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| - I'm pretty sure our server, James, was some sort of service guru that descended from the mountains of service mastery to teach all the kids how to do it right. I've never had someone that was so attentive at an AYCE and the way he managed our entire row of tables was highly professional. He noticed that we were just sitting there in between rounds and came over to us to ask if we were still waiting on certain items. Wow! I don't have to chase down a waiter for food and water at an AYCE?? Amazing!
Now onto the food. It wasn't the first time I've had the AYCE here and it's consistently been pretty good. Yes, some dishes are better than others. The cooked meat dishes were very well done. The lamb chops, steak, and short-ribs were superb. They were all very tender and had great flavour and sauces. The coconut shrimp was crispy and coconut-y. The salt and pepper calamari was, surprisingly, another standout for me. It wasn't heavily coated in batter and was very tasty. There were squid and eel sashimi, which are not always available at other places, and some rather big gyoza. Even though they didn't have a lot of dessert items, I also really enjoyed their mango creme brulee.
Having said that, there were a few less impressive items. Their sushi was pretty disappointing. Even though they've scaled back on the rice ratio, it's still WAY too much. The rice was also too sticky and just ruined the flavour of the rolls. The salmon tataki was also weird. They just took a stack of regular salmon sashimi and torched the top (thin side), making it a very uneven burn. On a sidenote, there's really no need to use the Japanese names of the sashimi on the menu with no English translation available. Was its intention to facilitate some sort of constant Q&A with the waiter? Mission accomplished then, I guess.
I'm giving the food a 3.5 but the service is pushing it up to a 4. I'm not really sure why the general rating is so low for this place. Obviously, Spring Rolls has its flaws and the food is white-washed versions of Asian dishes. But like Mandarin, you don't really come here and expect food that screams authenticity. Overall, I think they've got great variety and generally, good quality. The dinner pricing is on par with a lot of other AYCE but lunch is a terrific value. Like AYCE Japanese places, they don't have sashimi during lunch but unlike those other places, they have a great selection of high-quality cooked dishes. They also have James on Friday evenings. You keep doing you, James; you are god's gift to the AYCE service world.
(29/100) - 2016
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