Mori Japanese Steakhouse — Restaurant in Valdosta

*Possible discrimination/bias behavior *BITE SIZE STEAK BITS!! *Unsweet Bland Ginger Salad Dressing *EXTRA charge for fried rice *Sushi ingredients was not really a great variety.... *Loud, Hear everyone else's conversation... California roll was different...

The Tea & sticky rice was good...

THE BREAKDOWN.... STEAK: The bite size steak bites....WTH???? My picture magnified the steak. In reality, it seemed like a DIME size. All the jokes that went through my head... This is the 1st time I've ever RECEIVED small amount of little pieces of steak.

POSSIBLE DISCRIMINATION: Waited to for table, requested along the wall, so we would not be in the middle of the room. (SMALL room in sushi bar room) *I'm White, teens are hispanic, nephew white... However, we were bypassed by the same amount of white people and they even made a comment while following the hostess: I feel sorry for them, they've been waiting. (My son spoke to them briefly) I HATE DISCRIMINATION rather it's because of my kids race, the way we are dressed, or if they think we can't pay....BIAS...DISCRIMINATION IS NOT COOL, even if it's not intentional!!

I stood up, walked over & looked....then confronted the older hostess. She then tried to tell me I was looking for a "specific" table and I said no, a table along the wall..... I don't know how many more people was placed before us, because I wasn't paying attention & expect the best out of others....

To the restaurant: Please REWIND YOUR CAMERA & WATCH! ANYWAYS, it was my 12 year old daughters birthday & that's the restaurant she picked....if it wasn't for that, I would have went to another restaurant that's more welcoming...

SMALL ROOM: They are only using the small room, not the large room...SO WE Had to listen to a group of girls talk about ...someone being to SKINNY...take flashing camera pics...& selfies...The people behind us had to listen about how we traveled over the USA & tried different types of sushi, the different flavor combinations, etc. SO IF YOUR PLANNING ON HAVING A ROMANTIC EVENING, GO TO ANOTHER RESTAURANT!!

GINGER SALAD: Ginger Salad dressing is NOT slightly sweet, like most that I've had. This is the first ginger Salad that was bland.

SUSHI: 2 California Rolls 1 Dragon Roll 1 Island Roll 1 Godzilla Roll

It's different, not mainstream...which I LIKE DIFFERENT...FLAVORFUL...BUT with the right combinations!! The California roll had eel eggs.

This is the 1st restaurant with sushi that's not my thing..AND WAS TAKEN TO GO!! WE NEVER HAVE LEFT OVERS FROM JAPANESE RESTAURANTS!!

Ex: I usually get a deep fried sushi with cream cheese...BUT theirs had asparagus.... (good tasty feeling of warm cream cheese with shrimp flavor in your mouth...basically the different flavor & temp)

The bill I believe was OVER $200. & LEFT a decent tip! I tried NOT to let the welcoming interfere, but I just felt like it put a small dent in my daughter's day...because even...

This place has gone downhill. We were there last night. Sat down before 8pm. The “chef” did not arrive to our table until after 9pm. When you are spending $40 per plate you expect to receive dinner and a show. This was neither.

Let’s start with food.

It was not very good. Portions were very small. My wife went to the restroom and come back and asked why I ate her veggies. I didn’t touch them. That was the portion. Same with my scallops. I received 4 scallops for $8 add on. The filet mignon was ordered medium rare but was served medium well to well. He put so much of that “Coke” sauce on the steaks you could not taste the steak.

Building The place was so Smokey we all stunk like fast food after we left. I had to get up a few times while eating my rice because the smoke from the grill was blowing directly into my face. As we were leaving we had to fan the smoke out of the baby’s face to prevent choking.

The table beside us was sat so closely I could count his eyelashes. No social distancing provided. That’s not the worst part. That table was given a few take out boxes. The man of the table passed them out to his family and helped fill them. The ones they did not need he put at the end of the table. One lady come by, picked up the would be used take out boxes, and put it back on the stack to give to other customers. The customer handled the boxes and they were reused.

When the buss boy come to buss the table he picked up all the dishes barehanded, cleaned off the excess food with his bare hands, then proceeded to put clean dishes out for the next table. He noticed he missed a few grains of rice so he brushed them off with his hand to the floor.

The Chef The chef was not Japanese. He was Hispanic. Kept referring to my baby nephew as “popi.” Made some sick beats with his utensils and then proceeded to say the meat he was cooking was made from cats and dogs. He did that joke the whole time we ate. Nothing else. No egg tricks. No train. No jokes. Just a lot of fire and banging his utensils to make a hip hop beat. None of the showmanship you look for in your chef.

Overall, it’s a waste of money. I know it’s hard to find good help but you have got...

We went here a few years ago and it was really great. We live an hour away and it was nice to have quality flavor. Unfortunately, we did not have the same experience this time around. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think the cooks are part of the problem, but the flavor of the food is extremely heavy with soy. Also, the upcharges are a little ridiculous. It's like 3$ extra for fried rice, and they charge you 10$ if you sit at the hibachi table and don't order hibachi.... what if you want 4 sushi rolls and the rest of your family is eating hibachi? Do you really have to sit by yourself or pay extra to sit at the hibachi table? Tip is also automatically added...I don't mind this at all, and people who do are the reason why they have to do this in the first place. The place doesn't feel very clean or well maintained, though. Honestly, I could have forgiven everything, but the flavor of the food was lacking and the portions were not fairly distributed. I got a fraction of the veggies that the lady next to me got... and that's never happened... it was extremely noticeable to the point that the lady said something about it. The ginger dressing is atrocious. I don't know what they've changed, but it tastes like ginger mixed with soy sauce and that's it. The sushi was good, though, but I have no reason to go back for hibachi. We'll try...