Sushi Neko — Restaurant in Arvada

I have only been to this place 4 times it's wonderful and pretty will accommodate you if you're allergic to anything or substitute for another ingredient.... Tonight my dad whose in a nursing home had a taste for sushi and their delicious veggie and shrimp tempura... So I went to the restaurant waited in line waiting for the servers to come to the front counter to place the order. I normally go through the week never been on a Friday. This Friday evening around 6:30 is pretty busy and I understood that. I patiently waited to place a to go order and when the server finally showed up to the counter she remembered me. I was shocked in excited that's the best feeling in the world for the workers to remember you you know LOL.. and before I can place my order she looks at me and says we are pretty busy tonight tonight she couldn't switch out the sweet potato and pumpkin for broccoli.. if I was to order the shrimp tempura and vegetables I would have to get them the way it comes on the menu I told her I wouldn't mind we just don't eat sweet potato or pumpkin if she just give us straight broccoli that would be fine. She said that she couldn't accommodate that tonight. I didn't argue with her I smiled at her I asked her once more she said no I'm sorry we're too busy to make all broccoli. So I smiled and ask her if she can just make the California rollsI normally would get which is two California rolls sauce on the side cut .. and two California rolls tempura uncut ... She said unfortunately we're too busy to make any accommodations everything will have to be exactly how it is on the menu sorry I can't do it tonight. I smiled at her and said have a good night and I walked out.. she says I'm so sorry and on my way out the door she said sorry Orange as she remembered my name from a previous time .. My family and I was starting to love this place I'm happy this happened before patronizing any further I'll just stick to the place that we've been going to because a small accommodation as such shouldn't have been a big issue. It was literally replacing sweet potato and pumpkin with all broccoli how hard is that you know especially if you have a customer who can't eat pumpkin and sweet potato. And when you think about it when the chef makes sushi they normally have to cut it etc how easy would it have been to just make the sushi and not cut it and just package it up. It would have been easier. LOL I just wanted to share my experience all of this is okay I just want you all to know that if I didn't have this experience tonight I would have given five stars all across the...

Honestly, not ideal. The exterior of this place will make you think it's a dump, but the interior will make you think it's a hidden gem; sadly, it's neither. The hostess was excellent, to the point, and friendly enough without being overbearing. I really liked her and she seemed to really understand the nature of the business. Everyone appeared to be having a great time in the back of the house and that might be the problem. The waitress who appeared a little later seemed pleasant but clueless and had to be prompted that I was missing a whole section of my second round of food because she (and the kitchen) absolutely didn't notice it. I'm still waiting for half of my appetizer section from both orders I placed. I couldn't tell you how the kimchi is here because I ordered it twice and never received it. She tried to make up for it by feigning curiosity in what I was doing between rounds of food.

The food is just ok. It's fresh! Which is literally the reason I go to All You Can Eat sushi places and them alone while in Colorado. Churn is a big deal to me because I love fish and I don't want to get sick off of it. All the other ingredients are not so good. For example, the Unagi (eel) here is perfectly seared melt in your mouth excellent...but the sauce is an ultra saccharine mess made with dark soy sauce instead of a Japanese varietal, it's just off and ruined an incredible cut of fish. Their tempura tastes like it's been put in a deep fryer belonging to a Pizza Hut or Dominos and that's not because the oil is old or something. I saw them dumping the oil from yesterday before I came in for lunch. It's just a lower quality choice of ingredients. Also, don't get the Spicy Korean Ramen. It's Nongshim Shin Ramyum with sesame seeds shook on it and piece of gyoza. It's a complete waste of time.

I can definitely see why people like this spot. It's family friendly, it's got a fun decor, has jazz pumping out at a coffeehouse volume, and they were playing a Studio Ghibli movie on the TV. These things all make the place seem like a great place to eat and if I lived around the corner maybe I would pop in there once in a while, but the things that really matter are...

If you go in on a busy night, don’t just write your name on the waitlist, speak to someone too. I had to walk out then back in until I was acknowledged. Don’t get the bulgogi, it’s prepared differently here. I saw Dynamite on their menu, but they got rid of it. My friend asked a waitress about it, she told us that they removed it and she recommended we get the cheese corn because she said it’s similar (they don’t even use the same ingredients) and we understand she was just trying to help, it did not help. But the biggest thing that stood out was the rice, like.. what rice is being used? It’s not sushi rice (it didn’t taste like it, I didn’t get any vinegar/ammonia scent at all). Every bite of rice felt like I was eating from a rice bowl (which I’m pretty sure sushi rice is used for those rice bowls). One nitpick, their menu listed “Sesame Ball” (singular), the picture menu showed like 6 sesame balls, so per order do we get one big one or 6 small ones…? You get two small ones, per order. Last thing, one of my friends didn’t eat very much; he stopped eating near the end (he wasn’t full, he just didn’t want to eat more). The next day, he asked us if our stomachs felt weird (everyone was fine); the one friend was the only one whose stomach felt weird. It wasn’t anything serious and it could’ve been something else he ate, but the weird rice taste is the only thing that stood out. All in all, the place is good, nice staff, the restaurant itself is very nice even though some of the furniture reminds me of somebody’s grandparents’ house; it’s just the sushi itself (specifically the rice), the fish is alright (we live in Colorado, what do you expect). It’s ok, it’s just not for me (or my friends). Thanks...