Oya Sushi and Korean Grill — Restaurant in Castle Shannon

The dining room is small, cozy, traditional, and almost unnervingly quiet for the Saturday lunch shift. Our waiter was well & meaning but nervous, even too attentive, and it made my husband and I both a little uncomfortable.

I try not to let the mistakes of one server condemn a whole restaurant to a bad review, though. And to his credit, I probably should have taken his recommendation: "Is this your first time here? The Korean food is really good."

They had an impressive Korean selection, priced much lower than average in some cases, but we had come for sushi.

We ordered the "Chef's Special" for 3, and it came out a BEAUTIFUL array of sashimi. All sashimi cuts, no rice! And the presentation was really gorgeous, we were thrilled.

The first bite of ahi tuna tasted a little off. Then my husband picked up a dense, white-fleshed cut and asked if it looked funny. By our second piece, the three of us had all figured out that virtually every piece of fish on this platter was still completely frozen. We were chewing into ice crystals and it was so inpalatable I had to spit mine into my napkin.

We called the waiter back over, and he gave an awkward, puzzling excuse that the chef was "extremely traditional." We didn't know what to do -- this had been a very expensive menu selection, we knew it had taken the chef some time to put it together, but we couldn't eat it like this and we couldn't wait ninety minutes for it to come to room temperature, and for a beat we thought that was what we were going to be told to do. Our waiter didn't know how to respond, but "take it back" clearly have occurred to him.

"I just think we would like to know what our options are..." I began hesitantly, and he disappeared to find out. When he came back, the chef had offered to "cut it thinner." Sure, but... We were hungry now, and it would still take time for even the thinner pieces to thaw. I mentioned this, and that maybe a tempura roll for the table to share in the meantime would be appropriate.

The tempura roll was good, but not spectacular. None of us were unhappy with it, though; we ate and also enjoyed a very good house salad (I particularly enjoyed the dressing, which was creamy and mustard-y, rather than strong ginger), wakame salad, and mushroom condiment. Those items were all very nice.

But when the sushi came back out, it was marginally less frozen but still frozen. And by that point we just had the feeling that that was the best we were going to get. We didn't want to complain again, so we struggled through it, begrudgingly paid our $60 + tip, and left feeling the most disappointed we had ever been after a meal.

I have not had the Korean at Oya, and it's entirely possible that sushi on a dinner shift is fine, but we came at lunch and were served frozen, inedible fish. The chef had to slice every piece by have and surely would have known about its condition, but served it anyway, leaving the burden on us to try and negotiate a solution -- instead of suggesting we try another option, we were left uncomfortably, with our hands out because the general feeling here that they wouldn't have taken care of us otherwise. They were perfectly happy to take our money and if we didn't complain, great!

We wanted to really like this place. We wanted another option to Little Tokyo. We didn't expect them to be better than Little Tokyo, but had it even been decent we would have been more than happy to being our business here again. And while the Korean food may be good, I'll never know and can't speak to that recommendation. I would have loved to try the bibimbap one day. But this was such a disappointing experience that I do not think we will be back for that opportunity.

I'm not saying don't try Oya. Just, maybe order cooked fare...

Its a Monday night and we are in downtown and craved for some K-BBQ. So why not take another 1 hour bus to Mt Lebanon.

The host I believe she is Korean, she is very friendly and hospitable. But the restaurant was short-staffed so it took her 30' for us to order and another 30' to have our food. Because everybody have the same situation, and understand the situation so nobody seems to angry or upset and wait her patiently. You can shoot some "Gamsamhanida" or "Jal meo-geo-sseum-ni-da", she will be very happy.

We have the BBQ Grill and you have to order at least 2lbs of choice of protein to have the grill table. Its a Monday night we got there by 5.30 or 6pm and longer we wait the guest just coming in so the restaurant with the capacity of 25 is full. Later fater we go there are to go and take away order as well so the lady is not going crazy, I will give her that, she did her best but still should have someone help her will be better. We have pork belly and marinated beef sirloin. We love the samgsupsal but the beef marinate was ok not as I expected should go for the bulgogi. The banchan (side dishes) were all lovely, just for me I dont like onion, or any kind of peppers kimchi so I didnt touch it. But you combine the lettuce, the grilled meat and the banchan and sauce, that will be the correct way to eat K-BBQ. The sauce, we need more (luckily we dont have to pay for the extra) but I believe its just a plain soybean paste (I think they have mixed with something else but Im not sure).

You should bring change of clothes after you eat because, there will be smoke from the grill at every table (oh and the grilled table they only have 5 of them so better go hurry for dinner). That smoke will stay until the end of the night so if you go somewhere else after that bring a shirt with you. And they dont have the ventilators at every table so the smoke is kinda bad.

Other than that, I would love to try...

This is the best place to go for Korean BBQ. The lady (I think she is the owner) that serves you is super nice and friendly. I know a second person works there but we only ever see one person. The food is so so good. You order it by the pound for the BBQ. We usually get chicken, pork belly and shrimp. The marinade that the chicken is in is awesome. They have the best rice and the best tasting water. I like that they aren't trying to be all super fancy and put hefty price tags on everything. I would much rather have a down to Earth kind of atmosphere with a plate full of yummy food then some fancy restaurant with a dainty little plate of pretty food. The food is fresh. We have only ever done the BBQ where you cook the food yourself and we have gone back several times. Our daughter is obsessed with Kpop so we found this place for her to try. We took her to a different Korean BBQ that was super fancy and she said she prefers this one. In fact we didn't even like the fancy one. We are very happy with this place. She chose it for her 14th birthday. We go here for special occasions and for when we want to splurge. It isn't cheap but it is more affordable than others and you get a lot of food. We usually order three different meats so they will bring you one plate of meat at a time. After you cook it then they will give you a second plate and so on. It is a small restaurant so you should make reservations if you have a larger party or if you need a guaranteed table. We have done both reservations and walk in. We have never had an issue here. I truly enjoy going here. We have ordered a few random things off the menu to go along with our BBQ and all was delicious. What keeps me going back is the food and the service. It's...