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| - Having previously been a big fan of Sushi Loca, tonight's experience has left me mildly despondent. They may well be ok at making Americanized rolls with funky little names, but their skill with traditional sushi is woefully lacking.
Let's start from the beginning. The ginger and wasabi came out looking a bit tired with slightly dry crusts forming on the edges (as if they had been prepped too long before being served), and the cucumber salad with vinegar and bits of imitation crab meat had obviously been left out judging by their room-temp warmth. Ok...I was willing to let that slide. I wanted traditional sushi tonight and ordered the following nigiri: tuna, tamago, cucumber, and ika. The cucumber roll looked like a three-year-old rolled it up, and it fell apart with the many slivers of cucumber scattering on the first bite (why not just put a few, or even one chunk of cuke in there?). The too-long piece of tamago was laid over about 25 grains of rice, and the seaweed 'ribbon' did nothing to hold it together because the egg bit was five times bigger than the rice...that was fine, it still tasted ok, even if it made me chuckle. The tuna never showed up. Oh, I also ordered the garlic chili edamame, which was overcooked to limp greyish death, a bit like the Christmas Brussels sprouts that an English granny might serve, and the husks kind of broke up and came away along with the beans as my teeth tried to pull just the soybeans away.
And so to the ika, usually my very favorite nigiri! Hmm...it wasn't really bright white...it was a bit yellowy beige, like lightly coffee-stained teeth. Eww, what was that about? *sniff* P-U. Being 1/2 Okinawan and having lived in Okinawa and mainland Japan, and loving sushi, and knowing about the properties of fresh fish products (one of which is that it does not smell like anyone's ex-girlfriend), I knew that fresh ika was not supposed to smell like (I will refrain from being even more graphic than their funky sushi roll names and just say) THAT. This was not the worst part. When I explained to the lady who asked if everything was ok that no, the ika was old, she told me it was fresh from their supplier today. I told her I didn't care when she got it or from where and that it was way off and asked her to smell it. She smelled it and told me that was how it was supposed to be and that's what raw squid is like. I don't blame her for trying...she had no idea if I'd ever eaten sushi before and may have assumed me to be a raw fish virgin (it transpired in the back-and-forth that she only eats the cooked stuff there, so maybe she just didn't know herself what ika is supposed to be like). I dread to think what illness I would have contracted had I taken her word for it and eaten the stinky raw squid. She again said she just got it fresh and repeated that it was good. "YOU can eat it then," I suggested and even managed to smile. "I'm not touching it, and I'm not paying for it." After I *finally* convinced her that it was indeed off, she became apologetic and assured me that she was going to complain to her supplier and even offered me another Asahi and dessert, but I frankly think a restaurant should take full responsibility for what it serves, and this was too little too late.
She took the rotting ika and the never-even-arrived tuna off the bill (well, break out the champers!). I feel like a bit of a sucker for paying for any of it at all, but by then I was already feeling awkward for having complained (I know it was a valid complaint, but it's still not nice when confrontation becomes necessary, especially when the staff make it more awkward than it ought to be), and I was ready to just high-tail it out of there. If they were willing to serve me manky old squid and then try to defend it, who knows what other ickiness they would put on my table? Confidence totally blown for me.
From 4 stars to 1 star in one fell swoop. Sayonara, Sushi Loca! :(
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