Japanese Restaurants in Greenville

Chef 21 sits in McBee Station on the eastern side of downtown Greenville, close enough to Main Street to feel central but with the easy parking that end of McBee Avenue is known for. What sets it apart is how much it tries to be at once. Under one roof it runs a sushi bar, a Korean BBQ house with tabletop grills, a ramen kitchen, a hot pot table, and a chef's table serving a thirteen-course sushi and wagyu omakase. Diners tend to pick a lane and stay loyal to it. The Atlantis Roll and the homemade crab rangoon come up again and again in reviews, a self-described ramen snob singled out the tonkotsu, and the namesake sushi burgers and Korean fried chicken pull their own following. The room leans into a futuristic, space-themed look with upbeat music, which reads as fun and a little theatrical rather than quiet and traditional. There's a full bar with unusual barware and a respectable bourbon list, and the space handles groups and celebrations easily. Between the grills, the rolls, the ramen, and the omakase, most people need a few visits before they land on what keeps bringing them back.

Konnichiwa sits a block northwest of Main Street on Falls Park Drive, close enough to walk off a meal along the Reedy or across the Liberty Bridge. The covered patio is set back from the downtown foot traffic, and the dining room looks out over the West End on two sides. The draw is the sushi, which plenty of people around here will tell you is the best in Greenville. The specialty rolls are where the kitchen shows off: the Stairway to Heaven, the Greenville specialty roll that reviewers single out for its presentation, and the Falls Park roll named for the park just down the street. Past the sushi bar there is hibachi, bento boxes, curry, and rice bowls, and the crab rangoon keeps coming up for being oversized and packed with crab. Portions run generous, the kind that usually send you home with a box. The space is modern and spotless with a few Japanese fishing-village touches, the staff move quickly, and between the indoor tables and the covered patio it lands about as well for a weekday lunch as an easy dinner after a walk through the park.

The BlueFin runs on a premise most kitchens would not try: a full sushi bar and a grill turning out half-pound burgers, side by side on one menu. It opened in spring 2023 in the Northpointe complex on East Stone Avenue, right in front of Harris Teeter, and the sushi-and-burgers pairing is the actual point here, not a novelty bolted onto an ordinary restaurant. The burgers are certified Angus, ground and cooked to order, from the plain Classic to the Diablo loaded with pepper jack and jalapenos. The sushi side goes deep on house special rolls with layered sauces, and the starters are where reviewers get specific: the bang bang shrimp, the creamy crab rangoon dip, the jalapeno roulette. There is a happy hour every day and a weekday lunch sushi special that locals single out. It has stayed small and community-minded, with both indoor and outdoor seating and a staff people describe as attentive without hovering. If you cannot pick a side, go with the Bento Box: a burger slider, a specialty roll of your choice, and the sides all plated together, so a single order gets you both.