Green Tea Sushi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Asheville

As an Asheville local for 20+ years I recommend Green Tea as highly as one possibly can. And that everyone who lives in Asheville or close by, as well as those visiting from out of town, to eat here! The food is never any bit short of being phenomenal and the same applies to their consistent and always top notch customer service.

That being said, THEE reason i wrote this review - something i have never once done before for any business, regardless if my experience was good or bad, - is that tonight Green Tea went above and beyond to reaffirm to me how badass they truly are.

Ive been a regular customer here for years and just recently my younger daughter decided that she liked Sushi and wanted it for dinner tonight. So I happily ordered a few different sushi rolls for us, some of which I had never tried before. Once i got back home with their food she mentioned (after she had alread ate an entire roll) that her sushi didn’t seem the same as what she was used to eating from Green Tea in the recent past. I them looked at the rest of our food, cross referenced their menu and then wrongly convinced myself that what we had received was not the same as what i thought we had ordered.

I called Green Tea and told them the same. They were very apologetic and said they would remake our entire order and it would only take 5 minutes. Upon returning there, the management and staff were once again so kind and polite, and in the nicest way possible showed and explained to me in the most professional way possible, that the order i thought they messed up had in fact been exactly what I had ordered the first time.

So I was totally wrong and they were right the whole time. I felt embarrassed but they handled the entire situation as professionally as possible. They had already re-made my entire order before i returned. Which they gave me for free, even after i had realized that i was the one who was completely mistaken. As well as after I had apologized, and excepted my own sole responsibility, and insisted they had done nothing wrong at all. But the manager and Hostess graciously and emphatically insisted that I then still take home the entire new freshly prepared food, the same order that they graciously already had waiting for me🤗(even though they had not made a single mistake the entire time!)

Overall they went above and beyond to insure that the customer is always right. Even though a lot of times we are not right....

Tips on ordering! Coming here for many years. in fact, one of the photos was taken seven years ago while the others were taken just a couple of days ago.

The sushi remains excellent. Never once have I had a problem on the menu or something that was subpar.

We have had consistently excellent service, with some servers being some of our favorite servers in the industry! One of our favorite servers used to consistently tell us physics and chemistry jokes, knowing that my kids and my whole family are big nerds!

Some tips on ordering:

I love the miso yellowtail. The photos you see of a fish that looks like a cat made out of an orange is the miso yellowtail. It’s beautifully seared pieces of yellowtail, in a mild miso sauce, and presented playfully. Sometimes it’s a cat, sometimes they carve an orange out into little slices like a flower and put the fish on top of it. It’s really a beautiful dish. And it’s delicious, and the yellowtail is cooked absolutely perfectly!

The special rolls are always wonderful, though they tend to be tempura heavy and, of course, the sushi lunch specials are excellent. Try the bento box if you’ve never tried one.

The steamed veggie appetizer is only five dollars, I know this is a sushi place, but you’ve got to have vegetables with children; this was wonderful, especially if we asked just to have 100% broccoli. They bring you a giant gorgeous steaming bowl of broccoli, and it is bright green and gorgeous and cooked perfectly. So if you have kids, it’s so nice to have that brought out so they have something green while you all are waiting for your sushi, and if you ask for the dumpling sauce with it, you can dip the broccoli in the dumpling sauce!

If they offer toro, which is a very expensive form of fatty tuna… get it. You may think it’s a lot of money for two pieces of fish, but it will be the best fish you’ve ever had. It’s seasonal.

For a big group it’s always fun to get the sushi boat! it’s a nice variety, but it has a lot of sashimi on it, so make sure you have some fish lovers with you!

The hot teas are really excellent. They go beyond the typical green tea and jasmine tea and have a great selection.

The inside is cozy but the outside porch is lovely and has a great deal of natural light. If it’s not too cold, sit on the outside porch, it’s actually very well insulated and heated and is fine except for the very...

Alright, so i enjoyed the food here. I had a teriaki plate because i was suprisingly not in the mood for sushi, and i was with people who did want sushi. So, this is a location that has 3 sushi chefs, and based on my friends reactions, it was amazing, but i can only really quote my kwn experience. I feel that my teriaki dinner was ok in flavor, but it was a plate of raw onion, with somewhat cooked carrots and broccoli (to a point of cook i enjoy) but, with the mass amount of veggitables the central point being the chicken was overshadowed. It was cooked well, but it was a fairly small amount of chicken. Im used to my chicken terriaki having more chicken than vegetables or at least equal for the two. This was vegetables with chicken on the side.

However, my main concerns were more with the seat options, you could either sit in a standard wood chair with deflaited padding or a booth that had a seat that was so destroyed and old the glue from the seatvwas seeping out. And it had a horrid smell. Now, this could have been a single booth as i didn't look very far beyond my confines but this seat should never have been given to a customer, and was the subject of many conversation while we were attempting to enjoy our meal, and was concerning to see for a first time entry into the location.

Pricing: she is a bit pricy, but for the sushi, definitely on par with sushi standards, i would have gone lower for my meal as i didn't truly enjoy it the way i was hoping. But to be clear, it was not sushi, so i can't harsh them too hard. The meal was enjoyable but oversaturated in liquid. I could only eat the carrots and broccoli as the onions had. No cook on them,and the chicken... I just didn't really leave a lasting memory.

All n all, ide say 6/10 only because i feel the location needed to clean up a lot for the presentation of seating. From all my friends a tabme of 4 they only disliked the seating and were very bothered by it. If the restaurant can clean up, I would recommend this place...