Asahi

Devastating. It was the best sushi available in Salem, and they’re gone. A «for lease» sign is out on the front door, and the phone number is out of service.

We get Asahi take-​out about once a week and have never had a bad experience. They have some delicious maki combos that you can’t get anywhere else, and the fish is always great. Reasonable prices. Friendly. Also, bonus points for having printable coupons for free shumai from their website.
Restaurant is in need of some style 101, but who cares when you just need take-​out sushi asap!

i hadn’t been to asahi in awhile, but i remembered it being delicious. nothing has changed.
the sushi is excellent. there’s a sliced beef appetizer that you’re an idiot for passing by, if you choose to make such a bad mistake. the garlic noodles are simple but wonderful. whether you share a few appetizers with your date (s) or get separate entrees, you’re bound to love everything you order.
your food comes out at a perfect pace, and i thought our server was awesome. she was sweet, had a great sense of humor, and was very helpful.
the prices are reasonable and i got a good buzz off a couple large beers. totally fun and delicious.

Great food. Slow service. Don’t expect to go there during your lunch break and be out in time. Only one waitress for whole dining room.
Great sushi and prices are awesome.

I have to say… really not impressed. For sushi I’d rather go to Taste of Asia on Washington Street. Everything just tasted kinda «off». Now I will qualify my statement by clarifying that I’m vegetarian and thus was having Avocado Maki, Inari sushi, and Idaho rolls… but they just didn’t taste right.

Does Ashai mean Deliciousness? We went there for Dinner on Sunday afternoon before going to Cinema Salem to catch a movie and the food was fantabulous!
We started with the Edimantes for an appetizer follwed by some Miso Soup. Both were great! Then we ordered the spicy tuna roll, Volcano Maki, and Salmon Avacado Roll. The Volcano Maki was out of this world so be sure to give it a try! Our waitress was attentive and sweet.
Bottomline: If your looking for the best Sushi in Salemm then Asahi is the place to go!

This place is very very mediocre… I went here for lunch and it was nothing to brag about. We ordered the teriyaki beef lunch and Tempura Udon. I also ordered one of their sushi rolls (4 small pieces for $ 6) outrageous price!
Our waitress was also very clueless… I would definately to go other japanese restaurants in the area than here…
I won’t be going back…

The food was great. They had my favorite Momokawa Pearl Sake (which is not hard to find but not easy sometimes)…and we opted for the filet which was delicious and cooked perfectly.
Howard, our chef was quite the entertainer (would give that Cedric guy a run for his money at least), and scared the shit out of an 8 year old at our table with his flame throwing capabilities. Not good at the lemon flip in the air/​caught on the knife trick tho.
The ONLY draw back was the smell of bleach i caught on the way in that seemed to never go away. I suppose it means they’re clean… but it just sort of stayed with me for the entire meal.

I have been to this restaurant several times now for sushi, and I am usually quite pleased with it. They have a really great selection of rolls, including a good amount of vegetarian options. I’ve only had the vegetarian rolls (cucumber, avocado, idaho maki, etc) which were great, but others with me seemed very pleased with the seafood maki options.
Their staff is another issue. Firstly, the hostess woman at the door I think is crazy. She got very confused when we asked for two sushi order sheets (one for the vegetarians and one for the rest), and proceeded to give us 3 menus for my group of 4. The wait staff are very friendly, but a little forgetful, it took a bit to get some miso soup but thats all. The sushi can be a little slow on the delivery if they’re busy, but nothing to complain about.
If youre feeling like a quiet meal, I wouldn’t recommend going when there are people having hibachi, they tend to get very, very loud. Overall a great place with some pretty good prices on sushi and an awesome location right downtown!

It’s your average japanese-​steakhouse-​sushi place.
Place was DEAD on a Saturday night — maybe because all the people outside were eating fried dough and hot chocolates?!
They do a fine enough job taking care of the customer, but the food was, well, it could be better.
I got a steak dish presented as though it were sushi — thin slices of beef rolled around scallions with a side of noodles and sprouts. It was ok — the sauce was a heavy soy sauce thing. A bit much.
She got the sushi. She liked it well enough.
They have a little room where they do the cook-​in-​front-​of-​you bit and the people in there liked that a lot as you could hear laughing and see the huge fires the chefs would light on the table, etc.
It was OK but I doubt we’d go back.

