Hayashi Sushi & Grill

With the prices, I expected better presentation, originality, and flavor. Maybe my standards for sushi are too high, or maybe I’m not taking into account the super-​trendy atmosphere when offsetting price for food (okay, I’m not).
For myself, my husband, and a 5-​year-​old on Mother’s Day, we ordered 2 appetizers and 3 rolls. Husband had sweet tea while myself and the child stuck with water. We also ended up with a couple of bowls of miso soup. A lot of miso was stirred into a very watery dashi. Not my favorite.
The teriyaki chicken skewers were nothing special: grilled chunks of chicken and vegetables with a subtle teriyaki glaze. They were ordered because it was the most child-​friendly thing we could see on the menu. Not a place to bring your picky youngsters. Our fault, but we were at the town center and I wanted sushi.
Our other appetizer was the shumai dumplings. I bought a bag of these from the Evergreen Mart on Warwick over there in Newport News before. I think I actually still have some in the freezer. The whole bag of them costs less than this appetizer of… what… 6 – 8? dumplings, and is, I would be willing to bet, the exact same product.
I don’t know the names of the rolls we ordered: just what was in them, for the most part. The child and I were away from the table and I let the husband handle it. I do know that one of them was the Tuna Tataki. Slices of tuna were partially cooked, probably with lemon juice before being rolled. This wouldn’t have been bad, but this method tends to make the fish a little… leathery if the slices are left in the juice for even a little too long.
The second roll was, I think, a Spicy Salmon. The outside of the roll had avocado and salmon along with some roe and «spicy» mayo. The inside had tempura & panko crab. Probably the most beautiful and complicated-​looking roll on the plate, and one of the parts worth praising, though not spicy in the least.
Our third roll I really don’t know the name of. The outer portion was some sort of fish (of course) with a silvery skin but not a fishy flavor. The interior was salmon and asparagus. It must have been lightly dipped in tempura and fried, because the little crust was light and flaky and crunchy. More or less perfect.
Our server was incredibly attentive and patient. No complaints there from us at all. Kudos!
All in all, a mediocre experience (sadface).

I am not sure how this place was voted the «Best» of anything. We ordered a spider roll, spicy tuna roll and a spicy yellowtail roll. In addition to this we ordered an appetizer of the Calamari as well as the crab and shrimp salad. The calamari was 8 dollars… they literally give you 8 pieces of calamari. It was not salted or spiced in any kind of way. The spider roll was COLD. It tasted as though the crab was cooked much earlier in the day and was incredibly bland. The crab and shrimp salad was passable but I would not order it again. My hubby said the spicy tuna and spicy yellowtail rolls were ok but he wouldn’t make a special trip for it.

The ambiance of the place you automatically expect awesome food. I had the hibachi shrimp. It came with veggies, rice, and noodles. It all tasted like burnt grill. I did have the spider roll. It was delicious. The shrimp spring roll was nothing to what I was looking for. The rice paper was chewy. It had shrimp, imitation crab and the stuff from a mixed bag of salad greens in it. With a weird soy sauce mixture to dip. My opinion is if they cleaned the grill better the food wouldn’t taste burnt.

I am disappointed with how this fine establishment is being run by management. Although the waitstaff is friendly and the sushi is comparable to other sushi joints in the area, my experience there left me feeling shocked and disappointed. I will not be returning to the restaurant.
They have a list of specialty rolls that take up one side of the sushi menu. On the top it says each roll is $ 15 or 3 for $ 35. My family and I ordered 6 rolls from that list along with other stuff from their menu. Our bill ended up being about $ 150. When we received our bill three of the rolls were rolled into the $ 35 value, and the other three were listed out separately as $ 15 each. When I asked our waitress about it, she mentioned that because we didn’t order the three rolls together where they would be made at the same time on the same plate, the deal didn’t apply. I asked her to ask the manager thinking she may be misinformed. She came back and said the manager couldn’t change the bill. I’m not the type to argue over $ 10, so we paid the bill. But being a restaurant brat (I grew up in restaurants), I couldn’t shake off one thing that bothered me. When we got up to leave, I went up to the manager and told him that his policy isn’t evident on his menu. The menu said the specialty rolls were $ 15 each or 3 for $ 35. No where does it say that the three rolls have to be ordered at the same time and/​or for the same person (because the rolls have to be placed on the same plate). No joke, his explanation was the deal was like other American restaurants who had the 2 for $ 20. If you don’t order it together, you don’t get the deal. What I think he fails to understand is that portions aren’t different when you order his rolls separately or together. Also, it’s part of the regular menu, not a special menu for a limited time. Just because we ordered one roll 10 minutes before the other rolls shouldn’t mean we don’t get the deal. His next excuse was that because the rolls were entered separately, he can’t go back into the system and change it. That’s a bunch of BS too.
In the end, it’s his restaurant… but buyers and sushi consumers beware! It left me just shocked and with a bad taste in my mouth. For being in the location that the restaurant is in, it really should be better anyways. There are too many other sushi places in the Hampton Roads area with better service and better sushi, where they’re not purposely trying to gouge you and your wallet.

