| rev:text
| - TLDR: If I could give them less than 1 star, I would. Food sucks, price sucks, everything sucks. Despite the majority of "fantastic" reviews, this experience has been a polar opposite.
Came here once about 3 years ago, came here again just this Friday evening and it was a total disappointment despite all the so-called "positive" reviews here. A member of our party suggested Ten-Ichi for the "unique" AYCE teppanyaki and sushi. We were booked for the 8:00PM session, about an hour and a half later and $40 poorer, I felt crankier than before I arrived famished at the restaurant.
|| Food: Poor
Teppanyaki -- Apparently the highlight of the restaurant for an additional $3 you get unlimited servings of food supposedly freshly and artistically prepared in front of you on an iron griddle. If only that were true. In part it may be due to the lack of experience with our chef, but EVERYTHING he served us was under seasoned and under cooked. That included the shrimp, cod, salmon, steak, mushrooms, short ribs, and teriyaki chicken. My party can clearly taste that "frozen meat" taste. I understand that because I'm paying for an AYCE experience, meat won't be of the finest quality, but come on, seasoning would have done wonders! I really don't think it costs that much that you have to skimp on the salt, pepper and soy sauce. We asked for medium well done, we got rare steak. Talk about following instructions.
I avoid adding condiments or additional seasoning to my food but, for the first time in my restaurant life, I had to douse my teppanyaki fried rice in soy sauce. I had to fight the urge to ask the chef to hand me the spatula so that I could cook my own food than eat whatever I had to stomach. Mind you, I'm not a teppanyaki first-timer and never have I ever seen a more rushed "performance" or "service".
Sushi, Rolls and Other Regular AYCE items -- Just when we thought the tepannyaki side of things was terrible, the sushi was also a disappointment. Key points:
-- very "fishy" sashimi, tasted like it hasn't completed its thawing stages
(as told on the account on those in my party who consumes sashimi, unlike me)
-- very bready tempura and watery tempura sauce
-- a hell lot of rice in proportion to the other ingredients
-- used regular rice and no rice vinegar in all sushi items (hence, the bland taste)
-- sushi and rolls were falling apart when I picked them up
-- very TINY menu selection (only 35 items??)
-- watery, melting desserts
|| Atmosphere: Mediocre
I don't even want to comment any further, because the food has just completely sank my entire experience at this restaurant. All I can say is that it was the typical dim, warm and poorly ventilated (from all the airborne teppanyaki grease), so be sure not to wear your beloved pieces of clothing unless you want to bring home the smell of this catastrophe as a souvenir.
|| Service: Poor
Our session was scheduled to start at 8:00PM but we ended getting seated at 8:20PM, it wasn't until 8:45PM (where I almost forgot I paid the extra $3 for teppanyaki) that the chef finally showed up and began cooking for our party. No apologies, nothing. Again, the chef rushed to get everything done so he could leave asap that he didn't even serve us the mixed vegetables and fried rice until we requested it. In typical teppanyaki performances, and in my earlier visit to Ten-Ichi, there were a few instances were they got a "fire" going (ie. onion volcano, fire to sear the fish...etc.). Other than the one measly fire for no purpose in the centre and beginning, there was nothing significant to watch or enjoy. For $32, at least amuse me and give me a couple of fire photo opps. Not to mention give enough time for the food to cook. So many red flags.
Closing time is 11:00PM. But right when our chef finished cooking our food, he went straight to bringing a large metal bowl filled with a block of ice and a pair of rubber gloves. It was 10:00 PM and last call. It was soon evident what his intent was after seeing the table behind us just experience the exact same thing. He began cleaning the griddle directly in front of us when we were clearly all STILL eating. Talk about presentation and hygiene. Not even 5 minutes later, vacuums were in the works on the other side of the room. Many of the tepannyaki chefs had already left, we could clearly see through the employee slide door that the sushi chefs were also changing out of their uniforms and clocking out. Keep in mind it's still about 10:20 PM with at least 10 tables spread around the restaurant. Seems like all the employees want to leave work early on a Friday night as we were rushed to pay the bill and out of the restaurant. Way to finish off my Friday night.
|| -- Final Thoughts --
Oh, I was full alright, full on disappointment. Call me salty or whatever you like, but at least I have more flavour and quality than the food Ten-Ichi serves. Definitely never returning to this mess.
Food: 0/5
Atmosphere: 2/5
Service: 1/5
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