hapa sushi grill and sake bar

one of my favorite sushi places in boulder! this place also has a killer happy hour! one of the best things about this restaurant is their ability to accommodate many different dietary restrictions.

this place... they put our table of 6 at an already reserved table for 8. needless to say we all had to move tables after the party of 8 got there. took more than half an hour for a food order and double time to get the damn food. pathetic.

oh my goodness! the best sushi i have ever eaten! hands down! we ordered a multiple orgasm roll (yes, that's the name) -- which is quite aptly named, avocado roll (not as good), caterpillar roll, spider roll & side of steamed edamame in garlic.... all was yum, yum. dessert was split & just as yum - mochi ice cream. everything, including the service, was out of this world great! highly recommend sushi lovers to wander down pearl street, enjoy the shops on your way to hapa! :)
 perfect ambience for romance, friendly chatter visit, or even single!

really good place to check out during their happy hours.  they have a regular happy hour that ends i think around 7ish, don't quote me on that, and then another after 10 o'clock.  the sushi is good and the drinks are decently priced.  the bar area is a little tight, so the recommendation is definitely getting a table.  that usually requires a reservation or just testing your luck and possibly waiting at the bar until your table is ready.

horrible service. i went in with a group of about 10 of us. while we were still sitting down, our waitress showed up asking for drink orders. we answered her as best we could with only 30 seconds to look at the menu. once she got to the 4th person who ordered a water and then asked about a drink, she looked up and said " you know what? i'll just go grab waters for everyone." and then rolled her eyes and left. we didn't see her for 5 minutes. once we filled out the order sheets and handed them to her, we finally ordered drinks and then some of the group went outside to smoke. at this point, another waitress walked by and slammed the chairs into the table and rolled her eyes. we got our drinks after 10 minutes and then the food started to come out. only 2 things came out as this point which was fine but our next items didn't come for another 20 minutes. once we were done with those, we asked when the rest of the food would come out and our waitress just looked at us with a blank look. she forgot over half of the items we had ordered and by this time, the kitchen was closed so we couldn't get anything else. she didn't apologize, didn't get a manager involved, and didn't reconcile the situation at all. i will definitely not come back. the staff here needs an attitude change

taro poke- (pronounced po-kay). that's the oil left over from the hard potato latke under the poke. odd, and not appetizing.


-----05 sep, 2014-----

perhaps it was all the glowing reviews, but disappointment was my most prevalent emotion. to start with, i standing and waiting for a table for some time. the sushi chef kept calling for the hostess, but she was nowhere to be found. then when i finally was seated, it was next to a drafty door, on a particularly cold day. however, my waitress, sheyan, was attentive, kind, and should be given a raise :)

now, onto the food. my overall impression is underwhelmed. the poke was bland and oily, my seaweed salad was meh, and my sushi was lacking balance. overall, it was a one note, and not a very good note, wonder. i would spend my money somewhere else. there were plenty of restraunts around.

hapa sushi has great happy hours. that is really great but that is it.

terrible, skip it!. the food here is fine i suppose, but if your looking for a place to have a good time this is not it. the have no sense of humor, they are snooty and turn their noses down at people who enjoy themselves. sushi zanmai all the way, if you ask me. the food is better and they treat you nicely. skip hapa next time your looking for good food in a good atmosphere.

great food, awful service.. the food at this place was great! too bad that the service was horrendous. so much so it warranted me writing the server a note explaining why i wasn't tipping her! i normally tip extremely well, but the server hardly said a word to me. i guess she immediately assumed because i didn't want a drink besides water (excuse me for not wanting soda or alcohol) i wasn't going to tip her well. i stopped in for lunch while i was visiting boulder on vacation. i sat there for more than half my meal without a drink while several waitresses and the manager walked by and directly looked at me and my empty glass. i could have said something, yes, but i was kind of interested to see if they would care to do anything on their own--and they didn't. finally one girl came over and reluctantly filled my glass back up... when i had one piece of sushi left. i sat there for an extended period of time also and no one brought my check. i finally asked the manager and he brought it to me. too bad. next time i'm in boulder i will not be dining here.

this place has sweet branding and good ambience, but their sushi (and service) doesn't match the image. we received a smug greeting when seated and our rolls were pretty poor quality, basically falling apart on the plate.

the menu makes you giggle. packed on a saturday night and lured to sushi we dived in. ordered several rolls from the menu with many titled with decadent theme names. it's a good thing the waitress provided us an order sheet to fill out our request for our rolls as she rarely visited with us throughout our meal. the rolls were tasty but not packed very tight and seemed just a tad small. it seems more like a place to go as the herd struggling for a healthy choice and racy theme named rolls. i come away satisfied, but feeling like it was not quite finished when we were done.

5/10: alright (mediocre)

not everybody does it, but boulder's hapa sushi does. naked sushi. not that you as a patron are naked while enjoying your salmon skin roll (that would prolly cost a good deal more) but those serving it are. really serving it.

yum!

go elsewhere if you want japanese.... if you are a sushi beginner (i.e., only eat sushi rolls) or in search of atmosphere you may like one of the hapa's but if you want authentic and nice sushi you will be extremely disappointed. yaki onigiri burned and drowned in a disgusting, super-sweet sauce; wilted ginger slices; and fish not very fresh. this is not japanese.

fishy on pearl. if you get a piece of fishy tasting raw sushi at a sushi restaurant, it is usually deemed bad and taken away. not at hapa.

you either starve or eat it and risk getting sick.

when i told our waitress that the 2nd roll of my meal was fishy she just looked at me like i was crazy. i was with a large party and did not want to create a scene but we will not go back there again and spreading the word in this small community with all the people i know will put a dent in their business.

hint: teach your waitresses well.