Sushi 85 — Restaurant in Mountain View

10/29/2021 update: Sushi 85 is still a 💎 gem! I was at Walk Rite for Life and stopped in for some Sushi in the late afternoon. I was very pleasantly surprised that they were open between lunch and dinner. I dined in and enjoyed some of my favorites. And a Bento Box take home for later. I had a CA roll with tobiko on top. My favorite roll, don't know if it is on the menu. And ordered the 3 item Bento with Beef teriyaki, CA rolls, gyoza, with the usual rice and cute sliced orange. I devoured the miso sesame house salad while there. And i am so glad i did. They served the house salad in the cutest bowl with a finger indent. Its probably a a small soup bowl for holding and slurping. Also perfect to raise their yummy salad up rather than bending forward to eat. I especially liked that they julienne cut the lettuce, making it easier to chopstick and it gets coated with more super delicious miso sesame dressing.

Last night, while I reheated the Gyoza in a skillet, I ate some of the regular CA rolls and they were delish. And, the avocado still green! I also are 1 piece if the beef teriyaki and it was sooo tender...Cold! I can't wait for dinner tomorrow to microwave it with the rice. At that point I am salivating, impatiently waiting, turning, browning each side of each perfect little Gyoza. Oh, it was so worth the wait! These are the best Gyoza I've had in years. I had forgotten just how wonderful Sushi 85's little Gyoza are, as it had been a couple years. And this was the 1st time I've ever had leftovers to pan fry. Lol. Wish i had ordered more! Pro tip for reheat gyoza at home get your skillet hot then down to 7 or 8, add gyoza wait till a bit of crispy darkness. Then turn. Turn down heat to 6 or 7 if you smell it starting too burn. Then when you turn to the 3rd side of your gyoza (if 3 sided, not all are) add a small bit of of drinking water with some of the gyoza dipping sauce, very slow and careful so it doesn't splatter. Stir it around with each gyoza to pick up the crusty taste in the pan, and give the gyoza a bit of plump so they aren't shriveled and hard. Stay with your gyoza. This doesn't take long and they can burn quick.

And last, but not really least, there was a little bed of finely chopped cabbage under the gyoza, which i will put in with the beef teriyaki tomorrow. The portion is so big, it will be 2 meals (for me) with some frozen broccoli or asparagus, and more CA rolls.

10/30/21 p.m. update. The CA rolls are still delish and avocado bits still green! This must be some ninja Yoda Force magic..."these are not the avocados you will spoil".

5 small meals fabulous. Thank you Sushi 85 in Mountain View!!!

2019 review: Hidden gem for Sushi. I've had Saturday AYCE & midweek lunch and very pleased with the freshness of their sushi and portion sizes....

TL;DR: 15$ worth All-you-can-eat at best, but their price: 50$.

I have a very wide range of tolerance in terms of food, meaning very few restaurants fall into either ends of the spectrum from terrible to phenomenal. This place is on the wrong end of the spectrum. I've been to sushi factory, Kenzo's AYCE menu, Tomi Seafood buffet, and lots of other buffet/AYCE places. Granted, my experience are mostly pre-COVID. And I get that restaurants have to raise prices because of hard times and staff demanding higher pay, and I get that. Pre-COVID, most places charge roughly 25$ per person for sushi/seafood AYCE. If I've got to pay 30$ or 35$ now, still understandable, but certainly not 50$ per.

I came here thinking if they charge 50$ per, it must be really good. How mistaken I was. Their menu is pretty much the same if not worse than Kenzo's (no justification for higher price here). Getting an annual membership with Kenzo and get sashimi with them is cheaper than this place's per person prize (even less justification for higher price here). Now this may sound like I'm advertising for Kenzo, but I've got no stake in the place. It's just easier to have a bar to compare to and see how far this Sushi 85 place have fallen.

As for the food quality, terrible! And I don't say that lightly nor often. They pack so much rice in the rolls, so little fish, scrap pieces of fish at that. Again, for 50$, I expect a lot better. I'm not one to comment on freshness but the fish definitely smells. By the end of it I can't taste any fish, just vinegar rice in my mouth. And to top off the horrible experience, when the wait staff ask for somebody more senior to help calculate the left over pieces we didn't finish (again, couldn't taste anything but vinegar rice at this point), Chinese was the first thing came out of his mouth. Yes, this place is run by Chinese, that assumes every other Asian-looking people are Chinese and show you no respect. Does it sound like I'm splitting hair? Yes. But at this point it's another drop in the bucket of things that make this place bad.

Sushi 85 has earned its place on my black list. Never again. Don't waste your money...

If I could give them zero stars, I would.... Ordered from here off DoorDash. Food was supposed to be delivered 45mins-60mins. No problem for me, I'm used to ordering off DoorDash so I know how this game goes. About 55 mins past, and the order still said "preparing your order". I noticed the Driver was already at the restaurant, so I kindly asked him if there was an update on my food. He promptly responded saying nobody has bothered to help him and has been waiting for over 10 minutes. After going back and forth with the driver, I found out the restaurant only had 2 employees working and he was essentially being ignored from the employees. In attempt to get an update on my order, I decided to call the restaurant and see what was going on, but of course nobody answered. In fact, the phone went directly to "line busy" and I wasn't able to reach the restaurant. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth with the Driver, he eventually was helped and was given my order. Luckily the restaurant is fairly close by and the driver didn't take long to deliver my order. Once I had the bag of food in my hands, I opened it up, only to see my single baked sushi roll sitting in the same container as my two cucumber rolls. Of course due to the humidity from the baked roll, it warmed up the other veggie rolls and made them inedible. That wasn't the only issue.... Our miso soup was DISGUSTING! First taste and I almost spit it out. The soup itself tasted like it was mixed with alcohol. Only 3 small pieces of tofu in my container.

I would stay away from this sushi place. Go find...