Nikko Sushi And Hibachi

I have to say....no...just......no. First time trying this place after YEARS of wondering how good it was while walking past to go to The Melting Pot right next door. Curiosity killed and not going back.

It's a funny thing though - I perused the Yelp reviews AFTER going, just to see what others thought and there's quite the disparate, polarized opinion of this place! Not just a little but a LOT - pretty much you either love it or hate it.

...Scratching my head to figure out what these 4 and 5 star reviewers see in this place though....

Party of two, walked into the place (around 730PM on a Monday) with tonkatsu on the brain. Our usual go-to place is Ariake down the road about 1 1/2 miles south of here. Just had a hankerin' to try someplace new.

Walking in, the place was empty with the exception of a table of 2. There was a heavy smell that hung in the air of fried food (will get to that in a minute) - definitely poor-to-no decent ventilation in the place. The air inside didn't appear to be circulating and 'fresh.'

The decor was tired and old as if the place could use a serious upgrade and reno - but my guess is, if the place isn't well patronized, they may not have money to spend on redecorating. Just being in that location has to cost a pretty penny.

We noticed 2 sushi chefs at the bar - seemed a bit overkill for how un-busy it was that night.

We perused the menu for tonkatsu. Surely a Japanese restaurant would have that as a staple menu item. Nada. When we asked the server (owner?), she appeared confused like she had never heard of tonkatsu before (srsly?!) - or had never been asked that question before (srsly?!). After about a minute, she turned to a page in the extensive menu book and pointed to something that read 'Country Fried Chicken' and asked if that was what we were looking for. OMG where is a slap-on-the-forehead emoji when you need it?! I'll even take the laughy-cry-y emoji at this point to insert here.

We decided not to risk it and passed on ordering it. We might have felt differently had she immediately showed us that item on the menu or reassured us that that was actually tonkatsu, re-named. But for goodness sake: Japanese-meets-Cracker-Barrel - ?! We couldn't imagine what we might get.

Instead we decided to share a Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box - seemed like good value for the price. It didn't 'come with' a miso soup so we ordered one a la carte. We also paid extra for fried rice. My friend also ordered a Philly Roll.

The meal came out promptly (why wouldn't it - we virtually had the restaurant to ourselves). The Philly Roll looked underwhelming. The rice was not bright white and fresh looking. The roll was served on a dish that was chipped. The wasabi and ginger looked tired and old.

The Bento Box was HUGE. I mean LOTS of food - definitely enough to share. But that was the only positive about the dish lol.

The salad was meh, nothing special. 4 (yes 4!) Nigiri Sushi pieces came with the Box - surprised by that as not everyone likes raw fish (me) and most expect California Roll pieces as a Box standard. Here's the thing though: the fish and shrimp on those pieces looked plastic and not fresh. We decided to pass.

Pretty much everything else in the box was....DEEP FRIED! Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE deep fried food! But in the appropriate places! The veggie tempura batter wasn't crisp and crunchy - in fact it was undercooked and the pieces weren't piping hot out of the fryer. The shumai was deep fried - wt?! They also had a fishy after taste. Did not like them at all. There were 2 small squares of DEEP FRIED tofu. Those weren't too bad and interesting tasting. And the fried rice was decent tasting and came out hot but when we got to the bottom of the little bowl, there was a pool of pure oil!

But the real kicker was the chicken teriyaki which were little "balls" of chicken coated in too-sweet teriyaki sauce and DEEP FRIED and laid on a bed of DEEP FRIED teriyaki-sauced noodles! We got through the dish but didn't really enjoy the way it was cooked and presented.

So...there you have it. My first 1 star review. Hey - you live and learn. And I learned that I should not stray from Ariake....EVER. Btw Ariake, though a tad higher priced IS high quality, FRESH food - and delicious! They have tonkatsu and it is EXCELLENT. Their tempura is TO DIE FOR - deep fried crunchy-crispy goodness and piping hot every time. Their sushi is fresh and excellent. The place is always crowded and parking can be an issue even though they have their own lot (parking on the grass is common!). Lunch at Ariake is always PACKED - they have a lunch menu which includes a variety of different Bento Boxes (that come with both miso soup and salad - delish!) for a great price. I know...why would you go anywhere else, right?

Sorry Nikko. I can't even call you an Ariake wannabe. :( There is much too much that would need to be fixed to even come close.

I work in the building and have alwayd heard about this place from coworkers decided to go there afterwork yeaaterday to grab some sushi to take home to my bf as a surprise. I loved the welcoming environment and how friendly the staff was and boy do they have a big full extensive menu on sushi. I made two selections and waited for my order and loved watching them make it from the bar and the packaging was so cute as well.

Now the only reason why i minus a star was because one of the male waiters was giving the chefs tips while making food and while they had gloves on they touched the cash then put in their pockets then went back to touching food without changing gloves. Maybe they arent aware how dirty money can be but maybe it wouod just be better choice to divide tips up at the end of their shift so they wont have to worry about the cross contamination.

FIVE STARS!

Love this place! Amazing lunch specials and sushi. For example: $10 for hibachi shrimp with fried rice! Definitely a go-to lunch place in Reston. If you don't get in before 12 you might have to wait.

Cannot wait to go back!

Nikko's is a perfect example of a place that's either a hit or a miss. The place itself is nice and spacious but the service/food can vary from day to day. There was one time that I went where I was seated promptly and had wonderful service to that one time where the waiter spilled water on a customer. To be fair, that only happened once but the service can be really slow when they're busy and it took us over an hour to get our meal.

