Haru Sushi

For NYC, this is my favourite sushi restaurant in the midtown area.
It is a little pricey (but hey, this is NY) when it comes to the specialty rolls, but the quality is top notch.
I really like the fire hot roll. It’s an arrangement of. Not only is the presentation flawless, the taste is a symphony of flavors that keeps me coming back every time.
The Gramercy is orchestra of flavors too, but a change in instruments, that leads to a whole other bevy of flavour sensations.

Really solid sushi in midtown for dine in lunch or carry out dinner, though I hear they are closing this location soon. They have a nice varied menu with great traditional items, fancier rolls, and good non-​sushi items as well. I’ve had many different things and always liked them all. It’s gets really crowded around lunch time, but it’s a very cool décor and a great spot to meet someone for a business lunch.

One of our friends girlfriend brought us here…
Let’s start off by saying the décor of the place was beyond amazing and the waiter was attentive.
I ordered the Lychee Martini, California Roll, and Spicy Tuna Roll. The Lychee Martini tasted amazing! My Spicy Tuna Roll was disgusting, there weren’t enough spiciness in the Tuna Roll. The tuna was so disgusting, I had to send it back. The next server came back to me and asked me if I wanted another Spicy Tuna Roll, but when she asked me she gave me a stank attitude.
Word of advice to those who loves kimchee sauce with their sushi, if the restaurant do not carry kimchee sauce then chances are the sushi ends up tasting bad.
But the drinks and main entrees are delicious.

3.5 stars
Strong cocktails and attentive service are the strong points. The technique in cutting my sashimi could’ve been better, but the value I got for the very long slices of fish was worth it. Skip the wakame salad — it was drowning in soy sauce.
Mostly catering to the business type/​men in suits crowd, I’d say this is a good place in Midtown to take your clients for low key dinner in a modern atmosphere.

I really don’t mind late lunches. The crazy crowds are gone and I can enjoy a nice peaceful stroll up Lexington or Park Ave., peacefully stomping over tourists who are wondering what happened to the Pan Am building, as well as the their favorite series on ABC. After a peaceful stroll and some deep thoughts not unlike these, I arrive at a lunch place, knowing it will also be — quiet and peaceful.
I arrive at Haru, being one of the places in my work vicinity that I know won’t poison me with bad fish, to find that it’s a little too quiet and too peaceful, as I end up standing there for a good couple of minutes until someone actually comes up to seat me. That’s cool. I won’t be the elitist Unilocaler douchebag that will dock them a star for that. Let’s see how the rest of the lunch goes…
Took a while for the sushi to come out. Like I said, it was fresh but — here is why Haru was worthy only of a 3-​star review:
— once the sushi came out, the waiter was gone out of sight, probably playing Draw Something in the kitchen. I had to flag down multiple staff members to finally get my waiter, for something as simple as a tea refill.
— the price of the sushi is a bit ridiculous. My lunch order of a couple of rolls and a miso soup came out to be over $ 20 (couple being 2 or 3 of the most basic variety).
— when your service is subpar and your prices so high that it’s clear that you have trouble covering your rent and paying off the credit card with which you paid for the décor that makes you look like a senior citizen diner in a retirement village in Florida, you tend to earn yourself a Mayoral badge of Pretentious Town on foursquare.
I am hoping that once Haru is finally comfortable enough to lower their prices to normal recession level and improves their service just a tad bit, we can have another go at it.

Visited this Haru location yesterday for Happy Hour — from 5 – 7, select rolls and drinks are CHEAP. The hot sake and spicy tuna rolls were both very good but I wasn’t a huge fan of the spicy salmon roll or lycheetini. Also, the booths are comfy so you can easily chill there for 2hours and the service is great even though they get pretty busy. Oh, and if you sign-​up on their website, they send you a $ 20 gift certificate on your birthday… pretty sweet!

