Aji Sushi and Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Louisville

For a number of reasons...

Note: My wife and I ate there early evening on the 4th of August.

1. Atmosphere/Theme - Location and condition of the building are awful, though this seldom discourages me, since most of my best food has come from dives... but even on entering, the place makes little sense. Aside from a few oriental themed dolls, screens, and a sword set... most of the decor is, surprisingly, un-asian ...more seafaring (ship's wheel at the door), Spanish (painting of dancers on the wall), or European (other paintings). Lighting and openness are more suited to a bar/buffet than a restaurant with any sense of privacy to the dining experience. Certainly, don't go here expecting to be teleported to Japan... nor really any Asian culture whatsoever. Granted, in today's "door-dash" society, who cares about decor, right? ALL of this could be forgiven if the product was quality.

2. Mojito... WAY too much mint, and all of the alcohol was at the bottom... the first to be sucked up by the straw. Ordered: Nigiri combo for me, Mango roll for my wife, Edamame appetizer, Yakisoba and Pad Thai (Not very Japanese, I know) for meals (We expected to take leftovers home for lunch tomorrow). Free soup to start, the noodle dishes came out next, edamame third, when we reminded her, and Sushi/Roll last... maybe 5 minutes after the cooked noodles. ..pretty much backwards to my thinking, but maybe I'm wrong? Soup was OK. Pad Thai... almost tasted like BBQ sauce... something weird about it, and too runny. Yakisoba... very bland. I'm pretty sure it needed a little celery flavoring or something, and probably a few more vegetables... I liked the amount of cabbage in it. It had no sweetness or acidity at all, though. The chicken in both dishes was incredibly bland. Edamame... guessing it was frozen and overheated... skins kept disintegrating as we tried to chew the beans out. ...and again, came out too late, so we hardly touched it, anyway. The Nigiri tasted ok, but fell apart too easy. My combo had a tuna Maki roll, which I thought was good. The rice, I think, was overcooked. My wife's roll was overpowered by the cream cheese, and she couldn't finish it.

Note: the raw fish is already pre-sliced for sushi... generally not a good sign, imo.

Honestly, I don't care about the decor, but the food needs a lot of work (I know... in these trying covid times). Sorry, but it really wasn't...

Our Asian family of 8 went to this place for my birthday. I was excited because of the great reviews. So I'll go ahead and just do a simple enjoy/didn't enjoy list of the food we order:

Miso soup - ✔️ To be fair, this is a straightforward taste of Miso Soup. But the lack of Tofu makes it a not so top notch. I enjoyed it, the rest of the family just didn't care for it.

Green Tea - ❌ I believe they used the powder form. It's really strong that Mom couldn't swallow a single sip. I thought she was overreacting, but nope. When I tried it, couldn't drink it too. Too sad. And I love Teas.

Chicken Ramen - ✔️ the best order in the group. My cousin enjoyed his order, and it taste really good too. The chicken is tender and the broth is good.

Salmon Teriyaki - ✔️ probably one the best around the area. We've ordered this Menu on other restaurants, but I love Aji's recipe.

Udon - ❌ while I enjoy the broth and noodles, the meat was terrible. It was hard and not seasoned.

Mongolian Beef - ❌ the taste is good, but again, the meat was terrible. Hard and not seasoned.

Beef pho - ❌ And to be fair, I have not tried a good pho around the area. Not even in Yankee Noodle. Aji's pho is very bland in flavor. Dad wasn't happy at all. And again, the meat was hard. Very sad.

Fried rice - ✔️ really good

Sushi - ✔️ well, it's good. The portion and price is okay. It's the same as what you get in other places.

Bubble Tea - ❌ this is like a fruit shake with pearls/sago. Sorry, but not paying 3.50 again for this. And this is the reason why we went to Aji. The Sago/sagu/pearls are not cooked.

The place is fancy, nothing like the outside. Are we coming again? Probably if I just want to eat Ramen, Fish...

Originally, we tried to go to Sumo, and after we got seated, we waited 10 mins in a non crowded restaurant and was never offered a drink. We left and ended up driving 20 minutes away to Aji. I believe it was written in the stars that we were meant to find this place. There was one car in the parking lot, and when we walked in, they sat us immediately. They brought our drinks, and the waiter even realized that my cup was leaking on the table before I did. He was apologetic, took it away, wiped the table, and brought a new drink. After ordering, the miso soup came out about a minute later. Less than 5 minutes our appetizers, and then our food. I got primarily sushi, but my husband got teriyaki chicken, and we thought it would take longer, but it came out before my Salmon Don (which was DELICIOUS). I tried the Tuna Tataki, which i fell in love with!!! My husband said the crab ragoon was the best he has ever had!!! 😋 I could be wrong, but it was like they used real crab meat, and there was more crab than cream cheese. The waiter was doing multiple jobs, sitting people and passing out to go orders. I'm so glad we found this place and will definitely be going back next time we go...