Ajisai Japanese Restaurant

Ajisai is a middle-​of-​the-​road sushi place on 9^th. Not the best in Hell’s Kitchen, also definitely not the worst. They’re ok.
I’ve been a couple times, and nothing stands out in general. The food is mostly pretty tasty, but not outstanding. I know I sound like Captain Neutral of the Bland Brigade, but that’s my review. Mostly just uneventful competence here.

Dine in is far superior to its seamless counterpart, not sure why!
Came here for lunch on a Saturday and was pleased that they still have lunch specials on the weekend. I got a salmon sushi set and the fish was very fresh and the meal was filling.
Service is decent and atmosphere is very relaxed /​casual.

After so many years since it opened, it’s still my favorite sushi delivery place in the neighborhood. Still fresh and delicious.

Clean, firm, and delicious Japanese restaurant. Price is reasonable, and food quality is good.

Came here for dinner, ordered sushi combo C and grilled squid.
First, for the service: I noticed that a lot of people complained about the incompetency of servers at this place. But our server girl was very nice. She gave us honest suggestions on the portions of food, attentively refilled our water and offered dessert menu when we were about to finish. The only downside is that, it took about 20 minutes for my sushi to arrive. Given that it was around 9:30PM and only few customers were there, their kitchen is not really efficient.
Then, for the food: grilled whole squid lightly covered in butter was good. The squid was tender with a hint of smoke/​burnt taste. Would recommend it. However the sushi was disappointing. Crunchy spicy salmon roll was bland, the fish tasted like wired mushy dips, the tempura inside didn’t add up the flavor and the rice lacked proper seasoning. Tuna roll was just bad. Fish didn’t taste fresh.

I have to say, service was just the worst …
1) I came into the restaurant a bit past 8:30 on a Friday night. Decided to get a table while my date was on his way here. Immediately gets seated in the front, which is great! However, no one likes to be in the front where people are entering and leaving. So, there were two booths in front of the sushi masters and I requested if I can sit there instead. She said no, because they’re only for 4 people or more. Ok. Weird because there’s already a couple sitting in one of the 3 booths there. I didn’t say anything since any seat is better than no seat. We were at the restaurant for about an hour and a half and those booths that the lady said was meant for «2 people» got seated by two other couples, one for each of the remaining booths. I need some type of explanation.
2) when my date arrived and we were ready to order, there were so many waitresses walking past us, not wanting to take our order — mind you, we were sitting by the front, right next to the register. So if people needed their checks, they have to pass by us. Not to mention it’s also a small restaurant so they really have nowhere to go. Before my date arrived, a woman asked if I wanted to order when she saw another menu across me… Like what? Finally, a man came and took our order.
3) appetizer, glasses of water, and our miso soup came probably within 5 minutes. Which I thought was great! Hence, an additional star.
4) now, reason why we were at that restaurant for an hour and a half… Because our food took a good ½ to get here! I only ordered a combo B & my date ordered Salmon Teriyaki… Maybe the salmon teriyaki would take longer but my order only contained sushi… I didn’t understand where our food was.
5) as we were talking about where our food was… A woman came to our table and said «Kobe.» We were very confused cause nobody ordered it. So I told this waitress, blondeish/​orange hair, «hi. We didn’t order Kobe.» She stared at me like I was crazy like yes m’am you did order it. But a different waitress came and said in Chinese, thinking I didn’t know what they were saying, «Kobe is at my table.» So the other waitress have a sincere apology, black rimmed glasses. The one with the blondeish hair, she had such a huge attitude. Like oops My bad kind of attitude. She also had to check the computer to make sure we really didn’t order it .
6) I drank all my water and no one came to refill it until I brought it up to the waiter. Like hello?! What were we, chopped liver? Because once again, we were at the very front so it’d be very hard to even try to ignore us.
All in all, if you want better service, go somewhere else. If you want pretty decent food. Stay. Though, portions aren’t that great.

Overall a decent Japanese restaurant. They have a wide variety of sushi and appetizers. Good place to go if you and your friends are craving diff Japanese foods.
We got seated immediately (it was kinda scary how efficient they were) and service was great. Food came really fast as well. Interior décor was really cute too!

The BEST sushi I ever had. Excellent price in the heart of Mahanttan. Will definitely come back.

We dropped by this Japanese restaurant for a light dinner before catching a movie in Times Square.
Honey plum sake — tastes worse than cough syrup. It was way too thick and sweet.
Smiley pork buns — pork was not tender or juicy. The buns were soft and warm, the same buns used for duck sandwiches. Sauce was good.
Sushi rolls — pretty standard rolls, similar quality to the ones you get for lunch specials around the city
Overpriced for the quality but it’s Times Square.

My neighborhood go-​to sushi place. As another reviewer mentioned, a menu with pictures is always great!
Cozy atmosphere, and yummy food!

