Samurai Kitchen + Sushi — Restaurant in Millcreek Township

I’m not sure if they were having an off day or if it’s because I’m spoiled being from Hawaii but I was disappointed. I went there on Sunday evening with my family. The main reason was to try the ramen but it turned out this is only offered on Tuesday’s. There was a short wait and we were eventually sat near the sushi counter. We started off with octopus, hamachi and unagi sushi. For dinner I ordered the samosas, short ribs that were on special; we also got fried udon noodles with seafood and fried Indonesian noodles with shrimp. The samosas were my favorite, I could do without the super thick sauce it comes with. I also expected them to be larger in size but they were about two and a half inch triangles and about a half an inch in thickness. The unagi was satisfactory. The udon was overcooked. It had a gooey texture. My daughter did not touch it after the first bite. We took it to go and ended up throwing it away. My daughter loves udon and has never snubbed it the way she did for this experience. My husband thought the flavors were ok with his dish but the the noodles did not seem fresh. It tasted like noodles reheated in a microwave oven. They actually ran out of the short ribs so I did not get to try it even though that item was still on my check. I ended up getting the scallops, they came out with a beautiful sear. I requested it to be well done with no teriyaki sauce. I had to send it back because it was raw in the middle. Upon return it was well done but seemed a little sauce was added. The tako (octopus) sushi was chewy and slimy. The hamachi had skin on it. I don’t normally see skin on hamachi. It seemed the tenderizing process was skipped on the tako. The kitchen may have been behind as the food timing was slow. The server seemed overwhelmed and did not refill a soft drink till after we received the check. The chef seemed more interested in being popular versus focusing on food quality. It’s like he knew everyone dining there that evening and those guests sounded very happy and pleased with him. Thanking him as they departed. It was our first time there and most likely our last. Upon waiting for our revised check, the chef actually had a conversation that we could hear with his server and back cook about there actually being short ribs after all. He gave the server grief about taking it off our bill. That was awkward as I come from a place where you never discuss internal issues in front of or an ear shot away...

I'd have given this place three stars but for our waitress, Kassandra, who was wonderfully attentive. She offered us chopsticks at the beginning of our meal (the only Chinese restaurant I have ever been to in the US to do so), went out of her way to offer a tea replacement when the first was not palatable to my companion, she actually boxed our leftovers for us and was overall one of the most considerate waitresses I have met. Below is what we ordered and how I would have rated it out of 10. Bakcho 5.5 Summer roll 1 Sweet potato roll 8 Philly roll 9 Green Tea 2 The sushi rolls were quite good-none of those lingering odd or unpleasant tones that accompany most sushi destinations in Erie, the Bakcho soup was not memorable or wonderful and I wouldn't get it again. The clear soup is quite good however it is definitely over-salted compared to any others I have ever tried. The green tea had an excessively chalky mouth feel indicative of either a low quality tea (due to the excess of tannins found in these) or incorrect preparation perhaps with water that is too alkaline and filled with minerals as that often produces that sensation in coffee or tea. When I visit Asian restaurants half my meal is about the tea; I usually order a pot and drink the entire thing so it was kind of disappointing not to be able to drink the tea here. And the biggest disappointment, the summer roll - which was advertised to have crab and shrimp with spring mix. I loved the look of the glass (rice-paper) wrapper, but one look through it was enough to tell that the offering of seafood was woefully inadequate for the size of the roll. With one or two thin scraps of the crab (couldn't even actually identify shrimp anywhere) wedged on one side of of the wrapper, the rest of the roll was a giant rolled newspaper (I'm talking a protein-leaf ratio of 1 to 30) of green leaves. There wasn't anything going on inside that: no different types of vegetables or shredded veggies to offer texture or color or flavor. And the flavor of that was unpleasant as well. I would go so far to say it was actually quite disgusting. I couldn't even finish one piece. The Thai sweet chili sauce at the bottom of the plate was very good though, but it couldn't...

My best friend and I used to come here all the time, it's been our absolute favorite place for years. The staff were great, the service was phenomenal, and the kitchen guys did fantastic! But recently went there to celebrate my friend's birthday and our waitress forgot our appetizer, blamed it on the kitchen, forgot our soup and salad, never brought us utensils when we asked (we had to ask another waitress) after waiting 20 mins and our appetizers were cold. The waitress gave me a beer glass after forgetting to bring any glass for my sparkling water drink, And when I asked about getting different rice because the side dish of rice my friend ordered tasted rotten, I was gaslit and told it's because it had lemon in it since it was sushi rice. My best friend and I make sushi rice, we both know the difference between rotten and lemon juice. They still served us a second bowl of bad rice. For all the trouble we faced and the long waits, the waitress gave us a free bowl of edamame and I explained to her that neither of us actually like edamame and asked if we could just have money taken off of our bill that was equal to the price of the edamame. The waitress didn't say anything and then said "Oh well then you don't have to eat it." I've never asked for a manager ever, I used to work in food service and I understand how stressful it can be, but this was horrible service. The manager didn't change anything and when she left our table, the waitress came up asking why we wanted to talk to the manager. It was such an unpleasant experience the whole night and I was so disappointed with the service. We were there for 3.5 hours simply because the waitress kept forgetting stuff and talking to other tables for long periods of time on a busy Friday night. The food was great except for the rice that one time! But needless to say, I'm hoping when I go back that I'm not given the same treatment again because I'd hate to stop going to Samurai Kitchen. Their food...