Naru Sushi

A little disappointing. I should have listened more carefully to the Unilocal reviews.
Me and my girlfriend are on a personal mission to try out every sushi place we can. Especially during lunch specials or with any kind of coupon. When we saw That this place was fairly new and had a coupon it was on our «to-​do list» immediately.
We had spicy salmon rolls like always and Whoever filleted the salmon left bits of the skin and scale on. This is not cool. I don’t even make this mistake when I’m home making sushi. These guys are supposed to be professional. Also the rolls were wrapped without any skill. About ¹⁄₃^rd were open and falling apart. Again, super rookie.
The place was also smaller than I expected which is ok, but they were blasting the air-​conditioning at a group of seats, and I had to move because I was freezing my nips off. Minor complaints but still.
This is minor too but the coupon was odd. It just said 15% off but wasn’t clear. They waiter gave it to us, but we felt strange about it because we just showed him the flyer which didn’t have any details or dotted lines where you are supposed to tear a coupon off like normal. It just said 15% off and nothing else… no further instructions. It made us feel like we were asking for something we shouldn’t, and that’s never fun for a customer.

THE GOOD: Their lunch specials are a steal. For only $ 10 I had soup, salad, three maki rolls, and fresh fruit. Because there are so few tables in this small eatery, service is very attentive and quick. I was in and out in half an hour during my lunch break, which is perfect since my office is only a few minutes away. The salmon skill roll is ultra crispy, too.
THE BAD: Their miso soup is the cheap-​o «just add hot water» instant powder packet type. The ginger dressing on the salad was quite watery, as well, instead of thick like it’s supposed to be. They also used overripe avocado in my eel roll, which was a huge turnoff due to the mushy texture. Lastly, my rolls weren’t holding together very well and fell apart easily.
My verdict is that you’d like this spot if you are on a budget and/​or not a food snob. They predominantly make their lunchtime business off takeout, so expect that kind of quality. My impression is that they cut corners to save money. I’d rather pay extra for tastier sushi, and Great Neck has no shortage of that.

Me and my girlfriends favorite place to go when we get the taste for sushi. Highly recommend coming to this spot, great atmosphere, pleasant staff and great sushi.

I got takeout from here and it came out very fast. I arrived around 12:30 and I was the only one in there. The waiter up front took my order right away and the kitchen made my beef teriyaki bento box in ten minutes. The décor is simple and cute. I would definitely want to come here to dine in, since service was quite good. I got the lunch special which was $ 11.95 and came with soup, salad, 4 pieces of California roll, 3 pieces of shumai, a big thing of rice, and teriyaki of your choice. My only concern is that the soy sauce wasn’t closed well, and started to leak in the bag. Here is what I thought:
Miso soup: Lacked tofu, had about 5 little cubes that had a weird consistency. The taste was great, though.
Salad: Simple, fresh crispy lettuce, great dressing.
Rice: Cooked well.
California roll: Not the greatest consistency, but had all of the components. Very good combination of flavors.
Shumai: A bit bland, but were great additives.
Beef teriyaki, not too chewy or fatty, which a great sesame flavor and a nice glaze. The carrots were overcooked, but the broccoli and onions were great.

Been to different sushi places but sadly to say, for this place, pricy for the amount being served. Applies also to their kalbi. Feels like I am in the city for their charges. The reason for trying out the place was a joint restaurant (Japanese/​Korean) thinking they serve equally food variety. Food was just ok.
Anyway, love the place… very serene and peaceful. A good place to hang-​out after work, worry free crowd and stress free parking.