I love the Salmon Lover here. it’s amazing. well. sometimes. Other times, it’s not that good, sadly.
The reason for the two star decrease is because I’ve been here quite often, as my friends are huge sushi fanatics, and more often than not, one of the waiters always confuses something from the things that we order, and there ends up being miscommunication. Either the bill, or charges for what we didn’t order, or even worse, charges for what we ordered and never got. Which is something we don’t need to be spending our time on. Sigh.
I do like it here. just, not enough to come every time we get a chance.

Ordered via seamless and the service was quick. Tried the Salmon Avocado Roll, Philadelphia Roll and Peanut Avocado Roll. All of them were really good and were up to the NY Sushi standards! This can definitely be our next favorite Sushi place in our area.

I am a fan of Ajisai! The menu is very large and there are several delicious Japanese and Japanese fusion options to chose from. I recommend the sushi platter for sharing. The atmosphere is casual, modern and comfortable. This restaurant truly shines with it’s staff. The staff is so accommodating, polite and happy. I really enjoyed their energy and I loved that they did not rush us out. We sat down for a late dinner at 9pm on a weekday and they let us sit and hang out at the restaurant for at least 30 minutes after we closed our bill. This is a perfect spot for a double date or long dinner hangout!

First of all the menu is actually a novel it’s that long– but there are also tons of pictures! Me likey.
We got the tuna tartar, satay chicken, crispy spicy tuna wonton, spiderman roll, and dynamite roll. Definitely come here for their special rolls, but their appetizers are small and overpriced. The interior is dark and it seemed like everyone here was on a date so don’t bring «a friend» because they might get the wrong idea :)

If competing with other Japanese cuisines in Manhattan, this place can be ranked as an average local restaurant. I was quite impressed with the decoration of their sashimi set. Sashimi is put on a bowl of glowing ice, quite eye-​catching, but you can tell by the look that the restaurant is not authentic. But the food isn’t bad in anyway. The restaurant is not very crowded. Overall it’s an OK place but don’t expect more than that.

This place was just alright. Ambiance alright, food alright, prices… alright. What wasn’t alright was the watress. She misunderstood me and brought out too much sushi. When I told her that I did not order 2 rolls she argued with me and ignored me. She only truly responded to my complaint when I told her I was not paying for the roll that I did not order.
She also did not bring me chop sticks or a sauce dish
Horrible service and everyone complained that the food was not great. Hope we don’t get sick later.

Made a pick up order on Wednesday night and it was ready in 30 minutes. Friendly, Chinese speaking staff. Got the salmon avocado ($ 5.50) and Tomo roll ($ 16). Regular rolls are priced reasonably compared to other places in the area but I think maybe the specialty rolls are a bit expensive. The rolls were well made and rice not too cold or mushy.
Not sure if I would recommend the $ 6 gyoza since they were the SMALLEST gyozas I’ve ever seen. and they only give you 6. Tasty. But so, so small.
The crunchy spicy salmon roll I got was smaller compared to the typical sushi takeout for sure.
Overall definitely pretty fresh sushi and would come here again for my fix.
TIP: Order online for a 15% off your first order

** much much better tonight — revising my stars**
Used to love this place and the food is fresh but am currently sitting through the loudest, most unpleasant dinner involving fights and screaming that I have ever witnessed in NYC.
Sad that they wait staff cannot achieve some modicum of control here.
Will stick with Seamless from this place.

This Chinese-​operated Americanized Japanese dining experience is better than the other Chinese-​operated Americanized Japanese dining experiences on 9^th Ave. Where else can you get a Lady Gaga Roll with your General Tso’s Chicken?
Actually we stuck to their raw fish this time. The Sushi and Sashimi For 2 was very fresh and filling. The sushi chefs plated beautifully! The medium size cuts were perfect. The sushi rice was a good sticky and passed the «don’t fall apart before getting to my mouth test.»
California and Spicy Tuna Rolls were included but a bit small. The crab and fish were less than generous. I didn’t find the spicy tuna spicy, but the roll had lots of tobiku.
Service was efficient and maybe a bit too hurried. With the fish this fresh and of high quality, I’ll come back again real soon. I don’t care who operates the place.

I have FINALLY found my Hell’s Kitchen sushi delivery spot. I’ve been in the area for almost three years, and have hopped around from place to place in search of good quality, fast, RELIABLE, sushi delivery, but hallelujah I think my search is done.
I’ve ordered here on countless occasions — their selection has always been fresh, and has never arrived outside the Seamless delivery window (a serious pet peeve of mine since oftentimes I order based off that metric). My go-​to is the chirashi, which comes with ~13 slices of fresh fish, and your choice of soup or salad. Total with tip comes to about $ 23, which may be slightly higher than you standard delivery joint, but I promise the quality makes up for this discrepancy.
I’ve never dined in, but when I’ve picked up food from here, I’ve found it to be reasonably full which I have always deemed to be a good sign…