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| - I went to Goyemon the very first time based on the reviews of my ever so reliable fellow YELPers. Honestly, I wasn't impressed the first time I tried their AYCE. I intentionally did not write a review thinking that I should try them some other time. Or, maybe I went there on one of my "bad taste buds" days. By trying them the second time, I was giving them and myself the proverbial "benefit of the doubt". I was actually intrigued and surprised to see some of the high praises and Hallelujah reviews about Goyemon. Having lived in Japan (I was stationed in Iwakuni, Japan and travelled around the country) for two years, I've had the once in a lifetime experience to actually taste what the cuisine, both regional and national, is really like. It may not make me an expert on sushi-ya, but I can claim some kind of leverage over the regular sushi and self proclaimed Japanese food lovers outside the Land of the Rising Sun.
I returned to Goyemon at the behest of a friend. We were initially going to Sushi Mon, then changed his mind to Oyshi, then finally decided on Goyemon last minute. I was OK with it. I thought my second trip would give me more reason to form and write down my opinion(s). So here it is.
- just like the first time I came, there was a long line, or scattered groups of people, waiting to be seated. The parking was somewhat limited. It was lunch time on a Tuesday. Always a good sign, you might think.
- After an hour, we were finally sat down right by the front door where people were standing up and gathered, waiting to be seated as well. We had to take the table otherwise we would've waited longer.
- We both opted for the AYCE lunch. There were only two ladies working the tables and 2 guys behind the sushi counter, an older Asian guy and a younger Latino guy . It took a good 15 minutes before the lady came and asked for our drinks, and get our orders.
- Drinks came, followed by our orders. They came incomplete, and few wrong ones. It didnt matter to us. We're both hungry so we didn't care since we knew we could re-order the next time she got closer to our table. Wrong. She didn't get near our table until after half an hour because she was busy taking and delivering orders somewhere else. I was worried our 2 hour limit would expire way before we could get our third and fourth round of orders.
- the nigiris came and was surprised and disappointed with the shari. Making sushi rice is an art in itself. I remember watching the itamaes in Japan manually fanning and painstakingly and delicately mixing the steamed rice with seasoned vinegar. What I had in Goyemon on both occasions were their version of "broken rice". The rice weren't sticky and they would break down as soon as it hit the wasabied soy sauce. The rice literally disintegrated. I was so close to asking for a spoon since the chopsticks were useless . (FYI: In Japan, chopsticks are never used when eating sushi. They use fingers.)
- Their wasabi was obviously made into paste from powdered green colored horseradish. It had neither bite nor kick. Normally, they would clear up your sinuses and bring you to tears for a second or two. Their's was just light green, grainy and dry Their gari (pickled ginger) didn't spend enough time bathing in its pickling brine. It was bland! The fish that were served to us were haphazardly cut and unevenly sliced. Where's the "aijou"?
- The tempuras, rolls (handwrapped and deep fried), baked and fried appetizers were decent. The miso soup that I ordered at the very beginning came in towards the end of our meal and was meh, as in really, MEH! It was all broth. I didn't see any diced tofu or wakame seaweed in my soup. Their poke salad was not really poke (go to Island Sushi, folks!).
- I finished my meal with an order of green tea ice cream. Ordinary. It is safe to say that I've tried and tasted all the items on their AYCE menu in my two visits. My friend looked at me, and said: "Sorry". He knew I did not enjoy the meal. And he read me like an open book!
For the price we paid, I personally think we were robbed but then again its the standard going price for AYCE in the valley. There's just something fishy (no pun intended) about going to a sushi place not owned, run and staffed by non Japanese, and recognizing that most of the non-white customers on both days I was there were Koreans. I am not hating. Just saying.
I also observed (while its taking them forever to deliver our orders) that most of the customers were ordering and pigging out mostly on fried entrees and rolls, and not on nigiris. That's when I hypothesized that the 5 star reviews I've seen and perused on YELP must have been based on the fried entrees, rolls and desserts. Makes perfectly sense now ;)
Fool me once, blame on me :) Fool me twice, not coming back!
(I was told that Sushi Mon and Goyemon are owned and ran by the same non Japanese owners. Is there truth to that?)
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