Unfortunately Arigato did not live up the hype that everyone has mentioned from their Yelp reviews.
The current location of this restaurant used to be another sushi joint. I don't recall when the old restaurant was closed but when my friend mentioned a new sushi spot opened up, I was intrigued. Arigato turns out to be a All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) kind of Japanese restaurant that customers pay for one price, and eat as much as you want/can.
$25 for AYCE sushi is a decent deal in Edgewater (as there aren't any restaurants that does the same in the area). The interior design of the restaurant is more of a comfy family style with a laid back grey-ish color theme for a quiet enjoyable dining experience. There are approximately 16 to 20 tables that can fit all sizes of customer groups and it is quite spacious.
My friend hosted her birthday dinner party at Arigato last night and we made a reservation ahead of time. Due to the size of our group, we were divided into 2 large tables (12 people per table). We arrived exactly at 8 and were seated immediately. Our waiters then proceed to hand us the menus and order sheets for us to look and order.
The menus are easy to elaborate and clear as all the sushi rolls were priced and pictured (Individual price option available for all the sushi rolls if you choose to not do the AYCE option). There are lots of options to choose from, including different staters (your classic miso soup, edamame, gyoza etc.), entrees (chicken/shrimp teriyaki etc.) to regular maki rolls, sushi and speciality rolls. If you're a foodie like me, you would get so excited seeing all these options and don't know where to start!
So here is the reason why Arigato only getting a 2 stars.... We waited an hour and 30 mins for our food to arrive... Did I mentioned an hour and 30 minutes? Apparently the sushi chefs (yes they only have 2 chefs and was clearly short staffed) were not able to keep up all the orders (there were a good 10 other tables dining the same time as our group) and were having a hard time to catch up, hence such a huge delay to serve our food.
Our waiters apologized and asked us if there is anything they can accommodate while we wait for our orders. They gave us some appetizers (tempura, gyoza, miso soup and shumai) to munch on while we wait. The appetizers were decent (it tasted average to me, but you would eat it because you're starving waiting for your entrees).
Good thing was, our group was having some good time catching up and chatting away while waiting for our food. An hour and half later when the food arrives, we devoured all our rolls immediately. To be honest, I've had better sushi rolls else where but being said as this restaurant serves you rolls AYCE for $25... I wouldn't complain much. However in the mist of our chaotic waiting mode, our waiter messed up our orders and gave us sushi rolls that our table didn't order. But then again, we still ate it as we were starving and didn't think twice to double check until we were half way through our rolls.
Overall, the experience was mediocre and I've had much better sushi else where. Price wise this place does deserve a try but I would recommend only trying this place out with a much SMALLER group. I would give Arigato a second chance next time when I go with a small group of friends and family and see if they can redeem themselves! Until then, best of luck to whoever wants to try this place out and chow down some sushi rolls! read more