Haru Izakaya

If you are looking for really good Japanese food then Haru Izakaya doesn’t disappoint. Chun is a commensurate hostess, attentive and engaging, in fact all the staff are lovely. The restaurant has a lovely warm atmosphere. Absolutely love this place.

We went early and they let us in out of the rain. The food came quickly and was delicious. I really wanted to order more but I was with my mum who hardly eats anything! I will go back with my husband and scoff more. One star was lost because my favourite dish of takoyaki was not the best I have had but I would still order it again. The salmon sashimi was fresh and generously sized. A great (new?) place in Lewes near the station. Happy days.

My family and I returned for our third visit on Sunday for a lovely lunch. We enjoyed hand rolls, a Chicken Katsu curry, sushi and tempura. Wonderful restaurant with charming staff. We are looking forward to returning - definitely a new favourite ❤️

We had a lovely meal at Haru Izakaya. The food was delicious, fresh and authentic. The atmosphere was great, I loved the playlist in the background. The staff were friendly and attentive. Would definitely recommend and will be back for sure.

Having visited for a second time (in one week!) last night, it confirmed that this place is amazing. The best Japanese food I've had outside of Japan, hands down. Everything is incredible. Freshly cooked, great ingredients and absolutely delicious. I over order every time and regret nothing! It's exceptional value, for what you get, and the staff are all lovely. It's now one of my favourite local restaurants! Keep up the great work!

Amazing food! The tofu katsu was especially good. Such a lovely spot in Lewes that everyone should go and support. The service was great as well - especially the blonde waitress.

Delicious katsu curry & gyoza! Large portion size and very well designed restaurant. Will definitely be returning :)

Just had a lovely meal at Haru Izakaya in Lewes. Great food , relaxing, low key atmosphere and a really lovely young woman served us - attentive, friendly and helpful with advising us on dishes. Will definitely be going back

Another excellent lunch at Haru today with visiting friends, with hot, crispy tempura, and beautifully presented generous sashimi. My favourite place to eat in Lewes.

Honestly absolutely delicious! Came here for a date night with a friend and we felt very looked after and the food was incredible.

Beautiful, tasty fresh food (we had California roll, pork belly, scallop sashimi & octopus balls (not frozen!) Friendly lovely FOH staff. We eat a lot of Japanese food & personally I think this place was better than Brighton. A much calmer space to eat and relax and you could tell the kitchen team took great care with the food.

Great food, presented lovely in a nice atmosphere and top tier service.

I have lived a few years in a little village in Japan, where the main "omiyage" was the grilled eel dish. This place has the closest, most authentic flavour and preparation! Not only the welcome, but the takoyaki, the tempura and all the rest were spot on.

We had a fantastic meal - all four of us loved everything we ordered. Every dish was beautifully prepared and absolutely delicious. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, and the staff were friendly and attentive, making it a truly lovely evening. I would thoroughly recommend this restaurant. The desserts were delicious too!

1st time trying this new Japanese in lewes. We arrived at 8pm on a sunday. The food was incredible. Fresh and good portions. One of the most authentic Japanese meals we have had. The atmosphere is chilled, and the decor is authentic for Japanese restaurants. Simple and stylish. The waitress was so lovely and we chatted after the meal and even though we were late eating and they were closing, we never felt rushed at all. We also got complimentary mochi which was so kind of them. We will definitely be back regularly.

Had a lovely lunch here. The food was fantastic. I think the vegetable tempura is the best I have had possibly ever! We had a range of dishes including sashimi and rice dishes, with hot and cold sake. Everything was excellent. Oh and the 'blond waitress' (who I would not dream of addressing as 'sweetheart') was delightful and helped us with menu choices. Will definitely be back and highly recommend a visit.

Absolutely amazing. The food was delicious. The wait times were minimal with myself only having to wait 3-5 minutes for the food. The service was also amazing with the staff being very welcoming. The whole atmosphere of it was very welcoming. 10/10 will visit again.

Sushi was absolutely fantastic!! Desserts were delicious as well.

We went for dinner at Haru recently after a friend recommended it, and we will definitely be back again - so nice to have a yakitori restaurant in Lewes rather than having to go in to brighton. Lovely environment, really tasty food and quick service! I'd reccomend the aubergine speciifcally

Amazing food all round from starters to main to deserts!! Staff were all round amazing and very easy to speak to and joyful!! Would defo recommend to anyone who is looking to come!!

