Ari Sushi & Tendon — Restaurant in Dublin

Authentic Tendon that you would find in Japan at affordable price.

Background: Most traditional combination of ingredients for Tendon is Shrimp, Squid, Pumpkin/Sweet Potato, Seaweed, Onsen Tamago, and Green Pepper and, most importantly, side salad and dashi based sauce needs to be pre-drizzled over rice and tempura so people do not dip in sauce.

The reason why it's so hard to find a good tempura is that each ingredient needs to be prepared at different temperature and frying time, where shrimps/squids are fried 2-3 times at medium temperature and vegetables at higher temperature, etc. Restaurants do not do this as this takes lots of work and more friers, which relates to cost, and people do not want to pay premium price for this effort.

Tendon: Basic Ari Tendon follows all of the above (other than replacing green pepper with spicier chili) and executed perfectly, where each component is fried at right temperature and time to maintain crispy outer layer even with the sauce. And the price for Tendon ($15) is just amazing for it's quality. Only two things I want to add is that it would be great if we can susbstitue chili with green peppers (as lots of people cant handle spice) and an option to add authentic Shizuoka Wasabi for couple bucks on the side if possible.

Sushi: it's very generous portion of fish and rice, but shari lacks vinegar and texture (I think they use same rice from rice cooker for sushi and Tendon) and neta is nothing special.

Service and atmosphere: are very clean and minimalistic. Remodeled bathroom with Aesop soap is better than most of $50+ Restaurants around town. Service was attentive where she consistently checked on our food, water, and drinks. Lastly, I saw a couple coming in after break time asking to be seated and she still welcomed them and served them food,...

Update: we stopped going to this place because the smoke for 2 years but suddenly missed it. When we went back the place was so smoky I had to leave as soon as we finish eating because it was causing us breathing problems. I wrote about the smoke 2 yrs ago but there was no change. I worry a lot about people working in there daily. This is not okay. The price has gone way up and food not as good as before too… we will not be visiting again.

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My review 2 yrs ago

I hesitate in reviewing good places that’s newly opened because more good reviews would mean next time we go there might be more wait time. This would be a place like this. My husband passed by this place many times and thought the decorations were so clean and minimalistic he wanted to try the food lol, I know isn’t he weird? We went Christmas Eve and it did not disappoint. The food was great, really really pleased with the quality of all of the items. service very pleasant, a few complimentary items were big pluses for a new business. The owner (I think he’s the owner?) was very kind and polite. 3 days later we brought my in-laws and they loved it too! This is definitely our to-go sushi place from now on.

I do have to add a note to the owner, you may need to change your range hood system. Every time we come we have to go home and change all of our clothes and take a shower because we just smell like smoke. This is okay once in a while but we are thinking about workers who has to be in the environment day after day and if it might be unhealthy for...

I have been here several times since it opened and it has been great every time. But I have noticed increases in price and decrease in quantity and quality of food over time as well. Not an issue in itself, as if the food is still good and reasonable, and the extra sides are too, then its fair. Recently I have revisited with friends and left unsatisfied, overpaying, and later to have food poisoning! I ordered the tropical mango roll, service took longer than usual, but it made sense as they seemed short staffed and it was a Wednesday night so it was probably slow. We all noticed that their side dishes had decreased in quality, a lot, and when we finally got our main dishes (which had been price bumped again) I was met with a strange taste from my mango roll. It was so off putting that I could not even eat it all, but I was too embarrassed to ask for a refund, and ate more to not bother the dinner I was sharing with my friends. In hindsight I should have known something was wrong after the first bite, as I later would suffer stomach pain and nausea for a few hours. I would love to give them the benefit of the doubt again, but I have only seen declines. I am not normally one to leave reviews, let alone negative ones, but this was an experience that had to be spoken about, perhaps in hopes that the owners will see and try to improve as they are very...