Monday, June 16, 2008

Shin Sei Sushi Bar

I have to admit, we left with a bad taste in our mouths. The food was alright, but the price tag spoiled it. (And that was with a buy one entree-get one free coupon!) If we hadn't used the coupon, the bill would have been around $60 - for two entrees, one sushi roll, and just water to drink. That's probably more than we would have spent at Takashi - which is a far superior restaurant.

As far as the food goes, it was actually pretty tasty. We got the Chicken Teriyaki plate, the Yakisoba(?), and the Mars roll. The entrees came with Miso soup - good, fried rice - good, and really good vegetables. The Mars roll was the best part. Quite good. So, yeah, the food was good. We probably would have left quite happy, had the bill not been $40.00 (remember, that's with one free entree.)

The service was fairly prompt, but not really very friendly or helpful. We had to keep asking for our water to be refilled. Help would have been appreciated, as the menu was a little difficult to navigate - especially as far as the sushi was concerned. Our waitress did finally bring us a paper insert (it was wet!) that detailed what was in which roll. Are we supposed to know what's in their "Spider" or "Las Vegas" rolls? But it didn't list prices on the insert, you had to try to figure that out from the main menu. I feel it is a little intimidating not to have explained to you in plain English what the menu items are. Are we really expected to know the Japanese word for chicken? (Is the exclusion of an English translation careless or pretentious?) So we stared at the Japanese words, phonetically spelled out in roman letters - and made a couple of guesses, with little recommendation or explanation from our waitress. I think customers should be made to feel comfortable and welcome. We didn't feel that.

We had to keep asking for our water to be refilled. Our server brought us a pitcher after our meals were finished.

The atmosphere is part charming (wooden roof over the sushi preparation area)/ part sports bar. That's all I have to say about that.

So - wow - this is my first review that's pretty negative. In summary, the food is pretty good. The price, service and menu could definitely use some improvement.

(801) 627-1620 154 25th St Ogden, UT 84401

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