asahi japanese steakhouse & sushi bar

the absolute worst....... asahi is without a doubt the worst japanese/sushi restaurant i have ever been to - and i've been to more than i can count. lets get the decor out of the way to start with - thisplaceis shopworn for sure. people say thisplacehas been here for over 20 years, and i'm betting it hasn't seen a deep cleaning since opening night. we hardly ever saw out waitress, and when she did pop up, she was quite surly. the mixed drinks were watered down, but what took the cake was the sushi. the sushi arrived at room temperature, and much of the fish just looked bad. it had a very nondistinct "fishy" taste, you could close your eyes and smell high tide at the pier. i asked my wife if she just wanted to leave, but we decided to suffer through it. as a longtime sushi lover, i always wondered how you hear about so many people getting sick from "bad sushi". after eating at asahi, i'll consider myself lucky if i don't join the food poisoning club tonight. want some free medical advice? stay far away from this place.

not aplacei'd visit a second time. this restaurant has been around for probably well over 20 years now, all at the same place. we had not tried it until last night, and after the experience we had, i can only attribute that to divine providence. the front of the restaurant is devoted to the typical hibachi communal area, and further to the back are the sushi bar with stools, and 8 or 10 booths and tables - interior is rather worn and dark.

the two menus on the table we chose had different pages, and neither included a number of the dishes included in the on line menu we looked over before coming - really confusing info. we ask for a bowl of miso soup, changed our mind, and ask for the house soup (chicken broth based), and a salad with ginger dressing.

. the order came back with both miso & house soup, and the salad - we just accepted both soups. each was good, as was the salad, though the dressing was rather thick, and was difficult to mix into the lettuce. we also tried an app special of grilled sea bass, which was just ok - the sauce was too sweet for my taste.

it took 45 more minutes to get our entrees, a noodle and shrimp dish, and shrimp tempura with veggies. i ask the waiter what was taking so long, and was told that a large order was tying up the kitchen - this from a table that came in well after we ordered - i was not happy to say the least. when we finally recieved our dishes, we were very disappointed in both. the noodle dish was bland, and the shrimp were over-cooked and chewy. all the items on the shrimp tempura were under cooked - the exterior was pale white, no hint of a nice brown crust. the broccoli was total mush, and everything else had no flavor. i can only assume the tempura was under cooked in a rush to get our already late order out of the kitchen.

in addition to the bad dishes, not one plate, bowl, or bottle was removed from our small table in the hour and twenty minutes we where there. our water glasses were not refilled, and my order for an additional small hot sake was completely overlloked. this mess cost just a few cents uner $50. terrible service, equally bad food, no concern expressed for the delays - and this on a night when they were olny moderatley busy. no chance we'll be back, not with wasabi just a block or two down west market street.

might be my new fav local sushi. (first visit but i'd like to give a 4.5 rating).

a buddy and i took a friend here for a birthday sushi dinner. i have tried a lot of the local sushi but for some reason have never been here. i'm not sure what i was expecting but thisplacedefinitely exceeded it. for one thing, it's far larger than i thought. asahi has a number of teppanyaki tables which i was unaware of. our mission, however, was sushi so we by passed those and hit the sushi bar.

as mentioned, i've been to lots of sushi bars and feel i'm pretty savvy with sushi menus but this one blew me away. the selection is huge! i really can't adequately describe the menu but trust me, you have tons of options - whether its nigiri style sushi, sashimi, rolls, cooked, raw, combo plates, etc. i can see this both being a good way to appeal to many different appetites but also overwhelming for someone new to sushi.

as far as taste goes, i was impressed with all our choices especially my spicy tuna nigiri. i can't say we had a diverse number of items because my two friends are still getting their sushi-legs but what we did have was very good. i've promised to take my girlfriend and we'll do some deeper diving into the menu. as a bonus, for $1 you can get fresh wasabi...you don't see that very often. one thing that was a bit of a disappointment was that we did not get miso soup or salad with our choices. they are available but come with the combo plates and such.

service was awesome! the owner, i've been told asahi is the only sushi bar in greensboro truly owned by japanese owners, visited with us and had us laughing all meal. plus, when she found out we were there for a birthday, she hand carved a pineapple into hawaiian-like canoe for our dessert free of charge.

value was about typical for a sushi bar if not even a little bit better. for the 3 of us with a couple rounds of beers each our tab came to $83 and we ate well...

i'll definitely be back and i'll provide an update =)

food: 9/10, service: 10/10, value: 8/10, atmosphere: 7/10