SIMA — Restaurant in Kettering

We reserved a bbq table to celebrate a special event, and it was an absolutely amazing experience, from start to finish. There had been a slight mix up with our reservation, but the owners were quick to fix the situation, and we were seated within minutes. The decor and atmosphere are perfect, tranquil and tasteful. The server was great, patiently explaining the menu and answering our many questions, and always appearing when needed without hovering intrusively. We started with some sushi and sashimi, which were incredibly fresh and perfectly prepared. They came with soup and salad, both of which were amazing, and all done fresh in house. Ginger dressing is usually 'ok' (and usually bottled) but I actually loved theirs, a lot. We also got a bottle of soju with oranges. Our server muddled the oranges in our carafe, right at the table, making for an incredibly fresh cocktail that complimented our meal perfectly. She even helped us 'seal' what was left of the bottle to take home. For the bbq table, we ordered 2 samplers that let us try every meat they offer. It comes out raw, and you cook it yourself in the little gas powered grill in your table. That was a great experience, cooking our own food provided an activity to keep us engaged as a group, and we got to eat our food as soon as it was cooked, sometimes using our chopsticks to pick a piece right out of the grill and straight to our mouths. The raw whole shrimp with heads on was probably the freshest shrimp we've ever had, and cooking and peeling it was a fun new adventure for the family. The Korean sides were all completely amazing. The curried potatoes and cucumber salad were droolworthy, the kimchi was crisp and perfectly balanced. Even the pickled ginger and soy sauce were high quality and better than the run of the mill. And then some boba for dessert, with a fairly customizable menu, choose your tea flavor and milk type, with several types and flavors of boba or jelly cubes to choose. Between how much food we'd ordered, and cooking it ourselves, we lost track of time (over two hours, and we loved every minute!!) and had stayed to just past closing, but the owners and staff were still patient and friendly, and even stopped to chat with us and joke around for a few minutes before we left, and they even thanked us numerous times for being so patient with them. I can't recommend the place highly enough, and we will definitely...

We happened to drive by this place one day and their huge sign advertising a sushi lunch buffet totally caught my eye. While their rating and reviews aren’t as great as others, their pictures looked solid enough to make it worth a try. I put it at the top of my to-do list, but some how hubby made it here first. He came with a buddy on a dad’s night out and came home raving about the place.

So the very next week, he took me and kiddo there for dinner to meet friends. I promptly ordered gyoza for the table to share while I tried to figure out what sushi to get. Lucky, our waitress was awesome, friendly and full of helpful suggestions. I think the six of us (four adults and two kiddos) shared one appetizer, one order of bulgogi, and five rolls of sushi. And that was the perfect amount. We finished everything and were absolutely stuffed.

I always prefer tempura rolls. So the kamikaze roll was my favorite. Hubby really loved the baked rolls (some of which are baked/lit on fire at your table).

This isn’t the end of my story. Because about a week or two later we returned AGAIN. This time, for that lunch buffet. It’s Monday through Friday 11:30a-2p for $16.99. The buffet includes a soup, a salad/cold side dish station, a table of warm Korean dishes and one double sided buffet of sushi. Apparently the menu of the buffet rotates depending on what the chef wants to put out.

I was excited to learn they had the kamikaze roll out the day (one of the two tempura rolls out). They also had their I Don’t Know Roll. This roll is filled with chef’s current choice, sliced and individually tempura fried. So good! I would definitely return for it!!

As for the hot Korean dishes, I found their angel hair noodles to be so very flavorful! And their tempura mushrooms were spicy, but I couldn’t stop myself from eating them.

Next time, we plan to visit for their Wednesday evening half price sushi. It starts at 4:30p and I’m told that it can get crowded and have long waits. But their sushi is so good that I know it’ll be worth it!

I will also mention that on both visits our servers were above and beyond friendly and awesome. They’re great people who are truly happy to serve. These people make everything in house to give a truly authentic experience. Please...

My opinion about my experience is that this wasn’t the best, but not the worst Korean food. Went in around 7:15 last night. Got seated immediately which was nice. After about 10 minutes got our orders taken, I got bulgogi, my wife got a spicy seafood tofu soup. The food didn’t come out for about 30-40 minutes, which I think is pretty common for Korean food, especially when being made fresh. I was disappointed to see the portion size of my bulgogi. It looked like a lunch portion size for $26. Other Korean restaurants I’ve been to have had larger portions for lower prices, and the flavor and quality are the same. I Didn’t think it was worth it. My wife’s soup was lacking spiciness, but otherwise okay. The food wasn’t bad by any means, but it was disappointing to see such small portions when you are paying $20+ per person. Other than that the service was lacking. The waitress took our order then disappeared for the 35 minutes we waited for the food to arrive, after receiving the food the waitress disappeared again for 30-45 minutes only to come back and ask if we were ready for the check. No asking about how the meal was, no asking if we wanted any refills, nothing about to go boxes, just pay your bill and gtfo. I probably should have stuck to the sushi, since most of the reviews I read are about how great that is. If I go back I’ll give it a try.

Edit: came back to give them a second try and got Korean bbq. Their market price for short ribs was very fair, I was actually surprised as it was about $20 less than what I was expecting. The service we received this visit was phenomenal, not a single thing missed nor a single (reasonable) request not met. The food was fantastic, my wife got the Haemool Tang and it came out perfect, just the right level of spicy and the stone bowl kept the soup boiling for a good while after it was served. This experience was so much better and I am very glad I gave them a second chance. Not sure if it was just a bad night the first time, but they were definitely worth giving another try. I will definitely be returning again, and recommending this...