Hoshi Sushi Lounge

Finally made it. Sat at the sushi bar and ordered our food. Prepared fresh right in front of us. Unfortunately they were out of an ingredient so had to substitute another for it but it turned out alright. Not busy but the people that were there the owner knew so it was a friendly lunch.

Got a Groupon for a platter for 2 and was surprised to find out it was llthe location on University Ave that I have driven by numerous times (always thinking I would stop in «next time,» but the parallel parking situation has often deterred me to keep driving over to Haiku instead). The sushi itself was OK, not too bad, but nothing too special. If anything, the nigiri was fabulous, but the maki was too heavy on the rice. The special rolls for the platter both had cream cheese on them (don’t remember the names since not too memorable), which I’m not too big of a fan of. We also ordered the shrimp spring roll jalapeño appetizer which was very unique & yummy! Highly recommend it! Overall we enjoyed our meal, but there are definitely better sushi places around DSM!

The whole family came on the glorious day known as my birthday. It was not planned, just a sudden urge to enjoy a sushi meal with family. This restaurant is squeezed in between the other dozen restaurants on this busy street just off Drake University campus. If you are reading this to decide whether you want sushi here or Haiku (2 blocks away on campus), go to Haiku.
The atmosphere here is very casual and great for groups. For appetizers we ordered Calamari and Shrimp Jalapeño Cheese Rolls! They were both tasty! For entrees we tried different meat variations of the Teriyaki, chicken and beef. The Teriyaki dishes were disappointing, the taste was not there for us, I would stray away from these dishes. We ordered the Tom Kha Gai soup which was pretty tasty and different from the standard Miso soup.
For sushi we had the Miami Heat, Eel Roll, Sweetheart Roll, Dog Town Roll, Love you long time roll. All the rolls were excellent and up to par for sushi standards. We had a good time here and enjoyed the sushi. There’s nothing really about this place that makes it unique to stand out.

Sushi yum! Love coming to Hoshi. The sushi chef is very friendly. Great sushi selection.

Cute place, nice service. It was exciting to be able to order vegetarian miso soup but the veggie rolls on the menu are sorely lacking. Just cucumber and avocado options. Plus one more wild, higher priced veggie roll. No sweet potato or asparagus for the veggie eaters.

ORDERED: Bulldog Roll (Shrimp Tempura, Avocado, Cucumber, topped with Dyno Tuna) $ 13.95, Niggi Hamachi Roll (Yellowtail, Scallion, Flying Fish Roe, Cucumber) $ 8.95, Spicy Tuna Roll (Tuna, Scallion, in Chef’s Special Spice) $ 7.95, Miso Soup (Soybean Paste, Tofu, Scallion, Seaweed) $ 1.95
TASTED: Outstanding Miso soup! Perfect amount of salt and seasoning. Warm soup on the cold rainy day I dined here was spot on. The Spicy Tuna roll was by far the spiciest tuna roll in Des Moines. The chef’s «special spice» must be a fuck-​ton of sriracha. If you’re a wimp don’t even think about ordering this spicy son of a bitch.
The texture was appealing and rolled tight though. The Niggi Hamachi was rolled tight with the seaweed on the outside, nice fresh fish flavor with the cucumber a welcome cool down for the tongue after the spicy tuna. For $ 8.95 this roll is a deal. The highlight was the Bulldog Roll — named after the nearby Drake University mascot (tip for the out of towners). The crunchy shrimp tempura with the silky avocado, cold crunchy cucumber and fresh tuna was very well balanced. It was $ 13.95, a bit high for a specialty roll in Des Moines, but worth it I feel.
SERVICE: Our server Jesse was outstanding.
POST: Unpretentious and college-​town relaxed environment. Minimal décor. Awesome weekday drink specials (flyer on table). Month out-​of-​date Cityview and Juice in the rack. If I had to rank Hoshi among Des Moines sushi lounges it would fall neatly in the middle of the pack, nothing bad or wrong about it but nothing that would stick out and make you remember it after two months time. Parking is parallel on University Avenue.
CHANCE OF RETURN: ⁷⁄₁₀

I have always loved Hoshi, ever since it opened. I am fortunate enough to live close to this awesome sushi restaurant. I have been a fan of Chef La Tran’s work since he worked at Waterfront, and I remained a huge fan of his when he opened Hoshi.
They have great quality fish, reasonable prices, and a great staff. La Tran is a very warm and friendly person and I always look forward to seeing him behind the sushi bar when I come into Hoshi. I have tried several sushi restaurants since Hoshi opened years ago, but I still love coming back here for an all around excellent sushi experience.
Chef La Tran even teaches sushi making classes, which is an added touch of awesomeness. I highly recommend Hoshi Sushi Lounge. Hats off to Chef La Tran for his wonderful work.