Good Happy Hour deals.
Stick to the sushi/​sashimi. Friend got the sashimi salad it was completely overdressed. He was barely able to eat it.

The damage:
–Lemongrass hot & sour soup
–Lobster mango cerviche
–Chilean sea bass
–2 kiss of fire roll
–spider monkey roll
–crispy calamari appetizer
–shrimp appetizer
–2 more rolls that i can’t remember
–spicy sirloin steak
–crab cakes
–tempura cheesecake dessert
My favorite hands down was the kiss of fire, hence we got two. The tiny slice of jalapeño gave a nice kick at the end of each bite. The sirloin steak was well cooked and the sauce was really nice. Didn’t really like the spider monkey roll or shrimp appetizer. The lobster mango cerviche was refreshing and came with cute little bamboo sticks that you can sword fight with and the lemongrass hot & sour soup is good if you like thai food. Tempura cheesecake was fried nicely with coconut shavings. Good thing my sister had 50% off at this place… otherwise it can really drain your wallet.
Also this place charges extra for anything, even a slice of lemon or basil.

What is the freakin deal with the décor? This place is incredibly over-​done inside. It’s very confusing.
That said, the food was pretty good. The kitchen really knows their sauces. We had a chicken curry sauce that was fantastic, all of the dipping sauces were delicious, and the spicy tuna rolls were seriously amazing. Even the miso soup was notable. We had shrimp tempura, which I was a really big fan of, and also came with an awesome dipping sauce, and the crab dumplings to share. The Spicy Garlic Shrimp was more ‘spiced’ than ‘spicy’ and they really were serious about the garlic. The portion was huge, I couldn’t come close to finishing it after all the things we shared, but would recommend it to serious garlic lovers.
One piece of advice though — don’t order meat. The meats were all overcooked and dry. Also, steer clear of the fried things in the lunch boxes, they are terrifying.

great lunch specials, friendly wait staff and nice ambience. busy during lunch, but try to get there before 12pm and you’ll be seated quickly. Price is up there, but you’ll feel like you’re getting your money’s worth with the bento box at lunch. nice place for a business lunch, and you can also bring a date here

I think I’ve been to all the Harus in the city at some point or another. Warning though, my thinking may not be accurate as I never knew this one existed.
Ambiance was okay… not my favourite location. Plasticy weird seats.
I always order the same dishes because I know they deliver a solid taste and value.
The service, ugh, was extremely nice yet they had a hard time with conversational English and times that by 3. Yes, we had 3 waiters in rotation asking us every two minutes if everything was okay. At least I think that’s what they said.

I love this place.
I had eaten at Haru Boston several times and loved it, so i thought i would check out the one in NYC when i was nearbye.
did not dissapoint.
Honestly, i am pretty sure the Gramercy Park Roll is the most incredible thing i have ever tasted. It sweet, spicy, fruity, and wonderful.
it must be made of angel fish, or some shit like that. i dunno.
Also, the Saki Mojito is killer.
One advantage this has over boston is the outdoor seating.

What smells fishy and makes my tummy hurt?
The sushi at Haru Sushi. It was over priced, the wait staff was not very helpful considering there weren’t that many people at the restaurant.
I feel a little queasy, don’t go. Whoever has said that this is the best sushi in NYC may be getting paid by the company as it is definitely not even close to the best or even the cheapest and the best.

The décor is kinda awesome. Faux bioluminscent jellyfish glow in tanks above the sushi bar. The pillows are plastic-​filled bamboo shavings that are amazingly comfortable. It’s a sensory experience across the board.
That said, the food is decent but overpriced. But what do you want? It’s midtown. The service is so-​so, and it’s crowded even on weeknights. The lychee martinis are effing fantastic, but the overall experience is definitely 3 stars.

