Review of Hajime St.Cloud

First: the sushi here is good, and the staff are friendly. If I didn't have celiac disease, I would probably give a 5 star review. For those who need to avoid gluten:

--Most of the basic rolls seem safe, and if you want, you can ask to have some rolls on a different platter than others.

--I would bring your own gluten-free soy sauce (we order the small travel packets to bring in a packet), as their gluten free soy sauce is just a regular soy sauce container with an added label of gluten free--i.e. an old regular soy container refilled with gluten free. That's outside my comfort level just because of the possibility of a mixup in refilling things. An improvement the restaurant could make would be to purchase the little packets of gluten-free soy sauce

--The knowledge of gluten containing items seems pretty inconsistent among waiters and other staff, so don't rely exclusively on that. Some seem pretty aware, some seem not at all, and--perhaps the most dangerous of all--some are in between where they know the "obvious" instances of gluten but aren't aware of the gluten that might be less obvious.

--We've experienced inconsistency between visits. On our first visit, it took a little back and forth to gain clarity on which specialty rolls were gluten free or could be made gluten free, but once sorted out we had two delicious specialty rolls! (the Sweetheart which has all gluten free ingredients listed, and the Hajime Rainbow Roll without the special Hajime sauce) We recently returned and, knowing the Sweetheart Roll was gluten free, we ordered it again (and communicated with our waiter about the need for things to be gluten free). At first they brought out the wrong roll (Sweet and Sassy) that was fully covered in tempura flakes; we let them know it was the wrong order and they replaced it with a Sweetheart Roll. However, in my first bit I could taste tempura flakes in the spicy tuna and, upon closer examination, could see those tempura flakes. We didn't want to waste food, so my non-celiac partner ate it, but it was frustrating to have an unsafe dining experience in such contrast to our first visit.

Takeaways: it seems one cannot trust consistency in the gluten free status of an item across multiple visits, AND one cannot trust the accuracy of the ingredients listed on the menu (not only was it gluten free the first time we came, but there was nothing in the item description suggesting tempura flakes were included). Both of these matters make eating at Hajime difficult if you need to stay gluten free. It's not the most difficult sushi place I've been to as a person with celiac, but definitely a bummer that it is not as safe as it initially seemed. If you do have celiac disease and are eating at hajime I would recommend: 1) safest route is to stick to the basic rolls (plain fish with added raw vegetables at most), 2) if you decide to order from the specialty rolls, be assertive as you order and ask detailed questions even if it seems like it should be safe based on the description.

How confident are you that this establishment takes safety precautions against cross-contact?

— Somewhat

Is there a gluten-free menu?

— No gluten-free information on the menu

How much of the menu is available gluten-free?

— Some

How would you rate the taste and quality of the gluten-free food you tried?

— Excellent

Other Characteristics

• Good for dairy-free
• Good for dinner
• Good for lunch