Went here for a date night, and had such a lovely evening. The food was absolutely delicious and had a great range of different authentic Japanese dishes. The manager was incredibly friendly, some of the waiting staff were very straight faced and direct, but nothing to spoil the evening. Prices were also fairly reasonable.

Really amazing. Delicious food, decent portion sizes, relaxing simple atmosphere and good service. It was our first visit and we’ll definitely be back.

I have eaten here twice now. It’s really excellent food and service. The sushi is fresh and delicious. The tempura prawns cooked to perfection. There is a great variety of different Japanese foods to try. Some were not my cup of tea but were beautifully served and it’s good to try different things so that’s good. Sake is excellent. Have it chilled. You won’t be disappointed. They are such lovely people and kind and generous. Will be back again for thirds.

Superb food and great Sake selection. Fast service and meals freshly prepared. Highly recommend 👌

Super friendly staff. Delicious tempura! We will definitely be back.

Tried lots of different items from the menu including seared caramel eel which was delicious. Wet windy Wednesday evening but still a good night out. Will be visiting again.

A lovely cozy Japanese, with nice and delicious food. Had my birthday there, a lovey experience

Just had an early supper here - delicious on all counts - don buri, tempura and yakitory. A feast

Our favourite restaurant around. The most attentive staff and the food is incredible 10/10

Don’t expect the full-on Japanese ambience, this is Lewes after all. This was possibly the best gyoza I’ve had. Sushi was good and the tataki was excellent definitely worth a second trip

Friendly staff, good portion sizes and prices. Reccomended to a few friends and family who now also like to visit here occasionally.

We stumbled across this and decided to come in for lunch and it was amazing! we really loved our meal it was very tasty, service was great and the garden was lovely to sit outside in for lunch. Would 10000% recommend!

Son took me along for a birthday lunch. Delicious! Not a fan of sushi but the chicken thigh Yakatori and gyoza were delish as was the pork belly! When the lady serving realised it was a birthday celebration she gave me an extra portion of dessert on the house. The soda bottles are an amazing design. So ingenious!

Great food and service - will definitely be back!! The beef udon noodles were amazing

A lovely addition to Lewes, great food, impeccable service and awesome value. Recommended.

Wow this place is absolutely amazing. Every dish was fantastic and the service was top notch!! Can’t wait to come back!!

Our first experience of Japenese food. Asked owner to sort us out...she didn,t dissapoint..fabulous food. So good booked again for next week.!Great value.

Lovely friendly service . Great food well presented .tasted fantastic

Great place to eat, amazing food! I I'll definitely be back to try more of the options on the menu!

Thought we'd try this restaurant for birthday celebrations. All the food was great. Sushi and Sashimi were outstanding. We will be coming back.

It is excellent to have a new Japanese restaurant in Lewes. And they are doing pretty well. The position is bijou, but with a mix of seating nestled at the bottom of Station Street between the two Thai restaurants. The welcome is friendly and the ambience good. We tried a range of staples. The edamame was decent (not amazing – you can do more interesting things with a bit of oil and seasoning). The agadashi tofu was a disappointment. That really ought to be tofu pieces in a broth with a very delicate papery tempura that is falling off. Here the tofu was a bit too firm, the tempura a bit to dry, and the broth was instead a rather plain soy dipping sauce. The udon noodles with seafood was disappointing – the noodles were well cooked and the sauce just right but the squid bits, crab stick, and prawns were all rather tough. Definite room for improvement. The vegetable gyoza was very good. The tuna sashimi was excellent (although I think it was a mistake to serve on ice which melts and makes the tuna watery). The salmon and avocado sushi rolls were outstanding. So encouraging but some work to do. We will definitely go back.

Nice Izakaya in the middle of Lewes. A great addition to the town. Allmthe food was tasty. We will be back.

Japanese Cuasine ran by Chinese so authenticity is out of the door dispite that, the food is 5 star!. It was amazing! I loved it! Why is it 3 stars you ask? Well I came here with my partner on a date and I have no idea what was up with the blond haired waitress. But she kept huffing, puffing and sighing and all sorts at the tiniest of request as if we were an inconvenience to her. To the Waitress: Sweetheart listen, you might have had a bad day but you're in the service industry. Your restaurant food is clearly amazing, so its important you match the energy and don't ruin your customers day with your poor attitude. Dear manager please address this behaviour.

