I love Arigato. Whether ordering to take out or staying in, they are flexible and friendly with their services and their staff is very attentive. I always come here for sushi- any of their awesome rolls with some soup make for an amazing meal when you're like me and need something quick and relatively healthy at the end of a long work day. Everything tastes fresh and I find myself comparing other sushi places to this one for general freshness. My fiancé enjoys their larger meals and a few times we've been able to sit in to snag their great lunch deals. I've had plenty of Asian cuisine and can definitely say that this place is yummy. It is a nice place for a casual lunch with friends or co-workers! read more

Alright, I have definitely had better sushi in my life, but for the price it is an excellent deal! Arigato has pictures of all the options on the menu, which is immensely helpful for those new to sushi, or just unsure of what to order! An ingenious idea! The waitstaff is incredibly helpful, and substitutions are easily done. I will definitely be back. read more

Never had a bad meal here so I'm surprised by all the negatives. The galbi teryaki and miso soup are very above average and the sushi is consistently good. Nothing to write home about but very enjoyable nonetheless. read more

I grew up with sushi in my veins, so when I moved to Amherst in 2009, I scoured for a place to hook me up on an IV and feed me. I went to the Bank of America one day, crossed the street, and figure I'll give it a shot. The sushi is on the higher side of things for price for what was being offered in terms of quality. The cooked food was slightly above average but the rolls were nothing to brag about. Unfortunately, there are few sushi options around Amherst which perhaps is why it is frequently busy. read more

In the end we were fairly disappointed with this restaurant, sorry to say. We started with an order of Edamame, which arrived a bit cold and was not very tasty. I've only ever had hot Edamame at a Japanese restaurant so I'm not sure what happened here. Then we ordered a California Roll, a Spicy Tuna Roll, a so-called Amherst Roll, and two orders of Tuna Sushi. The California roll was good, although it lacked the sesame seed outer layer we like. The Spicy Tuna Roll was a plain tuna roll with a hot sauce dribbled on it. All other Japanese restaurants I've been to make spicy tuna rolls by mixing the tuna itself with either mayo or soy sauce plus the hot spice, and then create the roll using this mixture. At Arigato, it seemed to me that the sushi chef took a shortcut by just dribbling the hot sauce on top of a plain tuna roll. With that said, the taste was still okay. The Amherst roll was quite tasty. I would recommend this roll -- although again its "special sauce" was simply dribbled artfully over the roll, not incorporated into it. The Tuna Sushi was very good -- a tender and nicely colored piece of tuna! -- which is why we ordered a second plate. The Vegetable and Shrimp Tempura was a mixed bag. The shrimp tempura was good but the vegetables were lacking. Besides the sweet potato, they also include a piece of tempura that was made with a thick slice of white potato! The potato was not fully cooked and we could not eat it. The oil itself also tasted very heavy and like it needed to be refreshed. The service was friendly but spotty. More than once items were delayed for reasons that were not clear to us. e.g. when we inquired to ask what happened to our tempura order we were told that the kitchen was very busy and that it would come soon. (The restaurant did not look busy to us when we were there.) I gave them 2 stars because I can say without a doubt that I have enjoyed better Japanese food for the same dollar amount -- and in areas pricier than Amherst. Bottom line, would I go back? Maybe, but only to try the sushi again. read more

I admit I am a sushi snob-- but even so.... I fell in love with their fresh salads and dressing. I stuck with the salmon sushi-- as it was the only one that did not taste frozen. But the salad was oh so good. 3 years later-- tonight I have given up. I have walked out before because they consistently understaff. tonight my kids and I waited 1/2 hour for water and cold edamame. My sake never came, no plates or fork. I left a $3 tip with a sad face on the check. I will not return. If you want go sushi on the Amherst side of the river--- good luck. In Northampton try osaka and zen. read more

I LOVE Arigato. This is definitely the best sushi joint in Amherst. The food is always fresh, & the service is quick and friendly. Although it is a bit on the pricier side for some of the better dishes, every bite is worth it. My favorite rolls are the NY tempura and the UMass roll, I get at least one, if not both, every time I go. Do yourself a favor and eat here. read more

We got an excellent seaweed salad and two delicious rolls of sushi. Portions were quite big and more than enough. Great evening.

