Sanlitun Hatsune
So coming from the states, and used to that over the top waiter/waitress interaction, let me just say that I will go to any restaurant twice if the customer service is good. I was so happy with the customer service the first time I went here (not to mention the food) that I went back a second time just a couple days later.

The servers are always smiling and easy to get a hold of.
They are quick and always respond with a "your welcome".

The environment and the food is also spot on.
I love LOVE the amazing list of options for sushi rolls, it is so uncommon to go to a japanese place and find so many different options.
I also love the creative rolls and the different kinds of options they have for the taste buds.
For example, I ordered the Pork shabu shabu salad the first time, not sure what to expect from the weird combination of pork and fresh lettuce. But was very pleasantly surprised. The lettuce was very fresh and crispy, and the pork combination gave it a very interested taste.

All in all, it is no wonder to me that Hatsune is always booked every night.
Definitely try and call in the morning if you want to reserve a table for the night.
And for weekends you may want to try even earlier.

I realized how good Hatsune was the other day when i went back to the states to visit my family. We went to go eat at what WAS my favorite California Style sushi place. I was very much waiting to bite down on my favorite roll and when i did........disapointment. I realized that Hatsune has thrown of the curve. My expections for California style sushi has been set higher do to Hatsune! My favorite roll is the Megatron

I've been going to the Hatsune on Guanghua Lu for a couple of years now and it's always been great. I always find the food and service perfectly satisfactory. I don't think it's fair for people to complain about there not being seating; if it's a popular restaurant and a weekend night, it won't kill you to call ahead and make a reservation.

However, the same can't be said for the one in the Village. The atmosphere is not as intimate, the food comes much slower, and the service is mediocre at best. The waitresses are not exactly polite and it's impossible to flag one down.

All in all, Hatsune's still a great restaurant, but make sure you go to the original one.

Hatsune may not be the best sushi in the city (it’s not) but everything else makes it my sushi restaurant of choice. I generally like the restaurant design. It’s modern and cozy and feels like what I always understood a sushi restaurant was supposed to feel like. Their fish is fresh. Stick with the sashimi and you can’t go wrong. I don’t like the rolls because there is just too much stuff going on but there is plenty of other things on the menu that I can occupy myself with. Service is helpful and polite, never overbearing or rude. Roll it together (get it?) and what you have is the making of a great sushi restaurant which is why year after year I have remained a loyal customer.

i had lunch at hatsune on saturday 11/6 and within 8 hours had the worst food poisoning of my life. in 15 years of living in asia this one wins the prize. scroll through the reviews here and you will see this was not an isolated event. DO NOT EAT HERE.

Was a great venue but has lost its heart and soul. Greeted by a plain faced hostess who escorted us to a table where you get served ( well, if you stand up and go and call them) by even un-happier people.

Food arrived and got dumped on the table so we had to get up again and ask for chop-sticks.

Water never arrived so we went to the bar and pointed out a bottle to a person who could not speak a word of English. We got the water ourselves eventually.

The Food was average, wine over priced. The table remained un-cleared the entire evening which reflected the experience of this venue. Would be better if they said it was self-serve right up front. We would have known to clear our own table before we left.

having read most of the reviews on hatsune, suprisingly, more bad reviews and good ones.
Back in fews years ago, this is THE place i go for good sushi. the deco is kinda post mordernism, full of people waiting tables. and the other reason that makes me have special feeling about the restaurant is that i found there is one in hangzhou, where i stayed for the last two years.
the one in hangzhou, in my mind, food is less as good as the one in beijing, and honestly, i havn't went back this year yet.
this first visite was 2005, it was mind blowing back then, the decoretion is delicate, service is impeccable, sushi rolls and sashimi was very fresh.
the last visite was 3 years ago at 2007, this time, the feeling was a little hold back, the small waterfall on the wall was dry, and there are less people inside.
I will go back to it recently, just to pick up the memory, and hopefully, it won't disappoint me.

To Sinoscuba, Have you ever even been to a real sushi place in LA? I think not. Clearly you know nothing about LA or the sushi scene in LA.

Having being born and raised in LA, Beef rolled with foie gras has never been on a menu in the true sushi restaurants in LA. Perhaps maybe a teppanyaki place like Benihana for example.

Most good sushi places in LA or SF, does not have menus, does not serve anything but fish or seafood. So there is no Terriyaki, no Tempura, no Udon, no Gyoza.

Typical LA Sushi Places:

Reservations on weekends, weekdays reservations not needed before 5 or after 9.

Go there, get your table, no menus, fixed menu of the freshest fish/seafood of the day. Only things you can order are drinks.

Sit down, light salad comes.

Then the raw seafood comes, if not completely raw, some are lightly seared.

Finish dinner, finish drinks, pay bill and leave.

Complain about anything and you will never be allowed back. And yet these places have lines that stretch around the block with people waiting for hours. These places are far and few in between, a few in LA and one in San Francisco.

You have no tastes Sinoscuba, pity...

Go to Hatsune only if you have a strong stomach. A couple of friends went there last year and were sick from food poisoning for a week. They decided to go again a few weeks ago. Same thing happened!!!

I agree with the previous reviewer about this crappy place. Let me begin by saying that I trained as a sushi chef for 5 years in Osaka. I have also lived in various parts of the world where people know how to prepare sushi and sashimi. This restaurant is not one of those places. To call yourself a Sushi chef and not even be able to properly season and prepare the rice is a disgrace to the profession and its namesake. The rice should be cooked and cooled then seasoned with rice vinegar, salt, sugar, and some mirin to the correct taste and texture. The fish should be the freshest and served ice cold.

This is not the case with this pathetic, fake pseudo Japanese restaurant. I gave the place the benefit of the doubt by trying both locations since this brand received such high marks plus various rants and raves. Sadly, both places were equally disappointing.

It is apparent that the owner hires people both in real life and virtual to boost the high marks for this fetid dump of a restaurant.

The list of things wrong with this place is as follows:

5. They used cheap Green Wasabi instead of real Wasabi root. This shows how cheap and how profitcentric/focused this place is.

An addendum to my previous review:

On both visits, the majority of the clientele were local Chinese. To make matters worse, the majority were eating noodles, cooked sushi, or some other non raw fish sushi. Why go to a Japanese Sushi restaurant to eat noodles is beyond me.

And to the admin, yes I will be sampling a large variety of restaurants in Beijing and I will be reviewing them here. Although since I am doing this at my own leisure and at the expense of my own palate, needless to say, I will be taking my time.

I am trying to not destroy my taste buds in 24 hours.

Cheers!