Let me start out by saying that I can’t even being to fathom how this place would get 4-​stars, let alone 5-​stars The only reason I can think of is that you only ordered 1 sashimi and it was the best, or the only 1, you’ve ever had in your life.
Secondly, our bill w/​waters came out to over $ 80 for 2 people and we’re both still starving. I was seriously thinking about eating a real dinner on the drive home.
Now for the details… the place is small w/​about 7 tables for 4, a small sushi bar w/​a couple chairs, a tv, and it’s in business strip where the other stores around it close early so parking on the metered street (free after 6pm) is not a problem.
For appetizers, we got breaded oysters which were NOT freshly-​shucked and consisted of 3 medium-​sized pieces cut in half for $ 9. It was ridiculously funny that they give you more sauce than the actual food. Suffice to say, not worth it even to try. The other appetizer was Korean seafood pancake and it was too soft/​semi-​uncooked and needed to be fried a little longer to get some type of crisp on it. It tasted like it wasn’t cooked enough and for $ 15 definitely not worth it.
For an entrée, I got bulgogi and it was the size of an appetizer and to make matters worse, half of it were cut-​up broccoli. It didn’t taste like bulgogi at all and I would stay away from this one. BTW, this was a $ 17 appetizer that came w/​no soup or salad.
For the sushi rolls, we got a spider, double double (california inside w/​crab on top), and princess (spicy tuna w/​tuna on top). For $ 12 a roll, you would expect a roll that 1 skinny woman would eat for dinner by herself. The rolls were more like an appetizer for 1 skinny woman. They tasted ok, but I couldn’t really tell that they were fresh because any raw fish were small. The size of all 3 rolls could fit in a chinese take-​out container so for $ 36 I expected a lot more. The spider roll was good though, so I’ll give it the credit.
For such a small place, you would expect the hosts to be attentive and they somewhat were… I had to ask for a water refill.
Overall, this dinner was lacking in quantity and quality. If their cook is not Korean, then I think they should either get one that can cook authentic dishes or stick to Japanese dishes. If you’re looking for Korean food, I wouldn’t come here. I guess it’s not hard to figure out that I won’t be back here.

My favorite Sushi spot. I work in Manhattan, live in Queens, but head to Great Neck for Naru Sushi. Excellent in every way. Food is delicious, staff in very friendly, pricing is terrific, and Knick are usually on tv… lol.
Highly recommended!!!

This is a wonderful place. If the weather is nice, the outdoor dining is great. The service is attentive, the menu is varied, and the food is delicious. The owners are friendly and the waiter always remembers my drink preference-​chilled Saki in a lt. blue bottle. I used to order the sushi or sashimi platter, but lately I’ve been getting the Naru box. My wife doesn’t eat fish but she has found many Japanese or Korean options.

I LOVE this restaurant! The sushi is extremely fresh and their specialty roles are awesome! Besides that, the staff and the owner are extremely friendly and accommodating, they really make you feel at home (if your home was a sushi restaurant of course!). My girlfriend and I are now regulars and they all know us by name. It’s cool how they surprise us from time to time with appetizers compliments of the chef! Recently they also gave us a special card for 10% off the bill. On a nice day you could sit outside and people watch. The also play some really cool, funky music! Highly recommend!!!

It’s been about two years since I wrote my last review. Naru Sushi is under new management now and unfortunately, I wasn’t as blown away with my latest experience as I was with my first.
As before, the service was excellent and very friendly. It’s a small restaurant and you’ll feel right at home when you walk in.
We decided to try a few of their special sushi rolls. In some ways it seems like their menu tries to channel Daruma in that there are a lot of cooked rolls that might seem to appeal to those who don’t eat raw fish; most of the rolls feature deep dried tempura, cooked salmon, eel, cooked crab stick, and so on.
The Super Volcano roll sounded like a good idea, but the tempura was soaked in grease, which permeated the entire roll, so that the rice was dreadfully soggy. There was cream cheese in the roll which had melted and become a bit unpleasant to eat.
We also had a spicy white tuna roll; it was interesting in that they topped it with a seared piece of tuna that gave it a slightly charred taste, but overall it seemed very ordinary.
We wanted to order a lobster roll, but were told they were out of lobster, strange on a Friday night when presumably they’d be the most busy.
Overall, the «special rolls» weren’t very distinctive at all, they were very ordinary and in some ways felt like they were trying too hard. And sadly, the bento boxes which I loved so much a few years ago were gone from the menu.
I think the next time I go back I’ll probably try either the sashimi again or one of their Korean dishes. But sadly, the rolls just didn’t do it for me tonight.

My boyfriend and I had found this place on Unilocal and thought it wouldn’t hurt to try for a late lunch. We’re big sushi people and I must say this place is officially on our favorites list. Not only was the quality of the fish we got really good, but the service was superb. The chef had given us an appetizer on the house which was a nice one biter for both of us.
They didn’t have sake-​don (salmon sashimi over rice) on the menu, but happily made it for us with ikura on top as well. I’m not an expert with cuts of fish, but the slices we got were marbled with fat= near the belly. It was DELICIOUS. We’d also had gotten hwae dop bap (sashimi mixed rice) and the portions were much larger than anticipated. There were loads of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, kani, and masago. We were both more than satisfied. We’ll definitely be coming back soon.

Naru’s sushi is lovely! I love the rainbow roll and the alaska roll. The fish is so fresh and the service is excellent. The prices are reasonable and I dig the ambiance. Good place to go if you’re in Great Neck.