After living in Japan on 3 separate tours I have found myself craving Japanese food. Hayashi has one of my favorites, Yakisoba, which reminds me of the Yakisoba I’ve enjoyed in Japan. They also have the lunch menu which I love. Their bento boxes are awesome and reasonably priced for the amount of food you get. There hibachi grill menu is great too… Although I wish it was more of the hibachi I grew to love in Japan where they cook in front of you. I think I would eat in more often if this were the case.
Also every staff member I have encountered has been extremely courteous. Definitely a must try restaurant!

Horrible service. Took way too long to get our food, and even more to get our check. There were four employees on the floor going to every table but ours. I had to wave them down. The food was mediocre too.

I went to Hayashi because I had heard many great things. Well, my expectations were destroyed. A friend and I were seated and waited for our server. It wasn’t very busy that evening. The two servers on staff never made eye contact nor did they give us a «just a moment.» The manager saw us just sitting there, even he did not do anything. After 15 minutes, we put our jackets back on and left. The manager asked if something was wrong and I let him know about the atrocious service, as we walked out. This place will not get a second chance.

I loved the place it was clean, people were very friendly and my husband and i just loved the recommendations the waiter would give us
He was very friendly and unfortunately we dont remember his name but he was great.

Wonderful. Our favorite place. Mr James and the entire staff are perfect hosts. Food is superb and very well presented. Dinner celebrating our anniversary no question… Hayashi Grill. Love Hayashi hibachi at Oyster Point as well.

I really didn’t even want to give this place a star. This was the most disappointing and disgusting place I have ever been. I couldn’t believe the quality of the food it’s ridiculous. The service was great I just wish I could say the same about the food. I could honestly cry right now because I spent sooo much money on poorly made food.

Hayashi Sushi and Grill, while it is a modern and swanky décor, the sushi here is a bit bland. Perhaps I’m being spoiled but the various Sushi bars in Seattle?
I remember that I ordered the Chef Special, but I forgot what the other roll was. In all reality, I don’t remember any of the details of the meal — the sushi here wasn’t all that memorable. Even the miso soup tasted a bit watered down.
What is nice about this sushi place is that the service time is respectable, and it’s in a convenient location of the Peninsula Town Center. So I will say that this place is good as a nutritional supplement location, if you’re running errands in the area.

I prefer eating at this location rather than the one at City Center’s based on multiple visits at both establishments.
However, the only thing I’ll say about the NN location is if you like sushi that has burnt rice and falls apart then go there…
Anyway, this better location is in PTC, from the outside it looks nice, you can definitely tell its a Japanese-​esque restaurant.
The interior is classy and modern looking. I mostly go during dinner hours and theres usually a handful of people waiting to pick up there takeout which is always a good thing to see. Even if the seating looks uncomfortable for waiting… This establishment is very clean, they have single bathrooms and offer booth and tables for dining in.
My friend’s parents are good friends with the owners of the NN location which I don’t know squat about how the restaurant biz works but I assume they own both places and their Korean, so it’s another Japanese place owned by Korean and thats probably why they have some Korean inspired dishes. But don’t get me wrong the food is still good, some more than the others.
When I go here I have a this thing where I have to order two oyster shooters as an appetizers. These are pretty much shots of raw oysters, quail eggs and spices– it may sound gross to a lot of people but I LOVE this! I’ve ordered a handful of their appetizers and their tuna tartar is alright, Kero’s in Tabb makes it better. The edamames are sketchy sometimes there a couple of bad ones in the bunch. The worst appetizer here is their White Tuna Tartar which also happens to be their most expensive dish. When the server brought it out it looked like they dump out a can of congealed white cat food and threw some herbs as a garnish… it was super cold and tasted bland and wet. Just order the standard tartar and save your extra dollars.
The miso is okay, a little watery which not a lot of prepackage tofus. My sister who is a Chirashi fiend (raw slices of fish over a bed of sweet rice) won’t order it here because of the poor selection of raw fish assortments. I’ve also ordered their Sashimi and it was quite unremarkable nothing new nor fancy as far as presentation is concerned. I’ve also tried a variety of sushis as well, by far the worst sushi is their strawberry sushi which I ordered because the combination sounded interesting. The strawberries were frozen and hard and the sauce definitely overpowered each roll. The other sushis I’ve sampled had way too much wasabi/​mayo sauce on it doing a major disservice to the sushis. Oh, and their avocados aren’t always fresh which I had on their dragon rolls. The drinks here are a hit or miss, don’t get martini’s they are watery and your best off with their tropical drinks which you’ll taste more of the juice then the alcohol. Or stick to the plum wine which you really can’t mess up.
The service is okay, sometimes they have new staff that don’t know the menu and will come back asking what it you ordered or mess up your order because they don’t know how to pronounce the dishes, lol.
Overall, this place has some decent dishes but I won’t go out of my way to eat here if I have a craving for raw fish-​which is often.

