Hinoki Sushi — Restaurant in Reno

Recently moved to Reno and have been on a quest to find the area's best All You Can Eat (AYCE) Sushi. This was my 7th place I have visited and I purposely saved it for last as a couple locals I met and reviews I read seemed to indicate this was a local favorite. It comes in 2nd out of the 7 I've tried so far.

One thing I discovered is all places have very similar fish quality as they are probably sourcing most of their fish from the same sources and most of it, except the Atlantic Salmon comes frozen. So in my humble opinion, differences in fish quality are mainly due to the day of the week you visit in relation to how long ago the fish you are eating was thawed.

I was there when the place was at most 10% full so can't judge service. Judging from the capacity though, I think it would be wise to avoid this place during weekend peak dinner hours if you can.

The good:

No other AYCE sushi place of the other 6 had a larger selection of Nigiri Sushi. Many others don't have scallop nigiri (one of my favorites), Hinoki does. They also have Escolar White Tuna (different from Albacore and Hamachi) which others don't have. (My photo of the row of nigiri, the Escolar and Mackerel are in the middle.)

Fish quality on some fish seemed above average like the Mackerel was moist, oily and not dry and overbrined. The scallop was excellent but an extremely thin cut even for scallop as shown in my photo.

Rice seasoning is on point, not too much sugar and/or vinegar which some other places do.

Plenty of space for large family's and groups to dine both at tables and at probably the longest sushi bar of any of the places I tried. This place is definitely set up to handle volume.

Gobs of parking

The NOT so good:

The mussels were WAY overcooked and chewy (but the sauce was good.)

Immediately you will notice the lighting over the sushi bar is terrible. It feels like the white fluorescent lighting in the exam room at a dentist/doctor's office. CHANGE YOUR BULBS! The lights over the tables are warmer, not sure why they went with shop light color lights over the sushi bar.

The decor and ambiance are, well, there really isn't much decor or ambiance. It's like eating in a small warehouse where all they did was paint the walls green. LOL.

The small size of the nigiri is very typical for AYCE but their cuts tended to look large but actually pretty thin so fish to rice ratio is about average for AYCE.

The roll menu is average in size and therefore might seem a bit limited for the Roll Fanatics. About 1/4th of the rolls have cream cheese. And about 3/4th of the rolls have teriyaki sauce. (Gee you can dump sugary-salty teriyaki sauce on a roll filled with hot dog meat and people will love it.) I find too much or too many different sauces sort of mask the flavors of what's inside the roll. (Roll enthusiasts may differ.) I usually order hand rolls as typically the ratio of non-rice ingredients to rice is higher than the maki long rolls. I tried three rolls here in hand roll form and two of the three were excellent, BUT, I asked for modifications. The "Odd Future" WITHOUT Teriyaki Sauce and the Cherry Blossom without the Ebi, fake Crab, and Teriyaki sauce. (There are so many ingredients in the Cherry Blossom if you had them all you are only getting minute amounts of each otherwise you can't fit them all in!)

The Cajun Tuna was not what I expected. Typically it is tuna seared with a cajun rub on the outside. There was no cajun rub so I think the cajun is the sauce they put on it which didn't taste very cajun to me or maybe the rub was so little I just couldn't see it.

Salmon Nigiri and Salmon Egg Gunkan quality was average at best with little marble in the salmon (think I had bad luck as other review photos show much better looking salmon.)

This review is from the perspective of a Sushi Fanatic. Overall I'd definitely recommend Hinoki if the SE Reno area is convenient for you, especially if you have a group and it's not a special occasion where you desire a unique...

We recently moved to the area and this is the first sushi experience we have had and I am sad to say I was disappointed 😞

We walked in and it was not very full. We had a table for 2 adults, 1 kid and I highchair and they sat us in the corner, which I appreciate. We received the menus, and immediately placed an order for tempura and a cucumber salad at the same time that our drinks were taken. We always order food for the kids quickly so that we can enjoy dinner... well fast-forward 15 minutes, and no apps yet. Waited another 5 minutes and when our sushi was brought to us and no tempura and cucumber salad, we asked and the girl totally forgot!

I am not angry that she forgot, but this ruined our whole experience because our kids had no food and then we could not enjoy our sushi. The tempura and cucumber salad still took another 10 minutes. Once it finally came out, we were just excited to settle down the 1 year old and then when we tried to cut into the veggie tempura to cool down for the baby, the sweet potato was raw! It was so disappointing.

Our whole experience was really sad. We are parents and this was our night out with kids. It already is not easy and we are in the service industry, so we try to be really understanding, but there was no follow-up and it was disappointing. We had to mention that the tempura was undercooked because our server never returned to the table. The tempura was 3.99, so it was not about the money for us, it was the principle.

Overall, the sushi was very tasty and I would order take-out, but not sure I would dine in again. The restaurant was full of people and it really seemed like we were the only ones that received poor service because everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves. The prices were very reasonable and there was an...

March 2023 Update: It's better than ever. Bigger fish portions and lightning fast service!

December 2022 Update: Still great, but Luis our sushi chef made it better. He makes sushi fast and he does it well. Hats off to Luis! 👨‍🍳

Price: $30 All-You-Can-Eat Sushi Worth it? Yes, yes, yes 🤤

I have been here about 8 times. If you order All-You-Can-Eat, you can order Hand Rolls, Long Rolls (the ones people usually order), Nigiri, and Appetizers all inclusive with the meal.

Normally I order Mussels and Gyoza to start. 5 out of 6 times the mussels have been good, but one time they were a little dry and chewy. The Gyoza is always good.

Best Long Roll: Odd Future 🔥 This roll has nice chunks of real fish, a great flavor (salmon, cilantro, avocado, jalapeno, honey and habanero), and no cream cheese.

2nd Best Long Roll: Cherry Blossom 🌸 This roll is pictured in my photos and has nice flavor (shrimp, crab, tuna, scallops, green onion, avocado, coconut sauce, and lemon) with real fish and no cream cheese.

Best Roll for People Who Like Fake Crab Chopped Up in Their Long Roll: Captain Crunch It comes with salmon skin 😁 This roll is pictured as well. This is like guilty pleasure, all cream cheese, imitation crab, and super crunchy. All about texture here. The salmon skin tastes like fishy bacon 🥺 so good

Best Roll for Balsamic and Imitation Crab lovers: Hinoki 🏠 This roll was good but would be better with real fish inside. The balsamic was a heavy pour and overpowered the dish. However, I can see the potential.

I've been to maybe 10 sushi spots in Reno and this is my favorite if I was picking based on...