Shojin — Restaurant in Culver City

Overall, the food has always been delightful and delicious at Shojin, but the service at this Culver City location was not at the stellar level as at the DTLA location. While I was the only customer in the restaurant around 6-7pm on a Thursday night, they rudely rushed me from course to course. While I still was savoring the last couple of bites of one course, they brought the next pressuring me to hurry - this was this disappointing reality at each course's almost completion. The lack of professional customer service was gravely disappointing.

As to the food, the best parts to me were the especially authentic classic components of the renkon, the hijiki, and the umeboshi. Those, while excellent, were just mere touches to the dishes of which they were part. In particular, I was disappointed at the couple of bites of renkon in the salad as I had let the waitress Hitomi know that I was considering that dish in particular as I so love renkon. Had she let me know that there were only a couple of bites of renkon in that dish, then I would not have ordered it. The renkon sushi roll, though, was much better. In fact, it was the best of the items I had there this evening. What a magnificent blend of flavors and textures! The creamy yet nutty avocado and edamame top was a beautiful contrast to the genmai-hijiki base. The renkon in between, though, was again my favorite. The ume was a bit too subtle for my taste as I enjoy that so much, but it worked rather nicely in this artful maki masterpiece. The vegan "scallop" roll, though, was not as impressive. I had explicitly asked Hitomi if they would be actually scallop-like, and she said yes and encouraged the order. They, however, tasted nothing like scallops. The mushrooms from which they were made did have somewhat of a scallop-ish texture, but the flavor was pure basic mushroom. At least had they used lobster mushrooms, that would have been better as those naturally have a seafood-ish flavor. Using the trumpet mushrooms, though, did not work as well. Had they added to them some seaweed powder, perhaps yamahide aosa or some form of aonori, that would have much improved the dish. Still, each of the culinary creations I have experienced from Shojin are quite creative and enjoyable to some degree. I am not so disappointed in those in the kitchen as I am with the waitress who heard my questions and did not rightly clearly respond to them as to lead to a more satisfying dining experience. I used to more enjoy the DTLA location, but I no longer live in the area. I, though, am back in the area this weekend to speak at the SoCal VegFest and treated myself to this belated special birthday dinner as soon as I left LAX, and it was not as much what I desired or expected it to be. Hitomi's service was greatly lacking. Not only did she not answer my questions well and guide me poorly on my ordering, but her general demeanor was not the especially respectful positive customer service I have experienced from Shojin. In stark contrast, though, Elena who seemed to be working for Hitomi was a much better representative of Shojin. Elena was particularly positive and pleasant and better answered questions after the fact than did Hitomi. Had Elena been my waitress fully from the start, I get the sense that my dining experience would have been much...

When I heard about this vegan Japanese restaurant, I was understandably skeptical. I couldn't even imagine what the food would be like! Vegan sushi? What? Oh, how my mind has been opened to the myriad vegan tastes and options since then! My vegetarian friend and I decided to try this place out on a Saturday night--the place is quite small so reservations are strongly recommended. I'd read all the great Yelp reviews so I was ready to have my mind blown, and believe it or not, I was not disappointed! I mentioned that the place was small, but perhaps I should've qualified it as "intimate," with a pleasingly sophisticated but homey decor. You're made to feel comfortable right away and the two women servers who helped us that evening were fantastically polite and welcoming (true Japanese-style hospitality, if you ask me).

We started out with a couple of cocktails (forget the names but delicious) and opted to do the tasting menu, which turned out to be a great introduction for us two n00bs. The "burrata" salad was really great, with fresh veggies and a light, tasty dressing. I can't say it was REALLY like real burrata, but it was delicious nonetheless. I think when something is "supposed" to be something else it does that original thing a disservice. This applies to the "Crab Cake" tartare, which was absolutely delicious! The "French Onion Soup" was also delicious and satisfying, even if it didn't have the grilled bread and cheese on top. The true stars, however, were their sushi rolls. The two that we got with the tasting menu were truly delicious, and I thought the "spicy tuna" was pretty convincing. One caveat with their sushi is that they use brown rice, so if you're expecting the white sushi rice you may be disappointed, but if you go into it with the mentality of appreciating the items for what they are, I think you'll have a better experience.

After we'd gone through the tasting menu, we were debating whether to get one more item and we decided to go for the Pumpkin Castle, which sounded intriguing, but alas, in reality wasn't quite as good as we'd imagined. It's a stack of tempura-fried pumpkin slices with alternating layers of a sushi roll. We were instructed to eat it by placing a roll slice on top of a fried section of pumpkin and dipping it in the tempura sauce, but this move was a little hard to execute perfectly, so by the end we just ended up eating it in individual pieces. It was still tasty, don't get me wrong, but after all the other items we thought it fell a little short. Then we finished off the meal with some complimentary tea and cookies, yum. Overall, an amazing meal and I can't wait to come back AND try their DTLA location as well. I could definitely go vegan without hesitation if all my meals could...

It pains me to write this review. Shojin is a unique macrobiotic sushi restaurant that I have been a patron of for years. I have been coming here and spending hundreds of dollars on their food for over 10+ years.  I have even introduced a bunch of friends and business colleagues to this restaurant.  

Unfortunately, over the past month and half, the customer service has gone down hill in a horrific way.  The current manager is rude, dismissive, and unprofessional. He screams at his staff in the kitchen as if no customers can hear him, and he pounds his feet through the restaurant as though he is miserable and angry at the world.

Tonight, in particular, on a Monday night! - I had to wait 2 hours to get a table for 1 person, and then upon being seated, I was ignored for 30 mins before getting someone to take my order.  The order then took about 1 hour to arrive at my table, and it arrived incorrect.  No apology was given, and the entire meal took upwards of 2 hours.  And some of the dishes weren't fresh - they tasted like they had been sitting in the kitchen unattended to for quite some time! 

When I finally received the bill, the team had the audacity to charge me for the entire meal - upwards of $130 - without offering to do something in light of the horrendous wait times and multiple mistakes that were made tonight.  I kindly asked to speak with management, and I was told that they would not be able to be contacted.  I have worked in the service industry for years, and have never experienced such terrible customer service in a restaurant setting - especially one that deems itself "fine dining," and charges fine dining equivalent prices.  Furthermore, this is no way to treat one of their most loyal and frequent patrons.  

I didn't want to write this review, but they didn't really leave me with any other recourse.

While I would recommend the food, the customer service and management are so unprofessional I would urge you to go elsewhere.  It's just not worth supporting Shojin until they make an effort to appreciate their customers and take some steps to get their...