Sushi Ariyoshi

I literally RAN to this place from the subway station today because I hadn’t been here since October and was so excited about coming back. It was my go-​to Japanese place in the city. I almost cried when I looked over and saw the huge for rent sign in the window.
RIP Ariyoshi, you were good to me :(

** CLOSED **
I walked past last night, and the space was for rent I believe– wah! :’(

It was quiet at 11:30 AM on a Sunday morning, I guess seafood for brunch doesn’t sound all that convincing for curing hang over.
Chirashizushi were featured on the brunch menu for $ 7 each– yellow tail or white tuna– they looked small so I got both. Friend ordered Unagi Don.
Her slim frame packed away the sizable Unagi Don with one breathe. Happily, she swore to return for dinner and try the grilled mackerel, apparently a very authentic offering.
Yellow tail and white tuna came in numerous satisfying pieces, and fresh! Sushi rice on the bottom was perfectly seasoned, soft with a playful bounce in my mouth. I wanted to cuddled it, but it would have gotten too messy. Anyway, I got 80% full on one chirashizushi, but I finished both anyway. Why waste heavenly chirashizushi?

my love affair with this place continues! after a long week, i was craving really good sushi, we bf and i walked over from the EV. we ordered a couple pieces of nigiri, namely, the seared kobe beef special (mmm the meat was so lovely and buttery), unagi, anago, kampachi, and one other that slips my mind right now. i LOVE their sushi rice, it just makes the experience so much better!
for entrees, we had the tempura platter, the miso katsu, and a pork belly skewer. if you ever order the miso katsu, make sure u get it with the sauce on the side. It really is strong, and our waiter was kind enough to suggest that for us. He was right! He was very nice. he’s the old guy with the crazy hair. I think he was amazed at how much we ordered.
I highly recommend Sushi Ariyoshi to everyone!

My wife and I went there after work on a Wednesday around 6pm and it had a few people in there. The Japanese staff seemed nervous, but I think that’s cultural because quickly enough they were very nice and warm with great service.
It happened to be happy hour and my large beer was $ 4 (half price!). We ordered the sashimi plate which is very, very good. Then some more Japanese food that we had to be instructed how to eat (you pour water here like soup and add salt, etc). Excellent.
Recommendable and probably my follow up will be 5 stars.

Pretty decent Japanese food but even better service.
My family and I stumbled in here and since we were jetlagging, we wanted dinner… at 4pm.
The waitress was super cool and informed us that the lunch menu ended at 4:30pm so she told us to order quick so we can get the lunch menu prices! How awesome was that. We were exhausted but this place was pretty delish.

This place is so good! The food is actually quite authentic Japanese and its excellent from the seaweed salad with creamy sesame dressing to the excellent fresh cuts of sashimi. The eel bowl is particularly delectable, and the eggplant with tofu is a real treat. I am a big fan of noodle soups, and Ariyoshi does those well too.
All in all, I recommend it!

We went here today for lunch and had a few sushi rolls. All were delicious and we cleared out plate. The décor in here is pretty darn cool. It’s very clean and natural looking (trees growing out of the walls and over the rafters — fake trees — but still). The staff was prompt and friendly. Not much to complain about here, not the best sushi I ever had, but still very good and well worth stopping in if you’re in the area.

Came here a couple of times with friends. The menu is long… very long! I haven’t had the sushi here, though I will next time, but the cooked food here is absolutely amazing! Very authentic and not very pricey! One of the few good Japanese places that is good and inexpensive (compared to, let’s say, 15 East). Come here for a good Japanese meal with friends, because there will be something that everyone will enjoy!
(I personally recommend the Japanese hamburger and any of the rice bowls.)

Overall, the food is mediocre but acceptable. My friend and I made it just in time for happy hour (50% off drinks, $ 2 off most food items) and grubbed to our hearts content on spider and rainbow rolls, chicken-​everything, pomegranate wine, and what I call blue drink. There were a couple things that compensated for the so-​so eats:
1) Décor & Ambiance: Clean, aesthetically pleasing, and a non-​overbearing crowd (if any).
2) Service: SONNY! Our waiter. Man, a guy who truly cares about your dining experience. He’s full of wise and not so wise menu-​advice, urges you to order all you can before the early bird time, and brings samples of wines he advises against. A character, endearing… Would go again for that kind of attention and service.
Ask for Sonny!

I’ve passed by Ariyoshi many times on my way from Union Square down to the East Village and vice-​versa, but I didn’t get a chance to stop in until last week after class. Even at 10 PM, most of the tables were full. We were taken all the way to the back for an available table.
When we first sat down, a large party was exiting a private room behind us. Drunk person after drunk person stumbled out and the scene took me back to Japan, where I witnessed drunk Japanese businessmen stumble out of bars and restaurants with their colleagues on many a-​nights. Oh, sake.
The menu offered such a wide selection, my friend and I had a difficult time deciding what we wanted to order. In the end, we agreed to split an appetizer (tofu), I ordered the sushi sashimi combo, and she ordered an array of small dishes. The sashimi was fresh and absolutely delicious. The sushi was good except for the load of wasabi between the fish and the rice. I’ve gotten hints of wasabi in sushi at other places before, but the wasabit was piled on here, too much for my liking. Besides the excessive wasabi, we were both very happy with our meals. I would definitely come back to try more of the menu.

I shouldve known that the sushi was not going to be very fresh when I walked in on a Friday night to a pretty much empty restaurant. The prices didn’t seem bad and Japanese people were working the front so I was excited at first. But the sushi was subpar at best and the manager said he never heard of the Unilocal special on here and said I «would be the first and last person to get a free drink with dinner» and that «someone had made it up». It was all very awkward and he told me he would give me a few minutes to think of a drink and he never returned. Which meant I never got a free drink.
The yakitori don made up for the meal somewhat but it was completely not worth $ 30. Not coming back.