Back when Arigato first opened it compared favorably to Osaka in Northampton. I'm not sure what happened in the years following, perhaps a management change when they opened the hibachi place? But after too many poor meals, and some order mistakes with takeout we had just stopped going there. Lately though we noticed some menu changes and heard some good things so we decided to try it again. We were pleasantly surprised. This is not going to live up to big city standards, but the fish was back to being fresh and well cut with rice of a good texture. We also tried some of the new Korean dishes like the baby octopus, and enjoyed them. Arigato is now back to being our neighborhood sushi joint. Service is a little loose and slow but friendly. There has also been an improvement in the Ramen and it's now decent and satisfying. read more

The teriyaki is really tasty! However, service has really been going down hill. They're now closed every Sunday and for the second time, items of my order have been forgotten. This just in: found a hair in my entree. I'll be trying some other restaurants in the area, as their prices are simply too high for his kind of quality. read more

Not addressing the food here because it doesn't matter given the level of service. I've been here twice in the ~5 years since moving to the area. The first time, we waited a full 20 minutes to get our drinks and nearly 90 minutes to get *four* rolls of sushi. Four rolls, ninety minutes. Even if the restaurant were packed (it wasn't), that is totally not justified. The food was a solid "meh"... certainly not worth the wait. The second time the service was so abysmal that my party was completely ignored by the wait staff for a full 30 minutes after being seated. Just... nothing. After 30 minutes, a waitress brought water and said she would be back to take our drink order. It was as though she expected we hadn't made up our minds in the half hour waiting for her. So she leaves without taking our order and we wait some more. At the 45 minute mark most of our group were starting to feel unwell from hunger and we got up, left. We then walked down the street to Antonio's and had some decent food in us within 5 minutes. Don't come here unless you're OK with waiting until you're dizzy with hunger for mediocre quality food. read more

Decided to give this place a shot since I was hungry and looking for takeout. Placed an order for one of their boxes to go which came with 6 pieces of sashimi, 3 pieces of sushi, miso soup, rice, Chilean sea bass and some deep fried components. The sushi and sashimi were great; fish tasted fresh and delicious. The Chilean sea bass wasn't for me and the fried components were soggy. I ended up paying over $20 and really only ate the sushi sashimi and miso soup. I would definitely go again but next time I would just get raw dishes! Also, from what I saw the restaurant was tastefully decorated and there were many diners which is definitely a good sign. read more

Wonderful food with efficient service. The Miso soup was delicious and hot. Tomago and vegetable rolls were prepared perfectly and the seaweed salad was the best ever. Busy, but moderately fast and definitely moderately priced. A great night out! read more

This was a great find! My daughter and I enjoyed a great dinner without having to fend off the traffic (and high prices) in neighboring Northampton. The staff was incredibly attentive and friendly, the food was beautiful and delicious! read more

for people who know their sushi, you won't be disappointed here. i'm usually very particular about my food especially fish having grown up next to the water. a friend suggested we go to arigato for dinner last night and i have admit i was impressed! this some of the best seafood i've encountered in inland massachusetts, and the sushi holds its own against meals i've had in downtown NYC. we asked the sushi chef about their supply and they have regular deliveries of fresh, unfrozen fish and it shows in the quality of the sashimi. try the amaebi (sweet shrimp) if they have it, hamachi (yellowtail)-- great tuna, too! my friend got the sundubu jjigae, served deliciously boiling hot in a black stone pot. generous portions, dinners range between $8-$13 which is impressive for its quality and are good for dinner the next night; for two meals, you get more than your dollar's worth. we watched huge, fragrant plates of korean and japanese food pass us by and almost felt guilty asking the server about every other one but they were incredibly gracious and accommodating (for the record, jjambong, fried rice, curry and katsu curry options are all great options to share)! i know what i'm doing next week-- sunday night sushi! read more

My first reaction, reading the menu posted in the window was "wow, how do they offer three rolls for $10?" Then I ate there. Very disappointed. The quantity was there, but the rice lacked real flavor and after all, sushi is really about the rice. Nothing was spoiled, and neither of us got sick, but it wasn't much better than grocery store sushi, unfortunately. With so many other sushi places to choose from (like Osaka in Northampton), I doubt we will be back. read more

Well the love is over. This use to be a great place in the center of town. The waiting for service, less than good food, and now prices which just don't cut it makes this a place we walk right past and just look in the window at empty seats. read more

Been here several times, usually for lunch. Tonight's dinner left much to be desired. After entrees arrived, had to remind waiter that the (somewhat overpriced) meals came with soup and salad. Even after asking twice, still never received the drink I ordered. And then it appeared as a charge on the bill! Please---I really want to like this establishment. Can't you make it easier? read more

