From Fresh Sushi to Ramen: Here’s a List of the Best Japanese Restaurants in Rochester!
Rochester, New York has a plethora of great Japanese restaurants to choose from that serve fresh, housemade dishes. From fresh sushi to traditional ramen, these restaurants sell classic Japanese cuisine that gives visitors a taste of Japan. With so many options to choose from, it may be difficult to choose which restaurant to try first. So, to help you choose, here’s a list of the best ones to go to!
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umai revolving sushi
Umai Revolving Sushi is a unique Japanese restaurant that is fairly new to the Rochester area. It offers visitors delicious sushi with a high-tech experience. The restaurant has conveyor belts that visitors can choose from as they eat. The conveyor belts move automatically with plated, bite sized sushi on it. Visitors can freely take which sushi they want off the conveyor belts.
Visitors can also order food directly to their table from the menu. Those orders are delivered on a separate conveyor belt. Drinks, condiments, and miscellaneous items are delivered by robot servers in the restaurant. Visitors can really get a feel of both the traditional—through the quality Japanese cuisine—and high-tech aspects of Japan.
The restaurant has a very extensive sushi menu, with vegan options. Some vegan rolls include mango and cucumber rolls. Other rolls include the Umai roll—shrimp tempura and crab meat topped with eel and avocado—the Sweet Potato roll, and the Philadelphia roll, which has smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumber in it. Other items on the menu include udon, sashimi, tempura, soba, and teriyaki. They also offer ice cream, fried mochi, and taiyaki—a Japanese fish-shaped pastry—for dessert.
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tokyo japanese restaurant
Tokyo Japanese Restaurant is a locally owned restaurant with an on-site sushi chef. The restaurant caters weddings and special events and offers delivery with a $4 delivery fee and an order minimum of $30. Gluten-free and vegetarian options are labelled on the online menu for those with dietary restrictions.
The restaurant offers sushi, lunch, dinner, dessert, drink, appetizers and sides, and sauce menus. Notable sushi rolls include the Futomaki roll—with tamago (egg), avocado, squash, and radish—the Crispy roll—a combination of crabstick, seaweed salad, cucumber, and tempura flakes—and the Dragon roll, which has eel, tempura shrimp, and avocado topped with spicy mayo.
The lunch and dinner menus offer dishes such as udon, teriyaki, pad thai, and curry. Notable items include the chicken pho, steak hibachi, vegetable teriyaki, and pork udon. The fried vegetable spring rolls and gyoza (pork dumplings) are delicious options on the appetizer menu. For dessert, the restaurant offers ice cream, tempura cheesecake, and mango sticky rice.
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roc city ramen
Roc City Ramen is a Japanese restaurant owned by Michael Goode. Goode’s mother was born in Kagoshima, Japan and cooked Japanese cuisine during most of her life. Goode used to help his mother make classic Japanese dishes such as curry and dumplings. With the help of his mother and her recipes, Goode created a ramen restaurant that would give visitors an authentic Japanese experience.
The restaurant has a main menu and a drinks menu. The main menu is divided into ramen, “Okasan” (Goode’s mother’s recipes), salad, weekend specials, breakfast, sandwiches, and a menu specific to Saturdays. There’s also a kid-friendly menu. The tonkatsu (pork) and miso ramens as well as the Yaki-Udon (fried Japanese udon noodles) are notable items on the menu.
The drinks menu offers coffee, tea, milk in flavors such as taro and red bean, specialty drinks such as mocha and hot chocolate, and “tea chocolate,” which is tea and housemade oatmilk topped with chocolate ganache. This restaurant offers visitors classic noodle dishes and traditional drinks that reflect the flavors of Japan!
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taichi bubble tea
Taichi Bubble Tea is a chain restaurant that first opened in 2015 and has opened stores across the United States. There are multiple locations across Rochester, including ones in Pittsford, Greece, and Victor. The restaurant’s mission is to provide a space where people can enjoy good food and drinks while connecting with those they care about.
The restaurant offers ramen in flavors such as spicy miso and tomato, sushi burritos, poke/rice bowls, and salad bowls. For the sushi burritos, poke bowls, and salad bowls, customers can build their own with various rice, lettuce, meat, and vegetable options. There are also different sauces, toppings, and “crunchy” options to choose from. The restaurant recently added two dessert options to the menu: mochi donuts and “snowflake,” which is a cold sweet treat that has flavored shaved ice and toppings such as fresh fruit and syrups.
The food is delicious, but the highlight of Taichi are the drinks. The restaurant offers fruit and milk teas, as well as smoothies. Fruit tea flavors include green apple, blueberry, strawberry, and peach. Milk tea flavors include banana, chocolate, and coconut. They also offer lemon teas, which is a fusion of lemonade, tea, and flavors such as mango and pineapple. Smoothie flavors include matcha red bean, papaya, and taro.
The restaurant also caters to people with dietary restrictions, such as those who are vegetarian or have a gluten intolerance. Taichi Bubble Tea is a great place to go with friends and family to enjoy tasty food in a casual atmosphere!
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crave
Crave is a Japanese restaurant serving ramen, salads, and bubble tea in a casual, café-style setting. The menu offers small bites such as gyoza, Japanese fried chicken, and steamed buns. Ramen options include chicken, tofu, steak, shrimp, and pork belly. Customers can customize their ramen by choosing different broths such as spicy miso and pork bone, as well as the type of noodle—wavy, straight, or rice. There are also ramen add-ons, such as fish cakes, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots.
The salad bowls use romaine lettuce and a spring mix, with chicken, tofu, steak, hibachi shrimp, and salmon as the protein options. Add-ons include rice, egg, and avocado, and dressings offered are ginger, yuzu, and sesame. The restaurant also offers rice bowls in flavors such as curry and teriyaki.
Similarly to Taichi Bubble Tea, Crave has fruit teas, milk teas, and smoothies. Unique flavors include honeydew fruit tea, rose milk tea, and avocado smoothies. In addition to this, Crave offers regular tea in flavors such as earl grey, jasmine, and oolong. They also have sparkling drinks in flavors such as grapefruit, white peach, and blueberry.
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osaka sushi
Osaka Sushi is an authentic sushi and hibachi restaurant. They offer all-you-can-eat sushi, hibachi, and teriyaki dishes. The restaurant states that all their dishes are “fresh and made-to-order.”
The restaurant offers two menus: a lunch menu and a dinner menu. Notable items on both menus include the fried banana hand roll, dumpling udon, salmon teriyaki, and sweet potato tempura. For dessert, the restaurant offers four flavors of ice cream: green tea, red bean, chocolate, and vanilla.
In addition to this, there is also a wide variety of appetizers to choose from. There are spring rolls, miso soup, cucumber salad, chicken wings, cutlet pork, meat skewers, takoyaki (octopi balls), deep fried tofu, and more. At this restaurant, it will be hard not to fill up on appetizers before the main dish!
conclusion
All these restaurants offer customers a taste of traditional Japanese cuisine, while also providing a comfortable atmosphere where customers can either relax with their loved ones or feel transported to Japan with high-tech robot servers! From delicious dishes such as hot ramen and crunchy tempura, to sweet treats such as bubble tea and ice cream, these restaurants have something that everyone will like. You’ll definitely want to check out one of these Japanese restaurants in Rochester!
