How Do You Roll

As someone already noted, this location seems to be closed. :(
Was it due to their new menu (I only experienced it at the 2^nd st location)?
I mean, in all fairness, the new menu and new way of ordering was a step down from the previous way.
I hope they come back with a new system, perhaps?

This place is closed.
I was very surprised when I walked by on Friday evening and saw a sign in the door and no furniture. While HDYR in the Triangle was never that packed — it was just as tasty as the original in Arbor Walk.
I hope HDYR opens back up as I for one will miss it.

Pretty darn good. As others have said, it’s basically Subway for sushi. Staff was super-​friendly, whole place was very clean, and the food is yummy. Will definitely go back!

I rolled in here with my hubby one afternoon. The friendly waitresses greeted us with big smiles. Glancing at the menu, I immediately sensed that they did things differently here. So I blurted out, «This is our first time here». Boy, that was a big mistake.
One of the waitress gasped… «Oh, we have a new first customer». She proceeded to a little gong on the counter and hit it. Gong… «Yay, first customer». That was not too far off from the 15 pieces of flair at Chotchkie’s. But I was willing to forget all of that if the food was good.
It was far disappointing. The key ingredient to any sushi is the rice. It had to be done right. If you cook the rice a long time ago, if the sushi has been sitting in the refrigerator for more than 2 hours, it will turn great sushi to a disappointment. In my case, the rice for my sushi was overcooked. You could no longer see the shape of the rice clearly. Instead it was a big mush of glue. It was sticky and unpleasant to eat.
I am sorry, the gong, the sushi, the rice did not impress me. Life is too short for a bad sushi.

This is by far one of my favorite sushi places. No waiting 30 minutes for sushi. Super cheap. You can get a Salmon roll with avocado, spicy mayo, and tempura flakes for around $ 8. Nowhere else do you find this value. And all the elements in the roll are good too. Fresh fish, good veggies, tempura that actually crunches. I admit I am a bit of a sushi addict and this place is perfect for people like me who have resorted to HEB for that sushi fix. This is around the same price but 10x the quality. The place is always clean and rarely too busy so it is even a good place to study. Btw, the rewards program is awesome too. Buy 10 get one free. Hells yeah, I will take your free sushi.
I’d give them 10 stars if I could.

What a great surprise! I was totally skeptical of How Do You Roll until I tried a sample at an event. I definitely would never have ventured to HDYR if I hadn’t received a card for a free roll at the event. Armed with my free roll card and encouraged by the sample, I gave it a try.
The staff was friendly and chatty. I was impressed with the sushi! I like that I can quickly get sushi exactly the way I want it. I’m a fan and I’ll be back!

I know, I know, I was very firm about «no more fast food sushi» after what happened at Zen.
But I was hungry, on a diet cheat day, and it was there. And cheap. And I was very pleasantly surprised.
The ingredients were very fresh. They did not feel, smell, or taste like they had been sitting out for any length of time. This is especially impressive because I created a «Philadelphia roll,» which involves cream cheese. Have you ever tasted cream cheese that tastes like it’s been sitting a bit too long? No? Good. I have, and I was happy NOT to repeat that experience here.
The service was very friendly and helpful. Possibly a little too perky and happy, but that could just be my habit of being extremely cranky on Sunday afternoons. Anyway, the girl behind the counter was enthusiastic about what she was doing, and I can get behind that.
Pro tip: if you can avoid it, don’t let them know it’s your first time there. Gongs and shouting are involved if you do.
So, it looks like I’ll be catching some «fast food» sushi on my next cheat day.

HDYR gets 4 stars for basically being fast food sushi. When I worked in the area, I would get my sushi fix at HEB or Central Market for the same price as HDYR. Sadly, I thought I was getting something delicious for pretty cheap, but HDYR changed that idea. It’s the same price as the grocery sushi, and so much more fresh and customizable.
I love the interesting combinations you can make and if you have any food allergies or special concerns, their website is actually really helpful with a chart of wheat, soy, vegan, etc. I was happy to know that I could actually get a gluten free roll (not so at the grocery!)
YAY HOW DO YOU ROLL!!! Give it a chance :)

I love walking into here, I feel like I’m in SoCal.
Everything is so clean and I literally feel happier walking into here. It’s usually pretty empty, but that just means faster service and more privacy for me and whoever I come with. I really like the choose-what-you’d-like concept, because it gives you some flexibility with your sushi that you couldn’t get elsewhere at a fancier place.
Having said that, this is NOT fancy. The prices are very fair (expect to get away with $ 10), and it’s super casual — not your usual sushi place. If you’re not creative enough to come up with your own sushi, they have set ones to choose from that they make right in front of you. I love it, and think that it’s a great addition to the Triangle!

