As a self-proclaimed sushi snob, I'm torn about this place! Let me explain.
The first time I went (on a Thursday night, when I first moved into the neighborhood back in March 2009), I sat at the sushi bar and the elder Japanese sushi chef attended to me. I ordered a sushi omakase and he did me right! Out came singular pieces of toro, amberjack, bonito, kampachi, mirugai, uni. Most everything was amazing! For $20! I was sold.
Which is why my dinner tonight is so perplexing. I sat at the sushi bar but the elder sushi chef wasn't there. Not one sushi chef made eye contact with me to take an order. A waitress (who WAS very attentive) came after a few minutes and took my order for a sushi omakase and one roll. And then I watched the chefs in front of me for about 15 minutes make other orders. Again, no eye contact or anything. Finally one of them plopped down two pieces of what looked like tuna sushi in front of me without saying a word. I looked at him hopefully and asked, "Is this toro?" and he said, "No, tuna." Took me by surprise. Not that there's anything wrong with straight-up tuna, but I could have ordered that in a sushi regular platter! And then after the tuna, spaced apart by about 5-10 minutes, a succession of salmon, yellowtail and eel.
Not only that, after sitting there for 40 minutes, they never made my roll and I had to pull the waitress aside and ask her to just cancel it. The sushi chefs weren't slammed - in fact, there were times I just saw them standing around chatting with each other.
So when I politely asked if they were going to bring me more "unique" sushi, they shook their heads. Then the lead Japanese sushi chef came over, told me he didn't have other stuff and looked at me like I was unreasonable. Huh?
Don't get me wrong - the fish I did eat was just fine. But the inconsistent and puzzling service was just so strange. I ended up leaving after 8 pieces (2 each of 4 kinds of "everyday" sushi) because I was so confounded as to our seemingly different definitions of "omakase".
Am I being too snobby? Perhaps. I DO normally enjoy fresh, quality pieces of what I got tonight. But don't serve an omakase at a proclaimed authentic Japanese place and give a sushi bar customer tuna and eel. Especially at a place that once served me a beautiful omakase 3 months prior. I could have saved myself some money and ordered the regular sushi platter. Instead, I got the "chef's choice" and was confounded by the mundaneness of his selection.
So the food itself good, but sushi bar service = huh???? read more