Hapa Sushi Grill & Sake Bar

Excellent sushi, great price. Fast service.

The sushi is mediocre and the service is terrible. We went for lunch today and had the worst service I’ve had in awhile. It took the waitress 20 minutes to take our order and then she never checked back after bringing our food. THEN, she brought us our check and never returned. Had to go to the hostess to ask for change. Keep in mind, this is all during the lunch hour where usually people are in a little more of a rush to get back to work. Hapa need to take this into consideration.

Whoa, Hapa knows what’s up when it comes to sushi. All around, great dining experience that makes me smile. The décor is tres chic and super relaxing. I loved how creative the rolls were. The orgasm roll– insane. I couldn’t stop saying mmmm. The veggie gyoza dumplings came with this DELICIOUS dipping sauce that I would drank by itself.
Spectacular sushi that will leave you satisfied and smiling, guarantee :)

One of the more dive-​y sushi spots in Boulder if that makes sense.
Casual, easy to get in, they get right down to the good stuff and lots of it.
Their sushi menu has an array of inventive and delicious rolls to choose from at decent prices.
It gets pretty buys when CU is in session especially after 7pm.

Always good sushi — fresh and delicious.

I cant eat fish, so maybe I am not the best person to write a review, I always have the veggie rolls. The tempura asparagus roll is my fav. THe servers are nice, and usually flirty, even if its a gun or a girl… It sometimes takes a while for the food to arrive even when they are not busy. I also have an issue with seeing a white teenager rolling my sushi, then when I get it, it falls apart.

I was a little underwhelmed by Happa on the hill.
i had only been to the Hapa on Pearl which is a fun little place with a cute theme and decent sushi so when my sister told me that the restaurant on the hill had extended happy hour I was happy to go give it a try. We ordered off of the appetizer menu: dumplings, calamari with hawaiian sauce and veggie tempura. The dumplings weren’t bad, the tempura was fried well although the dipping juice was a little weak but the calamari didn’t taste like anything (the hawaiian sauce had an awkward flavor that I can’t put words to). i have to say that my sis seemed to enjoy everything but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat enough of the food to get full so I left with an unsatisfied belly.

Despite the contemporary-​hipster atmosphere, my inner hipster was sold on the Mazinger mascot, and the nice-​nooking selection of sake. Those last two were actually the highlight of the experience…
Crap portions, passable fish, and overpriced.
I SO wanted to like this place. I woild have LOVED to sport one of their awesomely designed T-​shirts, but I can’t advertise a product I don’t endorse…

I had a really tasty lunch this afternoon at Hapa on the Hill. They have happy hour going almost throughout the day, which is great for students. I ordered the small plate calamari and vegetable tempura. Both were delicious. The 3 $ Oscar’s beer was also a treat. The robotic/​transformer theme they’ve got going on is pretty rad. I plan on returning.

I’ve never sat down to eat at this Hapa (see my review of Hapa on Pearl), but I do regularly work on the Hill, so this is one of my favorites for a quick take-​out bite for lunch or snack. They have a sushi case for take-​out with low-​cost sushi that always hits the spot for me.

I can’t speak to the quality of their fish sushi, but their vegetarian sushi is wonderful, and it’s one of few places where I can go out with friends for sushi and still feel like I’m having a good meal. The Tempura Asparagus roll and Vegetable Caterpillar roll are wonderful, especially with a little Teriyaki for dipping.
My only complaint is that the prices for veggie sushi rolls are bit higher than you’d hope, and meaty sushi is pretty extravagantly priced.
Also, do note that the DJs that they bring in are exceptionally bad, with little to no artistry or sense of flow, and the music is extremely loud. Really, they’d be just as well served by plugging in an eclectic iPod and putting it on shuffle. As such, make sure to avoid later evenings if you value your hearing and sanity.

I have given this place a number of chances since it is right in my neighborhood. It’s just not good sushi. It’s not bad, like it’s going to poison you, but it really doesn’t taste fresh or flavorful at all. Hapa focuses really heavily on being hipster and very little on being about food. I generally don’t Unilocal about middle of the road places, but this last visit was a little too much for me.
I had the sushi roll special for lunch. It was so bland that all I tasted was rice — even though I could see some fish in there. That would have been forgivable — I kind of felt responsible for ordering something lame. But here’s the real problem… I swear the sushi chef behind the bar did not stop speaking to the other sushi chef about his personal issues non-​stop for 30 minutes I was sitting there. Alone. Clearly being forced to overhear him. Seriously, he barely took a breath. The other sushi chef showed no interest. I can only imagine that she was thinking what I was thinking… «Wow, sushi dude? You just got a new water filter? It’s solving all of your health problems? Please… go on. Your friend just got some medical tests back? Please tell me more… Uggg. What an entirely unpleasant way to spend lunch.
The reason for the 3 stars is because I have had a really tasty dish there before… the tara poke. And their happy hour food is so cheap, you couldn’t dare complain about it’s blandness.

