starting off with the positives: our server Metty was super nice. She was busy, definitely running around, but when we made eye contact, she came over. When she saw my partner or I raise a hand, she came over.
The restaurant is beautiful, plenty of parking, the serving team was great. Bussers stay circling to grab trash, clear plates, etc. The staff did their ish.
That said, I feel like the servers were set up to fail or the owner didn't care about the experience for new guests.
Number 1, and this one is a smaller deal: the website has a cocktail menu, a sake menu, etc. When I saw it, I was delighted to try them out. When we got there, they had no alcohol at all whatsoever. This was mildly irksome, just cos the site had menus that had my palate revving for certain flavors. Just say on your site that you don't presently offer alcohol but will at [DATE].
Number 2 is an extension of number 1 but actually irritated the hell outta me. Like I said, when I heard about this place, I peeped the menu. I was DELIGHTED to see that they distinguished between imitation crab meat and snow crab. The language is very clear, "snow crab meat." So, when my rolls came and I saw it was imitation, I was irritated. My family is from the mid-atlantic, I know snow crab meat. So I order 2 more rolls that are listed as having snow crab in them; one snow crab roll and another roll I can't recall the name of. When they came, I recognized the imitation. I called Metty over - I wanted to see if she'd own it, because her response would dictate my own - and asked, "the menu says X, but I'm looking at it, and my eyes are telling me Y. Is this snow crab meat?" she looks at it, looks at me and says "it's probably imitation." I'm glad she was honest.
She brought me a substitution, didn't charge me the food waste policy. Really, Metty made lemonade where she could but it truly infuriates me to know that the language was abundantly clear: snow crab meet. Some said kani, some said imitation, some said snow crab - so the delineation is clearly understood - but that wasn't what was served to me.
What this makes me think is that the owners know what the area wants - more fresh sushi, more cocktails, better options - and they marketed to that, but when I actually went, they didn't deliver on those marketed promises.
This place had a chance to really grab me - my fiance and I do a date night at least once a month and we LOVE sushi. But I don't think we'll be back. I felt deceived. They used very specific language "kani," vs "imitation," vs "snow crab meat" and let me tell you how MAYBE one roll had real crab meat in it and it was HAMMERED with cream cheese. The amount of cream cheese made it hard to tell.
The alcohol was kinda "eh, nbd" on its own cos we get that liquor licenses can take time to be delivered. They didn't have sake, wine, nothing - and THEN it was compounded by misrepresented ingredients. Not a fan of the lying part. I care about what I'm eating. I'll likely stay with Sono Sushi from here on out. AYCE is only enjoyable if you know exactly what you're eating and trust the menu.
We ordered dessert but it was taking an inordinately long time and the staff had started breaking down, and we simply didn't care about a deep fried oreo enough to wait more than 20 minutes for it. Once we got to 10:15, we asked the host to pass along our thanks to Metty and explained why we were leaving. We simply don't care for an oreo 25-minutes bad.
PS - to management: there's a typo in your menu. Instead of saying "desserts," it says "deaaerts" Look at the S's in other words on your menu, then look at the dessert section.
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