This is fast food sushi. Still fresh and decent. Nothing too fancy. Satisfies your sushi craving in a pinch without breaking your wallet. And, the people who work there are really nice and enthusiastic.

The ambiance is clean & refreshing with orange & green hues covering the walls. It can easily seat about 140 to 150 people. Plus they are a reasonably priced restaurant, with friendly service.
As others have mentioned in their review, it has a «Subway» process… their 4 step process for creating your customized sushi is as follows:
1.) select your preferred wrap: seaweed or soy, type of rice: white or brown. (my preference (seaweed & brown rice)
2.) select 3 types of veggies. (I like green onions, sprouts & avocado)
3.) select your meat or seafood. (me & the bf choice raw salmon & cooked shrimp)
4.) choose a topping (I liked spicy mayo)

I really like the HDYR concept — good sushi, reasonable cost, convenient and quick… except its never quick.
The only downfall is the service. I go to 3 HDYR locations semi-​regularly, and this morning went to the 2^nd street location. Unfortunately, none of the locations have really impressed me with their efficiency.
This morning, I went in around noon. There were 5 HDYR employees in the store, and I was the only customer. No one greeted me, told me they’d be with me in a minute, etc. (I was the only customer in the store.) Finally someone came over and started to help me but there weren’t any sushi rollers wrapped in saran wrap, so they had to do that, then they had to find some rice, then they had to spread it (in slow motion)…
I may have exclaimed at one point «how have you guys been open for an hour and still moving so slow?» which didn’t go over too well. Someone started counting the cash register and managed to count the whole box by the time my rice was ready to move to the next station. Then he got down to the cutting station where alas, there were no blades. Finally, my sushi was cut and ready to go so I moved on to the wasabi station, but there were no utensils. I tried to convey this to the cashier, and he told me to get a spoon. Dude — I know where the spoons are, but you should probably put some kind of permanent utensil in the wasabi and ginger.
Moral of the story: HDYR has good sushi (I enjoyed my lunch once I left), but a critical component of a successful business is having competent and efficient employees, and competent and efficient employees do not work at HDYR.
If HDYR sushi rollers got some pep in their step, I’d give it 5 stars, but at the rate they move, I could get behind the counter and roll that sushi faster.

Loved the location at Arbor Walk but it was a little too far out of my way to go regularly, so I was happy that this location opened in my neighborhood. Sushi’s good — better than HEB, but don’t compare it to a higher-​end restaurant. It’s great fast-​food sushi. I love that they offer brown rice and a wide variety of ingredients and toppings. And sake! My only problem with this particular location is that the staff are often verrrrrrry slow. Painfully slow. 5 of the past 6 times I’ve been there, it took a good 15 minutes (with no one else in line) for our three rolls to be made. Seems to be more the male employees than the ladies — we know our way around a kitchen! The last time I went there I had a much better experience with the aforementioned female rollers. I’ll certainly be back but I’ll always cross my fingers as I arrive, hoping for speedier service.

Okay people, get some perspective and let’s put this place into context before assigning them 1 or 2 stars. You wouldn’t compare a $ 20 dress you found last minute at Body Central that you wear downtown to dirty 6^th on a Friday night with your $ 700 Betsey Johnson dress that you wore to your law firm’s cocktail social, so let’s not compare HDYR with Uchi and the like, okay?
Now then. Let’s go.
First and foremost, I really appreciate the concept behind HDYR. It’s essentially a Subway for sushi, without as many incompetent employees. It’s a custom-​built sushi assembly line.
I mean, seriously, what’s worse than going to a sushi restaurant, looking at their sushi menu, reading over the 7 or 8 options and realizing NONE of the rolls sound good. But then you’re stuck! There went $ 10. I cannot describe to you how many times I wished that I could just customize my own roll, because hey, us foodies know what we like!
That being said, it isn’t the best quality sushi in the world. I would say it falls somewhere between Central Market sushi and SushiZushi. The rice was really the biggest problem — it was a little sticky and gummy. However, the ingredient selection was quite large and I had 2 rather tasty rolls. The price is super cheap (99 cent edamame!), the place was clean and my rolls were made fast (but never hurried).
I will most definitely be back for a quick, healthy lunch or for an easy, tasty take-​out. :)
Keep doing your thing HDYR and don’t let the criticism knock ya down!

