Sushi Haru

This is *hands down* the best place for sushi in Bloomington. The fish is FRESH for one, unlike many of the other places I’ve been to. I’ve taken off one star for two reasons.
1. Unreasonable waiting time
There weren’t too many people when I went, but the server took quite a while to get me the menu, and also took a while to get back the menu (I had to call her actually).
2. The rice
The fish is good yes, but the rice that comes with it could be MUCH better. I’ve tasted better in South Korea and Japan.
All in all, a great place!

I was trying to find a place to park, I called their number but they said «I have no idea. Okay thank you» and then they just hung up my phone. Worst service ever.

My absolute favorite restaurant in Bloomington! I’ve tried all the sushi joints in town and nothing compares to this place. I’m overall impressed with the food and customer service. Parking can be little of a pain when it’s full but so is the rest of btown.

Until a month ago this place was pretty good. I have no idea what happened but the sushi I got today was horrible. The tuna was super chewy. The yellowtail was not fresh at all. For the first time in my life I tried a spicy tuna roll and couldn’t finish eating it.

Wow! The old Sweet Claire’s bakery had been totally transformed. Very clean, modern, warm, and inviting atmosphere. The service is excellent and the food is even better. I had the salmon bento and my friend has the spicy noodle soup. We had so much food and the prices were totally reasonable.
I’ll definitely be back!

dying to go back. just dying.
Tempura shrimp appetizer is SO SO SO worth every penny. It’s cheap, and so good. Best tempura in Bloomington, fo sho. They even use sweet ebi, which is smaller, but more tender and tasty. It’s also the correct shrimp to use for authentic shrimp tempura.
Their chirashi’s are so beautiful, it made me cry just eating it. You know they put in effort when they layer the tilapia (which is kinda gross for sashimi, to be honest) sashimi with the thinnest slivers of lemon to delicately scent this indelicate fish, and also simmer their own gobo/​burdock root. Presentation will just take your breath away. I honestly have not found this outside of Japan or extremely upscale Japanese restaurants.
I’m so very happy they opened shop in Btown (3 months old baby!) so the husband and I don’t have to drive to Indy just for our japanese fix. I’m recommending this place to everyone i know!
Husband and I blew 90 $ on our dinner, but for good japanese food, I think it’s alright once in a while. Gotta celebrate every now and then, you know?

Hands down the best sushi in Bloomington!
Here are the positives:
1. The fish is fresh! Not just on on a «I doubt I’ll get sick» level, but actually fresh. The freshest in Bloomington hands down. This is probably the only place I feel comfortable ordering things like uni. This is probably why the prices here are a little higher than the B-​town average.
2. The special roll lunch menu can’t be beat. Two rolls for the price of one or three for the price of less than one and a half.
3. A huge menu of a variety of entrees, nigiri, sushi, and sushi rolls.
4. EXCELLENT customer service and fast food service.
5. A clean and aesthetically pleasing restaurant.
Cons:
None yet. Possibly the price, but sushi is for splurging anyways.

Finally got around to checking this place out tonight … And it was awesome ! Definitely a favorite now for sushi .
The menu was huge… So it took us at least 15 min, just going through trying to read what was in each specialty roll. We ordered the mixed tempura for an appetizer, and 3 rolls … Indiana roll, kiss of fire, and crazy dragon … The food all and out pretty quickly and … Holy cow !!! The portions were huge ! But so good !
The service was great … There were only two other couples dining in when we were (Friday 6pm), so they were pretty on top of everything we needed .
The only CONS … They had paper napkins … I can’t stand paper napkins at a dinner setting. Gah! And I never saw a drink menu … I couldn’t you if they served beer or sake … Or even coke or Pepsi products for that matter … I ordered hot tea … Seemed fitting.
Overall the place is great. Nice addition to the sushi game in town!

