Arigato — Restaurant in Edgewater

BANNED FOR LIFE OVER A PIECE OF EEL?!! This is the review I refrained from posting over 10 months ago. Arigato has been our absolute favorite sushi place in all of Hudson / Bergen county, and even after they raised their prices and stopped including soup, beef negimaki or dessert, their all-you-can-eat sushi deal was still SPECTACULAR, as was the choices and quality. Not only have we been here dozens of times over the years, we have recommended this place to others and have brought many of our friends, celebrated occasions, etc. The manager and staff have always gone the extra mile, even know our preferred table because we were REGULARS!

Then one evening, about 10 months ago, we went to Arigato to have a celebratory sushi feast. The restaurant was crowded and we sat in the front, near the sushi prep counter. Everything was amazing as always except for one piece of eel sushi that my wife ordered, usually cooked, came out near frozen. She politely asked that it be re-done, which they did, and all was fine, or so we thought.

All of a sudden, one of the sushi chefs started staring at my wife. A minute later, our server came over to reprimand us for the half piece of uneaten sushi left on a plate of 4 signature rolls, 32 pieces which we had just devoured. He sternly reminded us about the "rule", no sushi can be left behind on the plate, not even the lonely half piece. This was a bit odd.

We ordered more sushi and another couple of pieces of that delicious eel roll, done exactly as before. The server explained that they will not make more cooked eel for us, and that it has been requested of him to ask us both to leave the restaurant. Apparently, we had dis-respected the sushi chef or something by our minor critique of ONE PIECE OF EEL, and would no longer be welcome there.

My wife and I were mortified, being scrutinized by the "sushi police" then being asked to leave in the middle of our meal, which I refused to do. I pulled out my phone camera to document what was transpiring here, and said MY WIFE AND I are here celebrating her successful recovery from surgery and enjoying our meal, so if you would like, go ahead and CALL THE POLICE! We will not be ABUSED no matter how much we love this place. Which they promptly did.

We did leave, waited for the police in the parking lot, in absolute shock. Arigato did not charge us for our ruined evening. A police report was made. The crazed sushi chef was outside yelling and screaming, shooting daggers at my wife and I with his eyes. The police said to go, that we are not banned forever, to come back another time.

Today was my wife's milestone birthday and we both were longing for what used to be our FAVORITE all-you-can eat sushi place, Arigato of Edgewater. So we took the leap of faith that our little "incident" from last year would all be water under the bridge, and that by now maybe that crazed sushi chef would hopefully not be working there any longer! So we made a reservation and RETURNED.

When we got there, we were happy to see the female manager, who we've known for years, come to the door to greet us. Well not exactly. She came outside the front door to block us from entering and to explain that the demented sushi chef was actually the OWNER, he clearly remembers that night when he was disrespected and called the police, and that we are BANNED FOR LIFE!

She genuinely looked remorseful and also explained that we are not the first customers that he has taken issue with and will no longer allow to come back! As I was in the entrance way, he saw and remembered us, and slammed the door in our faces. The manager told us he didn't want even the remotest possibility that there might be something not to our liking, that could cause trouble again.

And so, tonight, on my wife's 60th birthday, we were BANNED FOR LIFE OVER A...

I DO NOT RECOMMEND HAVING A GROUP OF MORE THEN 4 AT THIS RESTAURANT. This is strictly based on my experience.

Went for a friends birthday we made a reservation in advance for a group of 10 at 7pm on a Sunday. It was coordinated with nice music when I arrived early. Few friends from our group arrived a little late but it wasn’t a big deal. We had brought a few bottles of wine and sangria to keep the night young, so it wasn’t a problem. When making the reservation any restaurant asks for the occasion especially if it’s a group of 10+ just so the restaurant makes it pleasant for the occasion. Anyways, we were seated outdoors table underneath tent and lights super cute when it got darker outside. We were sitting a while and none of the waiters were attentive as to what we were doing. Finally, I had to grab someone to even bring us a glass and menus. Once we received menus, the waitress breaks it down but it seems as if the “all you can eat” option is what they push you towards. I always read reviews before going to any restaurant and I had seen complaints about them charging you the $28 even if you don’t finish what you eat, plus they told us everyone in the group has to order the all you can eat to get it. We had few people that didn’t want sushi but to please the birthday girl they decided we can check the menu and get something to settle everything down to order. It was a back and forth situation with the menus. Online they had platter options but it was only available as a takeout option. At this point, they were checking on us but we weren’t final on what to get. Then they tell us we have to split up, the people eating “all you can eat “ and the ones eating something different because they said people tend to cheat the system by sharing the all you can eat options without having to pay for it. It was a mess. I would think that as a restaurant that deals with various of groups everyday, you would have recommendations for us. We split the table so there’s space for a waiter to pass by to help both sides of the group once we split up. That didn’t seem to help a lot because we seemed a little upset after waiting for so long now they are asking us to move around. It just felt uncomfortable. The waiters were really trying to help us. The waitresses didn’t really know what to do or say to get the group on the same page. Finally it was 8:30ish the manager comes outside to see what was wrong. A member of the group professionally tries explaining what happened to the side. The manager is upset and felt like we had tried to talk in a rude manner to her after someone in the group said “ I’m just a regular guy trying to get food ” jokingly. Manager over heard and started yelling at him pointing finger to not make smart comment or you can leave. I really just wanted the sushi at this point because it’s been over an hour already and no food. How can a restaurant deny paying customers and new customers at that. Manager was arguing with a different girl in the group smart mouthing and it just wasn’t professional in her part telling us “ if you don’t like it you can leave”. I feel like it was something that could of been avoided. As manager you have to learn to accommodate and professionally carry yourself infront of customers and even your own employees. At the end, we decided to leave because after all this time we didn’t want to feed into the bickering after driving an hour and to be disrespected. Not a professional environment and scam to get you to pay more to...

TLDR Food tastes normal but sushi portions are small and inconsistent. I would not go out of my way to come back unless it was for a dinner box or AYCE.

The good: the dinner box for $24 is good value. We chose the beef negimaki and 9 pcs sashimi and it was served with miso soup, California roll, and shumai, all for $24. Good variety, would recommend this.

The so-so: regular sushi rolls here (salmon avocado roll and salmon roll pictured below) are small with less fish than other comparable sushi places. The portion is acceptable but not great and inconsistent between different pieces of the same roll.

The bad: sashimi portions. The price is $3 for two pieces of sashimi, which is not bad despite the smaller than average portions we initially received. However, the size is inconsistent and our last order of salmon sashimi came with two tiny pieces that looked as if one small piece of salmon sashimi were cut in half and served as two pieces. Those two small pieces of salmon were not worth $3. Definite ripoff. Also, their "special rolls" are extremely tiny for the price. The size of the roll was identical to a regular roll but double the price. I ordered the samurai roll and not only was the portion of yellowtail super super flat and tiny (see photo lol, this is laughable to be honest), the size of the roll was the same/smaller than my salmon avocado roll. When I go to other sushi restaurants and pay extra for a special roll, I receive rolls that are double the size as a regular roll. This small size is definitely not acceptable for a-la carte ordering and I don’t think sashimi is included in AYCE.

Finally, they should offer free tap water. Kind of strange to force customers to pay for water when everyone else...