Hakone Sushi Japanese Restaurant

Alas, all good things often come to end… sorry to see you go J and J. Good luck to your future ventures.

The biggest problem I have with this place is the service at dinner when there are more than 2 parties dining in the restaurant. It’s always just the owner and his wife running the little restaurant. They are really nice, but can take very long to take orders and serve food. Also, sometimes I find myself having to get up and get the menu and my own utensils.
The positive thing about this place is the food is good. Hakone offers variety of specialty rolls and you can order half rolls instead of getting one huge roll. I like that. Also, the Spicy Tuna Hand-​roll and the Spider Hand-​roll were really good and the Oyko-​don was full of flavor. My friend’s Bento Box with Spicy Pork looked scrumptious as well.
If could give this place a rating of a 2 ½ stars, I would. Since the owners are super duper nice and the food is good, I’d give it a 3 star instead of a 2 star.
I recommend going here if 1) you are super patient 2) not hungry and need some time to build up your hunger 3) there is nobody in the restaurant when you show up 4) you like a lot of time to catch up with friends (THEY HAVE BEER)

This is a pretty good little spot. I’ve been here 2 times now, the first time that I came, we ordered primarily sushi. It was good, fresh, and comparably priced to other sushi places in the area. They don’t really have any unique specialty rolls here, but all of the standard ones are accounted for. The second time that I came, today, i ordered a bento box with chicken teri, gyoza, & tempura, and it was all really good, except the gyoza were a little overdone… to the point of being crunchy.
In addition, I felt like the portions were a little skimpy, usually when i order a bento box, i can expect to be completely full by the end, but today i wasn’t…it may have something to do with the fact that we had a party of 14, but to me it seemed a little skimp. The bento meals are about $ 8 – 10 and for that amount, i was hoping for a little bit more.
The menu here is really small, it’s litteraly one page, front and back, so don’t expect a whole lot of selection if you’re coming here, but they do have most of the standard fare. They also offer their teriyaki dishes in regular or spicy. I didn’t order the spicy, but i tried a bite off someone elses plate and it was very tasty, not too spicy but enough to make it noticable.
Lastly, this place is small, there are only 2 – 3 people working here so if there are a decent number of people eating here, even though you will be seated and attended to, expect for your food to take some time to come out, especially for groups.
I will definietly come back here. Especially since it’s really close to my work.

I just moved to downtown SJ and had a craving for a local sushi restaurant. I saw that Hakone Sushi was just down the street so I decided to try it.
Me and my boyfriend came in and it was totally empty. We felt bad because it is just two people working and the sushi guy was all dressed up in his uniform when there were no customers to serve. It’s a cute place, but I had better sushi in at other restaurants. I bet it’s hard for this restaurant to compete other sushi places, especially being near Japantown.
Anyway, I got the typical Philadelphia rolls, which I thought was A-​OK. Tastes like any other Philadelphia roll, except I like mines with alot of cream cheese. There was barely cream cheese in mine. My boyfriend got the Pink Lady roll. It was pretty good, but I’m no fan of Spicy Tuna. Sushi is a bit overpriced for quality, but I guess they have to keep the prices high if their business is pretty slow.
Other than that, I thought service was great! They’re very attentive, especially the fact that we were the only ones in the restaurant.

I dont know why I feel bad giving this establishment three stars. I feel that they’re trying to stay afloat and do what they can.
Went in last week on a dare really. It sits next to my fav Fantazia. Ordered the broiled eel and it just wasn’t good at all. It was slathered with teriyaki sauce and it slithered down my throat and was too wet and floppy. I feel that there was no texture at all.
The location is excellent. Parking is really not bad. They share the space with Fantazia and Subway. I always find parking even on a busy lunch time rush. The staff was friendly. The place is clean and one thing though-​it was warm in there even with the door open.
I’m game for giving it another try. It’s in my neighborhood and I’ll do my share of spreading the wealth locally.

It’s ok if you’re in the area, but I wouldn’t travel here. The prices are average (for a sushi place), bentos were ok but the cooked food was lukewarm and the vegetables in the tempura were not quite cooked all the way through. But if I was in the area and needed lunch I’d probably come back.

Pretty average in my opinion. Came by here on a Saturday evening and it was pretty dead, only two other couples there. The place didn’t have a warm feeling the moment I came in. The service was pretty good but the food just didn’t hit the spot. The bentos were standard and the sushi was ok but a bit pricey for the quality. With so many Japanese places around I find it hard to come back unless everything else was closed or something.

