Sushi Hotaru

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  10     

Best value sushi train in Sydney! At $3 a plate (with the exception of sashimi), I can't think of any other sushi train to go to if I'm in the city... and without much money in my wallet.

They have a wide selection of plates, and I rarely see scallops (raw and seared) price so low, and still being so tasty!

Portion sizes are small, but I think it's a reasonable size so you can just throw the entire piece of sushi in your mouth and much away - my partner would disagree though, he's complained about the steadily decreasing portion sizes.

Get here before 6pm or you'll be in for a nice wait outside, though customer turnover is quite high... people generally dine within 30 minutes.

A good alternative to the people who don't want to pay/wait in line for Makoto.

May 08, 2013 

6 Average

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  2     

I've been here several times now and I've noticed the last few times I've been, the portions have decreased significantly. Unfortunately, this does not represent good value and am inclined to find other sushi train restaurants where the serving sizes are more reasonable. Even if it means paying a bit more to get a decent sized piece of sushi. Am very disappointed as I used to love Sushi Hotaru.

May 02, 2013 

6 Average

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  6      Value  5     

It was good overall. My friend really liked it, he said it was his best in city. Nice coverage menu, I liked the salmon and scallop combination sushi. Service was fast.

My favourite aburi engawa was too skinny and already crumbled. Please make it better!

Apr 14, 2013 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  8      Value  9     

The best sushi train in Sydney! Food is always fresh, delicious and fast. Prices are great and it's always busy! Service is polite but there can be difficulty getting the waitresses attention sometimes! My favourite Japanese place and I go there regularly.

Feb 18, 2013 

6.8 Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  8     

So delicious I keep coming back here! I always prefer to sit at the tables though, you can order on an iPad and the food pops up immediately from a waitress! The really great thing about this place is this wasabi octopus sushi I have never tried anywhere else...it's divine. My bestie and my sister are Huge fans of the green tea latte as well. Also, the brown sugar dessert balls are also amazing. I just love everything about this place. Pricing is reasonable for the quality of food. I've had much worse food for a Lot more expensive. Love it. Will keep coming back.

EDIT: They have since reduced the size of the food to half of the previous size with the same price. This is not acceptable and I do not appreciate being jipped like this as a regular customer. Regular customer no longer!

Jan 17, 2013 

6.3 Average

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  5      Value  6     

It's been a while since I've been to this sushi train style restaurant and haven't yet written a review for it so I'll just say what I remember about this place.

As many people have already said, there are $3 plates of sushi. However, the portions are pretty small so it's not like a big bargain or anything. The variety of sushi isn't spectacular and it doesn't make you go 'Wow' but it's ok. There are stool seats at the front and at the back are the tables.. (Cramped tables) *cough cough*. It seems there's enough space for the staff to walk up and down, but the 2 people tabled seats with the touch-screen wouldn't fit a Big person. I'm lean and even I think it's a small space to sit in. Maybe it's fine for little kids or really skinny girls though haha~!

Anyway, back to the food.. I remember that there is a certain category of 'Entree' or 'Appetizer' dishes you could order that aren't bad. Under that category all the dishes are $3.50 and that consists of Takoyaki (Squid Balls with creamy stuff lol), and other dishes that I can't remember. But I do remember there was fried salmon skin as I ordered it.. and it was worth it too as it was a Big portion for that price. Something like 6-8 pieces. It was crunchy-ish too so not bad. A few coloured variety of fish roe (eggs) of sushi as well - green, black, typical orange, but no purple lol.. (Doesn't exist).
I ordered Tempura too as that's one of my favourite dishes but the batter wasn't crunchy here and Tempura needs light crunch! to be excellent.. which is not in this case but unlucky me I guess?

I don't remember seeing Any alcoholic drinks either so most probably there's no liquor license here. The drinks are pretty expensive too with the so-called 'special' drinks all $5.50 and there's not a huge variety also.

You don't expect lots of service at sushi train restaurants but if you order green tea and need a refill you can 'touch screen' and wait for them to do that. That's how it works with touch screen places like this lol.

So overall the dishes are just 'ok' in taste and execution and might be 'ok' for most people (Not for me, I'm too picky lol).. and the $3 sushi plates might attract people who don't each much haha.. and the super cramped seats are not recommended for bigger people. Trust me on that one lol~!

Also there's a queue to wait to eat And to pay the bill.. (this was at night so don't know about lunch time)~ so if you like waiting, this is the Perfect place for you (Note sarcasm) haha.. and now I'm hungry by thinking about food too much.. tasty or not lol..

Jan 14, 2013 

7.8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  5      Value  9     

There are so many different types of sushi here that I have been around a dozen times and still not tried everything. At $3 flat rate for the majority of dishes, this is a very affordable yet authentic sushi train experience. My only issue is with the service. They can be so stubbornly arrogant. Once, after around half an hour of waiting for seats, a friend in our party went outside to find a rubbish bin. Unfortunately, the waitress called for us then and when we told her our friend was just outside, she didn't believe us and said we'd have to wait for her to arrive and line up again. She had even seen her there. She gave the seats to another large group after us and was not too polite about it either, more like reprimanding. Uhh, no thank you.

Nov 11, 2012 

7.5 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  8     

I have been back to Hotaru since my first visit and this place is definitely popular as its always busy which creates the atmosphere. I got to sit at the booths/tables at the back of the restaurants which allows you order via touch screen as well as grab sushi plates off the conveyor belt.

Service since my first visit has improved with more staff around to take orders when needed but besides hand rolls which are made fresh when ordered, I don't like it when I order other types of rolls and instead of making it fresh they grab one already on the belt that is cold and not looking that great.

Still for plates that are $3, it's great value for money and they do great soft shell crab hand rolls. Will continue coming here for quick/cheap eat!

July 13, 2012 - Good thing we got here quick on a Friday for lunch as even we had to wait 5 minutes when we go there at 12.15pm. Once we were seated we were able to choose what we wanted from the conveyor belt straight away. I noticed that the sizes were smaller compared to Makoto, but with dishes being $3 each, you can't go wrong with those prices! I had a gold dish for the sashimi and they were $7.90 and the salmon pieces were quite nice and fresh.

What it lacked was service, for a restaurant that size they don’t seem to have many staff working on the floor and so it took time to get someones attention.
Still it was a quick lunch at a reasonable price for a sushi train.

Oct 11, 2012 

9.8 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  10      Value  10     

Easily my favourite sushi train, great service and excellent food. Love coming here, however, it does get packed easily.

Sep 01, 2012 

6.8 Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  6      Service  7      Value  7     

A good value sushi train. The dishes are better than average but there is nothing spectacular here. The seating is cramped and you may find yourself staring directly at customers on the other side of the train.

Aug 27, 2012