Update! Was not let down once again!! Great food tonight and by the time we left the place was packed! This place puts YE's to shame on food quality and price! The staff here always make sure you have what you need! One negative I did notice is the entrance. It's looking fought!! Fix the carpet and clean up this area! This will be people's first impression on the place! This was our second time here. First time for lunch. We didn't have our hopes up but wanted a quick sushi fix. This place is getting better and better! Great service and fast! Prices are better than YE's and the food is better also! read more

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A party of 5, made reservations. The price was 50% higher in person than it was online ($32.99/adult, website waid $20.99 for weekends), we waiting for food that never came (and when we asked they said there were no orders waiting for us), we asked for more sauce for tempura (1small dish for 3 baskets of tempura) and never received it, asked again, nothing. The food we managed to get was really good (except the short ribs!).... When we told them about waiting for repeated orders, they didn't care at all. Left hugry, frustrated, and much poorer. read more

I enjoy Nara, for the food and the staff. I am here once a week. Many times they've stayed open late for me. They know my preferred drink, my allergies and always bring food accordingly even when I come with a large group. Very friendly and out going. The food it's self is above average for an all you can eat. The sashimi is my favorite. It's always been a great experience. read more

Nara Sushi Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

Nara Sushi Restaurant was the first review that I wrote here on Yelp - and I thought it was time to revisit the review to update it. I still come here once a week or more for sushi, but now I don't always get the All-You-Can-Eat option (which I did this past Saturday), sometimes I also get the Winter Bento Box for $12.99 (which I did on Sunday), with 2 pieces of Shrimp Tempura, 4 pieces of Vegetable Tempura, 3 pieces of Sushi, 3 pieces of Salmon Sashimi, 3 pieces of Salmon Roll, 3 pieces of Avocado Roll and your choice of Chicken Teriyaki, Beef Teriyaki, Shrimp Teriyaki or BBQ Beef Short Ribs. The Bento Box is also served with Soup and Salad, as well as rice, and it is an excellent deal for lunch or dinner. The All-You-Can-Eat Sushi menu has also been updated with a number of new items, including a number of vegetarian options. The staff here also remains as friendly as ever, and have always been very helpful. This is why I keep coming back! read more

Love love love Nara! The atmosphere is perfect, its not cramped, the employees dont look like they hate their life, and the food is DELICIOUS. I'm not a seafood fan at all, and this place has so many more options than most other AYCE sushi places around Kitchener for non seafood rolls/sushi. That being said, my husband loves seafood and he shares my endearment towards the sheer amount of options he has to choose from They even updated the menu since the last time we were there and there are so many more options included. If you go for dinner and love fish, you HAVE to get the seared white tuna sushi. Its my husbands favorite. My personal favorites are the spicy crispy (vegetarian) and the teriyaki beef roll. I also always order the tempura vegetables and I'm never disappointed. Always fresh and crispy. The prices are pretty standard for an AYCE sushi, its neither cheap nor overpriced. Its just perfect for an outing. read more

Horrible sushi, avocado was hard salmon sashimi was mush , I do not recommend this place to eat, it has upset my stomach Will not eat here ever again !!! read more

Absolutely worst experience I've ever had at any restaurant, ever. I came here with my three of my friends for dinner the day after I had oral surgery (to extract 4 wisdom teeth). While the others got AYCE, I checked with the waitress and opted for a la carte due to all the stitches in my mouth. A short while later, our food is gradually presented at the table; I received some tofu which came with no sauce (usually comes with dipping sauce at other sushi places), I asked the waitress if any dipping sauce came with the dish and she quickly denied, so I shrugged and put some wasabi and soy in my saucer. As the meal went on I see the same waitress eyeing my and whispering to the other waitress, then as she presents the next dish, she told me again, that I cannot have any of the AYCE items my friends ordered. I told her "I can't even if I wanted to". About 10 minutes pass by, the waitress never took her eyes off of me, she continues her whispers and giggles while looking in our direction. She marches over again, this time no dish in her hands, stops at the end of our table, and moves the plates on our table around so none of the AYCE items were in front of me OR the friend who is actually eating the food. Confused..my friends asked what she was doing, and she says "I know, okay? Stop", feeling extremely upset and told her I had surgery yesterday and can't eat their food even if I tried. She scoffs and rolls her eyes, then made a hissing sound, then asked my friends "if she isn't eating, why is there soy sauce in front of her" ?? WHAT?? I...WHAT?????? So by this point everyone was extremely angry at this woman for her extremely unprofessional behaviour, we demanded for the manager, to which she replied "the manager isn't here". Then we asked for the manager's phone number, she says she doesn't know, and all of us gave her a wtf-are-you-talking-about face, and she rolls her eyes and said (exact words) "DO YOU KNOW IT? WELL I DON'T KNOW" and marched off. The other waitress handled our table for the rest of the meal, an apologetic look on her face tells me that this isn't the first time her lovely coworker went apeshit on a customer. No compensation. No apology. Nothing. Dear Nara Sushi management, if you're reading this, please do be careful in who you hire in the future since they are a direct reflection of your establishment. You'll probably be able to hire better staff straight out of the insane asylum. read more

