Blissful Umami — Restaurant in England

Visiting Reading and love sushi so I chose Sen Sushi based on the good reviews. I sat in the bar which has a clear view of the both the kitchen and 2 chefs cooking and preparing sushi. Initially the environment did not not appear clean, with cooking pans dirty and walls in need of attention. Fillets of salmon were wrapped in cling film above the fridge for some reason. It seemed normal if it were a kebab shop, but when dealing with raw fish I expect cleanliness to be a higher standard. Despite this I decided to try the following Nigiri:

Salmon Tuna Grilled Salmon (Chefs Special) Arctic Surfclam

All items were prepared in front of me, hygiene again was a concern as the chef would wash hands then use knife/scissors that had not been washed - if there is any contamination on the utensils they would have been immediately transferred back to his hands, which he then used to mould rice. Portion size was generous, both in fish and rice. It was in fact too large to eat the pieces in one bite, but this can looked at as a positive as well as you get more for your money. The salmon was OK, smelled fresh (no fish odour) and was the most enjoyable part of the meal. The tuna looked washed out and didn't have the rich red colour expected from good quality tuna, it was chewy and was disappointing especially as this is usually my favourite fish in sushi. Grilled salmon much the same as the raw salmon, just grilled slightly with a blowtorch. Artctic Surfclam was a new experience for me, but did not impress, it was a rough texture but again did smell fresh.

I also had flying fish roe gunkan. The roe came from a pre-packaged container and was absolutely tiny. It tasted fishy and was not enjoyable so I didn't finish it. I would usually have eaten much more sushi but after this I decided to leave the meal at that point.

Unfortunately the restaurant does not live up to the...

This was my favourite Japanese Takeaway until tonight. We ordered online for pick up 7 dishes. Gyoza - it was great as always we always order 2 portions Chicken skewers - very bland and not tasty Tempura pawns and veg - this dish was forgotten to be added to our bag Katsu chicken with rice - one of our favourite dishes, bit this time it was very disappointing, not very well seasoned and very watery Teriyaki Ramen Noodles with chicken - too oily, the whole dish packed teriyaki sauce, very bland Teriyaki Udon Noodles with chicken - the noodles very great the chicken was ok - one of the dishes that was ok-ish

Once we arrived home and realized we didn't have the tempura we called and the lady confirmed that it's still there and said you can come and pick it up we will keep it for you, fair enough since we live a bit further away so delivery was not an option. We went back to pick it up, there was no apology and nothing else was even offered for the inconvenience.

When we got home we were even more disappointed since the tempura dish was even more bland than the chicken skewers. The courgette even had uncooked flour bits around it.

We might order once more but not very soon. Totally disappointong Valentine's dinner with hubby...

It's possible we ordered takeaway at a bad time. But that doesn't excuse the gastrointestinal distress my partner and I both suffered a few hours after eating.

Salmon sashimi was a fairly good start, but once we tried the nigiri we realised the rice hadn't been properly seasoned (or seasoned at all?) with sushi vinegar, so it just tasted like blocks of plain rice under fish chunks of varying freshness. Not really what we paid for.

"Special harumaki crispy rolls" were greasy rolled-up pancakes that only tasted of grease. I'm still confused about why this is on the menu.

The subpar food plus the amount of time I had to spend in the toilet afterwards and the nausea my partner felt makes it 1 star. I'm guessing all the 4 and 5 star reviews are due to the lack of good sushi options in Reading, and people getting luckier than us on the food safety...