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Review content:
I had such high hopes for Shoku, as it came with good recommendations from friends in the Grandview area. I now have to conclude they know nothing about sushi.
I ordered the sweet potato roll and the veggie tempura roll with asparagus and squash. I asked if the chef could leave out the fried onion from my sweet potato roll, and the waitress said it would be no problem. She was wrong. My roll had almost more onion than anything else in it. In addition to which, other than onion flavor, the roll was pretty tasteless. My other roll - veggie tempura - was so bizarre. The veggies were steamed, rolled, and then the ENTIRE ROLL was battered and deep fried, not to mention that they didn't use tempura batter at all, but a bread crumb batter. Again, pretty tasteless, other than the flavor of deep fryer with old oil in it. My friend ordered several rolls with fish in them, and commented that they were entirely tasteless. She ordered one with spicy salmon in it, which had no spice, and one with cilantro. It seems they were OUT of cilantro, however, as the chef substituted parsley instead. Overall, in the rolls, ingredients were either missing, overused, old, or just ill-prepared.
The rolls were made very loosely, so that they fell apart as I tried to eat them, and they were so big, I couldn't comfortably eat a piece at once. This resulted in MORE sloppiness, as I had to take more than one bite to finish a piece. Finally, the pieces were sliced so thin that it became difficult to pick them up, further adding to the mess on my plate. I should have just asked for a fork.
The waitress was pleasant enough when talking to us, but seemed distracted, despite the fact that we were her only table. Furthermore, even though there was almost no one in the restaurant, we were hurried out almost as soon as we had finished our rolls. We still had wine in our glasses, but the waitress seemed to want us to get on our way. Finally, when we got our bill we realized that we were about to way over pay for what was at best a below-average experience. $9 for a veggie roll?!? So very over-priced for the overall quality. I'm sorry to say this Shoku, but you're not going to be in business long if you don't make some changes. Like, you know, flavor in your food.
If you're looking for good sushi in town, so far, Nida's is in the lead. My friends and I are on a quest to find the best, and have tried Nida's on High, Shoku, and Restaurant Hama at Easton. Nida's is far and away the best so far.
Pros: atmosphere
Cons: almost everything else
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