Gorilla Sushi Bar On Clark — Restaurant in Lake View Township

I love chirashi don, but at 25usd in a nearby sushi place, I couldn't have it as much as I wanted to. This restaurant offers the dish at 14.50usd and it's reasonably close to my place, so I decided to try it.

I ordered an appetizer, a cold tea, and chirashi don for a total of 22usd. It's cheap! However, you get what you pay for. The slices of fish should be called "slivers" due to how thin they are. They were translucent. Compared to the other sushi place I frequent, this had less than half the amount of fish. I had to try to find the fish taste over the rice, it's ridiculous.

There's a huge mound of rice and imitation crabstick with raw fish served on a wooden platter. The platter is unfinished and unglazed, and I do not feel safe eating raw fish over it. If they reuse the platter, I don't know why they would choose it over a regular glazed ceramic bowl, heck, even a solid piece of slate rock. There are nooks and crannies on the wood where bacteria and parasite eggs can hide. I am not crazy about safety, but even an untrained eye would put a second thought to this choice.

The food arrived 30 minutes after I ordered. For a plate that didn't need any cooking, I was surprised. It's supposed to be a quick bite lunch, but it stretched to an hour.

There were 3 occupied tables, and one server and one sushi dude. It would have been a decent experience had it not been for the numerous delivery orders. The server was more busy building their orders in bags than serving dine-in customers.

Mind you, I do not care about American standards of service, with servers coming back so often that it's bordering on stalking. I like the Asian efficient way, fast and simple. However, even the server didn't meet those standards as she never came back to grab the bill. The miso soup wasn't hot by the time it reached my table, and the iced green tea wasn't even cold anymore.

This is a cheap place, but for the amount of fish you get, it isn't worth it. I would rather pay 10usd extra to have big slices of raw fish. Maybe delivery would be a better experience, but with the added fees associated with 3rd party delivery apps, it ends up being roughly the same price as a higher quality sushi restaurant.

I see no reason to...

I have long been a customer of gorilla sushi, but that ends today. I am a person with a disability that makes stairs very hard, I am not in a wheelchair but still have accessibility needs, and have been living in the same apartment for many years which unfortunately has stairs. I’m able to safely make it up the stairs once a day without causing harm to my body. I always include in my delivery notes on Grubhub to please come up the stairs because I am disabled, and it’s already sad that I have to quantify that in delivery notes. Tonight when I ordered sushi, the driver showed up at my house and wouldn’t come up the stairs. I hobbled down wondering if the buzzer was not working. The delivery driver demanded I tell her how I am disabled, and then told me off for asking her to drop at the top of the stairs. She cited covid safety, which is fair, but also the top of my stairs is farther away than the foot she stood from me in my foyer and as a vulnerable person I have already received both doses of my vaccine. I tried to discuss with the restaurant and was told there was no one I could speak to. I should not have to quantify my accessibility needs to a complete stranger, and will no longer be supporting this...

The food is fine- the quality is what you'd expect for $4.99 sushi. I'm writing more so as someone that's had uncomfortable experiences here as a woman of color. Since this is the closest sushi place to me I've been here several times and every time the woman/man couple or whoever they are that bring you the orders are cold/hostile. At first I brushed it off as them just being busy but I've noticed how much warmer they are with other customers. I ignored the few times they've confused me for an Uber eats driver. One time they chided me for being "too early" to pick up my order so today I arrived 15 mins after the pickup time. I tell them my name and nothing- they don't let me know if my order will take longer or if there's any issues. I wait on the side for another 15 mins and when they finally hand me my order there's no acknowledgment of it being 30 mins late or not even correct as I discovered when I got home. However the whole time they're perfectly pleasant, thanking and exchanging pleasantries with other patrons. After today dont think I'll be returning to pay for incorrect, late orders with a side...