Service bad. Took about 50 minutes to get our order, and no one bothered to explain or inform us that the food was late. However I did look around, and no one else had their food.
Ordered the Sushi and Sashimi for Two, and the Tempura dinner. The Sushi and Sashimi for Two can easily feed three eager sushi eaters and 4 not-​so-​hungry people. Comes with three maki rolls, 8 nigiri’s, and another 8 slices of sashimi. Fresh, and tasted really good. The sashimi was nice and cold, and they were big pieces, not itty bitty. Tempura was light and not battery. The shrimp was a good size, and there was a nice selection of vegetables.

Cool atmosphere/​vibe.
Good sushi. Try the rock shrimp appetizer… Delicious!
The eel dish was incredibly good. Good rolls… not too big in size but good. Although my tuna roll was a bit too fishy. Not a 5 star sushi place but after that eel dish and rock shrimp, a 4 star!
Probably best to go for their happy hour deals. A bit pricey otherwise for what you get.

I went to Haru on a Saturday night with 5 friends to celebrate a birthday. We were promptly seated on the second floor with a really nice view of the rest of the restaurant. There’s a bar on the second floor that’s pretty nice, I could see myself getting a drink there while waiting for friends or even eating at the bar if the restaurant was too full.
Overall, I thought the experience was a really positive one. The sushi was creative, the fish was really fresh, service was good. I really liked the ambiance and the trendy Saturday night out in Manhattan feel. It loud enough to feel like the place was really happening, but not so loud that I couldn’t hear my friends.
I’d definitely come back again. I’ll have to try this Happy Hour everyone is talking about, because Non Happy Hour is a bit pricey.

Unremarkable. I’ve never been to the happy hour which I hear is decent but I was dragged here late night for dinner– on a Friday. Of course the place was deserted so coming here for any sense of people-​watchinng or ambiance is out of the question. Not until they learn NOT to kick out the patrons at like. 10:30. I’m generally not a fan of chain restaurants, and a sushi chain restaurant is an even bigger no no. But if you have to go here, this is what you should order
Rock Shrimp Tempura; anything taste good deep fried; albeit, the portion size was HUGE. Most of the appetizers were entrée size for most standard NY restaurants– The black sea bass and agedashi tofu wasn’t bad. You can get by with two entrees– I went for the entrée AND sushi roll. To speak to that, the sushi is HORRIBLE. Just horrible. To be fair, I did ask for brown rice sushi which is trickier but seriously, the rice didn’t even remotely stick to the fish (which was gross and bland tasting; pretty much because it wasn’t fresh– this is the yellowtail). On another note, the green tea wasn’t bad– served in a cast iron tea kettle, which I figured is pretty authentic.
If you have to eat here, I’d do it for the happy hour. I didn’t have any alcohol (but laughed when they decided to card my friends, who were way about the drinking age– that always makes me cringe with the feeling of unclassy-​ness in NYC. According to my friend however, they’ll blend plum wine and sake for you, which was a decent drink to wash out the taste of the terrible sushi

Very mediocre sushi place. Looks cheesy trendy and pretty typical for midtown east. Most of the fish is fresh, however, not the greatest. I also think they can work on the presentation of the food. Their uni was a bit too… watery and didn’t hold it’s form well, which to me indicates that it was not as fresh as possible. Far from it. However, this is a decent place to take clients and those who are not too picky with their sushi/​sashimi.
I also noticed that their tables have awkward seating… the height of their chairs are not optimal for their dining tables. You’ll see what I mean if you eat there. I wouldn’t go here for a date. Not a place to impress.

On my recent trip to NYC, after a lovely afternoon of shopping, I was craving some serious sushi. My friend recommended Haru, as it’s her favorite sushi joint in the city, and she knew there was one relatively nearby.
The place was empty when we walked in, but the staff was very friendly. However, despite being devoid of customers, it took us flagging down our waitress to order, and then to get our water refilled. The rolls we chose were yummy, although a little on the small side. I definitely could’ve eaten everything that we ordered without sharing. Prices are okay, but nothing stellar.
I’d try Haru again, but maybe at a different location.