Sushi Saint — Restaurant in Orlando

Sushi Saint was a good experience and our waitress, Karina, was beyond lovely. The atmosphere was nice and cozy, the Studio Ghibli movie playing was a nice touch. I tend to go to restaurants and try multiple things on the menu to get a better understanding of the direction the chefs wanted to take. We started off with drinks, I got the Shibu Shibu which was beautiful and delicious. It was a nicely balanced, not too sweet cocktail. I would like to mention that when making a reservation, I made it for the temaki bar because I read that the full hand roll menu was only at the bar. However, when arriving to the restaurant the host mentioned that we’d be able to do the full menu at a booth so we opted for that option. After being settled in our booth, we were notified by our server that it was not possible to choose from the full menu. So I feel that put a damper in our experience because I originally reserved for the temaki bar. For appetizers we had the sichuan cucumbers, shishito peppers, osumashi soup, and Japanese elotes. The cucumbers were good, but I did find myself wishing they were covered in the chili oil sauce it came with instead of a little line of it drizzled on top. The shishito peppers were delicious, would get them again. The osumashi soup was okay, it was a clear broth soup with fish and veggies. It was more light than expected. The show stopper for me was the Japanese elotes. The black garlic aioli with the togarashi took elotes to a different dimension and I simply fell in love. We then had the omakase roll which was recommended to us to try as the preview of the hand rolls. It came with 8 pieces, 2 of each flavor including salmon, tuna, crab, and hamachi. This roll was exceptional, we ordered 2. They were bite size pieces of the hand rolls and honestly I might have preferred that form. For the main course, we had the hand rolls. I got the spicy toro, king salmon, and snow crab hand rolls. The spicy toro was phenomenal, lots of flavor from the gochujang aioli. The fish was also fresh in all the rolls. I also tried the scallop which was on the lighter fresh side. All in all, they were very good. For dessert, we had the mango and matcha mochis which were good. They are something you can get anywhere now so they weren’t mind blowing, but overall good. Sushi Saint was a nice experience, not entirely sure if I’d go back unless they change up the menu with more seasonal ingredients and flavors. I feel I got an adequate viarety so it would have to take something special to go back. Thank you to the Sushi Saint staff and chefs for the...

Edit: as unfortunate as my experience was the manager of the restaurant did contact me personally a few days later to agree that they had failed me and promised to make things better for the future and were willing to offer me another experience should I wish to come back and give them another chance. I don't think I'll be taking that offer but it's definitely nice to see the initiative to make things better.

Original post: Pretty disappointed with my excited here which is a shame cause I really wanted to like it. Food was flavorful but nothing special making me want to come back. Pricing hurt. The handrolls are only a few bites, snacks really. So between two people getting 6-7 handrolls each because we're hungry, it hurts when the handrolls average at $12 and we left hungry still.

But that was just mild disappointment in comparison to the complete lack of service we received. At 1:45pm only the bar filled with one group of 5 people plus us (2) and we were basically disregarded and ignored by the service staff. Had to ask for drink menus after being sat for several minutes at which point we were then also finally offered water. Had to almost physically grab the bartender/seater to order a bottle of sake after another thirty minutes go by because they kept walking past ignoring us.

The chef making our food did wonderfully and was fun, one of the better parts of the experience, but he was bogged down by being the only one making the handrolls for a dozen people. It was easily a good ten minutes between handrolls and nearly took 30 minutes for our first ones after we handed over our orders. Another chef handled some rolls for the group of 5 and then cleaned up and closed down as we sat waiting there for our handrolls.

And finally we were done after nearly two hours for a few snack bites. Eventually we were given the check as we finished our drinks. 18% service gratuity is automatically included and I don't mind except I had to do more work getting us service than actually receiving service. And then the check with my card sat there for another 15 minutes as the server would look at it and walk past several times. We were done, ready to pay and again disregarded and made to wait as they cleaned and reset around us.

Overall not coming back and wouldn't recommend, nothing special worth coming for especially if your have to work for your...

I booked a reservation for the omakase experience for this past weekend at Sushi Saint several days in advance, noting that we were celebrating my husband’s birthday. I even called the day of to confirm they had the note and was reassured they would do something special, maybe bubbles or an acknowledgment, so I felt good going in, expecting a memorable evening.

Unfortunately, the experience was disappointing from the start. When we arrived (10 minutes early), the hosts tried to seat us at a regular table, even though my reservation was clearly for the omakase. They seemed very confused, and I had to pull up the reservation on my phone and point out my name on their computer to prove it. This led to us standing around at the entrance for about 10–15 minutes, which already left a negative impression considering how expensive this restaurant is.

Once seated in the omakase room, things didn’t improve much. The food itself was okay, but for the price, I expected much more. We did the 12-course omakase with the wine pairing, which brought our total to about $400. By the end, we were still hungry and ended up going to another restaurant afterward. The pairings and dishes were fine, but nothing that stood out as exceptional or worth the high cost.

Most disappointing of all: despite my note and my phone call, they did absolutely nothing for my husband’s birthday. No bubbles, no acknowledgment, not even a simple “happy birthday.” It felt careless, especially when celebrating a special occasion was the entire reason I chose this place.

To make things worse, toward the end of the dinner the chef asked us to leave Google reviews about our “great experience” and mentioned he was trying to get to five stars. He even criticized some of the other reviews people had left (like ones about parking), which felt unprofessional and not tasteful. After what we had experienced, being asked for a glowing review was uncomfortable and really added to how strange the whole evening felt.

Overall, the service was confusing and impersonal, the omakase wasn’t filling or memorable, and the “special” birthday dinner I had planned was completely overlooked. For nearly $400, I expected so much more. Sadly, I would not return and cannot recommend Sushi Saint, especially when there are so many incredible restaurants in Orlando that provide both outstanding food...