Meh. When this place was newer on the scene, I used to be fairly impressed with the variety and quality of their rolls. I had some takeout from there this evening, and although nothing was bad, nothing stood out either. Their sushi is rolled really well, but I feel like while other sushi restaurants in town have upped their sushi games, Hoshi has remained merely average. La, who owns the place, is a great guy, but I wish that he would make Hoshi a great go-​to on my list.

Bought a groupon and tried this place out. This place is pretty expensive for not very good sushi… No amount of unagi or spicy mayo could save this. The sushi rice was undercooked/​dry and was not seasoned correctly. The ingredients weren’t very fresh and the rolls were not very filling (very small)

Ughh… this place was extremely disappointing. I bought a Groupon about two years ago — I think when Hoshi had just opened? Not sure. The experience then was O.K. nothing spectacular. But Hoshi has gotten A LOT worse and will probably close soon.
I got the Groupon deal yesterday and had a horrible experience. My friend and I walked in and no one greeted us, even though the waitress saw us. The place spelled like strong floor cleaner.
Then the waitress that had ignored us was our waitress. She was really rude and cold. Three more couples came in after us. We put in our orders appetizers and 3 rolls of sushi. We got our appetizers quickly, but our sushi rolls came literally 40 minutes later. The three couples that came after us got all their food first.
Then when the rolls came our waitress was so rude. She asked what I ordered and I couldn’t remember because our order took SO long, and then passive aggressively said, «uhh, yeah, process of elimination.» I was like, «wtf? that wasn’t the point.» She came over once only to pour water and looked surprised when we finished our roles (which were super small — half the size of average sized rolls) and rudely said, «you want more sushi?» (Heck no.) Then she left (even though we had no food left). We had to call her back to get our check.
SUSHI: The sushi was WAAAY overpriced. My friend got the eel roll and tempura shrimp roll, which were $ 6.50 and $ 7.50 (I think), and I got the spicy crunch or something $ 13, and my roll was basically the tempura shrimp roll with some mayo and barely any tabiko — NOT any bigger. Tempura was horrible. chewy and thick. I seemed like the tempura shrimp was sitting out and cooled or they have been overly reusing the tempura oil. Extremely disappointing.
Go to Sakari for good cheap (FRESH) sushi — Sakari Happy Hour is the best! $ 4.50 house rolls!
**Quick Review**
Food: ²⁄₁₀
Presentation: ⁵⁄₁₀
Value: ¹⁄₁₀
Customer Service: ¹⁄₁₀
Cleanliness: ⁸⁄₁₀

I hate leaving 1-​star reviews. Typically, there are some positives that merit at least 2. But this place was kind of a disaster. It was the first sushi I’d had since moving to Des Moines, and it was really awful. Hyvee sushi is better (Ugh, it’s so awful to say but it’s TRUE). For the quality, it was severely overpriced, and the service was pretty bad. Don’t get me wrong-​they were busy. It was a crowded place. But my drink was empty a majority of the time.
I’m glad there are other sushi options in Des Moines.

Have eaten here twice this year (so far), and it’s been really good both times! I say grab a groupon & give it a try!

First time that we have been there. Sushi was okay someplace in between Chinese buffet sushi and real good sushi. Service was very poor waited a long time for food and there were only 8 people in the entire place. The server was terrible not friendly everything he brought to the table he just sat on the edge of the table including the stack of plates that you needed to eat your sushi not bothering to actually hand them out to the people that were sitting at the table. Drive the extra time it takes to go to West Des Moines and go to Waterfront Seafood much better quality, service and atmosphere.

The chef with the memorable mustache deserves a shout out for his sushi artistry and taking good care of us. We went on a Groupon and left full and happy, shut the place down on a Saturday night. The Godzilla roll, Tokyo bomb, and eel roll stood out. I underestimated the wasabi and almost died my first bite, but I like spicy and once I could see straight again everything was great.
I agree the décor is meh, but I sighted some picture frames still in boxes leaning against a wall. So… they’re trying? The hanging track lights are cool.
Hell, focus on the food, that was great.

I’m typically not one to write bad reviews since I work in the service industry, but steer clear of this place. Terrible service and over priced terrible sushi.

