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Koi Sushi (formerly called Shota) offers all you can eat sushi.
Preamble: tail end of lunch hour on a Friday with a party of six
Food: compared to other AYCE Japanese places it is not the worst. Some items like the scallop cones and chicken teriyaki would not be totally out of place in a La Carte menus. This, however, is offset by some terrifically dubious items like their rolls (all) and tempura.
Service: plenty of tea, at first fairly pleasant but we ran into the same usual AYCE problem where they only gave half of our last order. This was resolved with relatively little verbal bloodshed.
Value: shade under $14 for AYCE lunch everything included..
Ambiance: slightly better than your typical place
I like the ambiance at Shota when my friends and I walked in for lunch. Its clean, modern looking, almost like an upscale restaurant. Wait staff were nice, no complaints about their service. Their lunch menu AYCE was impressive. The food presentation was good. Thats where it stopped.
The only food I really like was their miso soup, bbq short ribs, oyster motoyaki and dessert of the day (coconut pudding). The rest of the food was quite bland. Its ok if you're on a salt free diet and you're watching your sodium intake. I love deep fried chicken wings, it looked so enticing when it arrived, but when I took a bite, it was so tasteless, the crunch was there though. Ugh, no salt. Their rolls was done nicely, lots of fillings and little rice, but again, it was kinda bland tasting. Tempura sauce was so water down that we had to add soy sauce to revive it.
Overall, it was a disappointed lunch, we should of gone to Ninkasu.
Don't think we'll go back unless Shota changed their sushi chef.
This restaurant in terms of what they offer has better QUALITY than other all you can eat japanese restaurants out there. I enjoyed my dinner here last week, the selection for the price was well worth the money, the raw oysters were fresh and bigger, the sockeye salmon was quality sashimi and was great, oyster motoyaki taste perfect, tempura was just done right, not to heavily battered, the sushi rolls were nicely presented and was really yummy!! Service was pleasant! I would definitely recommend Shota for all you can eat Japanese!
My dad and I went there for an all-you-can-eat lunch because we enjoy trying random restaurants from time to time. This was a huge mistake. Almost everything we ordered didn't taste very good. I don't know how else to describe it, but I agree with one reviewer below who says the mall food court beats this restaurant. The waitress looked angry and she was unfriendly (maybe she hated her job). The restaurant didn't make any effort to make itself look like a place that served Japanese food either. What a gross experience!
Eight of us went there for all you can eat lunch. We waited for everything - 20 minutes for the waiter to come and take the order, 30 minutes for a napkin to arrive (after chasing down the server), and 3 hours to get about one third of our ordered food (and we did not order much). They not only delivered wrong items, but also poor-quality food. The sushi did not taste fresh at all. We came out hungry after spending close to $100.
My friend convinced us to check out this restaurant on advice of his friend, claiming it's a "good quality" all you can eat sushi place (which is an oxymoron). Despite my protests, I lost the argument and was persuaded to go.
First Impression: I walk in and notice the cheesy wannabe Japanese motif. I can tell they try to make it look as Japanese as possible (in their minds), but in a way that is different from any real Japanese restaurants.
The Food: We order a lot of food because we were hungry. The food comes with worrying speed and the first thing I notice is the avocado in the California Rolls is brown, indicative of heavy natural oxidation (exposure to air). I estimate the level of oxidation to be equal to 24 hours+ in the fridge - absolutely revolting.
The Service: We alert the server to the problem and ask to send the food back. Without even flinching, as if it has happened many times before, the server takes the food back. I glance at the two "sushi chefs" behind the bar and ask if they can make some fresh rolls, to which the server replies, "I think they're all the same," meaning they do not actually make fresh sushi during the day. Disgusting. We cancel all orders, send the food back, and request the bill.
The whole time, a snarky Chinese staff member kept walking past our table, staring us down, as if we were insulting his gourmet establishment. I look around and sadly watch other patrons in the middle of their meals. Most of them appear to be tourists from out of town, probably from one of the nearby hotels. I hope they don't go back to their home countries with the sour taste of "Koi Sushi" in their mouths. Not when there are so many other fantastic, authentic Japanese sushi places in this city.
I bet most of their customers reluctantly shove down their disgusting fake sushi to avoid being charged for "wasting food," pay their $25 each, leave, and count their blessings never to return. Pretty good racket they have going.
Places like these should be shut down before the Olympics.
