Baba Sushi — Restaurant in Worcester

Extremely rude staff I went for my 33rd birthday. Proir to my birthday my date attempted to make reservations to which he was told they don't take reservations. Upon our arrival we asked if we could wait at the bar until a table opened. We were told that we could but if someone wanted to come in and sit at the bar we would have to move...needless to say we were both appalled. I was dressed up, as it was a special day for me. More dressed up than any of the other diners who were casually dressed. I feel as we were looked down upon for our attire; as I was in a slightly above the knee dress and my date was wearing a suit. Once we were finally seated we ordered cocktails. After our drinks were served we could hear the wait staff, who were less than 10 feet from us snickering and making rude comments pertaining to our attire as opposed to the other guests. The fact that we were dressed in such a way should've clued them in on the fact that it was a special occasion; if the hostess who was previously made aware didn't already share this fact with the crew to ensure the service necessary to complement the occasion. Which she should've done. I was a server in a 5 star restaurant while putting myself through college and always took every measure to ensure the happiness of my patrons. So I am very well aware of how the service industry works, or more adequately stated "should work". After listening to the staff insult and make fun of us, we finished our beverages and asked for the check. I asked my date to go directly to the bar and get our drinks because I refused to give even one dollar of our hard earned money toward tipping this obnoxiously rude staff. Every one of them, from the hostess to our server and even other servers were rude. It was the hostess who told us we would be asked to move should someone else desire the bar, even though we were there first. Which I started to her after we were told this. Moral of the story. Bring your business elsewhere and give your money to businesses that hire staff that actually care about the business, their jobs and how they make people feel. May I suggest Samba on rte.9 for a romantic evening where you'll be more than spoiled for your special day or any other day for that matter...they have an ambiance that is above and beyond this place. Baba almost ruined my 30th birthday but Samba saved the day!! Btw Baba...we spent over $250 on sashimi and cocktails this particular evening. Just a 2 top!! I wanted specialties and my date is 300lb of muscle so we ate like a king as a queen. I will never in my life go back...

Baba-baaaaad sushi!

Let me start by saying that this was far and away, without exception, the absolute worst sushi that either myself or my girlfriend has ever eaten. It was worse than grocery store sushi, and worse than the bad sushi restaurants in the mid-west.

Now, for a bit more comprehensive review:

The service was pretty good. The waitress was nice and fast, we were seated quickly after arriving, and our waters remained full. We got the check quickly after we were done eating.

The dishes left something to be desired. Of the four dishes on our table when we sat down, two had scum on them. Luckily those were both sauce dishes and we didn't need them, but this was concerning.

The vibe of the restaurant was pretty nice. It had a few distinct areas, with a bar and an open sushi kitchen. It was shaped with some nice noise isolation features, which I can certainly see as an upside were the restaurant more busy.

Parking was available in the front of the restaurant, but it was completely full with no notable handicap accessible spots. We found street parking around back without any difficulty.

As for the food: We got three maki rolls and a beef tori appetizer. Of the 8 pieces of beef, four of them were extremely tough, requiring endurance and patience to chew. With the rolls, all three were entirely different sizes and shapes. The sweet potato tempura roll had more potato than any we'd seen before, and was extremely chunky with bad flavor. It had tempura on it, but no trace of crunch to be found. The yellowtail roll had a very small/narrow roll size, with reasonably good quality fish on top, though the texture was not great. The specialty roll which was also supposed to be tempura was soggy and not crunchy at all, with extremely narrow pieces, though the flavors were pretty good.

If you look at the photos, the three rolls next to one another looked distinctly different from one another, and you can see that the sweet potato roll hardly held together, and just the oddities that were the other rolls. Baba, if you've got a new/inexperienced chef in the kitchen, please stop selling the below-par sushi that they're making and train them further. You're losing customers by serving such low quality rolls.

I'm not really sure how this restaurant has such good reviews, and I'm hoping that they're in the middle of a rebranding/fixing up process (it looked like their sign was new, but the paint on the walls inside was chipped, and it looked like they had a new patio area). That said, we will certainly not...

Food: The sushi is by far their best selections of food and if you ever had come to visit to one of their locations, it had to be this one. Thier sashimi is super fresh and thier house special rolls are delicious. Sometimes it can be overwhelming with the sauce on top so I recommend asking it on side. However, I like to think that they are creative with making their sushi unique and not so basic. The miso soup is good, sometimes it can be just a little bland at times. I like their green mixed ginger sauce too but sometimes it can be a bit too overpowering with the ginger. The oysters/shooters are also really good, with a vingery/tobasco kick to it. However, I will say the pricing compared to other sushi places is a on the higher side. For example, I think it’s a little absurd that you pay $10 or $12 for four pieces of Rangoon, which has lobster in it but you pick and choose what you want to pay for.

Service: if you are a regular at this place, you get to know the staff really well and really fast. Super nice people that been around for a while and they treat everybody with kindness and care. The owner Willson is a great man, and he happens to visit the location often to see how everyone is doing.

Ambiance: for a little place, it brings a great crowd in the front of the bar, as well as even in the back, which I didn’t realize they even had that until later on. However, when it gets really hot, the back is like a sauna so I highly suggest you just stay in the front when stopping by during the summer.

Location accommodation: Since because it’s so small, the parking is such an pain to find but you can park by the TD bank lot and walk over. I recommend making a reservation on busy days like friday night. Otherwise you probably will be waiting about 30 minutes if you walk in on a busy time. They have a indoor patio behind the resturant but I will emphasis that it gets extremely HOT as this does not have AC. Hopefully they can figure something for that. It’s not the best for people who have a disability so be mindful on that. The bar is always open for...