last time we ate there. The rolls fell apart when lifted and nothing tasted top notch except the salmon sashimi, which was excellent. We couldn't eat the rest of the sashimi because the bad fish had turned us off from the meal and it had all been together in one container. So I call today to let them know about the bad sashimi and I am overly polite, like I feel bad that I even have to complain because we've always liked this place, but we also didn't want to be out $30 for fish we couldn't eat. After I tell him it smelled and tasted bad the guy says, "Oh, so you don't like red snapper." I said we do, we've had it many times in the past but it smelled like ammonia and tasted bad. He said, "So you want us to replace it?" I told him no, we'd finished the rest of the dinner the night before and didn't really want new red snapper. I said if he'd like us to bring in the fish we didn't eat, we could. He said to bring it in. I started to tell him everything else was really good and he actually hung up on me. No apology and he hung up on me. We weren't even mad about the fish! We just wanted to resolve the issue because we had purchased a meal we couldn't eat. My fiancé brought the fish in as the guy requested and when he got home I asked how it went and he said the guy told him, "next time just say you don't like red snapper." We've been regularly eating sushi for 20+ years and I'm able to tell the difference between fresh and spoiled/borderline spoiled fish. I want to support local businesses but if you treat customers like crap when they politely let you know about a legitimate issue, I won't. Rather than just say "I'm sorry about that," they treated us like we were ignorant or lying, even AFTER I told him that we'd had snapper many times and this time it was bad. They also still haven't fixed their super loud phone and door chimes so I wouldn't recommend dining in either if you want to have a relaxing experience. read more

Arashi Japan - Spoiled red snapper. The restaurant denied that it was spoiled and accused us of just not knowing what red snapper tastes like. - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

Sometimes you, when you end up at the right area but wrong place, you can be very lucky and find a gem. Or you're out of luck and spend a lots $$$$ for less than mediocre food at a sort of dingy place. The latter happened to me with Arashi Japan. It started with the Miso which was not a Miso but more like a bouillon from a package. Salad sauce out of the bottle. At least the sushi seemed to be fresh and the rolls where made at the bar. The friendly young man that had the burden to serve the food saved the place from receiving only one star from me read more

We are in dining room not at habitable. The food was cold. And the portions were small. Used to be a great place how very disappointing on our anniversary. read more

Ahh-Rush-Me is more like it. Sweetest day nite pretty busy there. Had reservations so we got sat in 5 mins. The server was taking our orders so fast and not listening she actually walked away while we were still in middle of our order & didn't get to add on a soup! We did order a sushi appetizer right off the bat but didn't get it until AFTER our hibachi meals were eaten! So she probably didn't put it in until we asked about it after 20 mins passed. I got the chicken & wife got the vegetable hibachi. Kid got sides of rice & noodles w/ soup. Cook was nice & actually used a separate spatula on the shrimp since I said I was allergic. The room we were in was like a closet, it was packed. Then there was 4 birthdays in the place with blaring music, disco ball, & they turned off the lights. So we were in the dark for 6-7 mins all together!! It was very annoying, we saw this lady at the other table & every time there was another birthday she gasped "not again". Nobody enjoyed it. Also the cook never cracked any eggs on the grill (nor did any of the normal fun antics) yet there were eggs in our fried rice!? It was poor service, loud and dark for too long. And the food was just ok, rice had no flavor, sushi was ok, the YumYum sauce was the highlight. read more

See all

Great dinner with my wife last evening. We are heading to Japan in a few weeks and wanted to try some new things. I had the filet and shrimp hibachi and my wife had a veggie tempura Enjoyed the sake we had and the Japanese beers as well. read more

We celebrated a birthday on 8/8. Several of us ordered steak, and two people in our party ordered extra veggies. The filet was ordered medium and everyone else requested medium rare. All of the red meat was cooked in the same area of the grill at the same time. Strangely, the medium filet was finished first while the "medium rare" meat was cooked a bit longer which resulted in well-done for those folks. The shrimp were large and cooked to perfection. The two people that ordered extra veggies did not receive extra veggies, and the portion of veggies for all of us was scant. We said something to the chef but he ignored us. The two extra veggie people were charged $7 for ordering, and not getting extra. I wish we would have said something when receiving our bills. I'm not sure why we didn't other than the fact that we just didn't think of it. Overall, our chef was very fun and we appreciated the attention he gave us but the value and attention to detail were missing. read more

The food was great !! Service was spot on. The sushi rolls were amazing. I would highly recommend this place !!

