Located in one of those small strip mall, this unassuming Japanese sushi place has been me and my husband's favorite for years. During lunch or dinner time it is always packed and I see it is also popular for takeouts. Our favorite orders are: Rolls: Lion King, Spider (soft-shell crab), Firecracker (really spicy), Salmon skin hand roll. Their Chickenkatsu is one big portion that I can share. It comes with the usual miso soup, salad and rice. But our ultimate favorite dish that we order here is the grilled hamachi (tuna) Kama. It takes quite a while for this dish to come out so better order early and quick for they can ran out easily. The portion is generous but I don't want to share this one! The salmon Kama is just ordinary for me though. On the service side, it only has 2 wait staff working the dining area and they are friendly and fast especially during peak hours. They must have burned a lot of calories from multi-tasking and dancing from one table to the next. The downside is they sometimes don't take your order right away or forget to give you a plate. Orders for the kitchen take quite some time to come out maybe about 15-20 min while the sushi bar is a bit faster, about 10-15 min. Maybe the owner should add a wait staff or a kitchen staff to improve their service. Overall we still consider Hanamaru to be our "kitchen" away from home. read more

My husband and I live basically up the street from this place. For a while we were regulars, going nearly every Friday evening, but lately I've been trying not to spend so much money eating out (not any problem with the food!). I assume this place is not very authentic and is more in line with American ideas and expectations about sushi, but we love it. We've tried a lot of other sushi places in the area and keep coming back to this one. The larger/more expensive large rolls are *big* - we can hardly eat a Harley Davidson between two people. Some of the rolls also are too large in diameter, making them difficult to eat because you can't fit a whole piece in your mouth. But, well, that at least means there is a lot of fish :) Service getting the food in the first place is usually OK, but getting the check can be slow. We stack our dishes as a visual signal and still the waitresses sometimes seem oblivious. Going up to the cash register will get their attention faster. Some time last year, I think, they started staying open all afternoon rather than closing from about 2-5:30 like every other sushi restaurant around here, which makes them about the only sushi place I can think of that is open for both lunch and dinner seven days a week and stays open all afternoon. Major plus in my book. The tables are kind of small. We've been here in a group of four at the largest. I've seen larger - they will push tables together - but it takes up a lot of the restaurant. read more

I cannot believe anyone would not rate it as 5 stars. The sushi there was amazingly delicious, and the green tea ice cream was the best ice cream I've ever had in a restaurant! And if you are a spicy food lover like I am, you have to try the Victoria's Secret roll. It's just a little spicy and very tasty! read more

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My favorite thing about this place is the skill and kindness from the chefs. Both can just talk to you for a while to assess your tastes and make you suggestions that will change your world. Both can do crazy knife techniques to carve vegetables into winged beasts and origami pieces. The ambiance is typical of a sushi spot, and there are boats. I understand if you go with many people the desire to sit at the table, but I highly recommend sitting at the bar to really get the full Hanamaru experience. My favorites: Salmon skin hand roll, Anago nigiri, and many of the chef creations that were tailored to my palate. read more

Initially we were disappointed when we had to wait 40 minutes for to-go order. And we almost cried when we found black hair in our rolls. It is disgusting! read more

I used to frequent Hanamaru before the ownership change. (The old owner(s) who now opened Nami Nami.) The sushi used to be much better, with just enough rice and whole lot of flavor. Now, the sushi is always made with too much rice and too much random oyster sauce, not enough of anything else. Even my favorites, the Crunchy roll and the Local Girl roll, are not as tasty anymore. What a shame. Their lunch specials are still great, but the prices have gone up a bit. I still go here for the salmon teriyaki, yakiniku, or just udon. With the old owners, this would have been a 5-star review. read more