My husband I went there for dinner last night, the service was terrible and the food was really mediocre. There was only one customer sitting at the sushi bar talking to the chef when we sat down. We ordered 2 Sake Nigiri, 1 hamachi Nigiri and an Unagi over Cali roll.
After 10 minutes, we started to wonder what’s taking so long for our Nigiri, as the ONLY other customer at the sushi bar has obviously done eating a while back. We started looking over at the chef and noticed him was just talking to that customer and not making our orders at all!
We asked the female sever what’s taking so long, she said they need to cook the Unagi, I said but we also ordered Nigiri, then she turned around and started talking to the Chef in Korean and just walked away. After another minute, the chef bought out the Unagi and Hamachi, «explained» he needed to cook the Unagi and wanted to bring «everything» out at the same time. I said we also order 2 Sake Nigiri, then he rushed back and started making them, so obviously, the «I don’t think it’s right to not bring everything out together» speech is just a big fat lie. As for «cooking the Unagi» part, the roll was *COLD*, it probably had been sitting there for 5 minutes! Then the salmon came, it was so cold that your teeth can feel the ice inside the fish!
I know where I am NOT going ever again…

This is my local go-​to Japanese restaurant. I feel guilty if I am forced to go somewhere else… I’d rather choose a different cuisine then turn my back on this place. J and J, the owners have become our friends. I come for the consistently fresh fish. Like most sushi lovers, I order my usuals – Pink Lady roll, hamachi and sake sashimi, or a chirashi bowl with hamachi and sake only. White tuna tataki is yum, as well as all of the other rolls (even though I go for the non-​rolls more often). Though I don’t order the bento boxes as much, they are just as good. Tempura is light and portions are generous. Agedashi tofu is very good. And if you come here often enough, J, the chef, might just serve you a secret soup he makes. You’ll have to be a regular to get a taste of it!
The owners are genuinely sweet and just plain good people. Hope this place sticks around for much much longer!

Sushi was solid at Hakone. I phoned in an order (Sat. night 5pm) without a menu (I kept it basic) and was pleasantly surprised to receive friendly service and fresh sushi. I had the following: cucumber rollx2, philly roll, spicy tuna, rainbow roll (which had a little silver skin on the white fish… is it supposed to be like that… I think it made it a little fishy yet palatable), and spicy shrimp (which was a delicious fried version that apparently is not on the menu, however, the chef improvised). Silver part left on fish= –1 star. Overall, the price was right (about $ 50) and sushi was fresh and service was great for a pick up order.

In my opinion, the perfect chirashi would contain the following ingredients:
*multiple slices of sake, hamachi, saba, hotate, maguro, unagi, amaebi, tamago, white tuna
*ikura (salmon roe)
*slices of sweeten braised shiitake mushroom
*pickled radish or daikon
*seaweed salad (optional)
This restaurant’s chirashi had the following pros and cons, relative to my notion of the perfect chirashi:
Pros: There weren’t too many to speak of for the chirashi at this place. The cuts of fish were decent. The sake and hamachi were okay. It had wakame salad…
Cons: The other fish didn’t seem that fresh. There was a real lack of variety. Only had sake, maguro, hamachi and red snapper. No tamago (what the…), unagi (what the…), hotate, amaebi (didn’t even have ebi), saba, white tuna, marinated anything… it was just horrible and what’s worse. it wasn’t even cheap…
I was hoping this would be a good find, since it rated pretty well on Unilocal,but I should have known it wasn’t going to be, considering that on a Friday night at prime dinner time, we were the only ones there :(Sorely disappointed and will not be going back… Don’t waste your money. just drive a few blocks down to Japantown and grab something much better there!

if there was a 6 star option, i would give this place 6 stars for sure! This sushi joint is fairly new, but I love the food and the service here! Jay and Jay (server and chef both named Jay) are extremely friendly and accomodating.
My husband and I come here as often as we can afford it (2 – 3 times a month) and both Jays know us by name. We always sit at the bar and Chef Jay will teach us different cuts of fish, let us know whats fresh (everthing), and has even given us a sample of his White Tuna Tataki. Wow! This dish is soooooooo yummy that we order it everytime now.
What puts this place over the top is that we recently had a birthday dinner held here with about 20 friends. Jay and Jay was able to provide a very private dinner and was amazing! Food came out fresh and fast! They even tied birthday balloons on the chair for us. I would have to say that a great time was had by all!

