| rev:text
| - Quick Look: Average Sushi and Sub-Par Service.
In Depth Review: Made the 20+ minute drive from the other side of the valley to try a "new" place on Thursday, May 15th. We arrived at 7:30pm and were greeted by a lovely Geisha and seated at a nice table on the patio. Was surprised how empty the massive space was. The busiest part was the bar and patio area. It was a younger looking, "happy hour" type crowd.
After being seated by a nice little waterfall feature we were handed multiple different sized menus w/o and explanation as to what they were all about. Was a bit confusing. We sat at that table for a few minutes w/o being greeted or being offered water or having our drink order taken. A male waiter shows up and asks if our waitress has stopped by the table yet, we say "no" and he say's he will take our drink order. After he departs with the order a female waitress shows up and asks if she can now take our drink order. Huh? We got a signature Ginger Mojito and a Sake Sangria (made with cucumbers). Drinks were delicious although my hand was sticky from the spillage on the outside of my glass.
Asked the female waitress what "specials" they had that day and she could not answer me. Had to leave to check on the specials and come back and tell me. This is a big restaurant so it's not like this just took a minute, a few minutes would pass so she could walk all the way to the kitchen.
So we place our order - (salmon sashimi, yellowtail sashimi, tuna sashimi, Japanese lasagna roll, spicy tuna roll and the special that included steak, scallops and tuna over a bed of lettuce in an "orgasm" sauce). I had initially attempted to order a few fish items listed on the menu and was told they were not available (example: amber-jack). Asked for at least three different items and was shot down. That's confusing, remove them if not available & place the specials somewhere the customer can see them.
Food starts to arrive all at once, bad timing. I like my sushi restaurants to time the plates so that they are not all sitting in front of me. Tuna sashimi was "fishy" and my wife refused to eat it after the first bite. All the sashimi pieces lacked that fresh fish "snap" I find at the better sushi restaurants in the city. On a positive note they do give generous pieces of fish at a good price.
The sushi rolls certainly looked nice when they arrived. The rice was hard and not the soft, sticky rice you will find at a fancy sushi house (Yellowtail, Nobu). The hard rice caused my nice looking sushi rolls to fall apart when I tried to pick them up with the chopsticks. Rice tasted like the low budget stuff you buy in bulk at a warehouse like Sam's Club. The special that day was steak, scallops and tuna over lettuce in an orgasm sauce. Was presented well, a huge portion but was given a plate full of the hard heel pieces of the lettuce that nobody eats & the steak was overcooked and tough like leather. The Japanese Lasagna roll was the tastiest item we had, certainly recommend that item.
As we finished the items and pushed our dirty plates to the other side of the table, nobody came to remove the dirty plates. They just sat there, obviously empty, as multiple employees (and managers) walked by the table and never removed them. The removal of the dirty plates seemed to be an issue as our waitress went to get the check, took our credit card and cashed us out all while the dirty plates still sat on the table in front of us. I finally asked a busboy to remove them and let him know they had been sitting there 20+ minutes. He was going to walk by the table w/o removing them when I stopped him. He apologized & blamed the dish removal on the bar staff.
Had other service related issues while we were dining, like: a runner showing up and dropping off a plate meant for our neighbors at another table, waitress forgetting to come and take our drink order when she said she would: "be right back," waiter grabbing drink order and forgetting to put the drink order in, two drinks showing up when it should have been just one - etc. Just seemed like they had a lot of service related issues. Got a very amateur vibe & the two of us were spun with all the errors & lack of service over site. Think some additional training is necessary and that goes for whomever is leading this confused group.
Summary: was not worth the long drive and too be honest, we were a bit disappointed. The mediocre plates may have been over looked if the service was top-notch? Too much confusion going on here. Beautiful restaurant and space. Hopefully management & the owners take notice and bring this place up to par with the fine sushi establishments in the city. You have great potential w/ that location!
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