The lot is better than ever now after all the construction. Ample free parking really makes it easy! This is a nice place. Usually I do my sushi out here at Vieng's but today over here at arashi. I've read things about tue & Thur are the fresh (ie delivery days) sushi days. And never on Sunday. Anthony bourdain said that. Not just here I mean. Everywhere that's not a mainstream sushi specialty. Maguro & salmon were beautiful and delicious. Very bright color. Hirame beautiful on one side & silver streak on the other side so I turnt it round. Delicious. Some miso soup and hot tea. I love the wakami in there. Bro had the gojira roll and loved it. Lobster salad avocado topped with unagi. I wanted to try the Uni but they were out. Just like NHK TV. $34 nice lunch. 4 stars thanks! read more

Arashi Japan - Maguro hirame sake nigiri! Gojira roll in the back. Look at the beautiful tuna, red like a grapefruit!! - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

If you like Hibachi, this is absolutely a must-try. Even tho Hibachi tables are currently closed, the meals were amazing in presentation and taste. Otherwise... other meals, not great portions for the price. I ordered Seafood Udon Soup and the bowl was 1/4 full- and they forgot the Udon. (See picture.) Once I asked about the noodles they did bring them out however, they had cooked them in Hibachi so once added to the seafood soup, it wasn't edible. We will try again once Hibachi is open to public. read more

Arashi Japan - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

See all

Quality of sushi is meh. Many items on menu such as sweet shrimp they no longer offer. 18.00 roll flavorless and over riced

Great sushi! Had the spicy tuna roll. Just the right amount of spice. Loved it. Also had the crazy girl roll (shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado all wrapped in one and topped with crab meat). So so good! The chicken hibachi is good as well. The chicken is always so "butter" soft and tasty. The fried rice is cooked just right and portions are great for the price. I would recommend this place for sure! read more

See all

I had the chicken hibachi lunch and it was ok. The chicken was not that great- chewy with a lot of gristle. Seemed like low-quality meat, so I did not eat most of that. The fried rice and vegetables were fine. I would try this place again, but definitely not for take-out. Maybe for a sit-down hibachi dinner. read more

Recently had girls night out with a good friend here. I arrived before her and told the man at the desk I would wait as I didn't know how many would be in our party. He repeatedly asked me two more times how many in the party and would I want to be seated. All this within 5 minutes. Once sat the waitress who was very kind came right over and grabbed our drink order. I had lychee sake and my friend a martini. Once more people were sat we placed our orders. Great price point for drinks and food. The chef came out and I'm under impression he was brand new. Zero entertainment and he overcooked the proteins we ordered. My friends steak was beyond well done as was my lobster tail and scallops. The rice and veggies were delicious though I wish the portion was a bit larger. I would be willing to give it one more try in the future when I'm craving hibachi. read more

Decided to try a new hibachi place with the fiance today. Started off with the California roll and the spicy crab roll. Both were quick to come out and tasty! I had the chicken and scallops hibachi dinner. Portions we're great and it was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly! Only reason I didn't give it 5 starts is that the hibachi was not as entertaining as some others I've been to. But the food was top notch and I will for sure be back! read more

Arashi Japan - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

See all

We came here for my 14 year old birthday. It was a Monday night. Reservations at 8pm. Worst experience ever. The cook did not do anything fun. My 7 year old wanted egg thrown in her mouth. The only thing she looked forward to. The cook did not do it. He also didn't do the drink squirt into mouth. Horrible experience and the food was rushed. My daughter did not like the Desert. We had 7 people and a baby in the group and no one had a good experience. read more

Arashi Japan - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

This place never lets me down! Great service, fresh delicious sushi and the best miso soup around! Try the smoked salmon sashimi and baby octopus two of my favorites. read more

See all

Ordered on uber eats and was really disappointed with the "chicken lettuce wraps". The pad Thai was edible but not good by any means.. questionable food all around. read more

Arashi Japan - "Chicken Lettuce Wraps? - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

Awesomely delicious sushi!!!!!! The staff was so friendly and helpful and the food was amazing! Wonderful experience overall!!! read more

Arashi Japan - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

I'll start out by saying that I was nervous about the recent reviews of this place, but decided to come anyway due to everyone's opinion not being absolute fact. Came for my Mom's birthday, but had a hard time reaching this place to make a reservation: the number listed on Yelp and their website/social channels rang busy every time I called-please see the picture attached to this review for both of their numbers if you are trying to reach the restaurant. On to the food portion of the night: the food and presentation was very good! We enjoyed the Yellowtail hand roll, Snow Mountain, Volcano and Spider Rolls which were all fresh & delicious. They also had a very tasty Peach cold Sake we enjoyed. Had lobster, shrimp and steak Hibachi which were all flavorful; I had a taste of the Hibachi scallops and the flavors of those were some of the best scallops I've ever had! Lastly, this review only gets 4 stars, because the Yelp coupon link for $10 dollars off a $50 Hibachi meal didn't work (link was broken). Server was only able to give me $5 dollars off as a compromise because "the manager had just left for the night". A big heads up if you're checking into this place on Yelp before getting your bill. read more

