Hiro's Sushi Bar & Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Flagstaff

ARRIVAL: Bit pricey. When our group of dived arrived it seemed to be peak dinner time, just before 630. We gave our group size but weren't asked a name. Soon after three more groups arrived and were asked names and listed. After popping in the confusion was settled and we were sat 15 minutes later at a table with no settings and a table that was unbussed behind us and a table next to us with a Sapporo Black can on it.

SERVICE: I'm not sure why there was a wait at all or groups ahead as there were easily three empty tables, unless they were severely short staffed. Regardless our server arrived and took our orders and the soup/salad arrived quickly after drinks. We wouldn't see our server again until 40 minutes later when dinner came.

When we asked for utensils he brought a single napkin with five forks. Not only was this ridiculous for a table of five, no chopsticks were provided when four sushi entrees were ordered.

FOOD: The food was bland for what it was, their sushi rolls are the same as Karma, and the competition being much better. The dragon roll was the safest with Avocado and imitation crab. It was generic but tasty. The Volcano roll was not spicy at all and soggy at best, while the Golden California, a Cali roll deep-fried with Tempura. It lacked both Cream Cheese and texture. A soggy crust of tempura masking a sad roll. Their Chicken Teriyaki was well received by my table mate but tasted the same as he made at work and didn't seem worth the price.

It was another 20 or so minutes before our server returned. The checks in hand, and oddly not itemized. At a restaurant that has been around for almost two decades it seems almost sketchy to not have it. The menu had warned a group of five or more to have gratuity but being split checks it wasn't obvious if it was added.

All in all I've been here three times over 10 years and each time the quality drops. Heading out the table behind us was still dirty and the one next to us had its Sapporo Black can on there from first sitting down over an hour prior. The blatant lack of cleanliness outside the kitchen worried me about how it was...

If you’re looking for high quality sushi, this is the spot for you. I used to come to Hiros very regularly.... regularly in the sense that they essentially made me poor because it was SO GOOD! Their food is definitely 5 stars!

However, their service is not the best. The poor service is not a reflection on the front of house staff or back of house for that matter. What I’ve seen is since the new manager has taken over a few years back, there’s been significantly less waiters staffed so this results in overworked (and probably underpaid) waiters and waitresses. Every time I’ve gone, I see maybe two or three (at most) servers scheduled during a dinner rush. Coming from a former waitress, I can tell you that the amount of work they do and they OBVIOUSLY need help. I’ve never had a server be rude or do anything that shows poor customer service. What I have seen is the servers struggling to get orders out on time because they’re usually so busy. This is not a reflection on them, but on the establishment and their manager/management team.

My advice to management is to hire more servers so you can cut your current servers a break. Not only does being overwhelmed cause poor performance, but that results in less money in tips for your staff and ultimately affects business flow in general. I think the payoff will be higher than you think.

As I said above, the food is FANTASTIC. I cannot go here any longer for dietary reasons, but if I could, I would wait a little extra so I could indulge in one of their many...

WARNING* please don't go here!! FOOD POISONING* My four family members and I all went at noon when they opened, excited for sushi and assuming that the food would be super fresh. Google reviews led us here. When we got there and ordered, the waiter forgot that one of us had ordered sprite after confirming with him. I also ordered fresh wasabi, which, when brought to me was squeeze tube goo. Gross. Just tell me you don't have it. The sushi came first, which was all pretty good. Almost everything came out about twenty minutes after, which was fine because he told us.. but the food was just okay, except the spicy edamame that was dry and unfinishable by edamame fans. I asked for my miso soup once we had all been eating for quite a while and he brought it out to me but even after mixed thuroughly, tasted like water. The calamari came out last and the legs were burnt and hard to chew. I was thinking about writing a review but my husband said it was all okay, his dragon roll was really good.. now he has food poison and he has had the strongest stomach I've ever met. I've never left a bad review before. I'm sorry, but this is...