ShinBay — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Have been a sushi chef in various restaurants around the valley and after reading the reviews on Yelp, I was prepared to be disappointed.

However, I was pleasantly surprised as each bite of each course was very very very good. Date and I could not stop talking about how good everything was.

The only cons I have are:

Out of the seven courses, shrimp/prawn was present in 4 out of the 7 courses. The last one being a dessert, that's 4 out of 6. They were all delicious, especially the nigiri, but it seemed like they were taking the easy way out? Hard to make really good shrimp/prawns taste bad in my humble opinion.

Also, don't expect a "Jiro dreams of sushi" type omakase; only one out of all the courses was nigiri. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice variety of Japanese entreés. I personally would have liked it to be more sashimi and nigiri intensive.

That being said, I was ready to go every week but from seeing pictures and reviews posted here, a lot of what is given as omakase seems to be the same. I am not entirely sure, but I did not want the exact same omakase the week after my visit. Am I being weird?

Even after all these slight personal gripes of mine, I can still say it was the best meal I've had in Arizona and I've been...

Food: Outstanding. Creative, unique, extremely flavorful, complex and also complimentary. An absolutely excellent tasting menu and I would honestly say there wasn’t one bad bite. Also had an excellent, and quite large sake selection with very thorough and helpful information on each selection.

Service: Impeccable. The host was also the only server, the seating is usually limited to 6 or 8 guests I think, so you get their full attention. The host did an excellent job introducing each course, was very attentive and happy to talk to each guest and answer questions/offer detail. I don’t recall the chef ever speaking once during our entire meal of at least two hours.

Atmosphere: Modern, very well done, simple and well maintained etc. I only docked it one start because it almost felt a little sterile, sort of lacking in personality in a way. Maybe that was in order to let the food shine and not detract from the culinary experience (which the food certainly did, thank you Chef) but if you’re looking for an atmosphere that’s as visually stimulating as the food is for your sense of taste and smell, this may be your only...

I don’t usually write reviews, but after spending $1,700 on a meal, I feel compelled to share this disappointing experience. When you spend that much, you expect exceptional service and fairness. To confirm our visit, I’ve attached the receipt showing we dined here and spent over $1,700 for two people.

Despite this, the restaurant seemed more focused on catering to another group of three individuals seated in the center. Not only did they receive most of the attention and presentation, but the chef even gave them extra Wagyu to take home—without offering anything to us. This happened while we were paying, which only added to the insult.

Even though we ordered an $1,100 bottle of wine and spent far more than this group, we were seated off to the side and made to feel like an afterthought. It was clear the restaurant prioritized them, possibly because they had a social media following.

While the experience started well, the blatant favoritism ruined the evening. For a restaurant claiming to offer a Michelin-level experience, this type of service is unacceptable. Until they address these issues, I wouldn’t recommend...