I live super close - great deal for lunch or late nite - if it was far away, I wouldn't bother - but here is the breakdown on the tasty stuff...
deepfried squid, chop scallop cone, chicken teriyaki, speciality rolls, and oyster motoyaki - worth the $11.00 or $13.00 .. you get 20% for take out... oh - salmon belly is good - their tempura sucks ;-)
hey you get a good deal at lunch for the all you can eat.
try the steveston village roll.
one of the better deals in richmond for sushi
only tried the lunch all you can eat, but the dinner menu looks good too.
recently got takeout, but that turned out to be really expensive for the small amount they give you
Food:
There are many All You can Eat restaurants in Vancouver. One of the Shota in richmond gettting much better quality than before. Some of special Rolls taste really good maybe you can't try in other Japanese restaurant!
Ambiance:
Otherwise, interior decoration is very classic. It's a good place with your girl friend. If they can have a live band or Piano is much better. You can try it!
I'm not too picky. I don't expect things to be perfect. But I do expect my bill after I ask for it and there's only 3 tables in the whole restaurant. After I asked, I made eye contact with that server. He still didn't remember. Another customer got their bill - you think it might be a reminder? Nope. Food was average, nothing special, a bit pricey it seemed but maybe because I wasn't happy with the overall experience. A couple of other problems. Many younger inexperienced kids working. Drinking/eating in full view of guests. I don't mind seeing sips of water etc but not a small gathering with drinks standing behind the sushi counter. And the sushi chef was scratching his face etc as he worked. Very unprofessional.. so nothing from my experience made me want to go back.
After reading many negative reviews, I was expecting the worst from this restaurant. The pricing is pretty standard with two AYCE menus, one is 20 dollars and the other is 25. The $25 is more worth it if you like the expensive sashimis and sushi. We ordered from the $25 menu. The fish was quite fresh and delicious. The size was slightly small, but since it's AYCE it doesn't really matter. There was a large variety of japanese foods including sushi, sashimi, salads, soups, tempura, and BBQ. The atmosphere was really nice with friendly waiters and waitresses. The decorations were not that shabby even though they did not look 100% Japanese. Good value for those who can eat a lot. I definitely will be back here again.
We had their AYCE lunch and the service was very slow especially since we had a limited time to order (final orders must be in at 2:30 pm) The food was okay, but very small portions. Also a lot of our food orders were not received and we even got a plate of nirgiri sushi that we didn't order. We had difficultly trying to get the wait staff to even come to our table let alone fixing the order problems.
Since there was 8 of us, we ordered a lot of sashimi since there was no limit on the amount of orders and it was per piece we ordered about 10 or more pieces. Only to find out that there was some limit that was not disclosed on the menu and that each piece ended up being a dollar a piece. We would have been fine paying for it if we were told or it was noted on the menu. One of our party members talked to the manager, who argued with her for over five minutes about the fact that we refused to pay for something we weren't aware we were being charged for! It got the point where three other people decided to go help her and then the manager gave in reluctantly saying no one else had this problem before. After we paid, he even threw a comment at the party member who first complained saying she didn't work hard enough for her money so why bother arguing about less than $10 extra!
After this experience today I'll never be recommending this restaurant to anyone I know!
The service was horrendous! No one seemed to care if we were there. They would just walk right pass our table even when you try to waive to them. Took like 20minutes to finally get one of the waitresses' attention to take our order. On top of that, the waitress that took our order had a really bad attitude which really made us feel very unwelcomed.
We went in for all-you-can-eat, but it was more like make your choices and they'll choose which ones you get. They have several all-you-can-eat menus, me and my girlfriend chose the Deluxe Menu, mainly because we wanted to eat mirugai sushi. We ordered it, and it never came, along with the miso soup, tako sunomono and several other items. After we ate all the food that actually came, we asked about the items that never came and that was when they told us they were actually out of mirugai, which sucks, because we really wanted it. The main thing is they never told us before they gave us the menus and they never informed us that they were out after we ordered it. They just kept quiet about it and hope that we'll forget about it or something. They never gave us an explanation for all the other items that never came either, so we ordered them again, told them how they never came. So in our second round of ordering, the same thing happened, only some items came. We never got our miso soup or tako sunomono. Are they telling me they're out of miso soup too?! Half of our orders never came, so there was absolutely no point going there for AYCE. We thought that the quality of food was average, but we changed our minds when we had the amaebi sushi. The amaebi was rancid, we were going to complain until we looked at the ordering menu again and realized the fine print on it which says "eat at your own risk." NO JOKE.
