Sushi Payce — Restaurant in Chicago

This place is a 4* venue with potential to be a 5* venue.

I dined in alone in between appointments and had a good experience. I noticed the reviews split between 5 and 1 stars, and I think I know why.

Taste/Amount/Price is good! Not fantastic, but right around what I'd expect at an AYCE sushi restaurant in Chicago. The closest competitor is Sushi Taku, and I thought in comparison the taste and amount of food was comparable. Not sure what the reviews about rice-loading are getting at, but if that was ever an issue it is no longer.

Here's what I'd improve if I was the owner:

Entranceway - it's difficult to see into the building, which is a shame given the modern interior. Because the entranceway is the only thing passersby see, and is unwelcoming, I'd place a plant or flowers in the entranceway to entice passersby.

Service - the service was good and friendly, and I could tell this was a family business. I'd just improve attention to detail (I dined alone but the other plate & cutlery wasn't cleared until I'd been sitting for 15 min). Also, the mother (?) has a very Chinese mom vibe, which I'm used to from hanging out at friends' places as a kid but might be off-putting for customers from other cultural backgrounds.

Pace/Speed/Course Selection - THIS is the big concern and, I'd venture, the reason behind most of the 1* reviews. I was the first person to sit in after opening and ordered when only 2 other patrons were in the restaurant. Despite this, it took 20 minutes for me to get a bite of food. I can only imagine the delay if the restaurant was busy, like during dinner rush. Furthermore, the order I received food in was strange and seemed random. For example, I got salmon tartare after nigiri and rolls, and the sashimi salad at the very end. It just makes sense, I think, to get salads/apps before nigiri/rolls/katsu/etc. And it would be more understandable if the restaurant was busy, but again this was before noon on a weekday. I realize AYCE restaurants need to pace orders to maintain margins but having the first order go out much faster and ensuring to the extent possible that salads/apps go out before sushi and mains would go a long way.

TLDR: new, family-owned (?) AYCE sushi restaurant with lots of merit and potential. Still ironing out the...

I hate leaving a bad review for a new restaurant, especially with how difficult it has been for restaurants, but it was a very frustrating experience. When we came in around 4:45pm the restaurant was mostly empty and the waiter who did sit us mentioned that they where short staffed so it might take a while for the food to come out. We decided to still give it a chance. After all, that's understandable with the tough time.

However, it took about 15 - 20 minutes to get water on the table. Another 10 or so for our waitress to come to our table. When she did take our order she warned it would take 40 minutes but since we already committed we continued. Their menu mentioned only 5 items per person could be ordered. We ordered about 12 pieces, between apps, rolls and Nigiri.

It took 40 minutes for our miso soup to come out. Afterward the rest of the food slowly staggered out from anywhere between 30 - 40 minutes. The rest of the food, was just one app and then the sushi.. When we got some of our sushi, we threw in another order in hopes it would come out sooner. Our first order we also realized was missing some items but thought maybe it would come out while we waited for our second round. Nope.

I will say the food that we did get, did taste good. Their Tiger roll was delicious and the rice to sushi proportion was great. But not worth a 3 hr dinner and $32.99 per person.

Our waitress was very apologetic and so was everyone else. But you couldn't flag anyone down. It took us over an hour to get a little of our second order. We didn't even get the rolls for our second round, just the nigiri. In the end we asked for the check, and they where quick with that. Just in case after we paid, we flagged down our waitress to ask if maybe the rest of our order would come out. She was apologetic again but honestly had no idea. Maybe another 20 min?

We ended up hightailing it out of there. I have never left all you can eat sushi hungry. When we agreed to a wait for our food, we did not even fathom it could take an 1 hr to even get food on the table beside miso soup.

I really do hope they get better. But this experience was beyond...

Went here for dinner despite seeing the horrible reviews. For TLDR people out there this place is exactly like the other negative reviews say... Will not be coming back.

First off, made reservations for 745PM. Did not get seated for 45 minutes having to stand waiting the whole time while holding my tired 6 year old. Loved how they only had 2 seats for people to wait and even though everyone saw how I was struggling (try holding 60 lbs of weight for that long) no one offered another chair to put out or anything. There were 3 young people with two of them sitting on the chairs as well. Shame on them as they probably wouldn't even give up the seats for elderly or handicap either, but regardless not on us to say something.

Food wasn't better or a premium over any other ayce place... HOB sushi was premium and nothing has compared. Service was slow and lacking. We were missing plates and utensils. Had to ask a few times to remind staff. Some food was dropped off and the guy left before could ask for soy sauce. Also, was missing ginger and wasabi. Plenty of misses. The funny part was that the same male server was talking to this other table doing a shot with them. He was talking about the horrible reviews saying he knows he isn't one of the issues... At that time it was just us and that table in that section and you were ignoring us... He definitely was an issue as well. I can see how some may have had a good experience while they leave many more with horrible service.

For the food itself, like I said it was just ok. They really packed the rice for the nigiri and everything that used sushi rice. We were missing food we ordered, but at that point because of the wait for the table and because we had a 6 year old we just wanted the check.

Sometimes subpar food will be overlooked if the experience was good with service, but with this everything was made worse. Why have a reservation system if you can't honor the time? 5-10, even 15 minutes can be overlooked, but not 45 minutes. That's ridiculous. Add the other misses instead of going up from there and it definitely confirms all the other...