sushi blue

hapa grill is not hawaiian. i was looking for a hawaiian restaurant in the salt lake city area and found this. i read a review that has been posted on several websites. apparently the sl tribune has written it and it has been reposted all over the internet. first of all hapa means half. it does not have anything to do with your heritage, but it can be used in this context.

hapa grill contains no hawaiian food. it is all asian and a few pacific island foods, but definitely not hawaiian. several of the dishes are served in hawaii. but that does not make them hawaiian any more than taco bell does.

the food is all right. the sushi is overpriced and the quality is lacking.

friendly service. my wife and i were greeted by our waitress who had a huge smile on her face and was very friendly and welcoming. the burgers here have been voted best in utah before so i chose the burger with bacon and cheddar. my wife got the chicken lettuce wraps. my burger was flavorful and juicy. the bacon was cooked perfectly. i don't know that it's the best burger in utah but it was definitely deliscious. the lettuce cups were also pretty good and filling.

amazing. i had the opportunity to have my birthday lunch here. it was far and away the best sushi i have eaten. the staff was beyond helpful and friendly. once they found out it was my birthday, they served us a sinfully good chocolate bread pudding. the tuna turner is divine, as is the snow dance. both were simply outstanding. the mike thai son was also delicious. we also had the ika salad, and cucumber salad. i cannot say enough good about this place. we will certainly be coming back.

i've been out of the restaurant for 10 minutes, and my ears are still thumping with the techno-vomit, bass-heavy, pseudo-nippon beat they played in the stereo way too loudly.

dinner was less than less than impressive. we sent back one dish, the papaya salad. as a vegetarian, i'm opposed to the overwhelming taste of fish sauce (the menu said citrus dressing and the waiter didn't know if it had fish sauce). we replaced it with some thing that resembled rice with brown gravy. i can't elaborate anything about it beyond the $16.97 price tag.

my young daughters like cucumber maki rolls. $5.95 for a cucumber maki roll? really??? wtf!!???

i guess pc restaurants cater to tourists and/or people with more money than sense.

food was ok at best. poor service. our glasses were empty and i noticed the waitress standing outside laughing with someone for an extended time. generally slow service in spite of not being very busy. when the check came, undisclosed add ons were included. i inquired about these and the waitress had them removed but entered a rude comment on the bottom of the new ticket. i brought it to the attention of the manager on duty who seemed unconcerned. we'll never go back,

sushi. we had the krusty krab and the hustler sushi rolls. both amazing!! did not disappoint.

really poor, never going there again.... i used to have sushi at the same location as sushi blue is now, although i can’t remember what it was called then. the food was good and reliable.
i’ve eaten at sushi blue a few times since then and have been...well, not that impressed. however, loving sushi and the convenient location at the kimball, i decided to give it one more try.
this is what i experienced:
the hostess was prompt in seating me, as it was early. during my experience, i listened/watched as she coughed and hacked, obviously having a cold or something, all the while hoping that she had not touched anything i would be eating with or on.
my server was nice enough, although it was very hard to get his attention once he had taken my order. i asked for water with no ice and a slice of lemon, he promptly returned with my request. i didn’t notice until i was finished with my meal that the lemon had been sitting in the bar set up next to the cherries and was stained with the color of it....not to mention that the lemon slice was waaaay past it’s prime. it was repulsive....i didn’t drink any of my water, of course.
when my sushi arrived it was displayed well, but tasted a bit ‘off’. having a very sensitive mold ‘radar’, i detected a bit of a moldy taste on my ginger. i didn’t eat it. the last bite of the unami roll also tasted of mold, i believe it was due to the rice.
in retrospect, i should have gone with another restaurant choice and in the future will not consider sushi blue an option.

incredible dinner. we had incredible sushi rolls last night! matt was our waiter and we let him order his favorite sushi rolls. we couldn't decide which one was our favorite. we didn't need reservations, but it was a close call.

