Sushi Star — Restaurant in Kitchener

Extremely disappointing, underwhelming, overrated, and forgettable.

I will never return, and I will actively go out of my way to discourage anyone I know from going to this restaurant.

Firstly, I called ahead of time to have a reservation for 6pm. When I arrived there were only 2 tables available. The couple that had been in the restaurant before me without a reservation was seated first at one of the tables. My table of 2 was seated at the table directly in front of the restaurant doors. (Clearly the worst table in the restaurant) their door does not work properly, it was very cold and windy, the two tables beside me clearly showed they were cold with their coats on as well. My table got the worst of the wind from the door being held open and not closed by any employees. I don't think anyone would have been comfortable at those tables. But to give the worst table to someone who called and reserved a table is beyond me. Literally unbelievable. It was also just genuinely upsetting seeing multiple families and couples shivering throughout their meal. This is your new location? What did you do all winter? Too cheap to turn the heat back on? Very unimpressed already.

Now, the order. (All you can eat) I placed my first order of mostly rolls, 10 minutes later I placed another order of mostly Sashimi. Every single item was brought on its own. As in, one at a time, nothing was ever plated together. Nothing was ever brought together. It was like bring out 1 roll of 6 pieces. 3 minutes later. 2 BBQ Eel Sushi pieces, 4 minutes later another roll of 6. Somehow things I ordered 10 minutes after a previous order would show up several minutes before what I ordered at first. I had to order certain items multiple times before they actually sent it. Never did see that Seaweed Salad.

The Sushi The Sashimi tasted fine, not better than any Sashimi I've had in Guelph, Georgetown, Mississauga. Nothing worth bragging about. I've had Sashimi the same quality at many places, nothing special here. Rolls Selection, probably the worst I've seen at any Sushi restaurant. There's a whole lot of the same and nothing that stands out. Their "must try" unique rolls are mostly okay, but are basically just making up for the fact they butcher everything else and dont have a lot of classics. The green dragon roll was pretty sad, I make better ones at home which is beyond embarrassing. The mayo on top is a really cheap touch too that is on so many rolls for no reason. Again just making me feel like everything here is low quality and unthoughtfully presented. There's nothing classy or elegant here in the plating either. Not to mention that every single roll I ordered was a different size. Even the same roll... some had lots of rice and were cut unevenly, some were very small with very little rice. Salmon Rose had way too much mayo, heavy handed.. yuck! I tried some hot kitchen items as well, they were good, but to me, a Sushi place is all about their Sashimi and rolls. And their rolls are reaally disappointing.

This place has a very loud and congested atmosphere.

If I didn't drive an hour to specifically try this restaurant because of its rating, I would have just left. And yes, this was my first experience at your restaurant, was trying to find a new favourite place to give my business to, good job turning me and all my family, friends and acquaintances away forever!

TLDR: Awful Experience, Awful Service, Awful Selection, Mediocre Taste. Some Decent Hot Kitchen Items. Never...

First time ordering Sushi Stars via UberEats and there was already a hiccup. We ordered 2 different platters, the UberEats driver ONLY delivered one of the platters. Either the Sushi Stars staff didn't pack probably with 2 platters or UberEats missed one of the platters at the counter. Anyhow, it's a total chaos afterwards where Sushi Stars blamed the UberEats Driver and UberEats Driver blames it's not his fault. At the end, Sushi Stars offered NO HELP and told us to figure it out with UberEats.

Anyhow, the UberEats charges a lot of delivery $ which is an epic fail when the proper amount of food never came. And at the end, one of our friends had to drive over to the restaurant to pick up the 2nd platter that were sitting at the counter all these times the UberEats driver didn't pick up. and there were tons of lineup to order or pickup their platter. That took a long time to get the 2nd platter. Lessons Learned. At the end, we paid all the fees UberEats charged and yet we still have to drive to the restaurant to pick up the platter which defeated the purpose of paying the driver to deliver the food.

Anyhow, back to the sushi platter that was delivered to us, it was a mixed of sushi rolls with small # of sashimi, it was ok, if this was in Toronto, it's just medicore, but I guess in Kitchener, people may give it a higher score, perhaps there isn't many decent sushi restaurant around to compare.

This was the first time I seen a restaurant offers grapes in the sushi platter, a mixed of orange carrot strips with radish stripes as garnish. LOL I do have to applaud them for providing lots of soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, napkins and cutlery.

Moreover, why on earth you serve the platter with 1 hand roll? My 1st time seeing a handroll in a sushi platter as it doesn't make any sense. If it's a platter, it means there is more than 1 person, so who is going to win that hand roll? Rock, paper, scissors? Or punch someone until the last person standing? Some of the stuff it served in the platter is mind boggling.

Anyhow, overall it does the job with typical sushi rolls but nothing star-tacular.

Definitely not "stars" but "star", taking out the plural letter "s" in the name,...

Update - Fantastic as always!! My last review of Sushi Star was 5 years ago but the last time before lastnight that we've been was just before covid. Let me start off by saying 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sushi Stars has always been a good restaurant but our experience lastnight was fantastic from beginning to end. Every dish we had was executed with perfection, flavour, texture, presentation. It was all fantastic!! Service was impeccable, so much care and attention from ALL servers. Even servers who weren't assigned to our specific table were cleaning up and helping as they walked by. I don't think I've ever gotten that level of service with great attention to detail from a non fine dining restaurant. I cannot say enough how good the food and service was. A++ Sushi Stars, it's great to see what was always one of our favourite restaurants survive covid and come back even stronger. You've upped your game in terms of variety and service. If I had to nitpick on anything it's that my beef didn't come out sizzling like other tables and it's because it sat for too long before being brought out. Also I asked for no avocado and our rolls still came with it but I'm pretty easy going so it wasn't a big deal for me but wanted to leave an honest review. I'll still give 5 stars because I was blown away by the improvements so I really hope they keep it this consistent. Thank you for a great meal with my family.

Old review - Pretty good, less selection for rolls than other all you can eat joints around town but the food is tasty. My one complaint is the floors are always slippery every time. I don't know if it's their cleaning products they let dry on there. No idea but my kid kept sliding and fell a couple times when we went in. Servers are nice and food is good, decent...