A nice place for a quiet Japanese meal. I’ve been here twice for dinner. I’ve had the una-​don, some of the kushiyaki, a couple of the special rolls, and the tempura green tea ice cream. Yum all around. Everything tasted fresh, was the perfect temperature, and was perfectly timed. Prices are reasonable and the menu is full of options.
Beautiful interior. My friend commented as we walked in, «This place feels like a spa!» It’s a little more «grown-​up» than some other Japanese places around here — no ridiculous «all you can eat/​drink» specials… not that I don’t love those. It’s also more authentic. The staff is Japanese, for the most part. Service may be unassuming and slower than you are used to. You will probably be seated as far away from other patrons as possible — I’m fan. nothing worse than accidentally eavesdropping when I’m trying to eat, or worrying about bothering other people when I’m trying to chat.
Minus a star for the bizarre music I’ve experienced here — think 1980s action film montage.

This place is by no means unique in their sushi innovations (see Kyoto in Queens), but goddangit that sushi melts in your mouth. Slipped in here on a snowy night and was very impressed with size of this place and the décor. We ordered some simple rolls and some ika pieces and it was pretty nice. My only complaint was that the sushi felt a little warm on the tounge and there were no hand towels to get me in the ritual mood. Oh, and the price was a little high, but I guess for quality of the fish was pretty nice.
I’d definitely go back on a roll through union square !

this is what i do. i upload photos of places and then completely FORGET to review them. i know, how irresponsible of me!
i’ve been here on numerous occasions. business meetings, a quick bite, a birthday and a spontaneous stop-​in because it was snowing outside. either way… Ariyoshi is a fantastic location when you’re in the Union Square area and you want something… Japanese.
the food here isn’t stellar. you’re not going to realize, «OMG! this is amazing sushi!!» or get your yakitori/​izakaya fix. the sake selection isn’t horrible… but it is definitely NOT impressive. this is a great place to bring your friends/​family that are clearly clueless of Japanese food/​sushi/​yakitori. it’s not that bad– but i wouldn’t come here if it were my choice. there are more options… especially if you want to pay cheaper prices and still get the same quality (maybe slightly better) food.
from Donburi (meat over rice and eggs) and Udon… Ariyoshi is a decent place to find these sort of items. the seaweed salad is a complete FAIL. it’s very quiet and you won’t have servers running around or people screaming as you’re trying to enjoy your meal. i would recommend this place to those who are looking for a relaxing Japanese meal in the Union Square/​NYU area.

My friends a picky eater so unless we go to a steakhouse we always end up having sushi. Nori in the east village is my standby, but we were trying to spread our wings a bit. This place was pretty empty for a Friday night… but it was New Years Day afterall. They were really pushing the drink menu, i guess thats how they make their money because the actual rolls were priced really well. They have a huge menu of cooked items/​main entrees like chicken teriyaki etc if thats your thing. Green tea is really strong/​burnt, but it made me think it was more detoxifying, and post NYE that’s what i needed.

Great lunch deals — lunch boxes or plates. However, the food that comes with the deal isn’t necessarily so great. Having just had sushi a couple of nights before, I opted for a chicken terriyaki lunch plate (the sides accompanying confused me immensely — french fries, a single piece of broccoli and steamed carrot and… spaghetti? Is this Epcot Center on a plate?) The chicken was tender and well cooked but not marinated in the terriyaki sauce, as I had imagined it would be. No, it just came with the sauce on the side. Meh.
Hot hot hot green tea was served in abundance, which was helpful in thawing out our freezing group of 5 last weekend (you know, when it sleeted and felt like negative 100 outside).
I shared a spicy salmon roll with a friend… they weren’t joking about the spice.
The food filled my belly and refreshed my spirits against the weather, but I wouldn’t call it the greatest culinary experience of my lifetime by any means. Oh, and the natural wood décor and greenery was lovely.

Being convenient to my office, I checked out this place for lunch yesterday. I opted for an appetizer of yaki-​gyoza and a main course of kamo nanban served hot with udon noodles. For the gyoza I was happy to see two choices, pan-​fried or deep-​fried. I thought the pan-​fried gyoza were good but not great. Not heavy at all, and small enough that eating 5 of them presented no difficulty, but the underlying taste was not interesting or memorable. For the noodle bowl, the udon noodles were nice and plump and very tasty. The broth was solid. But I thought the sliced duck tasted off. That was a little off-​putting. The spice was served on the side, and I was free to liberally add it. Overall, this was a nice lunch, but I might want more from a dinner.
The décor is very attractive and seemingly elegant. I was very comfortable here. The service was functional.
3.5 stars

If only I had a place like this near me!
I will definitely stop by here my next trip to NYC. The quality was very good, the service friendly and well, comforting. Its nice to not feel like some horrible nuisance when stopping in and ordering take-​out on a Saturday afternoon. I’d love to come back and sit down. As it was I waited at the bar, sipping delicious Plum wine. I ordered the standard bento box for $ 9 and was delightfully full when I finished nomming its tastiness. I liked that when you stepped in from the bustling street, it was calm and peaceful.
I would definitely recommend, and can’t wait to go back!

Went there for dinner on a Thursday evening and really enjoyed it. Found it to be particularly well priced for quite good mid-​town sushi.
The place was filled with Japanese (eating there and working there). The sashimi was fresh, nice sized pieces. Their spicy sauce for a spicy tuna roll was really outstanding. The california roll was good but not extraordinary. Seaweed salad delicious as was the vegetable salad.
Very nice ambience, casual, relaxing, not a big place but didn’t feel crowded.