Sano Sushi Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Markham

Let me start of by saying, if you’re looking for a la carte quality from an all you can eat restaurant, come here. If you want all of the reasons why you should come here, continue to read the review.

I was really hesitant on this visit for a few reason; we were a large group and that usually brings down quality on top of the fact that throughout covid, most all you can eat restaurants have gone down significantly in quality but that was NOT the case at all. I have been coming to Sano for years, in fact when I first started coming here it was still called “VIP Sushi” and time and time again they have never let me down.

My biggest complaint whenever I go to all you can eat is that they try to overload you on rice which wasn’t even remotely the case here. The fish tasted incredibly fresh, the rice was nicely seasoned (which isn’t all too common at sushi restaurants lately) and the service was really good.

Some of the highlights were the Wakame salad which is unlike any wakame salad I have ever had. In 99% of places when you order wakame salad they serve you what I consider “seaweed salad” you know, the bright green, cold stringy seaweed salad but here you get lovely wakame seaweed salad with a delicious sauce mixed in, I would recommend that to anyone that goes there. Of course the fish tasted very fresh which is always a plus. The red tuna was nice and buttery, the hand rolls were served fresh, the seaweed still being crunchy rather than soggy which shoes the servers are really hustling to get the food to the table as quickly as possible.

The hot food was also very memorable. The beef teriyaki was cooked to a perfect medium rare, they didn’t sink it in sauce to hide any potential poor meat quality which shows they are confident in the product they were putting out to their customers. The same goes for the short ribs, they were very well seasoned, not overcooked and fell right off the bone. Overall the food left a really good impression.

I try to always include a downside in every review just so there is full transparency in the reviews but I genuinely cannot seem to think of anything negative to say about Sano. Like I said at the very beginning of the review, you truly get a la carte quality from an all you can eat restaurant here which is...

READ THIS REVIEW- HORRIBLE STAFF

This restraunt has a few untrained staff who are rude, immature, and do not have any sort of customer service training at all. This use to be my favourite restaurant.. I would go once or twice a week and always bring people or my family.. One day I came in a few weeks ago and they painted the walls and had a bunch of new staff. This review is directed to a man with blonde hair who is extremly disrepsectful and clearly was not trained. Today I found a hair in my food, I wasn't even going to make a problem out of it UNTIL this man with blonde hair aproached my table and began making me feel extremely uncomftorable and pressured to "finish all of my food" (stating i will get an extra charge on top of the all you can eat fare) (Like buddy I've been coming here for years... Im very aware) I then showed him the dish with the hair in it and explained that seeing a hair in my chicken threw me off from finishing the rest of my food.. (Can you blame me?) So then INSTEAD of APOLAGIZING that there was a HAIR in my food or demonstrating any sort of customer service he very rudely and with a large amount of attitude told me that I must eat the remainder of the food or I will be charged. Bro there was a hair in my food are you good? I have worked in restraunts since I was 15 (I'm 18 now) and I know that that is NOT how you treat a customer or repersent the company that you work for. Was this man even trained? Clearly not. Also, I even said "thank you" with a nice smile and he just ignored then visiciously cleaned off my table. I feel bad, because theres two staff that work there that have been working there for as long as I have been coming and I can see that they see the corruption that Sano has become lol. When i go in there now it feels like I am in a f**ed up episode of...

Was there with my husband last night for a Valentine’s Day dinner, and it was such a disappointing experience. They prioritized all takeout/delivery orders over their customers sitting there in person. It took over an hour to get an order of sushi, most customers were disappointed and complaining. When i went to inform one of the waitresses that we had ordered sushi she snapped at me and said “We are busy can’t you see? They’re working on it!!”

Rude and careless to be honest. All of the tables around us arrived around the same time and we were all waiting for sushi for over an hour, as we could visibly see the 3 people making sushi for takeout orders and placing them in takeout containers for over an hour, without a single order being made for the customers sitting in the store. I completely understand it can get busy, but they prioritized profit from takeout over their customers sitting there just waiting….

We ended up just telling them to forget about most of our sushi order as we had been at the restaurant for over 2 hours at that point and most of our sushi order had not arrived yet…

They could have given the takeout customers a realistic time of when the food would get ready, or limit their intake of takeout orders.

Anyway, on top of that, 2 of their employees were visibly very sick, one was making sushi and coughing all over the place, and the other one was a waitress walking around visibly fatigued and sick and coughing as she interacted with the customers.

Overall very disappointing experience. We have been regular customers for over a decade… but it seems like they can’t handle a full house & takeout, and would rather prioritize takeout customers over their dine...