Arata Sushi

Wished I could give a 4.5 star l, but Unilocal isn’t advanced enough to add that in. Arata is quite underrated as a sushi restaurant. I called to place a pick up order and found the man on the phone to be quite pleasant. The wait is a little long and pricey to my standards and for me alone it was 40 dollars. Call me fat, but it wasn’t enough. Overall food was great, 5 stars, but the wait time, price and small takeout portions take away one star. Would go again.

This use to be our favorite sushi restaurant hands down… We dined last evening and was surprised to learn they had changed their menu and significantly raised prices. Why mess with a good thing?

Love this restaurant. The ambiance is fantastic, reminds me of one of my favorite sushi spots in California. Have tried almost all the sushi they have on the menu. I have to say that I’m yet to come across one that I don’t like. I especially love the spider roll! Highly recommend it!

My party of 7 dined there on Dec. 26. My second visit. The food is very good but the service was not. Although there were only 5 – 6 other occupied tables, it seemed like forever between when we finished our salads and appetizers and the sushi began to arrive. In total, we were there for more than 1.5 hours. Maybe they were shorthanded because of the holiday but the huge gap in food delivery definitely took away from the overall experience. Not the server’s fault…

Visited Dec. 2012
Phenomenal. Everything is so fresh you can taste the difference. The staff is incredibly responsive (perhaps they could stand down a little, but it might have been because they weren’t busy and this guy was bored) and knowledgeable. We even had a conversation with the chef about the food we were eating and how it was made.
I can personally recommend the uni (sea urchin) and the Dragon, Arata, 7&7, and California rolls. Any would individually earn 5 stars; combined they made a wonderful outing with friends at a very enjoyable place.

The restaurant is set a little back from the main road, and is difficult to find unless you are looking for it. It is in the middle of one of those mini-​strip-​malls that seem to be breeding across the land. Nicely furnished and decorated, bordering on the pretentious, but then this is Prospect, home of the local Old Money.
Our waiter (Gerald) was very soft-​spoken, but a pleasant enough fellow, and very helpful. We started off with a salad and a Miso soup. Both were about twice the size that we are expecting. This was followed by a sushi order consisting of a Spider Roll and «Sunshine» one of the few specialty rolls that worked for both of us (I can’t handle spices, and Her Ladyship does not like anything with Cream Cheese in it). Both were very nice — Her Ladyship thought that the Sunshine roll was delightful.
The total for the mean came to $ 26, which is very reasonable for a meal of this caliber. As Darth Vader would say: «Impressive»
And that’s where it went pear-​shaped. We had a Groupon for this place, and they add an 18% gratuity for Groupons. I understand why they do this — some Groupon-​bearing customers are lousy tippers. I am not one of them; having once waited tables, I normally try to tip well, and always more than 18%. But singling out Groupons for this treatment just seems… wrong.
Even more annoying, having added 18% to the bill, they then have the nerve to ask for a second gratuity. I was tempted to leave nothing more, but that would have just punished our waiter, which would not be fair, so I left a few dollars extra.
This annoyance was the only blot upon an otherwise perfect experience, and that cost them that fifth star. The funny thing was that I would probably have left a bigger tip if they hadn’t been so grabby.
I will probably return; the food and service were both excellent. Perhaps the experience is better if you don’t have a Groupon.

«nice place. beautiful inside. friendly attentive server. possibly too attentive. great sushi! ordered both specials and two basic rolls. LOVED THEM ALL! will go back for sure!»