Decent sushi very reasonable prices small and quiet. Recently under new mgt.

I originally wrote this up as 4 stars, accidently didn’t complete the review, and I’ve been back a couple times since.
As you can see, my review is now 3 stars, I haven’t been impressed as of late, I believe they changed ownership in the last year, they have a new, similar menu.

More like 3 and ½ stars! Can’t beat their sushi roll lunch specials. Sushi is always fresh and tasty. Best of all, the price is right. Staff is super friendly and my order is always correct/​ready for pick-​up. The lunch specials come with soup and salad, which is a nice bonus.
This is my go-​to lunch spot in Great Neck because it’s so close to my office. I highly recommend Naru if you’re looking for a quick, healthy lunch

I’m definitely a fan of Naru Sushi as the fresh cut sashmi as a previously Unilocaler say on here before is here what bring out the 4 star for this place. The salmon sashmi was so fresh and nicely cut along with fatty tuna also being nicely cut and tasted extremely fatty and fresh in my mouth.
If you love raw fish than definitely order sashmi. You won’t regret it =).

Was here last night with La H.- I was not blown away at all. One star for the excellent service and one star for the beautiful décor. Other than that– the food was just really not worth the trip out to Great Neck. The rice they used in the sushi was squishy, rolls were sauced like there’s a surplus, and the miso soup was lukewarm.
The only thing I liked was the spicy salmon tartare. And that wasn’t even my order.
Meh.

One of my favorite places in Great Neck. Excellent service and food. They are always so accommodating. The spicy salmon or tuna tartar is amazing! I can’t speak highly enough about this place!
Update: they changed their management, staff, and ambiance a few months ago, and it has been good, but not the same.

What a sweet, little family-​run restaurant. The sushi here is thoughtfully prepared and presented. Since the portions are quite generous, dining here feels like we’re getting our money’s worth.
Naru’s strength is its raw fish styling. Both the sushi and sashimi are terrific. Also many imaginative «Chef’s Special Rolls;» i counted 27 on the menu, ranging in price from $ 10 to $ 15. But they’re pretty big, enough for one roll to be a meal.
I’ve only been here on week days and it’s never been busy. The service is thoughtful too. Very attentive — but a little uneven. During my last meal, there were six of us. When the miso soup came out, it was barely warm. And there was too much dressing on the salad. But for whatever reason, they were all on the house so I’m not complaining!
Another thing that makes this place special for me… Naru offers the option of getting the sushi in black rice. Sometimes the folks here call it brown rice. Looking at the grains, it seems like a mix. Very tasty and exotic looking. Can also be ordered by the bowl.
FYI, there’s also beer, wine and sake.

After coming here because of the Unilocal rating, I am extremely confused as to how it has an average of 5 stars. There are definitely pluses to the place: the décor is delightful, and the place is clean, with good service. They also conveniently take a lot of different kinds of credit cards. However, the most important part of any dining experience was lacking: THE FOOD!!!
This place is Korean owned, and it shows in its lack of authenticity in which they execute their dishes. (Not saying that other ethnicities cannot learn to make things authentically, just saying that this place tasted very Korean). We ordered four rolls, and we were surprised with complementary miso soup. I have had miso soup from many many places, even in the country of origin. I am extremely disappointed by Naru’s miso soup. If my friend had made this for me in her dormitory kitchen, I would have been delighted. However, since I was sitting down in a restaurant, I felt perplexed as to why the quality was so low. The tofu quality was just totally wrong for miso soup! Also the tofu was a firmer tofu than miso soup should ever have. The wakame seaweed had a strange texture that left me feeling confused as to what exactly I was eating.
The salmon skin cucumber roll was the worst salmon skin I had ever had! Salmon skin is supposed to be cut very close to the skin and fried to be crispy without losing its taste to the oil. This was no where near what a salmon skin roll should be. The seasoning of the salmon skin was also off. The scallion and yellow tail roll was the smallest roll I have ever had. I am not the kind of person to say bigger is better, but seriously — the amount of fish was a little on the pathetic side. The good thing I can say about this roll is that the fish tasted quite fresh. The black dragon roll was excellent, and the volcano roll was pretty good too. One bite of the volcano roll and you will have no question as to whether or not this establishment is Korean owned.
The prices are not expensive, but for what you are getting it is the poorest quality I have ever had despite having fresh fish. It felt like everything was made by a somewhat skilled amateur trying out their sushi skills. I will NOT be coming again.