Sake House — Restaurant in Tampa

I rate this a 2.7. I searched for places to eat around 9:30 pm. Most of the places were closing at 10 pm. Why was this Sushi place opened so late, until 2 am. Found out USF (University) is nearby, there's a gym next door, as well. Most of the traffic was take out, uber eats, and walk ins etc. So the take out is their main business, and since stays open till late they make the food mighty fast which if you know sushi it is prepared very meticulously, attention to detail, and presentation are extremely important. The service by Jody was above and beyond , and she can work at any establishment, and she made the experience the difference in the review. She was knowledgeable, attentive, personable, courteous, she earned a 40% tip that is how good she was. On to the food experience. The miso soup hardly had any tofu or greens. The salad looked old, as if it had been out in the open for a while. The dumplings looked and tasted refried. The Mango Sake was more sweet than alcohol. Ordered shrimp/vegetable tempura there was no crispness to them. The edemame was warm, and fresh. The spicy Kani salad which is made of some kind of crunch, krab meat, cucumber, spicy mayo, and eel sauce on top, was juicy, and tasty. Also ordered the shrimp dumpling, shu mai. It was soft/tender. Ordered a variety of specialty, and regular sushi rolls, such as #14,19,45 in the menu, as well as others. We were a party of 5, and we were disappointed with the texture of the rolls. Some of us experienced stomach cramps, probably the frying oil. The rice was mushy, sticky. There was no preparation. It was a rush job. Even tried some sort of dessert. The owner was focused on take out period. The place was dingy, and dark. No outside lighting other than the big sign. This review should've been a 1 if not for the server who did an excellent job. I am not...

The sushi here is fairly consistent. Its good, and it rarely varies from that. They have moved and their new location is in New Tampa near Amberly Dr. The restaurant is quaint. Not very large but decent for a one parcel strip mall store. The sushi chef or waitress will offer to text you if you like a certain item (ie sea urchin). That in itself is a nice personal touch, however they do that to avoid keeping an expensive item to the restaurant always in stock, so if you dont get there right away, "the regulars" as the waitress called them, buy it all up. I understand controlling costs and being a smart restaurant owner but this just feels cheap. My experience is a real sushi lover will pay a little more for guaranteed consistent, fresh sushi.... rather than hoping to get a text when a favorite food item has arrived. My rating of 3 stars is based on the food quality being a 5, however, after 4 visits to the new location, the service is slow to poor, enough that it drops my rating to a 3. I just can't understand having one server on a Friday evening for dinner... Maybe someone is sick, maybe this is a one time thing but previous visits point to the restaurant being consistently under-staffed. The wait times have become enough of an issue that more than once I've decided to dine elsewhere because I just dont want to face the slow service and wait times. Maybe ordering to-go is a better solution albeit that sorta takes the enjoyment out of the experience. I like this restaurant. I believe they put out good quality food. Small improvements with increasing staff presence would make it a 5 star place. I do want...

AWFUL FOOD, AWFUL SERVICE - STAY AWAY!

Placed an order on Uber Eats - they got most of my order wrong and gave me such a hard time about making it right. Don't count on this place for customer service!

One of the dishes was a stir-fry noodle dish and they put so much pepper that my kids won't eat it. The lady initially would not remake it, saying that I didn't indicate "no spicy." But it was not a spicy dish to begin with! Then she said her manager was not there so she can't - come on, how lame. She later said they would and only after I kept insisting on it - it should not be this way.

Also, they charge you $.75 for eel sauce on the side but I did not get the sauce. When I asked for it, she insisted I didn't and made me show her my Uber receipt - which Uber does not generate until 24 hours later. But if you did the math, you will see that the roll I paid for included the extra eel sauce charge. At the end of the day, it is not about the 0.75. It is about how you make people feel when a customer patronizes your business. This place does not care, they don't value the customer. When I try to talk to the lady, she wouldn't make eye contact. I had to get her attention several times but she would just walk pass me to do something else. Even another customer standing next to me noted that it was very rude.

On top of it all, the food was very mediocre and not good. Very sub-par sushi - the rice was overly mushy and did not have any flavor. Don't take the chance on bad sushi with no...