Shinju Sushi — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

Trash. Skip. Do not come here. Sushi sucked. Service sucked even more. More details below if you want to read my rant:

Saw people recommend this place as a cheap AYCE sushi joint so I decided to try it out. People said it gets busy quick so try to come right when they open so we did. Had a party of 6, but only 4 out of the 6 people were there when they opened. We were the first AND only people there, but the staff told us we had to wait until our entire party arrived in order for us to be seated. Soooo the 4 of us waited….in their small front area by the hostess stand….which was one small freaking bench….I understand if it was busy or they had reservations to accommodate, but like I said, we were the FIRST and ONLYYYYY people in that place. What made it even more laughable is that they put 6 glasses of water at a table which I knew was for us, but they still didn’t let us 4 people sit there while the other 2 people were on the way. They legit made us wait at the entrance while our water was getting warmer, and you can see the condensation dripping down the cups as the ice melted. Ridiculous. So by the time we got seated, you want me to drink this water that’s been chilling out here which now is at room temp, and there’s water all over the table form the condensation? Cool.

Once we were seated because our entire party was there, I wanted to do the dinner AYCE menu because they had items on there I wanted that was not available on the lunch AYCE menu. I’m not from the area so I don’t know if it’s a thing in Chicago or maybe it’s just their thing, but they did not allow me to do the dinner option while everyone else did lunch. They said it was all or none AKA everyone has to do the dinner menu if I wanted to do it. I couldn’t do it alone. WHATTTTT???!!! I never heard of that, and I ask to do the dinner menu option a lot at other places with ZERO issues so this is a first for me. The staff couldn’t even explain to me why this was a rule. They just kept saying everyone has to do dinner if I want to do it and that I couldn’t be the only one doing it while everyone else had the lunch option. My friends and I assume they must have had incidents before where someone did the dinner option while others did lunch but ate the dinner menu from that person so now they are more skeptical. If that’s the case, explain the reasoning behind it. Don’t just tell me “if you want dinner, everyone has to have dinner” without trying to talk to me especially after I was trying to converse with you and reach an understanding. So heads up about that.

Want to know the cherry on top? The sushi was trash. I didn’t even finish it. Too much rice. Mediocre. Now I see why it’s cheap. Because it’s cheap sushi.

The only thing I did like was that the waitress said I would not get charge for my leftovers. I was going to take it to-go and pay the fee for having leftovers for the AYCE option, but when she said I wouldn’t have to pay, I said “I do not want this at all” soooo quick! This is the first place I’ve gone to where they do not charge you for leftovers if you did the AYCE so that was interesting, but what else was interesting is how they served their food in paper bowls and plates. My friend ordered ramen, and it was in a paper bowl. I’m pretty sure you guys have used paper straws for your beverages. Overtime, the paper straw slowly gets deteriorated because it’s been in your beverage for too long. Imagine my friend’s paper bowl from her ramen…..it was slowly deteriorating from the broth of her ramen! Like hello…? Why would you serve HOT broth in a paper bowl?? Make it make sense. Even the eel and soy sauces, seaweed salad, water cups, etc. were in to-go-like containers. The plastic clear containers….maybe it’s because they transitioned it during Covid and never went back to regular silverware? I don’t know their reasonings, but all I know is I’ll never return and will never recommend this place to anyone. If I see someone talk about this place, I’m going to show them this review, and hope they know better than to ever spend a dime...

With $15 for lunch and $21 for dinner buffet with lots of options, it seems that this place was a reasonable choice for a sushi craving, that is all I could say. However, you get what you pay for is quite right here. I had both lunch and dinner here, and it was safe to say that the dinner was much better, apparently, not only because of much more choice of nigiri, maki, and rolls but the quality of the food itself.

For the appetizer, we had the fresh tofu in cold tomato sauce, which was terrible. The Yasai Salad that has mayo and sesame oil as the dressing was pretty yummy. Miso Soup, which was the same as anywhere else, made from package powder have a generous amount of seaweed and tofu. The time we came for lunch, the salmon we got was not fresh, dried, and firm. The sushi rice was, ridiculously, sweet like soaking in syrup, just not sticky. I was not sure if the taste came from rice vinegar or something else. The good thing is the rice amount in nigiri was not excessive as the fish cut covered the rice almost wholly, but the rolls were made with an abundant amount of rice than they should have. Thus, the rolls were hit or miss. The wasabi that we also had for lunch was previously made and kept for days as its dark green color explicitly stated so. The service is quick and excellent, though.

Besides, the fantastic sashimi was only available for supper. If I would ever come here again, I probably should just...

This restaurant is a MAJOR PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD.

It took them 30 minutes to prepare just 4 rolls, and they sent them to the wrong table. That table picked through the sushi for 10 minutes with their chopsticks before realizing it wasn’t their order.

Instead of discarding the contaminated food, the waiter BROUGHT THE SAME PLATE BACK TO THE KITCHEN, and TWO MINUTES LATER delivered it STRAIGHT TO MY TABLE.

I physically brought the plate back to the other table and they CONFIRMED it was the exact same one they had just touched.

When I confronted the waiter, they blatantly LIED TO MY FACE, claiming the rolls were “freshly made.” Somehow they expect us to believe they re-made four rolls in two minutes, including deep fried items when it originally took them half an hour?

The deep-fried rolls were cold, so they were not freshly prepared. When questioned, staff began GASLIGHTING us instead of owning up to what happened. They NEVER APOLOGIZED to either of us. Not for the mistake, not for lying, and not for serving food that had already been handled by strangers. They just kept deflecting and doubling down.

They SERVED US FOOD THAT HAD ALREADY BEEN TOUCHED BY OTHER CUSTOMERS and then LIED ABOUT IT.

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE, UNSAFE, AND UNETHICAL. This isn’t just bad service—it’s a MAJOR HEALTH VIOLATION.

AVOID THIS PLACE...