I frequent this place and the food is usually amazing, but I've noticed the service deteriorating in the past months. Yesterday I went in when they opened to treat my brother to a birthday meal and we were extremely disappointed. First, the place was freezing. We all had to keep our jackets on which is not acceptable in my opinion. This place is usually pretty cold in the winter, but yesterday it was just ridiculous. I am going to assume there was something wrong with the heating because they did say they were working on it and the server did try to bring us tea to warm us up, but it was so uncomfortable. We were also in about 15 minutes after open and they were still setting up the restaurant rather than serving which was odd as well.
My husband got the salmon bento box which he said was delicious, but all the sushi we ordered was cold and the rice was hard which is not the norm for this place. My brother, who we were really excited to bring to our favourite sushi place was really disappointed by the food and surprised that we enjoyed it so much. I had the avocado crunch roll and the rice was hard and avocado was really cold to the point that there was no flavour. I went to ask the staff if the rice had been made that morning and no one really answered so I asked them to remake it which they did without any trouble. Here's what really bothered me: once remade it was delicious - perfect texture and temperature. I gave a piece to my brother to try and he was amazed by the difference and wished he had his remade, but had no reference point to know it wasn't made properly as a first timer. It really makes me wonder if materials from the night before were being reused in the morning which is really disappointing.
I would've given this place an easy 5 stars when I first started coming, but I don't know if I'll be frequenting as much after the past few experiences (probably not in the winter). My husband and I have also brought lots of friends here who frequent it as well and also notice the drop in quality.
I'm giving 3 stars based on past experiences but if I was basing it on yesterday I would probably give a 1.5. Hopefully once the owner is back things get better.