Hajime St.Cloud — Restaurant in St. Cloud

First: the sushi here is good, and the staff are friendly. If I didn't have celiac disease, I would probably give a 5 star review. For those who need to avoid gluten: --Most of the basic rolls seem safe, and if you want, you can ask to have some rolls on a different platter than others.

--I would bring your own gluten-free soy sauce (we order the small travel packets to bring in a packet), as their gluten free soy sauce is just a regular soy sauce container with an added label of gluten free--i.e. an old regular soy container refilled with gluten free. That's outside my comfort level just because of the possibility of a mixup in refilling things. An improvement the restaurant could make would be to purchase the little packets of gluten-free soy sauce

--The knowledge of gluten containing items seems pretty inconsistent among waiters and other staff, so don't rely exclusively on that. Some seem pretty aware, some seem not at all, and--perhaps the most dangerous of all--some are in between where they know the "obvious" instances of gluten but aren't aware of the gluten that might be less obvious.

--We've experienced inconsistency between visits. On our first visit, it took a little back and forth to gain clarity on which specialty rolls were gluten free or could be made gluten free, but once sorted out we had two delicious specialty rolls! (the Sweetheart which has all gluten free ingredients listed, and the Hajime Rainbow Roll without the special Hajime sauce) We recently returned and, knowing the Sweetheart Roll was gluten free, we ordered it again (and communicated with our waiter about the need for things to be gluten free). At first they brought out the wrong roll (Sweet and Sassy) that was fully covered in tempura flakes; we let them know it was the wrong order and they replaced it with a Sweetheart Roll. However, in my first bit I could taste tempura flakes in the spicy tuna and, upon closer examination, could see those tempura flakes. We didn't want to waste food, so my non-celiac partner ate it, but it was frustrating to have an unsafe dining experience in such contrast to our first visit.

Takeaways: it seems one cannot trust consistency in the gluten free status of an item across multiple visits, AND one cannot trust the accuracy of the ingredients listed on the menu (not only was it gluten free the first time we came, but there was nothing in the item description suggesting tempura flakes were included). Both of these matters make eating at Hajime difficult if you need to stay gluten free. It's not the most difficult sushi place I've been to as a person with celiac, but definitely a bummer that it is not as safe as it initially seemed. If you do have celiac disease and are eating at hajime I would recommend: 1) safest route is to stick to the basic rolls (plain fish with added raw vegetables at most), 2) if you decide to order from the specialty rolls, be assertive as you order and ask detailed questions even if it seems like it should be safe based on the...

6/7/2024: Update... Still enjoy this restaurant. The staff are very nice, we keep coming back with family members and they have enjoyed it as well. Added some food pictures from today.

6/7/2023 - 5+*s We had a quiet and early (5PM) Anniversary meal (Boomer time :).

I was surprised by the nice cozy and comfortable interior of this restaurant given that it's in a small strip mall. It was not busy - a Wednesday 4:30 to 5:30 - so we appreciated the lack of noise. I'm sure it could be busier at other times but I doubt it would be too noisy. This was great for us, because we could actually talk.

I'd have to say it's very authentic for the food. It was fun overhearing the staff speaking Japanese. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to a Japanese menu, but our first experience here was so nice that I would like to come back every week until I can try everything on the menu. Our waiter, Nich, was great, very helpful and willing to take the time to explain the menu to us.

We are not the eat all you can get type so $26 for a meal plus a couple of beers was extremely affordable with happy hour prices. The absolute upside to this cuisine is the fact that it's probably fundamentally healthy. Forget the burger and fries. This is much tastier and healthier.

We had the Maki C Combo, probably a meal for one hungry younger person, but easily shared for us. Everything included was delicious, and they had GF soy sauce for my wife. I had two $4 taps, Voodoo Ranger and Two Hearted IPA and enjoyed them both.

Really happy with this choice, even for what was for us as special occasion. It was kind of no fuss, easy to get to, nice place. Definitely something I want to do again which I can't say about almost any place else we have been to recently (Mainly because my wife is a great cook and almost every traditional fair we can make better at home).

I should have taken more pictures, especially when the food first arrived. However, this is what remained after a few minutes. Also a view of the back part of the restaurant from our...

My fiancé and I went in today for a much needed day date. We went in for lunch. The whole place had a very heavy fume smell that I can only describe as a nail salon that has been Clorox/bleached down. A older mother and daughter came in and almost immediately left. The mother apologized and stated she was sorry but she couldn’t handle the smell and they had to leave. The manager(I presume) asked the waitress what happened to which the waitress mocked the woman and acted as if she was a “rude Karen”. Which was not the case as I heard every word and she apologized and left politely. The other table that was very large and full with a big group asked the manager what happened. To which he also mocked the ladies and said they claimed there was a heavy perfume smell they didn’t like and left. It seems unprofessional and like there may have been a better way to address that.

This was the first time we have ever been here and we shared that with the waitress. She didn’t make any comments or offer any suggestions. Which is fine. Just notable. Most off putting was the miso soup. It tasted like dirty dish water. Neither myself or fiancé could eat it. When the waitress cleared it she didn’t not ask about replacing it or if it was okay. Just cleared it and moved on. They were not busy at all I should mention. Just us and the other large family table. When the sushi came the spicy crab roll was very dry and lacked flavor. The Philadelphia roll lacked flavor as well. Quite honestly I’ve had better basic sushi from a grocery story. My fiancé felt the same about his 3 rolls he ordered. Unfortunately I don’t think we will ever return. At the end the waitress did ask how it all was. Neither my fiancé or myself said anything as we just aren’t that type of people. We did eat what we were served except for the soup.

On a positive note, the potstickers/fried dumplings were very good and so...