After moving to Cincinnati at the end of August, my husband and I have been searching for new places to have our favorite foods.
This place is quickly becoming one of them.
We've been here a few times and have enjoyed our experience each time. As others have mentioned, the "half price" thing is a little gimmicky -- on the other hand, we're able to stuff ourselves with solid sushi for pretty cheap, and I'll tolerate a gimmick for the right price.
The sushi itself is good. They have a lot of "specialty" rolls, most featuring spicy sauce -- which is A-OK with me. Their C9 Supreme roll and Red Double are our personal favorites on that menu. However, and this is my true test of a sushi place, their "simple" rolls are excellent. The yellowtail and scallion roll is incredibly fresh and delicious, no spicy sauce needed here.
Another note about sauces -- many of their specialty rolls include eel sauce. My husband and I are NOT a fan of eel sauce, so we always ask to have it left off -- and this is never a problem. This is refreshing compared to many sushi places who act personally affronted if you ask to leave something off -- like, "Look, this is a sushi roll that features tempura shrimp, spicy mayo and crawfish, this ain't authentic sushi, folks!" None of that issue here, which I appreciate.
The service is good -- attentive without being overbearing. The only real negative is the size of the place -- it's incredibly small. We tend to eat early, so this hasn't been a huge problem with us, but it definitely fills up quickly. The tables are pretty close together, too -- understandable in such a small space.
All in all, this is an excellent place to eat and I'm thrilled that we found it!
I had been avoiding Cloud Nine for awhile for an unprecedented reason: when it was Dancing Wasabi it was always so crowded and the space is so small. Then came a night of drinking until 2:30AM ... and one of my friends mentioned that Cloud Nine is open late. Generally, I don't want sushi when I'm drunk, but we ended up here and I must tip my hat to the place. #1 The employees did not get frustrated or annoyed (at least externally) by my friend and I's drunken demeanor and #2 They offer a full menu in a sit down environment, until 4 in the morning. That's unheard of. I ordered an AAC Roll and Pork Dumplings (had to get some protein!) and both were amazing, and not just because I was drunk. I'll definitely be returning!
Review Source:I came here on Sunday for dinner after arriving in Ohio for business. It was surprisingly crowded so I was seated at the bar, which I like. The half off all sushi all the time is weird, as other reviewers said, why not just have lower prices? Marketing gimmick I guess. There was another sushi place next door offering the same deal. Anyway, the rolls were good, but nothing extraordinary. Service was just ok. I would come back if I was in the area and in the mood for sushi.
Review Source:We visited Cloud Nine on a Friday night. It was crowded but we were seated quickly. The waiter was attentive and worked fast. We tried a variety of rolls. I thought they were all quite good. I agree with a previous reviewer that the 1/2 priced sushi thing is a little gimmicky. Just put the prices on the menu. We would certainly go back again
Review Source:As a recent transplant from California, I am very picky about Asian food. I do find it odd there are so many pan-Asian restaurants here, and all sushi is supposedly "50% off". Â Though my standards have changed, I do enjoy and frequent Cloud Nine Sushi. Â My favorite rolls are Playboy and C9. Â It's a bit small, and service can be slow, but this does do the trick to satisfy a sushi craving.
Review Source:Cloud 9 is my new favorite for Sushi in Cincy. Â I tried to follow Dancing Wasabi to Hyde Park, but that hasn't worked out and is not the matter at hand. Â Cloud 9 is just about perfect and the prices are very fair. To me "fair" is when I can leave a place not feeling like I've been taken advantage of and not wanting to stop somewhere else because I'm still hungry. Â I love sushi of all sorts and honestly it is sometimes so expensive that it is cost prohibitive in my opinion. Â Many sushi places never have a couple of my favorites, even though they are listed on the menu. Those two are Fatty Tuna and Sea Urchin, but here they have yet to disappoint me by being out. Â Many of the other reviews focus on the rolls, which are great here, but my taste leads more to sashimi. Here you can order sashimi at the same half-price so long as you mark your order as such and tell the server that you are doing so. The chefs create simply beautiful sashimi presentations that look like rose buds. This visit we had fantastic white tuna (and ordered 4 more for a 2nd round), regular tuna, fatty tuna (yes, we like tuna), salmon and yellow tail all as sashimi and BBQ eel, scallop and sea urchin as nigiri along with a very good spicy tuna roll and Legend roll. Everything was very fresh and tasty. Â Others have lamented the service, but after multiple visits I have not experienced any problem at all. Our check, including a large saki to split was about $60 before tip.
