EAT'S AYCE SUSHI — Restaurant in Alhambra

EAT'S AYCE is a solid 4-star all you can eat with decent weekend dinner AYCE prices (even for a la carte) and great service. We were seated almost immediately with a party of 2-- they do use Yelp check-in iPad at the entrance. You get three rounds, and me and my partner were able to handle two. Our first round consisted of various rolls, rice-less, traditional, fried, and "topping" rolls as they call it or specialty rolls. We also tried the Takoyaki small plate and a few hand rolls. This first round was amazing. It was on part with EAT'S location in Costa Mesa, which is not AYCE but they are sooo so good in terms of fish quality in value.

Anyways, this first round sushi was A-1. Like, really really good. Food came out in a timely manner, and I could tell the fish quality is very acceptable. There is a notable amount of imitation crab used, but that's kind of to be expected. There's also no "fresh" rolls, which I was desperately craving when we got to round 2. In other words, there's no rolls that they have on the menu that have fresh ingredients as the main component (think cucumber, citrus, orange, lemon, etc.). I really wish they had that but most of the rolls here fill you up.

One critique-- the "chicken karaage" they serve is NOT chicken karaage. It was straight up boba-milk-tea-shop-popcorn-chicken. Like, it was actually worse. Chewier, and with lots of batter. I would skip this one but I was definitely disappointed because they advertise themselves as a Japanese restaurant, but this is farrrr far from karaage.

Where this location falls off is the 2nd round of AYCE. We ordered several other rolls, and even felt adventurous enough to order the squid sushi. Overall, we felt this 2nd round felt lesser quality. It also took awhile to come out (our waiter said it got really busy) and even the rice was like sticking to the plate. And the squid--- don't even get me started. It was pretty bad, like "don't order this, ever" kind of bad. It was so hard to chew, slimy, and just tasted off. I also felt like the sauces were thrown on heavy this 2nd round. Overall, it felt like grocery store sushi at this point, so we filled ourselves up as much as we can and asked for the bill.

Overall, I think the value here is great. At eighty bucks for two people on a Saturday night to do AYCE... that's pretty good if you can eat a bunch of food. The value does fall off once your party count increases, or once you surpass the 1st round, but like I said their a la carte prices are decent and initial sushi rolls are great. Maybe just order everything you can on the first round...

Would we go here again? Eh, I'd rather visit their Costa Mesa location or seek higher...

--- The good ---

We loved the in-n-out roll, eel, gyoza, salmon blue crab, salmon hand roll, and the salmon sushi. They were surprisingly good. I also enjoyed how they let us upgrade only one of the AYCE to premium instead of needing to do both.

The service was great even though I felt their resting faces gave me the wrong impression that they were cold initially. I think some more slight smiles or enthusiasm would've went a long way though. This doesn't apply to everyone though-- one of the waitresses always had a smile and that made me feel comfy.

--- The bad ---

Overall the food wasn't nearly as good as Tomomi (the previous restaurant that used to be here). The sashimi is basically nonexistent--the premium menu ones had super thin slices and drowned in sauces and oil in a more fusion style rather than traditional japanese. It was tasty but not the fresh umami you'd want from a nice fresh and thick piece of fish. The tuna was seared and peppered as well which was depressing because we wanted raw sashimi. The premium wouldn't have been worth it if not for the salmon blue crab which was delicious. But overall felt like they were hiding the lack of freshness with all these different sauces or searing techniques.

For the ambiance, the music choice was completely killing my immersion. Super American music from the radio, rap that doesn't fit the ambiance at all, etc. I would've liked some gentle (Asian?) instrumental tunes, japanese/anime music, or even kpop much better. I also miss the TVs from Tomomi (the previous restaurant that used to be here). Overall it feels modern and clean but a bit... empty? I'm not an interior designer but maybe some more furniture would feel better. The seats in front of the serving window felt too exposed too. Maybe that's it-- just felt that I lacked some privacy while eating. It could also just be because they only recently opened 2 months ago though.

Honestly I'm not sure we'll be coming back--all that and it was even more expensive than Tomomi. But we left feeling pretty decent-- it was good but...

Let me start by saying I do not like All you can eat sushi.

Food: Just ok, not quality sushi Portions: Small, you have to order multiple orders of the same Price: Expensive $30-50 per person Service: Decent Atmosphere: Feels like a regular restaurant than a shshi, not Japanese style, but more simple tables and booths.

I'm not a fan of all you can eat sushi places because generally they do not use quality products. And this place is no different. I actually did not know until I stepped inside, because they just took over a previous Japanese restaurant. Since I went with two of my nephews, I guess they can eat regardless of the quality. I picked the wrong day to go I guess. Payday holiday price of $40 per person.

The food quality is not that great. It's just decent, it's not great. But taste is ok. Much better than the one in West Covina.

Portions are small. We order double of everything. The spider roll, not sure how much spider do they put in that row, because the crab itself is larger than the rule. Looks like they cut a soft shell crab into three pieces before they make one roll out of it. The dragon roll, the eels are sliced very thin. Looks like the knife scale of the chef is quite good. Price it's not cheap for what it is. Most likely I will probably spend the same amount if I go to a better restaurant, I would have less food in quantity but I certainly can get better quality food in return. I was with my nephews and I'm sure they don't know quality vs quantity. 😂

Atmosphere: the design and there does not seem like it's a Japanese restaurant, the previous restaurant looks a lot more Japanese. It's a simple table and Booths, but I do not see much Japanese decoration. Then again I'm not there for the decoration.

Overall I'm still not a fan of all you can eat sushi. I much rather have quality food. For the price of what it is now, that's pretty expensive...