I’ve been trying to eat at Asahi for a few months now. Ever since my first horrendous sushi experience in Salem, I was hoping to try and find something at least comparable to the sushi I would find in Boston. I’m quite the sushi fiend, and needed something closer to home to meet my fix every now and again.
Almost every other weekend for a month my boyfriend and I would try to wander down to Asahi and grab lunch. Once we missed their lunch hours by 10 minutes, and another time they were just closed for a random interval of time during the day. So that my dear Unilocalers would have to be my biggest gripe. I find their hours to be disheartening. I don’t want to wait until 5pm to get my fix!
Luckily this past Saturday we happened to make it just in time for their lunch hours. While the waitress sat us, I couldn’t help but notice there was only one other table seated besides ourselves. The décor was pretty drab. The music they had playing seemed to be coming out of a boom box somewhere in the room.
Even with just two tables seated, the place seemed very understaffed. The waitress took quite a long time just to bring us miso soup and salad, and seemingly forgot our drinks all together for a short spell.
The food itself was pretty decent. The sushi was fresh, and quite tasty.
Their buffalo chicken roll, as described by my boyfriend, was like eating a buffalo wing covered in rice and just missing the blue cheese. Which wasn’t actually that bad. Some of their names for the rolls were a little iffy. Mexican roll? eh. His chicken teriyaki dish was pretty blah, so I let him steal more of my sushi.
All in all, It wasn’t bad, and wasn’t the most amazing place I’ve been to. If I ever happen to catch them when they’re open again I’ll probably grab some more concussion and shrimp tempura rolls.

As a take out place, one could say Asahi is alright. When you sit down, the environment alone will make you not want to eat a thing. Drab, boring, empty looking. Feels like an empty mall cafeteria.
The sushi is OK. Nothing to write home about. My husband got the chicken/​rice/​veggie teriyaki dish, which was good. Not overly sauced or overly cooked. The Steamed shrimp dumplings were moist, but they were just dumplings.
Back to take out: We had ordered take out from here a number of times before we actually sat in, and didn’t mind the sushi. The portions were sizable, the fish is fresh… still nothing special, but it wasn’t bad. it really is the eat in environment that turned me off.
They have sushi specials on certain days of the week.

Asahi is just ok, I think that there are much better places in the area where you can get Japanese food with better service.
The night we were there the hostess was completely flustered, and almost rude even though the restaurant was barely half full. Our appetizers came out at the same times as our meal, and when our waitress asked if that was ok, and we said, «Well, no» she just walked away. Service was SUPER slow and our waitress disappeared for a long time so when we wanted drink refills and more sauce it just didn’t happen.
The food was good, but the poor service and slightly depressing atmosphere overshadowed it. If I went back, I woudl try the hibachi room, the people in there sounded like they were having a blast.

Awwe, I miss this place.
Delicious food and sweet waiters. I haven’t tried the sushi at this place… strangely, but they have GREAT Garlic noodles, If you are REALLY poor and you just want something yummy to nibble on, the Garlic noodles are the way to go. The rest of the food here (talking about tempura and whatnots) are yummy as well though a bit on the high side, which is typical of a japanese restaurant. So its expected.
Interior is clean… Plum wine is yummy… Good in my book. Minus a star because I can’t refresh my memory on this place and its been a while. And I can’t get here because I don’t have a car. :(

Asahi is now my favorite restaurant in Salem. They far outshine Fresh Taste of Asia, located close by on Washington St. I’ve been there twice and both times the service and food were both excellent.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays they have a 3 maki rolls for $ 12 deal, which is a great bargain, even though it’s a subset of their maki menu. My husband had the Gyu-​Don, a spicy sirloin stir-​fry, which was very good, tender and flavorful. I just ate maki and pork gyoza, which were a delicate dumpling wrapped around minced pork and spices. The gyoza were not huge, but they were delicious.
When we ordered takeout today, the hostess offered to seat us to have our soup and salad in the dining room while we waited for our takeout. No one has ever offered that before and I thought it was very considerate!

I have been here twice and had good experiences both times. The first time I got the teriyaki chicken, that came with miso soup and a salad. We got an appetizer for the table. My husband got some steak thing, and my sister got the sushi. With the exception of my chicken being a little bit dry– just enough to notice but not overly so– it was good. Service was great except the delay in getting my glass of wine.
The second time I went here was with my husband and his parents and we did the hibatchi dinner. that was great. It was very fun to watch them cook the dinner in front of you and slowly eat. I was able to enjoy dinner more. I would definatly reccomend. If you are going to do the hibatchi, especially on a Friday or Saturday– reservations are a must.

My favorite place to get sushi on the North Shore. And the rest of the menu is excellent, too– authentic and delicious!
The staff is helpful and friendly, and I much prefer the atmosphere at Asahi to Kame (at Kame, the lights are much too bright and it gets LOUD in there since it’s smaller and the tables are very close together).
The teppan tables are great fun for large groups (my wedding rehearsal dinner was here) but I have had some great romantic dinners at Asahi as well.

decent sushi.
Kame in Beverly is much better.

The best part about this place is the waitstaff, they are so friendly and attentive. the food is also EXCELLENT. The sushi is good, try their bento boxes.
I come here for lunch a lot and the best time to come is sunday’s IMO.
Enjoy!

I went to Asahi for dinner last week for the first time. I don’t know why I’ve never been before. I’m picky when it comes to sushi, and I LOVED it. the fish was all very melt-​in-​your-​mouth fresh. The mis soup was good. My hubby and I both got the Sushi deluxe which was a combo of maki, nigiri, and miso soup & salad. Good mix of sushi. Service was great. Total bill with drinks came to about $ 53. I would go back in a heartbeat. It was WAY better than Bangkok paradise, and a few notches above Kame in beverly (though I heard that they have the same owner)