Review Source:This is my favorite sushi spot in Cincinnati, especially when you're craving sushi late night (open until 4am on Friday's & Saturdays). Â I recently went on a Wednesday night and all their wine on the menu was $5/glass before 7pm. Level of service has always been great too. My favorite item on the menu is the spider roll.
Review Source:Not bad. Â Not bad at all. Â
I'm not sure I understand the whole "sushi is always 50% off" gimmick-- why not just change the prices on the menu?-- but questionable marketing tactics aside, it's cheap and tasty.
The service can be a bit scattered, but it's a pretty small and busy place, so I kind of get it. Â Based on our two visits, I don't see it as a reason not to return. Â Everyone is friendly and the overall feel is very casual.
The bottom line: Â If you're looking for sushi in Mt. Lookout (or Cincinnati in general, let's be honest), you could certainly do worse.
I love Cloud Nine Sushi. As Dancing Wasabi leaves the Mt. Lookout area and heads over to Hyde Park, in comes Cloud Nine Sushi in its place; and to be honest, I like it better! Cloud Nine offers a variety of new rolls and cocktails to try and it's small, quaint venue provides a calm and relaxing atmosphere to enjoy some dinner and good times with friends.
Favorite roll: C9
I have never once had "sushi cravings" until after I ate at Cloud Nine. This place is awesome! Â Their specialty rolls are incredible- my favorite is the Sunday Morning, but you just can't go wrong here. Prices are right, and food is incredible.
My only complaint is that the female waitress there is unfriendly pretty much every time I've been there, but it's not bad enough to stop me from coming back! Expect a wait during the dinner rush, but it's generally been less than 30 minutes for 3-4 people.
Sushi was okay. Waiter was fine until my companion ordered some more sushi. The waiter didn't get the order right, then whined that the mistake would come out of his own pocket! We were sort of stunned when he did that! Not only was that extremely unprofessional, it was clearly his mistake and he should have simply apologized and kept the fact that he would be penalized to himself. For his own sake, he'd be wise to listen more closely to his customers. Go for some decent sushi, but make sure the server repeats your order back to you.
Review Source:Stopped by during an epic karaoke night at Million's to grab my favorite roll, aka the Phoenix. It was great and the service was very fast. Our group chatted with the sushi chef behind the counter and he was friendly and funny. I am glad to see that things are still going well here. I will say that some of the original charm of Dancing Wasabi has left, but what remains is  good food and service. I'll take it. That and maybe another Phoenix roll to go. :)
Review Source:This sushi place sets the bar for my evaluations on all sushi places, and all others fall short. Â This is without a doubt the best place for sushi in Cincinnati. Â It's great for date night, going out with friends or as a late night snack after bar hoping.
The Phoenix Roll is top notch - so is the Crunch Munch!
Two Words: Phoenix Roll!
This place has a ton of good sushi options (Crunch Munch is a fan favorite), but you've gotta do the Phoenix Roll before you die and that could be now, so do it right now. Â Seriously, even if it's not on the menu, it's on the menu and you must obey.
This used to be called Dancing Wasabi before they moved to Hyde Park. Â It's exactly the same. Â They redressed the floors and put on a fresh coat of paint and a new sign, but the menu and staff are exactly the same as the old Dancing Wasabi (misspellings in the menu and all)!
Alex is an awesome sushi chef and an all around nice guy to chat with. Â Service can be a little slow at times, but I think that's the only thing I could possibly complain about.
I believe all that was changed from its previous inhibitor (Dancing Wasabi who moved on up from Mt. Lookout to Hyde Park) is its name. One thing I do not understand which seems to be a common practice with sushi places is "Half Price Sushi" all the time (Cloud Nine Sushi participates in this trend). Is "Half Price" the new "Low Price"? Â Personally, I believe it devalues one's brand, etc, but I regress. The sushi is good for "Half Price" sushi and cocktail "The Dragon" I had last time I was there was quite tasty.
Review Source:On a cold, windy, half snowhalf rain kind of night we made the trek to cloud 9. Normally I wouldn't prefix a review about food with the weather, but every single time the door opened all of those things came sweeping in, which is pretty distracting.