We were very sad when Sushi Maru in Sunnyvale closed and moved to Milpitas. Now where were we going to go for sushi and tempura? Decided to try Hanamura last year and it wasn't too bad. Personally, I was disappointed that the staff were Korean, but the food was decent. DH really liked the Jumping Spicy Shrimp rolls, but it was not one of our favorites, like Sushi Maru was. Thursday night, DH was wanting sushi and we decided to go back to Hanamura. It had been about a year since our last visit. To my pleasant surprise, there were two young JAPANESE girls as waitresses and the sushi chefs were also JAPANESE! It seems that the owner is the same as a year ago (maybe someone else can verify this), but the staff is so much better. We were served complimentary warm edamame with our order of hot sake. The menu has expanded to include more creative rolls. We had the Jumping Spicy Shrimp Roll, Awesome Hanamura (deep fried California roll with macadamia nuts), Jalapeno Bomb (made with fresh jalapeno pepper that had a nice "kick"), and Tempura appetizer. I wasn't too impressed with the Awesome Hanamura roll; everything else was good. If they keep up the quality of the food and staff, this place will become one of our new favorites. read more

I love this place. This is my favorite sushi place in the bay Area so far. The rolls are very creative... my favorite is the Harley Davidson.. yummy. The quality is always good and fresh (not as fresh as seafood you get from Halfmoon Bay but real good anyway). The staff is very good. You are greeted by the sushi chefs with a loud "irashai massai" when you get in ... I do not know what it means but it makes me feel happy and excited to be in the restaurant... haha. Also, twice when I was there with some guests, they gave us complimentary appetizers. The price is very very reasonable as well. read more

Good sushi place, great with kids (at least for lunch) Yes, they did change owners, and while I was a big fan of the previous guys, the new folks did not drastically change the place. I think the service actually improved (more staff). It is stil very convenient for me (I live 5 mins from this restaurant), and prices are OK. Overall, I do recommend this place if you live in the area. read more

My boyfriend & I love this place!! The staff is super friendly. The place is clean (which is a huge factor when we look for a good sushi place). Sushi is delicious & fresh. I love raw fish so when going to sushi boat places, I love it when the sushi is wrapped in saran wrap instead of sitting around to dry. The prices are not bad at all. The only down side is that they close @ 2:30pm to prepare for dinner!! lol. read more

This is one of my favorite Sushi restaurant in the city, The Sushi was very fresh. and the none sushi dishes are very good too. I always ordered the fried squid, seaweed salad. For dessert I got mochi ice cream. Also, the service was outstanding. read more

I used to be a frequent customer of this place. But recent months they hired new servers I guess. Firstly the servers are lazy. We went with a kid but they didn't offer high chair.Also were selective with serving people. read more

Great sushi, friendly service, love the sushi boats. My favorite rolls are Lion King, Krispy Kreme, and Spicy Fly Away. Conveniently located in Sunnyvale. read more

I really love this place. Their teriyaki salmon and salad dressing are really good. Staff is super friendly, too.

I used to come here really often before I went to college far away. I came back from break, and I was surprised at how much EVEN BETTER the food was. It was good to begin with, but now it is SIGNIFICANTLY tastier and fresher! Literally every single menu I ordered was good! Even the tempura ice cream dessert! I'm so glad I came back! Rolls that I recommend are the Victoria Secret, Lion Queen (my ultimate favorite), Harley Davidson, and the Super Duper. The hint of pineapple in the Super Duper roll is AMAZING. The tuna steak is SO GOOD as well. The tuna steak tastes good even with rice. I am very surprised and amazed by how good Hanamaru is every visit. Not only is the taste good, but also the presentation is very pretty. The sushi chefs have skills for sure. Not all sushi restaurants have sushi chefs who can make their rolls look so beautiful. All in all, the appetizers, meal, and dessert were ALL so so good. Highly highly recommend people to visit Hanamaru at least once if you are in the area! read more

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uninspired rolls, but can get a nice large hamachi kama here. bento box, large portion, ok flavors.

