Sushi Hai — Restaurant in Denver

Okay, I'm not usually one to do this with negative reviews.

I'll start with the positives-

This place has GREAT social media presence! The photos of the interior and food are very thoughtful and well taken. They leave you feeling curious, hence why I wanted to try this place.

Our server was very knowledgeable, and probably the best server experience I've had. I don't want to be this guy, but I spent the majority of my young adulthood working in restaurants, so I may have slightly higher expectations of my dining experience than a typical person.

The atmosphere was really relaxing. We were one of the 4-5 tables that were sat at the time we went in. The art work on the wall in the middle portion of the restaurant were thoughtful and very fitting. Although, there were some random metal decorations sitting on mantles that didn't seem to fit very well.

-NOW TO THE FOOD-

I don't want to put this place on blast, because among the lackluster food there were some charming aspects of this place. However, the food was enough to make me not want to give this place another chance.

We ordered the steak appetizer; I don't remember the name of it, but it was a decent first impression. It had the flavor profile of something that was trying to be umami, but just didn't quite get an A+, I would say it didn't study for the exam and passed with a B-.

Next we had sashimi; smoked salmon, crab, and sea urchin. The salmon had a nice smoky flavor. The crab was very mediocre, and the sea urchin was interesting. I know the use of interesting is ambiguous, but that's intentional.

Next the entrees, and this is where it becomes overwhelmingly disappointing,

Let me start with the Tempura Lobster Pasta; First off, it's a really bold move to serve food that's under seasoned with no S&P on the table. Although this particular dish needed a slew of seasoning. I would have preferred they let me choose my seasoning instead of my sushi on the menu. Ginger cream sauce- lacking any depth whatsoever, it tried to capture the ginger flavor, but imagine eating a pasta that tasted like it was tossed in ginger infused oil, and finished with warm cream. The sauce had the viscosity of steamed milk. When you read ginger cream sauce you would expect to get a creamy, flavorful, rich sauce, but this was just not it. To make things worse, the "garnish" was cut up lobster shells that weren't in tact with the actual lobster. It just looked sloppy.

Now to the second entree- 12oz NY Strip. This is hard to mess up, though they still managed to under season a steak. If i had to compare it to anything it would be like a steak from Golden Corral. The subtitle on the steak portion of the menu said "OVERWHELMINGLY TENDER" or something along the lines of that. As far as the cook of the steak, I have no complaints. I ordered the steak with a side of sauce named "Brandy Peppercorn". The sauce was okay, but it had the texture of a jarred sauce, and really lacked depth. My steak was accompanied by a side of creamed spinach, which was served in an excuse of a cream sauce. The sauce was burnt, and also broken. When I think if a cream sauce I would like it to have the ability to stick to the utensil that you're using to eat it. This "creamed spinach" literally had the consistency of water.

I don't want to rip this place apart, but in the Highlands there are some really heavy hitting restaurants. I really would like to see this place get a different head chef, or potentially have some better training to the cooks. This place was just severely...

If you are looking to host a special dinner or event, look no further than Sushi Hai! My brother and I threw his wife a 40th Birthday dinner at Sushi Hai last weekend and the team went above and beyond in over-delivering on any and all expectations!

The co-owner, Tien, was incredible to work with! She made everything so easy for us and went overboard in terms of communication and accommodating any of our unique needs! She even took time out of her own day several times to show me the two amazing spaces/possibilities to host our dinner party in addition to suggesting ideas and ways to make my sister-in-law’s birthday the best it could be. The ambiance was also perfect for holding our dinner - the perfect amount of light, decor, etc. The team at Sushi Hai was so attentive and even provided stands to help with decorations and more candles/lighting based on the décor that we brought to create the perfect ambience. I couldn’t have been happier with the whole experience and how helpful and accommodating everyone was. The spaces downstairs are so perfect for big groups too as there is ample room to get up and walk around (as pictured here). They even have a private bar downstairs if you have a bigger group/party.

We had reached out to a couple of restaurants in Denver and after meeting Tien and her team, and seeing the space/ambience, options, flexibility and especially how friendly and willing the team was to work with us, it was an absolute no brainer! Tien even let me come to the restaurant to set-up hours before our dinner started and was always very quick to answer any questions via email, etc. I could tell that she was absolutely invested in making this event the best it could be and making sure that the birthday girl had a great time. Everyone at the dinner had such a blast! Tien even came out to greet all of our guests at the beginning of the dinner and showed the table how to do Sake bombs to ensure everyone was in sync. :) It was so much fun and they made it such a special night! All our guests were also incredibly happy with the food and found everything delicious!

I am a former New Yorker and have been to plenty of dinners, parties, and spaces in my day and this by far was the best I’ve been to! What is even more amazing is that you have several options depending on your group size from the exclusive/unique cool “Tommy Room” (I’ve included a picture here), to the long table, space that we ended up booking which had ample areas to decorate and make the dinner as unique and exclusive as possible. Our waiter, Toshi, was also so attentive and really made us feel special. Everyone was so impressed with the whole experience.

I absolutely recommend Sushi Hai for any events, holiday, dinners, parties – I promise you will not be disappointed!!!! Thank you so much to Tien and her incredible team! We will...

Let me preface this by saying I believe Covid has played a big role in the changes to this place, and also that the service we had was excellent. They did a great job in making things as comfortable and nice as possible and the flavors of everything tasted great.

The post Covid Sushi Hai is a shell of what it once was. We got there and found out that on the weekends they are no longer seating people in the upstairs restaurant portion. They take you to the basement which pre covid was a club/bar/comedy club. The ambiance has not been changed from the club atmosphere. The wall decor was very mis matched as if it was the unwanted decor from the upstairs restaurant that needed a place to hang on the wall. They had 2 life size nutcracker statues near the bathroom. It's the end of April. They had extra booth seats stacked and pushed right behind patrons tables, extra chairs stacked in visible spots. The chairs at the tables were mismatched and each table had a bright colored sticker stuck to a pole or a seat back to say what table number it was. They had candles on some of the cocktail tables but also had cleaning supplies on another. It felt like a church basement at a potluck that they cleared space with the things they were storing to allow for seating.

The soy sauce and dipping sauce for our meal all came in plastic solo ramekins that made things feel very cheap, for a not so cheap meal. Instead of the normal porcelain nice dishes they used to have. The edamame came out and the sea salt used for it was only sprinkled on the top and not tossed with the soy beans so the first couple bites were ok but once you took the top ones away the rest did not have any salt on them. The sushi rolls tasted great however the rolls weren't rolled very tight and a lot of them fell apart as you tried to grab them no matter how careful or strategic you were in picking them up. As well many of them were not cut very uniformly and had some really thick ones and some really thin ones in the same roll.

I understand that in covid times you have to do what you have to to try and get numbers in for your restaurant to make money and take extra steps to make sure things are clean and up to par to meet the rules of the restrictions. But this experience was a very far cry from the old Sushi Hai and modern, organized put together restaurant they used to utilize. I want to love this restaurant but the new way of doing things there really change the way you experience their food in a...