I’ve been here a couple times and have found it to be a pretty good place to get some sushi. The place is rarely busy, both times I haven’t seen more than 1 or 2 people. I enjoyed talking with Jay, the sushi chef. As others have said the fish they have is fresh but the menu is rather short though it did grow between my visits. They do now have about a dozen rolls to choose from, but they are fairly basic rolls like the rainbow & catepillar rolls. All in all a nice place with fresh nigiri and sashimi and a great staff, but if you like a wide variety of rolls this place isn’t quite up to that yet.

Was looking for a decent sushi place in Japantown SJ and after reading a bunch of Unilocal reviews, it seems that I couldn’t find a consensus place amongst it all. So Hakone came up and I thought, why not give it a shot? When I got there, it was completely empty on a Tuesday night, so my friend and I were greeted and served by a nice woman (server). The dining room seats only about 25 – 30 max. Sashimi plate was 12 pieces for $ 22, a little bit pricy considering the area but what the heck? My friend got the spicy tuna roll and 7 piece nigiri plate. Overall, the fish was fresh and had a pleasant buttery, chewy taste.
Later a group of Japanese businesspeople came into the restaurant and the proprietors sat and chatted with them. That has to give this place some credibility, thinking to myself. If the local expats come here then it has to be good to at least suit their palate.
Definitely come on a very un-​busy weekday. I will probably try their rolls next time I come.

They just opened 2 weeks ago and could use a little patronage.
We kept them open late but everyone was very friendly. The owner had a hint of Christopher Walken in his speech, which was odd to see in an Asian.
They had a selection of specialty rolls and the ones we got were tasty and the fish was fresh. Like David we were treated to extras like miso and ice cream.

I think this is a great new little sushi place to eat at. I have had the opportunity to meet the people owning and running this little place and they are very friendly people. The guy running the sushi is Jay, the lady running the cash resister and serving is Jay-2(I know what your thinking, but yes they have the same name and I even meet the brother and yup his name was Jay too), and then their is Katherine serving the front. (I hope I got their names right)
The menu is expanding every day and they have added more rolls to their menu since the last time I was there. They are doing it right so they have a menu that has a picture of each roll they do. Like others have said the quality of the fish is excellent; I really enjoy this place just for that factor alone.
I ordered the Bento Box #5 which came with a good serving of Teriyaki Chicken (no-​skin on the chicken so it is healthy, I liked the Teriyaki sauce it’s a little on the sweet side), a small salad with oranges and dressing, 2 Tempura Prawns (very crispy and the tempura is very flaky– very yummy), a little dish of Edamame, Miso Soup (I like their Miso soup which to me is a basic sign of a good Japanese Restaurant), White rice (sticky nice white rice– very good), and Tuna Sashimi (the Tuna is very fresh and you get like 3 or 4 big pieces). I was completely full by the time I was done and it was at a great price for all that food only $ 8.95 for Lunch 10.75 for Dinner. You even get another fresh orange at the end for dessert. They have other Bento box combinations with Tonkatsu, Gyoza, or Tempura which I have not had but I am sure taste great.
I am a sashimi fan and the freshness of their fish has won me over every time I have gone, which is 4 times so far. I have ordered their Sashimi dinner and I could not believe how good it was. I some how think they have a very good friend in the fishing industry because the Tuna, Yellowtail, Salmon, and some other fish was so fresh it tasted as if it came off the boat just hours ago. I have also had the Unagi (Eel) and Ebi (Shrimp) and both were very good.
The other good part about this place is there is no wait for a table. Every time I have come I have been seated right away and then very quickly I am eating great tasting food. This place did just open up and it’s just down a little further south of Sushi Zen and the other Japanese restaurants right around were 1^st street and the 880 freeway cross over each other. They are open from 11am to 2:30pm M-​F and then 5pm to 9:30pm M-​Sat. I would recommend this place to anybody that likes sushi, the quality of the fish is excellent!!!
I hope you enjoy
Brian

Nice new sushi joint on 1^st Street. They have a pretty short menu — no rolls — but the fish is quality. Somebody’s being careful about the selection, which is great. Nigiri was attractively presented, the service was warm and friendly, and a nice batch of extras was brought with the meal (miso soup, edamame, and salad).
A little expensive, but Hakone’s off to a promising start. It looks like they’re concentrating on what they do well, but more selection would be nice.
Shared parking lot with FantAzia (pretty good Vietnamese restaurant) and a Subway sandwich shop.