meiji japanese cuisine

went here for dinner the other night it was fantastic! the service was great and the food was outstanding. we got the smoked cash sushirolland it was amazing. the prices were good too not overpriced at all! i loved it and will be going back.

good but expensive and small portions.. food was very good, fried rice was straight baller. i had steak/shrimp combo, took forever to cook and wasn't even that busy, also had a sushirollwhich was absolutely outstanding, but small and expensive. protein portions were small, 6 small shrimp and what looked like a 3oz sirloin for $19.50! grilled veggies were good, except the excess mushrooms, and as said earlier the fried rice is best i have ever had i think. good japanese fare but i still prefer shogun b/c portion sizes and the show is neat as well. oh yeah, the miso soup is awesome also.

customer reviews. at meiji, we appreciate and encourage feedback from our guests. while i am pleased that so many of you have taken the time to post positive reviews, i hate to see that some of you have been disappointed by the time that it takes for your meals to be prepared.
meiji is not the quickest restaurant in town, and i’d like to explain why. many japanese restaurants will prepare rolls at the beginning of the day so that hours later they can be quickly topped, garnished, and served. from the start, meiji has served only premium fish, house-made sauces, and everyrollmade to order—never stored. sometimes that means a longer wait, especially during peak dinner hours, but i’m not willing to sacrifice quality for quick service. if you are in a hurry, please let your server know, and we’ll do our best to accommodate you and to suggest menu items that can be served more quickly.
even though we aim for perfection, mistakes do happen, and i hope that you will let me or my staff know when you are disappointed—we’ll do our best to make it right. contact me directly at: 479 521 5919
with deepest appreciation for your patronage,
darwin beyer
owner and sushi chef


-----22 sep, 2012-----

the value of one customer. dear amy, we value your candor and feedback (and wish you a happy birthday). however, we also apologize for your unfortunate experience. meiji strives to bring fresh & unique dishes to our guests and are disappointed when they are not completely satisfied. if you would contact the restaurant, i will try my best to rectify the matter. darwin beyer, owner.

disappointed. first visit and my food was not ready when i arrived....called in order and waited the 35 minutes they said, went to pick up, and they say "oh, we don't even have that order"!!! very disappointing. had to wait an additional 10-15 min while they prepared. seems like their service could be an issue b/c other reviews mention poor service. as for the food, i had a californiarolland the crab tasty a bit fishy. my husband had the spider roll, which was good, but therollwas not tight and fell apart as you were eating it. edamame...slightly undercooked and too crunchy. i am not a very picky person or "foodie" but comparing to other sushi restaurants, was disappointed and will try another one next time.

best sushi in northwest arkansas. meiji is the best place for sushi in northwest arkansas. i am from the west coast and when i brought some family and friends in for dinner one night they thought i was crazy for taking them to sushi in arkansas. they agreed that it is excellent. the fish is fresh and the service is excellent. they also have the best fried rice i have ever had, if you haven't tried it you are missing out. my favoriterollis the daikonrolland you can't go wrong with any of the nigiri

my first time to eat there- and i loved it !! the crab rangoons are fantastic and the lemon sauce is such a nice deviation from the usual pink duck sauce.

i had a hugerollwith little lemon slices- higly suggest eating the lemon slices as intended; it makes the roll. with the lemon, i did not need ginger, soy sauce, wasabi. perfect the way it is.

the nigiri was very good, not fishy at all, with an subtle, unexpected wasabi dust.

we finished with the apple dumplings with caramel ice cream and salty caramel on the side. oh yes. we will definitely be back.

a big thank you to our waitress, bonnie as well :)

good experience. i went here saturday night with my sister and her boyfriend, it was quick service even though it was very crowded. the waitress was very nice even though we took a while to decide what we wanted. the sake we ordered was nice tasting, but i don't remember what it was called. i got the chirashi, very good. it was very fresh and interesting, though the rice underneath the fish was a bit bland. i expect a bit more rice vinegar in my sushi rice i guess. i got to try a piece of spicy tunarolland green goddessrolland both were delicious and well made.

great sushi. have nothing but good things to say about this place. sushi was excellent, fair prices, service was great. green goddessrollwas very good. would eat here again in a second.

since the recent expansion, it seems like the sashimi/sushi quality control has slipped a bit. we had dinner last night and the sashimi my wife had was not fresh and very "fishy" tasting and smelling. the green goddessrollwas not wrapped as tight almost sloppy in appearance.

if business is booming, by all means expand to meet the needs of the customer, but please don't skimp on fresh ingredients and quality control. i've seen to many good restaurants go lax in this area and they ultimately paid for it later.