Very nice atmosphere and large sushi selection. Last time we went there we had a group of 5 on a weekday and had to wait about 30 minutes so I recommend making a reservation for larger parties. The food is prompt and delicious and the service is very good. They even gave us complimentary ice cream as dessert to compensate our wait. I would definitely return and I also think their sushi combination are unique and rare. read more

Awesome sushi here, and the prices are decent. I've brought my parents here the past two nights, and they're stoked about going a third time. Try the Firecracker roll and some super white tuna sashimi... you'll be in heaven. read more

This is our family's go-to sushi place. Their bento boxes are well-stocked and well-priced. My favorite is the spicy sashimi rice bowl, and the sukiyaki we ordered the other night may also become a staple. Some of the servers are warmer than others, but no one has ever given me or my kids the fish-eye. In fact, if I come with my kids, they often provide little extras like kiddie cups and extra bowls of tofu for the miso soup (just ask if they don't bring it automatically). And the place is relatively small so it's easy to nab a passing server if needed. read more

Yuck!! Three of us came for lunch on 04/16/2012. Decor is worn, well worn but clean. Service OK but the waitresses hide. Here's our order: Agedashi-tofu: four small 1/2 inch thick x 1inch x 2 inch squares of deep fried tofu each garnished differently; shaved daikon, diced green onions, slivered nori, and ground katsuboshi. Basic soy/mirin sauce. Good, nothing to brag about. I am used to half a block of tofu, not 1/16th! Talk about cheap... Kare-age: fried chicken or shall I say way overfried way dry chewy chicken. This was a total loser and the absolutely worst I've been served in decades. Stay away from this loser! We also ordered three maki rolls. The rice was not well seasoned and tasted of low quality, like Cal Rose. Yuck. The fish [maguro and hamachi] were low grade too. On the good side they do use real Tobiko, not Masago died orange. Oh yeah, almost forgot the smallish tempura ebi. We/I won't be back.... read more

I had the beef Teriyaki platter. My daughter had to sushi rolls. The beef, well I sent it back. I told the waitress if smelled bad and tasted bad. She did not apologize. She said I could have the Chicken instead. The chicken plate gets a B- at best. The sushi rolls were not so good. Average at best. Service was slow. And they made it my problem that the beef was bad. And they still charged me for the beef even though they gave me the chicken. Besides the cute boats, this place is a must miss. CRL read more

Hanamaru used to be my absolute favorite place to eat in Sunnyvale, but after returning to CA from an extended stay in GA... well, it's seriously gone downhill, sad to say. I used to eat here on a regular basis with my roomies, and the waitresses and chefs would greet us warmly every time we came in. The food was always fresh, always -amazingly- perfect and delicious... but now? I went a couple of weeks back with my friends, and the experience was disappointing (and that's putting it politely.) The staff acted like they were bored with serving customers, and the food was honestly kind of awful. The Awesome Legend (was once my favorite!) was watery and bland, and the eel sauce they used on various rolls? YUCK! It wasn't even eel sauce, it looked and tasted like brown corn syrup, and ruined the rolls it was put on. My girlfriend's salmon teriyaki was alright, but pretty much everything else was meh. To top everything off, our water glasses sat empty nearly the whole time. Hanamaru, I used to love you dearly, but I don't think I'll bother going back. read more

Service 1 star Food 3 stars Average = 2 stars Way overpriced for average sushi!! Have had better ones ! read more

Food- Great yummy fish Service- Good they make sure to get things right Restaurant- small but still a good place to take a date though I wish they would improve decor a little bit read more

We had another wonderful sushi experience with fresh and creative rolls...outstanding service and a surprise after sushi drink. Would highly recommend for those that love sushi! read more

Hanamaru - An after sushi treat compliments of the restaurant. For a wonderful fresh sushi experience, I would recommend visiting Hanamaru. - Japanese Near Me - Sunnyvale, California

Sorry to say that this is the second time we have ordered through DoorDash and our order is now not only late but missing. Pickup from the restaurant took 90 minutes when we had a 45 minute commit. Obviously no priority on deliver customers. read more

It was okay as far as sushi goes. I love sauces on my sushi but some of these were just too drenched for my liking. Service was awesome though! read more

