What can I say, I'm a sushi guy and try to get to as many as possible. None the less, sushi is expensive and so I am always looking for incentives to go, especially when you can find those ""diamond in the rough"" out of the way places that become your little secret.
In this case, I found them advertised in restaurantdotcom as a place with good deals on purchased gift certificates. We purchased a gift certificate which for 10 dollars would get you a 25 off of 35 or more spent, with the caveat that you had to spend at least 35 and there was a mandatory 18% tip. Now we all know that sushi is expensive but this seemed fair enough as we knew that 35 is easy to reach and we would most certainly exceed that.
The experience started off nice enough, we arrived at 8:30 pm to an empty restaurant (literally the only customers which might have been a clue) to a friendly and enthusiastic staff. They seemed genuinely glad to see us (I guess that happens when your empty) and made good conversation with us throughout. We asked why so empty and the chef / owner stated that his ""rush"" had already occurred. He asked what had attracted us and we told him the source, whereas he stated that he had only briefly been advertising with restaurantdotcom and remarked at how expensive it was and how important word of mouth is. More on this later.
We looked at the menu and I immediately notice that the prices were about 25 percents more per sushi item for sushi items and 35 percent more for rolls. Well enough, we came and there is no telling the quality so you take the chance and hope for the best. I ordered Ikura, Hamachi, Unagi, and a Rainbow roll, I ordered and additional roll explained later. The Nigiri quality was good, nice pieces of fish, with nice fresh flavor, eel was nice. The rainbow was average.
Now comes the deal breaker. My girlfriend likes Volcano rolls. Every place makes them different and this was no exception. Saikyo make there volcano roll with asparagus as a filler. Most volcanoes are a California rolls are made with a spicy crab mix on the top. Pretty straight forward. We requested that we could get two made in this manner. Now I guess its my fault for not asking but I had now idea that the chef charged us for making his this roll and combining the price for a California and a Volcano together. 17 dollars a piece worth of together. It wasn't even that good and I question whether the crab topping was really even crab.
Needless to say we got the bill and had sticker shock. 78 dollars with our 25 dollar discount. Now, compared with Moonfish or Amura this place doesn't stand a chance and for my money I could have eaten at those two for twice the quality and ambiance. I just kinda looked at the bill for a minute trying to figure out how 3 rolls, 3 nigiri and 2 beers came to 103 dollars not including tip. I asked the chef and he told me that the volcanoes were 17 a pop. I stated that I thought 17 was way to much for an average roll and he just looked at me. Needless to say, I ordered it so I payed but I wasn't happy and they knew it.
Now for a place that question the expense of advertising and how important word of mouth was, how could they in good conscience give that bill to me? Now you get word of mouth but it's not the kind you were looking for.
Recommendation = If your looking to drop a hundred bucks on sushi, goto Amura or Moon fish. You will get a better atmosphere, more and better sushi and won't feel like you just dropped the soap.
Pros: Friendly Service
Cons: Unscrupulous business practice.
more