Hana Sushi & Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Gainesville

In my opinion, Hana is the best place for sushi in Gainesville. However, it is certainly not the only place. College towns typically have a lot of options when it comes to finding sushi in a restaurant. I believe what sets Hana apart is that they actually focus on it. Like the rest, they serve some "fusion" dishes, which are almost ubiquitously Thai dishes adulterated for the American palate. I'd recommend veering away from those and steering towards the Japanese cuisine as that's really what they're best at.

Alright; now that we've figured out which part of the menu to gloss over, let's talk food. My goodness, the quality and value of the food here is simply fabulous. My personal favorite order is the Maki Combo B. The alphabetically second option among the sushi entrees, it comes with miso soup and a ginger salad, which are par for the course, and spicy tuna, salmon avocado, and yellowtail scallion rolls. All 3 rolls are simple and fantastic. The spicy tuna is legitimately the best I've ever had. It's loaded with beautiful chopped fish mixed with a few popped rice crunchies and a little soy sauce mixture for texture and added seasoning. It's not very spicy, but it is delicious. The salmon and yellowtail rolls are equally scrumptious, and they thrive by means of their generous fish portions and simplicity of flavors.

Sushi is how I roll (get it? 😀), so I wanted to focus on it, but there are other great options on the menu. The rock shrimp appetizer, for example, is blow-your-socks-off tasty. The hibachi section is also delicious. Don't worry; it's not the tabletop grill gimmick of olde. They prepare it in the kitchen. You choose your meats, and you get fried rice and lo mein and all the usual accoutrements. It's really tasty! The price looks a little steep on paper, but it's A LOT of food. You could easily split it two ways and probably still have leftovers, so I still think the value is there.

It's a nice place to eat too! The decor is a nifty yet understated pop style, it's only a couple years old so it's super clean, and it's a nice size. I've never had to wait longer than 15 minutes, but it does get pretty busy for dinner so don't be surprised if you have to wait a wee bit. That's a good thing to me though, as it's a testament to how an international restaurant will thrive if it focuses on the specific cuisine which it claims to represent. In other words, if you're a Japanese restaurant, serve Japanese food. That's exactly what they do, and they do it to a high level. Besides, I love to walk in for dinner and hear a nice buzz in the dining room; it makes me feel like I'm in the right place. The service is also good, and I've never had a bad experience.

So that's that. If you like Japanese, go give it a shot. I promise you'll...

My husband and I were in the mood for Asian food after a long workday and wanted to try something different in Gainesville.

Took a chance on Hana Sushi since it was open and had mostly good reviews. The place was extremely busy for a Monday night with only 1 or 2 tables available when we arrived. The menu looked good (lots of variety), the place looked relatively clean, and the people dining in seemed happy with their food.

Decided to get takeout since the hostess also said takeout and dine-in had similar wait times. She also said that the outdoor seating area was ok to eat at even if we were getting takeout since they didn't have any outdoor table service tonight.

My husband ordered well-done Salmon Teriyaki and Veggie Garden roll with soy paper. I ordered the Sashimi Deluxe. Both orders came with side of rice, miso soup and ginger salad. Also ordered 2 hot green teas. Total with generous tip was $95.

We waited about 20 minutes for our food; the food was worth the wait 👏. Visited the restroom during the wait, and it was clean, so that was reassuring.

The order was packed in plastic containers and stacked neatly inside 2 Hana Sushi brand paper bags. Utensils, soy sauce, and spoons were included. No napkins, though (understandable to forget as it IS a busy night), so my husband was able to ask the hostess for a few since we were eating in the outdoor patio.

All the fish tasted fresh. Cooked food was hot, and the sashimi was excellent. Miso soup was just right for me, but a bit too seaweed-flavored for my husband who dislikes seaweed. He said the salmon was crunchy and good. However, he could detect a hint of seaweed. Perhaps the same pot or serving utensils might be used for seaweed dishes? Either way, he finished off his meal since he was really hungry after a long day of work.

4 stars for the atmosphere since when we ate in the patio area, many of the chairs were broken, wobbly, or had holes. A majority of the tables were also either dirty, wobbly, or both. We took a chance on eating outdoors and learned the hard way that this is why outdoor table service is not offered 😢. Parking situation is pretty good as there is lots of space as they share a parking lot with Dave & Busters next door. If you can't find a spot, people are leaving almost every 5 minutes so it's almost impossible not to find one.

Overall, the whole meal was satisfying for the Asian food craving that we had. We would go here again to try eating in when it's not so busy (if that exists). Thanks for a nice...

giving 3 stars because we have been here 4 times and every time has been great, the food and service is amazing- until tonight. im not sure if they were all overwhelmed or our server was new but as a server myself i dont think she handled herself well- she was very nice however she was unapologetic and didnt seem to know what was going on. nobody greeted us for 10 minutes and then after a server took our drink order she disappeared. she came back another 10 minutes later and took our food order, still didnt have our drinks. after our appetizer and 1 salad came out and we still didnt have our drinks we had to flag her down to ask about them to which she replied “oh yeah” and walked away. when she brought the drinks the wine was wrong, i ordered pinot grigio and she had brought a red wine. when i said “sorry, i had a pinot grigio” she said “yea” and then stared at me until i told her pinot grigio isnt a red wine. then our sushi came out and we still hadnt gotten our second app salad, which she was confused about when we asked her if it was coming (even tho i relayed the order twice because the 1st time she didnt have it written down). after this she was rushing us and came to our table abt 10 times in 5 minutes trying to clear the table. after everything, she charged us for 2 wines (the 1 she got wrong & the 1 we ordered) and then kept rushing us even though we still had half full drinks, since she brought them out late into our meal anyway. when we did pay she picked up the check book, looked at the signed check and put it back on our table and walked away-im assuming bc there wasnt a tip in it yet (we tip cash after we are done so the server gets the tip right away) We wouldnt have been so upset if she had apologized about anything. she never said sorry about forgetting our drinks, getting our food and drinks wrong, or for charging us incorrectly. by the end of it my bf and i were annoyed at how bad this was and were very...