Sushi Kingdom Glen Allen — Restaurant in Short Pump

We have visited 3 times now. Our first 2 visits were great but this 3rd trip, not so much. We were seated right away which was great. After a few minutes, we saw another family that was seated a few tables away. We then saw a server taking them drinks and then taking their order. No one had been to our table at this time. many servers walked past and looked as us. We finally asked if we had a server. We saw everyone frantically grouping together and trying to figure out who was serving our table. We finally got our waitress, Nancy, about 10mins after being seated. She apologized and informed us no one told her that we were seated at her table. Nancy ended up being an amazing server and was the best part of the evening. I highly recommend her. We have been Sushi King advocates for years. Have even been to all 11 Sushi Kings in VA. So we were super excited when Sushi Kingdom opened. My husband loves to get the shumai dumplings at sushi king and was excited when he saw Sushi Kingdom had them but he likes to order them steamed instead of fried. No issues on our first 2 trips getting steamed. This time, we were told that they can't do that. You can only get exactly what is on the menu per the manager, Kevin. Nancy asked if we'd like to speak to him and we said yes. From the start, it was not a good conversation. We explained how we waited about 10mins to get service and some of food came out wrong. Kevin instantly turned into a little kid ratting their sibling out. He never apologized or anything. He just started saying that as soon as he was told we didn't have a server, he went looking and found our server at the front of the store, goofing off and chatting. Saying he told her she had a table and needed to get to work. I didn't appreciate how he threw his staff under the bus. It was disrespectful. A simple, I'm very sorry for that and I will talk with my staff would've been fine. He then started telling us about their policy, which we explained we already knew and told him what it was before he could tell us. We just wanted to know why they couldn't do steamed instead of fried. He started going into if we change anything, we will be charged extra and that the chefs only know how to cook or prepare what is on the menu and cannot alter in any way. He did not fully answer our question but instead talked down to us and provided unnecessary information we already knew and that we would be charged for changing food. We knew the conversation wasn't going anywhere so we just said we were good. He then told us he would give us 10% off. We weren't looking for any type of compensation. We just wanted the dumplings steamed like we had gotten in the past. When he told us he would give us 10% off, we told him we were already getting 10% off because we had shared their fb advertisement to get 10% off. He said No that is only for 1 person and then left. We told Nancy how great a server she was dispute the issues we were having. It wasn't her fault. But after how Kevin treated us and threw his staff under the bus, I don't believe we will be going back. You don't disrespect your...

Overall, my experience at Sushi Kingdom was mid at best. I think it is important to keep in mind the competition (namely Sushi Masa) when making comparisons in a particular restaurant category. The price of the all you can eat buffet is around $25 at Sushi Kingdom (with no drink or add-ons) vs. $31 at Sushi Masa (comes with either a first alcoholic beverage for free or a free soft drink). Already they're competing approximately at the same price point so the expectation would be that the service/food quality is just as good or better. Not the case. They charge $0.50 extra per piece of sashimi you order at Sushi Kingdom (they don't do this at Sushi Masa) which is unfortunate. The cuts of fish on the sushi were also about as absolutely thin as they could be while still existing. The tempura I got (I tried most of them) was battered extremely heavily in order to make it look substantial while avoiding giving you the expensive main ingredient (shrimp as an example). They use off-brand cookies for the fried Oreos even though they explicitly advertise them as Oreos on the menu (this isn't a big deal but, like, come on). All of the utensils I received were disposable or the cheapest plastic you could buy. I literally could not scoop the ice cream I received for dessert because the cheap plastic spoon would constantly bend.

I could go on about all the little food issues I experienced or how the service was okay at best (they really need a front-of-house manager to keep things in order because most of the staff were aimlessly wandering and there was no teamwork/coordination) but the point is to say that everything about this place just feels cheap and poorly executed. They make it painfully clear that the aim is to get you to fill up on the cheap stuff (rice, batter, etc.) and to give you as little of the nicer ingredients as they can. Just everything about the place (see all the examples I've already mentioned) makes it feel like they're trying to cut costs at the expensive of quality. I get that this is the business model for these types of restaurants but you can go down the street to Sushi Masa and get a MUCH higher quality experience for roughly the same price. No upcharges on sashimi, everything still being unlimited, generous portions of the expensive ingredients, generally better service, etc.

I don't want to make it sound all bad though. The location is great and the atmosphere was really nice (solid decorations, fun water features, etc.). I still wouldn't go here again as the cons vastly outweigh the pros. You don't have to trust this review. Feel free to spend the time and money to compare these 2 restaurants and I'm absolutely sure you'll come to the...

My wife and I always love to go out for sushi and we try a lot of different places. This one was on our list and it’s been there for a while. We planned the whole weekend in Richmond, VA. We got there 5-10 minutes after it opened and had very high hopes for this establishment. We were seated quickly and served even quicker. We ordered shrimp tempura you can tell it was either microwaved or barely cooked because it was soggy on the bottom and cold in the middle half way through. I ordered the crunchy California roll and it was bland, rice was mushy and the ingredients tasted like they were sitting from the night before. My wife ordered the monster roll and AJ rolls. My wife said “the monster roll was nasty and didn’t taste fresh.” I tried it and she was right. The AJ roll was probably the best but still not worth it in my opinion. I’ll give it a 3/10. Lastly we ordered the “steak hibachi” and looking back on the menu now it says it doesn’t come with rice but it didn’t say they only give you 2oz of cut up steak. It wasn’t even steak bites, it was steak nibbles! It had so much garlic you couldn’t taste the steak at all.

As for our waitress she seemed decent. At first it seemed like she didn’t want to be there and was very short with my wife and I. Towards the end she seemed to brighten up a bit but even if she performed a magic trick for us we wouldn’t come back. I 10/10 HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY, do NOT recommend this place. Save your money and...