I am a fan of the lunch menu here because the proportions are generous and the food is good! Fair warning, their sushi is on the fishier side. I think they soak their seaweed in fish stock so if you're not a fan of fishy taste I would avoid the sushi lunch and go for the hibachi/bento boxes. I still come here since it's close to my work... if you're near the area I would recommend stopping in for lunch. It's comparable to prices around the area as well.

We read the reviews about Sushi being disappointing, so we tried two Hibachi dishes. It was just so so -- the scallops are great, but the shrimps are hard and dry. Plus, they don't have the traditional Hibachi cooking table to perform the Hibachi cooking in front of you. I personably enjoy those performances so....I can only give it a 3 star.

The calamari appetizer we tried was so overly cooked that it lost the tender texture of the calamari. I would give it a 2 star.

The service was really good, friendly and helpful. It is the best part of our visit.

This place is just bad. We went for dinner around 6 pm - The bar was full but the the dining area was empty. We should have taken that as a sign.

PROS
* The service was attentive.

CONS
* The food. The dumplings tasted like the frozen ones you buy at Hmart; the yakisoba had a bizarre aftertaste (like MSG, despite the "no MSG" text in the menu); the fried tempura ice cream tasted like it was from Hmart's freezer section too. Plus, they got our dessert order wrong despite asking us twice.

This used to be our goto spot in the Reston area for sushi, until we found our new place in Sterling. The sushi here is good, but it doesn't really stand out too much compared to everything else around.

I like to go out on weeknights when it is fairly empty. The service is good the people are friendly. The atmosphere is nice. I've never ordered anything off the regular menu, just sushi, and its good.

I don't really have much more than that. I've enjoyed the 5 or so times I've been.

It could *not* be better!!! Attentive staff and delicious, authentic Japanese food!

I discovered this place through Google Maps while I was waiting for my second class at NOVA to start. I'm so glad I branched out.

My husband thinks this is a 4-star place. As for me, I think it's more like 3 1/2 stars. There were some hits and misses with both the meal and the service, that's why I'm not sure about it being 4-star worthy.

We were here on a Saturday around 5:30 p.m. At that hour, there were a few occupied tables with the majority being families with small children. I'm sure that as the evening progresses, no doubt there would be fewer families there. Upon entering, we were greeted and taken to a table by the window. The windows are partially frosted so whatever advantage there might have been to sitting by a window were not there as the view was very limited.

The person who seated us ended up being our waiter. We started off with ordering our drinks. I decided to try a Singapore Sling for the first time ever. Even though my husband never had one either, he was convinced that it would be a very strong drink and commented that it was a good thing that I wasn't the one driving. He got a Kirin beer. As it turned out, my husband's concerns were unfounded as the drink turned out to be a very weak but tasty pour.

We ordered the sashimi appetizer which consists of 9 pieces of sashimi---3 salmon, 3 tuna and 3 of a white fish (not sure what it was as the menu didn't say and the table didn't have one of those cards that has sushi/sashimi photos so that you could figure out what you were eating). My husband ate the tuna pieces and said they were good quality. We shared the white fish and agreed that it, too, was good. I had the salmon ones and they had a fishy taste which suggests that they weren't the freshest. While we don't regret trying the sushi, Kumo Sushi doesn't have to worry about losing us as regular customers.

For our main courses, we both ordered hibachi dishes. I had the salmon hibachi dinner while my husband had the NY strip steak dinner. I asked the waiter if my salmon could be cooked rare and he didn't understand what I meant. My husband told him that it meant to cook it only for a short time and then the waiter understood. Interestingly enough, he knew what my husband meant when he asked that his steak be cooked medium. Hmmm...go figure...

The food was not brought out in the proper sequence. Our dinners came with miso soup, which was good but had tofu pieces that were practically microscopic in size. I've never seen tofu cut into such tiny pieces before. Instead of the appetizer coming out first, the soup came. Then, we just finished up our soup when our main courses came out. We told the food runner that we never got our appetizer. She apologized and brought it over right away and said that everything had been entered at the same time so that's why it didn't come out in the right order.

The hibachi dinners look like the ones you would order at Benihana. Only, they are not prepared at your table. Even the dipping sauces were similar. My salmon came out almost well done but it was still moist. I didn't care for the sauce that was on the salmon as it seemed to have a bit of an off taste so I used the dipping sauces. Plus the salmon steak was cut oddly as there was a membrane in the middle of it. The rice and veggies that came with it were decently prepared.

My husband was pleased with the way his steak was prepared and said that he would eat this dish again.

We were generally pleased with the service as it was friendly. However, they do need to work on bringing out food at the right time in the course of a meal. As for the price, all totaled it cost just under $45 before the tip. When the check came, it even had on it how much you should leave as a tip if you tipped either 15% or 20%.

We would go again but I would try something different such as a bento box. Plus, I don't think that I would order the salmon again.

Tiger Sushi Roll (5 NOMs)
What does sushi say? Rawr when you are enjoying Tiger Sushi Roll from Nikko a Japanese Hibachi restaurant in Reston, Virginia right on Silver Line. Not all cool places located in Reston Town Center, this restaurant right outside serves up some amazing sushi nom noms. The key is to go for their specialty menu where all the goodies are. Ah, this sushi roll even looks like a tiger, such a beautiful thing with stripes and bold color. A bit on the heavy side that can easily fill you up, but you never really enjoy just one roll. Overall the sushi texture was very soft with great rice combined with an avocado, sauce and so much that makes for a very smooth and soft bit. Topped with some eel and spicy sauce for that extra kick. The only thing that could have made this roll better is the addition of real tiger meat. Yea we are weird like that :).