Too much rice, too less fish in all rolls we ordered((( If you order dumplings, make sure that you want it with sauce, as they bring dumplings floating in a very vinegary sauce. Tempura shrimps fall apart. Also, make sure to write your numbers under different columns on different papers for appetizers, sushi, etc. Otherwise you are risking to get a wrong order Good luck to you having better experience. read more

I'm not a big fan of all you can eat sushi, but I understand what I'm getting to into when I visit an AYCE place: sloppily made rolls, with ingredients of middling quality. Nara Sushi though, is probably the best AYCE sushi I've had so far. Located at a strip mall in the mid-western sprawl district of Kitchener, aka Fisher-Hallman & Ottawa, the restaurant is quite roomy, despite the small frontage from the street, and had a modern look. But we're not here for the decor, we're here for the the mass quantities of sushi. The rolls were mostly well constructed, everything appeared fresh, and all was tasty. There was a decent selection of rolls and a few sashimi items as well. There were in fact quite a few rolls on the menu, although most were just variations of each other. I tried sushi pizza for the first time: a crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle fried rice patty as the base, topped with a layer of sliced avocado, a layer of sliced salmon, and a drizzle of blended mayonnaise and wasabi powder, served in wedges. I was a novelty, and pretty good. There are quite a few rolls I would have liked to try, but our server did not visit our table very often. Nara lost a star for service. Other AYCE places I've been to have very attentive servers, and that's sort of the point of all you can eat - frequent small orders of sushi. Our server visited our table twice, for food ordering purposes, and we were one of three groups there. We had finished eating for a good 10 minutes before we received our bill. At that point we were the only people left in the place, and they were still open for another two hours, so it's not like they should have been ready to close. Overall, I was pleased with the food, unhappy with the service, and have reaffirmed my opinion that AYCE sushi isn't my thing. I like having the option of paying for something a bit nicer, like a piece of Toro, and I like the ambience of a more traditional sushi place. If you are a fan of all you can eat sushi though, then I will definitely recommend Nara Sushi. read more

Try a different sushi place! Walked out because of the awful service. Went there after my 8 year old soccer game and tried to order a bento box for myself ($14.99)and my son, the all you can eat special ($5.99 + $1 for every age after 3 // $10.99) . After the waitress looked at my sons order of 4 shrimp tempura, edaname and a chicken katsu she told me that the all you can eat special for children was only offered if I was ordering the all you can eat special $26.99. I found this weird because i have actually ate there before and order this way with my kids. There is no children's menu and my children only will eat select items. Also, i did not feel like spending $26.99. I didn't want to overeat therefore could not begin to justify the type of $$ on what i was looking to satisfy my hunger. I explained to her that this was not stated anywhere on the menu. She agreed and said it was management's instructions. Fair enough...i will never eat there again and will happily encourage others to boycott this establishment. Its a shame that in a industry with such a high failure rate this restaurant has 222 reviews. If the management actually paid a little attention to the feedback it could be a pleasant place to bring your family. read more

As far as AYCE sushi goes in Kitchener-Waterloo, Nara is slightly above mediocre. They are fast, that's good...but they don't do tuna, that's bad. Even at suppertime, tuna is scarce on their menu. There's just enough love in their food to keep me coming back, especially considering the competition (which can be MUCH worse in this area). read more