Arigato is the best Sushi in Amherst. The staff is friendly and the dining room is quiet and peaceful. I often dine-in for lunch, or do takeout, but I have also had dinner here. Miso soup is very good. Tempura is light and fluffy like it should be, They have amazing maki rolls like the Amherst roll, the Jon roll, the UMass roll and the Philadelphia roll (cream cheese with smoked salmon and scallions... yum!). The prices are very reasonable and the service is fast. read more

Arigato Sushi is my favorite sushi place! The service is really good and everyone is friendly! The menu has a lot of variety and has Korean dishes as well as sushi. The Korean spicy chicken is one of my favorites, it is actually so delicious and not too spicy at all! I recommend Arigato to all of my friends, it's perfect for any occasion whether it be a casual night out with friends or a date night! read more

I want to congratulate Arigato for their decision to "skip the straw." I was previously dismayed and wrote them a letter. Yesterday, I tiptoed back in to see there were no more plastic straws (that pollute our waterways). Hooray! Then we had a wonderfully delicious meal. read more

I basically like bibimbap, one of the famouse Korean food. I went there lunch time and of course ordered bibimbap. That was so bad. I tried it Gohyang and House of Teriyaki before and Arigato's bibimbap was the worst. NEVER try bibimbap if you go there. By the way, Korean fried chicken was awesome. They have extreme qualities of food. You should try Korean fried chicken. It was pretty satisfactory. read more

My daughter and I ate here twice while on a recent visit to the area. We loved the dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap and the sushi/sashimi. Service was friendly and knowledgeable. We like it so much for lunch we came back and had dinner. Prices were reasonable. It's clean and pleasant inside. read more

I've gone to Arigato 5+ times and I've never been disappointed. The sashimi is always fresh and delicious. The wait staff is also very nice and accommodating. I ordered the udon noodle soup and asked the waitress to put in shitaki mushrooms, which she did without hesitation. The atmosphere is cozy and casual. I'm confused why it doesn't have more stars. I would say it's one of the best sushi places in the area. read more

I think Arigato is very good- I'm glad we can sit at a sushi bar and get an asahi, there's never a wait and it's not that expensive.

Our experience was ruined by the service quality. We waited double the given wait time, served secondary to a larger group that in after us (without a reservation), and the service was poor. We were forced to memorize our requests because we had to signal our readiness by closing our menus. In addition, they were out of 2 out of the 3 ingredients our orders required, which added to our frustration. We asked for the menu to be returned so that we could order more food only to have the waitress drop then menu and disappear for at least 15 minutes. We were forced to ask for the check instead because by the time our waitress returned, it was so close to close time that the chef had packed up his knives. Overall, great food, but not worth the horrible service. read more

Don't take this restaurant for what it tries to pass as - a mediocre pseudo-Japanese restaurant. Behind the spicy-mayo facade is quite a decent Korean restaurant. The soondubu jjigae is delicious and perfect for Amherst's frigid winter days. The galbitang is equally warming but made with prepared stock and slices of beef prepped for the grill instead of the big braising shank the best versions use. Other favorites like kimchi pajeon and Korean fried chicken are here, and all very serviceable, if a few dollars more than they would be in a devoted Korean restaurant. And, to be fair, the sushi's not bad, either. read more

when in Amherst, we always make it a point to stop in here. the chicken tempura is delicious! tbe sauce with it is divine! Sushi is very fresh! read more

I ordered 'spicy ramen' and was served with a bowl of 'ramen instant noodle'. I am a poor college student who has to survive on instant noodle, so I could tell immediately it was a 2$ Korean kimchi packaged instant noodle that the restaurant poured into a bowl, added in some slices of vegetables and meats, then tried to charge me 10$ for it. I understand that people elsewhere may use 'ramen' interchangeably with 'instant noodle' but I would never imagine a place that labels itself as a Japanese restaurant would ever rip off customers in such a low manner like this. read more

Over priced and mediocre. The service at this place is terrible. They brought out the dishes one by one in 15 minute intervals.