Arashi Japan - Menu with both phone numbers - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

If I could rate zero stars, I would. This was the most terrible food we've had in a long time, any cuisine. The maki roll was terrible and not fresh, no better than grocery store sushi. The pad thai barely had any noodles. If you're looking for the entertainment of hibachi, this might be ok at best, but I would never order from here again. read more

Arashi is the go-to sushi and sashimi on the westside. This place is clean, fish and seafood are extremely fresh, servers are prompt & friendly and the prices are fair. You can get sushi and sashimi but also the specially rolls. We haven't had their hibachi. Check their website For daily specials and menu. On our last visit we ordered a six piece roll that was shrimp tempura & cream cheese wrapped in rice & seaweed with tempura crunchies topped with snow crab with eel & spicy sauces - see picture We also love their onion soup in there fresh salad. If you like sparse dressing please order your dressing on the side as they are very generous with their dressing read more

Arashi Japan - Japanese Near Me - Westlake, Ohio

We ordered take out and it was absolutely fantastic! Really recommend getting the shrimp tempura roll!

Not excited about the food or sushi. Took our family of 6 (2 adults and 4 children). The sushi was disgusting had to spit it and we tried 3 different ones, we love sushi but differently didn't like these. The soup tasted off. We ordered 2 adult meals and 1 kids meal. Everyone had a fountain drink. The bill was 300.00 plus the tip. Differently not worth the hour and half drive. read more

This is a great place to go if you love to get nickel and dimed to death. I have two kids - ages 5 and 3 - they can't eat a whole meal each. A kids meal is $13 (or more) . Would've been nice to know that they would charge a $7 splitting fee for SPLITTING A KIDS MEAL. Not to mention $3 for a kids soda? So my kits split a meal that cost a total of $26. That is RIDICULOUS. This place should be ashamed of themselves for these awful practices. I understand a charge for splitting adult meals - but for kids? You're a disgrace Arashi. THEN - Great Lakes Beers are listed at $4.50 on the drink menu - when I got the check they were $6 each. Food was ok at best - they really load on the teriyaki sauce or whatever it is on to the meat. Easy does it. One star is too kind for these rip off artists. Shame on me for not speaking up to the manager, but we were with a group of people. read more

Worst hibachi I ever had. Waitress was slow getting drinks, cook did not engage with us, no free sake they normally squirt in your mouth, food was below par and went all out with filet mignon, lobster and scallops plus we got a takeout order and the rice had a bunch of eggshells in it. read more

Customer service was great but food is lower than marginal tho! We ordered Pad Thai and other noodle plate - don't waste your time and money Food tasted like old oil used to fry chicken for the 100th time. read more

There's a reason that this was the only available Japanese Steakhouse with short notice availability. Quantity OVER quality when it comes to packing people in seats. No quantity and no quality when it comes to service and food. I understand that due to the current economy, restaurants are understaffed, but as a business, adjustments can be made to assure reasonable service. Instead, someone rather fill seats and pockets rather than quality atmosphere, service, portion sizes. Chef entertainment for 2 year old toddler included: -onion volcano (if that's even what you'd call it). More like a silent onion volcano that erupted 5 hours ago from the bottom up -4 spatula taps before cracking an egg Service - limited beverage choice. Only saw waitress twice throughout entire meal. Beginning and end. No refills, didn't take used soup/salad containers. Zero yum yum or ginger provided. Rice cold by the time food was finished. Couldn't even hear what chef was saying due to low speaking volume and place being so loud and overpacked. Asked 4 times for yum yum / ginger sauce. Portions were SKIMPY! I'm talking when placed on plate you'd think it was a joke. You would have thought right...entire experience was a JOKE. This review won't be seen for too much longer due to the restaurant taking SHORT CUTS and going out of business. I've had better overall better experiences at Panda Express. read more

Good hibachi. The lo mein and shrimp were delicious. Not out of this world good but above average hibachi for sure. Their specialty sushi rolls are also very good. read more

This place just ain't it anymore. Lacks the quality of food and service it once had. It's sad because this place was viewed as a prestigious hibachi place for me a few years back. But it's gotten worst and there's a lack of investment into the restaurant itself - you can see there's been no improvement over the years. Left feeling like I spent way more than I should've spent for what my family and I received, food and service-wise. read more