Sober Fish has so much potential, and I have a lot of hope that this place can get itself together. I really WANT a good sushi/Thai place in my neighborhood, and I'd go there frequently if I felt like someplace fulfilled that goal.
The main problem we had was, quite honestly, with our server. On Saturday afternoon, he seemed to be the only server working, though there were others sitting and folding napkins and doing other sidework. He really needed to ask someone for help, as he was either extremely poorly trained or just not good at this. He kept forgetting things we ordered, and when he brought us the "sushi dinner" instead of the sashimi we had ordered, we just ate it because it took more than an hour to get that incorrect order and we didn't want to be there forever. When we did point out mistakes, such as how he forgot half the rolls our table ordered, he seemed confused and seemed to think we hadn't been clear. No, dude, I've eaten in a lot of restaurants and know how to order, plus I know you even said it back to us. Write things down if you can't remember! It took three hours to get a moderate amount of sushi and a couple drinks, and my husband's second beer was delivered as we were trying to pack up, almost an hour after we re-re-reminded him of it.
I started to wonder if he'd ever even EATEN in a restaurant before, because he was just so inept. He handed us all our plates with computer tickets sitting on top of the food, goopy paper mushed onto things we were eating, smeared with sauce. It also took an hour to get our first drinks. We were there with friends celebrating my husband's birthday, and we would have bought a LOT more cocktails if our server had been willing or able to provide those. That's kind of throwing away money for their restaurant, besides disappointing the customers. He also kept telling us "back of the house" issues, like a kid making a lame excuse no one wants to hear, we just wanted our food. Those were things he should have been trying to cover up, not use as an excuse for his failures.
Which brings me to food. Kinda small. The "sushi dinner" was like a plate of dollhouse sushi. The other rolls were mostly OK, but nothing amazing or super-tasty. It was really disappointing. I love sushi a lot, and in the last couple months I've eaten at Fuji-Ya, Midori's, Origami, Wasabi and Sushi Tango. This wasn't as good or even really close to any of them, and Sushi Tango is kind of quicky mall sushi, not a super high bar for a restaurant to meet. Maybe they were just really poorly staffed for sushi chefs on Saturday afternoon, but then don't be open those hours.
So... we'll go back. I'm going to give them another chance or 2, I REALLY want a good sushi place close to me and the fact that this one also has Thai food which makes my picky kids happy is such a plus. I hope so much that they work out their issues, and I hope someone trains our poor bumbling server (or kicks his butt into action, or out the door, sorry dude). I felt like he may have been hired simply for his gauged ears & tattoos, as a "let's fit in the neighborhood" kind of thing. Don't do that, Sober Fish, I don't care at all what my server looks like as long as they actually serve our table.
I'll check back & amend this review when I go again, and I hope I'll be able to say better things! read more