Oceano — Restaurant in Reno

This place is not worth the cost. Not in the slightest bit. I had various issues with the place which I'll go into detail but the summary is: dirty cups and silverware, mediocre service, and just bad food.

-Cups and silverware Attached are photos of the cups I received for water and they do not look clean at all. I wondered if this was an outlier, but it seemed like other customers had received the same type of dirty cups. How can a relatively high end restaurant be serving typical drinking cups that don't even come with the illusion of being sanitary? When I told a server about this, they seemed to not understand the significance of my concern and almost undermined it. Also, I thought the silverware were oddly rusted/burned. Not sure if I'm ignorant to this type of aesthetic or not, but it just did not look to my opinion.

-Service When I was served my food, it didn't come with any silverware. I initially thought they were going for an authentic sushi eating experience by eating with your hands which would have been cool, but I also had ramen. I sure hope they didn't expect me to eat ramen with my hands. Had to ask a server for silverware and soy sauce which isn't the worse thing in the world, but the time it took for someone to come by was the issue which also led to the ramen getting lukewarm quickly. By the time I received chopsticks, they forgot to provide a spoon for the ramen too which was pretty funny. After asking for a spoon, it seemed like I was promptly ignored, perhaps they didn't hear me. I don't think I was being rude either so I was not quite sure why it took so long to even try the ramen.

-Food quality For the amount you're paying, you should expect much higher quality. I have worked at Chinese and Sushi restaurants before and I was appalled by the quality. First with the ramen, the broth was extremely unflavorful and acted more as a vehicle to the dish instead of being part of the dish. The spinach was clumped up in a block which I thought was cool at first, but then showed more symptoms of being recently de-thawed from it's texture and flavor. The pork that accompanied it felt like a combination of microwaved and pan fried, not providing a crispy texture absorbed with the broth. The mushrooms were just bad and felt like weird gum with hints of Umami. I'm glad the server did not take it on our bill because I could not finish this dish.

The sushi was slightly better than the ramen, but still sub-par. Not enough rice vinegar was applied in the sushi rice, but was still flavorful. The actual formation of the nigiri and rolls was poor since they were easily falling apart and did not seem to have much effort put in when this is an art form. Again, the rice seemed like a vehicle instead of part of the dish for the nigiri. The fish itself was alright and was ok in the flavor department which is fine when Reno is pretty far from the ocean, but not ok when you're paying this much. There are plenty of other sushi restaurants in Reno that guarantee quality in their rolls for less. The kimchi that was part of the dish was actually insulting and would much rather they not put it on in the first place. It felt way too hard; which is because they did not ferment it long enough. I guess this is proof that they're pickling the kimchi themselves which is great, but if you can't get it right then just buy it from the Asian Mart next time.

The place is beautiful and I had high hopes for this restaurant. However, a mixture of various poor first impressions has made me dislike this place. If you have any standards for sushi, Asian food, or just food: I recommend...

New to Reno, I've been on a quest to find the city's best All You Can Eat Sushi. This is the 6th place I've tried. Note although I only ate sushi I could see everything coming out of the kitchen and it all looked phenomenal.

The challenge with this review is do you review in the context of being a Resort Casino restaurant (which are typically higher priced than non resort restaurants) or do you compare it apples to apples with say a strip mall joint straight across based on price, quality, atmposphere and service? I sort of decided to try to go in the middle of those two perspectives.

For a casino resort restaurant, I would give it 5 stars. For a local restaurant regardless of location, I'd give it a 4 at most, so I decided on an average 4.25 lol.

What's good? The fish quality here was noticeably a little better than all the other places I tried (Hinoki is next on my list and will be my seventh place).

The atmosphere here is a matter of personal opinion but I'd say it's the best compared to other places I've been with the caveat that I wish the sushi bar had a better view of the amazing gigantic super-wide high-res screens showing you amazing videos from scenes around the world. But instead, you have an interesting view of the open air kitchen which is pretty cool!

The menu selection of nigiri and maki rolls is average. Not small but not huge. There's plenty to choose from. The service is top notch. They do not have scallop nigiri, which a lot of other places have. Otherwise it's very similar selection.

What's bad? Well, let's talk about the elephant in the room. The price. It's about $8+ more expensive than the non-resort competition and I'd have to say the atmosphere and fish-quality almost make up for that. BUT, regarding the fish quality I could have just timed it right as far as day of the week. But the price is what would take it from a 5 to a 4 when comparing straight across to other cheaper places, EXCEPT, if you are a local. Local's get a 20% discount (something Atlantis sadly doesn't offer at their sushi bar with the cool atrium view of the city) so the local's discount evens the playing field and bumps it to a 5 when not compared to non-resort places.

I was disappointed though that they charged me $5 for a Sierra Mist. I was in shock and then remembered I'm in a casino resort where the norm these days is a pint of budweiser is $9+ (pint of Saporro here is $10.50.) But come on, $5 for a soda!? Ridiculous. (That's really rubbed me wrong and made me not be able to round up to a 5, along with no scallop nigiri, and of course there's equal quality elsewhere for a...

I recently ventured to Oceano with some visiting friends, excited to try out a restaurant highly praised online, particularly for its sushi. However, my experience as a local diner left much to be desired, and I couldn't help but wonder if the glowing reviews primarily came from tourists.

Oceano's reputation had set a high bar, especially for their sushi offerings, but unfortunately, the reality fell short of expectations. As someone familiar with the local culinary scene, I can confidently say that there are numerous superior options for sushi in our area, ones that extend beyond the confines of the casino.

The quality of the fish, a cornerstone of any sushi experience, was mostly lackluster. For a restaurant with such a reputation, I anticipated exceptional freshness and flavor. Instead, I found myself disappointed by the mediocrity that was served on my plate.

The menu boasts an array of intriguing rolls, each promising a unique flavor combination. However, as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding—or in this case, the taste. Many of the rolls that initially sounded promising turned out to be outright unappetizing. Take, for example, the one featuring salmon, basil, and balsamic. On paper, it sounded like a potentially delightful blend of flavors, but in reality, it left much to be desired. The unfortunate outcome was a roll that failed to deliver on its promising description.

Reflecting on this experience, I'm left with the sentiment that Oceano is a place best avoided in the future. As a local, I have the privilege of knowing the true culinary gems in our area, and regrettably, Oceano doesn't make the cut. While online reviews might tout its excellence, I encourage fellow locals to explore other options for a genuinely satisfying sushi experience.

In conclusion, my visit to Oceano left me with a sense of disappointment, particularly when it comes to their sushi offerings. Despite its high scores online, the reality for a local diner fell far below expectations. The underwhelming quality of the fish and the disappointing taste of supposedly unique rolls were enough to leave a lasting impression—one that prompts me to seek out better alternatives...