Not bad, not bad. Okay, I didn’t eat any sushi today but it looked decent and has always been decent, not excellent. Still, Hapa is right on pearl so it makes for great people watching and seems to always have gorgeous waitstaff. Typically they are attentive and friendly as well. today our waitress was super hot, friendly and diligent!
I had the seaweed salad and a house salad. Seriously, do they put crack in the seaweed salad? I love it. My body loves it. Delicious.
Now that I think of it, I think it is the sugar that makes it crack like. but it had texture, not like a big pile of mush. and not all of it was super green which tells me it was not drowning in dye.
still curious. what DOES hapa mean anyway?

Happy hour special — 2 rolls (eight pieces each) for $ 7. Tasty. Enough said.
Mango-​infused saki was good as well.

Good sushi, cool atmosphere and decent selection of sakes!
So with all my sushi restaurant reviews I will add the disclaimer, «I don’t eat seafood so take it all with a grain of salt». Yes, tragic, blashphemous and irresponsible if you want to rant! =P
But I will say, the pre-​dinner sake was great. Although can you really go wrong with sake? I don’t think I’ve ever had bad sake. Can you say this about other spirits (tequila, vodka, gin, etc)??? Sake is one of the more … forgiving liquors I’ve found. Whether dry, sweet, filtered/​unfiltered, hot or cold… I think sake has the greatest range.
But enough on that subject… ok maybe a little more… we started off with a great nigori which hit the spot as we waited for our table at the bar. As with most nigori it was sweet, mild and reminded me of «horchata» with it’s cloudy greatness.
You’ll have to take other (meaning…actual seafood eaters’) people’s reviews of the sushi though. I did have some excellent RUBY RED rolls («cucumber and avocado wrapped in tuna drizzled with poke sauce, onions and negi»). Yes, I will only eat maguro since it’s the least fishy and cleaner tasting of any fish I’ve tried. These rolls were very tasty, had a great consistency & texture.
I also had the tasty «Hapa House Salad» (mixed greens and sesame soy vinaigrette). Very simple and good. I followed that with «Thai Sytle Chicken Skewers» which were also delicious.
Overall the food was very good and the waitress was very helpful in assisting in our food selections. Here recommendations ended up being top notch.
The décor and atmosphere is very hip (dare I use that word since it’s been co-​opted and ruined by «hipsters») and playful… actually pretty fun. I very much enjoyed the «giant robo» theme (they have great artwork with an animé motif).
Hapa sushi reminds me most of «Blowfish Sushi» in the bay area with better prices and less «douchebaggery» — re: Santana Row).
Great place for good eats and drinks! Sushi + Sake = YUM! ^_​^
Definitely worth a return visit if I’m back in CO.
Kampai!

I had the 69 roll and it was yummy. What’s with all the sexually inspired sushi titles? While the specialty roll that I had was interesting and tasty, the common rolls my girlfriend had seemed boring and bland.
The location of this place seems nice. I recommend eating outside on one of the tables placed along the sidewalk. This place isn’t to be confused with the sushi location on Pearl St, and the neighborhood atmosphere here seems relaxing.
My only real complaint is the service. The gal who waited on us had the personality of a rock and wasn’t very attentive. To her credit, we did get our food shortly after we ordered, but didn’t see her for some time thereafter.
I’ll probably be back, but only for the creative, special rolls.

No, Hapa! No! Don’t you dare start sucking! Don’t you dare… aw, crap, too late.
Lately (more than lately, I’d say the last five or six months) Hapa’s fish quality has been going downhill, and what’s a sushi place without fish quality? A place to be very leery of, that’s what.
I still love the idea of their creative concoctions — I crave their Mork and Mindy roll and their Magic Mushrooms practically daily — but when I actually visit in order to feed my craving, I get this feeling, like, ‘Uh, mmmm? No, not mmmm. This is sort of gross, isn’t it? It is. It’s sort of off.‘
Therefore, the only rolls whose quality has stayed constant are the rolls that are smothered in The Sauce. The Sauce remains good, and it is so creamy and delicious that it effectively masks what lies beneath. While it may still be tasty, this scares me.
To be fair, I tried a dish last time I was there that I’d never had before and it was great, despite the fact that it was largely unadorned raw tuna. It was tuna taro poke — a veritable mountain of tuna laying on top of a lacy taro pancake, with onions, yuzu sour cream, and some sort of light savory sauce on the side. I would eat this appetizer for lunch and be full and satisfied.
That tuna was far superior in freshness to any other fish I’ve been served lately. Wherever they’re getting their tuna for this dish, I recommend they get the rest of their fish in the same place. Hapa, just because your customers are eating rolls with cucumbers and mandarin oranges and green onions and carrots and whatever else… doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t notice the shortcuts on the quality of the fish beneath.

