Miyako : Comments

Great food. Amazing staff. I especially enjoyed the presentation which came off to me as almost an art form. It was almost a shame that each individual sushi dish was intended to be eaten and not appreciated longer. However I guess that is simply part of the magic that this place gives off. The white tuna was simply immaculate.

one of the best sushi I ever had. I drive almost 2 hrs once a month with my family to enjoy this one and only dining experience.

I moved here from San Francisco, where I was a regular at Ebisu, at the time one of the top three sushi restaurants in the Bay area. Miyako is the only place in town that reminds me of San Francisco.

Food was delicious, but service was poor. Granted we arrived later in the evening, but only other guests was a large party of 10 or so leaving as we entered. The server did not even come to take a drink order until we'd been there 10 minutes. I have no qualms with waiting for food to be prepared if it will be fresh, but to even put in the order took another 15 minutes after we asked for drinks. Everything was very fresh and delicate, but expensive for the ambience/service it came with.

Miyako does it right. I am really picky about my sashimi being fresh, and I got to say Miyako is one of only two places where I would get raw fish in cville. I find their menu a bit limited, but what they do have is cooked extremely well. Try the agedashi tofu--one of my favorite appetizers!

Best Sushi in Charlottesville. They have an excellent non-sushi menu too. Tried the filet steak and the shrimp. FANTASTIC. If you don't go there, you are missing out on an excellent dining experience.

Best sushi in town, hands down.

Really well-crafted food. Fresh sushi, plenty of cooked rolls for the nervous. I recommend trying a dinner's worth of appetizers - Fried Salmon Roll, Beef Tataki, Broiled Mussels, Negimaki - anything really. I could go on and on.

Absolutely the best. I could eat here every day if I lived close enough! The service is not always the best- servers tend to be a little quirky- but food is outstanding. The Agedashi Tofu has my carniverous boyfriend addicted, and the sushi is always extremely fresh. The sushi chef is friendly, knowledgeable and accomodating. Try the cold Nigori unfiltered sake.

A truly spectacular sushi experience. We sat at the bar and everything was superbly fresh and expertly served by the delightful sushi chef. One of the specials, aji (horse mackerel) was a whole fish served three ways -- as sashimi, sushi and finally fried, to be eaten bones and all. Having eaten sushi in restaurants all over the world, this was one of the finest we've ever enjoyed.

My brother and girlfriend and I went a couple of weeks ago, and wow. We sat at the sushi bar and asked the chef to make what ever he wanted. The chef was extremely nice actually for a man that has orders coming in and also talking to three people in front of him explaining everything we were eating, was so impressive. He pointed out the different ways on how he made some of the rolls and the one dish of calamari tube was amazing.
I love this place I've been to the other sushi restaurants in town and this one takes care of their customers. I've been cooking for near ten years and always blown away with the food here.
The price was worth it, not too much but having nearly forty different types of rolls and sashimi was pricey, but the freshness and the presentation was worth it.
This is how much I loved it, the bill was $180 we gave the server twenty five and the sushi chef fifty. I think there has to be no other place in town or around that is great to eat at.
Again the sushi chef is the nicest and most impressive in town hands-down

My sushi was pretty decent, but the atmosphere is lacking in a way I can't quite articulate. I'm not usually a snob about ambiance--in fact, am delighted to dine in a total dive so long as the food is great--but something about Miyako is less than inviting. The prices seem high to me for a restaurant that really doesn't seem to be putting a whole lot of effort into distinguishing themselves.

Absolutely fantastic food and the staff makes you feel like a king.

Hands down the ONLY sushi worth eating in Charlottesville. Not cheap, but quality sushi shouldn't be.

best sushi in charlottesville.

try something exotic with your meal, they often have specials and some real delicacies like sea urchin. nice staff usually and fine atmosphere. go there!

Some of the best sushi I've ever had! The food is amazingly fresh, and they don't skimp on portions. My date and I got a sushi combo platter, and I'd really recommend it---you get to try a dozen different kinds of sushi for one great price, and it was plenty of food for two (we didn't finish all of ours). Regular dishes can be a bit pricy, but definitely worth it for the quality of the food! The atmosphere was fun, and our service was excellent---attentive w/o being overbearing. Weekday evenings are great for walk-ins, but reservations recommended for weekends as the seating area is not very big.

I had a very good meal here on Saturday night. The place was not very crowded, my girlfriend and I were able to walk right in at 6:30 and get a table for two. We ordered two entree combinations off the sushi menu, and we were both impressed. They do not skimp on the fish in the nigiri, and the rolls were all quite good (the Dragon Roll was the standout). The service was attentive without being overbearing and the food came out of the kitchen at a nice pace. The bill ended up being pricey, but I would definitely go back. Highly recommended!

Fantastic! Good flavors, good service. Need a reservation on Saturdays though.

Having lived in Seattle and San Francisco I will say that Miyako could compete in either city. The cooked food is markedly better than most Japanese restaurants and the sushi is consistently good with the occasional standout. Sit at the bar for the best experience. They lack good wine options but the Nigori sake and organic sake options make up for that a little bit. I highly reccomend Miyako as the best sushi option in Charlottesivlle.

