Nori Nori — Restaurant in Sandy Springs

My wife and I have been dining at Nori Nori since 2014. What was once an up-scale fresh seafood establishment is no longer.

Our latest visit was the absolute end to our visits. We came during the lunch buffet recently and were absolutely shocked at how drastic their establishment had changed for the worse.

When we were walking to the entrance, there was an un-refrigerated truck out front bringing in boxes of food. I can only hope the food being brought in was not fish or meat.

The vast majority of the selections were unavailable. The sushi was disgustingly lukewarm and tasted clearly not fresh by any means. I absolutely love sushi, sashimi, etc. trust me when I say that this was not fresh.

We addressed the missing selections in hopes to have a salad of some sort to no avail. Sure, they said they would restock it, but never did.

As time went by, we spoke with the supervisor/manager. Who bowed a few times and explained to me they have new staff and our still learning. *Which is irrelevant! I just want some food!

All of the employees literally couldn't look more miserable... Except for our waitress Mohoganay, who was very friendly.

Last but not least and to cap off our miserable dining experience, there was an actual roach like bug scattering around on our table! Never in my life have I actually had this occur to me, let alone from a so-called high-end buffet. When I bought it to our waitresses attention, she appeared shocked when she seen it. She then told the manager/supervisor who came with a towel and quickly did whatever she did with it. She (the supervisor/manager) did nothing about the situation. Literally, I spoke and she didn't! She did nothing! Let alone a comp. It was actually strange. How do you receive a complaint, and then personally see a bug, then a complaint, and say nothing at all!? It's not like she didn't understand me, as she had previously made various excuses and justifications as to why there was nothing to eat but soup and old food scraps.

I am a person who generally eats plenty, especially at a buffet style restaurant. I left hungry.

*Also, the 'Owner Replies' from other displeased reviewers comments are nonsense. The servers are NOT trained well to handle situations such as mine, as they did nothing to rectify our situation(s) when brought to their attention.

I couldn't be more shocked and displeased at this simply disgusting experience. This is what you hear about in restaurant horror stories! Well I now have my own, thanks to Nori Nori.

What we experienced is inexcusable. Any legitimate owner explanation would be...

If I could give them no star I would . My parent came in at 8:30 PM and I honestly didn’t know what time they closed . And if they were to closed at 9:00 PM they should’ve let my parent and sister know that they’re closing soon and barely any food left but no they’re money thirsty . They took my parent and two sister in still charge full priced and they barely ate anything . It’s a buffet why are we still hungry ?!? The manager end up arguing with us saying there is food because she said she check . No she didn’t she walk right pass us they only bought out the snow crab but we were waiting for noodle and the salmon. She then continue to say there were other options of food like what ?!? But we didn’t want those other half left over food we wanted the salmon and noodle . Nothing ….. than my kids wanting the crepes and at that time it was 8:20 PM they already packing and cleaning everything . He end up telling us there’s no more ingredients but clearly there’s . We clearly saw him putting all the sauce and fruit away in the fridge underneath and there was still a whole lots of the crepes in the bottle container. The waitress never came to our table to refills our drinks . They didn’t ask what my parents and siblings drinking we had to flag down one to be able to get them something to drink . I was fed up by then . I’m over here eating my noodle she didn’t bother asking me if I was done with my plate she assumed I was and put one dirty plate on the plate I was eating . I was already fed up that they didn’t tell my parents and siblings that they’re closing soon they just let them in and still charging full priced when there was barely any food left . They only ate one plate and all the food was packed and put up . Children was 30% off $30 something cent each . And 60% for $18 dollars and adult was like nearly $43 . I spent almost $400 dollars on quality and services that were trash . And the waitress expected us to tip $52 dollars but she didn’t give us $52 dollars worth of services . This is the last and final time I’m ever eating here again . And the snow crab legs I stood there and waited and it seem like they even barely cooked it because the crab meat on the inside was still cold they just threw something fast for us to eat . Wasted of time and not good services they manager even stood there and argue with us and didn’t even bother help us solve the problem like she was agitated with us complaining to her . If you wanna go here and spend money and have horrible services and not good quality food this is the...

We got to Nori Nori between lunch and dinner. As per uge, we used Google Maps to get there. No issue with the directions. It was a little tricky to find the place once we entered the mini-mall parking lot. We drove around the lot there, and found it without any issue.

TIP: They close between lunch and dinner. Though they were closed, I wandered inside. I was met by a smile and I asked if I could put our name on the list.

TIP: If you're there before they are seating, ask to have your name put on the list.

I'm a super impatient waiter so I checked out the restroom, took some pictures, and played a little pokemon. Mostly, I hid from the Georgia heat in the air-conditioned lobby by invitation. Bless that employee for the offer. It's Gdang hot in Georgia sometimes.

The restaurant itself is in a mini-mall parking area. It's located directly next door to an Italian Restaurant that I hope to be checking out very soon named Aldo's. It was super tempting to just pop over there during the wait. I was pretty dang glad I did not. Nori Nori did not disappoint.

From the outside, expectations were minimal. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Asian food though, and it's so very rare that my family is willing to indulge my Asian-Fusion craving so I stuck it out!

I didn't get it on film, though I'm sure someone here has, the employees all lined up and chanted something right as they opened for seating. It was kind of cool.

We were first on the list, and therefore the first table seated. Our waiter was phenomenal! He recommended the Korean ribs and they were outstanding. The table itself was pretty dang small for three people, and we're not small people!

More importantly, though, all three of us agreed that our server made us feel like it was okay to eat 23 plates of food if we wanted to. It was fine to hate things, try things, and enjoy things! I loved that part!

Try the green tea iced cream! I had no intention of trying it, it was, however, as my son insisted, when he brought me a bowl, light, bright, and super tasty!

I left SUPER full, and still wanting to go back for more! There are still LOTS of things I didn't even try! Then again, there were plenty of things I tried more than once too ;).

I loved how clean the restaurant was. The food was fresh and plentiful, and our waiter, he was on top of those refills, actually, we generally had a glass and a half of soda.

By the way, UDON is not for me. Nope.

I took a few little videos too. If I ever learn TikTok maybe I'll post them there, or perhaps...