I took my brother here for lunch yesterday. The service really sucked and I am pissed at myself for tipping normal. If I would have had a pre-​made note that said, «You get zero tip for not checking in on us, taking forever to begin with, taking the order of the party of bimbos who came in after us before getting to our table, and for not bringing me a spoon for my miso soup…» well then, I might not be so angry right now. But I didn’t even have a piece of paper with me to write such a note.
I enjoyed their sushi fine, but that is mostly because I was CRAVING wasabi and soy sauce… the sushi was just a vehicle for salty goodness. Some of the rolls we had were not much better than what I can find at the grocery. The Dragon Roll had the most flavor and I liked the crispiness of the eel. I didn’t find the Hapa Roll (their version of Spicy Tuna) very spicy. And even if it’s not their standard to offer up spoons for the soup, at least do a check in so I can feel high maintenance by asking for one!
Plus, the water tasted like jiz. The water that came out of the tap when I was in college tasted like that sometimes, and it’s damn disgusting.
I am WAY more a fan of the location in Denver than the location on the hill in Boulder. There were only five tables occupied in the whole place when we were there, so I am not willing to give the poor service any slack due to the amount of patrons. If I’m going to spend 60 bucks on lunch, I don’t need you to kiss my ass, but it would be nice if you provided a level of service above that which I experience at Country Buffet. Oh wait, did I just admit that I go to Country Buffet? Yes. Yes I did. And YES, the service I receive at Country Buffet is BETTER than that at Hapa Sushi. How ’bout that?

OK the food was fabulous and I want to call this a 5 star restaurant. But I just can’t because of deplorable service. Maybe this 2 star rating will draw the restaurant’s attention and knock somebody up the side of the head.
We came here on a Sunday as really only a party of 5. Well, 5 and a baby. I believe the automatic 18% gratuity is pegged on only for parties of six or more, but apparently because of the baby (who ordered no food, incidentally) they decided to put on the automatic gratuity. I should have protested, but there were too many other things to complain about so I never got around to that.
In fact, I believe the 18% automatic gratuity, which we only found out about at the end of our meal, was probably why we were screwed so royally on service at Hapa. Why worry about us? She was going to get her tip regardless.
All three of our appetizers never came. We ordered as appetizers 5 Miso soups, one edamame, and one order of potstickers (gyazu). Not one of our appetizers came. On their own.
She brought our main courses out first, a set of various sushi (which were all delicious). I waited a bit and finally realized the Misos were not materializing. The waitress brought them only after I brought it to her attention. Nothing else came. As our sushi was finishing up, another member of our party noticed the potstickers had never shown up, and the waitress brought the potstickers after been told about them. Finally, at the end of the meal we realized the edamame also never was brought, and by then we did not care.
When we told our waitress about all the missing appetizers, she apologized briefly (but not expansively) and offered, almost by way of explanation (or excuse) the fact that she was distracted by a much larger (and no doubt, due to their heavy alcohol consumption, more profitable) party of 15 diners that she was also serving. She did not at the time explain to us that we would be socked for an 18% gratuity for her lousy service.
The manager came by and without apology told us we would be discounted the cost of the Miso soups that were late (also of course we were not charged for the edamame) — so that saved us a whole ten dollars off our $ 100+ bill. I would have preferred a heartfelt apology for being screwed over due to the more profitable 15-​person party. I got.. . no. .. satisfaction.
As other Unilocal reviewers have noted, the food and Saki were exquisite. I had a flight of four Momokawa sake (yum). One of the favorite sushis brought out was a house specialty, the aptly named Multiple Orgasm. We also had about six other sushis, and while I am not a sushi expert, it seemed the best sushi I had ever had.
The bathrooms are beautiful with flowers in vase, softly lit mirrors, that sort of thing. The music piped through the restaurant was chill, world electronica — just what we love. This could have been a 5-​star experience if we had had better service. When will waiters and waitresses learn how devastating their attitudes can be to a diner’s enjoyment of the restaurant as a whole? A waiter is a host — a bad host can ruin an experience that could have been perfection itself. It doesn’t matter how good the food is. Suppose the food was really, really great, then the waitress started beating you upside the head with a rubber hose. I think you would be hard-​pressed to leave that restaurant a satisfied customer.
Hey Unilocalers — find out about whether Hapa is going to sock you with an automatic 18% gratuity — and if you are, be prepared to fight for good service and don’t take any guff from bratty, dismissive waiters and waitresses.
Overall, our experience at The Kitchen was far better.

My boyfriend and I sat at the sushi bar, which had a little pond streaming in front of it, and it reeked like mold. I wanted to be by the water of course and so, we sat side-​by-​side and suffered the entire meal as we kept getting whiffs of the moldy smell.
I got the teriyaki chicken at this joint and was not as impressed with the chicken as I was the beef at the Denver location. I was also not as impressed with the service… Which was a little lazy and unresponsive.
The outside patio and cool-​cat advertising make this a popular place among locals and sushi lovers. Come here for some decent Japanese food in a nice urban location.
* Star one is for funny advertising that I don’t really laugh at
** Stinky stink star two is for having a little pond/​stream near the sushi bar… even if it did smell
*** Pearl Street humor star four is for stellar people watching and eye-​catchers on Pearl street