Nara Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi House

CLOSED (AFAIK) Attempted to visit Nara on ²⁄₁₆ (We hadn’t been in a while, but are generally happy with it). to Find it closed at 5pm, Padlock on the door, phone and Facebook pages both disconnected.

We went there on a Tuesday night with the in-​laws who were visiting from Calabash. We ordered soups, salad, sushi, and plates of cooked food. The onion soup was mediocre. It appeared to be sliced onions boiled in water. They should consider using Progresso canned soup products if they are not sure how to make onion soup. Everything else was fine. EXCEPT. NONE OF US HAD A MEAL AT THE SAME TIME. IT TOOK THEM 25 MINUTES TO BRING EVERYTHING OUT. (i’ll quit yelling now). My father in law and daughter were done 20 minutes before the next person. Unbelievable. PS It was not at all busy.

One and done! This was not good!
Quite frankly this is not what I was expecting. I was hoping for hibachi. But we gave it a go any how.
The service was not great. We ordered our food and then we were never checked on. Finally the food came out… well at least some of it. I had to actually ask where my husbands food was! Um how do you not notice his food is missing! So apparently «the chef missed it written in» well he sat there for 10 minutes while we all ate! I was nearly done by the time his food came.
The only reason why I gave them 2 starts instead of one is the food is not bad except the carrots!!! The carrots are nasty cold mushy disgusting discs! I’m convinced they must be from a can! They are so bad!!!
Not a dime was taken off, not a free dessert nothing was done for my husband having to sit there for 10 minutes hungry watching everyone eat!

We came here for lunch on a Thursday afternoon. They open at 10:30 AM. The restaurant was very clean, the hostess was very attentive, and the waiter Chris was very polite and accommodating. The salad was your typical lettuce with ginger dressing but a little bit larger than most of the other restaurants. Our food came out pretty quickly. I ordered the chicken hibachi and it was fabulous. Tender chunks of very well seasoned chicken with a mound of rice and sweet carrots. We asked for some white sauce and the server brought an entire bottle over to our table. We arrived around 1130 and receded right away with only a few other customers there. They had sushi deals for buy one get one half price. You couldn’t beat my price of six dollar meal for all the food I got. I actually a to go box.

Very good lunch. portions were good sized for 2 to share. Meso Soup was very good. Salad w/​ginger dressing… quantity was good, but dressing lacked flavor.
Chris was our waiter and was super attentive.

The sushi was very good, the hibachi was decent, the service was completely horrible. The server forgot half our items and had to be reminded, she didn’t bring the white had to get from another server, she didn’t come check to see how we were doing or even ask how everything was before she brought our check. She didn’t ask if we wanted a box for our leftovers and failed to bring a pen with our bill. There were only three tables… ours was one so the place was dead. No reason for such slack service. She spent more time at the front desk talking to hostess.

Went there with my family I ordered a steak, shrimp with fried rice and WOW! You can taste the freshness. My kids ordered chicken and rice and they were very pleased. Not to mention the hostess was extremely accommodating. My kids want to go back soon which is a good thing

Haven’t been here since opening weekend, months back. Our initial assessment after the first visit was favorable.
Now into this visit… Looking at the menu, the prices are ridiculous. $ 11 for a spicy tuna roll? That’s roughly twice as much as at other places. Sure, it’s 50% off the second roll, but it’s still overpriced.
The place is pretty dead… Definitely not a good sign at 6:46pm on a Saturday night. This could speak to the pricing or the food. We shall see…
We started with egg rolls. 2 small egg rolls cut in half. $ 4.00. Seemed a little. Small.
The sushi was underwhelming. There was nothing that stood out — and like others said, not overly fresh. The sushi rice seemed overcooked. The avocado in the spicy tuna roll was not ripe. The fact that the sushi was overpriced and underwhelming — extremely disappointing.
The kids’ hibachi order was brought out incorrectly. This was after the server checked the order, after confirming that the order he took down was missing a meal.
As a side note… Carrots as a vegetable are sweet. For some reason, the chef decided to sweeten them further, resulting in my kids refusing to eat then.
So… To summarize: Nara isn’t worth a visit. If you do, you’ll be disappointed and overcharged. Go to Sushi Iwa, if you can handle the wait.

