sushi ohayo — Restaurant in Chantilly

Look, if you're coming here to have a Jiro Dreams of Sushi experience, this ain't that. But if you're coming here because you have two ravenous children, who can easily eat 4-5 sushi rolls on their own (and then some), then you've come to the right place.

I'm reviewing this restaurant within the parameters of an AYCE sushi place, which is often more about quantity over quality - a couple steps above grocery store sushi and maybe on par, if not slightly better (and cheaper!) than a sushi-go-round. In this regard, and in comparison to other AYCE sushi places, Sushi Oyaho is one of the better restaurants we've visited.

For one, I'm not a fan of buffets. From the shared utensils to the inevitable coughing by people going through the line to the fact that the sushi could be sitting out for who knows how long, I'm just not into it. The sushi here was made to order, so yes, sometimes it took a while, but you could see the sushi chefs in the back busting their tails churning out the sushi so if that's an issue, put in your second order before you finish the first one or just order a good amount the first go round. Easy fix.

Another thing I enjoyed was that the filling/fish to rice ratio wasn't like 95% rice and 5% something else. I hate when all you taste is rice. I thought the rolls and nigiri we ordered were pretty well-balanced in terms of rice, and that the rice wasn't dried out like it had been sitting for hours in a refrigerator before being transferred to the buffet line. Some rolls were better than others, but the menu had a pretty wide variety of things to try. The sushi tasted fresh, and my kids enjoyed trying everything.

And finally, I appreciated that they didn't try to gouge us on drinks. For example, a ramune here costs $2.99. It's not something we normally drink at home, but my kids love picking one when we go out for sushi. The last time we ate at a sushi restaurant, we were charged over $6 for one bottle of Ramune. Six dollars!

So yes, there are fancier places with better sushi, but we don't need to eat, nor can we afford, to eat at those places on a regular basis. At $26 for adults and $14 for kids 4-10 (I like that the price is based on age, not height, as one of my kids is extremely tall for his age) , Sushi Ohayo is a really good value. We'll...

Interesting concept here. AYCE from a pretty broad menu. Went on a Saturday evening and beat the crowd by 10 minutes as they were near packed when we arrived and the line outside started to grow long once we were seated. Orders are managed by wait staff on tablets and products are brought out on rolling carts.

Pros: Great value. For $30 (AYCE+drink) you get your fill. The menu is substantial and plenty of vegetarian and non-shellfish options, plenty of non-sushi items to be enjoyed. The quality of items was consistent. Everything was slightly under-salted, which I put as a pro here since you can then add as much soy sauce as you desire. The crab salad, seared tuna appetizer, and seaweed salad were on point. The sushi wasn't anything special but no off-putting aromas or flavors.

Cons: Portion sizes for most dishes are as you would expect with this concept; small. This worked for a dish like the beef yakisoba, which left me wanting more beef and less noodle. The exception to this was the hibachi orders which featured a substantial portion of both meat, vegetables, and sauce. You may find yourself re-ordering doubles of the thing you want most. The other con is what you should expect from this concept, which is slow service. You will be waiting a while between orders. This could be because every table last night was taken, but I suspect the slow pacing is a strategy to slow you down. They do have a waste-charge policy but it is not clear how that is enforced. Not a problem for us as we finished everything, but we did hesitate to order that last sushi roll as we didn't know if one or two pieces left would mean a charge. There wasn't much for distraction in the space, just a few small TVs playing college sportsball with no volume. Seating is mostly booths in a very well-lit space. The high ceilings and lack of decor made it a bustling and somewhat noisy space, much like a cafeteria.

On the whole, I will come here again but more likely for lunch. I don't know if I would have waited outside for more than 30 minutes like others had to just to get middle-of-the-road sushi and small plates of fried rice, but you definitely get your money's worth. I could definitely see this concept working for South Asian cuisine, hopefully some eager entrepreneur takes up...

Refrained from sharing this experience before due to embarrassment but it’s bothered me for quite some time so I’m choosing to share.

Back in March I traveled over an hour from my hometown in Maryland to try this sushi spot with my cousin who was visiting me from Vegas.

For context we are both VERY petite girls. She’s 4’10, & I’m 4’11”, we’re both less than 95lbs. We sat at this establishment excited and anticipating the food as we had made this her last day feast. We had been looking forward to it ALL WEEK LONG. After a long travel, we ordered all you can eat and between her and I, we ordered maybe 2 rolls and 3 appetizers. As many have already read, the portions are SMALL. One appetizer is really 2 items (2gyoza, 2 spring roll). We basically paid more for all you can eat then if we had bought those items singularly. Well when we went to pay we both left what we felt they deserved as a tip $10. We hand them over our bill of $65+ & the server looks at it infront of us. Looks at us hesitatingly, then walks to the register. My cousin sees the server hovering over a group of other servers, then she returns with our money…

To my dismay and complete embarrassment, in front of a VERY CROWDED lunch crew proceeded to embarrass us, telling us that we are too cheap that we gave her “below the tip requirement”. She hands us back the bill and then turns the bill around to a Chart of “Tip suggestions”. I explain to her that I’m being generous by even giving her a tip. The check literally said tips were suggestions and not mandatory. At this point everyone in the restaurant is looking at us, side eying us, and she said "I’ll come back when you give me more…" she turned around and walked away. WE WERE IN SHOCK. We left her $2 extra dollars when she DESERVED NOTHING. I’ve NEVER in my life had a restaurant DEMAND more tip after I had already graciously given them tip for their subpar service & food.

I would never talk bad about food based on a service so my honest review of the food was that it was OK. Portions were VERY small, and you felt rushed and hovered over while eating. Had I not gone through this experience I probably would’ve driven over an hour again to give them another chance. Glad I recieved this service from...