7/12/2014

I have been recommended by so many friends to come here, and all i can say is I had to cut tie with those friends. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to my worst enemy, i was shocked my friends would do this to me.



Let me start with some compliments, then some criticism, then end with some more compliments, I think all restaurants deserve that amount of grace.



Compliment:

The name of this place is good and appropriate. If i ever got lost and saw this restaurant, i would know that I am in Davis, California. They do serve some sort of pseudo-japanese sushi, and it IS a buffet, so I will give the name an A-



Criticism:

Please know that I take no pleasure in writing this section of the review.

Flies, there are flies everywhere, did the previous owner of this building died in this restaurant and in his will he demanded his rotting body be covered up by the carpet? because that's the only explanation I can think of as to why this establishment has so many flies and such disgusting carpets.



But i can understand the flies, it's a restaurant that serve raw meats, there's only so much you can control. However, what almost made me puked was when one of the cashier (i think he was also a server, a bit rolypoly kind of guy) took the fly swatter and swat the flies next to the sushi on the sushi boats. I thought "maybe he's new here, and doesn't know how disgusting it is to do that in front of the customers" but the sushi chef just laughed and took the fly swatter and swat another fly next to the sushi! THEY MADE A GAME OUT OF IT! There are no winner in this imaginary game they just made, only losers: the flies and the disgusted customers.



I tried to order some sashimi, only got shushed by the sushi chef, he just kept waving his arm at me and shouting at me in another language, everyone was staring at me at this moment. I mean, I guess I can understand if he doesn't speak English, he works in a Japanese restaurant. But I was ordering the food in their japanese name! Sake sashimi in Japanese is SAKE SASHIMI! Well, apparently I am suppose to order with the bus boys and the servers, which I think is fine, I just wish they would let me know that when we walked in so I wouldn't be served with a generous slice of rude cake in my face by the sushi chef.



But that's the other thing, who the hell are the servers? None of them wear uniform, the only thing that actually identify them as working there is the little dirty dark red aprons they wear, which is unidentifiable if they turned around. And once in a while some guys with no aprons also take orders.



I went to this establishment around the time of World Cup 2014, so they had that on TV. Whenever a team made a goal, bunch of the workers from the kitchen would run out and watch the TV, all the sushi chef would stop working and watch the replay, the cashier would grab a chair next to the customers and watch the tv. I think the only one that was actually working during that 5 min of soccer excitement was one of the server with an apron and one of the cashier. The whole time i was thinking "is this Monty Python?" It was just very disorganized in general.



The food tasted okay, it was mostly just different combinations of rice, imitation crab meat, and shrimp tempura (with heavy breading, ugh). So i decide to order something different: Sashimi.

Whenever I ordered sashimi, the server took down the order on a small piece of paper and gave that paper to this old lady that just sit at the table next to hot food. I wasn't sure if she was working there or not, her shoes were off and her crusty feet were just on the chair. The old lady looked at the paper and just continue doing whatever zoning out/people watching she was doing. After like 15 min, she got up, walked to the back of the sushi bar, made the sashimi (made? more like take it out of the fridge and place it on the plate), and yelled at the server. I got my sashimi, but i think i also got some of that old lady's foot skin or something because i definitely got sick the next day.



And this place is hot, is there no a/c in that place? we live in post-industrialized era, why am i eating raw fish in a freaking sauna?



Compliment:

The servers were extremely friendly. But for the love of Buddha can the management please get them some uniforms so we can find them easier next time?



As i finish typing up this review on the toilet, trying not to crap out my own digestive tracts, I just wanted to say that I wouldn't be complaining about all of these things if I didn't think they were completely preventable and fixable. The management is just chaotic, and all the decorations on the sushi bar, cashier's counter, in the creepy bathrooms, and on the wall, looks like someone's grandma decorated them with stuff they bought at flea's market.



I bet it was that foot skin old lady.



EDIT: I completely forgot to mention all the weird gunks that's on the small plates they give you and in the water that the boat is floating on.