Although I am not really into sushi. I found that the menu was very accomadating for a man in my shoes. First of all the Three Alarm was delicious and if you are into wheat free and semi organic fast food I would highly recommend HDYR.

Take whatever you may find wrong with Subway or McD’s and apply it to the sushi roll /​japanese fastfood setup.
Carry yourself down Lamar closer to 45^th St, or up closer to Airport, and you will find yourself in a world of excellent Asian food. The triangle is not the place for it.
Recommend strongly against.

I personally love sushi but up until HDYR came along I never felt comfortable eating at random sushi restaurants and ordering rolls that were never quite to my liking. With this restaurant’s service and food concept I’m able to see what they are putting on my roll, order EXACTLY what I want and have a healthy quick meal. It’s filling and pretty fast!
This particular location is still brand new and working out kinks, but once everything is moving along it will be a great store just like the rest of them.
I’ve eaten at this location only once so far, but I had the same great experience I’ve had at all the other locations.

So this is what the age of modern sushi is? I definitely like what I see in terms of décor. It has the looks and feel of an upbeat modern day
restaurant. It’s quite the shame the food has yet to catch up with the feel.
Other notes:
1. Soy sauce coming out of those tea machine like dispensers put a smirk on my face. Pretty creative.
2. The service (since it just opened) is painfully slow. That and they don’t really know what they’re doing at the cash register.
I really do like the concept in theory: make your own sushi using the ingredients they provide. The problem is they don’t have much variety on the seafood side. No salmon, no tuna. I really like spider rolls; can’t get that here either. Lots of choices on the vegetables though.
They give you couple of options to customize your roll: seaweed vs. this neon green modern one that was actually not bad, brown vs white rice (as if thats really a choice for sushi). Rice did not have that vinegar taste to it, so that was disappointing. I got an unagi roll, and while ok, definitely had better. The tempura flakes I was expecting some crunch and or flavor out of them. Clearly I was wrong.
Not a bad place if you’re in a pinch/​desperate for sushi, but there is clearly better out there.

We were out and about this weekend and stopped by this spanking-​new HDYR for a late Sunday lunch. This restaurant is very nice and clean and while the sushi team we had the pleasure of meeting seemed young and inexperienced, they were definitely all super friendly and helpful.
The rolls were good, but not over-​the-​top great. Rice and nori are the core foundation for any sushi roll and the rice we had was pretty sticky and the nori was very chewy — definitely not 5-​star sushi.
That said, the value proposition here is 5 stars. My spouse and I each had our own drinks and our own densely-​packed rolls. We split an edamame and a miso soup to qualify for the drinks (a «combo» meal). The $ 18 total bill was almost shocking for a decent and filling sushi lunch.
So… I’m down with the whole HDYR concept because the value is there. But, HDYR is just not in the same league as DK’s or Sushi A-​Go-​Go. In fact, DK’s is just up the street from here and if your budget allows you to spend a little more, you will be rewarded with considerably better food.

The day has finally arrived. How Do You Roll, the ever multiplying, sushi served fast restaurant opened it’s doors in the Triangle today.
Two sushi restaurants have previously called the Triangle home which was fairly short lived. With it’s health conscious, accommodating many diets (such as gluten free & vegetarian), and quick service, I believe HDYR will not see the same fate the other two had.
I stopped in for dinner before heading over to the Flying Saucer this evening and found this location to be of similar décor and layout as the other 3 in Austin. Tables with umbrellas provide for a nice outdoor dining area while you will fine both booths and tables inside. The vegetables, fruit, fish looked fresh and beautiful in the glass case. HDYR has wonderful in house made sauces such as creamy miso and wasabi mayo (wasabi mayo being my favorite). One thing I found missing from this location was recycling receptacles.
Although limited, they do serve a limited variety of beer, wine and sakes.
I have anticipated HDYR opening in the Triangle as this is an area I frequent a few times a month. I often can be found here on Wednesdays, starting at Sun stone Yoga, offsetting it with a drink at the Flying Saucer and at last restocking the fridge at Snap Kitchen. Now I will gleefully add sushi to the Triangle ritual.