HANA Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in South Burlington

I’m sad to have to give any business a negative review. The positives: I’ve ordered take out consistently for 4 years supporting this business and the food has always been delicious. Always warm, consistent, generous portions and the sushi is on point. The restaurant was clean and one employee was sanitizing menus and tables which I appreciate. They seemed well staffed and as I’ve experienced every time I’ve dined in, slow. I would absolutely recommend ordering TAKE OUT from Hana.

My experience last night was horrible. My boyfriend and I decided we wanted sushi at 8:30. We flipped a coin on whether to dine in or take out. We ended up dining in hoping there would be other people there as well because it’s so quiet and awkward sometimes when you’re the only party in this dimly lit, silent restaurant. We arrive at 9:05 (they close at ten) and there was one other family there who clearly also just arrived as their server was placing waters on the table asking them if they wanted a beverage other than h2o. As soon as we walk through the door a woman greets us by saying “we close at ten”. Yes, I googled that, I understand and we still have an hour and won’t be here longer than 25 minutes. She gestures to the dining room basically telling us to just pick a table which I’m okay with. A gentleman comes over with waters and asks us if we’d like a drink, so we order two cosmos in addition to our entire order (we chose crab rangoons, angry bird roll and two orders of spicy tuna rolls). He then says, “okay we close at ten”. No personality. I even assured both the hostess and our server that we order all the time, we know what we want, we won’t be here long and we are low maintenance. No reaction from either of them. The food was, as always, delicious. We received our drinks about 20 minutes after we ordered them and had already devoured the rangoons and had just been handed our sushi. Before I’m even done eating my angry bird roll (it’s about 9:30) the server asks if we are all set, so I request a box. He comes back with that and a check and proceeds to stand at our table until my boyfriend puts his form of payment down. It felt uncomfortable at best. I’ve served and bartended for many many years, server etiquette is a real thing. I guess they don’t practice that here unfortunately. The other family left at the same time as us and our server followed behind us, pulled the mat from the front door and locked it before we could even reach our car. I looked over at the family parked next to us, loading their kids into the car and the lady and gentleman looked back at the restaurant and exchanged a look of shock. I noticed they had out of state plates so I hope that wasn’t their first or last experience dining in Vermont because we have amazing food that can be served with equally amazing personalities. And for $60 plus tip (which doesn’t truly affect anything, we tip the same whether we dine in or take it home) Overall we felt rushed, we felt we were not wanted, unwelcome, like a bother to the staff. Every person we interacted with was rude, unfriendly and low energy. Maybe they were super busy, had a long day and we caught them at the wrong time. But based on other reviews, this seems typical. Take out only from now on, no flipping...

My order:

Sushi Rolls: Salmon Avocado Main Dish: Chicken Katsu with the side salad, miso soup, and white rice —————————————————

T.T.T

Taste 10/10 - The food tasted overall good, there were no issues with the main dish, side dish, or the sushi. I left happy and my hunger satisfied.

Time 10/10 (with some bonus points) - The staff here is observably very punctual, and relatively skillful in maintaining a decent craft of the food while keeping the punctuality. Nothing was under cooked, and I was honestly surprised at how quickly I got my food.

Total 8/10 - It is Japanese food, and Japanese food in Vermont (something that is rare to find). My total came out to be $25, which honestly isn’t bad for the amount of food I was given. The prices seem rather reasonable for being such a gem.

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Staff rating:

Server: James

Rating: 10/10

James did a great job and was very polite, he was as punctual as the rest of the staff and excelled at managing multiple tables at a time. I overheard him trying to help a customer with a certain dish that the customer couldn’t remember the name of, but James had assisted him.

Kitchen staff

Rating: 10/10

Excellent communication between the folks behind the counter, I don’t speak much of their native language, but they were on top of orders and making sure customers were served. Overall skilled and hardworking individuals.

Overall

Rating: 48/50

Status: Passed

Synopsis:

This is a great place to go when you’re craving sushi or other Japanese foods. It’s incredibly close to the airport, allowing for a quick meal after or prior to travel (such as myself). Or if you simply wish to try something new, if you never had any form of Asian food, HANA Japanese Restaurant is a great place to start your journey down a hole of delicious foods, great cultures, and...

I went with my room mate when it was so empty it was just us. Service despite that was extremely slow, and the waiter didn't say a word to us the entire time and for some reason looked extremely angry. We aren't rude, loud, or boorish in any way shape or form, it just felt like he hated his job. Slow day so he's mad in his head about us being there maybe? Other employees were just standing around talking and staring at us the whole time and it felt extremely awkward. Food was ok, not amazing and kind of pricey. I didn't drink out of the glass the water was served when they first gave us that before we ordered our 'real' drinks because it was visibly filthy like someone had soapy fingers all over it and it dried like that, almost like it as never rinsed off. The restroom there was absolutely soaked in urine on the floor and it was sticky in other parts presumably from dried urine. The food is ok, my room mate really liked it, but I did not feel welcome and the glass and the bathroom, the attitude, and the gawking make me never...