Little Ari's Japanese Kitchen

Was having a preggo craving for pho after picking my daughter up from daycare but my place of choice wasn't open till 5. With the hanger strong in me, I had to find a place nearby to satisfy my soup craving. A quick google search showed Ari's nearby and so we were off! Pleasantly surprised upon pulling into the parking lot, was a well-kept very established-looking restaurant in front of us. Clean, branded, and with a very cute logo, it looked pretty solid so far. My hubby, toddler, and I walked in and there was a large menu to our right with a kiosk straight ahead to place our order. I was pleased with the selection of items. It seemed to be the right amount of things to pick from, not too little or overwhelmingly saturated with options. So we ordered tonkatsu ramen for each of us with pork belly; straight noodles for him and wavy for me. Additionally, I got edamame for our daughter, a bbq bun, and shrimp tempura onigiri. Hubby finished his meal first, feeling very satisfied with his soup. My toddler quickly took interest in my noodles after going through half of the edamame and so we shared. She was a big fan, even sipping the soup after we'd eaten all our noodles. The bbq pork bun was decent. My favorite part about it was its bouncy doughy texture. I've had lots of great bbq pork buns back in NYC, however so my standards were a bit elevated on this. The shrimp tempura onigiri was decent as well. My favorite part was probably the crispiness of the tempura and the generous hug of seaweed wrapped around the whole thing. I wasn't into whatever sauce that coated it which tasted like bbq. Overall, hubby and I felt like this was a great place to stop considering the circumstances. Ordering is easy, the place was clean, and while it's not the best restaurant for their offerings, we appreciated the convenience and their generally decent-tasting food.

This is a regular spot that I visit while I am in town. My husband and I I fell in love with their shrimp and steak hibachi combo and their daiquiris. Both flavors are delicious individually and even if you combine them. Prices are reasonable. It is usually busy when I visit so I tend to order online and pick up. Sometimes you have to wait in the regular line until one of the employees asks who is there for pick up and then I usually am able to be expedited.

I was heading home from Virginia and found this place. The staff was nice Like fast food nice, Get your order and go to the next customer as fast as possible. No complaints here. I had the beef curry with fried rice, and the fried shumai. The curry was basic, it had small cuts of beef with rice. There was no veggies. I had one carrot and no potatoes in it. The taste was okay. It had no omakase, just basic curry. For the price it was fair for the amount of food. The taste left something to be desired. Honestly, I've had better Japanese curry by buying S B curry roux blocks and making it at home (even without adding Fuji apple and honey). So there is that. The shumai was okay as well. No sauce, nothing. Just shumai. Again, it was what I would expect to pay for the portion size, it just lacked the flavor I'm used to. For Japanese fast food, this place is decent for the price and for a quick stop. But if you know how this is supposed to taste, you will be disappointed. Bonus points for having Japanese Curry, however, I would not recommend this place for authentic Japanese cuisine. (It's more like a fast food version of Japanese cuisine). Good, but not great.

Friendly staff. Restaurant has a nice appearance. The steamed rice and zucchini were real good. However the chicken was dry and the mushrooms were overcooked and burnt. I asked for no onions and was charged extra. The food shouldn't have been served. Very poor quality control. Bathrooms needed attention badly.

Food was good but extremely pricey for such small portions, it looks like a lot in the picture but the rice is like 1/2 deep in the container just covering the bottom. I got the regular hibachi chicken with fried rice and no veggies and a large white sauce. It was $16 total which was extremely high. This was the regular version, they had a lighter lunch version which was a bit cheaper, but if this was regular and lighter was less food then you must barely get anything at all. The food was great but I 'll probably never eat there again because it 's just too expensive for what you get.