Let me preface this by saying that all we do in my family is straight up avocado rolls all day long. The roll here is almost $4. The roll itself was a bit stale tasting and I strongly disliked how they kept the wasabi, and ginger on the table with the soy sauce for constant guest and germ access instead of providing you with your own each time. The staff was really nice. They made my sons roll into 8 small pieces for easier consumption and the waitress was friendly and sweet. The cook seemed to know a lot of the people coming in and out which suggested it was like Cheers and he knew everyone. I will keep searching for a better avocado roll (they aren't hard to make people) but based on staff this place was pretty decent. read more

We love this Sushi restaurant! We've tried many others in the area and they just can't compare. We've been going here almost once a week since they took over the Chinese Restaurant and never once been sick. My husband loves the White Tuna Toro (not the blue fin) and the Hanamaru Carpacio. Me, being a vegetarian love the V-10 roll (veggie teumpura in a roll) and the Santa Cruz roll (which I just switch out the scallops for cucumber)! YUM!! They also have Agedashi Tofu (lightly fried tofu) which is not over fried, like at some places. We've also had many big groups here (10 people or so) and sometimes stayed past their closing time. They definitly don't try to push you out (like Miyake does) as soon as your plates empty. WE LOVE HANAMARU!!! read more

Placed an order for this place on Eat24 and it took 2.5 hours for the food to come on a Wednesday evening. This isn't the first time this place has had such horrible delivery times - they say 45 - 90 minutes (ridiculous range - like the cable company) and then they are a full hour later. Inexcusable. Two stars because the food is OK (not great - but ok). read more

As a first timer I did not like the sushi here. I heard some good reviews about Hanamaru so I decided to check it out myself. I ordered the Santa Cruz roll and a few other rolls. The rice was not soft at all in fact it was kindof hard to eat. I also didn't like how the ginger and wasabi were placed on the side of the table, they were not fresh. I would not come here again. read more

hanamaru is located in the safeway plaza. they have a lot to offer from bento boxes, to sushi rolls, and other items. i had the hamachi kama lunch. was surprised at how big of a piece of fish i had for the price! it was $8.95 and came with rice, salad, miso soup (although the miso soup was way too salty). you can add a mini chirashi bowl for $4 which is a steal. don't remember the name of the roll we ordered but it was yummy. overall, it's a great place for a quick, simple, inexpensive lunch to dine there or for takeout. 3.5 stars read more

To paraphrase Thomas Wolfe: "You can't go home again..." Just a bit of background here: I lived in Sunnyvale back at the very end of the (pre-Yelp) dark ages circa 2000-2003, which for you younger people was when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Back in the day, Hanamaru was owned and operated by a young couple from the Kansai (Osaka), Keisuke and his sweetheart of a wife Kaoli. Hanamaru was THE sushi spot on ECR in Sunnyvale, with a huge crowd of locals/regulars on Friday nights enjoying excellent food with super-attentive service and hospitality, at reasonable prices. Many of us would hang around after closing and drink away as the Hanamaru crew would be cleaning up and merrily scrubbing away on everything that didn't move out of the way - in other words, the place was spotless. Keisuke and Kaoli later opened the more upscale (and ambitious) Kappo Nami Nami on Castro Street in Mountain View and sold Hanamaru to a personable Korean couple. I dined there a couple of times after that and while it wasn't quite the same vibe, the new owners were doing their best to keep up the quality and service when I moved out of the area in 2003. Fast forwards a dozen years to February 2016: I'm in the old neighborhood, getting a bit hungry on a late Saturday afternoon, and thought I would stop in the old haunt for a bite to eat. The staff was nominally pleasant although not especially energetic or attentive, so I sat at the sushi bar so I could survey what was available that day in the Hoshizaki cooler. I noted that with the exception of some of the colorful hand-made posters by Keisuke's crew, the decor/paint was the same as the last time I saw it, although a bit worse for wear. I order a few nigiri (unagi, hamachi, tako) some yakitori from the kitchen, and a beer. The sushi items were served in reasonable time, albeit average to smallish proportions at prices a bit on the high side of average. This however doesn't bother me as much as what I am seeing inside the Hoshizaki - greenish-yellow slime growing around the side and lower edges of the glass. I can also see streak-marks where a not very clean towel (or rag) was used to wipe out the inside - not in an up-down pattern that would have hit the corners, but in a semicircular sweeping pattern that suggests that there was only a half-hearted wipe of the inside glass. I also noted a large chunk of tako (octopus tentacle) that was a bit oversized for this cooler, contacting the glass AND the yellow-green slime on it! Having just consumed some of this, I got a bit of a knot in my stomach. I began looking around and noticing more things: white scale on the sides of the little sushi boat track, dust and oily/greasy streaks on top of the plexiglass covers where the sushi boats come out from the back of the bar, greasy smears on the countertop. I came to the realization that the place is (or was during my visit) NOT CLEAN. And by "not clean", I don't mean still a bit dirty after a big lunch or dinner rush (there were only 4 customers in the place at the time), or that the previous night's closing crew did a rushed job. It has that look like nobody had bothered to do any type of real cleaning for a LONG, long time (weeks? months? years?). I settled my bill quietly and got out of there. This would be bad enough if this were merely a burger place or taco joint, but Hey Zeus Cristo, it's supposed to be a SUSHI RESTAURANT, a place that needs a lot higher level of sanitation. The place needs at least at BARE minimum a day of a COMPLETE top-to-bottom cleaning, like breaking everything down and taking a steam cleaner to it, and perhaps autoclaving all the kitchen utensils for good measure. I would strongly advise AVOIDING this place until that happens... read more

