San Sai Pasadena Japanese Grill — Restaurant in Pasadena

My mum has come here for lunch a few times with her friends and enjoyed the food here, so when my cousin was in town a few months ago we took him here (of course, it didn't hurt that we had a coupon too ;)). It is in a block of businesses on Lake that share a large parking lot in the back, so parking was pretty easy to find. SanSai is a quick and casual Japanese restaurant, so you order at the counter and grab a table while waiting for your order to be called.

We got the following: SPICY PORK LOIN PLATE WITH ORIENTAL SALAD AND SUMI SALAD (All plates come with a choice of two gourmet salads, rice, and a veggie skewer) -- This was my mum's order. She thought the pork was fine, but not anything special. She did not care for the salads; I could not try them, however, since they both contained nuts. SPICY PORK LOIN BOWL WITH TOMATO SALAD (All bowls include a choice of a gourmet salad and rice) -- This was my cousin's order. He also felt that the meat was okay. TEMPURA PLATE WITH 3RD AND 4TH SALAD (this receipt is sooooo helpful --) -- We got this to share. The tempura was not good at all... it was quite poor quality. And the two salads were horrible. LAS VEGAS ROLL -- My order! I did not appreciate that the menu does not list the roll ingredients! I asked the girl at the counter what was included in this roll, since I was not familiar with it, so she listed all the ingredients. It sounded good, so I ordered it. And when it came time to eat it, I discovered that she left out a key ingredient--SALMON!!! Why is this a big deal, you ask? BECAUSE I HAVE A SALMON ALLERGY -- I just took the salmon out (gave it to my mum) and ate the rest and I was fine... but seriously, I can't believe she left out the key ingredient.

Suffice it to say, none of us really enjoyed our meal here. Overall, it wasn't bad... but it wasn't good. And I'm irked about the salmon. And disappointed with the tempura, along with the two salads I did manage to try. My mum is still open to coming back here for lunch, but this visit was...

The customer service is still good but the last few trips have been an extreme let down. Three trips ago, I had to ask them to clean the sushi board down and the guy to wash his hands because he put the company clipboard on the food surface and handed it back to another worker and was about to just start making food on the same surface. The 2nd to last trip I had to ask the guy at the register to ask the sushi maker to stop talking so much!! HE was talking to the salad maker, the guy sweeping, the guy at the register, while making our food and they were all conversing back, all over food. I would love to think spit was not flying out his mouth but he was talking so much that he got my order wrong. I was waiting to waiting to eat til after I got the girls to sleep and I when I went to eat it, it had seaweed wrap and not soy wrap and had a fish smell, i guess from an unclean surface. This trip and the last trip, both of the sushi rolls were horribly made and was falling apart as you can see from the pictures. I will not get sushi here again. Maybe just the fried stuff like...

I feel bad for the employees up front, being managed by such bad management. Clearly the managers don’t want the cashier or anyone to hold a conversation. It felt good talking to the cashier my day was going pretty bad, I was fired from my job that day and was feeling like I wasn’t up for a chat. But the cashier was able to make me smile and basically continue with my day but the manager would walk by like 7 times saying come on, stop it, ándale, and stuff like end it there. Anyways good employee bad management especially the tall manager who has the strong Spanish accent. Anyway my chicken that I ordered we’ll done came out pink. I included pictures here on the review. Took it back to the cashier to show him and he apologized and told me they would fix it. They did but I’ve noticed the chicken normally comes out pink which is and I wouldn’t eat there due to the food quality going down and the unfair management just makes...