Before I say anything, the food is good - pretty close to excellent. Is it as good as something you can get from an Izakaya in Japan? No. Is it quadruple the price? Yes (but that’s not the restaurant’s fault, that’s due to rising costs in an already expensive part of the country). We aren’t spoilt for choice in Lewes, so it’s nice to have something like this open up in our lovely town. However, despite the quality of the food, the service was dreadful. Let’s put it into context though as context is key !! We arrived at 6:45 as walk ins. Did the usual “have you got space for two” and they said yes as long as we left by 7:30 as they needed the table. We felt pretty confident we could order quick and get out before then so we said yes. Within about 1 minute we had the FOH asking us what we wanted (we’d barely sat down let alone look at the menu). We ordered pretty quickly, and the food arrived promptly after (as is standard in an Izakaya) so thumbs up so far! We ate quickly as we knew they wanted the table and managed to finish by 7:15. We asked for the bill and our server was beyond rude, even after we complimented the food. In fact, as soon as she gave me the card reader she walked away whilst I was talking to her and completely ignored me. Yes, we are aware we were walk ins and they probably didn’t have time to spare on us, but come on, the whole vibe was off and we should have realised that the moment we walked in!! We were not welcome, nor were we wanted, even after having spent quite a significant amount of money and eating as quickly as humanly possible to be considerate and get out before they got slammed. For the high price tag, we were met with bitterness and a complete lack of interest. AND we were given a bill with mandatory service charge!!! WHAT SERVICE 😂? - I make a point of tipping whenever I can as hospitality staff are not paid anywhere close to what they deserve, but considering the way we were treated, I don’t think it was deserved whatsoever. We were hurried out and left for home with a sour taste in our mouths. I want to make it clear, this review is of the experience we had and hopefully doesn’t represent the Izakaya on a regular basis. I’m sure anyone reading this will have a much better time than us. But I hope the owners read this review and reflect on their standards of service. It isn’t acceptable to be charging the amount you are charging if it is going to be like this. Customers are not just paying for the food, but for the atmosphere, for the service, for the experience!!

Lovely place and atmosphere! Food servings are small but tasty, veggie options were quite small. A nice place for a drink and snack rather than a full on dinner.

I was looking forward to authentic Japanese cuisine; having tried my fair share of Wagammams I wanted to try the genuine article, so to speak. I'd watched a lot of youtube video's about Japanese street food and found Haru Izakaya on the web and was genuinely looking forward to a new experience... Well.. It was certainly an experience, and one I will want to try again. From the moment I walked in everything was cold -no greeting, no warmth. Just a very lackluster show to the table. I said that I was looking forward to the meal, that I'd been wanting to try Japanese food for a long time -I may as well have said I'd trodden in something nasty. Barely any acknowledgement. I ordered my meal -a couple different types of yakatori (chicken heart and gizzard); octopus ball of some kind and caramelized eel. I'd had both the yakatori (just plain chicken) and the octopus balls before in Wagamma's so had a vague idea what to expect. I was sitting, taking it all in, and all i could hear was the microwave beeping... FOUR times.. I heard nothing else in the kitchen. The food arrived and I was expecting the octopus balls to be steaming hot -barely warm. The yakatori were pretty cold and rubbery; very little taste except for something off-puttingly tangy. The sauce overpowering. The Caramalised Eel? Different -wasn't sure what to expect but it wasn't bad... and it was the only thing I could really finish. I left most of the rest (which is NOT like me, and I think the first time I've ever done it.) In all fairness to the waitress, when she asked whether I enjoyed the meal & I told her everything was pretty much cold and inedible she immediately apologised and knocked 50% off the bill... I didn't mention that I wondered whether the food had been microwaved and she meekly said that the yakatori had been 'grilled', Probably in the same way that bread is put under a grill for 30 secs and called toast! I spent most of the journey home retching and I will certainly not be frequenting their establishment again. It's a shame as the website was quite professional and full of passion. Everything then that my experience was not. Bitterly disappointed and the worst meal I think I've ever had.