I was surprised to see this open up on my front door. We went on a Friday and it was packed, we ended up waiting a very long time to be seated, to order and then to get our food. However, the prices of the standard menu were great! AND the food was awesome! The all you can eat menu is extensive, but as expected with all-you-can-eat sushi places the pricing is high. Also 10% discount on cash orders. I would rate 5 stars, if the service/speed improves. :) read more

This place is average at best. The service is OK. The food selection is pretty good, however I've had better tasting sushi. read more

The quality of sushi is excellent. Great value! It has options for people who are new to sushi but also options for those sushi lovers. Would highly recommend! read more

Really surprised to see so many negative reviews of this place. I'm from Mississauga, and whenever I'm in Kitchener, this is my go to spot. Their sushi is fresh and their menu is extensive! My tip would be to go around 11:30-12:00 for the freshest sushi. I'm never let down and I've recommended it to many of my friends who go to school in the Kitchener- Waterloo area. I envy them; if I lived around there I'd probably be at Nara Sushi at least once a week! read more

Thought this AYCE sushi place was pretty good. Went to try it out last month for lunch to compare it to the other KW sushi restos. The choices are on par with the others and you record your choices via pencil/paper. What I like about Nara is that they have mackerel nigiri available whereas the other places don't. read more

I'm from the gta and recently moved to kitchener. Nara sushi seemed to be a good choice for a Thursday dinner with the family. Straight from walking in, the service was already disappointing. The waitresses were obviously not busy from what I could see as they we just standing the by the sushi bar. We ordered our rolls and such expecting to receive the typical grade sushi. How ever what came out was repulsing. The ration of rice to fish was displeasing as well as the actual rice consistency. I know I'm in no way to judge however my family has always been a lover for sushi. Coming from a background where we frequently have the Japanese cuisine, I've never had rice so sticky. It felt like a blob leading us to avoid eating rice containing dishes the whole evening. In addition to that, the fish on the sushi was honestly a work of art as it was the thinnest slice of anything I've ever seen. How cheap can a place be?! I was surprised that the rest of the paying customers seem to be okay with the treatment and the food. The bill came to around 90 dollars for three people. ID HIGHLY ADVISE ANYONE NOT TO EAT HERE read more

I found myself a bachelor with the kids at grandma's and the wife working late. I went through a real sushi phase a few years ago but haven't been doing the AYCE because the reality is - I just cant eat that much. Arrived at 3 pm - late lunch - but it was now dinner - $19.99. Fine with me - I much prefer the sashimi offered at dinner to the Rice filled sushi available at lunch. I tried all Sashimi varieties available and they were fresh - the salmon and white tuna were particularly good on this visit. Tried a few different handrolls - salmon was blah, spicy salmon better - A OK but it all tasted a bit the same. Seaweed salad was nice (but stuck to my teeth) as well as decent shrimp skewers and beef with mushrooms. My biggest issue was the lack of flavour in some of the items and the flavour profiles were all very similar. The service was efficient if unremarkable. I enjoyed the constant refills of tea but my eyeballs were starting to float before I left. As I was getting up to leave I noticed 3 or 4 of the staff sleeping at tables in the back section of the dining room. I have worked in restaurants and know that split shifts and long hours can be tiresome but the optics were not good on this one. All said and done, I spent 25 bucks including the tip - had good sashimi and decent sushi and dim sum. Read the TO Sun which is always an entertaining joke - 1 news story, three car sales ads. I have had my sushi fill for a few months and Nara compares to other local AYCE (Ye's) - nice but unremarkable. read more

I visited Nara Sushi on a Saturday around 12:00pm. As soon as I entered the door I was greeted and seated by the hostess who immediately and politely took my drink order. Soon after I had completed my first order (sheet and paper ordering style) it did not take long for my items to start arriving. The quality of the items was superb and the presentation was on par with the quality. I'm a big fan of sashimi (I had requested the dinner menu even though it was lunch time) and there sashimi was fantastic. Big fresh cuts, appealing presentation, and amazing taste. The service was also perfect. Always served with a smile and politely. Their dinner specialty rolls are amazing, I loved the pink lady roll. I never felt pushed to leave or order, or uncomfortable at any moment. The building itself is not the most appealing, but it is well kept and clean and the seating was generous and comfortable. Overall I had a great experience at Nara Sushi for a below average price. I will be recommending this Sushi establishment and I will also be returning in the future. read more