Superior Sushi and fresh fresh fish. Try the entree's which are prepared fresh and clean in the japanese style.
Basic ambience adn rasonable dinner prices with organic sake options make Miyako my pick for Japanese in cville - I give a 10......

The fish here is generally fresh but the taste is kind of bland. The environment is nice for a cozy date.

My husband and I were so excited to eat at Miyako since we just recently moved to Charlottesville and are thoroughly enjoying living downtown, but we couldn't even get seated. Although the restaurant was almost empty, the hostess was extremely rude about seating us. After saying that she would be right back to seat us, she never returned, or at least she didn't return in the 10 minutes that we stood and waited. We figured that that was a bad sign and left.

Best fish in town. Nicest sushi chef in town. Atmosphere is not the best but it is not a factor.

I thought the food was delicious. I ended up eating more from my friend's plate than my own.

My boyfriend was overjoyed when he found that they had the best fatty tuna (nagitoro) he's ever gotten his hands on. Service okay but sitting at the sushi bar was fun and the chef was so nice and checked in on us to make we enjoyed all. Will note that on asparagus appetizer they actually gave me mostly the tips and not stalks whereas I've gone to other sushi places and gotten mostly stalks.

I have been to Miyako several times -- always very good to excellent. The food is very good, the service excellent, and the atmosphere very nice.

Grading is relative: Compared to other places, Miyako's food should be rated a 6!

Miyako by far has the best sushi in town. Very fresh fish. Pricey as sushi is but worth every penny. I had Rockfish, Salmon and Tuna Sashimi it was top notch

An excellent dining experience. The atmosphere was inviting. The wait staff was friendly and prompt without being pushy. The food was perfect and portion sizes generous, although one entree is not quite enough to satisy two people (consider ordering another roll or two on the side). Although a bit expensive for dinner, well worth it. You might try stopping by for a less expensive lunch (Wed-Fri only) to test the waters and judge for yourself if you want to give the full dinner a go.

I am from New York, and have lived in Tokyo as well, so I'm a sushi snob. This place has the best fish in Charlottesville, hands down. Up to par with good New York sushi places.

Chef Manabu is very friendly and professional.
Food is very good and plating style is brilliant.
Price is a bit high for dinner but you can always have lunch between Wed and Fri.
Service is not consistant. Only one servant available often results in high work load and slow response. But you can always express your opinion thorugh the tip amount.

Though this is a small town, it's nice to have a place where I can get some comfort food. The sushi is great and it has a nice atmosphere. The wait staff in my experiences have been very friendly and I enjoy being able to chat with a chef who's from Japan. Excellent!

This has long been one of our favorite restaurants-- we go nearly weekly. We love the sashimi (best in town by a wide margin, and the white tuna can be incredible!) and had-- until recently-- always had a great experience with the waitstaff. Recently, however, there's been a new waitress who is mighty unpleasant. The first time she was rude (when we brought out of town guests), we gave her a break, thinking it must be an off day or a very busy night. She was curt with all of us and downright disdainful to one friend in particular (a very friendly Japanese guy). We thought it odd, but (having been waitstaff ourselves) forgave and forgot.

We went back a week or so later, just the two of us, and got the same waitress-- this time she was flat out rude. Weird. The rest of the waitstaff is great (as are the sushi chefs). What gives? In any case, avoid the glowering waitress and you'll have a great meal.

This is my favorite sushi place of all time. Hands down the best sushi I've ever had! Also, they are very nice about special order rolls for vegetarians :)

In July, I took friends who just arrived from California to this restaurant. Two of us had the lobster with scallops. Within an hour we were both nauseous and had diarrhea; the other two were fine. When I telephoned the owner the next day, he was rude and said it could not have been that dish because it was frozen. Well, it wasn’t frozen when we ate it. That dish made us both sick. There was nothing else we had in common that could have done it. They got off the plane, drove downtown, where I met them outside the restaurant just minutes before dining.

The sushi was outstanding, and the service was very friendly! The Downtown Rolls are out of this world!

Best place in town for sushi. Far and away my personal favorite, and my friends who grew up in or lived in Japan swear it's the only place in town that can even pretend to call itself a Japanese sushi restaurant. It's a little more expensive than the other places in town, but much, much better. By the way, try the white tuna.

Never disappointed.

Have been there twice recently. Both sushi and hot foods are excellent. Nice, pleasant atmosphere. One of the best restaurants of ANY type in the area. Certainly deserves a 5 rating for the food.

Pleasant atmosphere and excellent sushi. The sushi chefs are experienced and congenial. The sushi is reasonably priced, and everything we tasted was prepared properly and more importantly, was fresh. It was quiet the night we went, and the traditional (though not fancy) Japanese surroundings make it a good date restaurant (though fine for friends as well). Highly recommended.

Excellent food. I only tried their Sushi, but it's always good and creative.

They have well trained Japanese Sushi cheffs actually. (I sat at the counter the other day and talked to the cheff who was trained in a Japanese restaurant in NYC.)

It's a bit expensive, but considering its quality of food, I think it's reasonable as good Japanese food.

THE BEST place in town for Sushi and Sashimi!