lousy service. we went here for lunch. not very busy, but the staff all seemed to care less that we were there. they were certainly more into texting/ cell phones and getting ready for dinner service rather than taking care of us. despite the hype, my wife, who is the sushi guru likened their sushi to marginally better than "smiths grocery store quality" . the ramen was actually pretty good, but when i asked for it to go, it was dumped into a flat clamshell to go box that was mummified in plastic wrap that leaked all over our car on the way home. despite all the hype, we were very dissapointed. i expected more from a bill white establishment, as we are fans of most of his other restaurants. overall, not a complete loss, but the staff was overly unconcerned on the verge of rude and food merely average for the price.

service so inconsistent they can't be trusted. 10% of the time service is good
85% of the time the service is "we couldn't care less" but the food is good.
5% of the time the service is - arrive, sit down, wait 15 minutes, ask for service, wait another 8 minutes, and then walk out due to no service.

shame - because the food is good. but shabu and other places locally serve good sushi without the gamble with the service. can't go back there again - was there with my wife & two kids... the kids think that 23 minutes plus for service is kind of unacceptable.

really disappointing. our first time at this restaurant, and what a disappointment. i had read that the service was poor, but it was ok. it was the food that was so disappointing. we tried the crab-and-avocado sliders...way too much bun, and the crabcakes weren't crabby or crispy enough. the pad thai was terrible (so vinegary it wasn't edible). and the ramen broth in my soup was almost tastleless. fyi, the two others at our table had the chickenburger and hamburger with fries, and they liked their dishes. but it says something that the favorite dishes at an asian restaurant were burgers. and they told us that they were discontinuing the beef hamburger shortly. the icing on the cake is that the pricing is at a level that you expect good food...not three strikes!

20% tip add automatically. my sister & i ate lunch there on saturday.

service was very slow. there were only 2 other tables of people in there but our waitress seemed to be non existent. she took our drink order & didn't come back for a good 10 mins. we had another server come over to take our order again. both seemed very put out to be working.

food- the edamame was very good for the first layer, nice & warm with good seasoning but after the first layer it was cold. almost like it was warmed in the microwave. the rolls were pretty tasty but really overpriced for a lunch roll.

now for the part that i was upset about. we got our ticket after much waiting & we wanted to leave a cash tip. so i filled out the ticket for the price listed, put a zero on the tip line & signed the receipt. we left the tip on the table. it was 18% of the total amount. which i thought was fair. i usually tip 20% but because of the service i felt justified. the next day i notice a charge on my card for the amount plus 20%. they ran my card for more than i signed without even mentioning this on their receipt. i called concerned but the manager was not in nor did they ever call me back. luckily i was credited the tip amount back but be aware they do this. watch your bank account to make sure you get credited back if you do not want to leave a 20% tip.

all in all i will not be going back there.

great quality and service. have fun.

if you have never heard of sushi blue, you would be correct – as it just opened at the redstone center in kimball junction.  in fact many of the staff, management were held over from the restaurant’s form instance as hapa grill.  in fact, they even kept their same telephone number. the decor was slight adjusted for the blue theme – a big blue wall was painted, light covers were replaced – however, the rest of the establishment remained virtually unchanged from the hapa instance.  we felt that was a good thing.  we were warmly greeted, and seated – we went fairly early on a sunday – and we had the run of the place. the restaurant appeared to be very clean, the staff were very courteous and attentive to our needs.  our server was kate, and she was fantastic. we ordered a tasters menu – to where my wife and i shared each plate.  this is a helpful tip when you might be only slightly hungry, or if your not quite sure of the food – and don’t want to spend your en

price is toooooooo high!. i forgot to say about the price. very high!
you can see there is no management involved in the whole thing.
i regret to pay $60 for lunch this week.
it doesn't help to change the name when everything else keeps the same.
how can people like you guys are still in the market???? i don't get it!


-----02 nov, 2012-----

just awful like always!. i tried 3 times to go there. the first 2 ones was happa grill.
first time was good.
second time i waited 10 minutes to be seated nobody came to talk to us.
this past monday we tried one more time for lunch. just terrible.
the restaurant was empty, were us and another couple. the food took more than half hour to be ready. i totally understand when the restaurant is full for the food to take time. but when it's empty, food and service take forever, i'm sorry!
not saying about the service too. no refills, the server came one time at the table and that's it. we were almost leaving when the food was ready.
i don't recommend at all! and i won't come back.