SUSHI MORI — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

TL;DR Food is terrible. Service by staff is exceptional and the only saving grace of this restaurant.

First time writing a less than stellar review, let alone a review at all. With the competition of sushi restaurants in Santa Cruz, I had high hopes for the only verified AYCE sushi place in Santa Cruz. Normally, my expectations for quality at AYCE locations are lowered due to the requirement of high ordering volume. That being said, I cannot justify $32 a person for AYCE with the quality given.

In terms of service, absolutely stellar. Jessica was our host, server, and food runner. They seemed understaffed but Jessica really pulled off every explanation with amazing clarity. The AYCE was explained to work in 3 rounds. You may order fractions or rolls and the menu is taken at the end of each round as a ticket for the back of house. She was polite, attentive, and tolerant given her multiple responsibilities for tables. Her recommendations of how to efficiently order food the dishes were clear and proved to be a word worth heeding which my table learned the hard way. An operational catch that we were not informed about was that, if your party orders multiple dishes at a time, 3 will come out and the next dishes will not come out until you have cleared those dishes. It was later explained by Jessica, at no fault to her, that it is to reduce potential food waste. I would’ve come back if this was the only case.

Atmosphere was nothing special and it was not expected to be mind blowing. However, the facility itself is odd in that the two other restaurants adjacent, all share a restroom. Not a key point to the eating experience, but worth an off mention.

Finally, food and quality. I’ve worked in sushi for 3 years, the food industry for another 3 prior, and still work in the food industry, hence why I feel that I have some authority to comment on quality. For starters, the salmon on the salmon nigiri, does not smell like salmon. It did not smell like anything, a sign that the fish is not fresh to a degree of quality fit for service or to justify cost. The meat was bloated and tasted dry; similar to the blandness and coldness of tofu. The texture was similar to that of a water balloon. This did not remain isolated to the nigiri as it was also a problem in our salmon rolls. This problem extended to our maguro (tuna) nigiri and yielded the same dry and non fishlike taste. Moving on to the rice of the rolls and the nigiri, it was dry. Crumbled in our chopsticks and just felt uncooked almost. As for the rest of the ingredients such as crab, avocado, and eel, it was decent and unproblematic. However, my table could not get over the deplorable handling of two very integral ingredients to the very foundation of sushi, fish and rice. After losing our appetites and thus feeling like we fulfilled the AYCE in the worst way possible, we paid in full and will not be returning.

With the increase in supply costs and the functionality of an AYCE restaurant, I understand the challenges the restaurant faces in terms of maintaining profits. However abysmal quality of foundational ingredients can not...

DO NOT COME HERE.!! WASTE OF MONEY.!!!!

Came here because I love Sushi closed and we thought why not. DONT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE WE DID.!!!

Let's start with what I saw when I came in. An ice chest that holds the ice. Not sanitary at all.!!! We received our sushi before we got our appetizers. The kitchen staff is running over to the Korean restaurant next door for ingredients. I watched them bring food over from the Korean restaurant.! It is not safe and not up to protocol.

The caterpillar roll is listed at $14.95 and they charged us $16.95.? Not to mention it was so bland and the fish was not fresh.

The edamame was microwaved. And barely had salt on it. No lemon served either which is quite disappointing.

The tempura batter was so thick and mushy. The vegetables were soggy underneath too.!! Which tells me the veggies are frozen, not fresh.

The ramen is worse than top ramen.! I'm Japanese and know REAL ramen and they can't serve instant ramen to people. Especially because the photo of the ramen is deceiving.!! The egg was overcooked.! The noodles had no flavor.

When I told the waitress, who was serving the whole restaurant by herself, she went to the back and I could hear them laughing. They offered me 20% off but we didn't even eat the ramen.!!!!

Worse management, worse place to ever try to serve "Japanese food" to people.

I will never come back and I urge you to NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE FOR FAKE JAPANESE FOOD.! I WILL BE CONTACTING THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT ABOUT THESE HEALTH HAZARDS.!!

GO TO SHOGUNS.!!! Better quality fish and...

I really have no complaints about the food but the vibes were off. My friend and I were very uncomfortable. There was music on to begin with and only like 2 other people there so super uncomfortable silence. When we glanced around, we noticed like 10 bugs sitting dead on window seal. I feel like that wasn't that big of a deal, but thought I should note that. After writing down our order, since we were doing all you can eat, it took a long time for our server to pick up the sheet since she was busy hanging out with her friends at another table. When we start receiving our food, we realize we made a mistake ordering as much as we did because the portion sizes were huge. Definitely wasn't expecting that since other all you can eat sushi we've had was much smaller. When we start realizing we're in trouble since there was no way we were eating it all, we went for a restroom break. But there was none in the restaurant and she casually directed me to the restaurant next door. Should have just gone there if I knew I had to use their facilities. The entire time our server seemed to be avoiding us unless to drop food off. We decide to cut our losses and pay, so we head to the front. She glances at our table to see how much we ate, but didn't add an additional charge to our bill in the end which was cool. It just left us feeling uneasy. Probably won't be heading back...