Never going back again.
My friends and I came here one day after class, and we had a really large group...almost 20 people I think. The servers didn't give us enough chairs, and we had to add an extra table ourselves...
The cups were disgusting. We had them replaced three times and there was still something in there each time. The third time, the girl inspected a cup she was going to give us, but she looked inside and decided to get another one, and that one was dirty too, she had to go through about 4 before she picked a clean one.
When the servers asked for the menus, you could hear the menu peeling off of the sticky table. My napkin got stuck on the table.
There was a squished piece of something (i don't even want to know what it was) on the bottom of a plate. All the plates were greasy and stuck to the sticky table.
The food wasn't bad, nothing spectacular. The servers didn't really respect a big group of teenagers.
Basically, just avoid this place unless you're really desperate for some not too expensive sushi.
Why, oh why, do I let myself get talked into these horrible dens of lousy food and poor service?
We should have been suspicious of any restaurant in the center of Richmond that was mostly empty at lunchtime on a Saturday. We should have been supicious when we recognized a former manager from (horrible) Richmond Sushi working here. We should have been suspicious when the first sip of water tasted like bleach. But no, we went ahead and ordered.
The miso soup and ebi sunomono came right away - both lukewarm. I didn't think the sunomono was too bad until I bit into the slice of cucumber. It was squishy and tasted like it was on it's way to being compost. The california rolls were OK but everything else tasted and felt like it had been prepared at the beginning of the week and was nuked to order. We had to ask again for the rice that we ordered and when it came it was crusty and dry. Most of the dishes were very slow to come. We placed a second order and sat there forever, waiting. My husband thought of a couple more things to order and placed a third order even though nothing from the second had appeared. One of the things from the third order showed up and then nothing. By this time I had lost my appetite and really didn't want anything more, so my husband asked for the bill and inquired if we had anything more coming. The waiter said he "didn't think so"! I told him that they hadn't delivered our second order and all he said was, "The entire order?" No apology, so offer to bring it.
I agree with sweetpeach - this place should close down - the sooner, the better!
Like many chinese-operated restaurants, service was very poor. (We had also visited the one in Kerrisdale, and service was similarly poor)
We had a large group and were seated at a corner. We ordered from the a-la-carte menu (instead of AYCE). Our food took more than an hour to arrive. We tried flagging down wait staff, but no one came to our corner. When we finally flagged a wait staff, it turns out that our order was never entered.
Seems like they were too eager to promote their AYCE menu and ignored us because we ordered a-la-carte.
If you want Japanese food, don't go to ANY Chinese-operated restaurants.
A very good selection of sushi, sashimi, and other dishes for an AYCE place. The sushi is delicately made and not stuffed with rice. Remember to try their Steveston Village roll. Honest portions too. A dessert of the day for the sweet-toothed. An excellent value for money! Convenient and free same level parking.
My cousin and her husband invited us to this restaurant for all u can eat and I thought it was very good! The manager was very friendly and the service was great too. We liked everything about this restaurant including the food. I think that we would go back for sure!
Our large group of 38 arrived for dinner and was promptly seated, and were given menus. The waitstaff and manager were very pleasant and the food arrived quickly and in abundance. We were not dissapointed not did we leave unhappy. They quality of the food was not the finest, but for the price it was satisfactory. We would definitely return if we were in the area again.
I took my sister who came to visit from Calgary to Shota in August. The food was very disappointing, and the service is lousy. I choose this restaurant because I heard the downtown Shota was really good. Since we already in Richmond area, I decided to give it a try. We didn't go for the all you can eat. We chose what we like from the menu, and found the quality of food doesn't worth the price we paid. The price is very expensive and the sushi has nothing but rice, especially the maki roll. Even some of the sushi place in a food court are better than that. My sister ordered a green tea sorbet and it took more than 3 reminder and 45 mins. before it came. The service was bad too. We live in Coquitlam, and thinking Richmond has a reputation having good restaurant. We were so wrong! We have so many Japanese restaurants in Tri-City are much better with excellent qualities. I already told all my friends about the bad experience I had in Shota, Richmond. I definitely wouldn't recommand it to anyone.
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| 4. | Katsu-Ya Sushi (81 m) | |
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