Rakuzen AYCE Sushi — Restaurant in New York

I've been coming to this restaurant since it first opened, and at the beginning, the food was amazing. The portion sizes were generous but well-balanced, the service was fast, and the quality of the ingredients—especially the fish—was top-notch. It used to be one of my go-to sushi spots because of how fresh everything tasted and how well-crafted the sushi was in terms of fish-to-rice ratio.

However, over time, things have declined significantly. I’m not sure if it’s due to COVID, a management change, or new sushi chefs, but the quality has taken a noticeable downturn. When I visited recently, I was shocked by the amount of rice they now serve with each piece of sushi. It felt like they were padding the rolls and nigiri with excessive rice to make up for using less fish or meat. It wasn’t just a small difference—it was to the point where each bite felt unbalanced and unappetizing.

One of the biggest disappointments was the scallop nigiri. I remember when they used to serve a whole scallop per piece, which was flavorful and had a nice, delicate texture. Now, they give you only about 1/4 of a scallop, but they double the amount of rice underneath. It’s a clear downgrade, and it makes the dish feel like a filler rather than a well-crafted sushi piece.

To make matters worse, if you don’t eat all of the rice, they charge you extra per piece. This policy feels unreasonable, especially when they are clearly overloading the sushi with rice instead of properly portioning it.

Another frustrating thing I noticed is that when you order one appetizer, they give you a massive portion meant for 6 people to fill you up before you can even get to the sashimi or higher-quality food. For example, I ordered one kani salad, but they brought out six platefuls of it, making it obvious that they were trying to stuff customers with cheap fillers. And just like with the rice, if you don’t finish it, they charge you extra. It really feels like they are prioritizing saving costs over providing a good dining experience.

While I will say that the service remains good, that alone isn’t enough to justify coming here anymore. The food quality has dropped to the point where it’s just not worth the price. And I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way—the restaurant used to be packed every day, but now it’s often nearly empty, with only one or two tables occupied. That’s a huge red flag that regular customers have noticed the decline and have stopped coming.

At this point, for what they charge, you’re better off going to a regular buffet—you’ll likely get better sushi there for the same or even a lower price. It’s disappointing to see how much this place has changed, but unless they fix their portioning and return to their original quality, I can’t...

Came to this place eager to try the food but was overly disappointed.

The Ordering:

There's 3 sheets of paper you can use to order from, though they might give you more if they see you're not ordering much. For me, after giving them the third sheet, the manager or owner said "after this you can not order more, your time is up". There's two things that confuses me. No where on the ordering paper states a time limit but I'll let that slide as typical ayce sushi restaurants are two hours but here's the the second thing, I was in there for a hour and fifteen mins! I know the exact time from sending a text message upon being seated. The place was not packed as there were empty tables around me.

The Food:

The sushi here are bite sized, much smaller than the typical sushi you get at other places. From my first order, they were already missing items and I didn't even order a lot since I was hungry and just wanted some food fast to eat and then decide on the second order. During the second order, I ordered the same items that never came during the first order and a few other new items. Some food items yet again was missing along with the same items from the first order. The final order was where the manager or owner said I couldn't order anymore afterwards. The third order was by far the worst, only two of the five items I selected came. What a shame.

Overall:

Service was very friendly and attentive. Some doesn't speak much English but that's what the paper ordering is for. Soda was replenished often. Food is good if you receive all that you ordered. If the same manager or owner I spoke about sees you ordering more than six items per sheet, they'll glare at you throughout the...

Honestly, I don’t often leave reviews but this place was terrible. I went with my group of friends (around 8 people) and we were given slips to check off what we wanted to order. When we handed in the slips, we were rudely told that we did it wrong and had to do it again. Thus begins the saga.

For one, the waiter barely knew how to communicate. But luckily, some of my friends knew Chinese to translate. When we gave in our slips for the second time, we were told that we had ordered too much. And again, they told us to redo it. The amount of food that we ordered was fair considering the large group, in fact, we planned to order more later.

When we had finally placed our order, it took exceedingly long to arrive. Normally I can understand because of a big order. But 30 mins later, only one takoyaki and California roll had come out. Consistently, they would come out with small quantities of food (1-2 rolls) every 10 minutes or so. About an hour in, we realized that they were no longer bringing out food for us. However, the amount of food we received did not reflect how much we ordered. I would say we got only about half of what we ordered. We all left still hungry.

Since I was still hungry after our entire order came out, mind you, half of it was missing, I ordered some ramen. Immediately I noticed that the ramen was extremely similar to instant noodles with a mushroom flavor. The meat too, was not at all Japanese style. The portion was incredibly small, I had to order 2 bowls and still it was not enough.

Overall, the attitude of the staff are extremely disappointing and the food was mediocre at best. I would not recommend ordering here at all. It was a...