This place is amazing. Also, the lunch specials are the best in Bloomington. Their rolls are huge, and you can get 3 of them on weekdays for $ 17 (specified rolls only, and they are listed underneath the special itself). Their servers have always been attentive, and the chef always tries to greet you at the door.
Additionally, if you are able to pay a little more, the IU Campfire roll is amazing and is probably the best roll in Bloomington.
Overall, I am quite impressed. This is the only place I will get sushi from now forward.

Has some interesting items.
We weren’t served them.
This occurred on Labor Day. Party of three. Two sushi chefs, one kitchen chef. We ordered three Bento Boxes. Not Bento Boxes, the contents were served on platters. Portions were meager. On two of the «boxes», tempura sauce and promised substitutions weren’t on the platter. But we were starved, and probably should have called the discrepancies to the attention of the sole waiter.
They charge about 20−30% above other sushi restaurants, and in my opinion, offered no value above others in the Bloomington Market. Meh and expensive is my summary.

Nice sushi and very elegant environment, because it’s a new place, so don’t have many people here, very quiet place to eat, and convenient location around down town area

Usually when I go to a new Sushi Spot, I have little idea of how it is going to turn out. So many different pallets out there, it can be a grand slam or a strike out. I will say that my experience here was a Grand Slam!
Our server was amazing, he let us know about the free appetizers for our info before we ordered, he knew the menu and was always smiling and friendly. I know this is expected from servers, but this was a very genuine attentiveness.
Food was amazing, we ordered a Paradise Roll and bento box to try out the full range, delicious! The Gyoza was the best I have had in some time and the rolls were fresh and tasty. When in Bloomington, this will be on my hit list.

Although they still don’t have drinks for now, their sashimi taste so great! Better than any other Sashimi in town :)

Edit: Originally gave it ⁴⁄₅. I think the more you get to know Jay and Chef Jin, the better the food gets, so definitely take the time to talk to him a bit about sushi. I’ve been back everyday since my original review and its only gotten better from there.
I had one absolutely terrible piece of maguro nigiri, which is still better than what everything else in Bloomington gives you, but outside of that it’s been great. They got in a wonderful shipment of hamachi toro today and it was just as good as Sushi Gen in DT Los Angeles (since that seems to be everyone’s favourite mid-​range sushi restaurant.)
Looking through some of older pictures, they’ve definitely gotten a lot better since they opened a month of so ago, so give it another shot!
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Sushi Haru has the best Japanese food in Bloomington, which is very impressive for a fusion restaurant. This first go-​around, I only went through their nigiri menu, and I would have definitely believed you if I was told they specialized in Japanese.
All the nigiri here is cut Tokyo-​style, which isn’t my personal cup of tea but its nice to see some variety in Bloomington
Where to start? Sushi Haru is not only the best sushi in Bloomington, but its my favourite overall restaurant in town. Very friendly, involved owner, decent quality of fish, and a decent selection including my favourite Korean-​sushi fish, escolar. They do serve ootoro at a very cheap price, but at the same time it does reflect that in the taste.
This is the first time I’ve done a thorough food review for a restaurant in Bloomington, but for serving decent to average sushi in an Asian culinary wasteland, Sushi Haru really deserves it.
I’m going to list everything by the order that they were eaten.
Madai: ¹⁄₅
Very passable madai, but nothing special. Its always a decent feeler-​fish to see if you’re at a decent spot, and Sushi Haru’s certainly didn’t turn me away.
Saba: ³⁄₅
I’m very pleasantly surprised by how good the saba was here. Its the first piece of fish I’ve had in Bloomington that beats out the pre-​packaged sushi at the Nijiya/​Marukai supermarkets back home. Still, its also one of the easier fishes to transport, so I really wasn’t too excited at this point.
Yellowfin tuna: ¹⁄₅
I originally ordered yellowtail, but was served yellowfin instead. Not a huge mistake, considering I wrote down what I wanted to order and that they could have read the order wrong, and its certainly better than the restaurants that mistake bluefin for chuutoro. Overall, it was some pretty decent yellowfin. Every good restaurant needs to get its fish down though.
Bigeye Tuna: ¹⁄₅ (they list this as maguro, but its not bluefin, which is what you’d probably think at first glance. Their English description does tell you that its ahi tuna, but its Bigeye ahi and not Yellowfin ahi)
It wasn’t bad, but Bigeye tuna is at the bottom of the tuna world. A bit pricy considering toro went for a dollar more
Sake (cooked): ²⁄₅
A bit unevenly cooked, but it was very good quality for cooked fish. Seriously impressed with this one.
Sake (nigiri): ¹⁄₅
Decent, Japanese supermarket quality. Well-​cut fish, but salmon is one of those safe choices where you can’t really mess up. Not inspiring, not bad either.
Toro: ¹⁄₅
Probably the most disappointing of the night, though it did come very cheaply. Definitely chuutoro and not ootoro like they advertise though. Still cheap, still decent. I’d get it again just due to the low price point. Nowhere near as good as supemarket chuutoro, but also nowhere near as expensive.
Unagi: ¹⁄₅
I originally planned on getting uni, but they were out. Substituted it with unagi which while decent, wasn’t better than what you could get at a japanese supermarket.
Ikura: ¹⁄₅
Pretty average ikura, but not much goes towards sourcing it. You can find similar quality at a lot of other restaurants in Bloomington, while all the other sashimi beats them outright.
Service: 3/​5, friendly, engaging owner.
Diversity: ²⁄₅
Price: $$/​$$$$
Satisfaction:Price– ⁴⁄₅