My first impression of Hanamaru was a good one. The interior is nice but not too formal. Handwritten signs behind the chefs give it a homey feel. It's nice change of pace compared to the spotless, urban feel of some sushi places. I ordered the teriyaki combination lunch with cal roll and tempura veggies. The food was very good, but the portions were kind of small. Chicken had a lot of skin which I peeled off several pieces. $10 total, slightly above normal, but fine. I made a note to try the sushi next time. On my next visit, this restaurant officially made it on my sh*t list. I was by myself and the place was busy, so I sat at the sushi bar and ordered a crunchy roll and some nigiri sushi. The waitress quickly took my order, but the wait for my food was super long. Even my miso soup, which should've come out right away, took ten minutes. Since it was near 1:00, the sushi bar cleared out quite a bit after I arrived. Consequently there was a lot of space. Then three guys walked in, and the waitress decided to squeeze them in to the three spots between me and the wall (even though there were now 15 free spots on the other side of me). What's up with that?? Suddenly it was too cramped. I ended up sliding all my stuff over to an open spot. Then my sushi and soup finally arrived, and the waitress took that moment to tell me that they were out of some of the items I had ordered. Why couldn't she have told me this 15 minutes ago? It's a mystery. So I told her I wanted to get something else, and I started quickly scanning the menu. She darted off, never to return (I saw her serving people on the other side of the room but couldn't catch her eye). I finished what food I received and waited some more. I couldn't get the sushi chef's attention either. Then my patience wore out, so I finally just grabbed a plate off one of the sushi boats, even though I really wanted to order something interesting I saw on the menu. After even more waiting, I finally snagged the bill through a different waitress who eventually wandered by. The roll and nigiri I got were very good, but I was so annoyed with the horrible service that I don't plan to be back unless I am under duress. Pros: Good sushi; interesting rolls offered Cons: Abominable customer service read more

I know going to sushi just for vegetarian food is some kind of sacrilege, but whatever. This place does well by us freaks, at least. There's a great variety of rather tasty vegetable and tofu rolls, nigiri, and handrolls. There's an excellent seaweed salad. The edamame is lovely. The miso is solid. The atmosphere is hip without being overbearing. Finally, the price is overwhelmingly right. read more