Hmmmm… My favorite sushi place is closed on Mondays so we decided to try this place. The sushi was ok… I can’t put my finger on it, but something about it wasn’t super fresh! The guy preparing it was very slow and it took forever to make four rolls. We waited about 45 mins for our food… The waitress needs more training… She didn’t keep our drinks filled and acted bored and was rather rough with setting the food down and drinks… Something about her sitting twirling her ponytail at the bar that made me think she didn’t want to be here.
Disappointed and won’t be coming back…
For those that review this place as awesome… Try Kumo Sushi in Fuquay-​Varina… You will really be impressed!

Sushi was good, not very extensive menu but we enjoyed everything we ate. Kids had hibachi, they said it was pretty good. Atmosphere was lacking… definitely needs improvement there. It was clean, I just didn’t care for the booths or how it was decorated… didn’t feel like you were in a Japanese restaurant. I hope this place makes it because it is convenient to where I live in 12 Oaks.

Awesome service and the food was amazing! Ordered the hibachi chicken and it was really good! Nice and juicy chicken!

Sushi is pretty decent but just not spectacular. Drink specials are good tho and the service was really good as well

In a nutshell, for a steak/​sushi restaurant out on the edge of civilization, a suburb of a bedroom community, it’s not bad.
I ordered the Chirashizushi, which for those of you who don’t know, is sashimi on top of a bowl of rice.
The fish seemed fresh, the rice was seasoned appropriately, and overall the dish was good.
Service was fast and friendly.
My only complaint was portion size with respect to price. The portions could be larger.
Otherwise, everything was good and I’ll most likely be back.

My husband my son and me went to this place for first time today. The experience was outstanding!!! The service was awesome our waiter was super!!! Place is super neat and clean. Food-​EXCELLENT!!! LOTS OF FLAVOR!!! Portions are perfect for the price!
Sushi was WOW!!! DELICIOUS!!!
They gave us an appetizer for free. It was dumplings and they were as good as everything we had. Of course were coming back! EVERYTHING WAS BEYOND OUR EXPECTATIONS!

This place had awesome service! Came to the local new Japanese place and it turned out great! Had some awesome steak and chicken. All for a great price for filet and chicken also an appetizer for 40 $ !

I’ve never taken the time to actually write a review before, but I believe this restaurant deserves it. The sushi is great; everything tastes fresh and the rolls are very well prepared. The service is prompt and friendly, they even take the time to strike up conversation.
They are a fairly new business seeking to get their name and their food known. I definitely recommend giving them a shot if you enjoy sushi and you’re in the area.

From the outside you can’t see the inside of the restaurant, but it’s really nicely decorated and clean
I had ordered spicy California roll and red dragon roll. I was worried that the rolls will be smothered in sauce due to previous reviews and pictures. But thankfully the chef might have seen some of the reviews, the amount of sauce was perfect.
A bit expensive for lunch, but they had the deal of buy one get one 50% off.
I had also ordered salmon, tuna, and eel nigiri. I really like the fact that they charge the same price for all different types of nigiris. They could have put less rice in the nigiri, but overall the food was good
Will definitely come back again

First impressions, after ordering, but before eating. Ambitiously large space, nice, but sparse, décor, almost a little cafateria-​like, a little anteceptic, slight bleach smell. Menu has larger restaurant feel, is VERY heavy on the specialty rolls: usually a bad sign in my experience, indicative of gimmicky Americanized establishment.
Any «a la cart» sushi is ordered as «Nagiri Sushi Appetizer», at $ 4 for two-​piece. You have to know what you want, an specify it.
Only fauxsucre is sweet’n’Low, no splenda or equal. But otherwise Iced tea was good.
Dumplings, neither really panfried, or deepfried.
Miso served with plastic picnic spoon.
As other users commented, very heavy handed on the sauce over the sushi rolls.
Nori was not crisp; this is an all too common southern ocurrance., it seems to get soggy and chewy, like bad prosciutto.
Server was sweet, polite, and efficient. But not too savvy on Japanese food.
Biggest Plus: Very Affordable.

Nara is good for simple sushi. You get plenty for the money, it’s pretty but it’s not amazing. I do not recommend the hibachi. I think this will be a place I pop in for a quick roll or do take out. Squid salad is amazing and you get a lot of seaweed salad for the money. Service is still slow but getting better.

Nice atmosphere but not really a Japanese Steakhouse. No hibachi tables. Ordered the shrimp tempura to start with. It did not have tempura breading. It really was just breaded and fried shrimp and vegetables much like if you ordered sweet and sour shrimp. It was served with soy sauce. It was very greasy. Disappointing. The volcano roll which is supposed to be served warm was not very appealing looking and was cold. Overall, I could not recommend this place.