Shoji & Shoji Sushi

User Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

If you don't have time to read my admittedly lengthly review, let me sum up by saying, average, overpriced food, disresptful, poor service, and management that knows not the first thing about the principles of any business, let alone the restaurant one.

Let me preface this review by saying that I rarely review restaurants online, and when I do, it's to post a glowing review for truly exceptional service. My experience at Shoji, however, warrants a walk on the darker side of the review fence.

I went into Shoji tonight and ordered simply (or so I thought): a saki and a fotomaki roll. I explained to the waitress, who had noticeably limited English skills, that I wanted a roll with eel. Could she please recommend either the fotomaki roll or the dragon roll. Based on her rec (get the fotomaki if you enjoy tamago) I chose the fotomaki. Not difficult in any language: "I would like the fotomaki."

Never at any point did either of us utter the word "salad". Yet not a minute later a huge salad was delivered to me, about which I asked the bus boy twice and the waitress, twice, if it was somehow included in my meal. All the waitress could come up with in response was "The portions here so big - side does not look like side." So I had about 3 bites of the salad, as she smiled and shrugged. Then came the food. I would learn only after finishing my meal that this woman had ordered both the fotomaki and the dragon roll. Because both were made from brown rice and contained eel, they looked virtually identical, like the same roll. (Having only ordered 1 roll, I had no reason to look any closer.) I said something like "Wow, that's a huge roll" to which she again grinned and shrugged.

My bill came with the unordered salad and unordered additional roll. When I tried to very politely inquire about the "misunderstanding" with my waitress, she turned in a huff and went straight to the hostess who had sat me. The hostess then lied to my face, insisting she was in fact, the manager. In actuality, I had just spoken with the manager, who wore a suit and tie, and had visited my table just moments before to feed me some line about how pleased they were to have someone working on a book in their restaurant and how admirable it was that I was "so singularly dedicated to such a difficult goal" - (I kid you not with this horse sh*t.)

I therefore asked to speak with this young man in the suit and tie, specifically. Shockingly, he not only simply repeated the same line the manequin-smiling hostess kept feeding me "we already took off the salad" but actually claimed that he had not heard anything about the situation from his employees. Could I please explain to him from the beginnning? I did so, patiently explaining every detail and also noting that there may have been a problem of a deficit in English skills on the part of the waitress. He then looked me straight in the eye again, and said, that contradicts everything the waitress, hostess and busboy told me.

Was he really so vapid (or perhaps stoned) that he did not realize that he had JUST claimed to me he'd be told nothing about the situation by his employees. I honeslty have never been so insulted and embarassed at a restaurant in my life. All this, over the price of a $10 roll, when in any other situation, my tip alone would have been close to that, not to mention the potential of return business.

With this kind of service, no wonder the restaurant was all but empty, save a loud table of drunk people, one of whom was what I only have to wince and assumer were walrus noises as he let his chopsticks dangle from his lips. Again folks, you just can't make this stuff up.

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User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Sit at the Sushi Bar: This is one of our favorite spots. We always sit at the Sushi Bar, where our chefs are both entertaining and get us to try new dishes. The Agi is out of this world and our friend from Trinadad makes a hair raising sauce to go with his conch sushi. The main restaurant is okay, if you are with a big party, but if it is just the two of you, don't miss the fun at the bar.

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