Tanuki’s Den — Restaurant in Arcata

Do not attempt to eat here without a reservation under any circumstance. The lack of respect for our time was astounding. I am an extremely gracious and amenable guest. Our party of 4 arrived at 6:30 and asked if they had a table that could accommodate us, we were told to come back in 30 minutes and they would take care of us. We said no worries, sounds good, and came back a half hour later. They then told us they could seat us, so they sat us outside and gave us drink menus and said we could start with drinks and just wait a bit to order our meals so the kitchen could catch up. Again - no worries, we were happy to chat and enjoy a drink while we waited… or so we thought. They left us seated with drink menus for ONE FULL HOUR. Never brought us water, never even took our drink order! Gave us two brief “sorry I’ll be right with you”s with absolutely zero follow through and honestly extremely limited eye contact. We would have never normally waited this long, but since it was a group of 4 of us who hadn’t seen each other in months we were at least enjoying eachothers company thankfully.

This is not a large restaurant. I can completely understand getting caught in a rush, I’ve been a server and i know things can get hectic. Leaving a table completely unattended for a literal full hour is obscene. Please don’t waste peoples time. We would not have faulted you at all if when we arrived at 6:30 you just said “hey, you know what, we are stacked with reservations tonight and just can’t accommodate you. We hope you’ll try to visit us another night”. We would have FULLY respected that. I encourage you to just be straight up with customers, because leaving us sitting with menus for an hour felt really disrespectful and honestly hurtful because we were genuinely being very agreeable and kind to you. We were happy to go with the flow and respect the timeline you verbalized to us, I would hope you could at least treat customers with the same level of respect or at least attempt to communicate with us. We returned our menus and walked out at 8pm. We walked to Nori where we were able to order and be served by 8:20....

Food was good, both rolls we tried were good and the Tanuki Balls were too, pretty dang spicy so be warned! The space inside is TINY so id suggest coming in right when they open. I'm talkin, 3 tables and the 5 seats at the sushi bar tiny. That being said, there is plenty of outdoor seating so as long as it isn't raining that shouldn't be an issue.

Dinner menu was different from what was shown on the website, so don't get married to a choice you see there, no sushi-burritos were on the dinner menu provided.

Prices were on the high end at $20+ a roll, but was a cute place for a date night.

Edit: Dropped down to a 4 star vs 5 star. After 3 visits, the space is too small. If you don't show up exactly at opening you will be SOL on a table inside. Also has been some inconsistencies in the food. Gidzillaritto had at least 3 ingredients not listed on the menu that completely changed the flavor and texture profile of the food, for the worse, and its not exactly a bowl where you can easily pick the unwanted stuff out. Unacceptable on a $33 item. Tanuki balls have been 2 different sizes and 2 different quantities depending on the day.

Cute spot, has potential but inconsistencies with being able to sit and with the food keeps it from...

It is honestly so sad how so many restaurants in Humboldt thrive on mediocrity. This was my third time in and I wanted to show a friend how good the sushi was and cute the atmosphere was. We ordered a couple rolls, pork gyoza, and spicy chicken miso. The servers took incredibly long time and borderline unprofessional. I saw servers with sleeveless tops which is not ServSafe compliance. With a restaurant that has such expensive prices and nice ambiance I would hope that they would want provide service that matches the prices. When the food arrived everything tasted great except the spicy chicken miso ramen. It borderline had mo flavor? The chicken was dry/flavorless and shredded, and the noodles with subpar at best. I communicated to the server of the poor flavors and she seemed annoyed. As a server I always hope the customers communicate any unsatisfactory parts of the meals so the establishments I work can maintain quality and consistency. She said nearly nothing out of the interaction and charged the soup even though I only took two bites of the inedible soup. I will not be returning to or recommending...