Tiger Sushi Athens — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

Our weekly lunch group visited Tiger Sushi because we heard it was new, and Athens does not have a lot of sushi options. We were not particularly impressed:

Verdict: We may return with a smaller, hungrier group for a sushi buffet dinner. We are unlikely to return for lunch because Athens has better options overall for lunch sushi and hibachi.

Rules: Part of the appeal to us about Tiger Sushi was the sushi buffet, but there is a rule requiring everyone at the table to purchase the buffet at $28.00, or no one can. But some members of our party prefer hibachi to sushi or were unlikely to eat $28.00 worth. Thus, none of us could purchase the buffet. So this was a disappointment.

Food Quality: The sushi was good, equivalent to Sakura but not as good as Shokitinis. The hibachi was decent but not great: there are many better hibachi restaurants in town.

Food Value: The à la carte hibachi and regular sushi options were affordable, and the portion sizes were good. The hibachi came in a huge platter, enough for a second meal. That being said, I would prefer Sakura for the value, since they include a free soup and salad at a similar price.

Service: Tiger Sushi uses an iPad ordering system, which is always clunky, but all the more so when the iPad is heavier than a lead brick. But we forgave the iPad when the food came out very quickly. We were pleased with the table service, as multiple staff offered to fill up waters, sauces, etc. However, when it came time to pay, service became very clunky again, as our waiter had no idea to split the check and had to do so manually, which took a while. Why wouldn't the iPad tell him how to split the bill? Or better yet, why wouldn't we just insert our credit cards into the iPad? The result here was that the iPad made service LESS efficient.

Atmosphere: The wall hangings are all tigers, kind of funky and fun. But hanging over our table was a picture of a Tiger on a toilet reading a paper called "Poop Times." Not classy, and not what you want to be thinking about while...

Edit 4/25: I hate to edit my review because I love the food here, but in the past few months, the service has gone downhill a lot. My first few visits were all around great! The first issue we had was in February. My husband called and asked when we would need to arrive to be seated. He was told 9pm. We arrived just a few minutes before nine and were told they were no longer seating customers. We said we called ahead and were told they would be seating until nine.. The manager said that I was nine- even though it was before nine by a few minutes- and we couldn’t have a table.

The next time we came, the service was very slow, and they kept mixing up food orders with other tables. The manager was being horrible to our server and other servers.

Today, I came in at 11 with my sister. It was her first time and will likely be her last time in. When we walked in, we were told they weren’t open yet. We said no problem and asked if we could sit on the couch at the front to wait for them to open. The girl working told us we couldn’t do that because it was illegal for customers to be in a closed restaurant. We knew that was not true, but left all the same. We returned at 11:30, and the music blared over the sound system. We were seated and about to order, but we were told that both parties had to do AYCE or a la carte, even if we were on separate tickets. My sister is not a big eater, but I am. We understand that they do this to avoid plate-sharing, but they need to develop a better plan, especially when the restaurant is empty.

12/24: Reasonably priced, great service, very fresh sushi. My husband tried some of the other dishes, too, and everything he got was amazing. I can’t wait to...

EDIT: Returned a month later to give it a shot. MUCH BETTER. Better quality sushi and orders actually came in a reasonable amount of time. I wouldn't go all the time but would definitely go back when I'm craving sushi.

Orders went "missing" -- like, we straight up did not get some of the items we ordered even after 45 minutes. The service was extremely slow. Sushi was edible but not better than Utage (the sushi place that occupied the same space right before) at all. They put a lot of lemon juice on sushi to hide how horrible their actual fish is. Some salmon sushi pieces felt freshly thawed (extremely cold and smelling fishy). Matcha ice cream we got was more like sherbet than ice cream -- I imagine it had been melted and re-frozen. Rolls are better but still not awesome.

Granted, I do have fairly high standards on sushi, but this was nowhere near decent. Maybe marginally better than Kroger sushi.

I wouldn't tell one to NEVER visit, but I do think one visit was enough and I probably won't return. I would rather go to ATL (Doraville ish area) or Duluth to get sushi if I were craving that badly.

Granted, this place is "new" in that I believe the old business went out of business and new owners took over -- so maybe their service and quality of food will increase over time. My friend who had been there that went with me definitely said that their food decoration and whatever has changed since he last visited not too long ago, so there is room for improvement despite my being...