The first time I walked in to Mariko, I sat at a table waiting for almost 15 minutes for someone to take my order before choosing to just leave. It wasn't busy, almost empty really, and servers could be seen chatting amongst themselves.
I should have heeded that warning.
Before Mariko, I wouldn't have believed that sushi could be made and served so poorly. The rolls were mostly rice, falling apart from poor construction, actually lukewarm, and the fish (what there was of it) was definitely not fresh. The "spicy sauce" that covered some options seemed to be little more than a greasy spiced mayonnaise-like goop that I might expect to see at a roadside Denny's.
A server dressed in dirty sweatpants? Dust-covered exposed wiring tangled around the tawdry lighting fixtures?
Never again.