Sayori — Restaurant in Orange

I've never written a bad review before, but after my first truly uncomfortable experience ever, I feel it’s necessary to share. I came here for the ambiance, especially after seeing many influencers call this place one of the "hidden gems" in Connecticut. The pictures looked interesting, food seemed good looking, but the reality was disappointing. The digital projection that seemed to be a key feature was underwhelming, and it was only enjoyable if you sat at the wall it was projected onto. Beyond that, the space was simply a medium-sized, dull room with tables—nothing special compared to to the overhyped videos and photos of this place. The overall environment felt incredibly uncomfortable. The music playing in the corner was almost muted for some reason, and while there were a few tables nearby with people talking, the atmosphere remained painfully quiet. I considered leaving the moment we were seated, but we stayed to give the food a chance as that's really what we were there for. Unfortunately, both our orders were really bland— something I've honestly never experienced at any restaurant. To top it off, I noticed that all of our plates and bowls were chipped (and I don’t notice these kinds of things at all). I also ordered I believe a margarita, which I thought would make up for the food, but funnily enough, no— it tasted like juice... Given the price, it came in a small, standard glass—nothing special, honestly, as if I could have made a drink myself at home. What was even more unsettling was the behavior of our server. Looking back now, she was always close by and may have been listening in on our conversation or closely analyzing our reactions. When we asked for the check, she questioned why my boyfriend hadn’t touched his scallops and why I left some food on my plate. She even asked if he didn’t like them (he cleared his plate, except for a few scallops he was done with, and I left half my food because I was planning to ask for a box out of politeness). She repeated the question, this time more aggressively. My boyfriend became flustered so I told her we were fine and just asked for the check and a box. I’m not sure if the passive-aggressive behavior was intentional or just the norm here, but either way, I won’t be returning. After reading some other reviews about waiters chasing down customers to ask why they didn’t tip enough, it seems like this might be how things are done here. I'm disappointed that we spent nearly $100 on food that left us still hungry, and the interaction with the waiter was crazy to say the least. I also felt terrible for not leaving a tip, as I always do, but I didn’t feel it was deserved after such a horrible experience. In summary, don’t be swayed by the videos/photos about this place— don’t come here unless you want to spend a lot of money on mediocre food and possibly get a rude waiter. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed our time laughing about it on the...

This is literally the first time I've ever felt strongly enough about a restaurant to bother leaving a review, but I was pretty blown away by Sayori!! To start, the restaurant itself is pretty prestine, it looked clean and immaculate and well taken care of, despite being pretty busy and full of people. I loved the atmosphere, the big open space felt cozy with the dark colors and flowers, and the big blue ocean projection was such a a fun thing that just really set the tone for a unique and funky but classy experience.

The service was excellent, and although it seemed like the wait staff was still getting the hang of things, it wasn't in any way to our detriment as the customers. If anything, they made their help available MORE often than necessary, it was more like they were still figuring out how to work alongside each other, but they already all knew how to interact with the diners, and they're still a pretty new restaurant at the time of writing this review, so I think they're doing great!

The food. OH MY GOD, the food. We started with the duck wraps, and they were excellent, and we finished with the red bean mochi ice cream, which was also amazing, but what I want to talk about is the sushi. I was blown away. They were so unique, and complex, and beautifully presented. There were layers of flavor that I don't remember ever experiencing before, the way the flavors hit you one by one was amazing, and they worked so well together.

Like, every sushi place has their special house rolls, but they're pretty much always the same things, just with different names, or the same things but with a different kind of roe or something. But the sushi rolls here at Sayori were SO unique. They used unique combinations of things, and they utilize really unique ingredients to do it. Things like truffle, fried banana, mango cream sauce, black pepper puree.... It was incredible. They were unexpected ingredients for sushi, but they worked so well, and they didn't feel out of place. It was cohesive and complex and delicious.

I also appreciated that the menu wasn't too long. It had pretty great breadth of options, but it wasn't like overwhelming and overloaded with too many choices. They managed to make it cover a broad spectrum of tastes while keeping it concise. So it really felt like they were making the effort to execute their menu with incredible expertise, rather than trying to adequately make a bunch of things. Quality over quantity, basically.

Overall, I was just blown away. I will definitely be back, and cannot recommend this enough. Definitely check this place out!!

P.S.- prices are also great for...

Went here for a date night dinner and absolutely loved it. We've been to a few sushi restaurants through the years and honestly, most sushi restaurants have similar 'special rolls' on their menu that all start to taste the same from one restaurant to the next. Dragon rolls, spider rolls, rainbow rolls-- you know the deal. We were delightfully surprised to see that Sayori does not limit themselves to just the safe, well trodden paths of other sushi restaurants. We ordered the Out of Control, Blue Fin Tuna, and Autumn in CT rolls, which paired and utilized unique ingredients with more familiar to make some really amazing flavors that were not just novel, but delicious.

We also ordered the Duck Wrap as an appetizer, which came with a nice 6 pieces—perfect for two people to split. The Duck Wrap was fantastic. If you're a fan of Pekin Duck, you'll likely appreciate this presentation and the flavors they put together.

Overall, we found the food we got to be executed really well, the ambiance to be delightful and modern (giant projectors showing space whales), the menu to really thread the needle of familiar with safe options while branching out into some really novel and unique options to explore, and staff to be friendly and attentive—all for just shy of $100 (that's an appetizer, drink, 3 special rolls, 2 hand rolls, and dessert).

We'll definitely...