love this place!!!. i've been to meiji multiple times and have never been disappointed. the service is great, the atmosphere is cool (love the old japanese movies playing via projector), and the food is delicious! their sushi is some of the best i've had (i've tried the california, shrimp tempura, salmon, tuna, daikon, green goddess, caterpillar, and spicy tuna rolls plus the nigiri - all fantastic), and i've loved every menu item i've tried, including their salmon and chicken teriyakis, fried rice, gyoza, plum sorbet, etc... i love that they were able to expand their dining area. actually, i love that they had to expand because hopefully, that means they'll be staying for a long while.

i went with my sister and my husband on friday night and had a great dining experience there. i ordered the bento box with a californiarolland salmon teriyaki. when the waiter brought out my meal, it had a salmonrollinstead of the teriyaki. i brought this to his attention (wasn't mad at all), and he was very apologetic. he said he would fix it right away and told me that we could just keep the salmonrollas an extra. when he brought out the salmon teriyaki, he also brought out some grilled vegetables as another extra item to placate us for his mistake (again, we weren't mad at all). the manager apologized multiple times to me for the mistake, even gave me a pat on the back as we went out the door. i just think this is a sign of great service. everyone makes mistakes, and this is the first one i've encountered at meiji. it's probably good to note that this was our waiter's first week on the job, so he probably wasn't used to how busy or loud it was. he was great, even with the one mistep. i was impressed with the steps they took to make up for this extremely minor issue. i'll continue to go here until it goes out of business (which i hope is never).

absolutely the best sushi in town. great atmosphere and equally great menu. "smoked cash" is the bestrolli've ever had. the best ushi in northwest arkansas

by the way no mochi is disappointment.


-----25 nov, 2011-----

its ok... i like east coast alot more but we all should know fresh fish is hard to come by in central u.s. the chef spoke mexican which i thought was funny... anyways pork ramen is ok... crab rangoons are fresh my wife loved them..me well..anyways.. she had super white tuna sashimi and loved it i had the coralrolland it was good. kobe in bentonville is hard too for me.. i didn't really like it..ok place

went on a friday night place was full as it is very small. started out with the california, lava, and smoked cash rolls. california was what i expect a californiarollto be the lava was very good also however the smoked cash was fantastic. for the main course had the tonaksu(think that's how you spell it) and the wife had the vegetable teriyaki both dishes were very good. the service was excellent. i highly recommend the smoked cash sushi

meiji = win. wow. this is by far the best sushi i have had in fayetteville and one of the most enjoyable establishments to dine in. i highly recommend the smoked cash. it is stuffed with spicy crab, cream cheese and avocado and topped with thinly sliced salmon, spicy mayo, and a delicious eel sauce. thisrollis now an instant favorite of mine. after peeling away one of the strips of salmon and eating it on the side, i'm compelled to sample the sashimi on my next visit. tons of fresh flavor.

i also had one of the simple rolls--spicy tuna. some of these more typical rolls at other places are light on fish, but this thing was absolutely packed with spicy tuna. unlike some other places, it actually has some kick to it. after a few pieces the spice really kicked in. very, very enjoyable.

i also snagged a piece of the shrimp teriyaki that my girlfriend ordered. really good stuff and the shrimp are fairly large. i also sampled the salad she got, which had a really interesting nutty dressing. the edamame was also very good, very earthy with a touch of salt.

get the crab rangoon appetizer if you go also. the crab is the real deal and the lemon sauce that comes with it is a nice touch. i had never had it served that way before.

i was also impressed with the service. the servers were very friendly and helpful.

the environment is nice also. the restaurant is very small with tables pretty close together. i didn't mind it one bit, but if you're looking for a place to carry on a conversation with complete privacy, you're probably not going to dig the cozy setting.

the prices are more than reasonable, in fact i was surprised when i got the tab. one specialty roll, one simple roll, a bento box, an appetizer and two drinks for about $40? very reasonable if you ask me, considering it was our first time and wanted to sample a variety of items.

taste: 10/10
service: 10/10
atmosphere: 10/10

i don't hate shogun or some of the other joints, but this will now be my go-to place for sushi in nwa. one of the overall best restaurants in fayetteville in my opinion!

best in nwa. overall rating: 10 out of 10 (10 being the best)

as many of you know sushi is my kryptonite, and when it comes to really great sushi i am totally powerless to its sirens like call. and finding really good to excellent quality sushi in the nwa and neo areas is sometimes a daunting task to say the least. but when you find such a place, you need to make sure to spread the word.

well that is what i am here to do today, which is to spread the word! and those that follow me know that i can be very hard on dining establishments that do not follow through on things like customer service, taste, overall food quality and such factors. so when i have the opportunity to find a restaurant that truly takes pride in what they do, and how they do it, it brings me great joy to let others know so that they too can enjoy a great moment of food nirvana.

i recently got to interact with darwin, the owner and chef of meiji (pronounced 'may'gee) in fayetteville. one of my facebook users told me about their grand opening, so i got in contact with him so that i could help promote that grand opening. and i have to tell you, just in that short amount of time in talking with darwin he impressed me greatly.