My first impression was how tiny the place is, and how the number of people packed in like sardines must be some kind of fire code violation. There were 3 open seats at the bar which at first seemed like a quick way out of standing in the aforementioned doorway for forever waiting on a table. I took the awkward corner seat with my woman on the left, a buddy on the right. That was great until we realized that anyone else wanting to enterexit that section of bar or the surrounding tables meant said woman had to get up, move into the aisle, wait for them to get situated and then return. That's pretty awesome, and totally allows one to really enjoy the dining experience. Not really worth fighting, though.
The chairs at the bar are made of metal. They're plenty sturdy and wouldn't actually be outright uncomfortable except that it was so cold that we all left with numb butts. And again, every time the door opened we were accosted by the elements, thereby removing any warmth that had been stockpiled. That's right, we were sitting on heat sinks. Still, not worth a fight.
The service was almost non-existent. But I'm having a hard time holding it against the workers as there were like 60 people crammed into this place and only 3 of them there to handle everything from seating people to delivering drinks. It took 10 minutes to get an order sheet. This is annoying, but not worth a fight.
Then the server brought us our beer. The bottle was cold, but the beer was warm. It obviously had been in the cooler, just not long enough. Now I'm considering sending them back... but the poor worker bees just look so slammed and it would take 20 minutes anyway. We drank the semi-warm beer as I muttered to myself, "Surely the food will make up for this."
The sushi came out mercifully fast. Mine came without wasabi or ginger (mission critical items, imho) and we were missing any form of utensils. After frantic waving and yelling for a few minutes to no avail, we stole utensils from a nearby table. Just getting to the table to lift some chopsticks was a Tolkien worthy journey thanks to how crowded the place was. I'm too hungry to fight at this point. Must eat sushi.
And we did. And it was all very pleasant. It was presented nicely (even if missing a couple items) and was all delicious. But, I can't say as there was anything outright exemplary or outstanding. All great, but not memorable.
The bill came and it may have been the highlight. The half price part is pretty awesome even if it is just cheesy marketing. And it fit the obviously half price service and venue.
Also, in case you're feeling clever: the half price deal only works on dine in... not carry out.
Now, I will say that we were there at dinner time. I love the fact that they're open ridiculously late (even on Sundays) so I'll probably be back under different circumstances. But it won't be for an outright dinner. No single thing was worth battling the staff. But the sum of a bunch of small things starts to get pretty hard to ignore. And an angry woman sitting next to you talking about another sushi joint 3 doors up that doesn't have these issues is impossible to ignore.
We walked back out into the cold and took a right. We walked past Ichiban which had spacious, open tables and a sign out front that read: Half Price Sushi!
We shall see.......
Cloud 9 Sushi sits right in the heart of eclectic Mt. Lookout square directly across the street from Lookout Joe (a place I frequent) and Rohde & Son Funeral Home (a place I do not). This restaurant used to be Dancing Wasabi Sushi but the owner split town (for neighboring Hyde Park) and was nice enough to leave everything behind except the name.
Few things are different here than before. Noticeably the sushi is now half price all day every day! Which doesn't make it seem that special but I guess the advertisement for half price sushi draws in unsuspecting consumers. They should probably just take it to the next level and triple their price of sushi on the menu and then advertise 80% off sushi and stand back while the masses stampede through their doors. Gosh I'm brilliant (actually I got a C- in Business 101).
All joking aside their food is really good and exactly the same as before when it was Dancing Wasabi. And it's not just the sushi that rocks either; all their appetizers are money and their chicken fried rice is kung pow awesome! Every day they also have cost-friendly drink specials on either wine, beer, or sake which is great for a night out with friends or a night out alone relapsing from the program (keep coming back!).
The problem with Dancing Wasabi and now Cloud 9 is the service. And don't get me wrong, they have a couple great servers who are personable, friendly, and efficient. But they also have some servers who put the "O" in "Oh my God, where is our server, it's been forever, I totally regret coming here now." I don't care how good your food and specials are, bad service will ruin a dining experience.
All in all, Cloud 9 is a great little sushi bar. They are open late, their food is pretty spot on, and on certain nights you can't beat their drink prices. Just don't expect Michelin star service. Or even subpar service for that matter.
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