Aiyara Thai and Sushi Restaurant — Restaurant in Berry Hill

East Nashville should be closed. The wife and I decided we were going to get sushi. "Let's try that Koi Sushi place!" she said... "I heard it was good" she said. Well, someone lied to her.

Now, I can't say the food was bad (spoiler alert: we never actually received any food). Here's the story:

We go the Koi and are seated quickly (very few people were there, that should have been a clue). They bring us menus and water, let's pause there and talk about the menu.

With the menu comes a slip of paper to order sushi, that's pretty normal. Oh! And an iPad? wtf? I think, maybe, it's some high tech ordering system (I mean, it is 2015)? Nope, it's just a photo album with 57 FREAKING CRAPPY PHOTOS OF SUSHI!!!! You have to swipe through 57 photos to read descriptions, see prices, see photos and compare what you want!? back and forth, back and forth... it was a pain. I felt like I was doing research for work, not ordering a freaking salmon roll. This process, to someone who has never been there before, takes about 10+ minutes just to see what they have! Then to top it all off, the rolls on the ipad don't actually match the rolls on the order slip?!?!?! good grief.

Well, that took forever but at least we know what we want. They must know it's a pain because they gave us ample time to figure out our order.

Speaking of... where's our waiter? and we wait... 10 more minutes. I finally flag down the bus boy and he goes and finds the waiter. The waiter comes and takes our order... ok, things are looking up 20minutes after coming in. We order and wait... 10 minutes... another 10minutes??? We've been here 40minutes and no food? I wave down the bus boy (yea that waiter isn't ever around). He says "we only have 1 sushi chef and its backed up but I'll go check". Ok fair 'nuff.

No sooner than the bus boy leaves, the waiter shows up asking what we ordered again? "So I can check." he says. We tell him and he hurries off.

45minutes from first being seated: The bus boy returns (I've about had it at this point but the bus boy seems to be the only one who wants to help us, we are nice to him.) He says, while looking at our waiter near the kitchen "yeaaaaaah so your waiter just never put your order in, I just checked." We said, "this is why you're empty during dinner hours in East Nashville. We are leaving". He kindly says, "yea I don't blame you".

To all of Koi Sushi & Thai, I look forward to seeing a "For Lease" sign in your store front soon. To the bus boy who was the only person who knew how to function, PLEASE be looking for another place to work. You were great and deserve much...

New review : Third time was the charm... Promptly seated and really really good sushi and a fresh roll so fresh the ingredients inside had varying temperatures assuring FRESH assembly. Here again for another visit ... Server very knowledgeable Equally as good!

Previous review: Two stars for location only otherwise Sayonara Aiyara! Went twice and both times completely ignored. Employees walked past my table multiple times on both occasions and didn't even look at me peripherally. I say "my table" because no one even seated me... Totally invisible. Really wanted to like the "change" from Koi but something seems fishy. Seems like the same overpriced lackluster venue with new neon lighting. The reason for a second visit was I didn't want to have an impression so soon after opening and my go-to Eastern Peak was too crowded... Too bad, I live walking distance.

PS-On the second visit I said something and was offered a discount to stay... I didn't want a discount. More focus should be placed on customers actually in the restaurant then...

Sayonara, Aiyara. 😕

Ordered the sashimi platter, had to ask twice for my salad and soup. Salad was half the size of my friends, soup was lukewarm. The sashimi arrived and was 3 kinds of fish and garnish. No roe, not seaweed salad, just 9 pieces of fish and garnish. For perspective, the chirashi bowl is the same price, comes with no less than 6-8 varieties of fish, assorted roes, seaweed salad, pickled vegetables, and rice. If you're ordering this to eliminate rice, there should be more variety, not less. 🤷🏻‍♂️

My friend had garlic stir fried chicken and vegetables. It was ridiculously bad, it was probably the blandest dish I've ever had at a restaurant. Add in a oblivious, incompetent server and it makes for a very sad experience. This place has struggled to maintain consistency over the past 2 years. Sadly, after tonight, I...