What a shame. This place used to be awesome. I went there a lot. But lately the staff is very lazy, and service is bad. I ate in the restaurant not too long ago and it wasn't very crowded and our server just disappeared. When the sushi chef had my order ready and called out that it was ready, she still never came. I waited a few minutes then went to retrieve my order myself. Today I picked up take out. I asked for an extra soy sauce, in a container, not in packets. The woman literally PRETENDED to add a second soy sauce. When I arrived at my office and opened my bag I realized it. I called later to speak to a manager about it and they hung up on me. I called back to ask why they hung up on me, and they hung up again. Sorry. The food is awesome, but now I feel that I cannot continue to support a place that does not care about customers, particularly regular customers such as myself. read more

Service here gets worse and worse. I come here all the time and have recommended many friends who have brought their own families here. They just don't really care about your business, even though they recognize you. I called to place a to-go order at 9:40 pm, she said kitchen closes at 9:45 and they would not serve us, even if I am a long time customer. Sorry but I don't think I will come back anymore, lots of other sushi places appreciate your business. Maybe this is what happens when business gets too good, you forget where you came from and who made you who you are. read more

I came here with a group of friends, on their recommendation and was really impressed. The place is reasonably sized, with tables and counter seats. The staff seemed very willing to rearrange for patrons. Speaking of the staff, they were quick to bring drinks and complimentary edamame (probably because we came at the end of the night). Our orders were taken quickly and they were very polite about splitting the bill from the get-go when we asked. After our initial batch of service, things started to slow down with refills and it took awhile to get one of the rolls. As to the rolls, they were Excellent. Tons of options from traditional sashimi to ridiculous deep-fried rolls of awesome. A ton of variety, with a reasonable supply of vegetarian options. The Awesome Hanamaru and Firecracker were standouts of the rolls we ordered. Mostly because they are just so different and fun than a lot of the standard rolls. My one issue is with the veggie tempura rolls, and this is a common complain among sushi places in the south bay. They are always western style rolls with Enormous piece of tempura vegetables. Maybe I've been spoiled in other cities, but I really miss a small, tight, traditional roll with just a rectangle or two of vegetable in the middle, why is this so hard to find? Who has a mouth big enough to fit one of those rolls into? I've really babbled on too long here, and possibly obsessed over the negatives, so let me just say I really enjoyed this place. Great portion sizes, a huge menu and lots of options for vegans and omnivores alike, and even lots of cooked rolls for the squeamish folk. read more

We have been coming to this place for over 8 years now, so this is a really sad review for me to write. The service has declined miserably over the last year. I placed an order online from the link on their site. My husband goes in to pick up and is greeted by no one for quite a while. The server says there is no order for us. My husband calls me questioning if I called in the order. I ask to speak to the server who than says the fax machine is down and the order taking company is suppose to call in orders. The server proceeds to tell me "we are not responsible for the company you used to place the order with. They never faxed us your order or called us with your order." I'm like "what?!!?" I have a receipt via PayPal as I paid! I proceed to tell him that I merely clicked on the link on your website, so I don't care what service you use to take on line orders, I ordered from your website and assumed it would work. I evenly paid on line. It's now an hour later since I've placed the order and no food. The server says he's happy to retake my order. No apology nothing. So hubby waits another 20 minutes and he's wondering what's taking so long as the restaurant is fairly empty. A female server comes out and asks if he needs help, hubby says he's still waiting for his to-go order. Another 10 mins goes by and she asks him again if he needs anything - what!??! He finally gets the food and still no apology to make amends for the mishap. We've come here for over 8 years now, since our girls were babies. It WAS our family place to go. Servers used to always be so sweet and very nice in greeting you and ensuring you had a great experience. NOW, the service and management are terrible. Food is still fairly consistent. But, this was the 3rd time we've had an order get messed up and somehow made to feel like no one cares. Such a bummer to see a local business decline so much in their service.... read more

Used to be a fantastic Sushi place. Now just a hollow shell. Ate there last night and was greeted by a nearly empty restaurant. One lone Rainbow roll on the boat and tables covered with dishes. Spoke to the owner with ideas on getting fun back and just got a blank stare. Sad :( read more