Sushi Time — Restaurant in Dexter

Not my first time here. I've eaten here several times previously and as before, the quality of the food is exceptional. Why, then, did I give Sushi Time only 4 stars? It's because I have certain dietary/digestive issues which require me to avoid did with certain sugars.

Common sushi ingredients I can't eat are tempura (wheat), avocado, asparagus. I either ask for the roll without the "offending" ingredient, or ask for s substitution, like "may I have cucumber instead of avocado", or "may I have non-battered shrimp instead of the shrimp tempura". I have never had an issue doing this at any sushi restaurant, they either do my requested replacement, or tell me they can leave off the offending ingredient.

Last night, at Sushi Time, was different. I have the feeling my waiter was new and was still being trained by the chef, so every request ended up being a longer discussion between the chef and the waiter. All the changes were either made as requested, or ingredient left off.

Where I started having an issue was my request for tamari sauce rather than soy sauce. Tamari is, basically, soy sauce without the wheat ingredient. It's not "special". It doesn't cost an arm and a leg, it's roughly (or exactly) the same price as soy sauce. But, my request for tamari had the kitchen in a tizzy. No one seemed to know what tamari was, eventually asking the chef, and I only heard the chef say "gluten free" in his response to the inquiry. My wife heard an additional "tell him he can have his first serving of tamari on the house, any more servings will cost $1.00". This was never related to me by the waiter.

Yes, tamari is technically "gluten free", but I don't request it for that reason, I do so because it doesn't contain wheat. Wheat contains fructans (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccarides (GOS) (found wheat, rye, onions, garlic, legumes and lentils), collectively called "Oligosaccharides". These are longer chains of sugars that humans do not have enzymes to digest. They are universally malabsorbed and fermented by bacteria in the large intestine. Some people react well to these sugars, others like me, do not.

So, I receive my paltry serving of tamari. Use it up on my Yellowtail Roll and it's gone before I'm finished with my Blackjack Roll (both both rolls were delicious). But, because of the hassle of getting the tamari in the first place, I feel I can eat my last two bites without sauce. Then I realize I'm still hungry, and order a Rainbow Roll. At this point, my wife and son have left to grocery shop as he didn't want to sit while only I ate.

As the kitchen are preparing my roll, I request more tamari and everyone looks at the chef, who quickly tells me it will cost $1.00. I don't want to argue about it and agree that I'll pay. I regret this now. I wish I had argued. A bottle of tamari sauce costs anywhere from $3.00-8.50 depending on where you buy it, same as soy sauce, and I was asked to pay for ⅛ to ⅓ of a bottle. I was taken advantage of, because of my digestive issue. Not because I request some special, expensive elixir, or incredibly rare ingredient, but because the chef associated tamari sauce with gluten-free, and felt he could make more money off of me.

When my request is against the norm, or requires more work such as a wheat-free crust pizza, I don't like paying more, but I understand paying more, but sometimes I feel businesses are taking advantage of people solely because they see the opportunity, not because it actually costs them more in ingredients, time or manpower.

TL;DR Was the sushi good? Yes. Will I go back? I don't know. Why? I feel the chef took an opportunity to screw me for no good reason.

Maybe the answer is to excuse myself from their table, walk over to Busch's, and buy a bottle of tamari sauce and use that, maybe even make the gesture of donating the bottle to the restaurant, since it's such a...

We've been to Sushi Time a couple times now, and despite really wanting to like it and the staff always being so nice and pleasant, the last experience sealed the deal.

The food, while prepared with care, simply isn't great quality. The rolls are okay, but the protein portions are very small for the price. The chicken teriyaki I ordered ($17) was described on the menu as broiled, but there was no way. The quality of chicken was as poor as it comes and I'm confident it was just microwaved before being covered in a room temperature bottled-teriyaki and it came with the toughest, most dry edamame we've ever had. The rice was good!

We also ordered shrimp shumai to start and it, too seemed microwaved, but not even long enough as the centers were still cold. And the miso soup was just a miso broth with not more than one miniature piece of tofu in it.

Moral of the story is the staff are so nice, but the food they're working with is frozen Gordon Food quality at best, and charging fresh, high-quality prices. I can't help but think the 5-star reviews are from people that haven't had much experience outside grocery store...

Haven’t eaten here in awhile and thought we’d give it another chance. We did take out during the week and when we opened the bags we were missing an appetizer out of the order, had 2 salads that honestly had about 10 pieces of lettuce in them with 3 bits of carrot, and incredibly small rolls. My husband called to get a refund for the item not in our order-straightforward, right?! He ended up arguing with some teenager named Travis about not being able to give us a refund and how the manager doesn’t do refunds, only to find out there wasn’t even a manager there. He said that the owner doesn’t talk to people or do refunds either. TERRIBLE business and absolutely awful customer service. Drive to sushi zen in Brighton—it’s worth the $$ and the drive! We love supporting our community and staying local, but absolutely not for this...