Nara Sushi Restaurant - Japanese Near Me - Kitchener, Ontario

This was my second visit here. I will admit the first visit was more memorable. Upon arrival the restaurant had an odd smell. Sure, sushi, but not sushi smell. Anyway we sat and ordered. Things came out very quickly, the food tasted great. Tempura never came but then spoke to waitress as I needed my tempura fix and she got it for us. I like this restaurant but I have 3 stars because two of the servers were sick. Like coughing runny nose and sneezing sick. I was not impressed as I saw one sneeze then grabbed another tables order. I was completely turned off because of all the germs everywhere. Everyone looked grossed out by the servers and although good no one cared for the food! If the owner of this restaurant is reading this, send ur workers home. They are handling food. If I get a cold I will write a strong worded email to the sushi gods!! End germephobia rant here read more

Sadly I LOVE the owner! He had the BEST bubble tea place near fairview mall a few years back and it was wonderful to see his face walking in to this place.. HOWEVER, we went for the AYCE on a Thursday night and before we ate, me and my daughter (7) had to go for a bathroom break. Upon having a seat I looked at the back of the door and it said to "to kindly not put paper in the toilet, to put it in the provided garbage" WHAT????? My daughter was grossed the hell out I was grossed the hell out and it STUNK horribly. I will NEVER go back, I'm pretty sure that's not sanitary & the waitresses are crazy grumpy. Sorry boss. You lost this girl - and this girl loves her sushi! read more

Always pleased with the quality, never waiting for a table. Always feel great after eating no "sushi comma"

Pretty much one of the if not the most horrible of dining experiences. I am not one to complain, I too work in such service industries and am generally very understanding of seemingly bad service but this really tops this. My boyfriend and I were dropping off my friends in Kitchener/Waterloo after a long trip and decided to stop by Nara sushi for some food. One of my friends just had all 4 of her wisdom teeth removed the day before and was in some pain and had great difficulty eating a lot of food so she opted against getting the AYCE while the rest of us did. We asked the waitress beforehand if this was ok due to her condition and she seemed to be ok with it as long as we didn't share the food. As my friend enquired whether certain foods were soft and suitable for her to eat, the waitress was very rude and answered back, no, in a very snobby manner. Later on, as her food arrived my friend asked if she could get some sauce with it and the same waitress, again, rudely said no, scoffed, and walked away... And so my friend decided to make do with some wasabi and soy sauce as a sauce for her food. The waitress came back, saw her dipping her food into the wasabi sauce and basically interrogated her for eating our AYCE food. We calmly assured her no that she just didn't have anything else to serve as a sauce. She left, then quickly returned to clear some of our plates and shifted the sashimi plate, which was still very full, away from my friend! IT GETS WORSE. The waitress then turned around and started insulting my friend and her apparent lame excuse about the wasabi sauce LOUDLY in mandarin to the sushi chefs! The two friends I was with are both mandarin speakers and completely understood everything she said. My friend became very upset, she started tearing up, and so my other friend asked to talk to the waitress and explained to her very calmly that what she said and did was very unnecessary, unprofessional, and it had upset our friend and we would like it if she apologized. She was very surprised to discover some of us spoke the language as well... As I do not speak mandarin I am not quite sure what was said but from what I was told and what was discussed in English, the waitress was very defensive and continually refused to apologize. She also refused to give us the managers number and continually laughed at my friend during the entire confrontation which lasted a good 10-15 mins before she sarcastically apologized and disappeared... If I could give service itself a rating, I wouldn't, it was absolutely horrendous. Now the food. My boyfriend is completely obsessed with sushi, especially AYCE sushi. More bang for your buck right? So we've been to quite a few AYCE sushi places. And this place, even before the confrontation was quite mediocre. The miso soup was made with water I'm pretty sure. The sashimi was cut into TINY pieces and it did not taste very fresh. The rolls were not too bad but the rice was very dry and it would continually fall off the roll. The only thing I think I did enjoy was the variety of things on the menu... In terms of ambience, very boring, and quite tacky to be honest. No colours really and practically no accents. The amount of money they use to buy that giant tv flashing pictures of sushi could have provided them some new decorations or waitresses... Needless to say I will never be coming back. read more

