AJ&J Asian Bistro

Not sure if they switched chefs or what happened, but the pad thai is SOOOO SPICY even when you get mild now! Breaks my heart because this was the best pad thai I’d found in this part of town.

Just wanted to take a second to praise these guys for always making my late night pick up orders without missing a beat! Talking 8:45pm on a Sunday, ready to help and smiling. Only reason to remove a star is the restriction for subbing fried rice in my dinner order. Pricy, but hit the spot!

I had the cowboy roll. Let’s just say it’s unbelievably good. Definitely recommend. The other individuals I’m with had the Pad Thai and sashimi bento box. They both loved their meals as well. Check this place out! Definitely my new favorite sushi spot.

The lunch box for 10 bucks is awesome. Comes with fried rice, potstickers, miso soup, salad, california roll. So glad this place is in my neighborhood.

Ordered Shrimp Pad Thai for takeout, there were about two shrimps in my pad thai.
May try again, just not the Pad Thai.

I live a couple blocks from here and was really excited to try this place. I love Asian food. Thai, Vietnamese and Korean for the most part. I think people must love the sushi here because the stuff they prepared for us completely missed the mark and I am pretty sure they don’t know how to really cook anything here. I wasn’t going to leave this review but I couldn’t really help it. They’re really nice people and I don’t think anyone should eat chain food. I want everyone to go out and support local business in New Orleans but I’m not sure you should try this place unless you love sushi.
We tried the happy hour dumplings. Pork and mushrooms. I liked these. They’re really overpriced on the regular menu but are fair for the happy hour deal. They’re interesting and delicious with a little soy on them. It went down hill quickly from there. I ordered the coconut lemon grass chicken soup. The chicken was tender and nicely cooked but the soup was inedible. I love fish sauce but this soup had flavor components that didn’t work together and it was too salty. It’s really strange and unappetizing. I sent it back and was told that this is how it tastes. Miriam ordered one of the salads and it came out literally swimming in dressing that had way too much soy. It was terrible.
We both ordered a sushi roll and were happy with those. They were nothing special but at least we ate something. I would come back for the sushi, I guess but would never try anything prepared here again. It was really disappointing.

Great location on Magazine St. I ordered the shrimp and garlic dish with rice. The shrimp and veggies had a sauce on it, but it was mostly at the bottom of the plate. The shrimp were good, but I was hoping for something a bit more spicy. It was on the bland side, but with that said, it was still very good. I was tempted to get the general Tso shrimp dish, and plan to get that next time as I was told it is quite the bang for your buck.

Super fresh and great cuts. What more do you need? I just had the best sashimi in a looong time. I really love this place

Great place to stop by after walking around the Garden District. Went in just in time for happy hour and we ordered a rainbow roll and 2 orders of salmon sushi for $ 13. The restaurant was generous with the salmon sushi and each piece was topped with fresh and rich salmon.
The curry seafood hotpot was an odd item. It came in a rather small clay pot and had eggplant, tofu, bass, salmon, shrimp and scallop in curry sauce. The seafood was fresh, but didn’t justify the price. Would rather get more sushi instead.
Very attentive service.

As one of the tips says, the fresh fish arrives on Friday! Therefore came here twice, once on a Friday & Saturday. Both times the experience was good.
The seafood ceviche is very good. It has a wasabi dressing (or sauce) over it that gives it a nice kick and extra flavor. Served with in house chips, for a crunchier texture. And the homemade pork dumplings are one of their signature appetizers.
Both times we got the uni, the 2 servers that I had were very knowledgeable about it. I recommends giving it a try if you aren’t a fan of it. In order of our favorites, the rolls that we had are the Thanksgiving, Black & Gold, and the Fantastic roll.

Stumbled upon this place while walking around the Garden District of New Orleans– and glad we did! Was such amazing Japanese food– one of the best I found over my US trip. We got a number of different sushi dishes and all were delicious. They had a lunch special– I think it was half price sushi or buy one get one free so it was a cheap deal as well. Good service. Recommended!

OMG! The pork dumplings are the best I have ever eaten. 5 dumplings for Happy Hour is a generous dish to share. Steve had the tuna sushi appetizer.

I love sushi! Rock n Sake on Fulton still holds the reign as #1 in my book and I have yet to find anywhere to take its place. I have found a few close seconds but Aj &j wont even be on the map.
We came for dinner Sun night so maybe that was my first mistake since it seems everyone likes their lunch specials.
We ordered the shumai, aj &j salad, fantastic roll, thanksgiving roll, hot and sour soup and shrimp fried rice.
We received the salad first which had pieces of fresh tuna, etc but they were cut into too big of chunks in my opinion and a one note flavor profile. We ate as much as we could but didnt finish it.
Then came veg dumplings by server error. No big deal, I like gyoza. It had edamame beans inside and other filler which gave it no flavor but I guess if you eat a vegetarian diet, you may like these? Not sure.
The shumai ended up arriving at the end of the meal which I was anxiously awaiting and craving but it was just another let down. They were of the frozen kind and flavorless.
As for the 2 rolls, they came out really quick and I didnt care for either one at $ 16 a pop. A good roll to me has a nice balance of textures and flavors and both rolls lacked either. Blah.
The shrimp fried rice was good and for $ 12 it was a generous portion.
The soup smelled really bad so I didnt even try it.
Our server was definitely a rookie but nice.
We wont be returning (we can get good fried rice at quite a few places)

