Hondaya Sushi Bar

February 4, 2010

Rancho Cucamonga, California – A friend told me about this place. They raved about how much food they got and how good it was. When they revealed they’d be going today, of course I wanted to join the party. I don’t remember anyone mentioning the name before we left. I decided to just ‘roll’ with it. When we pulled up to the location, I finally saw the name: Hondaya.

Hondaya has two sister locations listed on the chopstick package. They are under different names, but they are probably owned by the same person(s). They don’t appear to have a website so I don’t have any more info about the other locations.

We made this run during lunch. Walking in we encountered a relatively long corridor to the dining area. Not much in the way of décor but the private dining area appeared to have more furnishings from what we could see. It was kind of dark back there and not easy to make it out in any real detail. Rounding the corner you’ll find the sushi bar with room for maybe a dozen or more patrons. That is where we sat. Several booths line the walls and the private dining area.

Thursday is all-you-can-eat sushi. Lunch is around $17.99, dinner is around $22.99. More choices are available for dinner. Sake specials are in effect. We ordered the one of them: house sake (warm) and a pitcher of Sapporo beer. Today is Thursday and you can see we’re already starting to make out like bandits.

To begin with you are served with an empty bowl for the soy sauce and wasabi, chopsticks, and napkin. One of our group ordered a salad with Japanese dressing. It smelled so good I got one, too. It tasted as good as it smelled. I really like Japanese dressing and this put me in a good mood for the rest of our dining experience. (I have to call it an ‘experience’ because ‘meal’ just doesn’t do it justice.). Something I have noticed about Japanese dressing is that it tends to cleanse your palate, preparing it for the next course.

After individual plates were distributed with a bit of ginger and wasabi on the bottom corners, one of the chefs gave a us a plate with a huge pile of ginger and another helping of wasabi. We ended up using almost all of the ginger.

Your sushi is, not surprisingly, freshly prepared in front of you. We ordered several rolls; spicy crab, crunch shrimp, Rancho volcano, Vegas, Philadelphia (I’m not a fan of the Philly roll so I literally passed on that when it came by), crunch albacore. In addition to the rolls, we got green mussels, and tuna and salmon nigiri. Eel made a cameo at one point during our feast. Sounds like a lot, but trust me, with four hungry guys trying to eat all we can eat, we dispatched each roll almost as soon as it was served.

Our chefs served us from the right, and we passed the plates to the left, plucking out the portions we wanted. After a while, it was almost like an assembly line with full dishes being delivered on the right, and empty ones leaving out of the left. Speaking of assembly lines, our chef cooked the eel using a small blowtorch. I kid you not. Not having seen this done before, I was quite fascinated.

Every item placed before us was very carefully prepared. Each roll had its own distinct presentation. Sauces were drizzled on top by our chefs like a painter working a canvas. The sake, even though it was a house sake, had a nice, delicate flavor. It paired extremely well with the rolls.

Hondaya doesn’t skimp, either. Each roll had about eight slices. Here, rice served more as a wrapper, instead of filler, like you find in lesser quality places that serve sushi. You can actually taste the different flavors of the different fish and shellfish in each roll.

The wait staff was very attentive and very friendly. They were on the case, too, quickly removing empty dishes. Almost as fast as they removed an empty dish, we created more for them to do away with.

Out of the myriad rolls we ate, my favorite was the crunchy shrimp. It was so good that I contemplated ordering another whole roll for myself after everyone else had had enough. I liked how the roll is presented: eight slices with a tail sticking out at either end of the roll.

Two members of the group ordered dessert; plum ice cream to be precise. They said it was good. One of our waitresses said it was a very popular choice. I decided to skip desert this time.

I don’t have any words better to describe this experience other than to say that was one excellent outing! Presentation, service, and especially the flavors made for a very enjoyable event. Had I not had a time constraint, I probably would have stayed a while longer and tried another roll. That will have to wait until next time. We had such a good time that I almost forgot that Hondaya is also a full Japanese restaurant. Something to think about for my next visit.

Hondaya Sushi Bar and Japanese Restaurant – 5 forks. Very highly recommended. A group of between 4 and 8 people can get the most out the sushi bar.

Update June 14, 2012: Hondaya is closed. While speaking with someone in a nearby restaurant, they said that they closed down rather abruptly during lunch one day. This was supposedly a couple of years ago so this must have happened not long after this review was written.