Sushi Kaya — Restaurant in Spring Valley

Shrinking menu?

Been a regular at this spot for about 4 years now, and we fell in love with it instantly. Buuuuut, in the past 6 months, there have been some changes.

Let's start off with the overall dressup. Parking is very, VERY limited. Kaya shares a lot that houses multiple restaurants and shops, so on a busy day like today, expect to park and walk from the neighboring China Town Mall. When you walk in, the interior decor is simple and inviting. Mixture of Hannya masks, and story art. Sushi bar is big enough to seat about 15 people, and a private party room that seats Mayne 20. They can combine tables for larger parties. They are very clean here, mopping, and keeping tables clean and ready for the next paying customer. Ambience is mellow, with mixed genre music playing in the background. What we come for: AYCE, usually dinner because that's when soft shell crab, uni, and sweet shrimp are available.

Special rolls: Mango style roll - inside mango, crab, cucomber. Outside: salmon, tuna, yellowtail, and avocado with aspicy garlic ponzu sauce

Spider roll - inside: crab, avocado. Outside: cucomber, gobo, and kaiwari with eel sauce

Ok so here it is. We've never had bad service here ever, but like I've mentiond, changes. Let's start off with the menu. No more softshell crab app.. (nooooooo!), and no or limited Uni. Hmmm.. sweet shrimp doesn't include the fried head anymore. OH! And not to mention my Sake (salmon) kama. Yup, deleted off the menu like a smelly fart. There are more deletions, but these were my top ordered items.

small FLAVOR! Ever since Kaya has been getting more business, flavor has been ghosting. (There but pretty faint), almost bad enough where the "Ghost Hunters" may have a hard time locating their taste pallets.. The baked green muscles definitely changed. Too much cheese, making it dry. They used to have larger muscles, but now use a huge shell, and put 2 small muscle like "thingys" in its place. It says spicy sashimi poki, but missing that kick. We do not usually order "special" rolls, but tried the spider and mango roll due to them being new arrivals. All I can say is, I'm sticking to Nigiri.

Anyways, Sorry Kaya, you have dropped from being our first choice as our go to AYCE. The customer service is good. Having separated the duties to server and waitress only, helps them concentrate on their jobs.

NOTE: tried ordering redbean mochi or icecream. Nothing, star drop.

Ok so to end it, we still like it here. Not the best hype like back in the days, but enough to fight those raw fish urges. I have a stamp card that needs one more signature, then we get a free meal, so I'll save it for the update. Not the best, not bad. Looks like we'll have to find another...

Manager became a server and bus more than his staff. But manager listens well and tries to make things better. Orders were often miss placed or lost. Restroom filthy and staff has bad sanitary habits. Presentation is not consistent it's a slop sometimes. Sushi falling apart and the sometimes too wet. Rice was not consistent some rolls had mooshy rice and some had a little harder in texture as if it was a little undercooked. Hype driven restaurant has no clue, place is nothing compared to Tokyo or even Japanese styled restaurants in South Korea. Servers get confused, often offering you someone else's order. Either that or they ordered you the wrong thing. Warning Novice chefs. New trainees-like services. However servers were very kind. Staff behind the counter with sarcastic comments. I felt bad for actually laughing with them inside me when they were joking about customers. I actually understand a little Spanish and Korea tones. Still, assumptions are on me. However bottom line is this that is Not a real sushi bar, has no ambience or essence to the art. Place is a joke but I tolerate it only because I was very hungry. Don't be fooled with your first 2 plates. Servers are friendly. Stay there long enough and put on HD glasses, from there you'll will have to take notice of your plate loosing quality and consistency. I went to the restroom, and after returning, my table was cleared. Not even a drink or my chopsticks was left there. I thought if was funny. I was shocked though moreso in hysteria mode. I asked to speak with the manager. Manager was so in a rush in which he or lost track and forgotten who I was. He asked what will be my first order. I was disappointed and not too upset. I honestly felt sorry for the manager. But I had to be kind and critically point out my experience. Anyways seafood quality depends on what you get. Some dishes I taste tested and rejected, had to spit it out. really don't want to disclose anymore info as people there were nice it's just that the place needs work....

I have a mixed opinion about this place. I'll list my positives then negatives.

Positives: The food was tasty. Not something that will completely reform your opinion on sushi staples but worth the price.

The price was decent and they gave you the option of unlimited food* for the price of two rolls, ill get to the asterisk in the cons.

Nice atmosphere and decent amount of space.

Negatives: The wait staff obviously wanted you to be in and out in as little time as possible, now I understand a business is trying to make money and staff are encouraged to hurry people along so more people can be served but in less than 5 minutes of us being seated we were asked 4 times if we were ready and when we weren't because as a party of 6 we were given 3 menus they just huffed and stormed off getting increasingly more impatient and not attempting to hide it what so ever, more or less making us feel pressured to make faster selections with minimal contact with the options. Also mandatory gratuity of 18% for parties of 6 or more should be given better service.

The price is reasonable as stated above and they give a option for unlimited food*, however they will charge you for any rolls you cant at least make a good amount of headway into, about half, and in addition their portion sizes on some of the rolls were tiny making you order three to even get one orders worth at most places.

They were extremely slow. Now on a busy night one can understand some wait time. With a 90 min max allowance for customers to stay, it was taking 10 min per roll, they would bring a few at a time if they were ready. But if you waited to order more rolls till you were done with the first set because of having unlimited dining then you would end up waiting a huge gap...