Aikan Sushi & Ramen — Restaurant in Artesia

Went for the AYCE option A for dinner. First time here and was not impressed with the first 2 nigiris we ate. We ordered mackerel and yuzu tuna. At first I thought maybe it’s just the mackerel or tuna. But the color of tuna already lost its natural oils. The yuzu was nowhere in sight. Asked the server and he said it’s a sauce. I only tasted it on 1 of the 4 pieces. The server said he will ask but nothing happened after. Yuzu can come in a paste form. I think they used ponzu with yuzu flavor. I tasted it on the last piece of nigiri. Every nigiri we ordered after was dry. The only saving grace was the cooked dishes. We tried it all, garlic n chili edamame, baked mussels, veggie & shrimp tempura, agedashi tofu, all good except crispy squid(was over fried, and stale), salmon skin salad ( the skin had no crunch, soggy & still greasy, worse cooked dish). We had the spider roll- soft shell crab in the center, so that was good. The salmon was the only decent one so we ordered the salmon crunch roll. We tried the sashimi dishes, seared tuna, albacore w jalapeño, yellowtail and salmon. The seared tuna is peppered like steak, it was ok but again the fish was dry. The salmon had a cream sauce on it, it was sweet -sour taste and we weren’t sure if the sauce was soon-to-spoil. We’ve been to other AYCE like Aburi, at least there, the fish is good and never dry like these nigiris and sushi rolls. I almost wanted to walk out at first bite. But at least I got the ramen, the broth, the egg and pork tonkotsu was good. Towards the end of dinner, I looked at the bar area where the fish were stored, we noticed all the fish were pre-sliced. I know it’s AYCE and they need to keep up, but the timing matters. If they do this hours ahead, all the natural oils of the fish depletes, hence the dryness. The server was nice but he did forget our beer when all our first round dishes came out and we had to remind him. The other server gal was quick when we order the 3rd round and brought the beer right away and table runners quick to clean and remove dishes. Spent a little over $100 for 2. Most likely will not return. Parking was horrible too. The lot is small and if you park elsewhere next to the plaza, you will get towed. Signs of being towed...

Wanted to check the place since it was advertised as “premium ayce” Pros: 1) restaurant was easy to find. 2) ADA compliant. 3) servers were very attentive 4) good portions of fish to rice ratio 5) love how they provide ramen ,udon and rice bowls and poke. 4) I do like that they have some “sushi” with no rice, like keto options 5) they give about 4 pieces of their sushi which is a smart idea so we can try different ones Cons: 1) parking, parking was hard to obtain since their lot was full. Plaza next door very strict about Aikan customers parking there and threatened to tow. Servers suggestion was to park at the residential area about a block away. 2) quality of the sushi was ok grade, idk if I would consider to advertise it to be premium. Maybe they said premium since they have uni and toro in their menu. But the first round is only free, if you want to order more than two pieces of their premium nigiri they charge you. 3) I had bought a coffee drink from the next door plaza so I can some what justify to park there. I brought it to the Aikan restaurant, didn’t open or taken a sip so I can drink it tomorrow and the waitress told me that I can’t have any outside drink in the restaurant, she asked if she can take it to the fridge to store it white we eat. It was at least nice of them to store it but I have never had anyone take my “outside drink” from me. I get it’s restaurant policy but still weird. 4) a lot of the sushi had these sauces and a lot of them were spicy, I’m all for spicy food and sauces but I’m the type of person who likes their sushi simple and taste the fist not the sauces. If you look at their menu for their signature roll, they have about 80% of the roll have something spicy or so much sauces. Idk if their masking the taste of the fish. 5) price, for two people we spent about $105 with tax. Not bad since my bf and I would order sushi and spend at least $100, but idk if I would pay $100 for these rolls covered in...

We ate there yesterday. They let us slip our group to allow some to eat AYCE and some a-la-carte. Food was overall good. Problem started when the AYCE eater didn't finish the rice from the sushi and a waiter stated, "you must eat the rice or you get charged. That's considered leftovers." Not the nicest way to inform us that there's a fee for leftovers. So, we ate the rice. I personally don't like leaving leftovers and don't like throwing away food. Then the manager gave us a warning, stating that we cannot share food with a-la-carte eaters. She must have seen us feed our child a spoon of miso soap we had left. We're still enjoying our meal and had 1/2 of Tanago (egg) sushi left. So, we gave that to our kid, to avoid throwing away good food. The manager must have been spying on us because she immediately came over and said that she was going to charge the child for AYCE since she already warned us. I thought it was ridiculous since it wasn't like the AYCE eaters ordered a ton of food and shared with everyone. It was a piece of food that would have been discarded. She kept insistig that she warned us several times and that we would get charged AYCE price. I felt like we commited a crime and thought she was going to get out her handcuffs and lock us up. We didn't appreciate that they gave us the bill before we could order our 3rd round. We lost our appetite anyway so not a huge loss. Maybe that's they're approach. They find someone "cheating" and argue with them to make them leave, thus saving money on the food that wasn't ordered. I totally understanding the policy of not sharing AYCE, since it wouldn't be fair if one person pays AYCE and gives food to the entire party. But we need to be reasonable when a full customer eats a few leftovers to avoid discarding food. Yes, this requires judgement and there may be some abuse but providing excellent customer...