A friend and I stopped in here for lunch on a Saturday afternoon and we were surprised to find that it wasn’t packed at all. Aside from us, there were only a few people sitting at the sushi bar.
Everything on the menu sounded great, and I decided to start with the squid salad. The best part of this salad is that it’s nice and cold and the squid is thinly sliced, so that it’s not too chewy. I’ve found that some places have big hunks of squid and it can be difficult to chew. File under: squid fanatic problems.
We decided to get the rainbow roll and the Fantastic roll. The rainbow roll was pretty typical. The fish was really fresh and I enjoyed it. The star was definitely the Fantastic roll. This is tuna, salmon, yellowtail, masago, cucumber, avocado and scallion wrapped in a special seaweed that is almost similar to lettuce. I really enjoyed it because it was light and it had a really good flavor.
If you happen to be dining with someone who isn’t into the raw stuff, they have a pretty extensive selection of noodles, rice and other cooked dishes like that.
All in all my experience here was fantastic and I will definitely be back.

OK. It’s a sushi place that has a roll called the Sexiest Man. C’mon you know you want to try it. (see my pic)
I’ve been here for dinner/​takeout a couple of times. And the sushi is really fresh. The staff is nice and helpful, attentive without hovering.
The restaurant is a bit dark but that might make it a good date place. The fish prices are a bit high but then again the quality has always been good and I’m suspicious of discount fish. I need to remember the non-​sushi items on the list and try some of those sometime.
And I definitely need to try get over there for their lunch specials.

AJ & J Asian Bistro has a terrible name, but decent service and an ambitious menu. We tried out their lunch menu: I ordered chirashi (sashimi over rice) and my friend ordered the spicy roll platter. My chirashi portions were perfect and loved the tobiko and sesame seeds sprinkled over the rice rather than in a pile atop the fish.
My friend’s rolls looked fine, which sparked a conversation over how rolls are marketed to Westerners. I wasn’t crazy about the octopus, but I’ve only experienced it once where I enjoyed eating it. Ran into others that enjoyed their bento boxes at lunchtime, so I’m looking forward to trying it out…

⁴⁄₅ lunch specials yield great value
if you have a little time and are in the area, stop in for lunch. they have a whole range of options from bento-​box style to entrée plus soup to sushi combos — all under or around $ 10. the servings are a good, filling size, and the taste is on point. i’ve tried a few things now, including the pad thai which was tasty but a litte dry, and there’s also a thai sautee of beef and one with eggplant — these two were bigger winners for me. the lunch combo sushi is a decent portion where you select 2 rolls from a list.
the actual restaurant feels a little dark, so you may want to sit closer to the front/​windows. the team is attentive and make sure that you have everything you need. i haven’t been to dinner (the prices seem too steep for that seating), but i’m sure the quality holds.

So I’m from Southern California, land of the food snobs. We take our sushi outings very serious from the freshness of fish all the way down to the freshness of wasabi. I wish I was joking but Cali don’t play. With that said, I know where I am and NOLA is not really known for their sushi. While this cities stereotype keeps many NOLA newbies away from sushi joints, I’m more open-​minded.
AJ&J is at the top of my list for sushi places in NOLA. The most important factor of my rating is the friendliness of the chefs! These guys are awesome and provide great suggestions. The sushi is above average and fairly fresh. While I’m not going to go down the list of my favorite rolls, it is my suggestion you hold onto a menu and sample as much as possible. (Note: Scallop anything here tends to be an über small portion)
Word of advice for the restaurant. When it comes to sushi, West and East Coasters like to hold onto a menu and order as they go. I notice my servers like to snatch my menu away from me when I’m not looking. I find it humorous but there might be a non-​local taken back by this.
Anyway, I recommend this place! It is my favorite sushi joint in NOLA. If you run into me here make sure to give me a Unilocal hello!

Have tried this neighborhood place twice.
Great décor, extensive menu, good full bar. Strange music for a self-​professed «Asian» place; hard rock and Spanish tunes, too loud.
Pass on the «Tempura», which disappoints. Soups are OK. Sushi is best.
Teriyaki is fine.
No parking lot, but that hasn’t been a problem.
Our City really needs some REAL TEMPURA !
Rick

Chef Andy has expanded his sushi talent to serving Pan Asian dishes in his new eatery. In addition To Japanese, he serves traditional Thai, Chinese and introduces Malaysian to our area.
He not only knows the cuisine he serves, he’s very flexible and willing to try anything new. Sushiwise, Andy offers ankimo (monkfish)pâté’ but will substitute many of favorite Asian pickled vegetables for the normal American ones. For example, the crunchy, extremely flavorful Takuwan (pickled yellow radish) is slice rather than cucumber.
Always known for his creative rolls. especially his 3d rolls from his prior incarnation (Yokohama), Chef Andy and his sushi chefs pay special attention to the presentation while striving to create novel exclusive rolls — so important in todays encyclopedia of roll types.
We always get a group together the Friday evening after Turkey day; so, I know we’ll be here in a few weeks again. Ample choice of seating at the sushi bar, several booths, tables with comfortable banquette.