Like our counterpart over at DiningOutBoston.com (check out their review of Haru Boston), we were invited to the special Friends and Family opening night at Boston's newest Sushi place, Haru.

Haru is a Sushi restaurant operated by the Benihana company and they just brought a little piece of the Manhattan-based chain to beantown, opening Haru Boston this month.

Being suckers for exclusivity and access, we had a wonderful time that night. We even think we saw Jonthan Soroff (but would he really spike his hair up like that?) and overheard some other patrons mentioning that they'd seen him to. Of course when Soroff shows up, thats when it goes "from a party to an event", so again, we were happy.

Other overheard conversation led us to believe that there were people from Boston magazine around as well on Friday night, but like the Soroff rumor, we've got nothing to confirm that.

The drinks were great, very unique and creative, most of the ones we tasted featured coconut and were blue and green, we suppose thats because Haru's logo is also blue and green. Nice tie-in. And the food, amazing, we haven't had sushi that good in a long time.

The decor is nice, but not too-nice. It doesn't try too hard as many local sushi places have a tendency to do. The ceiling is a little low, which makes for a cozy, if a tad tight, setting, but we'd imagine that has more to do with the Pru than with Haru.

Our waiter, Brandon, was great, very personable and fun. Service is always one of our most important factors when considering a place and here Haru shines.

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