Very nice experience, late afternoon early dinner. The soup was served lukewarm –could’ve been a bit warmer, the salad was pretty but needed to be drained before putting in bowl as about 2 Tablespoons of water were in bottom. We ordered a Sushi Combo (nice assortment of nigiri and a California roll) and a Rainbow Roll # 2 which is a traditional rainbow roll but around a spicy tuna center. Good size portions for the price. Restaurant and bathrooms were spotless. The décor was well chosen and would be a great place to have a fun dinner with friends.

Although it looks a little run down on the outside, the interior décor and overall good quality is great.
Since the place is fairly new and farther off campus there weren’t that many people (which was good for faster service since I only saw one waiter during lunch time).
I ordered the salmon lunch bento, which came with a large portion. The salmons texture was interesting because the skin was crisped.
The yaki udon (stir fry udon in teriyaki sauce) had a huge portion and was very savory. The Volcano #2’s portion size was large and flavor was bold. If you’re not use to raw fish, this would be a good starter option.
The service was a little slow but the staff was super friendly and the starting miso and salad was pretty good.
They menu had a good selection of udon, bento, and sooo many sushi choices. I would highly recommend checking it out with its long hours. Would recommend this over Ami.

Brand new sushi restaurant to Bloomington and by far the best in town. Hands down. The atmosphere is awesome, feels pretty authentic, especially with the Japanese greeting by all the workers at the door. I highly recommend sitting at the sushi bar to get the full experience. The rolls are delicious. I personally had the Crunch Roll #3 (fried red snapper, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber, tempura crunch) and several pieces of nigiri (salmon, tilapia, and egg). The portions are huge (you’re paying for it though!) A great addition to the btown scene, located right next to Baked. There’s parking in the back.

Really nice atmosphere, one of the best meals I’ve ever had in this town. I’ll be going back regularly for sure.
I ordered the salmon bento box and the food just kept coming and coming. Sushi was top notch, shrimps were as big as lobsters, and the salad dressing was amazing.

I ordered otoro, and without informing me prior, I got maguro instead. Perhaps they think that we can’t tell the difference? Chirashi was not too great either.
Caveat emptor!

So excited about this place. Let me cut to the chase and tell you I ordered the campfire roll and it was served ON A PLATE OF FLAMES!!! Definitely tasted like campfire. Absolutely beautiful plating and fresh ingredients. I used to go to the deli years ago that was in this restaurant and this new flip of the house is clean. It is clear the restaurant owners took the time to be thoughtful in every aspect of the restaurant. I also loved my server. He was so enthusiastic and just as excited to have us there as guests as I was to be there.