The absolute worst AYCE sushi experience I've ever had. The fish was not fresh and tiny cuts on the sushi. The rice portions on the sushi was GIGANTIC and harder than ever. Rolls were poorly done. The seaweed was soggy and chewy. NEVER coming back again. read more

This is a great place for some good Maki/sushi. It's nice and relaxing when Joe is on (the owner) he's super generous. They have these guava candies for after, I loved them so much he gave me a bag of them! The sushi masters are really great at what they do. Yes it is an art. Love it. read more

I haven't been to Nara Sushi since their grand opening as it was an utter disappointment so I decided to give it another try. I have to say they worked out all the kinks since opening. Their rice is no longer soggy or taste just like vinegar, the rice to filling ratio is more balanced and their ingredients are very fresh. They also added dim sum and more vegetarian options. The service was typical of an ayce restaurant same with pricing. read more

Worst sushi AYCE experience ever! We saw this place had a decent review so decided to give it a try and asked for the dinner menu. The serving was fast and the rolls, tempuras and salads were fine. But the sashimi are all tiny cuts, the salmon was not fresh pink in colour and the rice portion in sushi was huge...I was not sure if the colour was because of the extra dim light in the restaurant, but the salmon was definitely not sashimi quality. The white tuna sashimi was even worse, the texture was like smashed raw rice paste compressed into chunks and served. Maybe if you freeze and thaw the fish again and again for more than ten times you'll be able to achieve this kind of texture. The most disgusting food I was ever served was right there, almost all the beef dishes were not fresh: the short ribs (which are normally lunch menu item at other sushi places, but dinner only here) had a weird taste which are definitely not due to the seasoning. The beef roll with mushrooms.. OMG.. as soon as I bit into it, my mouth and nose were overwhelmed by a strong stinky smell. If I have to describe it, it was like ammonium from the chemistry lab. My mouth tasted bitter and I felt sick after that bite. We were literally shocked and called the waitress over, the first one came, looked at the dish, apologized then left. In the next 10min nobody came to either take away the stinky beef or ask if we want a new one. Like nothing happened. So we called a second waitress, she took the dish to the chef and explained to us that this kind of issue doesn't always happen and it must be the supplier's fault... OK... so the supplier sold you stale food and your sushi chef couldn't even tell if the material he's cooking with was fresh or not? Interesting.. Our mood was completely ruined anyways. Will never come back again and wouldn't recommend it to any friends. read more

Went there for my first time today for lunch, and I'll be going back ... service was great, the food was good, and the price was right. The inside was much nicer than I expected. We were seated right away and offered drinks. Our orders for the AYCE was brought out quickly and spread out nicely. There is nothing negative I can say about my experience. read more

I only went for lunch so I cannot comment on the dinner items. Out of all the AYCE places I've been to in KW, this place has the best service. My servers were very nice and friendly. When I ran out of napkins, before I had a chance to ask, they already noticed and checked to see if I wanted more. The food also comes out at a quite reasonable speed. In terms of the food, there were some goods and bads. Comparing to other AYCE places, they had a larger amount of specialty rolls to select from for lunch, which was nice. The Nara roll was an interesting twist on traditional sushi since it is wrapped in rice paper and has no rice in it. I personally didn't like the volcano roll though, because the cream cheese inside plus the sauce on top make it a bit greasy. They had some special sushi wrapped in cucumber, which I enjoyed quite a bit. The dim sum items were okay, but I feel that dim sum places would have the same items with better quality, so it's not quite worth it. The selection of appetizers was pretty standard. Overall I think it was a good experience. read more

Awful. Brutal service. The staff sat together eating while ignoring all of the tables and had poor attitudes. The food was terrible. Rolls were basically all rice. My salmon was frozen solid and my sashimi was so thin it looked like Swiss cheese. Not worth a penny of your money. Bad service and worse food. I used to love this place but I'll never go there again. read more