This place kinda needs some help.
Servers were just ok. Had the Teriyaki Chicken which was small portion and did not taste authentic at all. There was a white board stating what items were not available — felt like half the menu was on there.
Décor was left a lot to be desired. Cleanliness of the place isn’t great either.
This place just needs help.

I don’t really recommend Hoshi. They have a platter for two special that costs $ 72 with 25% discount. A friend and mine decided to order it and we were very very disappointed. For this price, you can get a much better platter at Wasabi Tao or Miyabi 9. The platter was full of normal california rolls and only two different types of special rolls and 4 sushis with only two different types of fish. There was no sashimi at all… and the salad served on this platter was sooo small. not even enough for one person… I do not recommend Hoshi. For the same amount of money, go to Wasabi Tao for bigger platter of fresh sashimi… I don’t normally write reviews but felt compelled to write this time due to my disappointment.

We love our sushi so when we saw a deal on ‘Deal Chicken’ for a different sushi place than we normally frequent, we thought we should give it a try. We came here on a Monday night and most of the tables were full but the bar was empty. We were seated promptly and provided menus. They have quite a selection of sushi on their menu but I found that many of them had strange items in them. Also, the majority of them had cucumber which we attempt to stay away from.
We decided to order three rolls as we were not especially hungry this night. We ordered the Sweetheart, University and Spicy Crunch. It seemed to take forever to get our rolls. They had just one guy making the rolls so this would explain the wait. When they finally came to our table, I think we were in a bit of shock. The Spicy Crunch roll had HUGE dollops of sauce on them which looked awful. The Sweetheart was in such an odd shape and had extra paper hanging off. The University was the only one that looked normal to me. None of them had much flavor. The mango in the Sweetheart rolls was crunchy (not ripe). The only positive on the rolls were that they were rolled well (packed well).
The staff wears t-​shirts, jeans and tennis shoes. The bar, they put up Kirin paper but it does not cover the entire bar (from floor to counter). So not a professional looking place. When we were finished the first thing the waitress asked was «do you have a Groupon?» Nice to know the only business they get is through discounts. She did not take my name and the code on the deal until after we paid and were leaving (I thought it was strange that you would not verify a discount before someone pays). She had to yell after us. Such a bad process.
We do not intend to return.

Had Groupon for this place so we gave it a shot. Place was packed so we were seated at the Sushi Bar area. A strange dude was sitting next to us and talked to us like we were all best friends and beings my wife and I were finally getting out of the house together for an evening it was not welcomed. As we trying to ignore the creeper we looked over the Sushi menu and picked out a few rolls that we thought looked good. After we ordered the Sushi Chef (La was his name I believe talked to us and asked what we ordered and if it was our first time there). After about 15 minutes La came back over and asked what our entire order was because he was pretty sure his daughter (our server) had misplaced it… After we gave him our verbal order he whipped them up in a bout 5 minutes and we scarffed them down. About 6 different people filled our drink glasses so I guess they do not have much organization of server sections and maybe that is why our order was «misplaced». The Rolls we ordered were nothing special in flavor though I do believe the technique (the rolls were not falling apart in my soy sauce) and size (bite sized pieces) of the rolls were perfect. Des Moines area definitely has better Sushi places and we will probably not visit this one again.

I came here a few times before Haiku opened… Since I could get sushi in less than a min walk from my apartment. I am kinda lazy to walk to Hoshi. :P
hmm… Their sushi is pretty good. normal Asian fusion restaurant. I love their salad. which I think it calls «Samurai Salad»?? lol. I am so bad with names… it cost around 10++… I love it because it’s simple. instead of the normal mix greens… It shredded with cucumber… together with tempura shrimp… (you should try it yourself. :)) I always love separating the dressing… The dressing was so good until I almost finish it!!! It’s spicy, with some sesame seed. My friend loved it as well and he ate it with the rice that he ordered. The portion is a little too big for me… But I ate them all! :D
I have nothing much to comment on their sushi. I actually love their sushi more than Haiku… maybe because they have more variety??? but come to think of it. I think it’s about the same… That’s why I gave a 3 stars. I can’t think of anything special…
Their service is pretty good. I remembered there was once. My friend and I wanted green tea and they did not have it… so we went «what? How can a Japanese Restaurant do not have green tea??» This made me deduct a star from them. but they actually went out right away and bought us green tea. and served us for free. :) This worth an additional star. so I gave 3 stars. :)
Maybe I should stop by once more before I officially graduate from Drake. :)