SUGARFISH by sushi nozawa — Restaurant in Pasadena

Before you spend your time and money at this sushi place take a moment to read a few reviews that are not "ELITE" reviews which can be bought in many ways (not necessary cash). The reason this place has such a long wait is because capacity is roughly 50 people and 8-10 people can be at the bar. My memory is vague it's been two months. We waited 50 minutes on a Wednesday night, we were one of the last groups left waiting so we decided to get some shots. Two spots at the bar were open. We were politely told "these spots are reserved for customers that are going to be eating here," I told the young man, "we are waiting for a table," there was 4 of us. He said "no, you have to order food at the bar," I said "okay, can we some shots and we'll move when you need the two spots, there's no one else waiting but us." He gave our shots at the hostess stand, yes, where if I wanted to, I could easily have greeted people and signed them in. They set our 4 shot glasses on the top of the hostess stands as the two bar spots were open. We took our shots and 10 minutes later our table was ready. Total of an hour wait. We left feeling unsatisfied and thought about Del Taco down the street. Sushi: Presentation was terrible-Kabuki has better presentation! Over priced items that are served on practically a 8x10 white plates with 2 sashimi pieces on the top left corner and 2 on the bottom right corner. SO, basically stare at a piece of paper on your desk. No drizzle of oil, sauce, no little flowers, no effort at all. Taste: Again...walk yourself to Kabuki down the way. Waste of time. Service was...there was none and be prepared to use your cell phone light to look at your menu and food. The lights there are probably over dimmed for a reason, so you don't see the lack of effort in anything for the price...

This place, unfortunately, lost me as their long term loyal customer. We have been ordering Sugarfish almost weekly throughout the Pandemic. The presentation take out box is great, sushi is good unless you are into sashimi, the menu options are very limited. The reason for my low rating is poor customer services that I encountered three times. Unfortunately, now it feels like the restaurant is so busy that they are not interested in retaining the customers because of its popularity. First, I came to the restaurant with my husband and 3 year old with intention to dine outside, when they had enough open tables. I asked politely that we plan on ordering dinner for me and my husband but my 3 yr old son doesn’t eat sushi and if he could have his own snack at our table.. The host would not allow my 3 year old to have his own snack and said he would have to seat at the bench outside of the dining area. Second encounter, my friend and I pre ordered lunch an hour ahead as we were not sure that we could get a table for lunch. The restaurant does not take reservations. Upon arriving and seeing open tables, we asked if we could seat at the table and eat our lunch boxes that we pre ordered, and the host said no, we offered to purchased additional food if they would allow us to seat, the host said we could order more food but we could not eat the one that we pre orders from them an hour ago, it has to stay in the bag. Lastly, we had $300 order for my get together at home from Sugarfish, when picking up the order, we asked for extra soy sauce. We were told we have to pay 25 cents extra! After spending $300 on the take out meal at the restaurant and being a regular customer in the same place, I would hope they would handle things with more flexibility than just rejecting and referring to...

Before you read this review, I recommend going to either Iroha in Studio City or Kensho Hollywood instead.

My boyfriend and I love Sugarfish. We hadn't visited this location before, but we expected way better service. Waited for well over an hour for a table because they don't take reservations, which is... no further comment.

Then, when my boyfriend went up to find out how much longer our wait would be, he overheard the host telling another customer in line that they were running out of "a few" items (the host seemingly had little to no intention to tell us this information unless we had asked). This wouldn't be a problem if the "few" items were not 4+ different kinds of fish. It's one thing to run out of fish as a sushi restaurant, but then to act like it's NBD? Okay, ma'am. That's like running out of pasta sauce at Olive Garden.

It's frustrating that we patiently waited in line for so long and were not sooner informed of the lack of fish. Needless to say, we left.

I'm sure you're wondering why we didn't take a table anyways, but the whole purpose of eating at a place like Sugarfish is because you are seeking variety. For the price you're paying to dine there, you should be able to get the full flavor experience.

Lastly, it's ridiculous of a restaurant of this tier to not take reservations. So basically, you're only option is to wait in line for at least 1 hour (I see other reviewers who had an even longer wait time) and hope they don't run out of your favorite dishes.

PS: if you're looking to eat outside, be warned that there is zero lighting (or heaters). They really have people sitting on the porch in the pitch dark. I'm not exaggerating.

Okay, my work here as an honest...