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Service was extremely slow ... I was there for an hour and they only came by twice. It took me another 20 minutes to get another order sheet and by the time I hit the hour and a half mark I got fed up and left. I tried a variety of things there and their kitchen items were good, but cold. Their sushi tasted really old and I'm sure the toilet is going to be my best friend today. When they saw that I didn't finish everything, they wanted to charge me, and I made them a deal that if they were to try one then I would pay extra for it and they didn't even want to try it ... not sure if that tells you enough about their food quality. They did us a "favour" and removed the mandatory tip on the bill ... last time I checked it's not a tip if it's mandatory. On my way out, I spoke with a couple of people that told me the past couple of times they've been there, the food has been terrible. Horrible experience and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. First and last time I'm going there. read more

This is one of my favourite sushi places in Kitchener. I like the taste of their fish and they have a nice selection of rolls that suite me as I don't like spicy. I have always enjoyed great service when I am there. Even the quality of their take out foods are great; we order from work once in a while. read more

Love this place! Fave is the Ottawa roll! Yum! Quick and friendly service! read more

Enjoyable. We liked the Red/Gold Dragon rolls and sesame chicken the best and weren't a fan of the Nara roll or shirt ribs. Overall avg price and good quality for our area in an AYCE sushi place. read more

Nara sushi is the absolute worse sushi place! Their service is horrible! Order pick up, food is never ready! Order in, you wait forever for service and their excuse is "too busy!" Take your money to Ye's!! Much better!! read more

Great service and very, very fast, even on second orders. They keep your tea and other drinks full at all times, without having to ask. I've asked that they cut some of the larger rolls more thinly for me so I can eat them more easily, and they have. Overall, I would say that this is good value for the $, and not disappointing. Good for vegetarians (see notes below). The sushi is ok, perhaps not the best in KW but better than many of the AYCE sushi restaurants I've tried, and the choice of dishes is plentiful. Rolls are good but seaweed is a bit too fishy tasting for my taste, and a tad tough to chew through. The rolls are also a bit on the loose side and many start to fall apart soon after dipping. On the positive side, they have made special rolls for me without the meat or fish, as I'm a vegetarian, which I think is great. I don't think I'd even be comfortable asking at most places. Just a warning to other vegetarians - they advertise their Futo Maki roll as vegetarian, but it has Crab in it even though it is not indicated on the ingredient list. I had to argue with the server that Crab was a meat. Just ask for it without the crab and they will happily make it that way. I love their new AYCE menu which clearly indicates what is vegetarian (except for the Futo Maki which is incorrectly labeled). They have several new items which are very tasty. One can also order al a carte, which is great for smaller appetites. My favorites: Tamago sushi, avocado sushi, broccoli tempura, teriyaki tofu, Tofu sushi, miso soup, Futo Maki roll without crab, udon noodles and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others. For dessert, definitely the breaded banana and mango ice cream. read more

There are 4 tables full as I sit here. Service very poor. No one has offered another refreshment nor noticed the spillage I have had on my table Very disappointed as it is near my home. Just have to take the drive to sushi99 read more

Okay AYCE sushi, good service, decent prices. Nothing outstanding. The back tables can be very very messy.

I ordered from this restaurant while out of town on a business trip, and apparently was out of line asking for the tempura to be crispy. I received a call from the restaurant telling me that if I want it crispy and my food hot and fresh I could come and pick it up myself. If I had a car, I wouldn't be ordering food, but regardless, there's no need to be rude. I'm completely turned off by the rude service and will never order from this restaurant again. read more

My husband and I eat here regularly, we love all the food here & we order take out & the elderly gentleman that works there is super friendly. The reason why I am giving a 3 star review is the lack of consistency with the hours. We were going to a movie that starts at 10:30, and thought we go could go for dinner at Nara at 8:30 (because it is advertised they are open till 10pm) and drive there to see that it was closed, and the servers were exiting the building. This hasn't been the first time this has happened. Such a shame because Nara is my favourite sushi place in town. Just wishing they would modify their hours, or stay open for their designated hours. read more