Went on Monday of Columbus Day weekend with two friends... The restaurant was pretty empty but from what I could see there were only two servers, one person working the sushi bar and whoever was working in the kitchen in the back. We were seated immediately but we waited a ridiculously long time for our server to come greet us/get drink orders. By the time she finally got to us we already knew what we wanted so we ordered our waters and the food all at once. Service was just ridiculously slow. We almost decided to just walk out and leave a number of times. Horribly understaffed, servers seemed inexperienced. One of them ended up assisting our server, he seemed flustered and overwhelmed, our actual server seemed indifferent. While we were waiting for our food a number of small parties also came in which just added to the wait. My table ended up just getting one miso soup, one seaweed salad and two sushi rolls. My friend also flagged down one of the servers to order another seaweed salad but it never came, I guess they forgot. Finally when we were paying our checks it was taking so long for our server to come back and pick up the checks we ended up just going right up to her at the register to pay. She apologized for the wait in a very dismissive and indifferent way. The actual food was fine, just your normal seaweed salad and sushi roll although it was a little overpriced. It was $8 for a tuna avocado roll, when normally those go for around $5-6. Will not be returning unfortunately. read more

Went to Arigato after seeing Japanese film at Amherst Cinema. Figured the place was mobbed so it must be good, right? Wrong! We were seated fairly quickly, however after 15 minutes I had to flag down a waitperson to get a glass of water and place our order. The soup and salad came at a reasonable time, but apparently our dinner order was never placed-an hour later! The wait staff was running around and getting nothing accomplished. No one seemed to be assigned specific areas in the restaurant, no busboy, no supervisor, no coordination! They tried to placate us with some appetizer, but after sitting there for over an hour, we took off to Judies a couple of doors down and had great service and food. read more

The sushi was delicious and overall the experience was friendly. However... I had a very bizarre experience with our waitress. When my friend and I first arrived, I had to use the restroom. When I went in the back, I noticed two restrooms, one with a sign on it that said "men" and one that said "women". I used the womens bathroom and found that there was no paper towel left. I figured the staff were busy, no big deal, I would just inform our waitress. When I returned to the table, my friend and I waited a long time and no one came to our table to take our order. I eventually had to flag down one of the waitresses and and she told me that because our menus had not been closed no one came to wait on us. I was confused by this, as I have been to many restaurants and a server always comes to the table within minutes to check in, regardless of whether or not my menu is closed, and often I leave my menu open (and notice others do so) to ask the server questions about a particular item or point something out on the menu I would like, etc.. The waitress was nice about it, but still I found her response not to be customer-centric. Then, I proceeded to tell her that the paper towel was out in the womens bathroom to which she replied "which bathroom? the one of the right or left?" I was confused by this and said again that it was the womens bathroom and she said that both bathrooms were for all genders. This confused me even more, and I tried to tell her that there was signage on each bathroom indicating "men" and "women". While I think it is an awesome practice to have no signage or signage stating "all or no genders" etc.. this was simply not the case in this restaurant, and either this waitress was somehow not aware of the current signage on the bathroom doors, or for some other reason was still questioning me.. I decided to just let it go. However, even though her response bothered me somewhat, I realized afterward that had I actually been someone who did not conform to any gender, I would have been highly offended at her remark and I think the restaurant ought to simply remove the current signage on their bathroom doors if they truly wish to be making a statement that they are offering all gendered or no gendered bathrooms. read more

I love their vegetarian tempura rolls! Although every time I order it, it is different, and sometimes they bring me the wrong things. Like others, I really want to like this place, but their service is terrible. They have forgotten things that we ordered or asked for, the food takes forever, and the servers avoid you like the plague. It's good for take out I guess, but it's really sad. I work in food service and know how crazy it can be, but I've been there 6 or 7 times and each time the service was terrible.. I gave up. Decent food though, but as I don't eat fish, I haven't had issues like the others have. read more

We agree with the person who asked why all the hate for this place. This restaurant is great. The sushi is very tasty, the prices are reasonable, and the staff is nice and welcoming. We go there regularly, especially for the lunch special. read more

Great place. Ignore negative reviews: nice people, great food and good atmosphere. Strongly recommend!

Their korean spicy ramen is by far the worst ramen I've ever had. It literally tastes like nothing. The sushi is so-so, honestly its pricey for the quality. We were charged 5$ for a 6 piece california roll that didnt have roe on it and wasnt even that good. The service was extemely poor. Our waitress didn't tell us what wasn't available on the menu so after almost 30 minutes she came to take our order only to say what we wanted was unavailable. Then she left, and didnt come back to retake our order. The sushi chef saw how long we were waiting and must have felt bad because he came over to take our oder. Then once our order was in it took 30 more minutes before our food came (during their lunch hour, which didnt seem that busy). I asked for a water refill after being there for an hour and after 20 minutes of waiting she came back over and poued the water all over me and my shoes because she wasnt paying attention. After almost 2 hours of just trying to get out food, eat and leave i had to get up to get our check and cash out... I only had planned an hour for my lunch break from work , so I was really annoyed by the bad service. Needless to say, I'd skip their lunch hour and try somewhere else. read more