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| - A disappointing visit, but worth another shot with different menu items.
We visited Sumo after my boyfriend received a very generous birthday coupon for $20 off the total dinner bill. We stopped in on a Thursday night and were able to get seating immediately. The decor is striking (especially the giant sumo wrestler statues when you enter) and the restaurant is unrecognizable from the building's former life as a buffet.
There's a takeout counter when you first enter, and then a host station a little farther in. Hibachi is toward the back of the restaurant, and "regular" dining is to the left. We chose regular dining.
Drink orders were taken promptly and overall service was good (minus one thing that we'll get to); my boyfriend's soda never went more than half empty, finished dishes were cleared quickly, and even little things like my straw paper were whisked away within a minute of placing it on the end of the table. Our server was kind and food came quickly after being ordered.
We ordered the crab rangoon appetizer and I placed an order for the chicken tempura dinner. I thought my boyfriend was ordering beef teriyaki but he ordered the chicken tempura as well. I almost changed my order to the orange chicken, and wish I had.
Dinners come with onion soup and a salad. The onion soup was okay; it was a good portion but for me it was too sweet and earthy. My boyfriend enjoyed it quite a bit, though. The salad was iceberg lettuce with a sweet mayo dressing and croutons. I did like the taste of the dressing, but the combo of iceberg and mayo was similar to coleslaw and I only had a couple of bites due to the sweetness. I didn't sample the crab rangoon, but they did look perfectly fried and the filling had some fresh herbs. My boyfriend had me try the dipping sauce, which he liked, but I didn't care for it. Both were definitely a step up from fast food delivery, though.
Soon our tempura arrived, and it was honestly comical. I was picturing rice, veggies, and some lightly breaded chicken pieces. What it was in actuality was a mountain of fried food in thick, crunchy, panko breading. The base was two large, thick slabs of panko-crusted sweet potato, plus an even bigger piece of panko-crusted white potato. There was a huge panko-crusted mushroom, five panko-crusted chicken strips stacked like firewood, and a large panko-crusted onion ring. Each plate also came with a bowl of rice and a small dish of the same sauce that came with the crab rangoon.
One tempura dinner would have made an okay appetizer for four people, but as an entree it was impossible to eat. Even my iron-stomached, non-picky, clean-plate-club boyfriend could only make it through half a sweet potato slice and two pieces of chicken before feeling ill from the grease and heavy crust. I was able to eat one chicken piece before my stomach started turning from the richness. I tried one bite of the sweet potato, but there was no discernible seasoning and the thickness of the cut made it a little more firm than I prefer.
I will say the chicken was good quality and if I had some spicy mustard to cut through the deep-fried goodness it would be a really tasty app. I would have asked for some, but once our entrees were delivered we didn't see our server again until we had been sitting for ten minutes and barely touching our plates. By then we decided to just get boxes (chopping up the chicken with some fresh veggies will probably make a good lunch) and go. And here we come back to the service point I mentioned - I wasn't asked if I enjoyed my food and no comment was made that I really hadn't eaten anything. I was just asked if we wanted dessert, then the check, and then we requested the boxes.
My boyfriend and I had already discussed that we wouldn't have asked to send it back since we did get what we asked for, and it was what the menu said; we just had different expectations that it would be a more balanced entree with some lighter/fresher elements rather than a jumbo pile of fried breading.
We noticed most people had sushi and it looked great; we may return and go that route, but we'll probably skip the entree section.
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