I was in and out with a Philly roll which was good but not the freshest I’ve ever had. Service was professional and fast; though not many patrons. Beautiful ambiance!

i reallly loved the interior of this place!!!
food was good, i got chicken curry which i liked a lot but my friend said it tasted exactly like the instant kinds u get at the asian market so idk how legit the curry really is but tasted decent enough
its clean, i like the water glasses
bathroom sucks bc theres only one and u have to wait in a line
server was slow

Maybe I’m a snob or perhaps the places I’ve been to before in other cities have spoiled me, but I was not impressed by Hayashi’s sushi. But, since I’m a closet optimist (most days) let me begin with the positives. Conveniently located in the Peninsula Town Center, getting to the location is a breeze from the hotel strip nearby the Hampton Roads Convention center. Parking on a weekday night was plentiful and we were able to secure a nice spot directly across from the front door. When we walked in we were greeted with tasteful, trendy décor and a relaxed, lounge atomosphere with friendly staff and tables of people conversing in low to moderate tones. I can see it being a nice place for a first date (so you can actually talk to each other and not have to shout) or even a quiet meal alone. We were promptly seated and our server was attentive, friendly and efficient.
I ordered the clear soup (mushroom & scallion, no noodle) and the spicy tuna maki sushi. While the soup was tasty the sushi left much to be desired and I ended up sending it back and just finishing off my soup. Still, maybe this place is worth a 2^nd visit for those who live in the area; maybe I just picked the wrong sushi or maybe the chef was having an off night? Who knows. But for my one weekend excursion in the Hampton Roads area it wasn’t worth a second visit.

Not a big sushi fan!!!
But this place is awesome for the casual fan or the raw fish experts out there, perfect location and more upscaled than I expected… Meal can be a little pricey so be prepared but well worth the money… staff is pretty good can get slow on days when large parties are dining in so be prepared. We ordered several different menu items the staff guided us through the different styles and textures of sushi
ps: I had no clue there was so many different styles
Everything was awesome and well prepared even for raw food it was great. And they have a sneaky good bar also… Bonsai

The décor is sorta swanky. I love it. What I don’t love is the miso soup. No words for it.
The salad was too large for the bowl, but tasty and basic. The peanut-​type of dressing was a bit watery.
I love their sushi, but this time I opted for the scallops. Perfectly seared, yet they melt in your mouth almost. I just don’t care for the creamy yet chunky type of sauce they plate the scallops in. I mixed it with the white rice to make it more tolerable.
I’ll always keep coming back. There are so many different dishes I want to try.

Went today for lunch with my husband. Great atmosphere and service. Food came out hot, fresh and in a timely manner. We both had sushi and bento boxes, were pleased with our entire meal and the service. Will return.

I ordered a side salad, a unagi hand roll and a Akiama roll. The salad was a watery and the dressing didn’t have a whole lot of flavor, unlike most of the other Japanese house dressings i have had. The Akiama roll was definitely the winner of the meal. I would get that again in a heartbeat. The battering added excellent texture without being overbearing. The spicy mayo was awesome as well. The hand roll was good, but was just a hand roll, and i wish there was a little more meat in there.
Service was excellent, my drink was always topped off, and the food was delivered quickly.
Atmosphere was excellent as well, classy dark wood and sleek Japanese design throughout.
Since its in the merchant walk, you can either pay for metered parking if you are lucky enough to find it or hoof it from the big open lot near Target.
Overall, I wouldn’t hesitate to come again and try some of the other specialty rolls, and will absolutely make the list of places to eat at when I’m in town.

Hayashi is GREAT! As soon as you walk in, whether it be your first or fifth time there, you kno you’re in a place somewhere special. The décor is super fun and classy. If you are trying to «impress» somebody you can definitely try bring them here. Besides décor being colorful, fun, yet sexy– it’s also really comfortable.
Now time for the food! Honestly the only thing stopping me from giving me this place a 5, is the sushi. The sushi is good, but not great. The rolls sort of fall short of taste. The actual food that is offered, great array of choices but not overwhelming, has been extremely good and hasn’t disappointed yet. So where the sushi lacks, the food makes up ten-​fold. Don’t be mistaken though, the sushi is good, but you could definitely find much better sushi at a smaller «diner-​esque» sushi joint.
Service is extremely friendly and prompt. Management also comes around and asks how you’re doing without prying which is also nice.
All in all, I’d recommend for the ambience and regular food menu. Hayashi definitely makes me feel like I’m in a special place. Again, sushi is good, but nothing special. Must go!