darwin worked at kobe in fayetteville for 3 years and prior to that studied and practiced the art of sushi making at siki in kansas city for 2 years. and what really amazes me about darwin is his commitment to fresh ingredients, quality standards and keeping the pricing competitive to what is out there on the market right now. and it is this mind set that sets him apart from the majority of those other sushi places out there now.

he goes so far as to fly in his ingredients fresh, yes you heard me correct, he flies them in fresh. not frozen, like many of the other places around town. and i tell you what folks, this makes a huge difference in taste when you are talking about sushi and sashimi. fresh versus frozen is such a huge thing in the restaurant world, and i can not tell you how many times i have been somewhere and they swear the ingredients are fresh and when you press them harder you find out they were actually frozen. you can tell a difference in the taste and in the texture of the fish when it is fresh.

and in talking to him further, he informed me of his plans to broaden his range of fresh fish offerings and i am very excited about some of the more exotic offerings he will provide his customers which is in addition to the common offerings that you would find elsewhere (but just not as fresh from those other places mind you!).

fresh ingredients such as; flounder, scallops, red albacore, snapper, tuna, crab, sea bass and more. this is what makes the eating experience there true food nirvana.

when you walk in the seating is very cozy, and the decorations are so warm and inviting. this is definitely a place where you could easily go and pass away and hour and a half without even knowing that the time has passed. seating is around 45 or so people, so again it is cozy but it is not cramped.

they also have a projector that plays old "samurai" movies on an inside wall, which puts this establishment over the top in my opinion. it really does add to the ambiance and overall feel of the place. the restrooms were immaculate and for those of you that know me, you know i ding dining establishments hard when their restroom facilities do not pass muster.

now on to the really important part, the food! but i do not want to forget to mention something very important here. darwin creates his sauces from scratch. that's right! he does not use bought in sauces, he makes them from scratch, every single sauce. and you can tell the difference quickly! in addition, for those of you that like wasabi, when you go in there ask him for his "house wasabi" because i doubt you have had anything as good as this wasabi. and i love good wasabi, and let me tell you this from first hand experience, there is a huge difference in wasabi from a jar and what darwin serves at his restaurant! night and day.

i sampled the crab rangoon which to stress again, utilized all fresh ingredients. no artificial crab here at all, its the real deal. it came with a made from scratch lemon sauce which was the perfect accent to the crab rangoon. i could have eaten these all night long!

i also tried the gyoza, which is a pan fried dumpling made from a family recipe of darwins. and i am here to tell you these dumplings were to die for!

in addition i tried the smoke cash roll, which consisted of; cream cheese, avocado, spicy crab topped with smoked salmon and baked, covered in spicy mayo and eel sauce. thisrollwas excellent!

i also had a lava roll, which consisted of; fried eel, daikon sprouts, crab stick and jalapeno topped with spicy tuna, tempura flakes and a sweet onion sauce. again, this was another definite hit!

if you get the chance you should also try the green goddess. thisrollconsisted of; shrimp tempura topped with homemade guacamole, and assortment of sauces, tempura flakes and scallions. this was another winner in my opinion.

i also tried their chirashi, which is an assortment of fish atop a bed of sushi rice. the presentation of this dish was spot on, and i just can not say enough about the freshness of the fish. i think by now you are seeing a reoccurring theme in my description of these dishes, and that is the freshness of the ingredients.

the salad was very fresh and contained edible flowers. and in my opinion the star of the show was the dressing, and yes this is another one that is hand made by darwin and his staff, no out of the jar condiments here! the dressing had this wonderful nutty flavor to it and i in fact found myself asking for a side of the dressing.

i also tried several of the soups, and everything i had was top notch!

now to dessert. darwin has some wonderful sorbet choices and if you were not amazed yet by the "freshness factor" that i have discussed so far, well hold on to your hats folks! darwin takes the fresh ingredients for his sorbets to a local company and has them actually create the sorbet for him. that's right, this is fresh (to the letter of the word) sorbet. and the flavors are magnificent to say the least. i sampled the plum, orange blossom and fuji apple sorbets. and i have to say that i would reorder any of these, but my favorite had to be the plum sorbet.

they also have a great selection of saki if you are so inclined, and darwin has informed me that he will be broadening even further his saki offerings soon.

so in summary here it is. if you are a lover of great japanese cuisine and sushi, this has got to be a destination for you! once you have sampled the food, and tasted the quality and freshness of the ingredients you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else that can provide that same level of taste, quality and freshness so consistently.

and if you are someone that has never tried sushi, but has thought about giving it a try. please, do not go anywhere else but here. because if you go somewhere else, you most likely will not get a true appreciation of what great sushi is all about.

in all honesty, if i was not such a stickler about my rating table, i would have given this dining establishment an 11 out of 10, it was that darn good!