Wild Goji Revolving Sushi & Bar — Restaurant in Castle Hills

My daughter and I started with one of the daily specials the Japanese Oysters. The Oysters came out piping hot with a lovely crispy crust similar to what you would get on a meat cutlet and was well salted. They were served with an overly sweet traditional American cocktail sauce. This dish could have easily been memorably good dish if they had just made a nice soy, sesame and chili sauce for the oysters and maybe served it on top of some seasoned dry seaweed instead of chucks of iceberg lettuce. There really wasn't anything Japanese about the dish and it felt like the kitchen had just been lazy in its conception of this dish. I give this dish 2 out of 5 stars.

For the main courses we ordered another daily special a Poke bowl for my daughter and I ordered a bowl of spicy tonkatsu.The ramen when it arrived was the not the horrible disappointment I was expecting. The broth was pretty well seasoned though thin for tonkatsu and was in no way spicy. The noodles were very thin but had a good chew and did not quickly absorb the soup and become mushy. The pork as also good though it was a bit heavy on the 5 spice for a Japanese dish. My only real complaints about this dish was the spoon provided which was more like a wooden garden utensil rather than something meant to be served with soup. This didn't phase me too much because I eat soup in Japanese style which is to drink it directly from the bowl. Unfortunately the lip of my bowl was covered in chips and I had to be careful not to cut my lips on them. Ramen is one of my favorite comfort foods having eaten it in Japan, in San Antonio it is really hard to find a good bowl. I honestly rate this as one of the better bowls here in SA over several expensive down town locations that serve less then mediocre ramen. I gave this dish a 3 out of 5 stars but would have given it a 4 if only they would have served it with a good bowl and spoon.

My daughter was unfortunately the victim of one of the most bizarre creations I think I have ever seen. When her poke bowl was brought out it looked normal with maybe a bit less fish then we are used to receiving. It wasn't until she started picking through the bowl that she realized that more than half her bowl had been packed tightly with a spring mix salad. I remember seeing the spring mix in the description and was a bit puzzled by it but thought maybe they added just a little for color but no. Instead there was barely enough rice to cover the bottom of the bowl and on top of that there was at least a cup of salad packed tightly and then topped with a bit of thinly sliced cucumber, maybe 2 sticks of kani (fake crab) and maybe a quarter of an avocado. I took pictures as she removed all the salad and ended up with a sad little pile of fish that was barely more than a 2 ounces of fish in a mostly empty bowl. Needless to say my daughter left hungry and it was annoying for me because I work in the restaurant industry and I know that the salad mix costs at least 4 times as much as what the rice that they excluded would have costed. So this wasn't a cost cutting measure or maybe it was by someone who doesn't really know the costs of their foods. All I know is that if they had just removed the salad mix and doubled the rice they would have been able to afford to double the fish and maybe throw in some tobiko or salmon roe and actually make this something worth $12. I rated this dish a sad 1 out of 5 stars.

Did I complain? No. Like I said before I work in the restaurant industry and I don't believe in complaining because usually the line cooks are just doing what they are told and it wouldn't change anything. I feel that writing reviews like this which might get read by somebody that can affect change is a better option. Will I come back? Probably not and I won't suggest it to anyone and I am giving it an average...

First, I've never left a 1-star rating. I'm very fair simply skim my past reviews. We were "shanked" for over 100$ here. It was our first time to this establishment. I'd read their website and other reviews. If anything, I'm honest I'm not looking for google points. We had sushi.

1. The "ceviche" was extremely tiny cuts of fish, perhaps a quarter of a cup total, maybe 2 cm in diameter, sprinkled onto unwashed mixed greens and drizzled with Ponzu. The unwashed grit in the salad was just the beginning.

2. The Tamago (egg) sushi was definitely premade frozen and thawed. So as foodies know, it tasted like an old sponge. I understand items such as clams or certain seafood must be frozen, but frozen Tomago is just lazy.

3. The sushi rice. Oh my. It was dry, porous small-beaded and 'off-flavor' (resembling beads in stuffed beanie plushies), and completely lacking sweetness and tanginess it requires to compliment the flavors of seafood, and soy/ginger, if you so choose to use those. The rice simply didn't allow for the seafood pieces or sauces to provide the taste and mouth sensation you usually expect from a piece of proper sushi. Poor quality of rice.

4. The Boat: Very small pieces of sushi, too much of this bland dry porous rice on every piece which highly detracted from the flavors of the seafood. And the flavors of the seafood should be the high notes. The poor quality dry porous rice soaked up far too much soy, ginger and wasabi causing a drown-out of the natural beautiful flavor of the seafood.

I do know a lot about cuisine. They know my assessment is accurate.

They do provide a comfortable atmosphere with a friendly staff. They play pop-culture music and air pop-culture TV behind the bar. Eh. That too speaks volumes. This is not a place for Japanese cuisine enthusiasts. It's more like the trendy cheap Goji pop 'bubble tea' hangouts for teens. In that way, some may like it. For 100$ ... I do indeed feel robbed. Whole Foods has far better quality sushi and sashimi. I can't believe I just typed that but it's true.

I'm sorry to have to write...

Clean, decor adequately reflects the food and service provided. The servers and host were kind and the instructions were adequately conveyed. The crab wontons were hot, the wasabi honey on top was a nice touch but Moreso the apples provided the crunch and lightness desperately needed (and often forgotten) that heavy fried foods often need. The gyoza had a delightful flavor and don't need a sauce, which is good, because they didn't come with one. An automated ordering option would be nice as an availability if the server is otherwise occupied, however the friendliness and social addition to an otherwise automated service is a welcome sight. The food itself looks pricy per plate especially if you see it is only one piece of nilgiri per plate, but if you're willing to look at the size and quality compared to other similar establishments, it is easy to see that the cost is suitable to the plate for most of the plates. Certain things are better priced than others. For a soft opening, I found it to be a relatively smooth and painless process. The food is upper middle quality for upper middle cost. If you're looking for better quality, order from the server directly from the kitchen.

Pros: the decor, cleanliness and friendliness of the environment and people Cons: the yellowtail Nigiri I received from the server, just because it wasn't on the carousel, came on a black plate although it was on the menu as a potential carousel item which should have counted towards the "Buy 10 Get 1". The flavor was also slightly sour. Recommendations: Allow for some type of automated ordering for your table. Change the label colors on the carousel per item to match the plate arriving so you can more accurately estimate the price from a distance.

Overall we decided that 7/10 feels acceptable for Wild Goji. "It's pleasant enough that I'll go back to it, but not the first choice when...